-03 Chapter 3. Of Good Works.

2-03 Chapter 3. Of Good Works.

1. An action of virtue is an operation flowing from a disposition of virtue. Matthew 12:35, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things.
2. In the same sense it is called an action or work that is good, right, laudable, and pleasing to God.
3. To such an action there is required FIRST, a good efficient or beginning; that is, a Will that is well-disposed and working from true virtue; for good fruits do not grow except out of a good Tree, Matthew 12:33.772 SECONDLY, a good matter or subject, that is, something commended by God. Matthew 15:9, In vain they worship me, teaching doctrines which are the commandments of men. THIRDLY, a good end, that is, the glory of God and those things which tend to his glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31, Do all to the glory of God.
4. But the end and the object are often the same, both in good and evil actions, especially in the intention and election of the Will, where the end itself is the proper object. For those acts are either concerned with the end itself as in its matter or object — such as the acts of desiring, willing, wishing, loving, enjoying — or they are concerned with those things which tend to the end, so as their goodness or deformity is properly derived from the end.
5. For although that good intention, or that intention to do good, which is only general and confused, does not make a particular action good if other conditions are lacking. Nor does a special intention to do good suffice if the means are evil — as if anyone who intends to bestow something on the poor, or for pious uses, were on that pretense to take other men’s goods for himself. Yet an evil intention always makes an action evil, and a good intention (with other conditions) makes very much for the constitution of a good action.
6. But for an action to be truly good, it is required that, at least virtually, it is referred to God as its chief end.
7. FOURTHLY, a form or good manner is also required, which is found when the action agrees to the revealed Will of God.
8. Moreover, this Will of God informs an action of man as far sit is apprehended by reason. Hence the very conscience of man is the subordinate rule of moral actions — so that every action must agree with a right conscience; and an erring or doubtful conscience must first be laid down before a man may act against it; although a lighter scruple or sticking of conscience must not in any way put off any action that is otherwise approved.
9. But for this form or manner to be good, it requires that all the circumstances are good; for a singular action is always clothed with its circumstances, upon which its goodness or evilness in no small measure depends.
10. But those circumstances being referred to the act of the will, they pass into the nature of an object. For the Will, while it wills some work, wills all that which is in it; and so it wills all the known circumstances of it, either expressly or implicitly. And a known circumstance being changed, the act of the will is often changed.773
11. But the same circumstances being referred to the act of any other faculty besides the will, are only adjunct.774
12. So the end itself is rightly reckoned among the circumstances; even though this is not in respect to the will, it is in respect to the other faculties, and other Acts.
13. By reason of these circumstances, it comes to pass that although many Acts are indifferent in general, or in their own nature, yet there is no singular Act that is moral and deliberate, unless it is either good or evil.
14. An Act that is indifferent in its kind, is when the object of that act includes nothing which pertains to the will of God, either in commanding or forbidding it. Yet such acts being exercised, and considered severally, if they are properly human — proceeding from deliberate reason — are either directed to a due end, and conform to the will of God, and so are good; or else they are not rightly directed, but dissent from the will of God, and so in that respect they are evil.
15. Besides actions that are good, evil, and indifferent, some observe that there are some acts which, Sonare in malum, have an evil sound. That is, absolutely considered, they convey a certain excessiveness; but by some set of circumstances they are made good, such as killing a man, and the like.775 But even those acts ought to be referred to as indifferent, for they only seem to have some evil in themselves; just as freeing a man from the danger of death seems to have some good in it; these also show that many who are not evil, are yet deceived.776 But the true goodness or depravity of these actions depends upon the object, and other circumstances. To slay the innocent, or set at liberty the guilty, is evil; to slay the guilty justly, or to deliver the innocent upon just reason, is good.
16. The goodness of all these causes and conditions is collectively required for an action to be absolutely good; but the defect of some one of them, makes the action so far evil.
17. Hence our good works while we live here, are imperfect and impure in themselves.
18. Hence they are not accepted before God, except in Christ.
19. Hence in the works of the regenerate, there is not that meritorious respect whereby any reward is obtained by Justice.
20. Yet that reward which is imputed not as of debt, but of grace (Romans 4:4),777 is sometimes assigned to those imperfect endeavours, Matthew 5:12.778 This is because, although all our blessedness is the mere gift of God, Romans 6:23,779 yet the fruits of grace abounding in us are put on our account whereby we get the certainty of that gift. Php_4:17, I require that fruit abounding which may be put on your accounts.
21. The action of virtue is either inward or outward. 2 Corinthians 8:10-11, To will, to do, to perform.780
22. The INTERNAL action is properly of the Will itself.
23. The EXTERNAL action is of another faculty that is distinct from the will; whether that faculty is the understanding, or the sensitive appetite, which are commonly called internal, or it is the executive power, which is usually called external.
24. The internal action of the will has goodness or evilness so intrinsic to it, that an act cannot remain the same in its nature, unless it remains the same in its manners; but an outward act may remain the same in its nature, and yet become another nature in its manners: namely, an external act of good may become evil, and an external act of evil may become good: as if someone beginning to walk out of an honest purpose, persisted in his journey for an evil end.
25. There is one and the same goodness or evilness of an internal act, and the external act which it commands; for it is the same act in its kind or manners. For to will to worship God, and from that will, to actually worship God, are not two acts of obedience, but two degrees of one and the same act. So that the goodness of the one, is perfected in the other. 2 Corinthians 8:11, Perform to do that very thing: that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance.781
26. The outward act without the inward, is not properly good or evil; but the inward is good or evil, even without the external act.782 This is because the goodness of an action depends first and chiefly upon the will, which is often accepted by God, even though the outward work itself is absent. 2 Corinthians 8:12, If there is first a ready mind, one is accepted according to what he has.
27. But as virtue in its own nature tends to an act (for it is a disposition to do good, nor is it idle), so the internal act of virtue tends to an external act, and produces it, and in that it is led to its end. James 2:22, You see that Faith was the helper of his works, and by works Faith was brought to its end.
28. Yet the external act, joined with the internal, does not properly and by itself increase the goodness or evilness of the act in respect to the intention only; but it incidentally increases it as it continues or increases the act of the will itself.
29. The goodness or evilness of any act, which depends on the object and circumstances of that act, is (in respect to its nature) in the external act before it is in the internal act, even though in order of existence, it is first in the internal act. To will to give everyone his due 783 is therefore good, because this thing (to give everyone his due) is good. Yet the goodness of it exists in the act of willing, before it exists in the act of giving. So to will to steal is evil, because stealing is evil. The reason is because the exterior act is the cause of the inward act in the order of intention, and the inward act is the cause of the outward act in the order of execution.
30. But that goodness or evilness which depends upon the end, is first in the inward act, and afterward in the outward act; this is because the very intention of the end, is the inward act of the will. So forsaking the World for righteousness’ sake is good, because to will righteousness is good; and to give alms for boasting 784 is evil, because it is evil to will to boast.
31. Obedience that appears in outward actions, without the inward act, is hypocrisy; and so it is not indeed obedience, but a certain shadow of it.
32. Yet inward obedience without outward, although incomplete, is still true obedience. And if there is an effectual will present, so that only opportunity or ability to execute it is lacking, it is no less acceptable to God than if it had an external act joined with it, 2 Corinthians 8:12.785
33. Therefore we must not judge an action good or evil by the event. For although it is equal, and God himself wills it, the man who judges offences among men inclines to the more favourable side, if the event itself is favourable, Exodus 21:20 f.786 Yet before the tribunal of God, the inward sin is as great ceteris paribus, all other things being equal, when neither event nor outward act follows, as if both had indeed followed. Matthew 5:28, Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart.
34. Yet inward obedience is not sufficient by itself, because the whole man ought to subject himself to God; our bodies are to be offered to God, Romans 12:1. God is to be glorified in our bodies, 1 Corinthians 6:20. Nor is it true inward obedience, if it is not inclined to external obedience.
35. The works which are called works of supererogation,787 whereby the Papists boast that some of theirs perform more excellent works than are commanded in the Law of God — by observing certain “counsels” which they pretend do not command anything, but only advise an unexpected perfection — are the dotings 788 of idle men who know neither the Law nor the Gospel.
36. There adheres to the best works of the faithful, that imperfection which needs remission; and yet the works themselves are not sins.