Why define justifying faith by the consequent act — Ames on contested certainty
Why define justifying faith by an act that does not justify but follows justification already done?
Because the later act presupposes the earlier, shows faith’s perfection more clearly, and most consoles believers.
Above all: the believer’s certainty of his own grace was the flashpoint with Roman doctors.
Ames (Bellarmine Enervated V.2): one faith both applies mercy in Christ and makes that application sure; enemies of grace attack that certainty — so many describe justifying faith by it, though sense of it may for a time be parted from faith.
Latin
LXVIII. Sed si quis jam quaerat cur fidem justificantem definiunt ab actu qui revera non justificat, sed sequitur jam factam justificationem, potius quam ab actu quo revera justificamur: Ad istud eo videntur inducti quod actus iste posterior praecedentem supponat, & clarius fidei perfectionem explicet, & ad consolationem fidelium maxime faciat. Praesertim vero inde quod certitudo illa, quam fideli tribuunt de propria gratia & justificatione, in controversiam maxime vocaretur a Doctoribus Ecclesiae Romanae quibuscum ipsis res est. Quod significat Amesius his verbis in Bellarmino Enervato. Quia, inquit, una & eadem est fides quae misericordiam in Christo specialiter applicat apprehendendo, & applicationem illam jam factam certam reddit; & perfectio, vel consolatio ejus in hac certitudine apparet, quam etiam hostes gratiae praecipue impugnant: idcirco per istam certitudinem (quae tamen quoad sensum ab ea potest ad tempus separari) fides justificans solet a multis describi. Lib. 5. de Fide justificante, cap. 2.