from another source (FYI)
"In the late first century and early second, St. Clement of Rome speaks of "being justified by works and not by words," just as St. James does. Likewise, St. Ignatius of Antioch warns against "desertion" and describes works as "deposited withholdings" which will accumulate "back-pay." Thus, the concepts of merit and loss of salvation are delineated very early on.
In the second century, St. Justin Martyr refers to "the merit of each man's actions," upholds free will, and directly denies imputed justification. St. Theophilus and St. Irenaeus discuss merit and good works with regard to salvation, as does Tertullian, around 204 A.D.
In the third century, St. Clement of Alexandria defines baptism as "a washing by which we are cleansed of sins," and denies "faith alone." Origen and St. Cyprian espouse good works and merit, and the latter expressly affirms baptismal regeneration.
In the fourth century, St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, "Faith without works of justice is not sufficient for salvation." St. John Chrysostom makes the same denial of "faith alone" and teaches infused justification: "He has not only delivered us from sins, but has made us lovable." St. Ambrose makes works (and merit) the scale upon which our eternal destiny will be weighed. St. Jerome condemns "faith alone."
In the early fifth century, St. Augustine repudiates the Calvinist ideas of Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace: "He does not justify you without your willing it." He teaches an initial justification which enables the Christian to perform meritorious good works, in order to work out their salvation, as St. Paul taught. Around 421, he elaborated his view of infused justification:
Grace makes a man entirely new . . . it even renews a man perfectly, to the extent that it achieves his deliverance from absolutely all sins.
And a few years before his death, he warned of the possible loss of one's salvation:
If someone already regenerate and justified should, of his own will, relapse into his evil life, certainly that man cannot say: 'I have not received'; because he lost the grace he received from God and by his own free choice went to evil.
This utterly contradicts Calvinism's Perseverance of the Saints as well as Irresistible Grace. St. Augustine was no Protestant, and most assuredly not a Calvinist!"
Cardinal Newman critiqued Luther's views on faith and assurance when he was still an Anglican:
A system of doctrine has risen up during the last three centuries, in which faith or spiritual-mindedness is contemplated and rested on as the end of religion instead of Christ . . . And in this way religion is made to consist in contemplating ourselves instead of Christ; not simply in looking to Christ, but in ascertaining that we look to Christ, not in His Divinity and Atonement, but in our conversion and our faith in those truths . . . What! is this the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and wherein we stand, the home of our own thoughts, the prison of our own sensations, the province of self? . . . No wonder that where the thought of self obscures the thought of God, prayer and praise languish, and only preaching flourishes . . . To look at Christ is to be justified by faith; to think of being justified by faith is to look from Christ and to fall from grace . . . [Luther] found Christians in bondage to their works and observances; he released them by his doctrine of faith; and he left them in bondage to their feelings . . . Whereas he preached against reliance on self, he introduced it in a more subtle shape; whereas he professed to make the written word all in all, he sacrificed it in its length and breadth to the doctrine which he had wrested from a few texts."
"In the late first century and early second, St. Clement of Rome speaks of "being justified by works and not by words," just as St. James does. Likewise, St. Ignatius of Antioch warns against "desertion" and describes works as "deposited withholdings" which will accumulate "back-pay." Thus, the concepts of merit and loss of salvation are delineated very early on.
In the second century, St. Justin Martyr refers to "the merit of each man's actions," upholds free will, and directly denies imputed justification. St. Theophilus and St. Irenaeus discuss merit and good works with regard to salvation, as does Tertullian, around 204 A.D.
In the third century, St. Clement of Alexandria defines baptism as "a washing by which we are cleansed of sins," and denies "faith alone." Origen and St. Cyprian espouse good works and merit, and the latter expressly affirms baptismal regeneration.
In the fourth century, St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, "Faith without works of justice is not sufficient for salvation." St. John Chrysostom makes the same denial of "faith alone" and teaches infused justification: "He has not only delivered us from sins, but has made us lovable." St. Ambrose makes works (and merit) the scale upon which our eternal destiny will be weighed. St. Jerome condemns "faith alone."
In the early fifth century, St. Augustine repudiates the Calvinist ideas of Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace: "He does not justify you without your willing it." He teaches an initial justification which enables the Christian to perform meritorious good works, in order to work out their salvation, as St. Paul taught. Around 421, he elaborated his view of infused justification:
Grace makes a man entirely new . . . it even renews a man perfectly, to the extent that it achieves his deliverance from absolutely all sins.
And a few years before his death, he warned of the possible loss of one's salvation:
If someone already regenerate and justified should, of his own will, relapse into his evil life, certainly that man cannot say: 'I have not received'; because he lost the grace he received from God and by his own free choice went to evil.
This utterly contradicts Calvinism's Perseverance of the Saints as well as Irresistible Grace. St. Augustine was no Protestant, and most assuredly not a Calvinist!"
Cardinal Newman critiqued Luther's views on faith and assurance when he was still an Anglican:
A system of doctrine has risen up during the last three centuries, in which faith or spiritual-mindedness is contemplated and rested on as the end of religion instead of Christ . . . And in this way religion is made to consist in contemplating ourselves instead of Christ; not simply in looking to Christ, but in ascertaining that we look to Christ, not in His Divinity and Atonement, but in our conversion and our faith in those truths . . . What! is this the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and wherein we stand, the home of our own thoughts, the prison of our own sensations, the province of self? . . . No wonder that where the thought of self obscures the thought of God, prayer and praise languish, and only preaching flourishes . . . To look at Christ is to be justified by faith; to think of being justified by faith is to look from Christ and to fall from grace . . . [Luther] found Christians in bondage to their works and observances; he released them by his doctrine of faith; and he left them in bondage to their feelings . . . Whereas he preached against reliance on self, he introduced it in a more subtle shape; whereas he professed to make the written word all in all, he sacrificed it in its length and breadth to the doctrine which he had wrested from a few texts."
