While attempting (lamely) to try to find patristic support for Lutheran soteriology, Peter Daniel Fawcett wrote that:
The difficulty
presented in attempting to find Lutheran soteriology is not one of sacramentology
or eschatology; . . . The true difficulty lies in attempting to find the doctrine
of justification by faith alone and in dealing with the seemingly excessive
amount of confidence that is placed in good works. For example, in his treatise
Works and Almsgiving, Cyprian speaks of almsgiving a way of safeguarding
salvation:
The infirmity of
human frailty would have no resource nor accomplish anything, unless again
divine goodness came to the rescues and by pointing out the works of justice
and mercy opened a way to safeguard salvation, so that by almsgiving we may
wash away whatever pollutions we later contract. (Cyprian, Work and
Almsgiving, in Saint Cyprian: Treatises, trans. Roy J. Deferrari
[Washington, DC: The Catholic University of American Press, 1958], p. 228)
He then quotes Proverbs,
saying that “by alms and faith sins are cleansed” (Prov. 16:6). Ambrose takes
this language even further, saying
We have more
resources by which we may redeem our sins. You have money; redeem your sins. It
is not that the Lord can be bought and sold. No, you yourself are venal and
have sold yourself to your sins. Therefore, redeem yourself with your deeds and
with your money, for sins are redeemed by almsgiving. (Martin Chemnitz, “On
Almsgiving,” trans. James A. Kellerman, LCMS.org). (Peter Daniel Fawcett, “’Payment
for the Works of Charity’: Finding Lutheran Soteriology in the Early Church,” in
Jordan Cooper and Matthew Fenn, eds., The Doctrine of Justification:
Theological Essays from the Weidner Institute [The Weidner Institute, 2021],
161-80, here pp. 162-63)
The salvific efficacy of almsgiving pre-dates Cyprian (and Ambrose). Indeed, we find it in Polycarp. In his Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 10 ("Exhortation to the practice of virtue") we read:
Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because "alms delivers from death." Be all of you subject one to another "having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles," that ye may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct. (ANF 1:35)
The note following the quotation in bold reads “Tobit iv. 10, Tobit xii. 9.” Let us quote from these texts from the book of Tobit:
For almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from going into the Darkness. (Tobit 4:10 NRSV)
For almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life. (Tobit 12:9)
There is a variation in the Greek of Tobit 12:9. The NETS (S) renders the verse as:
For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who practice almsgiving and righteousness will have fullness of life.
It is clear that Polycarp is teaching that almsgiving is an instrumental means of God purging away our sins, all the more strengthened by the use of Tobit which explicitly teaches this. This flies in the face of various formulations of Sola Fide!
In 1 Pet 4:8, we read:
Cooper, Webster, White, Fawcett et al., can try their best to find various Protestant soteriologies in the patristics, but it is all doomed to exegetical failure.