A09453:147
A Reformed Catholic
A reformed Catholic: or, A declaration showing how near we may come to the present Church of Rome in sundry points of religion: and wherein we must for ever depart from them with an advertisement to all favourers of the Roman religion, showing that the said religion is against the Catholic principles and grounds of the catechism.A reformed Catholike: or, A declaration shewing how neere we may come to the present Church of Rome in sundrie points of religion: and vvherein we must for euer depart from them with an advertisment to all fauourers of the Romane religion, shewing that the said religion is against the Catholike principles and grounds of the catechisme.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1598Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1598
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Now the doctrine which we teach on the contrary is, That a sinner is justified before God by faith: yea, BY FAITH ALONE. The meaning is, that nothing within man, and nothing that man can do either by nature or by grace concurreth to the act of justification before God, as any cause thereof, either efficient, material, formal, or final, but faith alone. All other gifts & graces, as hope, love, the fear of God, are necessary to salvation, as signs thereof, & consequents of faith. Nothing in man concurs as any cause to this work but by faith alone. And faith it self is no principal but only an instrumental cause ⟨p. 88⟩by we receive, apprehend, and apply Christ and his righteousness for our justification.
Nowe the doctrine which we teach on the contrarie is, That a sinner is iustified before God by faith: yea, BY FAITH ALONE. The meaning is, that nothing within man, and nothing that man can doe either by nature or by grace concurreth to the act of iustification before God, as any cause thereof, either efficient, materiall, formall, or finall, but faith alone. All other gifts & graces, as hope, loue, the feare of God, are necessarie to saluation, as signes thereof, & consequēts of faith. Nothing in mā concurrs as any cause to this worke but by faith alone. And faith it selfe is no principall but only an instrumentall cause ⟨p. 88⟩by we receiue, apprehend, and apply Christ and his righteousnes for our iustification.
Reason I. John. 3. 14. 15. As Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lift up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. In these words Christ makes a comparison on this manner: when any one of the Israelites were stung to death by fiery serpents: his cure was not by any physic surgery, but only by the casting of his eye up to the brazen serpent, which Moses had erected by Gods commandment: even so in the cure of our souls, when we are stung to death by sin, there is nothing required within us for our recovery, but only that we cast up and fix the eye of our faith on Christ and his righteousness.