A33363:289
The practical divinity of the papists discovered to be destructive of Christianity and mens…
The practical divinity of the papists discovered to be destructive of Christianity and mens souls
London : Tho. Parkhurst and Nath. Ponder ..., 1676
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.
Sect. 1. That no man can be justified or saved without faith, is so evident in Scripture, that none but an Infidel can question it. The Romanists do not express any doubt of it; and yet they make no other faith necessary, than that which is neither justifying, nor saving. They have two sorts of faith, one for the unlearned and ignorant, which they call Implicit: The other for the learned and more knowing, which they say should be Explicit.
Sect. 1. THat no man can be justified or saved without faith, is so evident in Scripture, that none but an Infidel can question it. The Romanists do not express any doubt of it; and yet they make no other faith necessary, than that which is neither justifying, nor saving. They have two sorts of faith, one for the unlearned and ignorant, which they call Implicite: The other for the learned and more knowing, which they say should be Explicite.
The former as they describe it, is an assent to some general including many particulars, with a mind to believe nothing contrary thereunto, the general is this. That what ever the Roman Church (which cannot err) believes, is true, the particulars included, are they know not what, for they are supposed ignorant. Now, this we say, is no Christian faith; and make it apparent, that it is no such thing. For first, it is no belief of any one particular, or article of the Christian faith. It is only a belief of a general, which is no truth at all, much less Christian (that the Church of Rome cannot err, or believe any thing but what is true) when the ignorant person neither knows what this Church is, nor what she believes, nor why he should give her such credit. So that the act is a blind conceit unworthy of a Man, or a Christian; and the object, a general error.