A40370:337
Of free justification
Of free justification by Christ written first in Latin by John Fox, author of the Book of martyrs, against Osorius, &c. and now translated into English, for the benefit of those who love their own souls, and would not be mistaken in so great a point.Of free justification by Christ written first in Latine by John Fox, author of the Book of martyrs, against Osorius, &c. and now translated into English, for the benefit of those who love their own souls, and would not be mistaken in so great a point.
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1694
Book 1 › How Christ takes away Sins: With an Answer to the Objections of Oso… › An Answer.
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.
First, You say, is not this certain, 1that Sin is hateful to God, which necessarily through its violence and outrageousness divides us from Union with God? And how can it be that the Lord, who is by Nature just, and a Lover of Righteousness, should not take away all Sins out of the minds of them, whom he designs to unite unto himself by Love? Moreover he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; How, saith Paul, will he not with him give us all things? If then the ⟨p. 185⟩Testimony of Paul be true, it is thence evident, that those are delivered from all Wickedness, whom that infinite purity joins unto it self by most pure Love.
First, You say, is not this certain, 1that Sin is hateful to God, which necessarily through its violence and outragiousness divides us from Union with God? And how can it be that the Lord, who is by Nature just, and a Lover of Righteousness, should not take away all Sins out of the minds of them, whom he designs to unite unto himself by Love? Moreover he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; How, saith Paul, will he not with him give us all things? If then the ⟨p. 185⟩Testimony of Paul be true, it is thence evident, that those are delivered from all Wickedness, whom that infinite purity joins unto it self by most pure Love.
- 1A confirmation of the Osorian Assertion.
For, otherways if God did not take away Sin, be would be so far 1from giving us all things, that he would suffer us in the chiefest respects to be miserable, unhappy, and wretched. And so it would come to pass, that God would seem to have conferred upon us no great benefit by Christ, if he left us in the bondage of Sin, if he did not throw off the servile Yoke from our Necks, as he had promised of Old. Moreover the Blood of Christ poured forth on the Cross had yet brought us no advantage: For yet we are in great misery, we cannot but be miserable whilst we are held in the bonds of our Sins: There are also very evident Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures confirming this Assertion: To wit, that by the Divine Power of Christ, Sin is extirpated, Lust is destroyed, Evil Concupiscence is restrained, and the minds of Men being freed from Sin, put on a Divine form.