A40370:518
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
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.
On what condition properly doth the Promise of Justification rely.
On what condition properly doth the Promise of Iustification rely.
BUT the condition, whereby we 1are properly justified, is this: That we should believe in Christ, and adhere to him by a constant confession. In which Faith, in the mean while, a diligent Caution should be observed, that this Faith should be directed unto a proper and legitimate Object; which I wonder that it hath not yet been taken notice of by those School Doctors hitherto: Of whom some place the Object of Faith in the first Truth: Others take for its Object, all things that are written in the holy Scriptures: Others do esteem for 2the Object of Faith, all things that are laid before us to be believed by the Authority of the Catholic ⟨p. 293⟩Church. And they say not amiss; for I deny not that all these things are both truly and necessarily to be believed by every man: For he that believes the whole Architecture of this World was framed by the handy-work of God in the space of six days, he is indeed led by a right Faith, as all Truths are to be believed with a most sure Faith, whatsoever are mentioned in the Books of the Scripture, which Faith of every particular Truth, as I suppose, doth not therefore justify a man: For the sense of our question is not, what is truly believed by us, but what Faith that is which justifies the wicked before God from his sins; and that we should search by the Gospel, what is the proper Object of this Faith. In the mean while that is a very ridiculous thing, and too barbarous, that the Pope in his Decretals reduces the Object of Faith to the Keys and Succession