A40370:64
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.
Suppose these things were granted you, which you affirm, though they be in themselves absurd, and wholly Judaical, but let me grant, or at least feign that this way which you show, is the only way, and the most firmly founded, and also that the same is the most easy, and likewise that there is no other way by which we can come to Heaven, but that only which is proposed by the description of the Divine Law: Suppose we grant this, yet in the mean while see thou teach me this: how thou canst know that thou dost as many good works as are sufficient for a complete obedience to the Law. Of old our first ⟨p. 20⟩1Father Adam received but one command, and failed in the performance, and that in Paradise, being placed in the highest degree of Innocency. What? and thou a miserable mortal man, banished out of Paradise, compassed about with so much infirmity of the flesh, having received the Law of God, in which so many and so great things are imposed to be performed, and they are so imposed, that he is liable to a Curse, whosoever doth not most constantly continue in them all; dost thou stand so firmly, that no storm of temptation can throw thee down at any time?
Suppose these things were granted you, which you affirm, though they be in themselves absurd, and wholly Iudaical, but let me grant, or at least feign that this way which you shew, is the only way, and the most firmly founded, and also that the same is the most easie, and likewise that there is no other way by which we can come to Heaven, but that only which is proposed by the description of the Divine Law: Suppose we grant this, yet in the mean while see thou teach me this: how thou canst know that thou dost as many good works as are sufficient for a compleat obedience to the Law. Of old our first ⟨p. 20⟩1Father Adam received but one command, and failed in the performance, and that in Paradise, being placed in the highest degree of Innocency. What? and thou a miserable mortal man, banished out of Paradise, compassed about with so much infirmity of the flesh, having received the Law of God, in which so many and so great things are imposed to be performed, and they are so imposed, that he is liable to a Curse, whosoever doth not most constantly continue in them all; do'st thou stand so firmly, that no storm of temptation can throw thee down at any time?