The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

Some of the Ancient Schoolmen disputed, That the Son of God should have been incarnate, although Man had not sinned and fallen. The same opinion was fiercely pursued by Osiander as I have elsewhere declared; but none of them once imagined, that he should have been so made Man, as to be made under the Law, and be obliged thereby unto that Obedience which now he hath performed: But they judged that immediately he was to have been a Glorious Head unto the whole Creation. For it is a common notion and presumption of all Christians, but only such as will sacrifice such notions unto their own private conceptions, That the Obedience which Christ yielded unto the Law on the Earth, in ⟨p. 371⟩the state and condition wherein he yielded it, was not for himself, but for the Church, which was obliged unto perfect Obedience, but was not able to accomplish it. That this was his sole End and Design in it, is a Fundamental Article, if I mistake not, of the Creed of most Christians in the World; and to deny it, doth consequentially overthrow all the Grace and Love both of the Father, and Son in his Mediation.

Some of the Antient Schoolmen disputed, That the Son of God should have been incarnate, although Man had not sinned and fallen. The same opinion was fiercely pursued by Osiander as I have elswhere declared; but none of them once imagined, that he should have been so made Man, as to be made under the Law, and be obliged thereby unto that Obedience which now he hath performed: But they judged that immediately he was to have been a Glorious Head unto the whole Creation. For it is a common notion and presumption of all Christians, but only such as will sacrifice such notions unto their own private conceptions, That the Obedience which Christ yielded unto the Law on the Earth, in ⟨p. 371⟩the state and condition wherein he yielded it, was not for himself, but for the Church, which was obliged unto perfect Obedience, but was not able to accomplish it. That this was his sole End and Design in it, is a Fundamental Article, if I mistake not, of the Creed of most Christians in the World; and to deny it, doth consequentially overthrow all the Grace and Love both of the Father, and Son in his Mediation.