Page:Apocalypse Revealed Vol I.djvu/23

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
REFORMED CHURCH.
11

although he be God and man, yet these are not two but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the divine Essence into body, but by the taking of his manhood into God; One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person; for as the reasonable soul and body is one man, so God and man is one Christ.'

"III. On Justification by Faith, and on Good Works. The justifying and saving faith of the clergy is this;—that God the Father turned himself away from the human race by reason of their iniquities, and so, from justice, condemned them to eternal death, and that he therefore sent his Son into the world to expiate and redeem them, and make satisfaction and reconciliation; and that the Son did this by taking upon himself the damnation of the law, and suffering himself to be crucified, and that thus by obedience he entirely satisfied God's justice, even to becoming justice himself; and that God the Father imputes and applies this, as his merit, to believers, and sends the Holy Spirit to them, who operates charity, good works, and repentance, as a good tree produces good fruit; and justifies, renews, regenerates, and sanctifies; and that this faith is the only medium of salvation, and that by it alone a man's sins are forgiven. They make a distinction between the act and the state of justification:—by the act of justification they understand the beginning of justification, which takes place in a moment, when man by that faith alone apprehends with confidence the merit of Christ; by the state of justification they understand the progress of that faith, which takes place by the interior operation of the Holy Spirit, which does not manifest itself except by certain signs, concerning which they teach various things; they speak also of good works manifested, which are done from the man and his will, and follow that faith; but they exclude them from justification, because the selfhood, and therefore the merit, of man is in them. This is a summary of modern faith, but its confirmations, and the traditions

c2