Justification (Whitehead) n. 0

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0. Justification and Good Works With the Roman Catholics from the Council of Trent

[1.] I That the sin of Adam has been transfused into the whole human race, whereby its state, and from this the state of all men, became perverted and alienated from God, and men have thus become enemies and children of wrath. That therefore God the Father graciously sent His Son that He might reconcile, expiate, atone, make satisfaction, and thus redeem, and this by being made righteousness. That Christ did this by offering Himself up a sacrifice to God the Father, upon the wood of the cross, thus by His passion and blood.

[2.] II That the Lord Jesus Christ alone has merited. That this His merit is imputed, attributed and applied to man and transferred into him by God the Father through the Holy Spirit; and that thus the sin of Adam is removed from man, lust still remaining as a fomenter to sin. That this is effected, first by baptism, and afterward by the sacrament of repentance.

[3.] III That justification is effected by faith, hope, and charity. That there is then effected a renovation of the interior man, whereby man from being an enemy becomes a friend, and from being a child of wrath becomes a child of God. That this is graciously effected by God the Father through the merit of His Son with the operation of the Holy Spirit. And that it is a union with Christ, because the man becomes a living member of His body, and, as it were, a branch in the vine.

[4.] IV Because these things are effected from grace and are given freely, and thus are gifts, and because Christ Jesus alone has merited, therefore no one can attribute anything of merit to himself.

[5.] V That because the reception of justification renovates man, and as this is effected by the transference of the merit of Christ into him, it follows that works are meritorious, and that the man who is justified and sanctified is not only reputed just and holy, but becomes just and holy.

[6.] VI That faith is from hearing when a man believes those things to be true which are Divinely revealed. That it is the commencement of justification, but that it operates by charity, because faith without works is dead.

[7.] VII That free will is not destroyed, and that man ought to cooperate; and that he has the power to approach and recede, otherwise nothing could be given to him, and he would be like an inanimate body.

[8.] VIII That man makes satisfaction by satisfactory penances imposed on him by the minister; and that this derogates nothing from the satisfaction made by Christ, since we ought to suffer with Him.

[9.] IX Something about Predestination.


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