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The Benefit of Christ's Death
Excerpt from The Benefit of Christ's Death
Anou'r three centuries ago, the book now reprinted was one of the very commonest in the world: it is at this day one of the very rarest. The most anxious search has been made for it, and it was until lately believed to have been utterly destroyed by the Romish Inquisitors. The original and its numerous translations were generally supposed to have perished alike. The number of copies thus destroyed was certainly not less than forty thousand: it may perhaps have been almost double that number.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Anou'r three centuries ago, the book now reprinted was one of the very commonest in the world: it is at this day one of the very rarest. The most anxious search has been made for it, and it was until lately believed to have been utterly destroyed by the Romish Inquisitors. The original and its numerous translations were generally supposed to have perished alike. The number of copies thus destroyed was certainly not less than forty thousand: it may perhaps have been almost double that number.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
446 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1542
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August 25, 2012
I'm reading this as an e-book, so I'll take occasional notes as I go through it and then come back and do a full review.
Finished! Now for my full review:
I stumbled across this book somewhere (I think in Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church: Modern Christianity: The Swiss Reformation ) and found it as a free Google e-book here: http://books.google.com/books?id=sqMM...
The free edition has some difficulties, namely that the bulk of the book is in French and Italian, while the online edition contains many errors and omissions where whoever was running the copy machine didn't do their job well.
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the major Reformed work in Italian and one of the most influential books of the 16th century.
Originally, it was thought to have been lost and destroyed by the fury of the papists. It was only rediscovered in the 19th century and republished then (it has not been out in a new edition since, though there is a great need for one).
The author makes all the major reformation arguments, including the centrality of justification through Christ alone, the expression of this justification through works, and the confidence that comes from the doctrine of election. The book is full of warm faith and well worth the attention of any Christian. It would be nice to see a new edition of this book released, but until then the free e-version will have to do.
A smattering of quotes:
-From the original English Introduction: "Enquire not of the Author he is unknown, and to know him would do thee but title good. Read the book devoutly; regard the matter of it attentively; it may do thee much good in these evil days."
-The bulk of the book is a collection of introductions and texts of the work in French and Italian. I get a great sense of satisfaction marking those pages as "read" and getting 78% of the way through in a matter of minutes.
-The purposes of the law are: 1) to teach us how we should live and make our sin known by showing us how we have not lived; 2) to increase our sin by regularly reminding us of what we have not done; 3) to declare God's wrath against us for our sin; 4) to show that we are God's enemies; 5) to see the necessity of Christ.
"O great ingratitude and abominable thing it is if we, professing ourselves to be Christians, and knowing that the Son of God hath taken upon him all our sins, and has also cancelled them with his own most precious blood, having suffered himself to be chastened for us on the cross, if we (I say) nevertheless go about to justify ourselves, and to obtain the forgiveness of our sins by our own works, as though the merits, the righteousness, and the blood of Christ were not sufficient to do it unless we put thereunto our foolish righteousness, spotted with the love of ourselves and with the respect to rewards, and with a thousand vanities... Christ nothing helps you." (107-108)
-"We know that the custom of marriage is that of two there become one self[same] thing, they being two in one flesh, and the goods of both become common to either of them, so that the husband saith the dowry of the wife is his, and in like manner the wife saith that the house and all the riches of the husband are hers; and so truly they be... Even in the self-same manner God hath married his most dearly-beloved Son with the faithful soul, who having nothing of her own but alonely sin, the Son of God nevertheless hath not disdained to take her for his well-beloved spouse with her own dowry which is sin. And by the uniting and knitting together which is wrought in this most holy matrimony, the thing that appertaineth to the one is also the other's, so that Christ saith then, the dowry of the soul, my dearly-beloved spouse, that is to say, her sins, the transgression of the law, the wrath of God against her... the prison of hell and all her other evils, are come into my power, and are in mine own ordering, and unto me it pertaineth to do with the same dowry even as it pleaseth me, and therefore I will cast it upon the alter of my cross, and make it of none effect.
God then seeing his Son all befilled with the sin of his spouse, scourged him, and killed him upon a wooden cross; but he because he was his most dearly-beloved and obedient Son, he raised him again from death to life, and gave unto him all power in heaven and in earth, and hath set him on his right hand. The spouse in like manner saith with most hearty rejoicing, 'the realms and emperies of my well-beloved husband are min. I am queen and empress of heaven and earth, my husband's riches... his holiness, his innocency, his righteousness, his Godhead, with all his virtue and power, are my riches; and therefore I am holy, innocent, righteous, and godly; there is no spot in me...." (114-115)
Finished! Now for my full review:
I stumbled across this book somewhere (I think in Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church: Modern Christianity: The Swiss Reformation ) and found it as a free Google e-book here: http://books.google.com/books?id=sqMM...
The free edition has some difficulties, namely that the bulk of the book is in French and Italian, while the online edition contains many errors and omissions where whoever was running the copy machine didn't do their job well.
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the major Reformed work in Italian and one of the most influential books of the 16th century.
Originally, it was thought to have been lost and destroyed by the fury of the papists. It was only rediscovered in the 19th century and republished then (it has not been out in a new edition since, though there is a great need for one).
The author makes all the major reformation arguments, including the centrality of justification through Christ alone, the expression of this justification through works, and the confidence that comes from the doctrine of election. The book is full of warm faith and well worth the attention of any Christian. It would be nice to see a new edition of this book released, but until then the free e-version will have to do.
A smattering of quotes:
-From the original English Introduction: "Enquire not of the Author he is unknown, and to know him would do thee but title good. Read the book devoutly; regard the matter of it attentively; it may do thee much good in these evil days."
-The bulk of the book is a collection of introductions and texts of the work in French and Italian. I get a great sense of satisfaction marking those pages as "read" and getting 78% of the way through in a matter of minutes.
-The purposes of the law are: 1) to teach us how we should live and make our sin known by showing us how we have not lived; 2) to increase our sin by regularly reminding us of what we have not done; 3) to declare God's wrath against us for our sin; 4) to show that we are God's enemies; 5) to see the necessity of Christ.
"O great ingratitude and abominable thing it is if we, professing ourselves to be Christians, and knowing that the Son of God hath taken upon him all our sins, and has also cancelled them with his own most precious blood, having suffered himself to be chastened for us on the cross, if we (I say) nevertheless go about to justify ourselves, and to obtain the forgiveness of our sins by our own works, as though the merits, the righteousness, and the blood of Christ were not sufficient to do it unless we put thereunto our foolish righteousness, spotted with the love of ourselves and with the respect to rewards, and with a thousand vanities... Christ nothing helps you." (107-108)
-"We know that the custom of marriage is that of two there become one self[same] thing, they being two in one flesh, and the goods of both become common to either of them, so that the husband saith the dowry of the wife is his, and in like manner the wife saith that the house and all the riches of the husband are hers; and so truly they be... Even in the self-same manner God hath married his most dearly-beloved Son with the faithful soul, who having nothing of her own but alonely sin, the Son of God nevertheless hath not disdained to take her for his well-beloved spouse with her own dowry which is sin. And by the uniting and knitting together which is wrought in this most holy matrimony, the thing that appertaineth to the one is also the other's, so that Christ saith then, the dowry of the soul, my dearly-beloved spouse, that is to say, her sins, the transgression of the law, the wrath of God against her... the prison of hell and all her other evils, are come into my power, and are in mine own ordering, and unto me it pertaineth to do with the same dowry even as it pleaseth me, and therefore I will cast it upon the alter of my cross, and make it of none effect.
God then seeing his Son all befilled with the sin of his spouse, scourged him, and killed him upon a wooden cross; but he because he was his most dearly-beloved and obedient Son, he raised him again from death to life, and gave unto him all power in heaven and in earth, and hath set him on his right hand. The spouse in like manner saith with most hearty rejoicing, 'the realms and emperies of my well-beloved husband are min. I am queen and empress of heaven and earth, my husband's riches... his holiness, his innocency, his righteousness, his Godhead, with all his virtue and power, are my riches; and therefore I am holy, innocent, righteous, and godly; there is no spot in me...." (114-115)
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