Chapter 56.—No One is Reconciled to God Except Through Christ.

Taking into account all the inspired statements which I have quoted,—whether I regard the value of each passage one by one, or combine their united testimony in an accumulated witness or even include similar passages which I have not adduced,—there can be nothing discovered, but that which the catholic Church holds, in her dutiful vigilance against all profane novelties: that every man is separated from God, except those who are reconciled to God through Christ the Mediator; and that no one can be separated from God, except by sins, which alone cause separation; that there is, therefore, no reconciliation except by the remission of sins, through the one grace of the most merciful Saviour,—through the one sacrifice of the most veritable Priest; and that none who are born of the woman, that trusted the serpent and so was corrupted through desire,⁴⁰⁸⁴⁰⁸     Gen. iii. 6. are delivered from the body of this death, except by the Son of the virgin who believed the angel and so conceived without desire.⁴⁰⁹⁴⁰⁹     Luke i. 38.