Writings of the Rev Dr Thomas Cranmer

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ANNOTATIONS ON THE ERUDITION OF A CHRISTIAN MAN. In the life of Cranmer (page 33, ) an account is given of The necessary doctrine and erudition for any Christian man, or, as it was usually called, The king's book, A. D. 1541, which contained erroneous doctrines of the church of Rome. Upon these Cranmer made some annotations, which have been preserved. They are in a manuscript of his own hand-writing, preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The three most important passages were first printed by Strype in his Appendix to the Life of Cranmer, and are entitled three discourses, on Faith, Justification, and Forgiveness of injuries; they are numbered 4, 87, 82 in the following pages. The whole of these annotations, eighty-seven in number, have been printed in the Rev. L. Richmond's Fathers of the English Church; in the present selection only such of them are given as appeared most likely to interest the reader. 4. As long as I persevere in his precepts and laws, I am one of the right inheritors of his kingdom. This book speaks of the pure Christian faith unfeigned, which is without colour, as well in heart, as in mouth. He that hath this faith, converteth from his sin, repenteth him, that he, like the prodigal son, vainly consumed his will, reason, wit, and other goods, which he received of the mere benefit of his heavenly Father, to his said Father's displeasure; and applies himself wholly to please him again, and trusts assuredly, that for Christ's sake, he will and does remit his sin, withdraws his indignation, delivers him from hell, from the power of the infernal spirit, takes him to his mercy, and makes him his own son and his own heir: and he has also the very Christian hope, that after this life he shall reign ever with Christ in his king...