Page:Manualofprayersf00cath.djvu/38

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Christian Faith and Practice.

from God by sin, and became devils. That God also created Adam and Eve, the first parents of all mankind, and placed them in the earthly Paradise, from whence they were justly banished for the sin they committed in eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree; and that by this transgression of Adam we are all conceived and born in sin, and must have been lost for ever, if God had not sent us a Saviour.

4. We are bound to believe in the Saviour of all mankind, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, true God and true man; perfect God from all eternity, equal to His Father in all things; and perfect man, from the time of His coming down from heaven for us, having a body and soul like ours.

5. We must believe that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who had been long foretold by the prophets, was, at God's appointed time, by the power of the Holy Ghost, without having any man for His father, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary; whom God had prepared for this wonderful Maternity in a wonderful manner: in that by a singular grace and privilege, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, she was in the first instant of her conception preserved free from every taint of original sin. Of her, who is Blessed among Women for evermore, was born our Lord—she still remaining a pure virgin. During the time of His mortal life Jesus Christ founded the Christian religion; and then offered Himself a Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, by dying upon a cross, to obtain mercy, grace, and salvation for us; and that neither mercy, nor grace, nor salvation can, or ever could, since Adam's fall, be obtained except through the mediation of the Son of God.

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