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 openly asserting  that  faith  without  good  works  is dead,  these  scriptural  Christians,  forsooth,  maintain that we  achieve  forgiveness  of  our  sins  by  faith  alone, by apprehending  Christ  as  the  Saviour,  and  hiding ourselves and  our  iniquities  beneath  the  broad mantle of  His  holiness. Belief in  Christ,  say  they, is threefold;  belief  in  the  truth  of  all  His  works,  belief in  His  power  to  do  all  things,  and  belief  in  the sufficiency of  His  merits  to  cancel  all  our  sins,  and this last  alone  is,  they  claim,  the  means  of  our  justification. In refutation  of  such  preposterous  doctrine suffice  it  to  say  that  though  Christ  on  various occasions commended  faith  as  a  necessary  condition for the  restoration  of  bodily  and  spiritual  health,  still He often  elsewhere  assigns  other  dispositions — fear, sorrow, love,  etc. — as  the  occasions  of  His  indulgence. Of Magdalen,  for  example,  He  said  that  "  much  had been  forgiven  her  because  she  had  loved  much." Besides, even  where  faith  is  mentioned  by  Him  as His  mercy's  motive,  it  is  evident  that  He  speaks  of belief,  not  in  the  efficacy  of  His  merits,  of  which  the parties concerned  as  yet  knew  nothing,  but  of  belief in His  unlimited  miraculous  power. Finally, the faith applauded  by  Christ  in  those  instances  was  very often not  at  all  that  of  those  whom  He  healed  or absolved,  but  of  those  who  carried  the  afflicted  before Him  or  besought  Him  on  behalf  of  the  dying  or the  dead. Thus, Protestants  prove  too  little  or  too much, that  is,  they  prove  nothing.

Brethren, the  Catholic  Church  holds,  and  has always held,  that  Baptism  and  Penance  are  the  two