'We have to do with a merciful God, and not with a captious sophister': Richard Hooker and Solus Christus
Wherefore, to resume that mother-sentence, whereof I little thought that so much trouble would have grown, "I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our fathers living in popish superstitions, inasmuch as they sinned ignorantly": alas, what bloody matter is there contained in this sentence that it should be an occasion of so many hard censures! Did I say that "thousands of our fathers might be saved"? I have showed which way it cannot be denied. Did I say, "I doubt it not but they were saved"? I see no impiety in this persuasion ... On this commemoration of Richard Hooker, we turn to words from his A Learned Discourse on Justification (1585), responding to those who attacked him for affirming that salvation was to be found within the pre-Reformation Roman Church. We might begin by noting Hooker's insistence regarding the salvation of "our fathers", an insistence that surely echoed the Christian instincts of the average pari...