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;288 OF JUSTIFICATION.Church of Rome on thesubject of justification was finallysettled, partakes of not a little vagueness. On this, as onmost other points that engaged the attention of the council,there existed a variety of conflicting opinions, which longand warm debates failed to reconcile. The somewhat impossibleobject of faithfully reflecting all the sentiments ofthe fathers was aimed at in the decree, at the same timethat it was intended pointedly to condemn the doctrine ofthe Protestants. But we believe the following will be founda fair statement of what the Romish Church really holds onthis important subject.The Council of Trent defines justification to be "a translationfrom that state in which the man is born a son ofthe first Adam, into a state of grace and adoption of thesons of God by the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour; which translation cannot be accomplished under thegospel, without the laver of regeneration, or the desire of itas it is written, ' Unless a man be born again of waterand of the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter the kingdom ofheaven."" *"* The definition given by Dens is in almost thevery same words.-}- Justification, says Porrone, is not theforensic remission of sin, or the imputation of Christ's righteousness; but it consists in the renovation of the mind bythe infusion of sanctifying grace.;]: The Council of Trentteaches the same doctrine in almost the same words, andenforces it with its usual argument,—an anathema. " Justification,"*"'says Bailly, " is the acquisition of righteousness,by which we become acceptable to God.''"'§ It is importantto observe, that by the " laver of regeneration," the RomanCatholic Church means baptism. It is important also toobserve, that this definition confounds justification withsanctification. But to this we shall afterwards advert. We* Con. Trid. sess. vi. cap. iv.+ Theol. Mor. et Dog. Petri Dens, torn, ii.,—Tractatus de Justificatione.t Perrone's Prselectiones Theologicae, torn. i. p. 1398.§ Theologia Mor. Ludovico Bailly, torn. v. p. 454.