In Germany from the Leipsic Disputation to the Diet at Worms - James Aitken Wylie

after another, the errors of Romanism. The light
around him has been waxing clearer and ever
clearer, and now he has come to the meridian of his
day. In his cell he was made to feel that he was
utterly fallen, and wholly without power to save
himself. This was his first lesson. The doctrine of a
free justification–salvation by grace–was next
revealed to him. As he stood encompassed by the
darkness of despair, caused by the combined sense
of his utter ruin and his utter inability, this doctrine
beamed out upon him from the page of Scripture.
The revelation of it was to him the very opening of
the gates of Paradise. From these initial stages he
soon came to a clear apprehension of the whole of
what constituted the Reformed system–the nature
and end of Christ's obedience and death; the office
and work of the Holy Spirit; the sanctification of
men by the instrumentality of the Word; the
relation of good works to faith; the nature and uses
of a Sacrament; the constituent principle of the
Church, even belief in the truth and union to Christ.
This last, taken in connection with another great
principle to the knowledge of which he had
previously attained, the sole infallible authority of
96