Rich. Baxters apology against the modest exceptions of Mr. T. Blake and the digression…

Argu. 4. They that are to Renounce the World, Flesh, and Devil, are to be true believers (to justification); but they that are to be baptized, are then to Renounce the World, Flesh and Devil: therefore &c. The major is evident, in that renouncing these, is a renouncing them as Rulers that would command us before God, or as worldly, fleshly pleasures or profits, might seem our chief good, to be preferred before God. Now it is none but the sincere believer that can so renounce these. All others are servants to them, and make them their end. The Minor is proved thus. 1. There can be no motus to the Terminus ad quem, but there must also be a Terminus à quo. The World, Flesh and Devil, are the Terminus à quo; without which we cannot be said to take God for our God, or Christ for our Lord-Redeemer. 2. De facto, this Abrenunciation hath been used in the Churches Baptism, ever since the Apostles days, as far as we have any History to guide us. Tertullian, Cyprian, and all Antiquity uno ore that write of these things, put that past question. And I dare not think that Christs Church hath ever required that as necessary in Baptism, which was not requisite till afterward. And if Mr. Bl. say, that they did but promise for the future, not to follow the World, Flesh and Devil before Christ: I Reply, They renounced them at present, and thereby showed the present conversion and Resolution of their hearts, that it was afterward that this was to be manifested in action.

Argu. 4. They that are to Renounce the World, Flesh, and Devil, are to be true believers (to justification); but they that are to be baptized, are then to Renounce the World, Flesh and Devil: therefore &c. The major is evident, in that renounceing these, is a renounceing them as Rulers that would command us before God, or as worldly, fleshly pleasures or profits, might seem our chief good, to be preferred before God. Now it is none but the sincere believer that can so renounce these. All others are servants to them, and make them their end. The Minor is proved thus. 1. There can be no motus to the Terminus ad quem, but there must also be a Terminus à quo. The World, Flesh and Devil, are the Terminus à quo; without which we cannot be said to take God for our God, or Christ for our Lord-Redeemer. 2. De facto, this Abrenunciation hath been used in the Churches Baptism, ever since the Apostles days, as far as we have any History to guide us. Tertullian, Cyprian, and all Antiquity uno ore that write of these things, put that past question. And I dare not think that Christs Church hath ever required that as necessary in Baptism, which was not requisite till afterward. And if Mr. Bl. say, that they did but promise for the future, not to follow the World, Flesh and Devil before Christ: I Reply, They renounced them at present, and thereby shewed the present conversion and Resolution of their hearts, that it was afterward that this was to be manifested in action.