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

Prop. 7. The Legal, formal interest, or conducibility of Faith to our Justification, cannot therefore be any other then that of a Condition, in the proper Law-sense, as the word [Condition] is used, viz. that species of conditions which they call Voluntariae vel Potestativae, and not Casuales vel Mixtae.

Prop. 8. Scripture doth not say (that I can find) that Faith justifieth; but that we are justified by Faith: I therefore use the later phrase rather then the former, both because it is safest to speak with the Scripture, and because the former speech seemeth to import an Efficiency; but the later frequently imports no more then a mere condition. Yet I will not quarrel with any that speaks otherwise, nor refuse to speak in their phrase while I dispute with them, as long as I first tell them my meaning.

Prop. 8. Scripture doth not say (that I can finde) that Faith justifieth; but that we are justified by Faith: I therefore use the later phrase rather then the former, both because it is safest to speak with the Scripture, and because the former speech seemeth to import an Efficiency; but the later frequently imports no more then a meer condition. Yet I will not quarrell with any that speaks otherwise, nor refuse to speak in their phrase while I dispute with them, as long as I first tell them my meaning.

Prop. 9. Though, ex parte Christi, our several changes proceed from his several Benefits, and parts of his Office exercised for us; yet, ex parte nostri, i.e. fidei, it is one entire apprehension or receiving of Christ as he is offered in the Gospel, which is the Condition of our interest in Christ and his several Benefits; and the effect is not parcelled or diversified or distinguished from the several distinct respects that faith hath to its object. Christ meriteth Remission for us as Satisfier of Justice; and he actually justifieth us as Benefactor King and Judge, and he teacheth us as Prophet, and ruleth us as King. The real mutations here on us, receive their diversification partly from our faith, because there faith doth efficere or causare; As we learn of Christ because we Believe him, or Take him for our Teacher: We obey him because we Take him for our King, &c. But it is not so with the Conveyance of mere Right or Title to Christ and his Benefits. Faith doth not obtain Right to Remission and Justification distinctly as it receiveth his Righteousness, or himself as Priest; and so Right to the Privileges of Christs Government, distinctly as it taketh him as King; nor Right to Adoption, as it taketh him as a Father; nor Right to Glory, as it taketh him as Glorifier: no more then all inferior benefits (as Title to Magistracy, Ministry, Health, House, Lands, &c.) proceed and are diversified by the divers aspects of our faith on Christ. The true Reason of which is this; That Right to a benefit is the mere effect of the Gift (Donation) or Revealed Will of the Giver: And therefore no Act of the Receiver hath any more interest, or any other then it pleaseth the Donor to assign or appoint it to have. So that (suppositâ actus naturâ) all the formal Civil interest comes from Gods mere Will, as Donor: (for to the Absolute Benefactor doth it belong, as to confer all Right to his freely-given Benefits, so to determine of the Time and Manner of Conveyance, and so of the Conditions on the Receivers part.) The nature of the Act of Faith is caused by […], as Creator of the old and new Creature; I mean of our natural faculties, and their supernatural endowments or dispositions: And therefore this is presupposed in ordine naturae to faiths Legal interest: As God is first the Maker of earth, before he is the Maker of