Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who,…Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who,…

An. This is the grossest passage in this Book; A palpable fallacy. You may as well say that Lazarus's dying and being buried were the causes of his reviving; because antecedent evils from which he was revived: Or that the Jews killing Christ were the causes of his Resurrection; Or that Peter's cutting off Malchus Ear was the cause that Christ cured him; Or that Peter's denying Christ was the cause that Christ pardoned him. Sin deserveth Punishment; but Punishment as such deserveth not Pardon or Life: They in Hell deserve not Heaven. If God had threatened but a temporal Punishment; As a years sickness, &c. this had not deserved the following impunity, or peace, but only interrupted peace, the Sin deserving this and no more. A Malefactor's scourging deserveth not ⟨p. 14⟩his after peace. And Christ's Suffering merited not our Pardon as reputed our suffering, nor merely as suffering; For had we suffered, we had not been pardoned. But the voluntary Suffering of so glorious and innocent a Person, to demonstrate Justice, deserved our impunity and more, because God would have it so, and it was a means most apt for this excellent end, to save lost man, and to vindicate and glorify the Wisdom, Truth and Justice of the Universal King, and to demonstrate the Goodness and Love of our great Benefactor. But sufferings as such do mer•• nothing; even Christs own Sufferings merit but as they are the fruits of Obedience and voluntary consent, on the foresaid accounts; much less do the sufferings of the Sinner merit: For he is supposed involuntary in them; and it is God the Judge that is the Author of them as such.

An. This is the grossest passage in this Book; A palpable fallacy. You may as well say that Lazarus's dying and being buried were the causes of his reviving; because antecedent evils from which he was revived: Or that the Jews killing Christ were the causes of his Resurrection; Or that Peter's cutting off Malchus Ear was the cause that Christ cured him; Or that Peter's denying Christ was the cause that Christ pardoned him. Sin deserveth Punishment; but Punishment as such deserveth not Pardon or Life: They in Hell deserve not Heaven. If God had threatened but a temporal Punishment; As a years sickness, &c. this had not deserved the following impunity, or peace, but only interrupted peace, the Sin deserving this and no more. A Malefactor's scourging deserveth not ⟨p. 14⟩