A26883:4436
Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who, 1. by contending about things unrevealed or not understood, 2. and by taking verbal differences for real,Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who, 1. by contending about things unrevealed or not understood, 2. and by taking verbal differences for real,
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Lib. Yes; I deny none of this; But that which you abuse men by, 1. Is bidding the ungodly pray, when the prayers of the wicked are abominable to God. And 2. In that you do not first call them to believe and come to Christ, before they do any other duty.
P. 1. You granted me before that hearing and considering and searching the Scripture, and other things named, are to be done before Believing in Christ, by those that are yet unbelievers. He that believeth that there is a God, must behave himself accordingly in obeying God. 2. Men that believe in Christ but by Assent, that he is truly the Christ, and the Gospel true, and that there is a life to come, surely, if they love themselves, must do somewhat in order to a fuller Justifying Belief. 3. And are you so much against the very Law of Nature, worse than the Seamen that bid Jonah call upon his God, worse than the Ninevites, and than almost all mankind, as that you would have no men pray but godly men? Did not Peter bid Simon Magus repent and pray, Acts 8. And doth not God command the wicked, Isa. 55. to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near? Should no graceless man ask Wisdom of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not, James 1. and giveth his Spirit to them that ask it? Must they not pray for Grace, Faith and Repentance, that want them? 4. But yet let me remember you, that we use not to exhort men to draw nigh to God with the lips alone; nor to pray without Desire. For Praying is but Desiring, and presenting that Desire to God. And when we bid men pray for Grace, we bid them desire it. And so bid them Repent and Pray, Believe and Pray; for Praying is a Returning act; And if we may not call them to pray, we may not call them to Turn to God. Mr. Eliot in New England teacheth the Indians another lesson, whose great work is to call them to pray, and the title that his Converts have, is the Praying Indians.
P. 1. You granted me before that hearing and considering and searching the Scripture, and other things named, are to be done before Believing in Christ, by those that are yet unbelievers. He that believeth that there is a God, must behave himself accordingly in obeying God. 2. Men that believe in Christ but by Assent, that he is truly the Christ, and the Gospel true, and that there is a life to come, surely, if they love themselves, must do somewhat in order to a fuller Justifying Belief. 3. And are you so much against the very Law of Nature, worse than the Seamen that bid Jonas call upon his God, worse than the Ninevites, and than almost all mankind, as that you would have no men pray but godly men? Did not Peter bid Simon Magus repent and pray, Acts 8. And doth not God command the wicked, Isa. 55. to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near? Should no graceless man ask Wisdom of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not, James 1. and giveth his Spirit to them that ask it? Must they not pray for Grace, Faith and Repentance, that want them? 4. But yet let me remember you, that we use not to exhort men to draw nigh to God with the lips alone; nor to pray without Desire. For Praying is but Desiring, and presenting that Desire to God. And when we bid men pray for Grace, we bid them desire it. And so bid them Repent and Pray, Believe and Pray; for Praying is a Returning act; And if we may not call them to pray, we may not call them to Turn to God. Mr. Eliot in New England teacheth the Indians another lesson, whose great work is to call them to pray, and the title that his Converts have, is the Praying Indians.
Lib. But without faith it is impossible to please God, or do any thing which is not abominable to him.
P. 1. But it is not impossible for one to have a common and temporary faith, and another a saving faith. 2. And one that believeth that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and this not savingly, may yet less displease God, and be less abominable than he was before without it: and also may do something that tendeth as a means, to that Faith by which he may please him. 1. A total unbeliever, and a wicked man as wicked, whose prayers are animated with wicked principles and ends, utterly displeaseth God, and his prayers and all such actions are abominable. ⟨p. 261⟩2. A convinced wicked man that doth somewhat from self-love for his own salvation, and specially one that is not far from the Kingdom of God, in the use of common grace, is less abominable, and pleaseth God secundum quid, or less displeaseth him, or seeketh that grace with which he may please him: And Christ is said to love such a man; Mark 10. 21. 3. But only the true Penitent believer so pleaseth him as to be an Adopted heir of life.
P. XII. I Will spend no more time with you on this, than briefly to open your error, and then to tell you what we hold as certain truth.
I. It is your gross Error to oppose Evidences to the Witness of the Spirit; for in the principal respect they are the same: as you may find by studying these Texts well: Rom. 8. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 23. 1 Cor. 6. 17. & 12. 4, 12, 13. 2 Cor. 3. 3. & 4. 13. & 12. 18. Gal. 4. 6. & 5. 5, 16, 17, 18, 25. 2 Tim. 1. 7. John 3. 3, 5, 6. Eph. 1. 18. & 2. 18, 22. & 4. 3, 4, 16, 23. & 5. 9, 18. 2 Thess. 2. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 2, 22. 1 John 3. 24. & 4. 13. Zech. 12. 10. Rom. 7. 6.
Our having the Spirit, and our being sanctified by the Spirit, are the Witness, Seal, Pledge, Earnest, and First Fruits, and the Evidence of our Adoption and Right to life. It is not chiefly An inward voice or persuasion that we are Gods Children, that is the Witness.
Our having the Spirit, and our being sanctified by the Spirit, are the Witness, Seal, Pledge, Earnest, and First Fruits, and the Evidence of our Adoption and Right to life. It is not chiefly An inward voice or perswasion that we are Gods Children, that is the Witness.
But II. As a mans Rational soul doth witness that he is a Man, so the Spirit of holiness witnesseth that we are Christians; and adopted 1. Constitutively, making us such. 2. And thereby differencing us from all that are not such. 3. And then helping us to discern that we are such: As the Reasonable soul perceiveth it self. 4. And helping us to exercise our Grace that it may be the more discernible. 5. And lastly, Comforting us by such Exercise and discerning: As Life and the Intellectual Nature are pleasing to themselves.
But II. As a mans Rational soul doth witness that he is a Man, so the Spirit of holiness witnesseth that we are Christians; and adopted 1. Constitutively, making us such. 2. And thereby differencing us from all that are not such. 3. And then helping us to discern that we are such: As the Reasonable soul perceiveth it self. 4. And helping us to exercise our Grace that it may be the more discernable. 5. And lastly, Comforting us by such Exercise and discerning: As Life and the Intellectual Nature are pleasing to themselves.
P. And now Saul what think you of the Cavils that have puzzled and troubled you? Have you heard any thing that should change your mind?
P. ANd now Saul what think you of the Cavils that have puzled and troubled you? Have you heard any thing that should change your mind?
S. I have heard that from you that confirmeth and satisfieth me: But I have heard that from L. which grieveth my very soul, 1. To think what temptations and perplexing trials poor ignorant Religious people are assaulted by, and how hard a thing it must needs be for such to escape deceit and sin, and great distractions. 2. To think in how sad a condition the Church of God is, that besides what they suffer from men ⟨p. 262⟩of Violence, and the flatteries of the World, must be thus troubled and ensnared by men of high professions of Religion, and even drawn to corrupt the Word of God, and almost to preach another Gospel. 3. And that ever men of such professions should be guilty of so much evil: We to the World because of offences, and woe to them by whom they come.
S. I have heard that from you that confirmeth and satisfieth me: But I have heard that from L. which grieveth my very soul, 1. To think what temptations and perplexing tryals poor ignorant Religious people are assaulted by, and how hard a thing it must needs be for such to escape deceit and sin, and great distractions. 2. To think in how sad a condition the Church of God is, that besides what they suffer from men ⟨p. 262⟩of Violence, and the flatteries of the World, must be thus troubled and ensnared by men of high professions of Religion, and even drawn to corrupt the Word of God, and almost to preach another Gospel. 3. And that ever men of such professions should be guilty of so much evil: We to the World because of offences, and wo to them by whom they come.
P. Alas! it is no new thing: Do you not remember that Paul had such and worse to deal with. Read Gal. 1. & 3 & 4. Read Rev. 2. & 3. Jude, & 2 Pet. 2. & James 2. & 3. & Acts 15, &c. and you will see, that even those purest times when they had Apostolical Gifts and Authority to restrain and settle them, were yet thus tried and troubled by men of high pretensions, so that Paul wisheth that they were cut off that trouble them; and Christ proclaimeth the hatred of his soul against the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans; and Paul tells the Corinthians, that Heresies must be among them, that those which are approved may be manifested among them; and the Ephesians, Acts 20. 30. that of their own selves should men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away Disciples after them. And ever since in all Ages to this day, the Church hath been as Christ on the Cross, between two Thieves, between the Tyrannical and the Superstitious Heretical dividing sort of professed Christians. But hold fast plain primitive SIMPLICITY and serious PRACTICE of a sober, righteous, godly and peaceable life, and you will get safe through all such snares.
P. Alas! it is no new thing: Do you not remember that Paul had such and worse to deal with. Read Gal. 1. & 3 & 4. Read Rev. 2. & 3. Jude, & 2 Pet. 2. & James 2. & 3. & Acts 15, &c. and you will see, that even those purest times when they had Apostolical Gifts and Authority to restrain and settle them, were yet thus tryed and troubled by men of high pretensions, so that Paul wisheth that they were cut off that trouble them; and Christ proclaimeth the hatred of his soul against the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans; and Paul tells the Corinthians, that Heresies must be among them, that those which are approved may be manifested among them; and the Ephesians,
Whether the Difference between Papists, Arminians, Lutherans and Calvinists about Mans Merits, be as Great as many think it?
L. I Am greatly scandalized by a Sermon that you lately preached in London, in which you said (as many good people assure me) that the difference between the Protestants and the Papists was little more than in mere words: The City ringeth of it, and it is a common scandal, and offence.
L. I Am greatly scandalized by a Sermon that you lately preached in London, in which you said (as many good people assure me) that the difference between the Protestants and the Papists was little more than in meer words: The City ringeth of it, and it is a common scandal, and offence.
