A26886:482
Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending…
Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending them against several sorts of opponents, especially against the second assault of that pious, reverend and dear brother Mr. Thomas Blake / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1658
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.
1. It is not the Beginning of saving faith which we are to engage our selves to in the Sacraments, but the Continuance: therefore the Beginning is presupposed in that Engagement: and so we must no more baptize without a Profession of Faith in present, than without an Engagement to believe hereafter. The Antecedent is proved thus: There is no one word in Scripture, ⟨p. 148⟩either of Precept or example, where any person in baptism or the Lords Supper doth engage, or is required to engage▪ to begin to believe with a saving faith, or to believe with a faith which at the present he hath not: Show but one word of Scripture to prove this, if you can; if you cannot, I may conclude that therefore we must not require that which we have no Scripture ground to require.
1. It is not the Beginning of saving faith which we are to engage our selves to in the Sacraments, but the Continuance: therefore the Beginning is presupposed in that Engagement: and so we must no more baptize without a Profession of Faith in present, than without an Engagement to believe hereafter. The Antecedent is proved thus: There is no one word in Scripture, ⟨p. 148⟩either of Precept or example, where any person in baptism or the Lords Supper doth engage, or is required to engage▪ to begin to believe with a saving faith, or to believe with a faith which at the present he hath not: Shew but one word of Scripture to prove this, if you can; if you cannot, I may conclude that therefore we must not require that which we have no Scripture ground to require.
2. This Engagement to believe savingly, is either for a remote distant time, or for the next instant: •ut no unbeliever (as to that faith) is called to promise in Baptism such a saving faith, either at a distant time, or the next instant: therefore not at all.