A26923:802
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Chapter 18: Of the necessity of Faith in Christ, where the Gospel is made known.
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. Infidels take scandal from Christ's making Faith in himself to be so necessary to our Salvation, as if it tended only to his Honour, and were in its own Nature of no necessity to our happiness, but arbitrarily made so.
§. 1. INfidels take scandal from Christ's making Faith in himself to be so necessary to our Salvation, as if it tended only to his Honour, and were in its own Nature of no necessity to our happiness, but arbitrarily made so.
§. 2. And their reason also against this necessity, is, because believing is an act of the Intellect; and Intellection is not free, and in its self is no moral Act. A man cannot know or believe what he would, no, though he most earnestly desired it: And will God condemn men for that which they fain would do, and cannot? Especially when mens intellectual Capacities do so greatly differ, that some seem to differ but little from the Brutes.
§. 3. This Scandal ariseth from their not well understanding the Nature and Reasons of our Faith in Christ. 1. They falsely suppose it to be only an Act of the Intellect (where many Divines have given them the Scandal.) 2. They falsely suppose, That the Intellect herein is necessitated to unbelief. 3. And they consider not the Ends and Uses of our Faith.