A26923:842
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
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.
§. 22. 3. Distinguish of Holiness, and of the Season of it. 1. Infants have not actual Faith, nor necessarily a proper Habit, which is a disposition to facile acting that same act: But a semen, a Seed, (as Amesius rather calleth it than a Habit at first even in the Adult:) And Calvin saith, That some men, semen fidei qualecunque perdunt. Adam had such a Holiness as might be lost: And why may we not say, that Infants first▪ Grace is of such a sort or degree? 2. And yet that none are saved without more; but that upon this first degree they have a right to Salvation, and that their further Holiness shall be given them whom God will, as part of their Salvation, to which they have right: At furthest, at death, in the same time and manner as perfect Holiness and Mortification of Sin is given to Believers that are till death ⟨p. 225⟩imperfect. A loseable degree of Holiness like Adam's, may be the way to more in all that so die.
§. 23. Divines use to mention three degrees of Grace in order to Faith it self. 1. So much Grace as maketh a man able to believe, (which they call Sufficient Grace.) 2. So much more as efficiently determineth him to the Act of Believing: This they call effectual special Grace, and Protestants call it our Vocation effectual. 3. So much more as giveth him a fixed habit of Faith, Love, and all Holiness together. This Papists call Justification, and Protestants Sanctification. Vid. Amesii Medull. de voc. & sanct. Rolloc. de vocat. Bishop Downame against Pemble Append. to his Treatise of Perseverance, &c.
§. 23. Divines use to mention three degrees of Grace in order to Faith it self. 1. So much Grace as maketh a man able to believe, (which they call Sufficient Grace.) 2. So much more as efficiently determineth him to the Act of Believing: This they call effectual special Grace, and Protestants call it our Vocation effectual. 3. So much more as giveth him a fixed habit of Faith, Love, and all Holiness together. This Papists call Iustification, and Protestants Sanctification. Vid. Amesii Medull. de voc. & sanct. Rolloc. de vocat. Bishop Downame against Pemble Append. to his Treatise of Perseverance, &c.