A26923:881
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.
§. 34. When the first Reformers had to do with men that commended uncertainty of our Sincerity and Salvation, and kept People under a Spirit of Bondage, and tempted them (contrary to the Nature of Faith) to love this World better than the next, and to be afraid of dying, by being doubtful whether they should be saved; in the heat of opposition, some of them called Faith, Assurance, or certain or full Persuasion of our own personal Election, Pardon, and Salvation. But those that came after them, and those that conversed practically with Men of troubled Consciences, and observed the state of the greatest part of good Christians, followed not this Example, but spake more cautiously and soundly, and described Faith as I before have told you. For they found that not one of a multitude of godly Christians could say they were certain of their Election, Sincerity, or Salvation: And some that were forwardest to say so, were none of the best, and had not what they said they had.
§. 34. When the first Reformers had to do with men that commended uncertainty of our Sincerity and Salvation, and kept People under a Spirit of Bondage, and tempted them (contrary to the Nature of Faith) to love this World better than the next, and to be afraid of dying, by being doubtful whether they should be saved; in the heat of opposition, some of them called Faith, Assurance, or certain or full Persuasion of our own personal Election, Pardon, and Salvation. But those that came after them, and those that conversed practically with Men of troubled Consciences, and observed the state of the greatest part of good Christians, followed not this Example, but spake more cautelously and soundly, and described Faith as I before have told you. For they found that not one of a multitude of godly Christians could say they were certain of their Election, Sincerity, or Salvation: And some that were forwardest to say so, were none of the best, and had not what they said they had.
§. 35. But whatever the transmarine Divines say, I can witness, that except ignorant Antinomians, or such Sectaries, rejected by the Orthodox, I remember not that I have met these forty years with one Divine that taketh saving-Faith to be such Assurance of our personal Election, Justification or ⟨p. 236⟩