A26924:225
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated…
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated and argued by Richard Baxter ; who earnestly beseecheth rulers and clergy not to divide and destroy the land and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjury ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1689
Chapter 9: Point VI. Of the Article of Baptized Infants Salvation.
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.
M. This is to jest with holy things? To be certain is to be a Truth that hath ascertaining evidence, if you mean objective certainty: and how can any man profess or affirm that who knoweth it not? He that affirmeth that it is objectively certain, doth therefore affirm that he knoweth it to be so, and is ⟨p. 56⟩subjectively certain, if he mean that it is evident and certain to others and not to him, it's a contradiction: for if he know it not to be certain he cannot tell that another doth.
L. But though you be not certain of it, the subscribers may.
M. 1. I have proved that no man is certain of it, 2. Judge by all the rest of their wisdom, whether every Youth that comes for Ordination from the Universities, be so much wiser than we, that they are certain of this which we think uncertain or false. Judge by their other qualifications, whether the seven thousand Ministers that declared their assent to the Book before they ever saw it, are like to be certainer than the two thousand that were cast out: And are they certain of this that are uncertain of many great and weighty truths through ignorance? 3. Yea many Conformists and Papists, say that Infant Baptism cannot be proved by Scripture, but by Tradition. And can Ten thousand Ministers then be certain by Scripture that baptized Infants are saved? How gross a contradiction is this? 4. And judge farther of the credit and modesty of such men: some Divines say that Faith it self hath not evidence, and that he that doubteth of Christianity and the Life to come may be saved, if his belief of it be but strong enough to make him trust and prefer it before all this world. And I hear their greatest Divines say that few would be saved if none but they that are undoubtedly certain of the Life to come, and of the truth of the Gospel should be saved. And yet all must be cast or kept out of the Ministry that will not affirm that they are more certain of a hard Controversy if not of an untruth, than Christ requireth us to be of our very Christianity.