A26938:5
How far holiness is the design of Christianity where the nature of holiness and…How far holinesse is the design of Christianity where the nature of holiness and…
How far holiness is the design of Christianity where the nature of holiness and morality is opened, and the doctrine of justification, imputation of sin and righteousness, &c. partly cleared, and vindicated from abuse : in certain propositions, returned to an unknown person, referring to Mr. Fowlers treatise on this subject / by Richard Baxter.How far holinesse is the design of Christianity where the nature of holiness and morality is opened, and the doctrine of justification, imputation of sin and righteousness, &c. partly cleared, and vindicated from abuse : in certain propositions, returned to an unknown person, referring to Mr. Fowlers treatise on this subject / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevill Simons, 1671
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.
Qu. Whether Holiness be the only Design of Christianity?
Qu. Whether Holinesse be the only Design of Christianity?
SIR, The Sum of your Letter is, [That Mr. Fowler and many others of late, by crying up Holiness as the Only Design of Christianity, do 1. give us a description of such a Holiness as is but the mere morality of a Heathen, [A sound complexion of soul, &c.] 2. And that they greatly obscure or drown the whole Doctrine of our Justification, and Adoption, and of Christs Satisfaction and imputed Righteousness; and make the Glory of this to be none of the Design of Christianity. 3. That, by this they tempt men, that can but imagine that Seneca, Antonine, Epictetus, Plutarch or Cicero do give as wise and wholesome Precepts of Virtue and good living as Christ, to think as highly of them as of Christ. 4. That hence they secretly reproach both the Imposers of Conformity, and the Non-conformists, and magnify the stretching conscience of the Passive Latitudinarian Conformist as the only wise man that careth for none of these little things: And that they secretly undermine all Instituted Ordinances. 5. That because my Aphorisms and other Writings have had some hand in breeding such opinions, I am doubly guilty in being silent now they spread and prosper.] This being the sum ⟨p. 4⟩of your Complaint, I shall answer to all this in that manner as the nature of the thing requireth. In General, I must tell you, that I am responsible for no mans Writings but my own; Neither shall you hereby tempt me to become an Aristarchus, and arrogant Censurer of other mens. This is all that I need to say of the Book you mention, that it is of very much worth and use, to call men more seriously to consider of the Design of mans Redemption, and of the nature of true Religion and Felicity: And though I will not defend every word in my own writings, much less in other mens, when I am not concerned, yet I may say that I had rather persuade the Licentious of this age to the careful reading of that Book, than turn it into matter of strife. But it is only my own judgment about the things in question which you can reasonably expect; which I think the brevity requisite in a Letter directeth me to give you in certain self-evidencing coherent Propositions. Prop. 1. GOD is the Beginning, the Ruler and the End of all: Of him, and through him, and to him are all things. 2. The word [Design] doth signify, sometime the act of Intention; sometime the End intended. In the Question it must needs signify the later,: