A26947:1051
A key for Catholics, to open the juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all…A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all…
A key for Catholics, to open the juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part showeth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholic Church is not united in any merely humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholic Christian and Pastor of a church ...A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part sheweth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholick Church is not united in any meerly humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholick Christian and Pastor of a church ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659
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.
His eighth Accusation is this [Scripture saith, that there are some that believe for a time, and after at another time believe not. You deny that there are any that believe for a time, and then fall from faith, and that he that once believeth doth ever lose that faith, which is not in any Scripture to be found.]
Answ. It is too light in serious matters, to play thus upon words. 1. We still maintain that there are some that believe but for a time, and afterward fall away: but we say it is but with an uneffectual or common assent that they believe, such as you call fides informis. Your accusation therefore is false. The semen vitae and faith that Calvin speaks of, in the place which you cite, is meant only of a saving faith, such as you call fides charitate formata. If any of you think that faith is called charitate formata, or justifying or saving faith, only by an extrinsical denomination, from a concomitant, and that there is no difference in the faith it self between that of the unjustified and of the justified, you are mistaken against all reason. Your own Philosophers frequently maintain that the will (which is the seat of charity) followeth the practical dictates of the Intellect (which is the seat of Assent.) And therefore according to those Philosophers, a Practical Belief must needs be accompanied with charity. And those that deny this, do yet maintain that a powerful clear Assent of the Intellect will infallibly procure the determination of the Will, though every assent will not, and though it do it not Necessarily. So that on that account (and in common reason) there must needs be an intrinsic difference between that Assent which prevaileth with the will to ⟨p. 287⟩determine it self, and that which cannot so prevail: And therefore your unformed and your formed faith, have some intrinsic difference.
Answ. It is too light in serious matters, to play thus upon words. 1. We still maintain that there are some that believe but for a time, and afterward fall away: but we say it is but with an uneffectual or common assent that they believe, such as you call fides informis. Your accusation therefore is false. The semen vitae and faith that Calvin speaks of, in the place which you cite, is meant only of a saving faith, such as you call fides charitate formata. If any of you think that faith is called charitate formata, or justifying or saving faith, only by an extrinsecal denomination, from a concomitant, and that there is no difference in the faith it self between that of the unjustified and of the justified, you are mistaken against all reason. Your own Philosophers frequently maintain that the will (which is the seat of charity) followeth the practical dictates of the Intellect (which is the seat of Assent.) And therefore according to those Philosophers, a Practical Belief must needs be accompanyed with charity. And those that deny this, do yet maintain that a powerfull clear Assent of the Intellect will infallibly procure the determination of the Will, though every assent will not, and though it do it not Necessarily. So that on that account (and in common reason) there must needs be an intrinsick difference between that Assent which prevaileth with the will to