A26951:414
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1670
Part 2 › Chapter 7: The means of making known all this infallibly to us.
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.
If you had asked them then, H•w know you that all these things were said and done? they would have answered you, Because we saw and heard them. But we were not then present: we did not see, and hear, what they did: Nor did we see or hear them, who were the eye-witnesses. And therefore as their senses told it them; so the natural way for our knowledge, must be by derivation from their sense to ours: For when ⟨p. 126⟩they themselves received it in a way so natural, (though not without the help of Gods Spirit, in the remembering, recording and attesting it) we that can less pretend to inspiration, or immediate revelation, have small reason to think that we must know the same facts, by either of those supernatural ways. Nor can our knowledge of a history, carried down through so many ages, be so clearly satisfactory to our selves, as sight and hearing was to them. And yet we have a certainty, not only infallible; but so far satisfactory, as is sufficient to warrant all our faith, and duty, and sufferings for the reward which Christ hath set before us.
If you had asked them then, H•w know you that all these things were said and done? they would have answered you, Because we saw and heard them. But we were not then present: we did not see, and hear, what they did: Nor did we see or hear them, who were the eye-witnesses. And therefore as their senses told it them; so the natural way for our knowledge, must be by derivation from their sense to ours: For when ⟨p. 126⟩they themselves received it in a way so natural, (though not without the help of Gods Spirit, in the remembring, recording and attesting it) we that can less pretend to inspiration, or immediate revelation, have small reason to think that we must know the same facts, by either of those supernatural waies. Nor can our knowledge of a history, carryed down through so many ages, be so clearly satisfactory to our selves, as sight and hearing was to them. And yet we have a certainty, not only infallible; but so far satisfactory, as is sufficient to warrant all our faith, and duty, and sufferings for the reward which Christ hath set before us.