A26951:711
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 3 › Chapter 3: Directions to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost.
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.
6. In this assent our belief in God, and in the Mediator, are conjunct in time and nature; they being Relatives here as the objects of our faith. It is not possible to believe in Christ as the Mediator, who hath propitiated God to us, before we believe that God is propitiated by the Mediator; nor vice versâ: Indeed there is a difference in order of dignity and desirableness; God as propitiated being represented to us as the End, and the Propitiator, but as the Means: But as to the order of our apprehension or believing, there can be no difference at all, no more than in the order of knowing the Father and the Son, the Husband and Wife, the King and subjects: These Relatives are simul naturá & tempore.
6. In this assent our belief in God, and in the Mediatour, are conjunct in time and nature; they being Relatives here as the objects of our faith. It is not possible to believe in Christ as the Mediatour, who hath propitiated God to us, before we believe that God is propitiated by the Mediatour; nor vice versâ: Indeed there is a difference in order of dignity and desirableness; God as propitiated being represented to us as the End, and the Propitiator, but as the Means: But as to the order of our apprehension or believing, there can be no difference at all, no more than in the order of knowing the Father and the Son, the Husband and Wife, the King and subjects: These Relatives are simul naturá & tempore.
7. This assenting act of Faith, by which at once we believe Christ to be the Propitiator, and God to be propitiated by him, is not the belief that my sins are actually pardoned, and my soul actually reconciled and justified; but it includeth the belief of the history of Christs satisfaction, and of the common conditional Covenant of Promise and Offer from God, viz. that God is so far reconciled by the Mediator, as that he will forgive, and justify, and glorify all that Repent and Believe, that is, that return to God by faith in Christ; and offereth this mercy to all, and entreateth them to accept it, and will ⟨p. 220⟩