A26974:420
Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions…
Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions of divers learned and reverend brethren / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1658
Whether Works are a Condition of Justification? And so whether we a… › Part
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.
Answ. So you before say, they must be ashamed of their Righteousness as well as their sins. I do not well understand these distinctions. Nothing in all the world confoundeth me so much as the imperfection of my Holiness: But I dare not think that imperfection to be no sin, left I must think the perfection to be no duty, and so come to works of supererogation and Evangelical Counsels. And Holiness considered in it self, and not as sinful and imperfect, is amiable in my eyes, and I know not how to be ashamed of it, without being ashamed of God that is its object and exemplar, and heaven that is the state of its perfection.
Answ. So you before say, they must be ashamed of their Righteousness as well as their sins. I do not well understand these distinctions. Nothing in all the world confoundeth me so much as the imperfection of my Holiness: But I dare not think that imperfection to be no sin, left I must think the perfection to be no duty, and so come to works of supererrogation and Evangelical Counsels. And Holiness considered in it self, and not as sinful and imperfect, is amiable in my eyes, and I know not how to be ashamed of it, without being ashamed of God that is its object and exemplar, and heaven that is the state of its perfection.
Treat. ib. Set some few, even a remnant aside, comparatively, the whole Christian world both Doctors and people, learned and unlearned, fasten on a Justification by works. —
Answ. I hope not so many as you fear, or affirm. First, all the Doctors and people of your judgement do not: And if you thought those so exceeding few among Christians, you would not take me for so singular as you do. 2. None of the truly sanctified are such as you here affirm. 3. The multitude of groundless presumers of Free Grace are not such. And truly though I doubt Justiciaries are too common, I do not think that such Presumptuous ones are so small a Remnant. 4. The Libertines and Antinomians, and many other Sects of their mind, are none of this great number. 5. I will yet hope for all this, that you cannot prove it of the Doctors and people of half the Christian world. Their hearts God knows. And I will not yet believe that in their Doctrine about Justification by works, the Greek Churches, the Armenians, Jacobites, Copti's, Abasine, &c. do fasten on such dangerous sands, or differ so much from