A26974:441
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.
And yet let me say this to you, lest you should mistake me: As vehemently as I disown all true causality of works to our Justification, I intend not to fall out with all men that call them causes. As first, Not with Piscator nor such other that call them causes of our final absolution and salvation. Secondly, Nor with those that call them meritorious in the same sense as the Fathers did, though they unfitly use the word. Thirdly, Nor with those that will say, that because they please God, and so are the object of his complacency and will, they may therefore, speaking after the manner of men, be called Procatarctike causes of his act of Justification: and so that the Amiableness and desirableness of faith and holiness, is the cause why he assigned them to this Noble place and office. Fourthly, Nor with them that say, faith is a moral or a Metaphorical, passive or active Instrument of Justification. Though I say not as these men, I will not quarrel with them.
Preface. But I need not run to this; for my Arguments militate against works, at works justifying under any pretended Notion whatsoever.
Answer. By the help of this, I shall interpret all your Arguments. And if so, then they militate against the act of faith justifying under the pretended notion of an Instrument, unless ⟨p. 101⟩you will say that faith is no Act, or Instrumentality is no pretended notion.