A26974:91
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
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.
Proposition 1. Ex parte Christi, We easily grant that ⟨p. 11⟩it is not his Teaching, or Ruling us, but his Ransom and Obedience that are the Meritorious cause of our Justification and Salvation.
Proposition 1. Ex parte Christi, We easily grant that ⟨p. 11⟩it is not his Teaching, or Ruling us, but his Ransome and Obedience that are the Meritorious cause of our Justification and Salvation.
Proposition 2. Therefore if Christ did justify us per modum objecti aprehensi in the nearest sense, as the Belief of sacred Truths doth make a Qualitative impression on the soul in our Sanctification, and the exciting and acting, of our Graces then I should confess that it is only that Act of Faith which is the apprehension of this Object, that doth help us directly to the benefit of the Object.
Proposition 2. Therefore if Christ did justifie us per modum objecti aprehensi in the nearest sense, as the Belief of sacred Truths doth make a Qualitative impression on the soul in our Sanctification, and the exciting and acting, of our Graces then I should confess that it is only that Act of Faith which is the apprehension of this Object, that doth help us directly to the benefit of the Object.
Proposition 3. But it is not so: For the Object justifieth us causally by way of Merit and Moral procurement, and the benefit of that Merit is partly the Promise conveying to us Justification, and partly Justification conveyed by that Promise (not to speak now of other benefits) and the Promise conveyeth Justification by Moral Donation as a deed of Gift, or a Pardon to a Traitor: Therefore the Gift flowing purely from the Will of the Giver, and the Promise or deed of Gift being the Immediate Instrumental efficient Cause of it, as it is signum voluntatis Donatoris, our Belief or Apprehension qua talis cannot justify us, nor have any nearer or higher interest in our Justification, then to be the Condition of it, as it is a free Gift. And therefore the Condition must be judged of by the will of the Donor expressed in his Promise, and not immediately by the conceits of men concerning its natural agreeableness to the Object in this or that respect.