A26974:928
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.
Answ. The Lord pardon the hardness of my heart that hath no more compassionate sense of the miseries of that poor Church, and the dishonour of God which such Disputes as this proclaim; by Arguments as fit to be answered by Tears as by words. 1. A little before he was proving (Argument 12.) that none could call Christ Lord but by the Spirit, and therefore this act was after Justification: And now he proveth that its common to Hypocrites, & Reprobates. 2. Here he delivereth me from all the trouble and fallacy that the distinction of fides quae Justificat and fides qua Justificat, hath been guilty of. For if the act that we dispute about, be no faith at all, then it is not the fides quae. And yet he often is upon the Qua Justificans himself, forgetting this.
3. Had I but delivered such a Doctrine as this, what should I have heard? Justifying faith hath three Parts, ASSENT, CONSENT, and AFFIANCE, (which also have several acts or parts, according to the divers essential parts of the Object.) ASSENT is but Initial and introductory to the rest, as all acts of the Intellect are to those of the Will. CONSENT is the same which we here call ACCEPTING, which is but the mere VOLITION denominated from its respect to the offer and thing offered. This, as it is in the will, the commanding Faculty, so is it as it were the Heart of Faith; the first act being but to lead in this, and AFFIANCE the third, being commanded much by this, or depending on it: For as it is seated in the Affections, so far it is distinct from this Veil or CONSENT. Now when ever we name Faith by any one of these three acts (as the Scripture doth from every one) we include them all, though to avoid tediousness we stand not to name all the parts, when ever by one word we express the whole. And all these Acts have whole ⟨p. 303⟩Christ in all the essentials of his Person and office for their object. Now that this faith in Christ as Lord, or accepting him, should be said, and that by a Christian Divine, and that in the Reformed Church, to be no faith at all, (to say nothing of his denying it to be obedience;) is no matter of honour or comfort to us. How oft doth the Scripture expressly mention faith in our Lord Jesus Christ? Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord, Col 2.6. with other equipollent terms. But I will not offer to trouble any Christian Reader with Arguments for such a Truth.