A26976:384
Of the immortality of mans soul, and the nature of it and other spirits.…
Of the immortality of mans soul, and the nature of it and other spirits. Two discourses, one in a letter to an unknown doubter, the other in a reply to Dr. Henry Moore's Animadversions on a private letter to him, which he published in his second edition of Mr. Joseph Glanvil's Sadducismus triumphatus, or, History of apparitions by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for B. Simons, 1682
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.
§. 35. You add, how easy it would have been to you to believe as the Church believeth, and not to have immerged your self in these difficulties?
§. 35. You add, how easie it would have been to you to believe as the Church believeth, and not to have immerged your self in these difficulties?
Ans. 1. The Church is nothing but all individual Christians; and it is their Belief which makes them capable of being of the Church: As we must be men in order of Nature, before we are a Kingdom of men; so we are Believers before we are a Church of Believers. A Kingdom or Policy maketh us not men, but is made of men; and Church-society or Policy maketh us not Believers, but is made up of Believers. Therefore Belief is first, and is not caused by that which followeth it? And why doth the Church believe? Is it because they believe?
And whom do they believe? Is it themselves? I doubt you have fallen into acquaintance with those whose Interest hath made it their Trade to puzzle and confound men about things as hard to themselves as others, that they may bring them to trust the Church, and then tell them that it's they that are that Church, as a necessary means to the quieting their minds. And they tell them, You are never able by reason to comprehend the mysteries of Faith; the more you search, the more you are confounded. But if ⟨p. 63⟩you believe as the Church believeth, you shall speed as the Church speedeth., But it's one thing to believe the same thing which the Church believeth; and another to believe it with the same faith, and upon the same Authority. If a man believe all the Articles of the Creed only because men tell him that they are true, it is but a human Faith, as resting only on mans Authority; but the true Members of the Church believe all the same things, because God revealeth and attesteth them; and this is a Divine Faith: And so must you.