A26977:562
Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers in what sense [sic] sound Protestants…Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers in what sence [sic] sound Protestants…
Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers in what sense [sic] sound Protestants hold it and of the false devised sense by which libertines subvert the Gospel : with an answer to some common objections, especially of Dr. Thomas Tully whose Justif. Paulina occasioneth the publication of this / by Richard Baxter a compassionate lamenter of the Church's wounds caused by hasty judging ... and by the theological wars which are hereby raised and managed ...Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers in what sence [sic] sound Protestants hold it and of the false divised sence by which libertines subvert the Gospel : with an answer to some common objections, especially of Dr. Thomas Tully whose Justif. Paulina occasioneth the publication of this / by Richard Baxter a compassionate lamenter of the Church's wounds caused by hasty judging ... and by the theological wars which are hereby raised and managed ...
London: printed for Nevil Simmons and Jonathan Robinson, 1675
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. 1. Sure it doth as a voluntarily receiving hand, and not as a mere empty hand. And voluntary grateful Reception may be the Condition of a Gift.
2. You and I shall shortly find that it will be the Question on which we shall be Justified or Condemned; not only whether we received Christ's Righteousness, but whether by Faith we received Christ in all the Essentials of his Office, and to all the essential saving Uses: Yea, whether according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant, we first believingly ⟨p. 178⟩received▪ and gave up our selves to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and after performed sincerely that Covenant.
3. But let me defend the Word of God: Faith is imputed for Righteousness, even this Faith now described; 1. Remotely, ex materiae aptitudine, for its fitness to its formal Office; And that fitness is, 1. Because it is an Act of Obedience to God, or morally good, (for a bad or indifferent Act doth not justify). 2. More specially as it is the receiving, trusting, and giving up our selves to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to the proper ends of Redemption, or a suitable Reception of the freely offered Gift; and so connoteth Christ the Object (for the Object is essential to the Act in specie). 2. But proximately Faith is so reputed, or imputed, as it is the performance of the Condition of the Justifying Covenant or Donation.
3. But let me defend the Word of God: Faith is imputed for Righteousness, even this Faith now described; 1. Remotely, ex materiae aptitudine, for its fitness to its formal Office; And that fitness is, 1. Because it is an Act of Obedience to God, or morally good, (for a bad or indifferent Act doth not justifie). 2. More specially as it is the receiving, trusting, and giving up our selves to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to the proper ends of Redemption, or a suitable Reception of the freely offered Gift; and so connoteth Christ the Object (for the Object is essential to the Act in specie). 2. But proximately Faith is so reputed, or imputed, as it is the performance of the Condition of the Justifying Covenant or Donation.