A76157:571
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…
Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the sovereign powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and welfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the churches: submissively, but earnestly tendered to the consideration of the soveraigne powers, magistrates, ministers, and people, that they may awake, and be up and doing in the execution of so much, as appeareth to be necessary as they are true to Christ, his Church and Gospel, and to their own and others souls, and to the peace and wellfare of the nations; and as they will answer the neglect to Christ, at their peril. / By Richard Baxter, an unworthy minister of Christ, that longeth to see the healing of the churches.
London: printed by A.M. for Nevil Simmons book-seller, 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.
Object. But (its said) Infants have Faith;that is, a Relative Faith, and a Federal Faith, as well as a Relative Federal Holiness▪ Their right is not only in their Parents, but in themselves; and therefore their Faith is in themselves: and this continueth with the aged, till Heresy and Schism cut it off.
Object. But (its said) Infants have Faith;that is, a Relative Faith, and a Faderall Faith, as well as a Relative Faederall Holiness▪ Their right is not only in their Parents, but in themselves; and therefore their Faith is in themselves: and this continueth with the aged, till Heresie and Schisme cut it off.
Answ. Call any thing under Heaven by the name of Faith, so you will but explain your meaning, and we will quarrel as little as may be with you about words: But little know we what you mean by Relative or Federal Faith, unless it be plainly, to be semen fidelium, the seed of believers: that there is a Relative and Federal Holiness, is Scripture Doctrine, and good sense: For the formal nature of the thing is a relation which commonly is expressed by the name of Holiness, ⟨image 185⟩and which in that phrase is implied. But I remember not that Scripture ever speaks of a Relative or Federal Faith: For I believe not that it was Infants, that Christ calls the little o•es that believe in him. And Faith being an act or habit, you must mean some other species of Faith, which consisteth in relation. I know it not, nor will I use your Language; though I think it more tolerable to call the Infant Relatively a Believer, then to say he hath Relative Faith; for in so saying, no more is meant, but that he is a Disciple of Christ, or belongs to him as he is the Seed of a Believer in Covenant. But let this word of Federal Relative Faith be used by you as you please: If the thing signified by it be any more then I have expressed, you should tell us what you mean: If it be no more but to be the Seed of a Believer, then we doubt not but thi continueth when they come to age: but it doth them no good at age, as to the continuing of their Title to Church-membership before God without a Faith of their own, nor before the Church without a profession of it. That the Infant himself is the Subject of hs own Right, is a thing that no man, that I know makes doubt of, that believeth him to have any Right: But the active main condition of that right is not to be performed by himself