Gentleness in the Answer I shall grant you the first as far as in such hast and brevity I am able And the second as far as the nature of the cause will bear But if you account all Christians deceived fools you must not expect to be called wise nor that I should flatter you and tell you that Apostasie is a state of safety For I that believe Heb. 6. and 10. must think that this were not Gentleness but Cruelty and worse than to kill you for fear of displeasing you Prop. 1. If it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scriptures is true nor the Pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion The reason is Because every particle in the Scripture is not an essential part of the Christian Religion no nor any Integral part if you take the Christian Religion strictly for the Doctrine of necessary Belief Desire and Practice And that part which is indeed the essence yea or Integrity of Christianity may be certainly proved and believed without our being able to prove the certainty or truth of all the rest which is in the Scriptures The Holy Scriptures contain all our Religion and somewhat more that is the Accidents and appurtenances of it As the body of a man besides the parts Essential and Integral hath its Accidents such as are the Hair and the Colour and some Humours which are for Beauty and other uses though not Parts So far are the Papists from being in the right who think that the Christian Religion is not all but part contained in the Scriptures that there is more than all that is necessary to salvation even the appurtenances which have an aptitude to the adorning and promoting of the rest To know who was the Father of every person mentioned in the Bibles Genealogies to know what age each person was of whose age is there mentioned to know the name of every person and every Town to know how far each City was from another whose distances are there expressed with a multitude of such like Historical Genealogical Chronological Topographical Physical incidental passages is but an appurtenance and not strictly a part Essential or Integral of the Christian Faith of Holiness or Religion Yet remember that we maintain as certain that they are all Lyars who accuse God of Lying And that whatever some ignorantly talk to the contrary God cannot lie See the excellent Amesius his Disputation of this Question An falsum subesse potest fidei divinae after his Medulla Theologiae which book with his Cases of Conscience and Alstedius his Encyclopaediae may after the Scriptures and Concordance make a good Divine and be a better Library than the Fathers of the fourth Council Carth. were acquainted with He that thinketh God can lie destroyeth the Objectum Formale fidei divinae and therefore can have no Faith If God could lie in one thing we should never be sure that he revealeth the truth unless by sense it self and after-experience All Faith goeth upon such a Syllogism as this Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Ergo it is true So that whosoever believeth every word in the Scripture to be Gods word must believe it all to be true or he can believe none of it at all But yet it is possible for a man to believe one part of the Bible to be Gods Word and not another part which needeth no proof Because that many of the ancient Churches for a certain time doubted of yea received not the Epistle of James Peter 2d the Heb. Apocal. c. and yet were truly of the Christian Religion First We deny not but that there are many false and wicked sayings historically recited in the Scripture as the saying of Cain Pharaoh Gehezi the false Prophets the Devil of Job to Christ c. but the Scripture is nevertheless true For it is true that all these untruths were spoken Secondly The Disciples of Christ were not absolutely and in all things infallible as all Christians do Confess They were not as perfect in Knowledge as now they are in Heaven Either Paul or Barnab as was mistaken about the fitness of Mark to go with them Thirdly There was a greater assistance of the Spirit promised them when two or three of them were assembled in Christs name than when they proceeded singly Mat. 18. 18. But there can be nothing above perfect infallibiâ—ity and impeccability to them all Fourthly We confess that Christs Disciples were not indefectible or sinless As their understandings so their wills and lives had still some imperfections Marke Paul and Silas did not all perfectly do their duties in the case they differed about Peter did amiss in avoiding the Gentile Christians when Paul blamed him openly Gal. 2. And Barnabas and others did not do well in being drawn away to the same â—issâ—â—â—lation When Paul saith of Timothy I have no man like minded â—nd of others They all seek their own He took not all Christians that had the Spirit to be perfect If any man had not the Spirit of Christ he was none of his Rom. 8. 9. And the very wrangling deâ—â—â—â—â—ng Galathians had received the spirit Gal. 3. 1 2 3. And so had the wrangling Corinthians Christ in them 2 Cor 8. 5. Fifthly We confess that he who is either infallible or defectible lyable to error or sia is of himself capable of being deceived and of deceiving others If he were Infallible in respect of the Knowledg of all the Truth yet while he can sin of himself considered he can be heedless careless rash partial and for by respects speak too little or too much It is the Devils last method to undo by overdoing and so to destroy the authority of the Apostles by over magnifying them therefore we will not use his methods nor deny any of this Sixthly Moreover we confess that it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether those that were but Evangelists as Marke and Luke had the same promise of the Spirits infallible assistance with the Apostles seeing we find not that promise so expresly any where made to them And thereupon he may possibly think that some errors may consist with their measure of the Spirit as it did with many Christians who had the same Spirit Seventhly And we do not believe that the extraordinary operations of the Spirit were alwaies equally in the Apostles themselves we suppose the Prophets could not alwaies Prophesie nor those that spake with tongues use that gift at their own pleasure nor yet those that did miracles healed the sick or raised the dead But that the Spirit wrought as in various sorts and measures in several persons 1 Cor. 12. so also at various times and in various measures in the same person Whereupon it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether every word in Scripture was written then when the writer had the gift of infallibility and indefectibility
to banish all considerable doubting And now I conclude First Whatever is True is objectively certain and Infallibly true so far as that no man in Believing it true is therein deceived or mistaken All Truth is Certain Infallible Truth in it self Secondly Few Truths in the world are so Evident as that a blinded prejudiced indisposed person may not be ignorant of them or erre about them Thirdly All Truths in the Scripture have not equal evidence that they are the word of God though all that is known to be the word of God if equally so known have equal evidence in the formal reason of saith that they are true Fourthly All known Truth is infallibly known that is He that knoweth it is not deceived nor can possibly be deceived by taking it to be true so that as Infallibility signifieth not being deceived all true knowledge is subjectively infallible and certain that is its true Fifthly No man can know that Infallibly which is not objectively certain that which is not True cannot be known to be true The strongest and most confident belief of a falshood is a false belief and more than fallible or uncertain Sixthly All Gods word being equally true and infallible the belief of it is also equally true and infallible But being not All equally intelligible evident to be his word and necessary the understanding and belief of every part is not equally easie strong past doubting or necessary Seventhly There is a superficial belief of Divine Revelations even the Gospel which a natural man may have by extrinsick means And there is a more clear apprehension which a Commoner sort of Grace may produce But that Belief which is so clear and powerful as truly to sanctifie and save the soul must be the effect of the special operation of the Holy Ghost who yet hath a course of appointed means in which we must receive it Eighthly The reason of this necessity of the Spirits operation of faith and then by saith is not because the Gospel wanteth due Ascertaining Evidence or an aptitude to convince and sanctifie a soul For it s highly Rational though mysterious and Good But because by corruption and pravity the mind of man is so undisposed to know believe and love truths of such a nature as that there is need of a special Internal higher Operator to set home the work as the hand of a man setteth the seal upon the wax and to do that by it which the bare word alone with the excellentest preacher cannot do Ninethly Yet is no wicked Infidel excuseable that saith If I cannot believe it I will not believe it Because First It is his pravity which is his disability Secondly He is more able for a common superficial belief than for a special effectual belief Thirdly And if he did by the help of that common belief do what he might and God appointeth him in the use of means to obtain a special Faith through grace he should find that God hath commanded no man to labour and seek after grace in vain and if any man have not that grace and power which is of necessity to his faith and salvation it is long of himself who useth not his commoner power and grace as he might use them And so much to prevent misunderstanding Now my Reasons why I take every History Chronology Genealogy in Scripture as certainly true and every other word which is spoken by a true Prophet and Apostle as by the Spirit and not disowned by the Scripture it self but especially such as you accuse in the Gospel are these First A Priore Because it seemeth to me that the writing of the whole Books of the New Testament by them was done in the discharge of the Commission given them by Christ And he promised his Apostles his Spirit for the performance of all their Commissioned office work This writing is part of the preaching which Christ sent them for And no doubt but the Spirit did cause them to write all the substantial part And therefore we have reason to think that the smallest parts are from the same Author and that he assisted them in the least as well as in the greatest Yea the very accidents may have a perfection in their place though less perfect in themselves Though all the Evangelists use not the same Method or Order nor repeat Christs sayings in the same terms yet in respect to the whole frame it may be best that there should be that diversity of words and order to preserve and declare the same sense and things And even their plain and less accurate stile and method may be best as fittest to its use and end Secondly A Posteriore There is no Caviller that yet hath proved any falshood or contradiction in any passages of the Scripture Though the clearing of some of them require more than vulgar knowledge Thirdly Saving the controversies about the few questioned Books and some few sentences and words the Church which received the Scriptures as Gods word did receive the whole as his word and as certainly true in every part Fourthly Because that Spirit of Miracles in the Apostles and that Spirit of Holiness in us which attesteth the Christian Religion doth receive it and attest it as found in the sacred Scripture though not as there alone And it putteth no exception against any part of the sacred record Therefore while it particularly attesteth the chief parts it inferreth an attestation to the smallest for that word or line which is not strictly a part but an accident of the Christian Religion is yet a part of the Bible which containeth it Fifthly And though all the reasons which I have given prove that the Truth of the Christian Religion may be certainly proved though we could not prove every by expression in the Scripture to be true and though we deny not but the Pen-men manifested their humane imperfections in stile and method yet if each passage were not True it would be so great a temptation to the weak and make it so difficult to know in some points what is true in comparison of what it would be if all be true that we have no reason to imagine this difficulty to our selves while its unproved And having said this I am here in order to answer your objections which yet you should not have expected from me whilst so great a number of books are already written which have done it And why should you bid me write that again which is written already unless you had confuted what is written If you understand Latine you may find a multitude of such seeming contradictions reconciled in Sharpius Magrius Althamer Cumeranus but most fully in abundance of Commentators If you understood not Latine you may read enough in Dr. Hammond and many other Annotaters and Commentaries Mr. Cradock's Harmony c. And you may have enough that understand Latine to translate you the solutions as out of Spanhemii Dub Evangel Grotius Jansenius Chemnitius and such others And
MORE REASONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND No Reason Against it Or a Second Appendix to the Reasons of the Christian Religion BEING I. An Answer to a Letter from an unknown Person Charging the Holy Scriptures with Contradictions II. Some ANIMADVERSIONS On a Tractate De Veritate Written by the Noble and Learned Lord Edward Herbert Baron of Chizbury c. and Printed at Paris 1624. And at London 1633. Resolving Twelve Questions about Christianity By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1672. TO THE Right Worshipfull Sir Henry Herbert Kt. c. SIR THe reasons are many which induce me to presume to direct these Papers first to you and to tell the world how much I honour you first my personal ancient obligations to you secondly Principally your approved wisdom and moderation and taking part with the waies of Charity and Peace in your most publick capacity in these trying times thirdly your Relation to the Noble Author on whose writing I here Animadvert which as it is your honour to be the Brother of so learned and ingenious a Lord and the Brother of so excellently holy as well as learned and ingenious a person as Mr. George Herbert Orator to the University of Cambridge and a faithful Pastor in the English Church so it obligeth me the more to give you an account of this Animadversion It is long since I sought after the Book as provoked by the Title and the honour of the Authors name and received it from you as your gift The premised Letter from an unknown person of the same name occasioned me to review it The sad case of many of my acquaintance and the increase of Infidelity of late especially among debauched sensual Gallants and the danger of England hereby and the Temptations against which the best of Christians have need of help were the Reasons of my presumption it being my Calling to propagate and vindicate the Christian Faith I am so far from writing against his whole Book that I take most of his Rules and Notions de Veritate to be of singular use And had so great a wit had but the Internal Conditions due to such an Intellectual apprehension as his and your holy and excellent Brother had no doubt but our supernatural Revelations and Verities would have appeared evident to him and possest his soul with so sweet a gust and fervent ascendent holy LOVE as breatheth in Mr. G. Herbert's Poems and as would have made them as clear to him in their kind as some of his Notitiae Communes The truth is as he was too low to us who number not our Divine Revelations with the Veresimilia but with the Certain Verities so he was too high for the Atheistical Sensualists of this age And I would they would learn of him that the Being and Perfections of God the duty of worshipping him and of holy Conformity and Obedience to him and particularly all the ten Commandments the necessity of true Repentance and the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to Come with the Souls Immortality are all Notitiae Communes and such Natural Certainties as that the denyal of them doth unman them To know this and to live accordingly would make a great alteration in our times And Christianity could not be disrelished by such that so know and do I may well suppose that your approbation of the Cause I plead for will make it needless to me to Apologize for my boldness in medling with such an Author while I do it with all tenderness of his deserved honour I remain Your obliged Servant Richard Baxter Jan. 17. 1671 2 SIR I Was right glad when I first heard that you had written and put to Print a Book of the Reasons of the Christian Religion and I did immediately buy the Book hoping that in the Reading and Perusing of it I might have received satisfaction as to any doubt or scruple and an answer satisfactory to all Objections that in Reason may be raised against the Grounds of the said Christian Religion because I did think you to be as able to say and write as much as any man in that thing having as I thought studied it as much as any that I had heard of but in the reading and perusing it I contrary to my expectation found it to be short of giving me satisfaction For the greatest occasion of any doubt or scruple in any thing tending or relating to the Christian Religion that I at any time had or have were from that variousness and contrariety if not contradictions which are or at least seem to be in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and other Books received for Scripture But you in answer to that Objection page 412. say Nothing but ignorance maketh men think so understand once the true meaning and allow for the errors of Printers Transcribers and Translators and there will no such thing be found But you neither tell me which are those errors nor yet how I may know them 1. Therefore I humbly pray you in writing to tell me whether that which is written in the first Chapter of Matthews Gospel verse 8 9. where Matthew writes that Joram begat Ozias and Ozias begat Joatham be any error of the Transcribers Translators or Printers or the contrary to it which is written in the second book of the Kings and in the books of the Chronicles if not how may they be understood for in those books it is written that Joram was Father to Ahaziah and Ahaziah was Father to Joash and Joash was Father to Amaziah and Amaziah was Father to Azariah and A zariah was Father to Joatham by the account of which Books there is above an hundred Years between the death of Joram the son of Jehosaphat and Joatham 2. And Secondly Whether that which is written by Luke in his Gospel Chapter 24. vers 9 10. 22 23. where Luke writes that Mary Magdalen and other Women told the Disciples that they had seen a Vision of Angels which said that Jesus was risen from the dead and was alive whether this be any error of the Transcribers Translators and Printers or any of them or the Contrary which is written by St. John in his Gospel for he writes Chap. 20. verse 2. That Mary Magdalen told two of the Disciples and said to them They I suppose meaning the Adversaries have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him If not how may I understand them to be both true Testimonies or Reports for it seemeth by Luke ver 11 12. and 23 24. of his 24. Chapter that Mary and the other Women had told those things of their seeing the Angels which said that Jesus was risen and alive before that Peter ran or went to the Sepulcher 3. And Thirdly Whether that which is written by Matthew in the 28th Chapter of his Gospel that the Angel said to Mary Magdalen and the other Mary fear not
ye for I know that ye seek Jesus which was Crucified he is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall you see him so I have told you And they departed quickly from the Sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his Disciples word and as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them see Mat. 28. 1 5 6 7 8 9. v. Whether I say was this which is written in St. Matthews Gospel that I have here Transcribed said to the Women and that the Women returned from the Sepulcher to tell the Disciples before that Mary Mâ—gdalen said to him that she supposed to be the Gardiner If thou hast born him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away John 20. 15. or whether there be any error of Transcribers Translators or Printers in those Texts if not how may I understand them to be true reports Sir I shall trouble you with no more but these few places which I have proposed in three Questions or Particulars although there are several other Texts that I do not understand how they may be reconciled but if you shall by strength of Argument Grounded upon sound Reason make appear that it was nothing but Ignorance hath made me to think that those Testimonies agree not but are contrary one to the other and that they may be so understood as that no such thing will appear in them then I shall be ready and will with you conclude and say so too and for the future suppose that other places of those books which are received for Scripture as seem to be contrary to one another may be Reconciled though I do not understand how But on the contrary if you do not endeavour by such sound and plain Arguments to make it appear that these Texts here Transcribed by me may be understood so as that no contradiction is in them I must think that it was nothing but Ignorance that made you say that which you have said in answer to that and some other objections Therefore I humbly and earnestly pray and beseech you both in defence of your own writings as also in defence of those Books in which you say you think that no one error or contradiction in any matter can be proved to make it appear in truth and plainness If you judge I have erred from the truth I hope you will endeavour to to convert me from the error of my way if any such be which if you shall do no doubt but it will be a good work see James 5. ult Sir It is your advice that in such kind of Scruples the doubtful should apply himself for satisfaction to some Minister therefore do I write to you and if you shall not give me a gentle and plain Answer I shall be discouraged to make my Scruples known to any other therefore in expectation of your plain Answer I Remain Your Loving Friend in the Bond of Peace SIR TWo sorts of persons use to trouble me and others with their Objections against the Christian Religion First Some Papists who profess to believe it but in designe do act the part of Infidels that they may loose men from all Religion in hope to bring them over to theirs when they have taken them off all other For he that can make another man believe that he was hitherto totally misled is likest to become the Master of his Faith For men are apt to think that none can so easily and certainly shew them the truth as he that hath shewed them their error And when men once think that according to the Grounds of the Reformed Churches they can have no certainty of Faith they will the easilier be brought to the way of those men who promise them that certainty which they make them believe that others want Secondly The other sort are Infidels who of late are grown numerous and audacious and look so big and speak so lowd as to acquaint us that it is not they that are silenced in their speaking place nor driven five miles from every City and Corporation Which sort you are of I know not I read your name and that you are a Sojourner but finding that you write not as a tender Doubter who desireth to be concealed but as a Confident gain-sayer of the Christian Verity and not knowing how safely to send a Letter to the place where you say you sojourn I have thought that it will be most pleasing to you to come to you by the same way as the book did which you except against which was written upon the provocation of a paper Scattered among the Schollars of Oxford when the Oxford Oath and Act were made in the time of the great Plague as by one that was unsatisfied in the Grounds of Christianity but I strongly suspected was written by a Papist it was made so suitable to their designs In two things you have not dealt righteously and ingeniously with me 1. In that you have not answered the Grounded Proofs of the Christian Verity which I have laid down but nibble at the Answer to some Objections which is not the way of a Lover of the truth 2. In that you take no notice of or make no answer to the second part of my answer to that same objection about supposed Contradictions in the Scriptures where I shewed you at large that if that which you object were granted it would not overthrow the certainty of the Christian Faith Both those should have been done by an impartial man The method which the nature of the Cause requireth me now to use in my answer to you shall be in the manifesting these following Propositions Prop. 1. That if it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scripture is true nor the pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion Prop. 2. That yet all that is in the Scriptures as the word of God is certainly true and no error or contradiction can be proved in it but what is in some Copies by the fault of Printers Transcribers or Translators Prop. 3. That he that first proveth the Truth of the Christian Faith by solid evidence may and ought to be certain of that truth though he be not able to solve all soeming contradictions in the Scripture or answer all objections which occurre Prop. 4. The true method of one that would arrive at certainty and not deceive himself and others is to lay first the fundamental proofs and examine them till he is thereby confirmed and afterwards to try the by-objections as he is able And not to begin first at the answering of such by-objected difficulties and judging of all the cause thereby Of these I shall now speak in order And whereas you bespeak Plainess and
enter Sixthly In that constant Communion of all the Churches in their solemn Assemblies and setting apart the Lords day to that use where in their worshiping of God they expressed and excercised their Religion Seventhly In the constant preaching of the Gospel by the Pastors Eightly In the constant Celebration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood wherein the summe of the Gospel was recited and expressed And the custome was also to repeat the profession of their Belief Ninethly The frequent disputations of the Christian Pastors for their Religion against all Heathens Infidels and Heroticks Tenthly The writings of the said Pastors Apologies Doctrinal Historical Commentaries Devotional Eleventhly The Confession and Sufferings of the Martyrs Twelfthly The Decrees Canons and Epistles of Councils or Assemblies of the Christian Pastors Thirteenthly And after these the Decrees and Laws of Christian Princes in all which we have no need of any peculiar Tradition of the Church of Rome Fourteenthly Yea we may adde the Confessions of Adversaries who tell us part of the Christians Religion as Pliny Celsus Julian c. All these waies set together told men what Christianity was Fifteenthly But the fullest and surest discovery of it was by the holy Scripture of it self which was constantly read in the Assemblies of the Christians In all this I have but told you by how many waies and means materially the Gospel Doctrine was made known Now the great Question is Whether by all these means we might come to a certainty of the truth of the Christian Faith in case we could not prove every word or particle of Scripture to be Gods word and so to be true They that deny it say That he that can mistake or be deceived in one thing may be so in another and we cannot take his word as certain who sometimes speaketh falsly for we can never be sure that he speaketh the truth But I affirm the thing questioned and shall shew the mistake of this reason of the Adversaries First It must be remembred that we ascribe Infallibility Primitive and Absolute to God and no other Therefore we are certain that so much is true as is Gods word Secondly We are Certain that all that is the word of God which he hath set his seal or attestation to which I have largely opened in the Book which you oppose All that which hath the Antecedent and Constitutive and Concomitant and subsequent Attestation of God there opened we are certain is of God Thirdly We are Certain that the Person of Christ and his own Doctrine had all this fourfold Divine Testimony And therefore that Christ and his Doctrine are of God and true And consequently that Christ was the Son of God the Redeemer of the world the Head of the Church and whatever he affirmeth himself to be Fourthly We are certain that the Apostles as Preachers of this Gospel and performers of the Commission Delivered them by Christ had the same attestation in kind as Christ himself had They had the same SPIRIT Though the antecedent testimony by Prophesie was not so full of them as it was of Christ yet the Gospel which they preached and left in writing First Hath in it still visibly to the eye of every truly discerning person the Image of Gods Power Wisdome and Goodness Secondly The same Gospel as preached and delivered by them had the Concomitant Testimony of abundant certain Miracles Prophesies and holy works Thirdly The same Gospel maketh that impression on the souls of true receivers which is the Image of Gods power wisdome and goodness and so proveth it to be of God The concurrence of these three is a full and certain proof Now if there be any doubtfulness in any of this it must be First Either what it is that these Attestations prove Secondly Or whether they are really Divine Attestations Thirdly Or whether Divine Attestations are a certain proof of Truth To begin at the last First If Divine Testimony be not a certain proof of Truth then there is no possible proof in the world For there is no Veracity in any Creature but derivative from God And then it must be either because a Lie is as perfect and Good as Truth which humanity reason and all the world contradicteth and humane society abhorreth there being no savages so barbarous as to think so or because God is imperfect either in wisdome to know what is True and sit or in Goodness to choose it or in Power to use it That is that God is not God or that there is no God and consequently no Being for an Imperfect God an unwise an ill an impotent Being is no God And verily all our Controversies with the Infidel and the Impious and the Persecuter must finally come to this Whethen there be a God II. And that these were really Divine Attestations I have fully proved in the Treatise First They are Divine Effects and the Divine Vestigia or Image Secondly And such as none can do but God None else can give that full Antecedent Testimony of Prophesie None else could have done what Christ did in his Life Death Resurrection and Ascension None could heal all Diseases work all Miracles raise the Dead with a word None else could do what the Apostles did in Tongues and Miracles and wonderous gifts and these wrought by so many before so many for so long a time No other Doctrine could it self bear Gods Image of Power Wisdome and Goodness so exactly nor make such an Impresse of the same Image on the souls of men Nay though this same Doctrine by the Spirit of God be adopted to such an effect yet would it not do it for want of Powerfull application if God by the same Spirit did not set it home so that the sanctification and renovation of souls is a Divine Attestation of this sacred Gospel And besides all the past Testimonies of Christs and his Apostles Miracles here is a double Testimony from God still vouchsafed to all true Believers to the end of the world The one is Gods Image on the holy Scriptures The other is The same Image by this Scripture and the Spirit that indited it printed on all true Christians souls Divine Power Wisdome and Goodness hath imprinted it self first upon the sacred word or doctrine and by that produceth unimitably holy Life Light and Love in holy souls True Christians know this They feel it They profess it They have this Spirit in them illuminating their minds sanctifying their wills and quickening them to vital operation and execution And this is Christs Advocate and Witness still dwelling in all his members I speak not of an immediate verbal or impulsive revelation in us but of a Holy indwelling nature principle operation conforming the soul to God and proving us to bear his Image This is Christs Witness in us that He is Christ indeed and True And this is Our Witness that we are the Children of God And it is our Inherent earnest and pledge first fruits
such conclusions That all Systems Physical and Moral have their great Essential or principal parts and their smaller Integrals and their Accidents which are no proper parts And the Great and Principal parts are few plain discernable and necessary to the being or the greatest Ends The Integrals are numerous small hardly discernable and necessary only to Perfection The Accidents are some of them yet of a lower nature lesse necessary nnd less discernable At the master trunks its easie to know which is a vein and which an Artery and which a Nerve and what is their number But when you go to their extremities they will appear innumerable small and scarce discernable I can know many grand trunks or boughs a tree hath when I cannot know the number of the thousands of sprigs at the extreamities nor just where the woody nature ceaseth and the leaves or frutex doth begin So I can easily know in the frame of Grace that Faith Hâ—â—â— and Love are the fruits of the Spirit and so is every true part of Holiness But to know of every particular thought whether it be the fruit of the Spirit and a real part of holiness or not is not so easie Even so in our present case we can easily prove that all that is Gods word and uttered and sealed by his Spirit is true But to come to a full certainty of every book whether it be truly Canonical and every Copy that varieth in some readings from others or of every Genealogical Chronological Topographical or Historical word every phrase location order of sentences citation of the Prophets whether it were certainly all done by the Infallible inspiration of the Holy Ghost is a thing that requireth more knowledg than every true Christian hath as not having the same clearness and notoriety of Evidence as the Gospel or substance of Christianity hath No 〈◊〉 that all Gods word is True Truth is equally Truth it having not a magis minus but all Truth is not equally notorious or evident â—â—â—â— 2. Yet all that is in the Scriptures expressed as Gods word is certainly true And no error or contradiction is in it but what is in some Copies by the failing of Preservers Transcribers Printer or Translators The Reasons why I have premised the former Propositions is First For your own sake Secondly For the sake of many Infidels that now have the same mis-apprehensions Thirdly And for the sake of many thousand weak dark and tempted Christians That you may not think that you may renounce Christianity if you could prove a Contradiction or mistake in the Scriptures there being greater certainty of our Religion than of every single word in the Bible And that every Christian may not think that he must needs doubt as much of Christianity it self and of all the Gosâ—â—â—â— as he doth whether such a Text 〈…〉 word or have any contradiction to another And that he can have no more certainty of the Gospel than he hath of Jorams son or whether Matthew did rightly apply the Prophesie that Christ should be called a Nazarene Mat. 2. 23. or the name of Jeremy Mat. 27. 9. or whether Jude be Canonical and the Epistle to Laodicea and Clemens Rom. ad Cor. not Canonical or whether Henochs prophesie cited by Jude be Divine with many such like We need not spread the sails so wide to the temptations of Satan as if we must let go all if we doubt of the divine authority of any one word But yet that indeed every word is Divine and sure which is delivered as Gods word I now assert My meaning in that limitation is this There are some passages as I said spoken only historically and contain the Narration of some words of the Devil as to Job Christ and as most think to Saul at Endor c. and some words of wicked men and some words of weak and common persons And all these are not mentioned as the words of God As the words of Job's Friends which God reproved The words of the old Prophet that lyed in the name of the Lord to the young Prophet to his destruction The words of Jonas I do well to be angry and the words of Christs Enemies Perfecutors c. Yea the mention of the Old Prophet remembreth me that all words spoken as in Gods name and that by a pretended yea by a real Prophet are not therefore the words of God Micheah onely may say true while Zidkiah and all the rest of Ahabs Prophets may lie as in the name of the Lord. Balaam and the aforesaid old Prophet and many such may say true when Gods Spirit doth inspire them and yet lie at another time in Gods name And what Paul meaneth by his not the Lord but I I leave to consideration Whether in 1 Cor. 14. all those that he correcteth for a disorderly using even the Miraculous gifts of tongues and prophesying c. had their Timeing and ordering of their gifts from the same Spirit that gave them the gifts you may judge And some Protestant expositors have doubted whether James and the rest were guided by the Spirit when they perswaded Paul to go into the Temple to shew the Jews that he observed their Law Though I think that Counsel was of the Spirit because Paul concurred in obeying it But one instance I more doubt of my self which is when Christ and his Apostles do oft use the Septuagint in their Citations out of the old Testament whether it be alwaies their meaning to justific each translation and particle of sense as the word of God and rightly done or onely to use that as tolerable and containing the main truth intended which was then in use among the Jews and therefore understood by them and so best as suited to the auditors And so whether every citation of numbers or Genealogies from the Septuagint intended an approbation of it in the very points in which it differeth from the Hebrew Copies such plain exceptions being promised I assert that All that is said in the Bible as by the spirit of God by men that had the promise of his Spirit and especially by the Apostles is certain Truth and hath no Contradiction in its parts Before I give you my Reasons I think it meet to remove all ambiguity of the words Infallible or Certain that I may be rightly understood First The consent of all sober Divines and Philosophers teacheth us to diftinguith between objective and subjective certainty that is The certain Truth of the Thing and the Certainty of our own apprehension of it Secondly The word certain when applyed to the Apprehension sometime signifieth an infallible apprehension and sometime a clear and strong apprehension excluding both deceit and doubts and by some abusively to a strong Apprehension which excludeth Doubts but not Deceits Thirdly In the object Infallibility sometime signifieth nothing but Verity which whoever believeth is not deceived And sometimes it signifieth also such clear evidence as is in its kind sufficient
most necessary clear and certain must be held accordly with a more clear assured confidence than those that are unnecessary dark And that uncertainties must be reduced to certainties and not certainties to uncertainties And that all arguing should be a notiore and not a minus not is And as I said before as the Trunks of the Tree the Veins the Arteries the Nerves are few and visible and easily and surely known when the thousands of little branches are hardly visible or numerable so is it with the schemes of truths He therefore that will begin at these numerous small branches will dote rather than know or learn As in the former instances First When I see with my eyes the effects of Power Wisdome and Goodness in all the visible works of God I am sure that it is perfect Power Wisdome and Goodness which is the cause of this I am certain that nothing can give that which formaliter or eminenter it hath not to give nor can the effect exceed the totall cause I am certain that he from whom all Creatures Power Wisdome and Goodness doth proceed must needs himself be more Great and Wise and Good than all the world of Creatures set together which he hath made To this fundamental certainty therefore I must hold if I will not dote whatever little Objections or pratlings may be used against it Secondly Eternity is a thing incomprehensible which quite swalloweth up my understanding and many little things be said against it But I am certain that nothing can make nothing And if ever there had been nothing there never would have been any thing And to this certainty I will hold Thirdly A holy life hath a great many of cavilling Objections raised against it by corrupted nature And shall I there begin to make my trial of it No I am first sure that a Rational free Agent and Subject of God is bound to obey him and that the Greatest Good should be Greatliest loved and that we are totally our Creators own and should be totally devoted to him I am sure I cannot love the infinite Good too much nor be too Good nor do too much Good to others in the world nor make too sure of my own felicity nor too much seek my ultimate end And shall not this assurance hold me fast against all the snarlings and pratlings of the doating drunken world So here I have in the Treatise opened those grounds on which we may be certain of the necessity of this holiness of the life to come and of the truth of the Christian Faith and hopes And because God in mercy hath not put off the world with the skeleton of a bare Creed but also given them the compleat body of sacred Scriptures to be a full perpetual Record of this truth shall I turn his mercy to a snare and sin and question all even the Articles of the Faith because in the Scriptures there are some things accidental to Religion and some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unskilfull wrest to their destruction This is but to be Devils to our selves and foolish enemies of our own peace and comfort As Cicero speaks against them that pleaded for the souls mortality as if it were a desireable thing You have nothing else that suiteth the Nature and Interest of a man and agreeth with the Nature and Interest of God to set against the Christian Religion in Competition If you would have no Religion you would have no Hopes no Safety no Business or Comfort but Beaâ—â—ial in this world and you would be no Men. If you would have nothing but Nature and the Holiness which Nature clearly calleth for you would have Health in an unhealed Body and Health without the Physician and his Means The Mediator is the way to the Father and if you would Love God and be happy in his Love and have the Pardon of your Sins you have little reason to reject him that cometh to Procure Reveal and Communicate that Love and Pardon which must win your hearts to the Love of God And if you would not die in desperation but have the hopes and foresight of a better life you have little Reason to quarrel with a Messenger from Heaven which bringeth Life and Immortality to light As bad as Christians are if personal quarrels and malignity blind you not and if you will not take the enemies and persecutors of Christianity for Christians meerly because they assume the name you may easily see that serious Christians who live according to their profession are persons of another kind of excellency than all the unbelieving world I know that from some self-conceited ignorant well meaning persons I must look to be reviled and called a betrayer of Christianity because I plead not for it in their way and give you any other answer to your objections than That when God giveth you the spirit you shall know that the Scripture hath no contradictions and that Christianity is the true Religion Till then you cannot know it nor must I give you Reasons for it But I do my work and let who will wrangle and revile How far the sayings of some are true or false that the Scripture is the onely means of faith or saving knowledge of God that it is Principium indemonstrabile as first principles of knowledg are in nature that as others say It hath evidence of credibility but not evidence of certainty as if evidence of Divine credibility or or faith were not evidence of certainty that faith hath not evidence but evidence evacuateth faith or the merits of it with such like a man of understanding may gather from what is said And I must not be so tedious as particularly here to resolve them having done it in Preface to the Second part of the Saints Rest Edit 2. c. long ago And though I have written nothing here which some men cannot make an ill use of and some men will not turn to matter of cavil and reproach I will not therefore leave it out whilst I expect that the Cood which Truth is fitted to is greater than the evil which by accident and abuse will follow it And because you seem Confident and think me bound to answer you and consequently all others not knowing how many hundreds may trouble me in the like kind I send you this in print that other mens mistakes and infidelity also may have the same remedies But I shall conceal your name and dwelling lest the shame of your sin should hinder your patient application of the remedy save onely by telling you that it is long ago since I read a noble Learned Lord who in a Latine Book De Veritate Contra Veritatem said much against the certainty of faith But it was all but learned froth and vanity I Rest A Servant of Christ and desirer of your faith and salvation R. Baxter Dec. 28. 16â—1 THE SECOND PART OF THIS APPENDIX BEING Some ANIMADVERSIONS On the foresaid Treatise