A26871:165
Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an…
Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unanswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unananswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1689
Chapter 3: Undeniable Reasons against Malignant Enmity to serious Godliness.
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.
And what is it that you offer us instead of all that we must part with? And to ease the pain which we must undergo? Nothing, or worse than nothing. If we should renounce God and our hope of Heaven, you cannot give us health or wealth for it: Much less can you secure these or life to us till to morrow. And will any thing that you can give us, be better than Heaven to us? Or will it make Hell tolerable?
And what is it that you offer us instead of all that we must part with? And to ease the pain which we must undergo? Nothing, or worse than nothing. If we should renounce God and our hope of Heaven, you cannot give us health or wealth for it: Much less can you secure these or life to us till to morrow. And will any thing that you can give us, be better than Heaven to us? Or will it make Hell tollerable?
Will you undertake to answer for it at the bar of God, if we are charged with an ungodly, fleshly life, or omitting our necessary duty? You cannot answer for your selves but by trembling confession: You cannot save your selves; Nor will all your wealth and honour get you one drop of Water to cool your tongues. And shall we trust that you can answer for us, or save us? When you would have any man wilfully to neglect that holy life which God enjoineth, you would have him to be madder than one that would Burn his House, and Kill himself, if you did but require it. And what horrid cruelty is this? You are worse than man-eating Cannibals? But the best is you cannot force us to it; And if you think to hire or flatter us into Hell, you must have somewhat more to say, and to offer us than we ⟨p. 79⟩yet ever heard of; Much less are we so much below Bedlams, as to forsake our Salvation, lest you should call us Precisians, or Puritans, or any such nick-name or word of scorn, as doth but show the folly and misery of the speaker. You will not be laughed or mocked out of your Estates, or Lives; Nor we out of our Salvation. In short, Nature is not willing to lie in Hell, and Grace maketh us desire Heaven; And we never yet found that any thing else was more desirable.