A26888:340
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
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 it is to be noted, that unless it be God's Judgment for some heinous Crime, it is few of the ungodly Rabble that have any such Trouble and Temptation; for Satan holds them faster by presumptuous Unbelief, and Carelessness, and worldly Love, and Pleasure: But those that will not be so deceived, that he cannot torment hereafter, he would torment here. Alas! divers Persons have I known thus destroy themselves, who I have great reason to believe were as really Godly as any that I have known.
And it is to be noted, that unless it be God's Judgment for some heinous Crime, it is few of the ungodly Rabble that have any such Trouble and Temptation; for Satan holds them faster by presumptuous Unbelief, and Carelesness, and worldly Love, and Pleasure: But those that will not be so deceived, that he cannot torment hereafter, he would torment here. Alas! divers Persons have I known thus destroy themselves, who I have great reason to believe were as really Godly as any that I have known.
But Satan's Advantage was in their Disease and Temper: As he can tempt a Phlegmatic Man to Sloth, and a holerick Man to Anger, and a Sanguine Man to Lust, or sinful Pleasure; so can he a Melancholy Man to Despair and Self-destruction, and against God.
But Satan's Advantage was in their Disease and Temper: As he can tempt a Phlegmatick Man to Sloth, and a holerick Man to Anger, and a Sanguine Man to Lust, or sinful Pleasure; so can he a Melancholy Man to Despair and Self-destruction, and against God.
2. And they are impetuously tempted against God and Jesus Christ: They are so haunted with blasphemous Thoughts, to think ill of God, or to deny Christ or the Scripture, that they have no rest: And these come in at Prayer, at Sermon, at Sacrament; and they have no more power to keep them out, or turn their Thoughts another way, almost, than they have of the Thoughts of another. Yea, somewhat urgeth them from Day to Day, to speak some ill, blasphemous word of God, or of Christ; and if they yield to the Importunity, it presently, as it were, saith within him, Now thou art damned: There is now no Hope. And it is much to be noted, that let the Person be Religious, or not, they usually are all thus tempted alike: For worldly Crosses and Discontents do make bad People sometimes melancholy; and they also have much of the same Solicitations. So that the manner of their Trouble plainly telleth us, that it is of the Devil