A26888:404
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.
But that I speak of is, the Nobilitating of an uncertain Day, upon insufficient Evidence.— If I should say, the Thorn might so blossom (by Providence) as a just Hardening of the wilfully superstitious, (a great part ⟨p. 206⟩of whose Religion it is, to put a Crown upon Christmas-Day, caring little for Christ,) or as a Trial of the truly Conscientious, to see whether they will build their Religion upon a famous Thorn, and be so tamed by it, as to close with the Superstition and Profaneness of that time.— I say, if I should speak thus, it might be thought a Paradox, (and yet I remember your Lights in Wales, which show (I think) what God: gives the Devil leave to do.) I shall content my self therefore with sending you the Relation, and leave you and others (better able than my self) to consider of it.— Only this I may say, that such a Providential Rarity is too low a thing to put a Divinity upon that Day: And yet, to make it a Divine Testimony is (I think) the meaning of those that are willing to make the most of it; I do not say, the best of it.
But that I speak of is, the Nobilitating of an uncertain Day, upon insufficient Evidence.— If I should say, the Thorn might so blossom (by Providence) as a just Hardening of the wilfully superstitious, (a great part ⟨p. 206⟩of whose Religion it is, to put a Crown upon Christmass-Day, caring little for Christ,) or as a Trial of the truly Consciencious, to see whether they will build their Religion upon a famous Thorn, and be so tamed by it, as to close with the Superstition and Profaneness of that time.— I say, if I should speak thus, it might be thought a Paradox, (and yet I remember your Lights in Wales, which shew (I think) what God: gives the Devil leave to do.) I shall content my self therefore with sending you the Relation, and leave you and others (better able than my self) to consider of it.— Only this I may say, that such a Providential Rarity is too low a thing to put a Divinity upon that Day: And yet, to make it a Divine Testimony is (I think) the meaning of those that are willing to make the most of it; I do not say, the best of it.