A26888:453
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.
If the Devil can get People (perhaps Lords and Ladies) to spend the Day (their precious Hours) in Cards and Dice, and Feastings, and Stage-plays, and Masks and Music, and perhaps filthy Lust, he will let ⟨p. 225⟩you say your Prayers at Night, and cry God Mercy, and perhaps tell him that you Repent, that you may Sin on the more boldly the next day: And it's like he will provide you a Ghostly Father, as bad as your selves, that shall give you the Sacrament as a sealed Pardon, and pronounce you absolved, and that as in the name of Christ.
If the Devil can get People (perhaps Lords and Ladies) to spend the Day (their precious Hours) in Cards and Dice, and Feastings, and Stage-plays, and Masks and Musick, and perhaps filthy Lust, he will let ⟨p. 225⟩you say your Prayers at Night, and cry God Mercy, and perhaps tell him that you Repent, that you may Sin on the more boldly the next day: And it's like he will provide you a Ghostly Father, as bad as your selves, that shall give you the Sacrament as a sealed Pardon, and pronounce you absolved, and that as in the name of Christ.
All these effects of Devils, the World abounds with; but the effects of Angels are observed, but by very few. Because even as the Sadducees, think that all these Vices and Confusions are only the effects of Mens own pravity, and not of Devils, not knowing that all such Births have a Father and a Mother (the Devil and Mens own Hearts) so most good people look so much to God and to Ministers, in all that is done on them, that they take little notice of Angels that are Gods greater Ministers, as if they had little to do with us.
All these effects of Devils, the World abounds with; but the effects of Angels are observed, but by very few. Because even as the Sadduces, think that all these Vices and Confusions are only the effects of Mens own pravity, and not of Devils, not knowing that all such Births have a Father and a Mother (the Devil and Mens own Hearts) so most good people look so much to God and to Ministers, in all that is done on them, that they take little notice of Angels that are Gods greater Ministers, as if they had little to do with us.