A26888:456
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.
As to them that say, that it is enough to know that Christ is all to us, and we must take heed of ascribing any thing to Creatures; I Answer, is Christ the less all to us, for giving us his Mercies? For giving us the Ministry of Angels? Is he the less All to us, for giving Gifts to Men, for giving Comforters and Merciful Relievers to the poor? For giving to Children the Love and Care of Parents? Or for giving Men good Princes and Magistrates to Rule them? Or for giving them Soldiers to fight for them? Or for giving you Ministers to Teach you? Who more praiseth their Teachers, than such Objectors? Will you be unthankful to your Benefactors, for fear of ascribing to Creatures? Will you not praise a Godly Man above a Wicked? Will you not praise and admire the Glory of the Sun and Stars, and the Frame of Heaven and Earth, for fear of ascribing to Creatures? Is the praising of a Work, a wrong to the Workman?
Indeed this agreeth with their Doctrine, who because •aul counted all his Mosaical Legal Righteousness as loss and Dung, in Comparison of the Righteousness that God gave him in and by Christ, do therefore ••y, that we must count all that Righteousness as Dung, which Christ himself worketh in us by his Spirit, even Faith it se•• ⟨p. 227⟩which is imputed or reckoned to us for Righteousness. This enticeth Men to be out of Love with Christian Righteousness, when Christ hath made it our own, if it be no better than Dung? And to fear that some such Men have no better. But they say, they account Faith and Love to Christ to be Dung, only as to Justification: As if God did not make all Men just, whom he justifieth by Esteem and Sentence: Or, as if that were Righteousness that doth in no part or degree make a Man Righteous: Or, as if any but Christians, as such, are justified: Or any Man were a Christian before he accepteth Christ by a Loving and Thankful Consent or Trust, as his Saviour and his Teacher, and his Lord and Ruler: But this is a Digression, which Mens talk against ascribing to Angels led me to.