A26905:434
The crucifying of the world
The crucifying of the world by the cross of Christ with a preface to the nobles, gentlemen, and all the rich, directing them how they may be richer / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons, 1658
The Crucifying of the world, BY The Cross of CHRIST. › Part 1 › Section 17 › Subsection
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.
Were it the wi•e of your bosom who through prudence and beauty were never so lovely to you, when her carcass is left without a soul you will hasten to bury it out of your sight, and would be loath so much as to keep it in your house, much less in your bed and bosom as heretofore. He that knoweth not that God is the Life and Soul of all our Blessings, doth neither know what God is, nor what a Blessing is. They are but the empty casks and shells, and not the Blessings themselves without him. You have the Burden, and not the Benefit: You must carry them, but they can do nothing to the supporting of you. Its the absence of God that denominateth them Vanity and Vexation: and it is he only that can make them strengthening and consolatory. That must have some life in it, that must be pabulum vitae, and must sustain our lives. Souls cannot feed upon mere terrene corporeal things, any more then the body upon mere spirituals. As we have both a soul and a body to be sustained, so have we a sustenance suitable to them both; even the creature animated by God, or God in and by the creature.
Were it the wi•e of your bosom who through prudence and beauty were never so lovely to you, when her carkaise is left without a soul you will hasten to bury it out of your sight, and would be loath so much as to keep it in your house, much less in your bed and bosom as heretosore. He that knoweth not that God is the Life and Soul of all our Blessings, doth neither know what God is, nor what a Blessing is. They are but the empty casks and shells, and not the Blessings themselves without him. You have the Burden, and not the Benefit: You must carry them, but they can do nothing to the supporting of you. Its the absence of God that denominateth them Vanity and Vexation: and it is he only that can make them strengthening and consolatory. That must have some life in it, that must be pabulum vitae, and must sustain our lives. Souls cannot feed upon meer terrene corporeal things, any more then the body upon meer spirituals. As we have both a soul and a body to be sustained, so have we a sustenance suitable to them both; even the creature animated by God, or God in and by the creature.