A26919:34
The divine life in three treatises
The divine life in three treatises ... by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1664
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
[THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL] Not Natural life ⟨p. 3⟩in it self considered, as the Devils and wicked men shall have it. But 1. It is the same Moral-Spiritual Life which shall have no End, but endure to Eternity: It is a Living to God in Love; But only initial, and very imperfect here, in comparison of what it will be in Heaven. 2. It is the Eternal felicity, 1. Seminally; for Grace is as it were a seed of Glory; 2. As it is the Necessary way or means of attaining it; and that preparation which infallibly procureth it. The Perfect Holiness of the Saints in Heaven will be one part of their perfect happiness: And this Holiness imperfect they have here in this life: It is the same God that we know and love here and there, and with a Knowledge and Love that is of the same nature seminally: As the egg is of the nature of the Bird: (Whether it may be properly said to be formally and specifically the same quoad actum, as well as quoad objectum; yea whether the Objectum clare visum, and the objectum in speculo vel aenigmate visum make not the act specifically differ, I shall not trouble you to dispute.) And this imperfect Holiness hath the promise of Perfect Holiness and Happiness in the full fruition of God hereafter. So it is the Seed, and Prognostic of Life Eternal.
[THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL] Not Natural life ⟨p. 3⟩in it self considered, as the Devils and wicked men shall have it. But 1. It is the same Moral-Spiritual Life which shall have no End, but endure to Eternity: It is a Living to God in Love; But only initial, and very imperfect here, in comparison of what it will be in Heaven. 2. It is the Eternal felicity, 1. Seminally; for Grace is as it were a seed of Glory; 2. As it is the Necessary way or means of attaining it; and that preparation which infallibly procureth it. The Perfect Holiness of the Saints in Heaven will be one part of their perfect happiness: And this Holiness imperfect they have here in this life: It is the same God that we know and love here and there, and with a Knowledge and Love that is of the same nature seminally: As the egg is of the nature of the Bird: (Whether it may be properly said to be formally and specifically the same quoad actum, as well as quoad objectum; yea whether the Objectum clare visum, and the objectum in speculo vel aenigmate visum make not the act specifically differ, I shall not trouble you to dispute.) And this imperfect Holiness hath the promise of Perfect Holiness and Happiness in the full fruition of God hereafter. So it is the Seed, and Prognostick of Life Eternal.