A26919:462
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.
1. The higher and more excellent the object is (especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves) the more excellent is the converse. Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God, so no employment may be compared with th•s of holy walking with him. How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty, and of our Celestial joys, for the heart to neglect them, and turn away, and dwell upon vanity and trouble, and let these highest pleasures go! Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts, and all thy service?
1. The higher and more excellent the object is (especially when it is also of most concernment to our selves) the more excellent is the converse. Therefore as nothing dare compare it self with God, so no employment may be compared with th•s of holy walking with him. How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty, and of our Celestial joyes, for the heart to neglect them, and turn away, and dwell upon vanity and trouble, and let these highest pleasures go! Is not God and Glory worthy of thy thoughts, and all thy service?
2. What are those things that take thee up? Are they better then God? Or fitter to supply thy wants? If thou think, and trust in them accordingly, ere long thou shalt know better what they are, and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence. Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour, whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a ⟨p. 190⟩saving match. O poor sinners! have you not yet warning enough to satisfy you that all things below are Vanity and Vexation, and that all your hope of happiness is above! Will not the testimony of God satisfy you? will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfy you? will not the ill success of all the damned satisfy you? will nothing but your own experience convince you? If so, consider well the experience you have already made, and seasonably retire, and try no further, and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the last, least you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate then you will now believe.