A26921:778
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness.
London: printed by Tho. Snowden for B. Simmons, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Appendix › The Reasons and Helps of my Belief and Hope of this Perfection.
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. Natural Reason assureth me that God made all Creatures fitted to their intended use: Even Brutes are more fit for their several Offices, than Man is. He giveth no Creature its faculties in vain: Whatever a wise Man maketh, he fits it to the use which he made it for. But Man's Faculties are Enabled to think of a God, of our relation and our duty to him, of our hopes from him, and our fears of him: Of the state of our Souls related to his judgment; of what will befall us after Death, reward or punishment, and ⟨p. 290⟩how to prepare for it: This Nature, and its faculties, and powers, are not made in vain.
1. NAtural Reason assureth me that God made all Creatures fitted to their intended use: Even Bruits are more fit for their several Offices, than Man is. He giveth no Creature its faculties in vain: Whatever a wise Man maketh, he fits it to the use which he made it for. But Man's Faculties are Enabled to think of a God, of our relation and our duty to him, of our hopes from him, and our fears of him: Of the state of our Souls related to his judgment; of what will befall us after Death, reward or punishment, and ⟨p. 290⟩how to prepare for it: This Nature, and its faculties, and powers, are not made in vain.
II. Reason assureth me that all men are bound by Nature to prefer the least probability of a Life of Everlasting Joy, before all the Prosperity of this World; and to suffer the loss of all this short Vanity, to escape the least possibility of endless misery: And Nature hath such notices of Rewards and Punishments after Death, that no Man can say that he is sure there is no such thing. From whence it followeth that all men are bound by the very Law of Nature to be Religious, and to seek first and most their Salvation in the Life to come. And if so, It's certain that there is such a thing to be obtained: Else God had made the very Nature of Man to be deceived by itself, and to spend the chief part, yea all his life, through labour and suffering for that which is not; and so made his greatest duty to be his greatest deceit and misery: And the worst men should be least deceived. But all this is not to be imputed to our wise and good Creator.