A26932:815
Gildas Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor
Gildas Salvianus, the reformed pastor showing the nature of the pastoral work, especially in private instruction and catechizing : with an open confession of our too open sins : prepared for a day of humiliation kept at Worcester, Decemb. 4, 1655 by the ministers of that county, who subscribed the agreement for catechizing and personal instruction at their entrance upon that work / by their unworthy fellow-servant, Richard Baxter ...Gildas Salvianus, the reformed pastor shewing the nature of the pastoral work, especially in private instruction and catechizing : with an open confession of our too open sins : prepared for a day of humiliation kept at Worcester, Decemb. 4, 1655 by the ministers of that county, who subscribed the agreement for catechizing and personal instruction at their entrance upon that work / by their unworthy fellow-servant, Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons, 1656
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.
Direct. 8. Next this, conclude the whole, with a Practical Exhortation, which must contain two parts, First, the duty of the heart in order to a closure with Christ, and that which is contained in that closure: and Secondly, The use of external means for the time to come, and the avoiding of former sins. E. g. [Neighbour, I am heartily sorry to find you in so sad a case; but I should be more sorry to leave you in it; and therefore let me entreat ⟨p. 443⟩you for the Lords sake and for your own sake to to regard what I shall say to you, as to the time to come. It is the Lords great mercy that he did not cut you off in your unconverted natural state, and that you have yet life and time, and that there is a sufficient Remedy provided for your soul in the blood of Christ, and he is yet offered with Pardon and life to you as well as any others; God hath not left sinful man to utter desperation for want of a Ransom by a Redeemer as he hath done the Devils; nor hath he made any exception in the offer or promise of pardon and life against you any more then against any other. If you had yet but a bleeding heart for sin, and could come to Christ believingly for recovery, and resign your selves to him as your Saviour and Lord, and would be a new man for the time to come, the Lord will have mercy on you in the pardon of your sins, and the saving of your soul; And I must tell you, that as it must be the great work of Gods grace to give you such a heart, so if ever he mean to pardon and save you, he will make this change upon you that I have before mentioned; he will make you feel your sin as the heaviest burden in the world, as that which is most odious in it self and hath laid you open to the Curse of God; he will make you see that you are a lost man, and that there is no way but one with you, even everlasting damnation, unless you are pardoned by the blood of Christ, and sanctified by his spirit: he will you make you see the need you have of Christ, and how much you are beholden to him for his bloodshed, and how all your hope and life is in ⟨p. 444⟩him he will make you see the vanity of this world and all that it can afford you, and that all your happiness is with God, in that everlasting life, where with Saints and Angels you may behold his Glory and live in his loves and praises, when those that reject him shall be tormented with the devils:
Direct. 8. Next this, conclude the whole, with a Practical Exhortation, which must contain two parts, First, the duty of the heart in order to a closure with Christ, and that which is contained in that closure: and Secondly, The use of external means for the time to come, and the avoiding of former sins. E. g. [Neighbour, I am heartily sorry to find you in so sad a case; but I should be more sorry to leave you in it; and therefore let me intreat