A26932:816
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.
And because it is only Christ the Redeemer that can bring you to that glory, and deliver you from that torment, he will make you look to him as your hope and life, and cast your burdened soul upon him, and give up your selves to be saved and taught and ruled by him; and he will possess you with the spirit of holiness, that your heart shall set upon God and heaven as your treasure, and the care of your mind and the business of your life shall be to obtain it, and you shall despise this world and deny your fleshly interests and desires, and cast away the sin with abhorrence which you delighted in, and count no pains too great, nor no suffering too dear for the obtaining of that everlasting life with God. Let me tell you, that till this work be done upon you, you are a miserable man, and if you dye before its done, you are lost for ever: Now, you have hope and help before you, but then there will be none. Let me therefore entreat these two or three things of you, and do not deny them me as you love your soul. First, That you will not rest in this Condition that you are in. Be not quiet in your mind, till you find a true conversion to be wrought. Think when you rise in the morning, O what if this day should be my last, and death should find me in an unrenewed state? Think when you are about your ⟨p. 445⟩labour, O how much greater a work have I yet to do, to get my soul reconciled to God and possessed of his Spirit! Think when you are eating or drinking or looking on any thing that you possess in the world, what good will all this do me, if I live and die an enemy to God, and a stranger to Christ and his Spirit, and we must perish for ever. Let these thoughts be day & night upon your mind till your soul be changed. The second thing that I would entreat of you is, that you would bethink you seriously what a vain thing this world is, and how shortly it will leave you to a cold grave, and to everlasting misery, if you have not a better treasure then this: and bethink you what it is to live in the sight of the face of God, and to reign with Christ, and be like the Angels? and that this is the life that Christ hath procured you, and is preparing for you and offereth you if you will accept it in and with himself upon his easy reasonable terms;
And because it is only Christ the Redeemer that can bring you to that glory, and deliver you from that torment, he will make you look to him as your hope and life, and cast your burdened soul upon him, and give up your selves to be saved and taught and ruled by him; and he will possess you with the spirit of holyness, that your heart shall set upon God and heaven as your treasure, and the care of your mind and the business of your life shall be to obtain it, and you shall despise this world and deny your fleshly interests and desires, and cast away the sin with abhorrence which you delighted in, and count no pains too great, nor no suffering too dear for the obtaining of that everlasting life with God. Let me tell you, that till this work be done upon you, you are a miserable man, and if you dye before its done, you are lost for ever: Now, you have hope and help before you, but then there will be none. Let me therefore intreat these two or three things of you, and do not deny them me as you love your soul. First, That you will not rest in this Condition that you are in. Be not quiet in your mind, till you find a true conversion to be wrought. Think when you rise in the morning, O what if this day should be my last, and death should find me in an unrenewed state? Think when you are about your