A26951:239
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1670
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.
4. And then it is easy for you next to see, what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related. That if you are absolutely his Own, you should willingly be at his absolute dispose: And i• he b• your Sovereign Ruler, you should labour most diligently to know his Laws, and absolutely to obey them. And if he be infinitely Good, and your Benefactor and your End, you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly, and to place your own felicity in his Love. All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature, that nothing but madness can deny it. And this is it which we call Sanctification, or Holiness to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men, will tell us, that Justice and Charity are our duty as to them. And when a man is fully satisfied that Holiness, Justice and Charity, are our duty, he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Christian Faith.
4. And then it is easie for you next to see, what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related. That if you are absolutely his Own, you should willingly be at his absolute dispose: And i• he b• your Soveraign Ruler, you should labour most diligently to know his Laws, and absolutely to obey them. And if he be infinitely Good, and your Benefactor and your End, you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly, and to place your own felicity in his Love. All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature, that nothing but madness can deny it. And this is it which we call Sanctification, or Holiness to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men, will tell us, that Justice and Charity are our duty as to them. And when a man is fully satisfied that Holiness, Justice and Charity, are our duty, he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Christian Faith.
To which let me add, that as to our selves also, it is undeniably our duty to take more care for our souls, than for our bodies, and to rule our senses and passions by our Reason, and to subject our lower faculties to the higher, and so to use all sensible and present things, as conduceth to the public good, and to the advancement of our nobler part, and to our greatest benefit, though it cross our sensual appetites.