A26951:348
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.
2. The Matter of the Christian Religion, is GOD himself the infinite Good. The use of it is, to teach men to know God, and to bring us to him. To which end it maketh a fuller discovery of his blessed nature, attributes and works, than is any where else to be found in this world.
3. The utmost End of it is the highest imaginable; the pleasing and glorifying of God: For he that is the Beginning of all, must needs be the End of all.
4. It leadeth man to the highest state of felicity for himself (which is an End conjunct in subordination to the highest.) There can be no greater happiness imaginable, than the Christian Religion directeth us to attain.
5. It placeth our happiness so certainly and clearly in that which is happiness indeed, that it directeth mans intentions, and desires, and leaveth them no longer to the old variety of opinions about the chiefest good: Nature perfected, and working by its perfectest acts upon the most perfect object, and receiving the most full communications from him, and this for ever, must needs be the most perfect felicity of man. To have all our faculties fully perfect, and to live for ever in the perfect light and love of God, and to be accordingly beloved of him; this is the end of Christianity.