A26951:576
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.
A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul. It should partake of the Omnipotency and perfection of the blessed Object. No creature should be able to stand before him, when our minds entertain any serious thoughts of him, and converse with him. A thought of God should annihilate all the grandeur and honours of the world to us; and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh; and all the power of temptations: what fervency in prayer? what earnestness of desire? what confidence of faith? what hatred of sin? what ardent love? what transporting joy? what constant patience should one serious thought of God, possess the believing holy soul with?
A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul. It should partake of the Omnipotency and perfection of the blessed Object. No creature should be able to stand before him, when our minds entertain any serious thoughts of him, and converse with him. A thought of God should annihilat• all the grandure and honours of the world to us; and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh; and all the power of temptations: what fervency in prayer? what earnestness of desire? what confidence of faith? what hatred of sin? what ardent love? what transporting joy? what constant patience should one serious thought of God, possess the believing holy soul with?
If the thing known become as much one with the understanding, as Plotinus and other Platonists thought, or if man were so far partaker of a kind of deification, as Gibieuf and other Oratorians, and •enedictus de Benedictis, Barbanson, and other Fanatic Fryers think, surely the knowledge of God should raise us more above our sensitive desires and passions, and make us a more excellent sort of persons, and it should make us more like those blessed spirits, who know him more ⟨p. 175⟩than we on earth; and it should be the beginning of our eternal life, John 17.3.