A26951:811
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
Part 3 › Chapter 5: Directions how to live by Faith upon Gods Promises.
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 certainly God will not fail himself and his own interest. The happiness will be ours, but it will be his everlasting pleasure to see his creatures in their perfection. If he was so pleased after the Creation, to see them all good, that he appointed a Sabbath of Rest, to celebrate the commemoration of it; how much more will it please him to see all restored by Jesus Christ, and brought up to that perfection which Adam was but in the way to when he sinned and fell short of the Glory of God. He will not miss of his own design, nor lose the everlasting complacency of his love.
Direct. 5. Consider how great stress God hath laid upon the belief of his Promises, and of how great use he hath made them in the world.
If the intimation of another world and reward which we find in Nature; and the Promise of it in Scriptures, were out of the world, or were not believed, and so men had nothing but temporal motives to rule their hearts and lives by, O what an odious thing would man be? and what a Hell would the world be? I have elsewhere showed that the Government of the world is mainly steered by the hopes and fears of another life, and could not be otherwise, unless man be turned into far worse than a beast. And certainly those Promises cannot be false, which God hath laid so great a stress on, and the belief of which is of so great moment. For the wise, and holy, and powerful God, neither needeth a lye, nor can use it to so great a work.
If the intimation of another world and reward which we find in Nature; and the Promise of it in Scriptures, were out of the world, or were not believed, and so men had nothing but temporal motives to rule their hearts and lives by, O what an odious thing would man be? and what a Hell would the world be? I have elsewhere shewed that the Government of the world is mainly steered by the hopes and fears of another life, and could not be otherwise, unless man be turned into far worse than a beast. And certainly those Promises cannot be false, which God hath laid so great a stress on, and the belief of which is of so great moment. For the wise, and holy, and powerful God, neither needeth a lye, nor can use it to so great a work.