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The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at…
The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at Dunstan's-West and published in answer to the accusations of some and the desires of others / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R. White for F. Tyton, 1662
THE Mischief of Self-ignorance, AND Benefit of Self-acquaintance. › Part
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.
Can a man forbear thus to fly from Hell, if he saw that he is as near it as a condemned Traitor to the Gallows? He that will beg for bread, if he be hungry, and rather […] by shame, then famish, would beg for grace, ⟨p. 213⟩if he saw and felt how much he needeth it: (And seeing it, is the way to feel it) He that will seek for medicines when he is sick, and would do almost any thing to escape a temporal death, would he not seek out to Christ the remedy of his soul, if he knew and felt, that otherwise there is no recovery; and would he not do much against eternal death? Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, he will give for this life;] was a truth that the Devil knew and maketh use of in his temptations. And will a man then be regardless of his soul, that knows he hath an immortal soul? and of life eternal, that knows his danger of eternal death?
Can a man forbear thus to fly from Hell, if he saw that he is as near it as a condemned Traytor to the Gallows? He that will beg for bread, if he be hungry, and rather 〈…〉 by shame, then famish, would beg for grace, ⟨p. 213⟩if he saw and felt how much he needeth it: (And seeing it, is the way to feel it) He that will seek for medicines when he is sick, and would do almost any thing to escape a temporal death, would he not seek out to Christ the remedy of his soul, if he knew and felt, that otherwise there is no recovery; and would he not do much against eternal death? Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, he will give for this life;] was a truth that the Devil knew and maketh use of in his temptations. And will a man then be regardless of his soul, that knows he hath an immortal soul? and of life eternal, that knows his danger of eternal death?
O Sirs, it is not possible, but the true knowledge of your state of sin and danger would do very much to save you from it. For […] a wilful-chosen state. All the Devi•• […] Hell cannot bring you to it, and […] you in it against your will. You […] willing of the sin, though unwilling of […] punishment: And if you truly knew […] punishment and your danger of it, you uld be the more unwilling of the sin: for God hath affixed punishment to sin for this end, that they that else would love the Serpent, may hate it for the sting: Wll you not say, He is a beast and not a man