A26955:322
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.
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: W•ll you not say, He is a beast and not a man ⟨p. 214⟩that will avoid no danger but what he seeth? Foreseeing is to a man, what seeing is to a beast: If he see it before his eyes, a beast will not easily be driven into a Cole-pit or a gulf: he will draw back and strive if you go about to kill him. And is he a man, or some monster that wants a name, that will go on to Hell, when he seeth it as it were before him? and that will continue in a state of sin, when he knows he must be damned in Hell for ever, if he so continue to the end? Indeed sin is the deformity and monstrosity of the soul. He is a monster of Blindness that seeth not the folly and peril of such a state, and that a state of Holiness is better ▪ He is a monster of stupidity that finds himself in such a state, and doth not feel it, but m•••th light of it; And he is monster […] fullness that will not stir when he […] himself in such a case, and seek for […] and value the remedy, and use the […] and forsake his sinful course and […], till further mercy take him up and […] him home, and make him welcome […] one that was lost but now is found, was […] but is alive.
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 wilfull-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 unishment 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