A26998:371
The Protestant religion truly stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard BaxterThe Protestant religion truely stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter
The Protestant religion truly stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter ; prepared for the press some time before his death ; whereunto is added, by way of preface, some account of the learned author, by Mr. Daniel Williams and Mr. Matthew Sylvester.The Protestant religion truely stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter ; prepared for the press some time before his death ; whereunto is added, by way of preface, some account of the learned author, by Mr. Danel Williams and Mr. Matthew Sylvester.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1692
Protestant Religion Truly Stated, and Justified, &c. › The Four and Twentieth accused Point.
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.
But he doth not decree that men shall sin, that they may be Damned: For sin is no Work of God, nor a means appointed by him for Men's Damnation, no more than a Righteous King doth make men Traitors or Murderers, that he may Hang them. But he justly denieth his Grace to many that forfeit it by wilful Resistance, Disobedience, and Contempt; though he take not the forfeiture of his Elect.
But he doth not decree that men shall sin, that they may be Damned: For sin is no Work of God, nor a means appointed by him for Men's Damnation, no more than a Righteous King doth make men Traytors or Murderers, that he may Hang them. But he justly denyeth his Grace to many that forfeit it by willful Resistance, Disobedience, and Contempt; though he take not the forfeiture of his Elect.
He is deceived and wrongeth God that maketh him the Author of Men's sin: And so doth he that feigneth God to send his Son to redeem the World, and his Word ⟨p. 102⟩and Ministers to call them, and his Spirit to renew them, and all this at Random, not knowing whether it may not be all lost, or leaving it chiefly to the Free-will of them, whose wills are contrarily inclined and vitiated? Whether Christ and all his Preparations shall be lost?
The plain Christian that holdeth but to these two points, that our Destruction is of our selves, but our help and Salvation of God, and that God is the first and chief cause of all good, and Men and Devils of all Evil, is liker to be wise with Sobriety and Safety, than the Ignorant Intruders into Gods Secrets, and the prating Calumniators that speak Evil of the things which they understand not; and reproach those that speak not as Rashly and Ignorantly as themselves, even in some equivocal unexplained words