A27004:1034
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
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.
1§. 10. Conscience doth bear witness against impenitent sinners, that the cause of their sin, and the hinderance of their recovery is in themselves; and that God is not unwilling to forgive and save them, if they were but meet for forgiveness and salvation.
- 1Homines ad Deos nulla re propius accedunt, quàm salutem homonibus dando Nihil habet fortuna majus quàm ut possit▪ nec natura melius quàm ut velit, servare. Cic. p•o Ligar. Notitia peccati, initium salutos. S•n. Saith Epictetus, as our Parents deliver us to School-masters to be nurtured, so God delivereth us to our Consciences, whose nature is not to be to temned.Homines ad Deos nulla re propius accedunt, quàm salutem homonibus dando Nihil habet fortuna majus quàm ut possit▪ nec natura melius quàm ut velit, servare. Cic. p•o Ligar. Notitia peccati, initium salutos. S•n. Sa•th Epictetus, as our Parents deliver us to School-masters to be nurtured, so God delivereth us to our Consciences, whose nature is not to be to temned.
Even now mens consciences take God's part against themselves, and tell them, that the Infinite Good, that communicateth all the Goodness to the creature, which it hath, is not so likely to be the cause of so odious a thing as sin, nor of mans destruction as he himself. If I see a Sheep lie torn in the high-way, I will sooner suspect the Wolf than a Lamb to be the cause, if I see them both stand by: and if I see a Child drowned in scalding water, I will sooner suspect that he fell in by folly and heedlessness himself, than that his Mother wilfully cast him in. Is not silly naughty man much liker to be the cause of sin and misery, than the wise and gracious God? Much more hereafter will the sinners conscience justify God.