A27004:1038
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.
§. 13. And it is his great advantage, that his frequent and great afflictions have a great tendency to awake his Reason to consideration, and to bring it to the heart, and make it effectual.
And consequently that God casteth us into such a Sea and wilderness of troubles, that we should have these quickening Monitors still at hand.
§. 14. And it is man's great advantage for his recovery, that Vanity and Vexation are so legibly written on all things here below; and that frustrated expectations, and unsatisfied minds, and the fore-knowledge of the end of all, and bodily pains which find no ease, with multitudes of bitter experiences, do so abundantly help him to escape the snare (the love) of present things.
For all men that perish are condemned for loving the creature above the Creator: and therefore such a world, which appeareth so evidently to be vain, and empty,* and deceitful, and vexatious, and which all men know will turn them off at last with as little comfort, as if they had never seen a day of pleasure in it; I say, such a world, one would think, should give us an antidote against its own deceit, and sufficiently wean us from its inordinate love. At least this is a very great advantage.