A27004:1176
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
Part 2 › Chapter 4: Of the Nature and Properties of the Christian Religion.
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. No Religion doth so much to teach men Humility, and make Pride appear an odious thing. It openeth the malignity of it, as it lifteth up the mind against God or Man: it condemneth it as Satan's image: it giveth us a multitude of humbling precepts and motives, and secondeth them all with the strangest example of condescension and lowliness in Christ that was ever presented to the view of man. Whereas I find even in the famousest of the Roman Heathens, that a great deal of pride was taken for a virtue, and men were instructed and exhorted to be proud, under pretence of maintaining and vindicating their honour; and true Humility was taken for disgraceful baseness, and men were driven from it by the scorn, not only of the vulgar, but of Philosophers themselves.
1. No Religion doth so much to teach men Humility, and make Pride appear an odious thing. It openeth the malignity of it, as it lifteth up the mind against God or Man: it condemneth it as Satans image: it giveth us a multitude of humbling precepts and motives, and secondeth them all with the strangest example of condescension and lowliness in Christ that was ever presented to the view of man. Whereas I find even in the famousest of the Roman Heathens, that a great deal of pride was taken for a virtue, and men were instructed and exhorted to be proud, under pretence of maintaining and vindicating their honour; and true Humility was taken for disgraceful baseness, and men were driven from it by the scorn, not only of the vulgar, but of Philosophers themselves.
2. And there is no Religion that is fitted so much to the destruction of Worldliness, or of the love of Riches, as Christianity ⟨p. 231⟩is:1 for it teacheth men most effectually the vanity of the world; it appointeth them a holy life, so hateful to worldly men, as will occasion them to feel the vexation of the world; it openeth to them the hopes of a life so much better, as may teach them to take all the wealth and glory of this world for a shadow, a feather, or a dream. It condemneth worldly love, as the sin inconsistent with the love of God, and the certain mark of a drossy unsanctified miserable soul. It setteth before us such an example of Christ, as must needs shame worldliness with all true believers.