A27004:1382
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.
Answ. 1. If you are no better than such your self, it is the greatest shame and plague of heart that you could have confessed: and it must needs be, because you have been false to the very light of Nature, and of Grace. 2. If you know no Christians that are truly holy, it must needs be, either because you are unacquainted with them, or because your malice will not give you leave to see any good in these that you dislike. And if you have acquainted your self with no Christians that were truly holy, what could it be but malice or sensuality that turned you away from their acquaintance, when there have been so many round about you? If you have been intimate with them, and known their secret and open conversation, and yet have not seen any holiness in them, it can be no better than wilful malice that hath blinded you. And because a negative witness that knoweth not whether it be so or not, is not to be regarded against an affirming witness ⟨p. 299⟩who knoweth what he saith,1 I will here leave my testimony as in the presence of God, the searcher of hearts, and the revenger of a lie, yea, even of lies pretended for his glory?
- 1Serpit hodie putrida tabes hypocrisis per omne corpus ecclesiae; & quo tolerantius, eo desperatius; eoque periculosius quo communius. Bernard.
I have considered of the characters of a Christian in the twenty particulars before expressed in this Chapter, (§. 10.) and I have examined my soul concerning them all; and as far as I am able to know my self, I must profess, in humble thankfulness to my Redeemer, that there is none of them which I find not in me: And seeing God hath given me his testimony within me, to the truth of the Gospel of his Son, I take it to be my duty in the profession of it, to give my testimony of it to unbelievers. And I must as solemnly profess, that I have had acquaintance with hundreds, if not thousands, on whom I have seen such evidences of a holy heavenly mind, which nothing but uncharitable and unrighteous censure could deny.