A27004:681
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.
§. 3. We find that Reason in most men is so debilitated, that it cannot potently reduce it self into action, nor see that practically which speculatively it confesseth, nor clearly and powerfully observe those Perfections of God in his works, nor those Duties of man, which we are convinced to be true: but by inconsiderateness and dull apprehensions is almost as no reason to them, and falleth down before their sensuality.
§. 4. Hereupon men grow strangers unto God, and have no thoughts of him but dark, and dull, and ineffectual.
§. 5. The world is full of allurements to the flesh, and those Mercies which should raise the mind to God, are made the food of this sensuality, and the greatest means to keep it from him.
Sense is irrational, and fasteneth on its object: and when Reason faileth in its office, there we are left like Dogs gnawing upon a Carrion, and in greediness fighting for it with each other; when we have separated the creature from God ⟨p. 116⟩