A27004:749
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 1 › Chapter 14: That there is a Life of Retribution after this.
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.
Obj. But in all this you argue against experience: Hath there not been Government and order kept up among Heathens? and is there not a Government at this day in all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths throughout the world?
Answ. In all this I speak according to experience: For, 1. Almost all the world believe a life to come: all the Christians, all the Mahometans, and all the Jews, and almost all or most of the known Idolaters and Heathens: their very ⟨p. 132⟩Idolatry intimateth this,1 when they number their deceased Heroes with their gods. And though the power of this belief is debilitated with the most, (and therefore piety and virtue proportionably perisheth) yet that common dull belief of it which they have, being in a business of unspeakable consequence, doth restrain them so far as they are restrained.
- 1Stoici dicunt esse Daemones quibus insit hominum miseratio, inspectors rerum humanarum: Heroas quoque solutas corporibus sapientum animas. Laert. in Zenone.Stoici dicunt esse Daemones quibus insit hominum miseratio, inspectores rerum humanarum: Heroas quoque solutas corporibus sapientum animas. Laert. in Zenone.
2. Those that believe it not, are yet in an uncertainty; and the possibility of rewards and punishments hereafter, keepeth up much of the order that is left.