A27004:832
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.
I answer, No: but it appeareth that his Enmity to it is implacable, and that he militateth against God and mans felicity, and that sin hath so far brought this lower World under Gods displeasure, that he hath in a great measure forsaken it, and left it to the will of Satan: Yet hath he his holy seed and Kingdom here, and the purposes of his Grace shall never be frustrated, nor the Gates of Hell prevail against his Church: And if he may forsake Hell totally as to his felicitating presence, he may also penally forsake Earth as to the greater number, whilst for ought we know, he may have thousands of Orbs of better Inhabitants which have not so forfeited his love, nor are not so forsaken by him.
I answer, No: but it appeareth that his Enmity to it is implacable, and that he militateth against God and mans felicity, and that sin hath so far brought this lower World under Gods displeasure, that he hath in a great measure forsaken it, and left it to the will of Satan: Yet hath he his holy seed and Kingdom here, and the purposes of his Grace shall never be frustrated, nor the Gates of Hell prevail against his Church: And if he may forsake Hell totally as to his felicitating presence, he may also penally forsake Earth as to the greater number, whilest for ought we know, he may have thousands of Orbs of better Inhabitants which have not so forfeited his love, nor are not so forsaken by him.
I have been the larger in proving a Life to come,1 of Retribution to the good and bad, because all Religion doth depend upon it, and I have my self been more assaulted with Temptations to doubt of this, than of Christianity it self, though this have more of Natural Evidence. And I have set down nothing that I am able rationally to confute my self (though every Truth is liable to some snarling exceptions of half-witted and contentious men.2) No man that confesseth a Life to come, can question the necessity of a Holy Life: But I have thought meet first to prove, that a Holy Life is our unquestionable duty (as the prius cognitum) and thence to prove the certainty of the future state: For indeed,