A27004:833
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 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,3 though God hath not hid from us the matter of our Reward and Punishment, Hopes and Fears, yet hath he made our Duty plainer in the main, and proposed it first to our knowledge and consideration. The Eternity of the future state, I have not here gone about to prove; because I reserve it for a fitter place, and need the help of more than ⟨p. 154⟩natural light, for such a task. But that it shall be of so much weight and duration, as shall suffice to the full execution of Justice, and to set all straight, that seemed crooked in Gods present Government, this Nature it self doth fully testify.
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,