A27004:839
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.
3. Would you be only your selves of this mind, or would you have all others of it? If your selves only, why envy you the Truth (as you suppose) to others? If all others, what security shall Kings have of their lives? or Subjects of their lives of liberties? What trust can you put in Wife, or Child, or Servant, or any man that you converse with? Will you not quickly feel the effect of their opinions? Had you not rather, that the enemy who would murder you, the thief who would rob you, the liar that would deceive you, did believe a Judgement and life of Retribution, than not?
3. Would you be only your selves of this mind, or would you have all others of it? If your selves only, why envy you the Truth (as you suppose) to others? If all others, what security shall Kings have of their lives? or Subjects of their lives of liberties? What trust can you put in Wife, or Child, or Servant, or any man that you converse with? Will you not quickly feel the effect of their opinions? Had you not rather, that the enemy who would murder you, the thief who would rob you, the lyar that would deceive you, did believe a Judgement and life of Retribution, than not?
4. If there be no Life after this,1 what business have you for your Reason? and all your noble faculties and time, that is worthy of a man; or that is not like Children's games or Puppet-plays? What have you to do in the World, that hath any weight in the trial, any content or comfort in the review, or will give solid comfort to a dying man? Were it not better lie down and sleep out our days, than waste them all in dreaming waking? O what a silly Worm were Man! what should he find to do with his understanding? Take off the poise of his ultimate End, and all his Rational Motions must stand still, and only the brutish motion must go on, and Reason must drudge in the Captivity of its service.
4. If there be no Life after this,1