A27006:197
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully published from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully publish'd from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1696
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.
10. There are some Sins of such difficulty to avoid, (as the disorder or omission of holy Thoughts, and the defects of Love to God, &c.) and some Temptations so strong, and the Soul in so sluggish a case to resist, that good Thoughts which are in deliberation used against them, are borne down at last, and are less effectual.
11. And our present stock of Habitual Grace is never sufficient of it self, without Co-operating Grace from Christ: And therefore, when we provoke him to withhold his help, no wonder if we show our weakness, so far as to stumble in the way to Heaven, or to step out into some by-path, or break over the hedge, and sometimes to look back, and yet never to turn back, and go again from God to the World.
11. And our present stock of Habitual Grace is never sufficient of it self, without Co-operating Grace from Christ: And therefore, when we provoke him to withhold his help, no wonder if we shew our weakness, so far as to stumble in the way to Heaven, or to step out into some by-path, or break over the hedge, and sometimes to look back, and yet never to turn back, and go again from God to the World.
12. And because no fall of a Saint, which is Venial, an Infirmity, consistent with Grace, doth either destroy the habit of Love and Grace, or set up a contrary habit above it, nor yet pervert the scope and bent of the Conversation, but only prevaileth to a particular Act, it therefore followeth, that the Soul riseth up from such a Sin by true Repentance, and that the new Nature or Habit of Love within us, will work out the Sin as soon as it hath advantage: As the Needle in the Compass will return to its proper Point, when the force that moved it doth cease; and as a running Stream will turn clear again, when the force that muddied it is past. And this Repentance will do much to increase our hatred of the Sin, and fortify […] against the next Temptation: so that though there be some Sins, which through our great Infirmity we daily commit, as we daily repent of them (as disordered Thoughts, defects of Love, neglect of God, &c.) yet it will not be so with those Sins which a willing, sincere, habituated Penitent hath more in his power to cast out.