A27016:1051
A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…
A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Francis Tyton, 1662
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
2. THE second sort that are hence to be Reproved, are, Those weak and troubled servants of the Lord, that live as sadly as if they found more grief then pleasure in the ways of God.
2. THE second sort that are hence to be Reproved, are, Those weak and troubled servants of the Lord, that live as sadly as if they found more grief then pleasure in the wayes of God.
Indeed it is to be lamented that few of the heirs of life do live according to the happiness and dignity of their Calling; nor are the great things that God hath done for them so apparent in the cheerfulness and comforts of their lives as they should be: But ⟨p. 354⟩some that are addicted to dejectedness, do in a greater measure wrong Christ and themselves, being always feeding upon secret griefs, and torturing themselves with doubts and fears, and acquainted with almost no other language but lamentations, self-accusations and complaints. These poor souls usually discover honest hearts, that are weary of sin, and low in their own eyes, and long to be better, and do not dis-regard the matters of their salvation as dead-hearted ungodly sinners do. Their complaints show what they would be: and what they would be sincerely, that they are in Gods account. But yet they live so far below the sweet delights which they might partake of, and so far below the provisions of their Fathers house, and the riches of the Gospel, that they have cause to lament their excessive lamentations, and more cause to reform this sad distemper, and no cause to indulge it, as usually such do. And though with the most of them some natural passions and weaknesses, and some melancholy distempers are so much the cause, as may much excuse them, yet because it is an evil which must be disowned, and Reason must be the means, where people have the free use of Reason, I shall lay down some of the great inconveniences of this sad distemper, and beseech those that tender the honour of God, and would do that which is most pleasing to him, and love not their own calamity, that they will soberly consider of what I say, and labour to regulate their minds accordingly.