A27016:1072
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.
Answ. By this account you will never rejoice till you come to Heaven; for you will never be free from sin and suffering till then. Nay it seems you would have no man else rejoice, and so would banish all comfort from the world: For there is no man without sin and suffering.
Answ. By this account you will never rejoyce till you come to Heaven; for you will never be free from sin and suffering till then. Nay it seems you would have no man else rejoyce, and so would banish all comfort from the world: For there is no man without sin and suffering.
But what can there be of any weight to prohibit a sincere Believer from seasonable spiritual rejoicing? Have you sin? It is not gross and reigning sin: And sinful infirmities, the best of the Saints on earth have had. As your sin must be your moderate sorrow; so the pardon of it, and the degree of mortification which you have attained, and the promise you have of full deliverance, should be the matter of your greater joy. Are your Graces weak? Be humbled in the sense of that your weakness; but rejoice more that they are sincere and will be perfect. Are your afflictions great? Be humbled under them: But rejoice more that they are but Fatherly chastisements, proceeding from Love, and tending to your greater good; and that you are saved from the consuming fire, ⟨p. 364⟩and shall live in everlasting rest, where affliction shall be known no more. Is it possible for that man that hath the love of God, and shall have heaven for ever, to have any sufferings that should weigh down these, and be matter to him of greater sorrow then this of joy? Can you imagine that there is more evil in your infirmities and sufferings, then there is good in God, and happiness in Heaven? Is it reason and equity that you should look at sin only, and not at grace? and at what you want only, and not at what you have received? Seeing you have more cause of joy then sorrow, should you not distribute your affections proportionably as there is cause? I dissuade you not from seasonable moderate sorrows: But should not your joy be much greater, as long as the cause of it is much greater?