A27016:1114
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.
Dir. 8. Use cheerful company: Not carnal, but holy; not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches, or filthy, or profane or scornful jestings: But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts; and are best acquainted with a Life of Faith, and whose speeches and cheerful conversations, do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God, and of the Grace of Christ, and the eternal happiness of the Saints. There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful, thankful, heavenly believers: Use it therefore if you can have it.
Dir. 8. Use cheerful company: Not carnal, but holy; not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches, or filthy, or prophane or scornful jeastings: But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts; and are best acquainted with a Life of Faith, and whose speeches and cheerful conversations, do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God, and of the Grace of Christ, and the eternal happiness of the Saints. There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful, thankful, heavenly believers: Use it therefore if you can have it.
Dir. 9. In your addresses to God in holy worship, be sure that Praise and Thanksgiving have its due proportion. They are the chief and most excellent and acceptable part, and therefore let them not have the smallest room. Though your sins and wants be as great as you imagine in your complaints, it is yet your duty to Praise the Excellencies and Attributes and works of your Creator, and to be Thankful for the preparations made by Christ, and freely offered you, so that they shall certainly be yours, if you accept them. But much more Thankful should you be that have but the evidence of Desire and Consent to prove your Interest in Christ and in his Covenant.
Dir. 9. In your addresses to God in holy worship, be sure that Praise and Thansgiving have its due proportion. They are the chief and most excellent and acceptable part, and therefore let them not have the smallest room. Though your sins and wants be as great as you imagine in your complaints, it is yet your duty to Praise the Excellencies and Attributes and works of your Creator, and to be Thankful for the preparations made by Christ, and freely offered you, so that they shall certainly be yours, if you accept them. But much more Thankful should you be that have but the evidence of Desire and Consent to prove your Interest in Christ and in his Covenant.