A27016:168
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.
This One thing (even Godliness which is profitable to all things) is necessary in us, (supposing the necessaries in Christ) to render us acceptable to the Holy God: and without this all the accomplishments imaginable, will make us but as sounding brass, or as a tinkling Cymbal, 1 Cor. 13. 1.
This One thing (even Godllness which is profitable to all things) is necessary in us, (supposing the necessaries in Christ) to render us acceptable to the Holy God: and without this all the accomplishments imaginable, will make us but as sounding brass, or as a tinkling Cymbal, 1 Cor. 13. 1.
3. One thing is needful to the saving of our souls; without ⟨p. 17⟩which all things else are vain. There are many ways to Hell▪ but to Heaven there is but One: There are a thousand ways to delude and blind a soul, but only one for its true and saving illumination. Erroneous Sectaries are blinded in some particular points, by the seducing words of men: And ungodly sensualists are blinded in the main, and damnably err from the necessary practical doctrines of salvation, being deceived by the inclination of their own concupiscence: Errors are multifarious; and abound even in many that inveigh most fiercely against the erroneous: But Truth is simple; We have One Teacher to instruct us; One Spirit to enlighten us, One Word of God to be our Rule; One Light to guide us through all the darkness and mazes of the world, and recover our deluded darkened minds. Thousands are ready to draw us away from God; Temptations lye thick on every hand; Within us, and without us; before us and on each side: Which way can you look or go, but you will meet with baits and snares? And if Eve be once deceived, Adam is the easilier overcome. When the appetite and senses are ensnared by their objects, and the imagination corrupted, the understanding is in danger of deceit. You may go into an Hospital, and see variety of diseases: but Health is one and the same: One hath the pestilence, and another hath the leprosy, and another a palsy, and another is distracted: but among a thousand people in Health, you see no such difference: Health only is formally the cure of all.