A27016:223
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.
4. And yet in the conclusion I must tell you, that, though I know that the loss of a mans understanding is a very grievous affliction, and such as I hope God will never lay upon me, yet I had a thousand times rather go distracted to Bedlam with the excessive care about my salvation, then be one of you that cast away the care of your salvation for fear of being distracted, and will go among the infernal Bedlams into hell for fear of being mad. The height of your carnal wisdom is more deplorable then their distraction. For God will condemn no ⟨p. 37⟩man because he is distracted, nor so much as blame him for it, (unless as it is the fruit of sin,) no more then he will condemn or blame an Idiot or a beast, because they have no use of reason: If David had been as he feigned himself to be, 1 Sam. 21. 13, 14. it would not have cast him out of Gods favour, so far as one sin did, much less so far as the ungodly are. A man may go to Heaven from such a madness. But you that have Reason for the world, but none for God; that are wise to do evil, that have wit to destroy your selves and serve the flesh, but none to look after your recovery and salvation, its you that shall have the stripes, the many, the great, the endless stripes. You that have so much wit as that you glory in it, and think your selves wiser then the rest of the world, and yet have not wit to know, and love, and serve your maker: nor to value and seek first the One thing necessary, it is you that will prove the miserable fools.
4. And yet in the conclusion I must tell you, that, though I know that the loss of a mans understanding is a very grievous affliction, and such as I hope God will never lay upon me, yet I had a thousand times rather go distracted to Bedlam with the excessive care about my salvation, then be one of you that cast away the care of your salvation for fear of being distracted, and will go among the infernal Bedlams into hell for fear of being mad. The height of your carnal wisdom is more deplorable then their distraction. For God will condemn no ⟨p. 37⟩man because he is distracted, nor so much as blame him for it, (unless as it is the fruit of sin,) no more then he will condemn or blame an Ideot or a beast, because they have no use of reason: If David had been as he seigned himself to be,