A27016:34
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.
IT hath been the matter of my frequent admiration, How it can be consistent with the Natural self love, and Reasonableness of man-kind, and the special ingenuity of some above others, for men to believe [that they must die, and after live in endless Joy or misery, according to their preparations in this life▪] and yet to make no greater a matter of it, nor set themselves with all their might to enquire what they must be and do if they will be saved; but to make as great a business and bustle to have their Wills and Pleasure for a little while, in the small impertinent matters of this world, as if they had neither hopes or fears of any greater things hereafter. That as some melancholy persons are caetera sani, as rational as other […] all matters saving some one, in which yet their de• ⟨p. 2⟩maketh them the pity or derision of observers; so many that have wit enough to avoid fire and water, and to go out of the way from a wild beast or a mad man, yet have not the wit to avoid damnation, nor to prefer eternal life before a merry passage unto hell: Yea that some that account themselves ingenuous, and men of a deeper reach then the unlearned, can see no further through the promises or threatenings of God, then through a Prospective or a Tube; and have no wit that looketh beyond a grave; yea are ready to smile at the simplicity of those that care whether they live in Heaven or Hell, and use but as much diligence for their salvation, as they use themselves for that which Paul accounted dung.
IT hath been the matter of my frequent admiration, How it can be consistent with the Natural self love, and Reasonableness of man-kind, and the special ingenuity of some above others, for men to believe [that they must die, and after live in endless Joy or misery, according to their preparations in this life▪] and yet to make no greater a matter of it, nor set themselves with all their might to enquire what they must be and do if they will be saved; but to make as great a business and bussle to have their Wills and Pleasure for a little while, in the small impertinent matters of this world, as if they had neither hopes or fears of any greater things hereafter. That as some melancholy persons are caetera sani, as rational as other 〈…〉 all matters saving some one, in which yet their de