A27016:349
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.
for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds.] Jam. 5. 16. [Confess your faults one to another.] Josh. 7. 19. [Give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.] Prov. 28. 13. [He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.] Doth not all this justify the exercise of Discipline, and condemn the neglect of it?
for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds.] Jam. 5. 16. [Confess your faults one to another.] Josh. 7. 19. [Give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.] Prov. 28. 13. [He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.] Doth not all this justifie the exercise of Discipline, and condemn the neglect of it?
9. But (saith the impious person) why make they such a difference between themselves and other men? extolling themselves as the only servants of the Lord, and condemning others as ungodly and children of the Devil, and terrifying mens consciences with the fears of hell?
Answ. If any do so against such as are sanctified and renewed, and have the Spirit of Christ, and live to God, they deal uncharitably; and if you dislike their censoriousness, so do I, and so do all the sober, considerate servants of the Lord. But if it be only against the carnal unsanctified world that they do thus, it is God that maketh the difference and not they. Do you not find the whole Scripture dividing all the world into two ranks, the godly and the ungodly? the regenerate and unregenerate? the converted and unconverted? the sanctified and unsanctified? the carnal and the spiritual? the earthly-minded and the heavenly-minded? the pardoned and unpardoned? the justified and unjustified? the children of God, and the enemies of God? the servants of God, and of the Devil? the heirs of heaven, and the heirs of hell? To prove this would be to repeat the Bible. Read