A27016:411
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.
Answ. O that this were true! how happy then were all the world? I grant that many are superficially convinced, that are not converted; and that many have a slight opinion that Heaven and Holiness is best, that yet have no Love to it, and will not seek it above All. But their practical judgement doth not go along with their Opinions. Thy relish the world as sweetest unto them. In the prevailing deepest thoughts of their hearts, they set most by the pleasures of this world; Why else is their Heart most towards them? Why else do they choose them, and refuse to Live a Holy life? Why have they no delight in God? and why have we so much ado with them, to bring them to a heavenly mind and life, and all in vain? What! will not men be persuaded to choose that which they know is best for them?
Answ. O that this were true! how happy then were all the world? I grant that many are superficially convinced, that are not converted; and that many have a slight opinion that Heaven and Holiness is best, that yet have no Love to it, and will not seek it above All. But their practical judgement doth not go along with their Opinions. Thy relish the world as sweetest unto them. In the prevailing deepest thoughts of their hearts, they set most by the pleasures of this world; Why else is their Heart most towards them? Why else do they choose them, and refuse to Live a Holy life? Why have they no delight in God? and why have we so much ado with them, to bring them to a heavenly mind and life, and all in vain? What! will not men be perswaded to choose that which they know is best for them?
Object. Temptations are strong, and men are weak, and so men go against their knowledge.
Answ. 1. What do Temptations prevail with you to do? Is it not to think well of sinful pleasures, and to think more hardly of the ways of God? Is it not to like a worldly fleshly life better then a Holy life? If not, how can you follow those temptations? And if it be so, then they draw you for that time to think that fleshly pleasures are the better part.