A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

Name: A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…
Author: Richard Baxter

A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ... / by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed by R.W. for Francis Tyton, 1662

[17], 23, 384 [i.e. 374] p. · 179k words · Wing B1382 · ESTC R6046

Title page typeset from the transcription.

Part 2 › Chapter 4: Holiness is Best for all Societies.

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.

[ Earlier:588–603 of 1,121

:588p. 162

5. Godliness hath the most perfect Righteous Laws; and therefore is […] all Societies. If God can make better Laws then man, then this is past all question. His Laws require nothing but what is for mens good. They prescribe nothing that is dishonest or unjust: They promise the greatest Rewards to the obedient: They drive on the backward by the threatening of the greatest punishments. Their Authority is highest and most unquestionable. They all proceed from one absolute Sovereign, and are the same to all the people of the world: They change not, but are to endure to the worlds end. Whereas all the Laws of men, are limited to their own Dominions, and endure but while their power can enforce them. They are subject to error and injustice; and are not the same in one Country as in another; or in one age as in the former: and their Rewards and punishments are but temporal: and therefore though under the Laws of God, they are necessary for the Government of Common-wealths, yet without Gods Laws they would be utterly insufficient.

5. Godliness hath the most perfect Righteous Laws; and therefore is 〈…〉 all Societies. If God can make better Laws then man, then this is past all question. His Laws require nothing but what is for mens good. They prescribe nothing that is dishonest or unjust: They promise the greatest Rewards to the obedient: They drive on the backward by the threatning of the greatest punishments. Their Authority is highest and most unquestionable. They all proceed from one absolute Soveraign, and are the same to all the people of the world: They change not, but are to endure to the worlds end. Whereas all the Laws of men, are limited to their own Dominions, and endure but while their power can enforce them. They are subject to errour and injustice; and are not the same in one Countrey as in another; or in one age as in the former: and their Rewards and punishments are but temporal: and therefore though under the Laws of God, they are necessary for the Government of Common-wealths, yet without Gods Laws they would be utterly insufficient.

:589p. 162–163

6. The way of Holiness is contrary to all Evil whatsoever, and therefore hath nothing to disturb a Common-wealth: It is true, we cannot say so of the persons, because they are but imperfectly sanctified. Were they in all things such as their Lord, and Rule,

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