A27016:592
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.
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, ⟨p. 163⟩and Religion do require, they would have nothing that might be injurious to any. But surely as a sick man or a lame, is better then a dead corps; and as a man of mean understanding is better then an idiot, and a mean Scholar better then the illiterate; so a man imperfectly sanctified, is better in a Common-wealth, then the ungodly. You blame not the Laws of this Land, because that Thieves and Murderers break them: The Laws are Good, if they oblige men to nothing but what is Good, though bad men break them. The Rules of Christian Religion are most perfect, and direct or command men nothing that is evil. There may be faults in us, but there is none in the holy Laws which we desire and endeavour to obey. Religion therefore is the way to the perfecting and securing of all Societies, and the want of it subverteth them.
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, ⟨p. 163⟩and Religion do require, they would have nothing that might be injurious to any. But surely as a sick man or a lame, is better then a dead corps; and as a man of mean understanding is better then an ideot, and a mean Schollar better then the illiterate; so a man imperfectly sanctified, is better in a Common-wealth, then the ungodly. You blame not the Laws of this Land, because that Thieves and Murderers break them: The Laws are Good, if they oblige men to nothing but what is Good, though bad men break them. The Rules of Christian Religion are most perfect, and direct or command men nothing that is evil. There may be faults in us, but there is none in the holy Laws which we desire and endeavour to obey. Religion therefore is the way to the perfecting and securing of all Societies, and the want of it subverteth them.