A27016:604
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.
1. Holiness effectually teacheth subjects to know themselves; To know their weakness and meanness and unworthiness, and to know their places and their proper work. It kills that pride that ⟨p. 167⟩makes men think that none are so fit to Rule as they; and it makes them so humble as to think themselves unworthy of protection in the meanest station. And also it so takes them up with a higher ambition, and sets their heart on the greater things, that they are dead to the Ambition of the world, and can easily leave these things to others: Their Kingdom is not of this world: They are taught to expect affliction and persecution, and not to aspire after crowns. No man can deny that this is the lesson set them by their Lord, and the Covenant which they make with him when they become his Servants. Whereas the ungodly having their portion in this life, and relishing and minding most the things of the world, will snatch and scramble and turn every stone and do any thing within their reach for worldly honours.
1. Holiness effectually teacheth subjects to know themselves; To know their weakness and meaness and unworthiness, and to know their places and their proper work. It kills that pride that ⟨p. 167⟩makes men think that none are so fit to Rule as they; and it makes them so humble as to think themselves unworthy of protection in the meanest station. And also it so takes them up with a higher ambition, and sets their heart on the greater things, that they are dead to the Ambition of the world, and can easily leave these things to others: Their Kingdom is not of this world: They are taught to expect affliction and persecution, and not to aspire after crowns. No man can deny that this is the lesson set them by their Lord, and the Covenant which they make with him when they become his Servants. Whereas the ungodly having their portion in this life, and relishing and minding most the things of the world, will snatch and scramble and turn every stone and do any thing within their reach for worldly honours.