A27016:606
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.
3. Holiness causeth subjects to obey and submit for conscience sake: They do it because God himself hath commanded them to do it. They pay tribute, and give honour and obedience because it is part of their Obedience to God, required of them in the fifth Commandment, which is the first with promise: Outward prosperity is especially promised to them that honour their Parents and superiors. And the commands and promises of God with the bonds of Conscience do tie men faster to their duty, and restrain more effectually from disobedience then the words of men alone can do. Conscience holdeth strongly and constantly; ⟨p. 168⟩and it holdeth as well in secret as in public; so that if a man were sure to do a mischief and never be discovered, he would never the less abhor it, as being not unknown to God and conscience. A man that feareth not God •nd conscience, will never stick to do a mischief, if he may escape the eye and revenging hand of man: Faux will set fire to the train to blow up King and Parliament, if he see but a probability of escape. But he that feeleth the bonds of God upon him, dare not rebel.
3. Holiness causeth subjects to obey and submit for conscience sake: They do it because God himself hath commanded them to do it. They pay tribute, and give honour and obedience because it is part of their Obedience to God, required of them in the fifth Commandment, which is the first with promise: Outward prosperity is especially promised to them that honour their Parents and superiours. And the commands and promises of God with the bonds of Conscience do tie men faster to their duty, and restraine more effectually from disobedience then the words of men alone can do. Conscience holdeth strongly and constantly; ⟨p. 168⟩and it holdeth as well in secret as in publike; so that if a man were sure to do a mischief and never be discovered, he would never the less abhor it, as being not unknown to God and conscience. A man that feareth not God •nd conscience, will never stick to do a mischief, if he may escape the eye and revenging hand of man: Faux will set fire to the train to blow up King and Parliament, if he see but a probability of escape. But he that feeleth the bonds of God upon him, dare not rebel.