A27016:750
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. And surely the very Communion of Saints and Ordinances of God which in the Church we here enjoy, are greater Riches then all the world. We are now no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-Citizens of the Saints, and of the household of God. Ephes. 2. 19. We are members of that well-tempered body; where all the members are obliged and disposed to have the same care one for another, that if one suffer all suffer, and if one be honoured all rejoice, 1 Cor. 12. 25, 26. As weak as Christians are, and as worthless in your eyes, one of their hearty spiritual prayers, and one word of their holy savoury conference, doth profit us more, then all your Treasures will ever profit you. While the Divine nature is in them, somewhat Divine will proceed from their mouths, and be seen in their lives, which is worth more then all the Riches of the world. And O how fruitful are the holy Ordinances which we partake of, both in the Churches Communion, and alone in our retirements! A poor Christian can get more in a Sermon which you sleep under, or deride, then you will get by your trades or livings while you live. He findeth greater Treasures in one Chapter of the Bible, or in one good Book, then you can get out of all your lands or labours. The best of your livings will not yield you so much commodity in seven years, nor in seven thousand years, if you could so long keep them, as a believing soul can get from God in one hours prayer, even in secret, where he is not by man observed. You do not believe this, that are ungodly: I know you do not heartily believe it; for else you would try it, and not continue in your ungodliness. But they that try it, know it to be true. Or else what makes them continue in it, and live upon their holy Communion with God ⟨p. 226⟩and his servants, more resolvedly then you do on your lands and labours. Somewhat you may conjecture they find in holy duty, that makes them so instant in it as they are.
6. And surely the very Communion of Saints and Ordinances of God which in the Church we here enjoy, are greater Riches then all the world. We are now no more strangers and forreigners, but fellow-Citizens of the Saints, and of the houshold of God. Ephes. 2. 19