A27016:802
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.
We are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, &c.] This is the Honourable Society of Saints: the eye, the pearl of the whole Creation.
We are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, &c.] This is the Honourable Society of Saints: the eye, the pearl of the whole Creation.
8. Moreover, the Godly have the most Honourable Attendance. The creatures are all theirs: though not in point of Civil propriety, yet as means appointed and managed by God their Father, for their best advantage. The Angels of God are ministering spirits for them: not as our servants, but as Gods servants for our good. As Ministers in the Church are not the servants of men, but the servants of God for men: And so whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present or to come, all are ours.] 1 Cor. 3. 22. The Shepherds servant is not the servant of the sheep, but for the sheep. And so the Angels disdain not to serve God, in the guarding of the weakest Saints. As I formerly showed from Heb. 1. 14. & Psalm 91. 11, 12. & 34. 7. [The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. For he giveth his Angels charge over us, to keep us in all our ways: they shall bear us up in their hands, left we dash our foot against a stone.] Sun and Moon, and all the creatures, are daily employed in our attendance. O how wonderful is the Love of God to his unworthy servants, in their advancement! Remember it, when thou art scorning at the servants of the Lord, or speaking against them, that those poor, those weak despised Christians, that thou art vilifying, have their Angels beholding the face of God their Father in the Heavens: Take heed therefore that you despise not the least of these. It is the warning of