A27016:916
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.
Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. l. 1. init. gives it as a Reason why every one took his own part of the Bread of the Sacrament in those times, because man being a free agent must be the chooser or refuser of his own happiness: The Papists on the contrary do but gape, and the Priest doth pop the bread into their mouths (having first persuaded them that it is not bread.) Do you not expect to receive the spiritual benefits, just as the Papists do receive the Bread? as if you had nothing to do but gape? As if your presence here were as much as is to be expected from you for your edification! How can you taste the sweetness that is offered, when you do not exercise your spiritual senses.
Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. l. 1. init. gives it as a Reason why every one took his own part of the Bread of the Sacrament in those times, because man being a free agent must be the chooser or refuser of his own happiness: The Papists on the contrary do but gape, and the Priest doth pop the bread into their mouths (having first perswaded them that it is not bread.) Do you not expect to receive the spiritual benefits, just as the Papists do receive the Bread? as if you had nothing to do but gape? As if your presence here were as much as is to be expected from you for your edification! How can you tast the sweetness that is offered, when you do not exercise your spiritual senses.
Quest. 7. Do you exercise faith, as well as feeling, in judging of the benefit of Sacraments? Pardon, and Justification, and Title to Salvation are benefits which in themselves you cannot feel. It is by Believing the promise that you must know them. If God have promised a blessing on his Ordinance, it is sure to the faithful soul as if we felt it, though perhaps we may seem long without it. Heaven it self which is the principal end of Ordinances, will not be attained in this life: and yet the Ordinance is not in vain.
Quest. 7. Do you exercise faith, as well as feeling, in judging of the benefit of Sacraments? Pardon, and Justification, and Title to Salvation are benefits which in themselves you cannot feel. It is by Believing the promise that you must know them. If God have promised a blessing on his Ordinance, it is sure to the faithful soul as if we felt it, though perhaps we may seem long without it. Heaven it self which is the principal end of Ordinances, will not be attained in this life: and yet the Ordinace is not in vain.