A27053:608
A treatise of self-denial. By Richard Baxter, pastor of the church at KidderminsterA treatise of self-denial. By Richard Baxter, pastor of the church at Kederminster
London: printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons, 1675
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. Consider, that Our Lives are not our Own; but God that doth require them is the Absolute Lord of them. More truly than you are owner of any thing that you have in the world, is he the Owner of your lives and you. And therefore both in Reason and Justice we should be content that he dispose of his own. If he may not freely dispose of you & your lives, you may as well deny him the dispose of any thing, and so deny him to be God: for he hath the same right to you as to any thing else, and the same power over you. And therefore if you consent that he shall be God (for which he needs not your consent) you must consent that he be the Owner and Disposer of all, and of you as well as all things else: Otherwise he is not God.
1. COnsider, that Our Lives are not our Own; but God that doth require them is the Absolute Lord of them. More truly than you are owner of any thing that you have in the world, is he the Owner of your lives and you. And therefore both in Reason and Justice we should be content that he dispose of his own. If he may notfreely dispose of you & your lives, you may as well deny him the dispose of any thing, and so deny him to be God: for he hath the same right to you as to any thing else, and the same power over you. And therefore if you consent that he shall be God (for which he needs not your consent) you must consent that he be the Owner and Disposer of all, and of you as well as all things else: Otherwise he is not God.
2. You can be content that the lives of others, yea that all the world be at Gods dispose: In reason you cannot wish it should be otherwise. You are content that the lives of Emperors and Kings that are greater than you, should be at his Dispose? And is there not the same Reason that he dispose of your life as of theirs? Are you better than they? or more your own? or hath the world more need of you than them? or rather is it not unreasonable selfishness that makes so unreasonable ⟨p. 244⟩a difference with you? If Reason might serve, the case is plain.