A27062:208
Two treatises tending to awaken secure sinners viz., 1. The terror of the day…
Two treatises tending to awaken secure sinners viz., 1. The terror of the day of judgment, from 2 Cor. 5. 10, 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel, from Matth. 22. 5 / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Jonas Luntley, 1696
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.
I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the Way, nor do I delight to put them into vulgar Heads; but finding many young Scholars and others that have conversed with them, assaulted with these Temptations, I thought meet to give a Touch, and but a Touch, to take them out of their Way: As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna, on this last point, to which I refer you. I only add this.
The Will of Man in its very Dominion doth bear God's Image. It is a self-determining Power, though it be biassed by Habits, and needs a Guide. As the Heart and Vital Spirits by which it acteth, are to the rest of the Body, so is it to the Soul. The Light of Nature hath taught all the World to carry the Guilt of every Crime to the Will of Man, and there to leave it. Upon this all Laws and Judgments are grounded. From Ignorance and intellectual Weakness, Men commonly fetch Excuses for their Faults; but from the Will they are aggravated. If we think it strange that Man's Will should be the first Cause, so much as of a sinful Mode, and answer all occurring Objections: it may suffice that we are certain the Holy Majesty is not the Author of Sin; and he is able to make all this as plain as the Sun, and easily answer all these vain Excuses, though we should be unable. And if we be much ignorant of the Frame and Motions of our own Souls, and especially of that high self-determining Principle, free-Will, the great Spring of our Actions, and the curious Engine by which God ⟨p. 62⟩doth sapientially govern the World, it is no wonder, considering that the Soul can know it self but by Reflection, and God gave us a Soul to use, rather than to know it self; and to know its Qualities and Operations, rather than its Essence.
The five and twentieth Excuse. No Man can be saved, nor avoid any Sin, nor believe in Christ, but those whom God hath predestinated thereto. I was under an irreversible Sentence before I was born: and therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do; and if God decreed not to save me, how could I help it?