A36329:269
Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…
Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life, in and after a time of great mortality, by a wasting plague (anno 1665) answered in XIII directions / by Tho. Doolittle.Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life, in and after a time of great mortality, by a wasting plague (anno 1665) answered in XIII directions / by Tho. Doolitel.
London: printed by R.I. for J. Johnson, 1666
DIRECTIONS how to live after a wasting PLAGUE. › Part 2 › Section 19
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.
8. The better you are, the more excellent you will be. Riches is not your excellency, and Learning is not your excellency, and Grace is not your utmost and your highest excellency, but the highest degrees of Grace is. Reason makes a man differ from a beast; and the more rational a man is (by the improvement of Reason) than others, the more excellent as a man (for a Fool might excel a Wise man in riches) he is above other men: So Grace makes a Christian differ from a man as such, and the better Christian he is than others, the more excellent he is than other Christians are.
8. The better you are, the more excellent you will be. Riches is not your excellency, and Learning is not your excellency, and Grace is not your utmost and your highest excellency, but the highest degrees of Grace is. Reason makes a man differ from a beast; and the more rational a man is (by the improvement of Reason) than others, the more excellent as a man (for a Fool might excell a Wise man in riches) he is above other men: So Grace makes a Christian differ from a man as such, and the better Christian he is than others, the more excellent he is than other Christians are.
9. The better you are, the more like to God, who is the greatest, the chiefest, and the best good. When we lost our goodness, we lost our likeness unto God; and when God makes us good, he makes us like himself, and the better God doth make us, the more he makes us like himself: And should not this provoke thee to be better? especially considering, to be most like to God, is Thy greatest Duty: The end of all the rest. Desires: Oh that I were more like to God. Dignity: And therefore our dignity will be greatest in Heaven, because there we shall be likest unto God.
10. The better you are, the more you shall have Gods approbation: And what will it be to be approved of God! You may by seeming goodness have the approbation of men, but you must be really good, if you will have the approbation of God; and the better you are, the more he will approve you. God observeth the worst of men, but approveth only of good men; and only the good actions of good men, not their sinful actions,