A39678:104
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native country, and the souls of men.The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native countrey, and the souls of men.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1691
THE REASONABLENESS OF Personal Reformation, › Chapter 2 › Section 3
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.
SECT. III.
To make this evident, I shall postulate and presume but one thing, and that a thing so immediately true and self-evident, that in the first naked proposal of it, it naturally and easily lets it self into every Mans understanding, and […] sooner asks, but gains the Approbation of right Reason. And that self-evident Principle which I take for granted no Man of sound intellectuals will quarrel or dispute, is this;
To make this evident, I shall postulate and presume but one thing, and that a thing so immediately true and self-evident, that in the first naked proposal of it, it naturally and easily lets it self into every Mans understanding, and 〈…〉 sooner asks, but gains the Approbation of right Reason. And that self-evident Principle which I take for granted no Man of sound intellectuals will quarrel or dispute, is this;
That good which compriseth and involveth the tr•• Honour, Profit, and Pleasure of the whole Man, which is more congruous to Humane Nature, and preserve tive of it, is to be preferred in our Estimation an• Choice to that which only yields a lower degree o• Pleasure, without Profit or Honour to the basest part o• Man; and that low and transient Pleasure it do• yield, attended and followed with many present an future Miseries, destructive to the whole Man.