N21487:176
A call to the unconverted, to turn and live
A call to the unconverted, to turn and live; and accept of mercy, while mercy may be had; as they ever would find mercy, in the day of extremity from the living God. / By his unworthy servant, Richard Baxter.
Philadelphia: printed for Matthew Carey, 1795Philadelphia: printed for Mathew Carey, 1795
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.
If you see a man put his hand in the fire till it burn off, you will marvel at it; but this is a thing that a man may have reason for, as Bishop Gramaner had, when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to popery. If you see a man cut off a leg, or an arm, it is a sad sight; but this is a thing that a man may have a good reason for, as many a man doth to save his life. If you see a man give his body to be burnt to ashes, and to be tormented with strappado's and racks, and refuse deliverance when it is offered, this is a hard case to flesh and blood; but this a man may have good reason for, as you may see in Heb. xi. 33, 34, 35, 36. and as many an hundred martyrs have done. But for a man to forsake the Lord that made him, and for a man to run into the fire of hell, when he is told of it, and entreated to turn, that he may be saved; this is a thing that can have no reason in the world, that is reason indeed, to justify or excuse it. For heaven will pay for the loss of any thing that we can lose to ⟨p. 81⟩get it, or for any labour which we bestow for it, but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.
If you see a man put his hand in the fire till it burn off, you will marvel at it; but this is a thing that a man may have reason for, as Bishop Gramaner had, when he burnt off his hand for subscribing to popery. If you see a man cut off a leg, or an arm, it is a sad sight; but this is a thing that a man may have a good reason for, as many a man doth to save his life. If you see a man give his body to be burnt to ashes, and to be tormented with strappado's and racks, and refuse deliverance when it is offered, this is a hard case to flesh and blood; but this a man may have good reason for, as you may see in Heb. xi. 33, 34, 35, 36. and as many an hundred martyrs have done. But for a man to forsake the Lord that made him, and for a man to run into the fire of hell, when he is told of it, and intreated to turn, that he may be saved; this is a thing that can have no reason in the world, that is reason indeed, to justify or excuse it. For heaven will pay for the loss of any thing that we can lose to ⟨p. 81⟩get it, or for any labour which we bestow for it, but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.