N21487:20
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.
Doct. 1. It is the unchangeable Law of God, that wicked men must turn or die.
IF you will believe God, believe this; There is but one of these two ways for every wicked man, either conversion or damnation; I know the wicked will hardly be persuaded either of the truth or equity of this: No wonder, if the guilty quarrel with the law. Few men are apt to believe that which they would not have to be true, and fewer would have that to be true which they apprehend to be against them. But it is not quarrelling with the law, or with the judge that will save the malefactor; believing and regarding the law might have prevented ⟨p. 10⟩his death, but denying and accusing it will but hasten it. If it were not so an hundred would bring their reason against the law, for one that would bring his reason to the law, and men would rather choose to give their reasons why they should not be punished than to hear the commands and reasons of their governors which require them to obey. The law was not made for you to judge, but that you might be ruled and judged by it.
IF you will believe God, believe this; There is but one of these two ways for every wicked man, either conversion or damnation; I know the wicked will hardly be persuaded either of the truth or equity of this: No wonder, if the guilty quarrel with the law. Few men are apt to believe that which they would not have to be true, and fewer would have that to be true which they apprehend to be against them. But it is not quarrelling with the law, or with the j•dge that will save the malefactor; believing and regarding the law might have prevented ⟨p. 10⟩his death, but denying and accusing it will but hasten it. If it were not so an hundred would bring their reason against the law, for one that would bring his reason to the law, and men would rather choose to give their reasons why they should not be punished than to hear the commands and reasons of their governors which require them to obey. The law was not made for you to judge, but that you might be ruled and judged by it.