Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A26872
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A call to the unconverted to turn and live and accept of mercy while mercy may be had as ever they would find mercy in the day of their extremity from the living God / by his unworthy servant, Richard Baxter ; to be read in families where any are unconverted.
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1658
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Wing B1196; ESTC R2096
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107,933
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375
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of his own free-will For the second God did that which belonged to him that is he gave man a perfect Law requiring him to continue in the Love of God and perfectly to obey him By the wilful breach of this Law man did not only forfeit his hopes of everlasting life but also turned his heart from God and fixed it on these lower fleshly things and hereby did blot out the spiritual Image of God from his soul. So that man did both fall short of the Glory of God which was his End and put himself out of the Way by which he should have attained it and this both as to the frame of his heart and of his life The holy Inclination and Love of his soul to God he lost and instead of it he contracted an Inclination and Love to the pleasing of his flesh or carnal-self by earthly things growing strange to God and acquainted with the creature And the course of his life was suited to the Bent and Inclination of his heart he lived to his carnal self and not to God he sought the creature for the pleasing of his flesh instead of seeking to please the Lord. With this Nature or Corrupt inclination we are all now born into the world For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Iob 14.4 As a Lyon hath a fierce and cruel nature before he doth devour and as an Adder hath a venemous nature before he sting so in our very infancy we have those sinful Natures or Inclinations before we think or speak or do amiss And hence springeth all the sin of our lives And not only so but when God hath of his mercy provided us a Remedy even the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of our souls and bring us back to God again we naturally love our present state and are â—oth to be brought out of it and therefore are set against the means of our Recovery and though custom have taught us to thank Christ for his good will yet carnal self perswadeth us to refuse his Remedies and to desire to be excused when we are commanded to take the Medicines which he offereth and are called to forsake all and follow him to God and Glory I pray you read over this leaf again and mark it for in these few words you have a true Description of our natural state and consequently of a wicked man For every man that is in this state of corrupted nature is a wicked man and in a state of death By this also you are prepared to understand what it is to be Converted to which end you must further know That the mercy of God not willing that man should perish in his sin provided a Remedy by causing his Son to take our Nature and being in one person God and man to become a Mediator between God and man and by dying for our sins on the Cross to ransom us from the curse of God and the power of the Devil and having thus Redeemed us the Father hath delivered us into his hands as his own Hereupon the Father and the Mediator do make a New Law and Covenant for man not like the first which gave life to none but the perfectly obedient and condemned man for every sin but Christ hath made a Law of Grace or a Promise of Pardon and Everlasting life to all that by true Repentance and by Faith in Christ are Converted unto God Like an Act of Oblivion which is made by a Prince to a company of Rebels on condition they will lay down arms and come in and be loyal subjects for the time to come But because the Lord knoweth that the heart of man is grown so wicked that for all this men will not accept of the Remedy if they be left to themselves therefore the Holy Ghost hath undertaken it as his office to inspire the Apostles and seal up the Scripture by Miracles and Wonders and to illuminate and convert the souls of the Elect. So that by this much you see that as there are three persons in the Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost so each of these persons have their several works which are eminently ascribed to them The Fathers works were to Create us to Rule us 〈◊〉 his â—ational creatures by the Law of Nature and Judge us thereby And in mercy to provide us a Redeemer when we were lost and to send his Son and accept his Ransom The works of the Son for us were these To Ransom and Redeem us by his Sufferings and Righteousness to give out the Promise or Law of Grace and Rule and Judge the world as their Redeemer on terms of Grace and to make intercession for us that the benefits of his death may be communicated and to send the Holy Ghost which the Father also doth by the Son The works of the Holy Ghost for us are these to indite the Holy Scriptures by inspiring and guiding the Prophets and Apostles and sealing the Word by his Miraculous gifts and works and the illuminating and exciting the ordinary Ministers of the Gospel and so enabling them and helping them to publish that Word and by the same word Illuminating and Converting the souls of men So that as you could not have been reasonable creatures if the Father had not Created you nor have had any access to God if the Son had not Redeemed you so neither can you have a part in Christ or be saved except the Holy Ghost do sanctifie you So that by this time you may see the several causes of this work The Father sendeth the Son the Son Redeemeth us and maketh the Promise of Grace the Holy Ghost inditeth and sealeth this Gospel the Apostles are the Secretaries of the Spirit to write it the Preachers of the Gospel do proclaim it and perswade men to obey it And the Holy Ghost doth make their preaching effectual by opening the hearts of men to entertain it And all this to repair the image of God upon the soul and to set the heart upon God again and take it off the creature and carnal self to which it is revolted and so to turn the current of the life into an heavenly course which before was earthly and all this by the entertainment of Christ by Faith who is the Physitian of the soul. By this which I have said you may see what it is to be Wicked and what it is to be Converted Which I think will be yet plainer to you if I describe them as consisting of their several parts and for the first a wicked man may be known by these three things First he is one who placeth his chief content on earth and loveth the creature more then God and his fleshly prosperity above the heavenly felicity He savoureth the things of the flesh but neither discerneth nor savoureth the things of the Spirit though he will say that Heaven is better then earth yet doth he not really so esteem it to himself If he might be
Doth he give us Sun and Moon and Stars the earth and all the creatures to attend us and serve us with their lives and virtues and yet doth he not care for our hearts or service This is as foolish as to say that he hath made all the world in vain and careth not for it now he hath made it 7. If he cared not for the frame of our hearts and lives he would not have sent his Son to Redeem us and to cleanse us from all iniquity and sanctifie us a peculiar people to himself Tit. 2.14 Surely the price that was paid for sinners and the wonderful design of God in our Redemption doth shew that he makes not light of sin and that he is wonderfully in love with holiness 8. If God did not regard our hearts and lives he would not have made it the office of his Ministers to call us daily to Repentance and an holy life Nor commanded them to make such a stir with sinners to win them unto God He would not have appointed all his Ordinances publick and private also to this end Doth God command all this ado for a thing that he regards not 9. Nor would he punish the world with Hell hereafter or so many dreadful judgements here as thousands feel if he cared not what they think or do Methinks men that are so often groaning under his rod should feel that he looks after their hearts and wayes 10. And how can the Holy Ghost be our Sanctifier if God be so indifferent whether we be clean or unclean Dare you think that the Holy Ghost doth take upon him a needless work 11. Methinks you might perceive even in the malice of the Tempter that God is holy and hateth iniquity and his Word is true that telleth us of the eternal punishment of sin This Scripture tells us of the Angels fall and that many of them are become Devils by their sin and are malicious enemies of mans salvation And do you not easily perceive it to be true How come they else to be such importunate Tempters of men which we feel alas by too much experience Or if this evidence be not palpable enough to convince the Infidel How come they to make so many bargains with Conjurers and Witches to draw them from God and Salvation as they have done How come they to appear in terrible shapes to so many as they have done and still upon designs that declare their own dejected base Condition and their enmity to God and man and their eager desire to engage men in a way of sin If any Infidel will not believe that really there have been Witches and Apparitions and consequently that there are Devils who are miserable and malicious spirits who by sin are cast out of the favour of God and would draw men into their miserable case let them come and reason the case with me and I shall quickly tell them of so many sure undenyable instances and give them so much proof of the truth of it as shall leave them nothing to say against it â—â—less they will still say We will not believe Yea so much as that I will not be beholden to the vilest Atheist or Infidel to believe it if he will not quite renounce his Reason but give it leave to see the Light 12. Lastly if yet you think that God the Soveraign Ruler of the world that is everywhere present and preserveth all doth care so little what men are or what they do whether they are holy or unholy obedient or disobedient to his Laws then methinks that you your selves and all the rest of your fellow-creatures should little care Two Questions therefore I must here propound to you 1. Do not you care what men say of you or do to you Are you contented that men slander you and abase you or set your houses or Towns on fire or destroy your cattle or wives and children and imprison wound or kill your selves If you will make a great matter of what men say or do against you can you be so mad for it is no better as to think that the Omnipotent Holy God should little regard what 's said or done against himself and against hâ—s servants and that by such silly worms as men that are his workmanship Did not selfishness make you blind and partial you would know that one sin against God deserves more punishment then ten thousand thousand times as much against such silly things as you Do you make no matter of difference between a bad servant and a good an obedient and a disobedient child a Son that would lay down his life for you and a Son that longs for your death that he may have your Lands between a faithful friend and a deadly enemy If you do not you are not men but something else in humane shape If you do then you are somewhat worse then men if yet you would have the Blessed God to make no great difference between those that love him above all the world and those that regard him not between the Holy and unholy soul. And 2. I would ask you Whether you would have the Rulers of the world to take no care what men say or do or would you not If not then you would have all the world turned loose and you would have every man that is poorer then you have leave to rob you and every man that hateth you have leave to beat you or to kill you and every man that liketh your house or lands or goods or cattle to have leave to take them from you and every man to defile your wives or daughters that hath a mind to it And so we should see whether it is that Infidelity leads men But if you like not this then you are most unreasonable if you would have Magistrates to be regardful of mens actions and not God If Magistrates must hang men for wronging you and the Eternal Majesty must not punish them for wronging him and breaking his Laws which is infinitely a greater matter As if you would have a Constable punish men and the King or Iudge to have no regard of it For Kings are under God as Constables are under Kings and a thousandfold lower The truth is wicked men are fallen so far from God to themselves that they are as gods to themselves in their own esteem and besides themselves they know no God and therefore any wrong that is done against them or any good that is done for them they would have regarded but the wrong and disobedience that is against God they would have nothing made of And they have such narrow blasphemous thoughts of God as if he were a finite creature like themselves that can be but in one place at once that makes them so blaspheme his Providence and think he minds not Good or Evil and will not reward the godly or punish the ungodly but â—ere like the Idols of the Heathen that have eyes and see not ears and hear not and hands without