Baxter - BV4253 B39 C78 1658

ThePreface. by the improvement and contempt of this : Pat not that in- to your Life, that you are a(hamed toput into your Profe /i- on or Belief. I f youDo au Infidels, youwill be as miferable as if you Believedbut as Infidels. And Prailifing 4 while againfl your Confcience, maycoufe God toforfakeyourjudge- ment alfo, andgiveyou over to Believe as you Live, becaufe you would not Live as you Believed. And Ifear that this is the cafe of fome of you : Nay I have toomuch realm to know it, thatfome of our Gentry, even perfans of note and honour among us, haveforfaken Chrifl andare turned Infidels; and by the Love of this world , have carnally adhered to itfo long , till they are fofarfortaken of God , as to think that there is no other Life for them hereafter. Godbath aneye on thefe wretches ; and men have an eye onfame of them. I gall now leave them in theirflippery Elation, till a fitter op- portunity. Some we have of our .Nobilityand Gentry that are Learned, Studious andPioçcs,andan honour andblefsing to this u,lhy Land ; or elfe it were not like tobefo well with rm as t But oh how numerous ark the [enfoal and pro- phone which provoked thatheavenly Poet, of Noble extrait ( c/Ylr. G. Herbet, Ch, porch ) to fay, O England full of fin, but tnoft of floth, Spit out thy fiegm, and fill thy breft with glory Thy Gentry bleats, as if thynative cloth, Transfu fed a fheepinefs into t by Rory : Not that they all are fo; but that the moft9 Are gone to grafs and in the pafture loft. Gentlemen, I have no mind to diflionouryou, but compaf- flan on your fouls andon the Nation , commands me to com- plain, in order to reform you : Andyet if youfinned and perifbed alone, we were the lefs unexcufable if we letyou alone. What Abundanceof you are fitter tofw:ll in abuttery, (a 3). or

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