Baxter - BT767 B28 1662

The fumme then of both thefe Heads is this. The matter of a . Chriflians Faith,and Religion, Deftre, Hope and Love, is there– fore talled One thitJg, be.caufe God who is One , is the fumme of al l. It is. but .One Sun, though it bath many beams , and all rh<9fe ·beams are nothing but the emanations of the Sun; and ha,·e nothi~g but what they have from it : God is All to the Religion and the Saul ofa true Believer : and therefore All to him is One : .Creatures, and Duties, and Ordinances which are many, a,re all hut One to him in Ggd. His Faith beholdech them, and his Affe- · ,Elions relifh them as unitedall inGcJd. I. As _their f}~'ing from whom they fiow. 2. And as the Life by whom they are all ani- . mated; and as the matter and fenfe which they jignifie and im– pert. 3. AHd as their end to which they tend, and in which they .all terminate and agree. · Many branches are but One Tree, and have One Stoc~: and .mttny members are One body, becaufe they are animated wich One foul. Many letters,fyllables and Words may make One fentmce.-, and m6tn) leaves may makeOne Book._, and treat but of One fub– je[f. Many actions of a Plow-man are called P!owing , and ofa Weaver, Weaving, &c. as being all united in Om end: I know thefe ftmilies have their diffimilitude, but this is the fumme; that ]tuGod that the Believtr feeth, and feek,ph, and loveth, and con– -verfeth with, mtd intendeth in all the Ordinances cJf grace, inall hit duties, and in all the creatures : and in GcJd they are united, and .One thir.zg to hir.n. He hath nothing to do at Church, or at home, .in private or publike, but live to God, and feck.. after the ever/aft· ing enjoymem of him. If wuik.,ne{s and temptation put any other bufinefs into his hands . ., be is fo far flept out of the Chrifiian .way. In his very common labours and mercies, ( fo far as he is Ho!~) God is to him, the Jpr:inx,, the life , the ['WeetnejJ, the beauty, theflrcngth, the meamng, llnd the endof all, and therefore All £n All. · But the creatures in the hands find ufe of the ungodly, (or of thegodly fo far as they ufe them finfully) have no fuch Unity. Though in themfelves they fo depend on God , that none can .make a fepara tion , nor can they at all exifi without him ; .yet in the fenfe, eftimatirm ,_ends and ufe of rh·eungodly, the crea– tures are fepar;a red from God, and are as branches cut off from the tree; and departing from God , thefe men are gone from :'~lnity, and are loit, difi:racted and confounded in the mHlticude

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=