Baxter - BT767 B28 1662

( 1'~) • ~nd the drifc of your endeavours, and bath been thematter thtt ' YOU have had firft to do, and the d1ingjorwhich you have i/ived ·in the WC)rld? If this be not fo, never talk of your Chriftianity for flume : ·Your Religion is vain, if thu be not your Religion. Alas I know that we have all of u~ yet too much of the flefh, and are too cold in our affections, and too flow and uneven in our endeavours for our end: But yet for all that I muft fiilt tell you, (as I have ofcen done becaufe it is neceffary) that here lyeth thedifference be– tween the truly fanEtified foul , and all the hypocrites and ha!f– Chrifiians in the world : [Every true Chri.ftian i,· devoted unt!) God, and h~tth made an hearty and abfr;luu refignation of him/elf andall th.et he hath unto him; and therefore loveth him 'With hi.r .fuperlative, meft appretiative love., and ferveth him with the beft he hath, and think.J nothing too g!Jod {}r too dettr for God, andf~r the attainment·of hi.r everlafting Reft : Chrift hath the chiefefo room in his heart, and the 6ent and drift of ht$life u for him : He ftudy– eth how he may beft ferve and pleafe him with his time , hu intereft, andall that he hath : and if hefall ~ as it u contrary to the h:zbi– tuttl refolution of his foul, and tontrary to the /cope and current of hu heart and life, fo he ri/Nh again by repentance wit/g forrow for hi.sjin, andloathing of himfelf, t:~ndfincerely endeavours toamend, ttndgoeth on refolvtdly in huhulJ courfe.}1hts is the £late ofevery one that is in a fiate of life. But for all hypocrites and half- Chriftian!, their cafe is other· wife : The world and fle{h is dearefi: to them , and higheft in their prP~Elical eftimation, though not in their ffieculative: and it: bath their highefl: affections of Love and Delight , and the very bent and fiream of he:art and life, while God is ferved heartleily on the by, for fear 1-efi they be damned, when they can enjoy .the world ·and fin no longer, and is put off with the leavings of the flelh, and i1ath no more of their hearts, their tongl!les, their time, their wealth, then it can fpare: They ask their flefh how far they £hall be Religious , and will go no further then will fl:and with their profperity in the world : With the firfl and beft they ferve thefieib, and with the cheaprft and the refufe they fe.r~e the Lord: When they go highefi in their out-fide carnal Reltgt– oufnefs, they go not beyond this hypocritical referved fiate; (and ufually, as Cain, they hate A6el for offering a more u– .c;eptable fa,l!ince): God mufi take up with this from them, or - · -· - -- --- - -· · ·· - -· - · · · be

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=