Pity that Baxter's chapters in 'The Saints' Rest' should have been one
and the earliest occasion of the inversion of this process, the fruit of
which is the Grotio-Paleyan religion, or 'minimum' of faith; the maxim
being, 'quanto minus tanto melius'.
Ib. p. 24.
And once all the ignorant rout were raging mad against me for
preaching the doctrine of Original Sin to them, and telling them that
infants, before regeneration, had so much guilt and corruption as made
them loathsome in the eyes of God.
No wonder;--because the babe would perish without the mother's milk, is
it therefore loathsome to the mother? Surely the little ones that Christ
embraced had not been baptized. And yet 'of such is the Kingdom of
Heaven'.
Ib. p. 25.
Some thought that the King should not at all be displeased and
provoked, and that they were not bound to do any other justice, or
attempt any other reformation but what they could procure the King to
be willing to. And these said, when you have displeased and provoked
him to the utmost, he will be your King still. * * * The more you
offend him, the less you can trust him; and when mutual confidence is
gone, a war is beginning. * * * And if you conquer him, what the
better are you? He will still be King. You can but force him to an
agreement; and how quickly will he have power and advantage to violate
that which he is forced to, and to be avenged on you all for the
displeasure you have done him! He is ignorant of the advantages of a
King that cannot foresee this.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90