The Life of Faith, Illustration – Dedication
Nos quoque floruimus sed flos fuit ille caducus:
Flammaque de ſtipula noſtra breviſque fuit.
Ov.
VERA EFFIGIES RICHARDI BAXTERI MIN: IES CH: IN OP ET PATA FIDEI SPEI ET CHARITATIS. An. 1670. AETAT SUAE 55o
Farewell vaine World as thou hast been to me
Dust and a Shadow: those I leave with thee:
The vnseen Vitall Substance I committ,
The Leaves & Fruit are dropt for ſoyle and Seed,
Heaven's heirs to generate: to heale and feed:
Them alſo thou wilt flatter and molest,
But shalt not keep from Everlasting Reſt.
THE LIFE OF FAITH
THE Life of Faith. In Three PARTS. The Firſt is a Sermon on Heb. 11.1. formerly preached before His Majeſty, and publiſhed by his Command; with another added for the fuller Application. The Second is Inſtructions for confirming Believers in the Chriſtian Faith. The Third is Directions how to live by Faith; or how to exerciſe it upon all occaſions.
By RICHARD BAXTER.
2 Cor. 5.7.
For we walk by faith, not by ſight.
2 Cor. 4.16, 17, 18.
For which cauſe we faint not: but though our outward man pariſh, yet the inward man is renewed day by day: For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: While we look not at the things which are ſeen, but at the things which are not ſeen: For the things which are ſeen are temporal; but the things which are not ſeen are eternal.
Heb. 12.27.
By faith he forſook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the King: for he endured, as ſeeing him that is inviſible.
LONDON, Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons, at the three Crowns over againſt Holbern Conduit. 1670.
To the Worſhipfull, my much honoured Friend Richard Hampden of Hampden, Eſquire; and the Lady Laetitia his Wife, Grace and Peace be multiplied.
SIR,
YOur Names ſtand here in the front of this Treatiſe, on a double account: Firſt, that (the cuſtom of Writers having given me ſuch an advantage) I may tell the preſent and future Ages, how much I love and honour your Piety, Sobriety, Integrity and Moderation, in an Age when ſuch Vertues grow into contempt, or into lifeleſs Images and Names: And how much I am my ſelf your debter, for the manifold expreſſions of your love; and that in an Age when … the ſuperio… …culties is ou… of f…ſhion; and towards ſuch as I, is grown … crime Sincerity and … are things that ſhall be honourable, when Hypocriſie and Malice have done their worſt: But they are moſt conſpicuous and refulgent in times of …rity; and when the ſhame of their contraries ſe… them off.
Secondly, To ſignifie my Love and Gratitude by the beſt … which I can make; which is, by tendering to you and to your family, the ſureſt Directions, for the moſt noble manly life on earth, in order to a bleſſed life in Heaven. Though you have proceeded well; you … need of help: ſo great a … for skilfull counſel, and … and induſtrious, and unwea… … And your hopeful children may … to learn this excellen… Life from theſe Directions, for the love of your prefixed Names. And how happy will they b…, if they converſe with God, … are wallowing in the … of … When the dead hea…ted ſinner thinketh not of … be dragg'd out of … pa…pered corruptible fleſh, to divinie …, and …with the beginnings of endleſs …, to the world where they might have found everlaſting reſt; what joy will then be the portion of mortified and patient Believers, whoſ… Treaſ…s, and Hearts, and Converſati… in He…ven, are now the foretaſte of their poſſeſſion, as the Spirit of Chriſt which cauſeth this, i… the ſe… of God, and the pledge and earneſt of their inheritance. If a … pleaſing life in a dark, diſtracted, … world, were better than a life with God and Angels, methinks yet they that know they cannot have what they …, ſhould make ſue of what they may ha… ▪ And they that cannot keep what they …, ſhould learn to … what … may keep. Wonderfull ſtupidity! …h…t they … dead bodies … grave, is as common a work, … children into the world, and that this life is but the road to another, and that all men are poſting on to their …, ſhould think no more conſiderately whither ſo many thouſand ſouls do go, that daily ſhoot the gulf of death▪ and return no more to the world which one they called their home! That men will have no houſe or home, but the ſhip which carryeth them ſo ſwiftly to eternity! and ſpend their time in furniſhing a dwelling on ſuch a tempeſtuous Sea, where winds and tide are haſting them to the ſhore! and even to the end are contriving to live where they are daily dying! and care for no …bitation but on horſe-back! That almoſt all men die much wiſer than they lived; and yet the certain foreknowledge of death will not ſerve to make them more ſeaſonably and more ſafely wi…e! Wonderful! that it ſhould be poſſible for a man awake, to believe that he muſt ſhortly be gone from earth, and enter into an unchangeable endleſs life, and yet not bend the thoughts of his ſoul, and the labours of his life, to ſecure his true and … Adam hath given ſin the … grace, and madneſs the priority to wiſdom; and our wiſdom, health and ſafety, muſt now come after, by the way of recovery and cure. The firſt born of lapſed man was a malignant perſecuting Cain. The firſt born of believing Abraham, was a perſecutor of him that was born after the Spirit, 1 John 3.12. Gal. 4.29. And the firſt born of this Iſaac himſelf, was a profane Eſau, that for one morſel ſold his birth-right, Heb. 12.16. And naturally we are all the off-ſpring of this profaneneſs, and have not acquaintance enough with God, and with healthful holineſs, and with the everlaſting heavenly Glory, to make us cordially preferr it before a forbidden cup, or morſel, or a game at foolery, or a filthy luſt; or before the wind of a gilded fools acclamation and applauſe; or the cap and counterfeit ſubjection of the multitude: But the —fortunae, non tua turba (ut Ov.) & quos ſportula fecit amici (ut Juv.) who will ſerve mens luſts, and be their ſervants, and humble attendants to damnation, are regarded more than the God, the Saviour, the Sanctifier, to whom theſe perfidious rebels were once devoted. That you and yours may live that more wiſe and delightful life, which conſiſteth in the daily ſight of Heaven, by a Living Faith, which worketh by Love, in conſtant Obedience, is the principal end of this publick appellation: That what is here written for the uſe of all, may be firſt and ſpecially uſeful to you and yours, whom I am ſo much bound to love and honour; even to your ſafe and comfortable life and death, and to your future joy and glory; which is the great deſire of
Your obliged Servant, RICH. BAXTER. Feb. 4. 1669.