and Faith in Christ is so far necessary to salvation as it is necessary to bring men to the love of God as pardoning sin and reconciled to them But if any should never so confidently conclude that some that hear not of Christ may be saved yet he must needs confess that the want of this clear and great discovery of the love and goodness of God in his pardoning grace and of the glorious life which he hath prepared for us must needs make the love of God a very rare and difficult thing and consequently their salvation rare and difficult in comparison of ours The Christian Faith is The believing an everlasting life of happiness to be given by God with the pardon of all sin as procured by the sufferings and merits of Jesus Christ to all that are sanctified by the Holy Ghost and do persevere in love to God and to each other and in a holy and heavenly conversation This is saving Faith and Christianity if we Consent as well as Assent All that was necessary to salvation to be believed was formerly thought to be contained in the Creed and that was the test or symbol of the Christian Faith and Christian Religion is the same and hath the same rule and test symbol in all Ages But since Faction and Tyranny Pride Covetousness became the masters of the Religion of too many vice and selfish interest hath commanded them to change the Rule of Faith by their additions to make so much necessary to salvation as is necessary to their affected Vniversal Dominion and to their Commodity and carnal ends And since Faction entred and hath torn the Church into many Sects the Greek the Roman the Armenian the Jacobites the Abassine and many more it seemeth meet to the more tyrannical Sect to call these several Religions and to say that every man that differeth from them in any of their opinions or additions which they please to call Articles of Faith is of another Religion And yet when they have divided the Church and damned the greatest part of Christians and raged with fire and sword against their brethren they confess themselves that it is no point of faith at all that it is of Divine right that the Bishop of Rome is St. Peters Successor and not only of humane right And must the Church be divided and most be damned for not believing or submitting to a humane Ordinance If we be of many Religions is not Popery then a humane Religion The very words of Smith Bishop of Chalcedon the chiefest of the English Popish Clergy are these Survey c. 5. To us it sufficeth that the Bishop of Rome is St. Peters Successor and this all the Fathers testifie and all the Catholick Church believeth but whether it be jure divino or humano is no point of faith And how do their Laicks here know what is a point of faith but by the testimony of their Priests He is the true Catholick Christian that hath but One even the Christian Religion And this is the case of the Protestants who casting off the additions of Popery adhere to the Primitive simplicity unity If Papists or any others corrupt this Religion with humane additions and innovations the great danger of these Corruptions is lest they draw them from the sound belief and serious practice of that antient Christianity which we are all agreed in And among Papists or any other Sect where their corruptions do not thus corrupt their Faith and Practice in the true Essentials it is certain that those corruptions shall not damn them For he that truly believeth all things that are essential to Christianity and liveth accordingly with serious diligence hath the promise of salvation And it is certain that what error that man holdeth it is either not inconsistent with true Christianity or not practically but notionally held and so not inconsistent as held by him For how can that he inconsistent which actually doth consist with it If a Papist or any other Sectaâ—y do seriously love God and his Brother and set his heart upon the life to come and give up himself to the merits and Grace of Jesus Christ and the sanctification of the holy Spirit to be fitted for that glory and liveth by faith above the world and mortifieth the desires of the flesh and liveth wilfully in no known sin but presseth after further degrees of holiness I doubt not of the salvation of that person No more then of the life of him that hath taken poison but into his mouth and spit it out again or let down so little as nature and antidotes do expel But I will not therefore plead for poison nor take it because men may live that thus take it Having answered this great Question Reader I am now come up to the subject of my following discourse and to tell thee that though it be a great question whether serious diligence in a corrupt Religion will save a man it is past all question and agreed on by all sides that no Religion will save a man that is not serious sincere and diligent in it If thou be of the truest Religion in the world and art not true thy self to that Religion the Religion is good but it is none of thine Objectively thou art of a true and good Religion the things in themselves are true and good but subjectively thou art sincerely of no Religion at all for if thou art not serious hearty and diligent in it it is certain that thou dost not truly entertain it and make it thine but it is thy Books that have the true Religion or thy tongue or fantasie or brain but not thy heart and the best meat on thy table or that goeth no further then thy mouth will never feed thee or preserve thy life So certain is the salvation of every holy mortified Christian and so certain the damnation of every ungodly worldly fleshly sensualist that I had a thousand fold rather have my soul in the case of a godly Anabaptist yea or a Monk or Fryar among the Papists that liveth a truly heavenly life in the love of God and man and in a serious diligent obedience to God according to his knowledge then in the case of a Protestant or whomsoever you can imagine to be rightest in his opinions that is worldly and sensual and a stranger if not an enemy to the power and serious practice of his own profest Religion and void of a Holy and Heavenly heart and life If ever such a man be saved the principles of all Religion do deceive us And certainly such mens hypocrisie doth aggravate their sin and will encrease their misery So many as there be in the world that profess themselves Christians and yet are not serious and diligent in their Religion but are ungodly neglecters or enemies of a holy life so many Hypocrites are in the world And I wonder that their consciences call them not Hypocrites when they stand up at the
NOW OR NEVER The Holy Serious Diligent Believer Justified Encouraged Excited and Directed And the Opposers and Neglecters Convinced by the Light of Scripture and Reason By Richard Baxter To be Communicated by such as want ability or opportunity themselves to plead the Cause of Serious Holiness for mens Conviction Luk. 7. 35. But wisdom is justified of all her children Nihil est ad defendendum Puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum Veritate facilius Ambros LONDON Printed in the Year 1662. The Contents IN the Preface the Question resolved Whether a Man may be saved in any Religion that is serious in practising it No Religion will save a man that is not true to it serious diligent in practising it Why the Author rather publisheth such common necessary things than confutation of the many calumnies publisht against himself His expectations from men And answer with Tertullian about sufferings An Advertisement about a passage cited out of the Homilies His Justification for opposing scorners enemies of Holiness out of the Church Homilies A Passage about Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians The Text opened Doct. 1. The work of this life cannot be done when this life is ended Doct. 2. Therefore while we have time we must do the work of this present life with vigour and diligenee 1. Time cannot be recalled 2. Life shall never be here restored 3. There is no doing this work in the life to come What it is to do it with our Might some cautions Instances of the work to be done with our might Obj. What Might have we Answered How to rouse up our selves to seriousness What to think of them that oppose a holy serious diligence in the service of God The greatness of the sin Especially if they are Preachers What it is in Religion that Hypocrites hate Seneca's testimony for seriousness A terrible passage in our Homilies against Scorners at godliness The greatness of their sin Obj It is not Godliness but humour faction disobedience hypocrisie c. Answered Advice to the flocks Obj. Be not righteous overmuch Answered Exhortation to serious diligence Obj. 1. I have lost my Time Answered Obj. 2. I have opposition and hinderances Obj. 3. I am dull and cold Directions and Cautions Reasons for pleading this cause with Ministers The Exhortation re-inforced The Devils designe to make use of Differences in smaller matters against Christianity and Godliness it self Such differences sects divisions shall be no excuse to the ungodly but aggravate their sin as being against that which all Sects and Parties were agreed in What that Religion is that we call men to be serious and diligent in 1. To live according to the Principles of Faith that among Christians are past controversie Ten named 2. To do that Materially that all are agreed of Ten duties named 3. To do that in the very Manner of Gods service that all are agreed in Ten particulars mentioned Obj. I will never believe that God delights in long and earnest prayers or is moved by the words of man Answered Obj. Is not your strict observation of the Lords Day a Controversie Answered The Conclusion exhortatory The Preface IT is a question more boldly than accurately debated by many Whether a man may not be saved in any Religion that is faithful to the principles of it by serious diligent practice The true Solution is this Religion is that which men hold and do to serve and please God 1. If men make themselves a Religion of serving Idols or Devils instead of God 2. Or if they place their service to God himself in things that are evil as what evil is there that some men have not brought into their Religion and fathered upon God the more diligent such men are in their Religion the more they sin 3. Or if they make themselves a Religion of irrational ludicrous ceremonies their greatest diligence in this will not save them 4. Or if they hold all the Essentials of the true Religion except some one it cannot save them while one thing is wanting which is Essential to that Religion and so necessary to salvation which is the case of real Hereticks For they are not indeed of that Religion if they want that which is Essential to it 5. Or if they hold all that is Essential to the true Religion only Notionally and hold any thing with it practically which is contradictory and inconsistent with it the soundness of their Notional belief will not save them from the mortal poison of their practical Heresie or Error But 1. Whosoever holdeth all that is necessary to salvation and is serious and diligent in living according thereunto shall be saved whatever error he holdeth with it For if he be serious and diligent in the Practice of all things necessary to salvation he hath all that is necessary to salvation viz. in Belief and Practice And it must needs follow that his Errors are either not concontradictory to the things necessary which he holdeth and practiseth or that he holdeth not those Errors practically but notionally as an opinion or uneffectual cogitation in a dream which provokes not to action and in such a case the error keeps no man from salvation What is necessary to be believed by them that never hear the Gospel it so little concerneth us to know that God hath not thought meet to make it so plain to us as things that more concern our selves But as it is certain that without the Atonements Satisfaction and Reconciliation made by Christ and without new terms of Grace to be judged by and without his Grace for the performance of their part no man can be saved that hath the use of reason so there is so much knowledge necessary to salvation as is necessary to engage the heart to love God above all and sincerely to obey his revealed will and to prefer the life to come before the transitory pleasures of this life Now if any man can prove to me that those that never heard the Gospel can thus love God and the life to come and obey sincerely without the knowledge of the person life death resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Declaration of the attractive Love and Goodness of God in him and in the work of our Redemption then I should believe that such Negative Infidels may be saved For God cannot damn a sanctified soul that sincerely loveth him But if the discovery of the Love of God in our Redemption be so necessary a moral means to ingage the heart now corrupted by sin and creature-love to the true Love of God that this cannot be wrought without it or if Christ give not his Spirit to produce the love of God in any but those that hear the Gospel and believe in him then no such persons can be saved by their Religion For Christ is the way to the Father and no man cometh to the Father but by him and and the Love of God is absolutely and of its self necessary to salvation
Creed or profess themselves Believers though the Congregation seeth not hypocrite written in their foreheads God seeth iâ— written on their hearts and those that converseâ— with them may see it written in their lives And yet these men are the forwardest to cry out against Hypocrites The Devil hath taught it them to stop the suspition and the chase of conscience as he hath taught the greatest Schismaticks or Church-dividers the Papists to cry out most against Schism and division and pretend to unity But these shifts do blind none but fools and forsaken consciences and the cheat that is now detected by the wife will quickly by God be detected before all the world Till then lâ—t them make merry in their deceits who would envy the drunkard the pleasure of an hours swinish sick delight This is their portion and this is their time As we have chosen and covenanted for another portion we are content to stay the time assigned till God shall tell them all the world who was sincere who the hypocrite For our parts we believe that he is most or least sincere that is most or least serious in the practice of his own profest Religion For my part I must profess that by the mercy of God I have made it the work of many a year to look about me and think wherein the felicity of man doth indeed consist And I have long been past doubt as much as I am that I am a man that it is not in transitory sensual delights and that these are such lean and dry commodities and pittiful pleasures leaving men so speedily in a forlorn state that I am contented that my greatest enemy have my part of them I have renounced them to God as any part of my felicity and I renounce them to men Let them do with me about these things as God will give them leave I will have a portion after death or Iâ—e have none And the case is so palpable that it is my admiration that the contrary deceit is consistant with the nature and reason of a man and that so many Gentlemen and Scholars and persons of an ingenuous education can no better distinguish and can possibly conquer their reason so easily with the presence or sensual delights and so easily make nothing of that which will be to morrow and for ever meerly because it is not to day Well I must say the Wisdom and Justice of God is abundantly seen in the Government of the world with the Liberty of the will and determining that all men should speed as they choose It may be the Reader will say be expected that instead of writing such popular discourses I should have vindicated my self against the accusations that in multitudes of Libels and Pamphlets are scattered abroad against me But doth he think that man is seriously a Christian that is not more zealous for God and Religion and the souls of men then for himself Have I nothing else to do with my time labour but plead cause of my own which God will so speedily and effectually plead Will it not be time enough to be justified at the Bar and day of God I am content that they carry it as they desire till then were it not more for their own and other mens sakes then mine Am I like to forsake my life all for Christ endure torments if I were called to it if I cannot endure to be reviled and slandered by passionate men Was it for nothing that our Lord would not answer for himself when he was accused before Pilate Shall they be able to calumniate under the threatnings of the Revenge of Heaven and shall I not be able to be silent under such a promise as Mat. 5. 10 11 12. The servant of the Lord must not strive Our Lord gave us an example of not reviling again when he was reviled He made himself of no reputation but endured the cross and contradiction of sinners despising the shame I confess I think when Gods interest and the good of others doth require it a man should not be wanting to his own defence and I have long ago written that which will satisfie the impartial But when I saw that it is like to tend to heats and set more on work I had rather let men call me all the names they can devise and voluminously accuse me of any thing that malice shall suggest then do any thing to foment contentions in the Church But if God convince me that it is my duty to detect the calumnies of man it is a work soon done But what good will it do the world for me to open the numerous untruths that other men have published or to confute every Script when all that I converse with are satisfied already and believe not the reproaches and all the evidence in the world will not satisfied those that will not read it or are resolved by their malice or interest never to be satisfied For my part I doubt not but God and their consciences will give them such a Confutation as shall be sufficient to them and me to end the controversie My work is to plead the Cause of God and holiness against the profane and sensual world and no further to plead any Cause of my own then is necessary to that If I must bear the effects of mens displeasure I had an hundred times rather it were for pleading for Holiness and Love and Peace and Concord against impiety uncharitableness and divisions then for defending my self or upon the account of Ceremonies or smaller matters And if for these I bear it I doubt not of more comfort at the present much less do I doubt of a better issue then false accusers can expect We shall be shortly upon even ground The time is short The pleasures of sin the triumphs of malice the sufferings of innocency are but for a moment I envy them not so short and dark day The Judge is at the door that will judge all again and set all strait and judge in righteousness When I am afraid of leaving a noisom and unrighteous world and ending all my pain and trouble and being beyond the reach of malice then I will fear what man can do Let them keep me out of heaven or deprive me of my peace and comfort if they can If they fear not the threatnings of God against the malicious and unjust surely I have less reason to fear their threatnings When they have done their worst to others let them save themselves from death if they can I am devoted to God and I never yet found cause to repent it I am resolved to use the utmost of my power for the interest of Holiness Charity and Peace and for loyalty to the King and obedience or patient submission to Superiors And if yet I bear the fruits of fury let those that insult over sufferers as if they were therefore guilty or miserable remember that we could have avoided it if we would and could
joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. And the enmity of the Cainites may teach the Christian what he should be and wherein his excellency lieth It is life and seriousness that your enemies hate and therefore it is life and seriousness that you must above all maintain though dead-hearted hypocrites never so much oppose and contradict you O sirs they are no trifles but the greatest things that God hath set before you in his Word and called you out to prosecute and possesse and your time of seeking them is short and therefore you have no time fortrifles nor any to lose in idleness and sloath And of all men Preachers should be most sensible of this If they were not against serious holiness in others it is double wickedness for such as they to be against it in themselves It is great things that they have to study and to speak of and such as call for the greatest seriousness and reverence and gravity in the speaker and condemn all trifling in matter or in manner A man that is sent to Christ to run for an immortal crown or to direct others in such a race to save his own or other mens souls from endless misery should be ashamed to fill up his time with trifles or to be slight and cold about such great and weighty things All the heart and soul and might is little enough for matters of such unspeakable importance When I hear Preachers or people spend time in little impertinent fruitless things that do but divert them from the great business of their lives or to dally with the greatest matters rather then to use them and treat of them with a seriousness suitable to their importance I oft think of the words of Seneca the serious Moralin as shaming the hypocrisie of such trifling Preachers and Professors of the Christian faith Verba copiosa componis interrogans vincula nectis dicis Acuta sunt ista Nihil acutius aristâ in quo est utilis Quaedam inutilia inefficacia ipsa subtilitas reddit that is You compose copious words and tye hard knots by curious questions and you say O these are acute things what is more acute then the peal of corn and yet what is it good for subtilty it self makes some things unprofitable and uneffectual Istae ineptiae Poetis relinquantur quibus aures oblectare propositum est dulcem fabulam nectere sed qui ingenia sanare fidem in rebus humanis retinere ac memoriam officiorum animis ingerere volunt serio loquantur inagnis viribus rem agant that is Leave these toyes or fooleries to Poets whose business is to delight the ear and to compose a pleasant fable But they that mean to heal mens understandings and retain credibility among men and to bring into mens minds the remembrance of their duties must speak seriously and do their business with all their might Demens omnibus merito videret He would justly by all be taken for a mad man that when the Town expecteth to be stormed by the enemies and others are busie at work for their defence will sit idle proposing some curious questions Nunquid tibi demens videtur si istis impendero operam nunc obsideor quid agam mors me sequitur vit a fugit Adversus haec me doce aliquid effice ut ego mortem non timeam vita me non effugiat And shall I not be taken for a mad man if I should busie my self about such things that am now besieged what shall I do death pursueth me teach me something against these make death not dreadful to me or life not to fly from me Si multum esset aetatis parce dispensandum erit ut sufficeret necessariis nunc quae dementia est supervacua discere in tanta temporis egestate If we had much time we should sparingly lay it out that it might suffice for necessary things But now what a madness is it to learn things needless or superfluous in so great a scarcity of time Metire ergo aetatem tuam tam multa non capit Measure thy age It s not enough for so many things Relinque istum ludum literarum Philosophis Rem magnificam ad syllabas vocant qui animum minuta discendo diminuunt conterunt id agunt ut Philosophia potius difficilis quam magna videatur Socrates qui totam Philosophiam revocavit ad mores hanc summam dixit esse sapientiam bona malaque distinguere Leave this learned play to Philosophers A gallant business They call us to syllables and debase and depress the mind by learning such little trivial things and make Philosophy rather to seem a matter of difficulty then great Socrates that revoked all Philosophy to manners 〈◊〉 call this the highest wisdom to distinguish good and evil Did a Seneca see by the light of nature so much of the necessity of seriousness and diligence about the matters of the soul and so much of the madness of spending words and time on trifles And yet shall there be found a man among professed Christians and among the Preachers of Faith and Holiness that plead for trifling and scorn at seriousness and count them moderate and wise that a Heathen brands as toyish and distracted What is it that cloudeth the glory of Christianity and keepeth so great a part of the world in Heathenism and Infidelity but this that among Christians there are so few that are Christians indeed and those few are so obscured by the multitude of formal trifling hypocrites that Christianity is measured and judged of by the lives of those that are no Christians Religion is a thing to be demonstrated and honoured and commended by practice words alone are ineffectual to represent its excellency to so blind a world that must know by feeling having lost their sight In our professed faith we mount unto the Heavens and leave poor unbelievers wallowing in the dirt O what a transcendent unconceivable glory do we profess to expect with God unto eternity And what manner of persons should they be in holy conversation and godliness that look for such a life as this How basely should they esteem those transitory things that are the food and felicity of the sensual world How patiently should they undergo contempt and scorn and whatsoever man can inflict upon them How studiously should they devote and refer all their time and strength and wealth and interest to this their glorious blessed end How seriously should they speak of and how industriously should they seek such sure such near such endless joyes Did professed Christians more exactly conform their hearts and lives to their profession and holy rule their lives would confute the reproaches of their enemies and command a reverent and awful estimation from the observers and do more to convince the unbelieving world of the truth and dignity of the Christian faith then all the
much of the labour of our lives And if all others did as some do by us alas how sad an employment should we have and how little would it trouble us to be silenced and laid aside If we were sick of the ambitious or covetous thirst we should then say that it is they that deny us wealth and honour that disappoint us But if we are Christians this is not our case but it is the thirst after your conversion and salvation which affecteth us and therefore it is you even you that linger in your sins and delay repentance and forget your home and neglect your souls it is you that disappoint us and you that are our afflicters and as much as you think you befriend us when you plead our cause against men of violence and rage it is you that shall answer for the loss of our time and labour and hope and for the grieving of your Teachers hearts Sinners what ever the Devil and raging passion may say against a holy life God and your own consciences shall be our witnesses that we desired nothing unreasonable or unnecessary at your hands I know it is the master-piece of the Devils craft when he cannot keep all Religion in contempt to raise up a dust of controversie in the world about names and forms and circumstances in Religion that he may keep men busily striving about these while Religion it self is neglected or unknown and that he may make men believe that they have some Religion because they are for one side or other in these controversies and especially that he may entice men to number the substantials of Religion it self among these lesser doubtful points and make sinners believe that it is but the precise opinion of one party that they reject while they reject the serious practice of all true Religion And so the Devil gets more by these petty quarrels and controversies occasioned by contentious empty men then he could have done by the open opposition of Infidels Heathens or the prophane So that neither I nor any man that opinionative men have a mind to quarrel with can tell how to exhort you to the very practice of Christianity it self but you are presently casting your thoughts upon some points wherein we are reported to differ from you or remembring some clamours of malicious men that prejudice against the person of the speaker make keep your souls from profiting to salvation by the doctrine which even your selvs profess If this be the case of any one of you I do not mean your consciences shall so scape the power or evidence of the truth Dost thou talk of our differences about Forms and Ceremonies Alas man what 's that to the message which we come about to thee what is that to the business that we are preaching of The question that I am putting to you is not whether you will be for this form of Church-Government or for that for a Ceremony or against it but it is whether you will hearken in time to God and conscience and be as busie to provide for Heaven as ever you have been to provide for Earth and whether you will set your selves to do the work that you are Created and Redeemed for This is the business that I am sent to call you to what say you will you do it and do it seriously without delay You shall not be able to say that I called you to a party a faction or some opinion of my own or laid your salvation upon some doubtful controversie No sinner thy conscience shall have no such shift for its deceit It is godlinesse serious and practical godliness that thou art called to It is nothing but what all christians in the world both Papists Greeks Protestants and all the parties among those that are true christians are agreed in the profession of That I may not leave thee in any darkness which I can deliver thee from I le tell thee distinctly though succinctly what it is that thou art thus importuned to and tell me then whether it be that which any christian can make doubt of 1. That which I intreat of thee is but to live as one that verily believeth there is a God and that this God is the Creator the Lord and Ruler of the world and that it is incomparably more of our business to understand and obey his Laws and as faithful Subjects to be conformed to them then to observe or be conformed to the Laws of Man And to live as men that do believe that this God is Almighty and the greatest of men are less then crawling worms to him and that he is infinitely wise and the wisdom of man is foolishness to him and that he is infinitely good and amiable and the best of creatures is dung and filth in comparison of him and that his love is the only felicity of man and that none are happy but those that do enjoy it and none that do enjoy it can be miserable and that riches and honors and fleshly delights are brutish vanities in comparison of the eternal love of God Live but as men that heartily believeth all this and I have that I come for And is any of this a matter of controversie or doubt not among Christians I am sure not among wise men It is no doubt to those in heaven nor to those in hell not to those that have not lost understanding upon earth they Live then according to these truths 2. Live as men that verily believe that Mankind is fallen into sinne and misery and that all men are corrupted and under the condemnation of the Law of God till they are delivered pardoned reconciled to God and made new creatures by a renewing restoring sanctifying change Live but as men that believe that this cure must be wrought and this great restoring change must be made upon your selves if it be not done already Live as men that have so great a work to look after And is this a matter of any doubt or controversie sure it is not to a Christian and me-thinks it should not be to any man else that knoweth himself any more then to a man in a dropsy whether he be diseased when he feels the thirst and sees the swelling Did you but know what cures and changes are necessarily to be made upon your diseased miserable souls if you care what becomes of them you would soon see cause to look about you 3. Live but as men that verily believe that you are Redeemed by the Son of God who hath suffered for your sins and brought you the tidings of pardon salvation which you may have if you will give up your selves to him who is the physitian of souls to be healed by him Live as men that believe that the infinite love of God revealed to lost mankind in the Redeemer doth bind us to love him with all our hearts and serve him with all our restored faculties and to work as those that have the greatest