PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691 · 543,786 words · 710 reading sections
Part 541
_Direct._ XI. Write out those sentences that contain the sense and substance of the gospel, and often read them. Write them on thy very chamber walls, and set them still before thine eyes;[375] and try whether they agree with the words of him that tempteth thee to despair: such as these which I here transcribe for thee…
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_Direct._ XIX. Think how few there are in the world so likely for mercy as thyself. Look not only on a few that are better than thyself; but think how five parts of the world are open infidels and heathens; and of the sixth part that are christians, how few are reformed from popish and barbarous ignorance and superstit…
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_Direct._ XXVI. Understand in what time and order it is that Christ giveth his grace and saveth his people from their sins; that he doth it not all at once, but by degrees, and taketh all the time of this present life to do it in. As able as your Physician is, he will not finish the cure till your life be finished. The…
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[323] See Plutarch of Tranquillity of Mind. [324] 1 Pet. ii. 21-24; Isa. liii. [325] Solus Amor facit hominem bonum vel malum. Paul Scaliger. Thes. p. 721. [326] Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it (much more divine love); but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it. Lord Bacon, Essay 10. [327] …
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[348] The seven brethren that suffered in Africa under Hunnericus, Incedebant cum fiducia ad supplicium quasi ad epulas, decantantes, Gloria Deo in excelsis, &c. Votiva nobis hæc est dies, et omni solennitate festivior. Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile, ecce nunc dies est salutis, quando pro fide nunc domini dei nostri per…
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_General Directions for the Government of the Senses (by a Life of Faith)._ The most wise and gracious God, having been pleased to constitute us of soul and body, that our nobler part, in its preparation and passage to a nobler state, might have a companion and instrument suited to the lower place and employment, thro…
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_Direct._ IV. To this end the constant use of a lively belief of the word of God and the things unseen of the other world, must be the first and principal means by which our reason must govern every sense, both as to their restraint and their right employment. And therefore living by sight and living by faith are oppos…
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_Direct._ VII. Sense must not only be kept out of the throne, but from any participation in the government; and we must take heed of receiving it into our counsels, or treating with it, or hearing it plead its cause; and we must see that it get nothing by striving, importunity, or violence, but that it be governed desp…
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_Direct._ IX. Though sense must be thus absolutely ruled, its proper power must neither be disabled, prohibited, nor denied. You must keep your horse strong and able for his work, though not headstrong and unruly; and you must not keep him from the use of his strength, though you grant him not the government. Nor will …
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_Direct._ X. Sense must not be made the judge of matters that are above it, as the proper objects of faith and reason; nor must we argue negatively from our senses in such cases, which God in nature never brought into their court. We cannot say that there is no God, no heaven, no hell, no angels, no souls of men, becau…
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_Direct._ XI. Look not upon any object of sense with sense alone, nor stop in it, but let reason begin where sense doth end, and always see by faith or reason the part which is invisible, as well as the sensible part by sense. By that which is seen, collect and rise up to that which is unseen. If God had given us an ey…
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_Direct._ XIV. See God the End of every creature; how all things are ordered for his service; and be sure you stop not in any creature, without referring it to a higher end: else, as I have oft told you, you will be but like a child or illiterate person, who openeth a book, and admireth the workmanship of the printer, …
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_Direct._ XVIII. Live as in a constant course of obedience; and suppose you saw the law of God also written upon every thing you see. As when you look on any tempting beauty, suppose you saw this written on the forehead, Thou shalt not lust--Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge--They shall not enter into the king…
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_Particular Directions far the Government of the Eyes._ _Direct._ I. Know the uses that your sight is given you for. As, 1. To see the works of God, that thereby your minds may see God himself. 2. To read the word of God, that therein you may perceive his mind. 3. To see the servants of God whom you must love, and the…
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_Direct._ V. Remember that your eye is much of your honour or dishonour, because it is the index of your minds. You see that which is next the mind itself, or the most immediate beam of the invisible soul, when you see the eye. How easily doth a wandering eye, a wanton eye, a proud eye, a luxurious eye, a malicious eye…
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_Directions for the Government of the Ear._ _Direct._ I. Employ your ears in the duties which they were made for; and to that end understand those duties.[394] Which are as followeth: 1. To be the organ of reception of such communications from others, as are necessary for our converse in the world, and the duties of o…
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_Direct._ II. Know which are the sins of the ear that you may avoid them. And they are such as follow: 1. A careless ear, which heareth the word of God, and the private exhortations of his servants, as if it heard them not. 2. A sottish, sleepy ear, that heareth the word of God but as a confused sound, and understandet…
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_Direct._ III. Know when the hearing of evil, and not hearing good, is your sin: that is, 1. When it is not out of any imposed necessity, but of your voluntary choice; and when you might avoid it upon lawful terms, without a greater hurt, and will not. 2. When you hate not the evil which you are necessitated to hear, a…
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_Direct._ VIII. Specially labour to mortify those sins, which the unavoidable discourse of your company doth most tempt you to; that where the devil doth most to hurt you, you may there do most in your own defence. Doth the talk which you hear tend most to heresy, seduction, or to turn you from the truth? Study the mor…
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_Directions for governing the Taste and Appetite._ _Tit._ 1. _Directions against Gluttony._ The most that is necessary to be said to acquaint you with the nature and evil of this sin, is said before in chapter iv. part vii. against flesh-pleasing. But something more particularly must be said, 1. To show you what is a…
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II. The causes of gluttony are these: 1. The chiefest is an inordinate appetite, together with a fleshly mind and will, which is set upon flesh-pleasing as its felicity. "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh," Rom. viii. 6, 7. This gulosity, which Clemens Alexandrinus calleth the throat devil, …
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6. Another incentive is the custom of urging and importuning others to eat still more and more; as if it were a necessary act of friendship. People are grown so uncharitable and selfish, that they suspect one another, and think they are not welcome, if they be not urged thus to eat; and those that invite them think the…
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8. Another cause of gluttony is their unacquaintedness with those rational and spiritual exercises in which the delightful fruits of abstinence do most appear. A man that is but a painful, serious student, in any noble study whatsoever, doth find a great deal of serenity and aptitude come by temperance, and a great dea…
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1. Luxury and gluttony is a sin exceeding contrary to the love of God: it is idolatry: it hath the heart, which God should have; and therefore gluttons are commonly and well called belly-gods, and god-bellies, because that love, that care, that delight, that service and diligence which God should have, is given by the …
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2. Gluttony is self-murder; though it kill not suddenly, it killeth surely; like the dropsy, which killeth as it filleth, by degrees.[405] Very many of the wisest physicians do believe that of those who overlive their childhood, there is scarce one of twenty, yea, or of a hundred that dieth, but gluttony or excess in e…
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3. Gluttony is also a deadly enemy to the mind, and to all the noble employments of reason, both religious, civil, and artificial.[407] It unfits men for any close and serious studies, and therefore tends to nourish ignorance, and keep men fools. It greatly unfits men for hearing God's word, or reading, or praying, or …
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13. It is a sin that is a great enemy to the common good: princes and commonwealths have reason to hate it, and restrain it as the enemy of their safety. Men have not money to defray the public charges, necessary to the safety of the land, because they consume it on their guts: armies and navies must be unpaid, and for…
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18. Those are the worst sins, that have least repentance; but gluttony is so far from being truly repented of by the luxurious epicure, that he loveth it, and careth and contriveth how to commit it, and buyeth it with the price of much of his estate. 19. It is the greater sin, because it is so frequently committed; me…
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_Direct._ V. Forget not how the first sin came into the world, even by eating the forbidden fruit. And let the slain creatures whose lives are lost for you, remember you of that sin which brought the burden on them for your sakes. And then every piece of flesh that you see, will appear to you as with this caution writt…
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It is a very great oversight in the education of youth, that they be not taught betimes some common and necessary precepts about diet, acquainting them what tendeth to health and life, and what to sickness, pain, and death; and it were no unprofitable or unnecessary thing, if princes took a course that all their subjec…
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Thirdly, it is certain also, that the common custom and opinion is no certain rule; nay, certainly it is an erring rule; for judging by appetite hath brought men ordinarily to take excess to be but temperance. All these then are false measures. If I should here presume to give you any rules for judging of a right meas…
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_Answ._ This is the pleading of pride for gluttony; rather than you will be talked against by belly-gods, or ignorant, fleshly people, you will sin against God, and prepare a feast or sacrifice for Bacchus or Venus. The ancient christians were torn with beasts, because they would not cast a little frankincense into the…
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_Answ._ Yes, we see by certain experience, that most men know not when they have enough, and do exceed when they think they do not. There is not one of many, but is much more prone to exceed, than to come short, and abundance sin in excess, for one that sinneth by defect: and is sin so small a matter with you, that you…
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_Direct._ XII. Remember what thy body is, and what it will shortly be, and how loathsome and vile it will be in the dust. And then think how far such a body should be pampered and pleased; and at what rates.[429] Pay not too dear for a feast for worms: look into the grave, and see what is the end of all your pleasant m…
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Yet after all this, I shall remember you that you run not into the contrary extreme: place not more religion in external abstinence and fastings than you ought: know your own condition, and how far either fasting or eating is really a help or a hinderance to you in those greater things which are their ends, and so far …
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Therefore (except in some great, extraordinary case of necessity) it is not so much the present, as the future foreseen effects, which must direct you to know your measure. Reason can foresee, though appetite cannot. Future effects are usually great and long; when present effects may be small and short. He that will do…
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4. Another rank of bibbers are those, that though they haunt not alehouses or taverns, yet have a throat for every health or pledging cup that reacheth not to drunkenness; and use ordinarily to drink many unnecessary cups in a day to pledge (as they call it) those that drink to them; and custom and compliment are all t…
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3. Another cause of tippling and drunkenness is, a wicked heart, that loveth the company of wicked men, and the foolish talk, and cards, and dice, by which they are entertained. One sin enticeth down another:[434] it is a delight to prate over a pot, or rant and game, and drive away all thoughts that savour of sound re…
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III. The greatness of this sin appeareth in what is said before of gluttony. More specially, 1. Think how base a master thou dost serve, being thus a slave to thy throat. What a beastly thing it is, and worse than beastly! for few beasts but a swine will be forced to drink more than doth them good. How low and poor is …
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7. How base a price dost thou set upon thy Saviour and salvation, that wilt not forbear so much as a cup of drink for them! The smallness of the thing showeth the smallness of thy love to God, and the smallness of thy regard to his word and to thy soul. Is that loving God as God, when thou lovest a cup of drink better?…
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10. Thou makest thyself unfit for any thing that is good. Oh how unfit art thou to read, or hear, or meditate on the word of God! how unfit to pray! how unfit to receive the holy sacrament! what a dreadful thing is it to think of a drunken man speaking to God in prayer![439] Thy best posture till thou art sober is to b…
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Thou disposest thyself to almost every sin.[440] Drunkenness breaketh every one of the commandments, by disposing men to break them all. It disableth them to the duties of the first commandment above all, viz. to know God, and believe, and trust, and love him: it utterly unfitteth men for the holy worship required in t…
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12. Lastly, Thou sinnest not alone, but temptest others with thee to perdition. It is the great crime of Jeroboam that he made Israel to sin. The judgment of God determineth those men to death, that not only do wickedness, "but have pleasure in them that do it," Rom. i. 32. And is not this thy case? Art thou not Satan'…
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_Answ._ None but some sot, that had first drank away his own understanding. I have known physicians that have been drunkards themselves, and they have been apt to plead for their own vice; but they quickly killed themselves, and all their skill could not save their lives from the effects of their own bestiality; even a…
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_Answ._ A beast may do so, that hath no higher faculty to guide him. And a man may take in the consideration of his thirst to guide his reason in judging of the due quantity and time; but not otherwise. A man must never drink to please his appetite, either against reason, or without it. And no man must so captivate his…
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_Quest._ II. Dost thou believe that there is a God that is the Governor of the world, or not? If not, tell me how thou camest to be a man? And how came thy tongue and palate to taste thy drink or meat, any more than thy finger? Look on thy finger and on thy tongue, and thou canst see no reason why one should taste and …
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_Quest._ V. Dost thou consider into how dangerous a case thou puttest thyself when thou art drunk, or joinest thyself with drunkards? What abundance of other sins thou art liable to? And in what peril thou art of some present judgment of God? Even those examples in Scripture which encourage thee should make thee trembl…
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_Quest._ IX. Wouldst thou have all thy friends and children do as thou dost? If so, what would become of thy estate? It would be a mad world if all were drunkards. Wouldst thou have thy wife a drunkard? If she were, thou wouldst scarce be confident of her chastity. Wouldst thou have thy servants drunkards? If they were…
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_Quest._ XV. Dost thou not think in thy heart, that sober, temperate, godly men do live a more quiet and comfortable life than thou, as well as an honester and safer life? If thou do think so, why wilt thou not imitate them? It is as free for thee to choose as them. If thou think they do not, consider, that as they hav…
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_Quest._ XIX. What if thou shouldst die in a drunken fit? Wouldst thou not thyself take thy case to be desperate or dangerous? Why, it may be so for aught thou knowest; it hath been the case of many a one. But if it be not so, yet to die a drunkard is as certain damnation, as to die in drunkenness. If the guilt of the …
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_Quest._ VII. Yea, couldst thou not forbear if it were to save the life of thy wife, or child, or friend, or neighbour? If thou knewest that forbearing thy forbidden cup would save the life of any one of them, couldst thou not, nay, wouldst thou not do it? If not, thou tellest the world what a husband, what a father, w…
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_Direct._ IV. Reckon not upon long life, but think how quickly death will come, and that for aught thou knowest thou mayst die that day; and how dreadful a case it would prove to thee, to be found among tipplers, or to die before thou art truly converted. Think of this before thou goest out of thy doors; and think of i…
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_Direct._ IX. Avoid the tempting ceremonies of drunkards, such as drinking healths, or urging others to pledge them, or drink more. Plutarch saith, that when Agesilaus was made the master of a feast, and was to prescribe the laws for drinking, his law was, If there be wine enough, give every one what he asketh for; if …
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_Direct._ XV. If all this will not serve, I have yet another remedy if thou be but willing: confess thyself unfit to govern thyself, and give up thyself to the government of some other; thy wife, thy parents, or thy friend. And here these things are to be done: 1. Engage thy wife, or friend, to watch over thee, and not…
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_Tit._ 1. _Directions against Fornication and all Uncleanness._ Though as they are sins against another, adultery and fornication are forbidden in the seventh commandment, and should there be handled, yet as they are sins against our own bodies, which should be members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost, as 1 Co…
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2. Besides Scripture, God hath planted in nature a special pudor and modesty to restrain this sin; and they that commit it do violate the law of nature, and sin against a witness and condemner that is within them. And scarce any one of them ever committeth it boldly, quietly, and fearlessly, till first they have harden…
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_Answ._ That this strictness is necessary, and is an excellency in God's law, appeareth thus. 1. By the greatness of the mischief which else would follow: to be remiss in preventing such a confusion in the world, would be an enmity to the world. 2. In that man's nature is so violently inclined to break over, that if th…
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9. Yea, lust corrupteth the mind of the person himself, if it be not very much restrained and moderated. It turneth it from the only excellent pleasure, by the force of that brutish kind of pleasure.[450] It carrieth away the thoughts, and distempereth the passions, and corrupteth the fantasy, and thereby doth easily c…
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12. And it is also very observable, that when men have once mastered conscience in this point, and reconciled it to this sin of fornication, it is a hundred to one that they are utterly hardened in all abomination, and scarce make conscience of any other villany whatsoever![453] If once fornication go for nothing, or a…
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14. Lastly, the miserable effects of it, and the punishments that in this life have attended it, do tell us how God accounteth of the sin: it hath ruined persons, families, and kingdoms; and God hath borne his testimony against it, by many signal judgments, which all histories almost acquaint you with.[455] As there is…
767 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.