PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691 · 543,786 words · 710 reading sections
Part 661
_Direct._ III. Cleanse your hearts of vanity and filthiness; and then your tongues will be more clean. It is a vain or unchaste heart that makes an unchaste tongue. _Direct._ IV. Remember what a shame it is to open and proclaim that filthiness of thy heart which thou mightest have concealed. Christ telleth us how to e…
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2. And yet I must tell you, that it is the common practice of these scorners to fasten more upon the concrete, than the abstract, the person, than the bare doctrine, and to oppose godly persons as such, when yet they say that they oppose not godliness. The reasons of this are these: (1.) Because they dare be bolder wit…
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1. Consider what it is that thou deridest. Dost thou know against what thou openest thy mouth? 1. Thou deridest or opposest men for loving God with all their heart, and soul, and might: and dost thou not confess that this is the duty of all men living? and that he is not worthy to be called a christian that loveth not …
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6. Thou scornest men because they will not set up themselves, their own wit, and will, against their Maker. God hath commanded them to "give all diligence to make their calling and election sure," 2 Pet. i. 10; and to "strive to enter in at the strait gate," Matt. vii. 13; and "day and night to meditate in his law," Ps…
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12. Thou deridest men because they will not be the voluntary destroyers of themselves. Were it not enough for thee to betray them unto others? or to murder any of thy neighbours thyself? but thou must wish them to do it with their own hands, and deride them if they will not? O cruel monster! that wouldst wish a man to …
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14. Thou scornest men for not being hypocrites; because they will be that in good earnest which thou hypocritically callest thyself, and wouldst be thought. Thou callest thyself a christian; and what is it but for being serious christians that thou deridest them? Thou takest on thee to believe in God; and what is it bu…
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20. Thou scornest men for keeping that covenant, which thou also madest with God in thy baptism thyself. At the same time thou speakest against the anabaptists, that will not have their children baptized, and deridest those that keep their covenant, which in baptism they made. What a monster of contradictions is an ung…
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7. Didst thou ever consider how many judgments are against thee, and whom thou dost contradict and scorn? (1.) If thou scorn at serious godliness, at preaching, hearing, reading, praying, meditating, and strict avoiding sin, thou contradictest God himself; for none in all the world is so holy, or so much for holiness, …
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13. What if men should yield unto thy derisions, and forsake a holy life to please thee? Wouldst thou undertake to justify them or be answerable for them before that God, that required holiness, and will condemn all the unholy? Wouldst thou bring them off, and save them from damnation? Alas! poor soul, how unable wilt …
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18. Thou art the shame of human nature; and makest man so like a devil, that it is hard to prove that the devils can do much worse than thou.[557] Can there be a greater sin, than for a creature to scorn and deride the image and laws of his Creator? and hate and oppose, or persecute men for obeying him, and seeking to …
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_Direct._ I. Avoid the company of those distracted men, that dare revile the servants and ways of God. There is that in your corrupted natures, which will incline you to imitate the most horrid blasphemies if you often hear them. We have seen it in our days, that in imitation of others, men have been drawn to sins not …
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_Direct._ III. Take heed of scorning at the very circumstances or modes of worship which you dislike; for such scorns come so near to the worship itself, that the minds of the hearers may easily be hence drawn to dishonour the substance for the sake of the derided mode or circumstance; and it plainly savoureth of a bol…
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_Direct._ IV. Be very fearful of making the persons of the godly contemptible, though for their real faults, lest the ungodly easily step thence to the contempt of godliness itself. For it is easy to observe how commonly the vulgar judge of the doctrine and religion by the person that professeth it. If a papist or a se…
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[474] See the directions for holy conference, part ii. ch. 10. [475] Psal. lvii. 8; xvi. 9; xxx. 12. [476] Matt. vii. 16-18; xii. 33, 34. [477] Lingua index mentis. Aristippus being asked, Quid differat sapiens ab insipiente? Mitte, inquit, ambos nudos ad ignotos, et disces. Laert. in Aristip. [478] Psal. lxvi. 2; …
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[510] Avoid both the extremes, which Petrarch mentioneth: Nam ut multi qui se bonos, sic aliqui qui se malos fingerent sunt reperti; quod vel humani favoris pestilentem auram; vet invisam bonorum temporalium sarcinam declinarent. Quod de Ambrosio lectum est. Quam similis amicitiæ adulatio? non imitatur tantum illam sed…
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[552] Saith Chrysostom, As those that run or act in public games, besides the prize which they hope for, do much increase their strength and health by preparing their bodies for it: so besides the hopes of heaven, it is no small comfort and advantage here in the way, which christians get by their holy lives. [553] Heb…
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_Directions about our Labour and Callings._ _Tit._ I. _Directions for the Right Choice of our Calling and ordinary Labour._ I have already spoken of christian works, and the duty of our callings, chap. iii. grand direct. x; and am now only to subjoin these few directions, for the right choosing of your callings: for …
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2. Naturally action is the end of all our powers; and the power were vain, but in respect to the act: to be able to understand, to read, to write, to go, &c. were little worth, if it were not that we may do the things that we are enabled to. 3. It is for action that God maintaineth us and our abilities: work is the mo…
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8. Labour and diligence do keep the mind upon a lawful employment, and therefore keep out many dangerous temptations, and keep the thoughts from vanity and sin; and also keepeth out vain words, and preserveth the soul from many sins, which a life of idleness and sloth doth cherish. It helpeth even unlearned persons mor…
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_Direct._ VI. The first and principal thing to be intended in the choice of a trade or calling for yourselves or children, is the service of God, and the public good; and therefore _(cæteris paribus)_ that calling which most conduceth to the public good is to be preferred. The callings most useful to the public good ar…
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_Direct._ X. It is not enough that you consider what calling and labour is most desirable, but you must also consider what you or your children are fittest for, both in mind and body. For that calling may be one man's blessing, which would be another's misery and undoing. A weak body cannot undergo those labours that r…
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By this you may see, 1. That it is not sloth or sinful idleness to omit a labour which we are unable to perform: as for the sick, and aged, and weak to be averse to labour through the power of an unresistible disease or weakness; or when nature is already wearied by as much labour as it can bear. 2. Or when reason allo…
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Sloth is a thing that is easily discerned: the signs of it are, 1. When the very thought of labour is troublesome and unpleasing, and ease seems sweet. 2. When duty is omitted hereby and left undone. 3. When the easy part of duty is culled out, and the harder part is cast aside. 4. When the judgment will not believe, t…
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3. Idleness and sloth are consumers of all the mercies of God. You are the barren ground where he soweth his seed, and none comes up. You return him but a crop of thorns and briers, and such ground is "nigh to cursing" (the final curse); "whose end is to be burned," Heb. vi. 8. Doth God daily feed, and clothe, and keep…
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14. Idleness is "a disorderly walking," 2 Thess. iii. 10, 11; out of the way that God hath appointed us to eat our bread in, and receive his blessing in. The large description of a virtuous woman, Prov. xxxi. 10, to the end, is worthy to be studied by the slothful. "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with…
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2. Those that have been unhappily bred up in idleness, have great cause to repent of their sinful life that is past, and to be doubly diligent to overcome this sin: if their parents have so far been their enemies, they should not continue enemies to themselves. Though usually the children of the rich and proud have thi…
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_Direct._ III. Settle yourselves in a lawful calling, which will keep you under a necessity of ordinary and orderly employment. As we cannot so easily bring our minds to a close attendance upon God, in the week days when we have our common business to divert us, as we can do on the Lord's day which is purposely set apa…
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_Direct._ XII. Lastly, watch against the slothfulness of those that are under your charges as well as against your own: some persons of honour and greatness are diligent themselves, and bestow their time for the service of God, their king and country, and their souls and families (and I would we had more such): but if,…
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If you should so mistake, these mischiefs would ensue: 1. Sinful zeal doth make men doubly sinful: as holy zeal is the fervency of our grace, so sinful zeal is the intention and fervency of sin. 2. It is an honouring of sin and Satan: as if sin were a work, and Satan a master, worthy to be fervently and diligently foll…
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The signs of holy zeal are these: 1. It is guided by a right judgment. It is a zeal for truth and good, and not for falsehood and evil, Rom. x. 2. 2. It is for God, and his church or cause, and not only for ourselves. It consisteth with meekness, and self-denial, and patience, as to our own concernments, and causeth us…
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4. Zeal is much of the strength of duty; and maketh it likeliest to attain its end. The prayer of the faithful that is effectual must be "fervent," Jam. v. 16. Zeal must make us importunate suitors, that will take no denial, if we will speed, Luke xviii. 1-8. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent t…
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7. Zeal and diligence are the victorious enemies of sin and Satan. They bear not with sin: they are to it as a consuming fire is to the thorns and briers. Zeal burneth up lust, and covetousness, and pride, and sensuality.[594] It maketh such work among our sins, as diligent weeders do in your gardens; it pulleth up the…
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4. One thought of the exceeding greatness of our work, one would think, should make us be zealous and diligent! To think what abundance of knowledge we have to get! and how much of every grace we want! and how much means we have to use! and how much opposition and many temptations to overcome! The humble sense of the w…
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16. Observe how an awakening pang of conscience, or the sight of death when it seems to be at hand, can waken the very wicked to some kind of serious diligence at the present; so that by their confessions, and cries, and promises, and amendments, while the fit was on them, they seemed more zealous than many that were s…
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_Direct._ X. Lastly, Be oft in the use of quickening means: live, if you can attain it, under a quickening, zealous minister. There is life in the word of God, which, when it is opened and applied livelily, will put life into the hearers. Read the holy Scriptures, and such lively writings as help you to understand and …
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_Directions about Sports and Recreations, and against Excess and Sin therein._ _Direct._ I. If you would escape the sin and danger, which men commonly run into by unlawful sporting, under pretence of lawful recreations, you must understand what lawful recreation is, and what is its proper end and use. No wonder else i…
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_Qual._ IX. 9. They are unlawful sports which are used to the wrong of others: as players, that defame and reproach other men; and hunters and hawkers, that tread down poor men's corn and hedges. _Qual._ X. 10. It is sinful to make sport of other men's sinning, or to act it ourselves so as to become partakers of it; w…
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3. At least it is plain that they are not the fittest recreations for any man that intends a lawful end. If you are students, or idle gentlemen, is not walking, or riding, or shooting, or some honest, bodily labour rather, that joineth pleasure and profit together, a fitter kind of exercise for you? Or if you are labou…
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6. And how much profaneness, or abuse of others, is in many of your stage-plays! How much wantonness and amorous folly, and representing sin in a manner to entice men to it, rather than to make it odious, making a sport and mock of sin; with a great deal more such evil! And your cards and dice are the exercise usually …
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_Quest._ X. Darest thou pray to God to bless thy cards, and dice, and plays, to the good of thy soul or body? Would not thy conscience tell thee, that this were but a mocking of God, as praying for that which thou dost not intend, and which thy pleasures are unfit for? And yet no recreation is lawful, which you may not…
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_Direct._ II. When you understand the true nature and use of recreations, labour to be acquainted just how much and what sort of recreation is needful to yourselves in particular. In which you must have respect, 1. To your bodily strength. 2. To your minds. 3. To your labours. And when you have resolved on it, what and…
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_Direct._ X. See to the sanctifying of all your recreations, when you have chosen such as are truly suited to your need; and go not to them before you need, nor use them beyond your need. See also that you lift up your hearts secretly to God, for his blessing on them; and mix them all along as far as you can with holy …
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_Directions about Apparel, and against the Sin therein committed._ _Direct._ I. Fitness is the first thing to be respected in your apparel, to make it a means to the end to which it is appointed. The ends of apparel are, 1. To keep the body warm. 2. To keep it from being hurt. 3. To adorn it soberly so far as beseemet…
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And there is a pride which consisteth in a desire to seem more mortified than you are, and more holy.[609] And so to affect those discriminating vestments which signify more of these than you have, is proud hypocrisy: and thus vile clothing is often the effect of pride; and if men fall into that sort of pride, as to de…
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_Quest._ III. Is it not lawful for a person that is deformed, to hide their deformity by their clothing? And for any persons to make themselves (by clothing, or spots, or painting) to seem to others as comely and beautiful as they can? _Answ._ The person, and the matter, and the end and reasons, the principle and the p…
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By this you may see, that it is not so much the bare fashion itself that is to be regarded, as the signification and the consequents of it. The same fashion when used by sober persons, to better signification and consequents, may be lawful, which otherwise is unlawful. Therefore those fashions that can hardly ever be s…
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_Direct._ X. Remember what a body it is that you so carefully and curiously adorn: well is it called by the apostle a "vile body," Phil. iii. 21. What a silly, loathsome lump of dirt is it! What a thing would the pox, or leprosy, or almost any sickness make it appear to be! What loathsome excrements within, are covered…
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_Direct._ XIII. Be not too censorious of others for different fashions of apparel. Be as plain and modest yourselves as you can; but lay no greater stress on the fashions of others than there is cause. If they be grossly impudent, disown such fashions and seek to reform them: but to carp at every one that goeth finer t…
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[567] See 1 Cor. ix. 6; 2 Cor. vi. 1; 1 Cor. xvi. 10; 2 Tim. ii. 15. [568] See before, chap. vi. tit. 4. of this: and in my "Treat. of Divine Life," part iii. [569] Ezek. xlvi. 1; Deut. xvi. 15; ii. 7; Exod. xxxiv. 21. [570] Socrates was mightily addicted to the exercise of his body, as necessary to the health of bo…
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[611] Phil. iii. 10; Rom. xii. 2; Eph. v. 11. [612] And no wonder, when the light of nature reduced the serious sort of philosophers to so plain a garb; as Socrates, Zenocrates, with almost all the Stoics and Cynics, and many of the Academics and Pythagoreans. [613] Of the proportion of our estates to be given, see m…
172 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.