PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691 · 543,786 words · 710 reading sections
Part 481
_Direct._ III. Meditation is no duty at all for a melancholy person, except some few that are able to bear a diverting meditation, which must be of something furthest from the matter which troubleth them; or except it be short meditations like ejaculatory prayers. A set and serious meditation will but confound you, and…
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_Direct._ VIII. When blasphemous or disturbing thoughts look in, or fruitless musings, presently meet them, and use that authority of reason which is left you, to cast them and command them out. If you have not lost it, reason and the will have a command over the thoughts as well as over the tongue, or hands, or feet. …
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_Direct._ XI. Think and speak as much of the mercy which you have received, as of the sin you have committed; and of the mercy which is offered you, as of what you want. You dare not say that the mercy you have received, is no more worthy to be remembered and mentioned, than all your sins. Shall God do so much for you,…
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_Direct._ XIV. Make not too great a matter of your own thoughts; and take not too much notice of them; but if Satan cast in molesting thoughts, if you cannot cast them out, set light by them, and take less notice of them. Making a great matter of every thought that is cast into your mind, will keep those thoughts in yo…
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_Direct._ XVII. Charge not your souls any deeper than there is cause with the effects of your disease. Indeed remotely a man that in distraction thinks or speaks amiss, may be said to be faulty, so far as his sin did cause his disease; but directly and of itself, the involuntary effects of sickness are no sin. Melancho…
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_Direct._ XX. Trust not to your own judgment, in your melancholy state, either as to the condition of your souls, or the choice and conduct of your thoughts or ways; but commit yourselves to the judgment and direction of some experienced, faithful guide. You are no fit judges of your own condition, nor of the way of yo…
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3. Till you are renewed you study in the dark, and without that internal sight and sense, by which the life, and spirit, and kernel of all that you study must be known. All that the Scripture saith of the darkness of a state of sin, and of the illumination of the Spirit, and of the marvellous light of regenerate souls,…
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Know as much as you can know of the works of God, and of the languages and customs of the world; but still remember, that to know God in Christ better, is the growth which you must daily study: and when you know them most, you have still much more need to know better these great things which you know already, than to k…
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I mean not that you should overdo, and overthrow your brains and bodies, nor forbear such sober exercise as is most necessary to your health; for a sick body is an ill companion for a student, and much more a crazed brain. But time-wasters are lovers of pleasure or idleness, more than of knowledge and holiness: and wis…
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_Direct._ XIII. Take nothing as universally necessary in religion, which was not so taken in the days of the apostles, and primitive church; and take that for the safest way to heaven which the apostles went who certainly are there: value the apostolical purity, simplicity, charity, and unity; and follow not them that …
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Most students through slothfulness look no further for knowledge than into their books; and their learning lieth but in knowing what others have written, or said, or held before them; especially where the least differing from the judgment of the party which is uppermost or in reputation, doth tend to hazard a man's hon…
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Bad company is the common ruin of both: their own sensuality is easily stirred up by the temptations of the sensual; and their consciences overborne by the examples of other men's voluptuous lives. It imboldeneth them to sin, to see others sin before them; as cowards themselves are drawn on in an army to run upon the f…
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_Instance_ I. The first and second causes are conjoined in their operations, and therefore must not be put asunder. If the way of influx, concourse, or co-operation be dark and unsearchable to you, do not deny that it is, because you see not how it is. The honour of the first and second cause also are conjunct, accordi…
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_Instance_ VI. Many separate general and special grace and redemption, as inconsistent, when they are conjunct; when the general is the proper way and means of accomplishing the ends of the special grace, and is still supposed. As if God could not give more to some, if he give any thing to all. Or as if he gave nothing…
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_Instance_ XVI. Thus many separate the special love of saints from the common love of man as man. As if they could not love a saint, unless they may hate an enemy, and despise all others, and deny them the love which is answerable to their natural goodness. _Instance_ XVII. Thus many separate universal or catholic uni…
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The nearer you apprehend yourselves to death and heaven, the greater help you have to be mortified and heavenly. This will make you serious, and keep up right intentions, and keep out wrong ones, and powerfully help you against temptations, that when you have studied to save others, you may not be cast-aways; nor be ch…
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[301] Sicut ignis in aqua durare non potest, ita neque turpis cogitatio in Dei amante: quoniam omnis qui Dei amator est, etiam laboris amans est: cæterum labor voluntarius, naturaliter voluptati inimicus existit. Marcus Erem. [302] See the directions for prayer, hearing, reading, and the sacrament. Part ii. [303] See…
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The passions are to be considered, 1. As in themselves, and the sin of them as respecting God and ourselves only: and so I am to speak of them here. 2. As they are a wrong to others, and a breach of the commandments which require love and duty towards our neighbour: and so I shall speak of them after. Passions are not…
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_Direct._ V. Labour after wisdom, strength of reason, and a solid judgment; for passion is cherished by folly. Children are easily overthrown, and leaves are easily shaken with every little wind; when men keep their way, and rocks and mountains are not shaken. Women and children, and old, and weak, and sick people are …
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_Direct._ XV. Have still some pertinent scripture ready to rebuke thy passions; that thou mayst say as Christ to Satan, "Thus it is written." Speak to it in the name and word of God; though the bare words will not charm these evil spirits, yet the authority will curb them. For this "word is quick and powerful, a discer…
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_Direct._ III. Suspect all love to creatures which is very strong and violent, and easily kindled, and hardly moderated or quieted. Though you might think it is for some spiritual end or excellency, that you love any person or any thing, yet suspect it if it be so easy and strong; because that which is truly and purely…
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_Direct._ I. The greatest of all means to cast out all sinful love, is to keep the soul in the love of God, Jude 21, wholly taken up in admiring him, serving him, praising him, and rejoicing in him: of which see chap. iii. direct. xi. We see that they that are taken up in the love and service of one person, are not apt…
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_Direct._ V. Look on the worst of the creature with the best, and foresee what it will be when it withereth, and what it will appear to you at the last. I have applied this against worldliness before, chap. iv. part vi. and I shall afterwards apply it to the lustful love. Bring your beloved creature to the grave, and s…
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_Direct._ I. Be well acquainted with your own condition, and consider what it is that you have most need of; and then you will find that you have so much grace and mercy to desire for your souls, without which you are lost for ever, and that you have a Christ to desire, and an endless life with God to desire, that it w…
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_Direct._ IV. Ask your hearts seriously whether God in Christ be enough for them, or not? If they say, no, they renounce him and all their hope of heaven; for no man takes God for his God that takes him not for his portion, and as enough for him: if they say, yea, then you have enough to stop the mouth of your fleshly …
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_Direct._ IX. Remember that it is one of the greatest plagues on this side hell, to be given up to our own desires, and that by your eagerness and discontents you provoke God thus to give you up. "So I gave them up to their own heart's lust, and they walked in their own counsels: Oh that my people had hearkened to me!"…
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_Direct._ XIV. In all your desires, remember the account as well as the thing desired. Think not only what it is now at hand, but what account you must make to God of it; "for to whom men give or commit much, of them they require the more," Luke xii. 48. Will you thirst after more power, more honour, more wealth, when …
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Mirth is sinful, 1. When men rejoice in that which is evil; as in the hurt of others, or in men's sin, or in the sufferings of God's servants, or the afflictions of the church, or the success or prosperity of the enemies of Christ, or of any evil cause: this is one of the greatest sins in the world, and one of the grea…
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_Direct._ II. Yet do not destroy nature by overmuch heaviness, under pretence that thou hast no right to be merry. For, 1. The very discovery of thy misery puts thee into the fairer hopes of mercy. 2. And many of God's children live long without assurance of their justification, and yet should not therefore cast away a…
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_Direct._ V. Take heed that the flesh defile not your mirth, by dropping in any obscene or ribald talk, or by stirring up fleshly lust and sin. Which it will quickly do, if not well watched; and holy mirth and cheerfulness is very apt to degenerate on a sudden into sinful mirth. _Direct._ VI. Consider what your mirth …
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Hope is nothing but a desirous expectation; therefore the directions given before, against sinful love and desire, may suffice also against sinful hopes, save only for the expecting part. Hope is sinful, 1. When it is placed ultimately upon a forbidden object: as to hope for some evil to yourselves which you mistakingl…
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_Direct._ VII. O turn your souls to those blessed hopes of life eternal, which are sent you from heaven by Jesus Christ, and set before you in the holy Scriptures, and proclaimed to you by the messengers of grace. Doth God offer you sure, well-grounded hopes of living for ever in his joy and glory? And do you neglect t…
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7. You cannot abide the serious, frequent thoughts of God in secret; but had rather stuff your minds with thoughts of your horses, or hawks, or bravery, or honour, or preferments, or sports, or entertainments, or business and labours in the world; so that one hour of a thousand or ten thousand was never spent in seriou…
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_Direct._ X. Remember thy near approaching end, and how dreadful it will be to be found and judged among the malignant enemies of holiness. "And if the righteous be scarcely saved, where then shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" 1 Pet. iv. 18. Then what wouldst thou give to be one of those holy ones that now thou …
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_Direct._ VI. You should love it the worse because it is a hurting passion, and an enemy to love and to another's good. You are never angry but it inclineth you to hurt those that angered you, if not all others that stand in your way: it putteth hurting thoughts into your mind, and hurting words into your mouths, and i…
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_Object._ V. But there are none that will not be angry sometimes; no, not the best of you all. _Answ._ The sin is never the better because many commit it. And yet, if you live not where grace is a stranger, you may see that there are many that will not be angry easily, frequently, furiously, nor misbehave themselves i…
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_Direct._ VII. If you cannot easilier quiet or restrain yourselves, go away from the place and company. And then you will not be heated by contending words, nor exasperate others by your contending. When you are alone the fire will assuage. Prov. xiv. 7, "Go away from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest …
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_Direct._ XVI. Covenant with some faithful friend that is with you to watch over you and rebuke your passions as soon as they begin to appear; and promise them to take it thankfully and in good part; and perform that promise, that you discourage them not. Either you are so far weary of your sin and willing to be rid of…
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_Direct._ V. Remember God's particular mercies to yourselves: for those will persuade you that he will use you kindly, when you find that he hath done so already. As when Manoah said, "We shall surely die because we have seen God;" his wife answered, "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received an o…
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_Direct._ VI. Remember how you honour the devil by fearing him, and pleasure him by thus honouring him. And will you not abhor to honour and please such an enemy of God and you? This is it that he would have; to be feared instead of God: he glorieth in it as part of his dominion: as tyrants rejoice to see men fear them…
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_Direct._ I. Bottom thy soul and hopes on Christ, and lay up thy treasure in heaven; be not a worldling that liveth in hope of happiness in the creature; and then thou art so far above the fear of men, as knowing that thy treasure is above their reach, and thy foundation and fortress safe from their assaults.[344] It i…
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_Direct._ III. Remember what man is that thou art afraid of. He is a bubble raised by Providence, to toss about the world, and for God to honour himself by or upon. He is the mere product of his Maker's will: his breath is in his nostrils! he is hastening to his dust, and in that day his worldly hopes and thoughts do p…
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I know you will say that it is only as God's instruments that you fear them, and that if you were certain of his favour, and were not first afraid of his wrath, you should not fear the wrath of men. _Answ._ By this you may see then what it is to be disobedient, and to cherish your fears of God's displeasure, and to hin…
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_Direct._ V. Either you fear suffering from men as guilty or as innocent; for evil-doing, or for well-doing, or for nothing. If as guilty and for evil-doing, turn your fears the right way, and fear God, and his wrath for sin, and his threatenings of more than men can inflict; and acknowledge the goodness of justice bot…
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_Direct._ VII. Love better the holy image of God upon your souls, and then you will be glad of the great helps to holiness which sufferings do afford. Who findeth not that adversity is more safe and profitable to the soul than prosperity? especially that adversity which Christ is engaged to bless to his servants, as be…
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_Direct._ IX. Remember how small and short the suffering will be, and how great and long the glorious reward. It is but a little while, and the pain and shame will all be past; but the glory will be never past: what the worse now is Stephen for his stones, or John Baptist for being beheaded, or Paul for his bonds and a…
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_Direct._ XVI. Think of the dangerous effects of your immoderate fear. It is the way with Peter to deny your Lord: yea, the way to apostasy, or any wickedness which men shall drive you to by terrors. If you were where the Turk is now tyrannizing among christians, if you overcome not your fear, he might overcome your fi…
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_Direct._ XXII. Turn your fear of the instruments of the devil into pity and compassion to men in such lamentable misery; and pray for them as Christ and Stephen did: foresee now the misery that is near them. When you begin to be afraid of them, suppose that just now were the day of judgment, and you saw how they will …
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But it is the passion of grief as in its excess that I am now to speak against. And it is in excess, 1. When we grieve for that which we ought not at all to grieve for; that is, either for some good, or for a thing indifferent that is neither good nor bad; both which come from the error of the mind. 2. When we grieve t…
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_Direct._ VI. Manage all your affairs, especially those of your souls, with prudent foresight; and look not only on things as they appear at hand.[360] Judge not by sense, but by reason; for sense cannot foresee, but pleaseth itself at present with that which must be bitterness in the end. Thus, carnal delight is the c…
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_Direct._ X. Befriend not your own excessive sorrows, by thinking them to be your duty, nor suspect lawful mirth and joy as if it were a sin, or a thing unbecoming you. For if you take your sin for your duty, and plead for it, and your duty for your sin, and plead against it, you are far from the way of amendment and r…
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_Direct._ XIV. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of reason (that is, all feebleness and cowardice of mind, and a melancholy, a peevish, passionate disposition): and labour to keep up the authority of reason, and to keep all your passions subject to your wills; which must be done by christian …
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1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind. (This you know by feeling.) 2. It is a destroyer of bodily health and life. For "worldly sorrow worketh death," 2 Cor. vii. 10. Prov. xvii. 22, "A merry heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with i…
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Despair is the contrary to hope.[365] There is a despair that is a duty, and a despair that is a sin, and a despair that is indifferent, as being but of natural and not of moral kind. Despair is a duty, when it is contrary to the sinful hope before described; that is, 1. When we despair of any thing which God hath told…
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_Direct._ II. Understand well the true nature of the condition of this universal promise; how much it consisteth in the will or acceptance of Christ and life as offered by the gospel; or in our hearty consent to the baptismal covenant, that God be our God and Father, our Saviour and Sanctifier: and that in God's accoun…
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_Answ._ They that understand what they say, must say but this: that this word, "the day of grace," hath divers senses. 1. Properly by the day of grace is meant, the time in which, according to the tenor of the gospel, God will pardon and accept those that repent; and in this sense the time of life is the time of grace;…
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_Answ._ Saul's sin provoked God to reject him from being king of Israel, and to appoint another in his stead; but if Saul had repented he had been saved after that, though not restored to the crown: and it is true, that as God withdrew from him the spirit of government, so many before death, by the greatness of their s…
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_Direct._ VII. Understand well the difference between mortal sins and infirmities, that you may not think that every sin is a sign of death or gracelessness; but may know the difference between those sins which should make you think yourselves unjustified, and those sins which only call for particular humiliation, bein…
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_Direct._ IX. Remember when you have sinned, how sure, and sufficient, and ready a remedy you have before you, in Jesus Christ and the covenant of grace; and that it is God's design in the way of redemption, not to save any man as innocent, that none may glory, but to save men that were first in sin and misery, and fet…
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_Direct._ X. Take heed of being so blind or proud in thy humility, as to think that thou canst be more willing to be a servant of Christ, than he is to be thy Saviour, or more willing to have grace, than God is to give it thee, or more willing to come home to Christ, than he is to receive and welcome thee. Either thou …
699 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.