Part 1 › Chapter 3 › Direction 9 › Tit. 3. Temptations to draw us off from duty., A Christian Directory by Richard Baxter (1673) | AskReformation

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:1149p. 124–125

§. 16. Direct. 8. Satan will do what he can to make it go worse with you after, than before. He¹ will discourage you if he can, by hindering your success, that he may make you think it is to no purpose: so many Preachers, because they have fished long and catched nothing, grow cold and heartless, and ready to sit down, and say as Jer. 20. 9. I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his ⟨p. 125⟩name. So in Prayer, Sacrament, Reproof, &c. the Devil makes great use of this, What good hath it done thee? But patience and perseverance win the Crown. The beginning is seldom a time to perceive success: The Carpenter is long at work before he rear a house: Nature brings not forth the Plant or birth the first day. Your life-time is your working time. Do your part, and God will not fail on his part. It is his part to give success; and dare you accuse him, or suspect him? There is more of the success of prayer to be believed, than to be felt. If God have promised to hear, he doth hear, and we must believe it, whether we feel it or not. Prayers are oft heard long before the thing is sent us that we prayed for: We pray for Heaven, but shall not be there till death. If Moses his message to Pharaoh ten times seem lost, it is not lost for all that. What work would ever have been done, i• on the first conceit of unsuccessfulness it had been given off? Be glad that thou hast time to plough and sow, to do thy part, and if God will give thee fruit at last.

§. 16. Direct. 8. Satan will do what he can to make it go worse with you after, than before. He¹ will discourage you if he can, by hindering your success, that he may make you think it is to no purpose: so many Preachers, because they have fished long and catcht nothing, grow cold and heartless, and ready to sit down, and say as Jer. 20. 9. I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his ⟨p. 125⟩name. So in Prayer, Sacrament, Reproof, &c. the Devil makes great use of this, What good hath it done thee? But patience and perseverance win the Crown. The beginning is seldom a time to perceive success: The Carpenter is long at work before he rear a house: Nature brings not forth the Plant or birth the first day. Your life-time is your working time. Do your part, and God will not fail on his part. It is his part to give success; and dare you accuse him, or suspect him? There is more of the success of prayer to be believed, than to be felt. If God have promised to hear, he doth hear, and we must believe it, whether we feel it or not. Prayers are oft heard long before the thing is sent us that we prayed for: We pray for Heaven, but shall not be there till death. If Moses his message to Pharaoh ten times seem lost, it is not lost for all that. What work would ever have been done, i• on the first conceit of unsuccessfulness it had been given off? Be glad that thou hast time to plow and sow, to do thy part, and if God will give thee fruit at last.

1Direct. 8.

:1160p. 125–126

§. 27. Tempt. 14. Lastly the Devil setteth up something else in opposition to holy duty, to make it ¹seem unnecessary: In some he sets up their good desires, and saith God knoweth thy heart without expressing it; and thou mayest have as good a heart at home, as at Church: In some he sets up superstitious fopperies of mans devising, instead of Gods Institution: In some he pretendeth the Spirit against external duty, and saith, The Spirit is all; the flesh profitteth nothing: yea, in some he sets up Christ himself against Christs Ordinances, and saith, It is not these, but Christ, that profits you. ⟨p. 126⟩§. 2•. Direct. 14. This is distracted contradiction: To set Christ against Christ, and the Spirit ²against the Ordinances of the Spirit: Is it not Christ and the Spirit that appointed them? Doth he not best kn•w in what way he will give his grace? Can you not preserve the soul and life, without killing the body: Cannot you have the Water, and value the Cistern, or Spring, without cutting off the ••••s that must convey it. O wonderful? that Satan could make men so mad, as this reasoning hath showed us that many are in our days? And to set up superstition or pretend a good heart against Gods worship, is to accuse him that appointed it of doing he knew not what, and to think that we are wiser than he? and to show a good heart by disobedience, pride, contempt of God and of his mercies?

§. 27. Tempt. 14. Lastly the Devil setteth up something else in opposition to holy duty, to make it ¹seem unnecessary: In some he sets up their good desires, and saith God knoweth thy heart without expressing it; and thou maist have as good a heart at home, as at Church: In some he sets up superstitious fopperies of mans devising, instead of Gods Institution: In some he pretendeth the Spirit against external duty, and saith, The Spirit is all; the flesh profitteth nothing: yea, in some he sets up Christ himself against Christs Ordinances, and saith, It is not these, but Christ, that profits you. ⟨p. 126⟩§. 2•. Direct. 14. This is distracted contradiction: To set Christ against Christ, and the Spirit ²against the Ordinances of the Spirit: Is it not Christ and the Spirit that appointed them? Doth he not best kn•w in what way he will give his grace? Can you not preserve the soul and life, without killing the body: Cannot you have the Water, and value the Cistern, or Spring, without cutting off the ••••s that must convey it. O wonderful? that Satan could make men so mad, as this reasoning h•th shewed us that many are in our dayes? And to set up superstition or pretend a good heart against Gods worship, is to accuse him that appointed it of doing he knew not what, and to think that we are wiser than he? and to shew a good heart by disobedience, pride, contempt of God and of his mercies?

1Tempt. 14.
2Direct. 14.