Part 1 › Chapter 3 › Direction 10 › Directions for faithful serving Christ, and doing Good., A Christian Directory by Richard Baxter (1673) | AskReformation

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Answ. 1. In all these cases about an erring or a doubting Conscience, forget not to distinguish be¹ tween the Being of a duty, and the Knowledge of a duty: and remember that the first Question is whether ⟨p. 135⟩this be my duty? and the next, How I may discern it to be my duty: And that God giveth it the Being by his Law, and Conscience is but to know and use it: And that God changeth not his Law and our duty, as oft as our opinions change about it. The obligation of the Law is still the same, though our Consciences err in apprehending it otherwise. Therefore if God command you a duty and your opinion be that he doth not command it, or that he forbids it, and so that it is no duty or that it is a sin, it doth not follow that indeed God commands it not because you think so: Else it were no error in you, nor could it be possible to err, if the thing become true, because you think it to be true. God commandeth you to Love him, and to worship him, and to nourish your children, and to obey the higher powers, &c. And do you think you shall be discharged from all these duties, and allowed to be profane, or sensual, or to resist authority, or to famish your children, if you can but be blind enough to think that God would have it so? 2. Your error is a sin it self: And do you think that one sin must warrant another? or that sin can discharge you from your duty, and disannul the Law? 3. You are a subject to God and not a King to your self: and therefore you must obey his Laws, and not make new ones.

Answ. 1. In all these cases about an erring or a doubting Conscience, forget not to distinguish be¹ tween the Being of a duty, and the Knowledge of a duty: and remember that the first Question is whether ⟨p. 135⟩this be my duty? and the next, How I may discern it to be my duty: And that God giveth it the Being by his Law, and Conscience is but to know and use it: And that God changeth not his Law and our duty, as oft as our opinions change about it. The obligation of the Law is still the same, though our Consciences err in apprehending it otherwise. Therefore if God command you a duty and your opinion be that he doth not command it, or that he forbids it, and so that it is no duty or that it is a sin, it doth not follow that indeed God commands it not because you think so: Else it were no error in you, nor could it be possible to err, if the thing become true, because you think it to be true. God commandeth you to Love him, and to worship him, and to nourish your children, and to obey the higher powers, &c. And do you think you shall be discharged from all these duties, and allowed to be prophane, or sensual, or to resist authority, or to famish your children, if you can but be blind enough to think that God would have it so? 2. Your error is a sin it self: And do you think that one sin must warrant another? or that sin can discharge you from your duty, and disannull the Law? 3. You are a subject to God and not a King to your self: and therefore you must obey his Laws, and not make new ones.

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Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes, or concurrence of all necessaries to make up Obedience, though the want of any one will make a sin: If you will be called Obedient, you must have the matter and form, because the true form is found in no other matter: You must do the thing commanded because of his Authority that commandeth it. If it may be called really and formally Obedience, when you err, yet it is not that obedience which is acceptable: For it is not any kind of obedience, but obedience in the thing commanded that God requireth. 2. But indeed as long as you err sinfully, you are also wanting in the form as well as the matter of your obedience, though you intend Obedience in the particular act. It is not only a wilful opposing, and positive rejecting the Authority of the Commander, which is formal disobedience: but it is any Privation of due subjection to it; when his Authority is not so regarded as it ought to be; and doth not so powerfully and effectually move us to our duty as it ought. Now this formal disobedience is found in your erroneous Conscience: For if Gods Authority had moved you as it should have done, to diligent enquiry and use of all appointed means, and to the avoiding of all the causes of error, you had never erred about your duty. For if the error had been perfectly involuntary and blameless, the thing could not have been your particular duty, which you could not possibly come to know.¹

Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes, or concurrence of all necessaries to make up Obedience, though the want of any one will make a sin: If you will be called Obedient, you must have the matter and form, because the true form is found in no other matter: You must do the thing commanded because of his Authority that commandeth it. If it may be called really and formally Obedience, when you err, yet it is not that obedience which is acceptable: For it is not any kind of obedience, but obedience in the thing commanded that God requireth. 2. But indeed as long as you err sinfully, you are also wanting in the form as well as the matter of your obedience, though you intend Obedience in the particular act. It is not only a willful opposing, and positive rejecting the Authority of the Commander, which is formal disobedience: but it is any Privation of due subjection to it; when his Authority is not so regarded as it ought to be; and doth not so powerfully and effectually move us to our duty as it ought. Now this formal disobedience is found in your erroneous Conscience: For if Gods Authority had moved you as it should have done, to diligent enquiry and use of all appointed means, and to the avoiding of all the causes of error, you had never erred about your duty. For if the error had been perfectly involuntary and blameless, the thing could not have been your particular duty, which you could not possibly come to know.¹

1Quest.