A26892:1332
A Christian Directory
A Christian directory, or, A sum of practical theology and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortify every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.A Christian directory, or, A summ of practical theologie and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortifie every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Part 1 › Chapter 3 › Direction 11 › Directions for Loving God as our Father and Felicity.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 18. Direct. 2. Think of the perfect fitness of God to be the only Object of thy superlative Love; 1and how easy and necessary it should seem to us to do a work so agreeable to right Reason and uncorrupted Nature; and abhor all temptations which would make God seem unsuitable to thee. [O sluggish, and unnatural soul! Should not an object so admirably •it, allure thee? Should not such attractive Goodness draw thee? Should not perfect amiableness win thee wholly to it self? Do but know thy self and God, and then forbear to love him if thou canst! Where should the fish live, but in the Water? And where should Birds fly, but in the Air? God is thy very Element: Thou dyest and sinkest down to brutishness, if thou forsake him or be taken from him. What should delight the smell, but odours? or the appetite, but its delicious food? or the eye, but Light, and what it showeth; and the ear but harmony! And what should delight the soul but God? If thou know thy self thou knowest, that the Nature of thy Mind inclineth to knowledge; and by the knowledge of effects to rise up to the cause, and by the knowledge of lower and lesser matters, to ascend to the highest and greatest: And if thou know God, thou knowest that he is the cause of all things, the Maker, Preserver and Orderer of all, the Being of Beings, the most Great, and Wise, and Good, and Happy; so that to know him, is to know all; to know the most excellent, independent, glorious being▪ that will leave no darkness nor unsatisfied desire in thy soul. And is he not then most suitable to thy mind? If thou know thy self, then thou knowest that thy will, as free as it is, hath a natural necessary inclination to goodness: Thou canst not Love evil as evil; nor canst thou choose but Love apprehended goodness, especially the chiefest good, (if rightly apprehended): And if thou know God, thou knowest that he is Infinitely good in himself, and the Cause of all the good that is in the world, and the giver of all the good thou hast received, and the only fit and suitable good, to satisfy thy desires for the time to come: And yet shall it be so hard to thee to Love, so agreeably to perfect Nature, so Perfect, and full, and suitable a good? even goodness and Love it self which hath begun to Love thee? Is any of the Creatures which thou Lovest so suitable to thee?
§. 18. Direct. 2. Think of the perfect fitness of God to be the only Object of thy superlative Love;