A26892:1334
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.
§. 19. Direct. 3. Imagine not God to be far away from thee, but think of him as always near thee 1and with thee, in whose present Love and Goodness thou dost subsist. Nearness of Objects doth excite the faculties: we hear no sound, nor smell no odour, nor taste no sweetness, nor see no colours, that are too distant from us: And the mind being limited in its activity, neglecteth or reacheth not things too distant, and requireth some Nearness of its object, as well as the sense. Especially to the excitation of affections and bodily action. A distant danger stirreth not up such fears, nor a distant misery such grief, nor a distant benefit such pleasure, as that which is at hand. Death doth more deeply affect us, when it seemeth very near, than when we think we have yet many years to live. So carnal minds are so drowned in flesh and captivated to sense, that they take little notice of what they see not, and therefore think of God as absent, because they see him not: They think of him as confined to Heaven, as we think of a friend that is in the East Indies, or at the Antipodes, who is, if not out of mind as well as out of sight, yet too distant for us delightfully to converse with. [Remember always, O my soul, that none is so near thee as thy God. A Seneca could say, of good men, that God is with us, and in us: Nature taught Heathens, that in him we live, and move, and have our being: Thy friend may be absent, but God is never absent from thee. He is with thee, when as to men thou art alone. The Sun is sufficient to illuminate but one part of the earth at once; and therefore must leave the rest in darkness: But God is with thee night and day, and there is no night to the soul so far as it enjoyeth him. Thy life, thy health, thy Love and Joy, is not nearer to thee than thy God: He is now before thee, about thee, within thee, moving thee to good, restraining thee from evil, marking and accepting all that is well, disliking and opposing all that is ill: The light of the Sun doth not more certainly fill the room, and compass thee about, than God doth with his goodness. He is as much at leisure to observe thee, to converse with thee, to hear and help thee, as if thou wert his only creature: As the Sun can as well illuminate every Bird and Fly, as if it shined unto no other creature. Open the eye of Faith and Reason, and behold thy God.
§. 19. Direct. 3. Imagine not God to be far away from thee, but think of him as alwayes near thee 1