A26892:1344
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.
§. 24. Direct. 7. Improve the vanity and vexation of the Creature, and all thy disappointments, and 1injuries, and afflictions, to the promoting of thy Love to God. And this by a double advantage: First, By observing that there is nothing meet to divert thy Love, or rob God of it; unless thou wilt Love thy trouble and distress! Secondly, That thy Love to God is the comfort by which thou must be supported under the injuries and troubles which thou meetest with in the world: And therefore to neglect it, is but to give up thy self to misery. [Is it for nothing, O my soul, that God hath turned loose the world against thee? That Devils rage against thee; and wicked men do reproach and slander thee, and seek thy ruin; and friends prove insufficient, and as broken Reeds? It had been as easy to God, to have prospered thee in the world, and suited all things to thy own desires, and have strawed thy way with the flowers of worldly comforts and delights; But he knew thy proneness to undo thy self by carnal loves, and how easily thy heart is enticed from thy God: And therefore he hath wisely and mercifully ordered it, that thy temptations shall not be too strong, and no creature shall appear to thee in an over-amiable tempting dress. Therefore he hath suffered them to become thy enemies: And wilt thou love an enemy better than thy God? What! an envious and malicious world? A world of cares, and grief, and pains? a weary, restless, empty world? How deep and piercing are its injuries? How superficial and deceitful is its friendship? How serious are its sorrows? What toyish shows and dreams are its delights? How constant are its cares and labours? How seldom and short are its flattering smiles? Its comforts are disgraced by the certain expectation of succeeding sorrows: Its sorrows are heightened by the expectations of more: In the midst of its flatteries, I hear something within me, saying, [Thou must dye: This is but the way to rottenness and dust.] I see a Winding-sheet and a Grave still before me: I foresee how I must lye in pains and groans, and then become a loathsome corpse. And is this a world to be more delighted in than God? What have I left me for my support and solace, in the midst of all this Vanity and Vexation, but to look to him that is the All-sufficient, sure, never failing good? I must love him, or I have nothing to love, but enmity or deceit.
§. 24. Direct. 7. Improve the vanity and vexation of the Creature, and all thy disappointments, and 1