A26892:1345
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.
And is this the worst of Gods design, in permitting and causing my pains and disappointments here? Is it but to drive my foolish heart unto himself? that I may have the solid delights and happiness of his Love? O then let his blessed will be done! Come home ⟨p. 149⟩my soul; my wandering, tired, grieved soul: Love where thy love shall not be lost: Love him that will not reject thee, nor deceive thee; nor requite thee as the world doth with injuries and abuse: Despair not of entertainment, though the world deny it thee. The peaceable region is above. In the world thou must have trouble, that in Christ thou mayest have peace. Retire to the harbour if thou wouldst be free from storms. God will receive thee, when the world doth cast thee off, if thou heartily cast off the world for him. O what a solace is it to the soul, to be driven clearly from the world to God, and there to be exercised in that sacred Love, which will accompany us to the world of Love.]
And is this the worst of Gods design, in permitting and causing my pains and disappointments here? Is it but to drive my foolish heart unto himself? that I may have the solid delights and happiness of his Love? O then let his blessed will be done! Come home ⟨p. 149⟩my soul; my wandering, tired, grieved soul: Love where thy love shall not be lost: Love him that will not reject thee, nor deceive thee; nor requite thee as the world doth with injuries and abuse: Despair not of entertainment, though the world deny it thee. The peaceable region is above. In the world thou must have trouble, that in Christ thou maist have peace. Retire to the harbour if thou wouldst be free from storms. God will receive thee, when the world doth cast thee off, if thou heartily cast off the world for him. O what a solace is it to the soul, to be driven clearly from the world to God, and there to be exercised in that sacred Love, which will accompany us to the world of Love.]
§. 25. Direct. 8. Labour for the truest and fullest conceptions of the Goodness and excellencies of God, which are his Amiableness; and abhor all misrepresentations of him as unlovely. That which is apprehended as unlovely cannot be loved: And that which is apprehended as evil is apprehended as unlovely. Therefore it is the grand design of Satan to hide Gods Goodness, and misrepresent him as evil: Not to deny him to be Good in himself (for in that he hath no hope to be believed); but to persuade men that he is not Good to them or to make them forget or overlook his goodness. Not to