A26892:1433
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.
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.
DIRECT. XIV. Let Thankfulness to God thy Creator, Redeemer and Regenerator, be the very1 temperament of thy soul, and faithfully expressed by thy Tongue and Life.
DIRECT. XIV. Let Thankfulness to God thy Creator, Redeemer and Regenerater, be the very1 temperament of thy soul, and faithfully expressed by thy Tongue and Life.
- 1Gr. Dir. 14. For a life of Thankfulness.
§. 1. Though our Thankfulness is no benefit to God, yet he is pleased with it, as that which is suitable to our condition, and showeth the ingenuity and honesty of the Heart. An unthankful person is but a devourer of mercies, and a grave to bury them in, and one that hath not the wit and honesty to know and acknowledge the hand that giveth them: But the Thankful looketh above himself, and returneth all, as he is able, to him from whom they flow.
§. 1. THough our Thankfulness is no benefit to God, yet he is pleased with it, as that which is suitable to our condition, and sheweth the ingenuity and honesty of the Heart. An unthankful person is but a devourer of mercies, and a grave to bury them in, and one that hath not the wit and honesty to know and acknowledge the hand that giveth them: But the Thankful looketh above himself, and returneth all, as he is able, to him from whom they flow.
§. 2. True Thankfulness to God is discerned from Counterfeit, by these qualifications: 1. True Thankfulness having a just estimate of mercies comparatively, preferreth spiritual and everlasting mercies, before those that are merely corporal and transitory. But carnal Thankfulness chiefly valueth carnal Mercies, though notionally it may confess that the spiritual are the greater. 2. True Thankfulness inclineth the soul to a spiritual rejoicing in God, and to a desire after more of his spiritual mercies: But carnal thankfulness is only a delight in the prosperity of the flesh, or the delusion and carnal security of the mind, inclining men to carnal empty mirth, and to a desire of more such fleshly pleasure, plenty or content: As a Beast that is full fed will skip, and play, and show that he is pleased with his state: or if he have ease, he would not be molested. 3. True thankfulness kindleth in the heart a love to the Giver above the Gift, or at least a Love to God above our Carnal prosperity and pleasure, and bringeth the heart still nearer unto God, by all his mercies. But carnal thankfulness doth spring from Carnal self-love, or love of fleshly prosperity; and is moved by it, and is subservient to it, and Loveth God and Thanketh him but so far as he gratifieth or satisfieth the flesh. A child-like Thankfulness maketh us love our Father more than his gift, and desire to be with him, in his arms: But a Dog doth love you and is thankful to you, but for feeding him: He loveth you in subordination to his appetite and his bones. 4. True Thankfulness inclineth us to obey and please him that obligeth us by his benefits. But carnal thankfulness puts God off with the hypocritical complemental thanks of the lips, and spends the mercy in the pleasing of the flesh, and makes it but the fuel of lust and sin. 5. True thankfulness to God is necessarily transcendent, as his mercies are transcendent: The saving of our souls from Hell, and promising us eternal life, besides the giving us our very beings and all that we have, do oblige us to be totally and absolutely his, that is so transcendent a Benefactor to us, and causeth the thankful person to devote and resign himself, and all that he hath to God, to answer so great an obligation: