A26892:1880
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.
§. 55. 20. They are not pleased with God himself: yea, no man doth displease so many and so much as he: And can you do m•re than God to please them? or can you deserve their favour more than he? They are daily displeased with his works of providence: One would have rain, when another would have none: One would have the winds to serve his voyage, and another would have them in a contrary end: One party is displeased, because another is pleased and exalted: Every enemy would have his cause succeed, and the victory to be his: Every contender would have all go on his side. God must be ruled by them, and fit himself to the interest of the most unjust, and to the will of the most vicious, and do as they would have him, and be a servant to their lusts, or they will not be pleased with him. And his Holy Nature, and his Holy Word, and Holy Ways, displease them more than his ordinary providence. They are displeased that his Word is so precise and strict, and that he commandeth them so holy and so strict a life, and that he threateneth all the ungodly with damnation: He must alter his Laws, and make them more loose, and fit them to their fleshly interest and lusts, and speak as they would have him, without any difficulties, before they will be pleased with them (unless he alter their minds and hearts). And how do you think they will be pleased with him at last, when he fulfils his threatenings? When he killeth them, and turneth their bodies to dust, and their guilty souls to torment and despair.
§. 55. 20. They are not pleased with God himself: yea, no man doth displease so many and so much as he: And can you do m•re than God to please them? or can you deserve their favour more than he? They are daily displeased with his works of providence: One would have rain, when another would have none: One would have the winds to serve his voyage, and another would have them in a contrary end: One party is displeased, because another is pleased and exalted: Every enemy would have his cause succeed, and the victory to be his: Every contender would have all go on his side. God must be ruled by them, and fit himself to the interest of the most unjust, and to the will of the most vicious, and do as they would have him, and be a servant to their lusts, or they will not be pleased with him. And his Holy Nature, and his Holy Word, and Holy Wayes, displease them more than his ordinary providence. They are displeased that his Word is so precise and strict, and that he commandeth them so holy and so strict a life, and that he threatneth all the ungodly with damnation: He must alter his Laws, and make them more loose, and fit them to their fleshly interest and lusts, and speak as they would have him, without any difficulties, before they will be pleased with them (unless he alter their minds and hearts). And how do you think they will be pleased with him at last, when he fulfills his threatnings? When he killeth them, and turneth their bodies to dust, and their guilty souls to torment and despair.