A26892:2116
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.
§. 4. It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood, lest you be tempted to imitate the Libertines, who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil, and therefore all its actions being indifferent, we may be indifferent about them, and look only to the superior powers: And others that think that the Scripture by [flesh] meaneth only the Rational soul 1as unrenewed, do thereupon cherish the Flesh it self and pamper it, and feed its unruly lusts, and never do any thing to tame the body; but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them, that is, their sinful habits of Reason and Will, while they cherish the cause, or neglect a chief part of the cure. And on the contrary, some Papists that look only at the Body as their enemy, are much in fastings, and bodily exercises, while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds.
§. 4. It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood, lest you be tempted to imitate the Libertines, who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil, and therefore all its actions being indifferent, we may be indifferent about them, and look only to the superiour powers: And others that think that the Scripture by [flesh] meaneth only the Rational soul 1as un•enewed, do thereupon cherish the Flesh it self and pamper it, and feed its unruly lusts, and never do any thing to tame the body; but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them, that is, their sinful habits of Reason and Will, while they cherish the cause, or neglect a chief part of the cure. And on the contrary, some Papists that look only at the Body as their enemy, are much in fastings, and bodily exercises, while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds.
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§. 5. II. How far flesh-pleasing is a sin, I shall distinctly open to you in these propositions,