A26892:2145
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.
§. 13. 9. Think what an inconsiderable pitiful felicity, it is that fleshly persons choose: How small and short as well as sordid. O how quickly will the game be ended? And the delights of boiling lust be gone? How quickly will the drink be past their throats, and their delicate dishes be turned into filth? How short is the sport and laughter of the fool? And how quickly will that face be the index of a pained body, or a grieved self-tormenting mind? It is but a few days till all their stately greatness will be levelled; and the most adorned pampered flesh will have no more to show, of all the pleasure which was so dearly bought, than a Lazarus, or the most mortified saint. A few days will turn their pleasure into anguish, and their jollity into groans, and their ostentation into lamentation, and all their glory into shame. As every moment puts an end to all the pleasures of their lives that's past, and it is now to them as if it had never been; so the last moment is at hand, which will end the little that remains. And then the sinner will with groans confess, that he hath made a miserable choice, and that he might have had a more durable pleasure if he had been wise. When the skull is cast up with the spade, to make room for a successor, you may see the hole where all the meat and drink went in, and the hideous seat of that face which sometime was the discovery of wantonness, pride and scorn: but you'll see no signs of mirth or pleasure.
§. 13. 9. Think what an inconsiderable pitiful felicity, it is that fleshly persons choose: How small and short as well as sordid. O how quickly will the game be ended? And the delights of boyling lust be gone? How quickly will the drink be past their throats, and their delicate dishes be turned into filth? How short is the sport and laughter of the fool? And how quickly will that face be the index of a pained body, or a grieved self-tormenting mind? It is but a few days till all their stately greatness will be levelled; and the most adorned pampered flesh will have no more to shew, of all the pleasure which was so dearly bought, than a Lazarus, or the most mortified saint. A few days will turn their pleasure into anguish, and their jollity into groans, and their ostentation into lamentation, and all their glory into shame. As every moment puts an end to all the pleasures of their lives thats past, and it is now to them as if it had never been; so the last moment is at hand, which will end the little that remains. And then the sinner will with groans confess, that he hath made a miserable choice, and that he might have had a more durable pleasure if he had been wise. When the skull is cast up with the spade, to make room for a successor, you may see the hole where all the meat and drink went in, and the hidious seat of that face which sometime was the discovery of wantonness, pride and scorn: but you'll see no signs of mirth or pleasure.