A26892:223
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.
§. 5. Mark now I beseech you, what a state of sin, and what a state of Holiness is.
He that is in a state of sin, hath habitually and predominantly a greater love to some pleasures, or profits, or honours of this world, than he hath to God and to the glory which he hath promised: He preferreth, and seeketh, and holdeth (if he can) his fleshly prosperity in this world, before the favour of God and the happiness of the world to come. His heart is turned from God unto the creature, and is principally set on things on earth. Thus his sin is the blindness, and madness, and perfidiousness, ⟨p. 9⟩and Idolatry of his soul, and his forsaking of God, and his salvation, for a thing of nought. It is that to his soul, which poison, and death, and sickness, and lameness, and blindness are to his body: It is such dealing with God, as that man is guilty of to his dearest friend or Father, who should hate him and his company, and love the company of a Dog or a Toad much better than his; and obey his enemy against him: And it is like a mad mans dealing with his Physician, who seeks to kill him as his enemy, because he crosseth his appetite or will to cure him. Think of this well, and then tell me whether this be a state to be continued in. This state of sin, is something worse, than a mere inconsiderate act of sin, in one that otherwise liveth an obedient holy life.
He that is in a state of sin, hath habitually and predominantly a greater love to some pleasures, or profits, or honours of this world, than he hath to God and to the glory which he hath promised: He preferreth, and seeketh, and holdeth (if he can) his fleshly prosperity in this world, before the favour of God and the happiness of the world to come. His heart is turned from God unto the creature, and is principally set on things on earth. Thus his sin is the blindness, and madness, and perfidiousness, ⟨p. 9⟩and Idolatry of his soul, and his forsaking of God, and his salvation, for a thing of nought. It is that to his soul, which poyson, and death, and sickness, and lameness, and blindness are to his body: It is such dealing with God, as that man is guilty of to his dearest friend or Father, who should hate him and his company, and love the company of a Dog or a Toad much better than his; and obey his enemy against him: And it is like a mad mans dealing with his Physicion, who seeks to kill him as his enemy, because he crosseth his appetite or will to cure him. Think of this well, and then tell me whether this be a state to be continued in. This state of sin, is something worse, than a meer inconsiderate act of sin, in one that otherwise liveth an obedient holy life.