A26892:249
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.
Direction 8. IF thou art willing indeed to be converted, do thy best to discover that yet thou art unconverted,1 and in a lost and miserable state.
- 1Direct. 8.
§. 1. Who will endeavour to cure a Disease which he thinks he hath not? Or to Vomit up the poison which he thinks he never took? or taketh to be no poison? Or to come out of the ditch, that thinks he is not in it? Or who will turn back again, that will not believe but he is in the right way? Who will labour to be converted, that thinks he is converted already? Or who will come to Christ as the Physician of his soul, that thinks he is not sick, or is cured already. The common cause that men live and die without the grace of Repentance, Sanctification and Justification which should save them, is because they will not believe but that they have it, when they have it not, and that they are penitent, and justified and sanctified already. It is not my desire to make any of you think worse of your condition than it is: But if you will not know what it is, you will not be fit for recovering grace, nor use the means for your own recovery: you think it is so sad a conclusion, to find your selves in a state of condemnation, that you are exceeding unwilling to know it or confess it.
§. 1. Who will endeavour to cure a Disease which he thinks he hath not? Or to Vomit up the poison which he thinks he never took? or taketh to be no poison? Or to come out of the ditch, that thinks he is not in it? Or who will turn back again, that will not believe but he is in the right way? Who will labour to be converted, that thinks he is converted already? Or who will come to Christ as the Physicion of his soul, that thinks he is not sick, or is cured already. The common cause that men live and die without the grace of Repentance, Sanctification and Justification which should save them, is because they will not believe but that they have it, when they have it not, and that they are penitent, and justified and sanctified already. It is not my desire to make any of you think worse of your condition than it is: But if you will not know what it is, you will not be fit for recovering grace, nor use the means for your own recovery: you think it is so sad a conclusion, to find your selves in a state of condemnation, that you are exceeding unwilling to know it or confess it.