A26892:317
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 19. Remember still that Conversion, is the turning from your carnal selves to God, and1 therefore that it engageth you in a perpetual opposition to your own corrupt Conceits and Wills, to mortify and annihilate them, and captivate them wholly to the holy Word and Will of God.
Direction 19. REmember still that Conversion, is the turning from your carnal selves to God, and1 therefore that it engageth you in a perpetual opposition to your own corrupt Conceits and Wills, to mortifie and annihilate them, and captivate them wholly to the holy Word and Will of God.
- 1Direct. 1•.
§. 1. Think not that your Conversion dispatcheth all that is to be done in order to your salvation. No, it is but the beginning of your work (that is, of your delight and happiness): You are but engaged by it, to that which must be performed throughout all your lives: It entereth you into the right way; not to sit down there, but to go on till you come to the desired end. It entereth you into Christs Army, that afterwards you may there win the Crown of life: And the great Enemy that you engage against, is your selves. There will still be a Law in your members, rebelling against the Law that the Holy Ghost hath put into your minds: Your Own Conceits and your Own Wills are the great Rebels against Christ, and enemies of your sanctification. Therefore it must be your resolved daily ⟨p. 24⟩work to mortify them, and bring them clean over to the Mind and Will of God which is their Rule and End. If you feel any conceits arising in you that are contrary to the Scripture, and quarrel with the Word of God, suppress them as rebellious, and give them not liberty to cavil with your Maker, and malepertly dispute with your Governor and Judge; but silence it, and force it reverently to submit: If you feel any Will in you contrary to your Creator's Will, and that there is something which you would have or do, which God is against, and hath forbid you, remember now how great a part of your work it is, to fly for help to the Spirit of Grace, and to destroy all such rebellious desires: Think it not enough, that you can bear the denial of those desires; but presently destroy the desires themselves. For if you let alone the desires, they may at last lay hold upon their prey, before you are aware: Or if you should be guilty of nothing but the Desires themselves, it is no small iniquity; being the corruption of the Heart, and the Rebellion and Adultery of the principal faculty, which should be kept loyal and chaste to God. The crossness of thy Will to the Will of God, is the sum of all the impiety and evil of the soul: And the subjection and conformity of thy Will to his, is the Heart of the New Creature, and of thy Rectitude and Sanctification.