A26892:335
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.
§. 2. Tempt. 1. The first endeavour of the Tempter, is in General to keep the sinner asleep in sin: so that 1•e shall be as a dead man, that hath no use of any of his faculties: that hath eyes and seeth not, and ears but heareth not, and a heart that understandeth not, nor feeleth any thing that concerneth his peace: The light 2that shineth upon a man asleep, is of no use to him: His work lieth undone: His friends, and wealth, and greatest concernments are all forgotten by him, as if there were no such things or persons in the world: You may say what you will against him, or do what you will against him, and he can do nothing in his own defence. This is the case that the Devil most laboureth to keep the world in; even in so dead a sleep, that their Reason, and their Wills, their fear, and hope, and all their powers shall be of no use to them: That when they hear a Preacher, or read the Scripture or good Books, or see the holy examples of the godly, yea, when they see the Grave, and know where they must shortly lie, and know that their souls must stay here but a little while, yet they shall hear, and see, and know all this, as men asleep, that mind it not, as if it concerned not them at all; never once soberly Considering and laying it to heart.
§. 2. Tempt. 1. The first endeavour of the Tempter, is in General to keep the sinner asleep in sin: so that 1•e shall be as a dead man, that hath no use of any of his faculties: that hath eyes and seeth not, and ears but heareth not, and a heart that understandeth not, nor feeleth any thing that concerneth his peace: The light 2that shineth upon a man asleep, is of no use to him: His work lyeth undone: His friends, and wealth, and greatest concernments are all forgotten by him, as if there were no such things or persons in the world: You may say what you will against him, or do what you will against him, and he can do nothing in his own defence. This is the case that the Devil most laboureth to keep the world in; even in so dead a sleep, that their Reason, and their Wills, their fear, and hope, and all their powers shall be of no use to them: That when they hear a Preacher, or read the Scripture or good Books, or see the holy examples of the godly, yea, when they see the Grave, and know where they must shortly lie, and know that their souls must stay here but a little while, yet they shall hear, and see, and know all this, as men asleep, that mind it not, as if it concerned not them at all; never once soberly Considering and laying it to heart.