Part 1 › Chapter 1 › Part 2: The Temptations whereby the Devil hindereth mens Conversion: with the proper Remedies a…, A Christian Directory by Richard Baxter (1673) | AskReformation

Skip to content

:355p. 29

§. 23. Direct. 11. But this pretence is compounded of wickedness and madness. What but a wicked ¹heart can make it so hard a thing to live in the Love of God and holiness, and in the hopes and seeking of eternal life? Why should not this be a sweeter and pleasanter life, than drinking, and roaring, and gaming, and fooling away time in vain; or than the enjoying of all the delights of the flesh? There's nothing but a sick distempered heart against it, that nauseateth that which in it self is most delightful. When Grace hath changed your hearts, it will be easy. Do you not see that others can hold on in it? and would not be as they were for all the world? And why may not you? God will help you: It is the Office of Christ and the Spirit to help you: Your encouragements are innumerable. The hardness is most at first: It is the longer the easier. But what if it were hard? Is it not necessary? Is Hell easier, and to be preferred before it? And will not Heaven pay for all your cost and labour? Will you sit down in desperation, and resolve to let your salvation go, upon such silly bug-bear words as these?

§. 23. Direct. 11. But this pretence is compounded of wickedness and madness. What but a wicked ¹heart can make it so hard a thing to live in the Love of God and holiness, and in the hopes and seeking of eternal life? Why should not this be a sweeter and pleasanter life, than drinking, and roaring, and gaming, and fooling away time in vain; or than the enjoying of all the delights of the flesh? There's nothing but a sick distempered heart against it, that nauseateth that which in it self is most delightful. When Grace hath changed your hearts, it will be easie. Do you not see that others can hold on in it? and would not be as they were for all the world? And why may not you? God will help you: It is the Office of Christ and the Spirit to help you: Your encouragements are innumerable. The hardness is most at first: It is the longer the easier. But what if it were hard? Is it not necessary? Is Hell easier, and to be preferred before it? And will not Heaven pay for all your cost and labour? Will you sit down in desperation, and resolve to let your salvation go, upon such silly bug-bear words as these?

1Direct. 11.

:363p. 29

§. 31. Direct. 15. But alas, how short is the prosperity of the wicked! Read Psal. 73. & 37. Delay¹ is no forgiveness: They stay but till the Assize: And will that tempt you to do as they? How unthankfully do sinners deal with with God! If he should kill you and plague you, that would not please you: And yet if he forbear you, you are emboldened by it in your sin. Thus his patience is turned against him: But the stroke will be the heavier when it falls! Dost thou think those men will always flourish! Will they alway domineer and revel! Will they always dwell in the houses where they now dwell, and possess those Lands, and be honoured and served as now they are! O how quickly and how dreadfully will the case be changed with them! O could you but foresee now what faces they will have, and what heavy hearts, and with what bitter exclamations they will at last cry out against themselves, for all their folly, and wish that they had never been deceived by prosperity; but rather had the portion of a Lazarus! If you saw how they are but fatted for the slaughter, and in what a dolorous misery their wealth, and sport, and honours will leave them, you would lament their case, and think so great a destruction were soon enough, and not desire to be partners in their lot!

§. 31. Direct. 15. But alas, how short is the prosperity of the wicked! Read Psal. 73. & 37. Delay¹ is no forgiveness: They stay but till the Assize: And will that tempt you to do as they? How unthankfully do sinners deal with with God! If he should kill you and plague you, that would not please you: And yet if he forbear you, you are emboldened by it in your sin. Thus his patience is turned against him: But the stroke will be the heavier when it falls! Dost thou think those men will alwayes flourish! Will they alway domineer and revell! Will they alwayes dwell in the houses where they now dwell, and possess those Lands, and be honoured and served as now they are! O how quickly and how dreadfully will the case be changed with them! O could you but foresee now what faces they will have, and what heavy hearts, and with what bitter exclamations they will at last cry out against themselves, for all their folly, and wish that they had never been deceived by prosperity; but rather had the portion of a Lozarus! If you saw how they are but fatted for the slaughter, and in what a dolorous misery their wealth, and sport, and honours will leave them, you would lament their case, and think so great a destruction were soon enough, and not desire to be partners in their lot!

1Direct. 15.

:365p. 30

§. 33. Direct. 16. Go into the Sanctuary, yea, go into the Church-yard, and see the End: And¹ judge by those Skulls, and Bones, and dust, if you cannot judge by the fore-••••ings of God, what prosperity is! Judge by the experience of all the world! Doth it not leave them •••• in sorrow at last? Woe to the man that hath his portion in this life. O miserable health, and wealth, and honour, which procureth the death, and shame, and utter destruction of the soul! Was not he in as prosperous a case as you, Luke 16. that quickly cried out in vain, for a drop of water to cool his Tongue? There is none of you so senseless as not to know that you must dye? And must you dye? Must you certainly dye? and shall that day be no better prepared for? Shall present prosperity make you forget it, and live as if you must live here for ever? Do you make so great difference between that which is, and that which will be? as to make as great a matter of it as others, when it comes; and to make no more of it▪ when it is but coming? O man, what is an inch of hasty time! How quickly is it gone? Thou art going hence apace, and almost gone! Doth God give thee the mercy of a few days or years of health to make all thy preparations in for eternity, and doth this mercy turn to thy deceit, and dost thou turn it so much contrary to the ends for which it was given thee? Wilt thou surfeit on Mercy, and destroy thy soul with it? Sense feeleth and perceiveth what now is, but thou hast Reason to foresee what will be? Wilt thou play in Harvest, and forget the Winter?

§. 33. Direct. 16. Go into the Sanctuary, yea, go into the Church-yard, and see the End: And¹ judge by those Skulls, and Bones, and dust, if you cannot judge by the fore-••••ings of God, what prosperity is! Judge by the experience of all the world! Doth it not leave them •••• in sorrow at last? Wo to the man that hath his portion in this life. O miserable health, and wealth, and honour, which procureth the death, and shame, and utter destruction of the soul! Was not he in as prosperous a case as you, Luke 16. that quickly cryed out in vain, for a drop of water to cool his Tongue? There is none of you so sensless as not to know that you must dye? And must you dye? Must you certainly dye? and shall that day be no better prepared for? Shall present prosperity make you forget it, and live as if you must live here for ever? Do you make so great difference between that which is, and that which will be? as to make as great a matter of it as others, when it comes; and to make no more of it▪ when it is but coming? O man, what is an inch of hasty time! How quickly is it gone? Thou art going hence apace, and almost gone! Doth God give thee the mercy of a few dayes or years of health to make all thy preparations in for eternity, and doth this mercy turn to thy deceit, and dost thou turn it so much contrary to the ends for which it was given thee? Wilt thou surfeit on Mercy, and destroy thy soul with it? Sense feeleth and perceiveth what now is, but thou hast Reason to foresee what will be? Wilt thou play in Harvest, and forget the Winter?

1Direct. 1•. […]Direct. 1•. 〈…〉

:367p. 30

§. 35. Direct. 17. To this I spake in the end of the first Part of this Chapter. No man is so great¹ and wise as God. See whether he say as they do in his word! The greatest that provoke him can no more save themselves from his vengeance, than the poorest beggars! What work made he with a Pharaoh! and got himself a name by his hard heartedness and impenitency? He can send Worms to eat an arrogant Herod, when the people cry him up as a God! Where are now the Caesars and Alexanders of the world: The Rulers and Pharisees believed not in Christ; John 7. 48. Wilt not thou therefore believe in him? The Governor of the Country condemned him to dye; and wilt thou condemn him? The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, Psal. 2. 2, 3. Wilt thou therefore join in the Conspiracy? When he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision—He will break them with an iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel, unless they be wise, and kiss the Son, and serve the Lord with fear before his wrath be kindled and they perish, Psal. 2. 4, 9, 10, 11, 12. If thy Landlord or Great ones shall be thy God, and be honoured and obeyed before God and against him, trust to them, and call on them in the hour of thy distress, and take such a salvation as they can give thee: Teach not God what choice to make, and whom to reveal his mysteries to: He chooseth not always the Learned Scribe, nor the mighty man: Christ himself saith, Matth. 11. 25. I thank thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes: ²Even so Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight! If this reason satisfy you not, follow them, and speed as they. If they are Greater and Wiser than God, let them be your Gods, 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called▪ but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things that are despised hath God chosen, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are.

§. 35. Direct. 17. To this I spake in the end of the first Part of this Chapter. No man is so great¹ and wise as God. See whether he say as they do in his word! The greatest that provoke him can no more save themselves from his vengeance, than the poorest beggars! What work made he with a Phara•h! and got himself a name by his hard heartedness and impenitency? He can send Worms to eat an arrogant Herod, when the people cry him up as a God! Where are now the Caesars and Alexanders of the world: The Rulers and Pharisees believed not in Christ; Iohn 7. 48. Wilt not thou therefore believe in him? The Governour of the Countrey condemned him to dye; and wilt thou condemn him? The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, Psal. 2. 2, 3. Wilt thou therefore joyn in the Conspiracy? When he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision—He will break them with an iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel, unless they be wise, and kiss the Son, and serve the Lord with fear before his wrath be kindled and they perish, Psal. 2. 4, 9, 10, 11, 12. If thy Landlord or Great ones shall be thy God, and be honoured and obeyed before God and against him, trust to them, and call on them in the hour of thy distress, and take such a salvation as they can give thee: Teach not God what choice to make, and whom to reveal his mysteries to: He chooseth not alwayes the Learned Scribe, nor the mighty man: Christ himself saith, Matth. 11. 25. I thank thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes: ²Even so Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight! If this reason satisfie you not, follow them, and speed as they. If they are Greater and Wiser than God, let them be your Gods, 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called▪ but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things that are despised hath God chosen, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are.

1Direct. 17.
2Read Mr. […] sermon •n 1 •••• ▪ 1. 2•.Read Mr. 〈…〉 sermon •n 1 •••• ▪ 1. 2•.