A26892:8013
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.
Part 4 › Chapter 3: Directions for Subjects concerning their duty to their Rulers.
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.
§. 25. Direct. 3. Having begun with God, obey your Governors as the Officers of God, with an obedience 1ultimately Divine. All things must be done in Holiness by the Holy. That is, God must be2 discerned, obeyed and intended in all: And therefore in Magistrates in a special manner. In two respects Magistrates are obeyed or rather flattered by the ungodly: First as they are men that are able to do them corporal good or hurt: As a Horse, or Dog, or other Brute will follow you for his belly, and loveth to be where he fareth best: Secondly, As the Head of his Party, and encourager of him in his evil way, when he meets with Rulers that will be so bad. Wicked men Love wicked Magistrates for being the servants of Satan: But faithful men must Honour and Obey a Magistrate, as an Officer of God: Even a Magistrate as a Magistrate, and not only as Holy, is an Officer of the Lord of all. Therefore the fifth Commandment is as the hinge of the two Tables: Many of the Ancients thought that it was the last Commandment of the first Table, and the Moderns think it is the first Commandment of the last Table: For it commandeth our duty to the noblest sort of men; but not merely as men, but as the Officers of God. They debase Magistrates, that look at them merely as those that master other men, as the strongest Beast doth by the weaker; Nothing will make you sincere and constant in your honouring and obeying them, but taking them as the Officers of God, and remembering by whose commission they rule, and whose work they do: that They are Ministers of God to us for good, Rom. 13. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. If you do not this, 1. You wrong God, whose servants they are: For he that despiseth, despiseth not man but God. 2. You wrong the Magistrate, as much as you should do an Ambassador, if you took him to be the messenger of some Jack Straw, or some fellow that signifieth no more than his personal worth importeth. 3. And you wrong your selves: ⟨p. 15⟩For while you neglect the Interest and authority of God in your Rulers, you forfeit the acceptance, protection and reward of God. Subjects as well as servants must learn that great lesson; Col. 3. 23. 24, 25