A26892:8428
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.
§. 21. 11. And it is a far more heinous sin in a Professed Christian, than in an Infidel or Heathen. For th•se do according to the darkness of their Education and the interest of their party, and the principles of their own profession. But for a professed Christian to persecute Christianity, and one that pro••ss•th to believe the Gospel, to persecute the Preachers and serious practisers of the doctrine of the Gospel, this is so near that sin which is commonly said to be the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that it is not easy to perceive a difference; and if I did consent to that description of the unpardonable sin, I should have little hope of the conversion of any one of these. But however they make up such a mixture of Hypocrisy, and Impiety, and Cruelty, as showeth them to exceed all ordinary sinners, in malignity and misery. They are a self-condemned sort of men: Out of their own mouths will God condemn them. They profess themselves to believe in God, and yet they persecute those that serve him: They dare not speak against the preaching and practising of the doctrine o• Godliness, directly and in plain expressions; and yet they persecute them, and cannot endure them! They fight against the interest and Law of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, when they have in Baptism vowed themselves unto his service. Of all men on earth, these men will have least to say for their sin, or against their condemnation.
§. 21. 11. And it is a far more heinous sin in a Professed Christian, than in an Infidel or Heathen. For th•se do according to the darkness of their Education and the interest of their party, and the principles of their own profession. But for a professed Christian to persecute Christianity, and one that pro••ss•th to believe the Gospel, to persecute the Preachers and serious practisers of the doctrine of the Gospel, this is so near that sin which is commonly said to be the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that it is not easie to perceive a difference; and if I did consent to that description of the unpardonable sin, I should have little hope of the conversion of any one of these. But however they make up such a mixture of Hypocrisie, and Impiety, and Cruelty, as sheweth them to exceed all ordinary sinners, in malignity and misery. They are a self-condemned sort of men: Out of their own mouths will God condemn them. They profess themselves to believe in God, and yet they persecute those that serve him: They dare not speak against the preaching and practising of the doctrine o Godliness, directly and in plain expressions; and yet they persecute them, and cannot endure them! They fight against the interest and Law of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, when they have in Baptism vowed themselves unto his service. Of all men on earth, these men will have least to say for their sin, or against their condemnation.