A26903:339
Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity,…
Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity, physic, and law, III. the sons of magistrates and rich men / by Richard Baxter.Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity, physick, and law, III. the sons of magistrates and rich men / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by T.S., 1681
Chapter 12: Counsel to the Sons of the Nobility and Magistrates.
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.
VI. But above all I beseech you fear and watch, lest you be drawn to espouse any thing as your interest, which is against the interest, and command of Christ, and against his Kingdom, or the good of his Church, or the Commonwealth. As the Devil first undid the World, by making deceived Eve believe, that Gods command was against her interest, so doth he to this day, but with none so much as with Nobles and Rich men. God hath commanded you nothing but what is for your own good, nor forbidden you any thing but what is for your own and others hurt. He needs not you or any; but you must allow him to be God, and therefore to be wiser and better than you, & to know better what is best & fittest for you and others: But Satan will slander to you Gods Laws, Ways and Servants; for he is for your enmity and separation from God, and therefore would draw you to believe, that that he and his ways are Enemies to you, and against your pleasure, honour, domination, ⟨p. 174⟩commodity or ease. O how many Princes and Great Men have been utterly undone, by believing the Flesh, the Devil and his Ministers, that Christianity is against their power, honour or other interests, and that the Scripture is too precise, and that Conscience, obeying God before them, is against their power and prerogative, and so have set them as Enemies to keep under Conscience and serious godliness, lest obedience to their wills be thereby hindered.
VI. But above all I beseech you fear and watch, lest you be drawn to espouse any thing as your interest, which is against the interest, and command of Christ, and against his Kingdom, or the good of his Church, or the Commonwealth. As the Devil first undid the World, by making deceived Eve believe, that Gods command was against her interest, so doth he to this day, but with none so much as with Nobles and Rich men. God hath commanded you nothing but what is for your own good, nor forbidden you any thing but what is for your own and others hurt. He needs not you or any; but you must allow him to be God, and therefore to be wiser and better than you, & to know better what is best & fittest for you and others: But Satan will slander to you Gods Laws, Ways and Servants; for he is for your enmity and separation from God, and therefore would draw you to believe, that that he and his ways are Enemies to you, and against your pleasure, honour, domination, ⟨p. 174⟩