Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace…

Name: Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace…
Author: Richard Baxter

Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace with motives opening the lamentable effects of their weaknesses and distempers / by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1669

2 v. in 1. · 110k words · Wing B1249 · ESTC R15683

Title page typeset from the transcription.

Directions 2 › Direction 6: DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledge and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of…Directions 2 › Direction 6: DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledg and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of…

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.

[ Earlier:198–212 of 533

:198p. 119

DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledge and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion; and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven, be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives: that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven.

DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledg and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion; and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven, be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives: that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven.

:199p. 119–120

You are so far HOLY as you are DIVINE and HEAVENLY. A Christian indeed in casting up his accounts, being certain that this World doth make no man happy, hath been led up by Christ to seek a Happiness with God above: If you live not for this everlasting happiness, if you trade not for this, if this be not your treasure, your hope and home, the chief matter of your desires, love and joy, and if all things be not pressed to serve it, and despised when they stand against it; you live not indeed a Christian life. GOD and HEAVEN, or GOD in HEAVEN, is the Life and Soul, the beginning and the end, the Sum, the All, of true Religion. And therefore it is that we are directed to lift up our Heads and Hearts, and begin our Prayers with [Our Father which art in Heaven] and end them with ascribing to Him the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory for ever.] It is not the Creatures, but God the Creator, that is the Father, the Guide and the felicity of Souls, and therefore the ultimate end and object of all ⟨p. 120⟩Religious actions and affections. Dwell still upon God, and dwell in Heaven, if you would understand the nature and design of Christianity. Take God for all, that is, for God: Study after the knowledge of him in all his Works: Study him in his Word: Study him in Christ: And never study him barely to know him, but to know him that you may love him: Take your selves as dead when you live not in the Love of God: Keep still upon your hearts a lively sense of the infinite difference between him and the Creature. Look on all the World as a shadow, and on God as the substance. Take the very worst that man can do, to be in comparison of the punishments of God, but as a Flea-biting to the sorest death: And take all the dreaming pleasures of the World, to be less in comparison with the joys of Heaven, than one lick of honey is to a thousand years possession of all the felicities on earth. Think not all the pleasures, honours or riches of the world, to be worthy to be named in comparison of Heaven: nor the Greatest of Men, to be worthy to be once thought on in comparison of God. As one straw or feather won or lost, would neither much rejoice or trouble you, if all the City or land were yours. So live as men whose eyes are open, and who discern a greater disproportion, between the portion of a worldling and a Saint.

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Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace…

DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledge and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion; and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven, be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives: that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven.

DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledg and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion; and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven, be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives: that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven.

DIRECT. VII. In the work of Mortification, let SELF-DENIAL be the First and Last of all your study, care and diligence.

DIRECT. VII. In the work of Mortification, let SELF-DENYAL be the First and Last of all your study, care and diligence.

DIRECT. VIII. Take your corrupted fleshly Desires, for the greatest enemy of your Souls; and let it be every day your constant work, to mortify the Flesh, and to keep a watch upon your lusts and appetite and every sense.

DIRECT. IX. Take heed lest you fall in love with the World or any thing therein, and lest your thoughts of any place or condition which you either possess or hope for, do grow too sweet and pleasing to you.

Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36

DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledge and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion; and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven, be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives: that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven.

DIRECT. VI. Let the Knowledg and Love of God, and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion; and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven, be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives: that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven.

DIRECT. VII. In the work of Mortification, let SELF-DENIAL be the First and Last of all your study, care and diligence.

DIRECT. VII. In the work of Mortification, let SELF-DENYAL be the First and Last of all your study, care and diligence.

DIRECT. VIII. Take your corrupted fleshly Desires, for the greatest enemy of your Souls; and let it be every day your constant work, to mortify the Flesh, and to keep a watch upon your lusts and appetite and every sense.

DIRECT. IX. Take heed lest you fall in love with the World or any thing therein, and lest your thoughts of any place or condition which you either possess or hope for, do grow too sweet and pleasing to you.