A26917:35
Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace…
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.
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Directions 1: DIRECTIONS TO THE CONVERTED, For their establishment, growth, and perseverance.
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.
What by being Rooted in him. 4. What by being built up in him. 5. What by being confirmed or stablished in the Faith. 6. What by this directive limitation [as ye have been taught]. 7. What by abounding therein with ⟨p. 6⟩thanksgiving. And for the first, you must observe the act and the object. The act is [Receiving]: the object is [Christ Jesus the Lord]. To Receive Christ is not only (as some Annotators mistake it) to Receive his Doctrine], though its certain that his Doctrine must be received, and that the rest is implied in this. But when the understanding receiveth the Gospel by Assent, the Will also Accepteth or Receiveth Christ as he is offered, by Consent: and both these together are the Receiving of Christ; that is, the true justifying Faith of Gods Elect. It is not therefore a Physical passive Reception, as Wood receiveth the Fire, and as our Souls receive the Graces of the Spirit; but it is a Moral Reception, or Reputative, which is Active and Metaphorical. This will be better understood when the object is considered; which is [Christ Jesus the Lord]. To receive Christ as Christ, or the Anointed Messiah, and as the Saviour and our Lord, is to believe that he is such, and to consent that he be such to us, and to trust in him, and resign our selves to him as such. The Relation we do indeed Receive by a proper passive Reception; I mean our Relation of being the Redeemed, Members, Subjects, Disciples of this Christ. But the person of Christ we only Receive by such an active, moral, reputative Reception, as a Servant by consent Receives a Master, a Patient by Consent receives a Physician; a Wife by consent receives a Husband; and a Scholar or Pupil by Consent receives a Teacher or Tutor; or the Subjects by Consent receive a Sovereign. So that it is the same thing that is called [Receiving Jesus the Lord] and [believing in him], as it is expounded Joh. 1.12. There are three great observable ⟨p. 7⟩acts of Faith essential to it; the first is, Assent to the truth of the Gospel: the second is, Consent or Acceptance of Christ and Life as the offered good: the third is Affiance in Christ for the accomplishing of the ends of his Office. Now the word Faith doth most properly express the first act and the last; and the word [Receiving] doth most properly express the middlemost: