A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian EthicsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
_Direct._ III. Still think, what dangers, difficulties, and enemies
you must pass through to this rest, and that all your safety dependeth
upon the conduct and assistance of your Guide.--And this will bring
over self-love to command your strict obedience. You are to pass
through the army of your enemies; and will you here disobey the
Captain of your salvation? or would you have him leave you to
yourselves? Your disease is mortal, and none but Jesus Christ can cure
it; and if he cure it not, you are lost for ever. No pain of gout or
stone is comparable to your everlasting pain; and yet will you not be
obedient to your Physician? Think, when a temptation comes, If there
were a narrow bridge over the deepest gulf or river, and all my
friends and happiness lay on the further side, and I must needs go
over whether I will or not; if Christ would take me by the hand and
lead me over, would I be tempted to refuse his help, or to lose his
hand? or if he should offer to lose me, and leave me to myself, should
I not tremble, and cry out, as Peter, "Lord, save me," Matt. xiv. 30,
or as the disciples, "Save, Master, we perish?" And should I not then
hold him fast, and most accurately obey him, when he is leading me to
life eternal, that I may escape the gulf of endless misery?
_Direct._ IV. Remember still, how bad, and blind, and backward, and
deceitful, and weak you are yourselves, and therefore what need you
have of the greatest watchfulness, lest you should disobey your Pilot,
and lose your Guide, before you are aware.--O what a heart have we to
watch! A lazy heart, that will be loitering or sitting down, when we
should be following our Lord. A foolish heart, that will let him go,
while we play with every play-fellow in our way. A cowardly heart,
that will steal away, or draw back in danger, when it should follow
our General. A treacherous heart, that will give us the slip, and
deceive us, when we seemed surest of it. A purblind heart, that even
when it followeth Christ, our Guide, is hardly kept from missing the
bridge, and falling into the gulf of misery. Think well of these, and
you will obey your Governor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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