A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian EthicsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
_Direct._ IX. Bestow your first and chiefest labour to kill sin at the
root; to cleanse the heart, which is the fountain; for out of the
heart cometh the evils of the life.--Know which are the master-roots;
and bend your greatest care and industry to mortify those: and they
are especially these that follow; 1. Ignorance. 2. Unbelief. 3.
Inconsiderateness. 4. Selfishness and pride. 5. Fleshliness, in
pleasing a brutish appetite, lust, or fantasy. 6. Senseless
hardheartedness and sleepiness in sin.
_Direct._ X. Account the world and all its pleasures, wealth, and
honours, no better than indeed they are, and then Satan will find no
bait to catch you.--Esteem all as dung with Paul, Phil. iii. 8; and no
man will sin, and sell his soul, for that which he accounteth but as
dung.
_Direct._ XI. Keep up above in a heavenly conversation, and then your
souls will be always in the light, and as in the sight of God, and
taken up with those businesses and delights which put them out of
relish with the baits of sin.
_Direct._ XII. Let christian watchfulness be your daily work; and
cherish a preserving, though not a distracting and discouraging fear.
_Direct._ XIII. Take heed of the first approaches and beginnings of
sin. Oh how great a matter doth a little of this fire kindle! And if
you fall, rise quickly by sound repentance, whatever it may cost you.
_Direct._ XIV. Make God's word your only rule; and labour diligently
to understand it.
_Direct._ XV. And in doubtful cases, do not easily depart from the
unanimous judgment of the generality of the most wise and godly of all
ages.
_Direct._ XVI. In doubtful cases be not passionate or rash, but proceed
deliberately, and prove things well, before you fasten on them.
_Direct._ XVII. Be acquainted with your bodily temperature, and what sin
it most inclineth you to, and what sin also your calling or converse
doth lay you most open to, that there your watch may be the stricter.
(Of all which I shall speak more fully under the next Grand Direction.)
_Direct._ XVIII. Keep in a life of holy order, such as God hath
appointed you to walk in. For there is no preservation for stragglers
that keep not rank and file, but forsake the order which God
commandeth them.--And this order lieth principally in these points: 1.
That you keep in union with the universal church. Separate not from
Christ's body upon any pretence whatever. With the church as
regenerate, hold spiritual communion, in faith, love, and holiness:
with the church as congregate and visible, hold outward communion, in
profession and worship. 2. If you are not teachers, live under your
particular, faithful pastors, as obedient disciples of Christ. 3. Let
the most godly, if possible, be your familiars. 4. Be laborious in an
outward calling.
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