A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian EthicsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
6. Both Christ and Satan work by officers, instruments, and means.
Christ hath his ministers to preach his gospel, and pull down the
kingdom of Satan. And Satan hath his ministers to preach
licentiousness and lies, and to resist the gospel and kingdom of
Christ, 1 Cor. iii. 5; iv. 1; 2 Cor. xi. 15; Acts xiii. 8-10. Christ
hath his church, and the devil hath his synagogue. Christ's soldiers
do every one, in their places, fight for him against the devil. And
the devil's soldiers do every one, in their places, fight against
Christ. The generals are both unseen to mortals; and the unseen power
is theirs; but their agents are visible. The soldiers fight not only
against the generals, but against one another; but it is all, or
chiefly, for the generals' sakes. It is Christ that the wicked
persecute in his servants, Acts ix. 4; and it is the devil whom the
godly hate and resist in the wicked.
But yet here are divers notable differences. 1. The devil's servants
do not what they do in love to him, but to their own flesh; but
Christ's servants do what they do in love to him, as well as to
themselves. 2. The devil's army are cheated into arms and war, not
knowing what they do; but Christ doth all in the open light, and will
have no servants but those that deliberately adhere to him, when they
know the worst. 3. The devil's servants do not know that he is their
general; but Christ's followers do all know their Lord. 4. The devil's
followers disown their master and their work; they will not own that
they fight against Christ and his kingdom, while they do it: but
Christ's followers own their Captain, and his cause, and work; for he
is not a master to be ashamed of.
7. Both Christ and Satan work persuasively, by moral means, and
neither of them by constraint and force. Christ forceth not men
against their wills to good, and Satan cannot force them to be bad;
but all the endeavour is to make men willing; and he is the conqueror
that getteth and keepeth our own consent.
8. Their ends are contrary, and therefore their ways are also
contrary. The devil's end is, to draw man to sin and damnation, and to
dishonour God; and Christ's end is, to draw man from sin to holiness
and salvation, and to honour God. But Christ maketh known his end, and
Satan concealeth his end from his followers.
9. There is somewhat within the good and bad for the contrary part to
work upon; and we are, as it were, divided in ourselves, and have
somewhat in us that is on both sides. The wicked have an honourable
acknowledgment of God, and of their greatest obligation to him; a
hatred to the devil; a love of themselves; a willingness to be happy,
and an unwillingness to be miserable; and a conscience which approveth
of more good than they do, and condemneth much of their transgression.
This is some advantage to the persuasions of the ministers of Christ
to work upon; and they have reason capable of knowing more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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