A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian EthicsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
12. Well, then, we have got thus far in the clearest light. You see
that a religious, holy life, is every man's duty, not only as they owe
it to God as their Creator, their Owner, Governor, and Benefactor; but
also, because as lovers of ourselves, our reason commandeth us to have
ten thousandfold more regard of a probable or possible joy and torment
which are endless, than of any that is small and of short continuance.
And if this be so, that a holy life is every man's duty, with respect
to the life that is to come, then it is most evident, that there is
such a life to come indeed, and that it is more than probable or
possible, even certain. For if it be but man's duty to manage this
life, by the hopes and fears of another life, men it must follow, that
either there is such a life to come, or else that God hath made it
man's duty to hope, and fear, and care, and labour, and live in vain:
and that he himself doth tantalize and cheat his creatures, and rule
the world by motives of deceit, and make religion and obedience to our
Maker to be a life of folly, delusion, and our loss. And he that
believeth this of God, doth scarce believe him to be God. Though I
have mentioned this argument in another treatise, I think it not
unmeet here to repeat it for thy benefit.
[Sidenote: That all the matters of this transitory life are to be
estimated as they refer to the life to come.]
13. And seeing I suppose thee to be convinced of the life to come, and
that man's happiness and misery is there, I must needs suppose that
thou dost confess, that all things in this life, whether prosperity or
adversity, honour or dishonour, are to be esteemed and used as they
refer to the life to come. For nothing is more plain, than that the
means are to have all their esteem and use in order to their end. That
only is good in this life, which tendeth to the happiness of our
endless life; and that is evil indeed in this life, that tendeth to
our endless hurt, and to deprive us of the everlasting good. And
therefore no price or motive should hire us to sin against God, and to
forfeit or hinder our endless happiness.
[Sidenote: That no man can love God too much, nor make too sure of his
salvation.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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