A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

Direct. V. Here learn well the duties and dangers of your own relations, and remember that it is much of your work to be faithful and excellent in your relations. And mind not so much what other men owe to you, as what you owe to God and them. Let masters, and ministers, and magistrates first study and carefully practise their own duties, and yet they must next see that their inferiors do their duties, because that is their office: but they must be more desirous that God be first served, and more careful to procure obedience to him, than that they be honoured or obeyed themselves. Children, servants, and subjects must be taken up in the well-doing of their proper work; remembering that their good or hurt lieth far more upon that, than upon their superiors' dealings with them, or usage of them. As it is your own body, and not your superior's, which your soul doth animate, nourish, and use, and which you have the continual sense and charge of; so it is your own duty, and not your superiors', which you have to do and to answer for, and therefore most to mind and talk of.

Tempt. VI. The tempter also suiteth his temptations to our advantages, and hopes of rising or thriving in the world: he seeth which is our rising or thriving way; and there he layeth his snares, accommodated to our designs and ends, making some sinful omission or commission seem necessary thereto. Either Balaam must prophesy against the people of God, or else God must keep him from honour, by keeping him from sin, Numb. xxiv. 11. If once Judas be set on, What will you give me? the devil will teach him the way to gain: his way is necessary to such sinful ends.

Direct. VI. Take heed therefore of overvaluing the world, and being taken with its honour, pleasure, or prosperity; take heed, lest the love of earthly things engage you in eager desires and designs to grow great or rich. For if once your heart have such a design, you are gone from God: the heart is gone, and then all will follow as occasion calls for it. Understand these scriptures: Prov. xxiii. 4, "Labour not to be rich." Prov. xxviii. 20, 22, "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.—He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye." 1 Tim. vi. 6, 9, "But they that will be rich fall into temptations and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition: for the love of money is the root of all evil. But godliness with contentment is great gain." Jer. xlv. 5, "Seek not great matters for yourselves." Be dead, to the world: fear more the rising than the falling way. Love that condition best, which fitteth thee for communion with God, or maketh thee the most profitable servant to him; and hate that most, which is thy greatest hinderance from these, and would most enslave thee to the world.

Tempt. VII. The tempter suiteth his temptations to our company: if they have any error or sin, or are engaged in any carnal enterprise, he will make them snares to us, and restless until they have insnared us. If they love us not, he will make them continual provocations, and set before us all their wrongs, and provoke us to uncharitableness and revenge. If they love us, he will endeavour to make their love to us to be the shoeing-horn or harbinger of their errors and evil ways, to draw us to their imitation. He findeth something in all our company, to make the matter of some temptation.

Direct. VII. Converse most with God: let faith make Christ and angels your most regarded and observed company; that their mind and presence may more affect you than the mind and presence of mortal men. Look not at any man's mind, or will, or actions, without respect to God who governeth, and to the rule by which they should all be suited, and to the judgment which will open and reward them as they are. Never see man without seeing God: see man only as a creature dependent on his Maker's will. And then you will lament and not imitate him when he sinneth; and you will oppose (and Christ saith "hate," Luke xiv. 26) and not be seduced by him, when he would draw you with him to sin and hell: had Adam more observed God than Eve he had not been seduced by his helper. Then you will look on the proud, and worldly, and sensual, as Solomon on the slothful man's vineyard, Prov. xxiv. 30-32, "I saw and considered it well, I looked on it, and received instruction." You would not long for the plague or leprosy, because it is your friend's disease.

Tempt. VIII. The tempter maketh advantage of other men's opinions or speeches of you, or dealings by you; and by every one of them would insnare you in some sin. If they have mean thoughts of you, or speak despising or dishonouring words of you, he tempteth you by it to hate them, or love them less, or to speak contemptuously of them. If they applaud you, he tempteth you by it to be proud; if they wrong you, he tempteth you to revenge; if they enrich you, or are your benefactors, he would make their benefits a price to hire you to some sin, and make you pay as dear for them as your salvation cometh to. If they scorn you for religion, he would make you ashamed of Christ and his cause; if they admire you, he would draw you by it to hypocrisy. If they threaten you, he would draw you to sin by fear, as he did Peter; if they deal rudely with you, he tempteth you to passion, and to requite them with the like, and even to distaste religion itself, if men professing religion be against you, or seem to do you any wrong. Thus is every man a danger to his brother.

Direct. VIII. Discern in all men what there is of God to be your help, and that make use of; and what there is of Satan, sin, and self, and that take heed of. Look upon every man as a helper and a tempter; and be prepared still, to draw forth his help, and resist his temptation. And remember, that man is but the instrument; it is Satan that tempteth you, and God that trieth you, by that man! Saith David of Shimei, "The Lord hath bidden him;" that is, he is but God's rod to scourge me for my sin, as my son himself is. As Satan was his instrument in trying Job, not by God's effecting, but permitting the sin: observe God and Satan in it, more than men.

Tempt. IX. His temptations also are suited to our fore-received opinions and thoughts. If you have but let in one lustful thought, or one malicious thought, he can make great advantage of that nest-egg to gather in more; as a little leaven to leaven the whole lump: he can roll it up and down, and do much to hatch it into a multitude. If you are but tainted with any false opinion, or prejudice against your teacher, your ruler, or your brother, he can improve it to such increase, and raise such conclusions from it, and more from them, and reduce them all to practice, as shall make observers with astonishment say, Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

Direct. IX. Take heed what thoughts you first admit into your mind; and especially cherish and approve none but upon very good trial and examination. And if they prove corrupt, sweep clean your fantasy and memory of them, that they prove not inhabitants, and take not up their lodgings in you, or have not time to spawn and breed. And fill up the room with contrary thoughts, and useful truth, and cherish them daily, that they may increase and multiply; and then your hearts will be like a well-peopled kingdom, able to keep their possession against all enemies.