A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

9. They hear and read of the case of hardened, wicked men, that have gone before them, and have resisted grace, and lost their time, as they now do; and they read or hear of the miserable end that such have come to; and yet they feel not.

10. They have a world of examples continually before them; they see the filthy lives of many for their warning, and the holy lives of others for their imitation, and see how Christ and Satan strive for souls; and yet they feel not.

11. They are always before the eye of God, and do all things before his face; he warneth them, and calleth them to repentance; and yet they feel not.

12. They have Christ as it were crucified before their eyes, Gal. iii. 1: they hear of his sufferings; they may see in him what sin is, and what the love of God is; he pleadeth with them his blood and sufferings against their obstinate unkindness; and yet they feel not.

13. They have everlasting joy and glory offered them, and heaven so opened to them in God's promises, that they may see it as in a glass, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. They take on them to believe how much the blessed spirits there abhor such wickedness as theirs; and yet they feel not.

14. They have the torments of hell opened to them in the word of God; they read what impenitent souls must suffer to all eternity; they hear some in despair in this life, roaring in the misery of their souls; they hear the joyful thanksgivings of believers, that Christ delivereth them from those torments; and yet they feel not.

15. All the promises of salvation in the gospel do put in an exception against these men, "unless they be converted:" they are made to the penitent, and not to the impenitent. There is justification and life; but not for them. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 1. "But he that believeth not, is condemned already," John iii. 18, 36. And they that "after their hardness and impenitent hearts, do treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, shall have tribulation and anguish," Rom. ii. 5-7. Here is comfort for repenting sinners, but none (but on condition they repent) for them: when others are welcomed to Christ's marriage feast, he saith to these, "How came you in hither?" and yet they feel not.

16. They still carry about with them the doleful evidences of all this misery. One would think the ambitious, and covetous, and voluptuous might see these death-marks on themselves; and the ungodly might feel that God hath not their hearts; especially they that hate the godly, and show their wolfish cruelty against them, and are the progeny of Cain; and yet they feel not any of this, but live as quietly, and talk as pleasantly, as if all were well with them, and their souls were safe, and their calling and election were made sure. Alas! if these souls were not hardened in sin, we should see it in their tears, or hear it in their complaints; they would after sermon sometimes come to the minister, as they, Acts ii. 37; xvi. 30, "Sirs, what must we do to be saved?" or we should see it in their lives, or hear of it by report of others, who would observe the change that grace hath made; and sermons would stick longer by them, and not at best be turned off with a fruitless commendation; and saying, it was a good sermon, and there is an end of it. Judge now by this true description which I have given you, what a hardened sinner is. And then the godly may so see cause to bewail the remnants of this mischief, as yet to be daily thankful to God that they are not in the power of it.

Direct. VII. Live, if you can possibly, under a lively, quickening ministry, and in the company of serious, lively christians. It is true, that we should be deeply affected with the truths of God, how coldly soever they be delivered. But the question is not, what is our duty; but what are our disease, and our necessity, and the proper remedy. All men should be so holy, as not to need any exhortations to conversion at all: but shall the ministers therefore neglect such exhortations, or they that need them turn away their ears? Hear, if possible, that minister that first feels what he speaks, and so speaks what he feels, as tendeth most to make you feel. "Cry aloud; spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Israel their sins," Isa. lviii. 1, 2. Though such "as seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of their God." God is the chief agent; but he useth to work according to the fitness of the instrument. O woeful case! to hear a dead minister speaking to a dead people, the living truths of the living God! As Christ said, "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch." And if the dead must raise the dead, and the ungodly enemies of a holy life must bring men to godliness and to a holy life, it must be by such a power as once made use of clay and spittle, to open the eyes of the blind. It seems it was a proverb in Christ's days, "Let the dead bury their dead:" but not, Let the dead raise the dead. God may honour the bones of the dead prophet, (2 Kings xiii. 21,) with the raising a corpse that is cast into its grave, and toucheth them. A meeting of a dead minister and a dead people, is like a place of graves: and though it be a lamentable thing to hear a man speak without any life, of life eternal, yet God can concur to the quickening of a soul. But sure we have no great reason to expect that ordinarily he should convert men so miraculously, without the moral aptitude of means. It is most incongruous for any man in his familiar discourse, to speak without great seriousness and reverence of things concerning life eternal. But for a preacher to talk of God, of Christ, of heaven, and hell, as coldly and sleepily, as if he were persuading men not to believe him, or regard him, that no more regards himself, is less tolerable. It is a sad thing to hear a man draw out a dreaming, dull discourse, about such astonishing weighty things; and to speak as if it were the business of his art, to teach men to sleep while the names of heaven and hell are in their ears; and not to be moved while they hear the message of the living God, about their life or death everlasting. If a man tell in the streets of a fire in the town, or a soldier bring an alarm of the enemy at the gates, in a reading or jesting tone, the hearers will neglect him, and think that he believeth not himself. I know it is not mere noise that will convert a soul: a bawling fervency, which the hearers may discern to be but histrionical and affected, and not to come from a serious heart, doth harden the auditors worst of all. A rude, unreverent noise is unbeseeming an ambassador of Christ. But an ignorant saying of a few confused words, or a sleepy recital of the most pertinent things, do as little beseem them. Christ raised not Lazarus by the loudness of his voice: but where the natural ears are the passage to the mind, the voice and manner should be suitable to the matter. Noise without seriousness and pertinent matter, is like gunpowder without bullet, that causeth sound and no execution. And the weightiest matter without clear explication and lively application, is like bullet without powder. If you will throw cannon bullets at the enemy with your hands, they will sooner fall on your feet than on them. And it is deadness aggravated by hypocrisy, when a lifeless preacher will pretend moderation, as if he were afraid of speaking too loud and earnestly, lest he should awake the dead, whom lightning and thunder will not awake: and when he will excuse himself by accusing those that are not as drowsy or dead as he; and would make men believe that seriousness is intemperate rage or madness. If you are cast upon a cold and sleepy minister, consider the matter more than the manner; but choose not such a one for the cure of hardness and insensibility of heart.

Direct. VIII. Take notice, how sensible tender-hearted christians are of sins far less than those that you make a jest of; and how close those matters come to their hearts, that touch not yours. And have not you as much cause to be moved as they? and as much need to lay such things to heart? Did you but know what a trouble it is to them, to be haunted with temptations to the unbelief and atheism which prevaileth with you, though they are far from choosing them, or delighting in them; did you see how involuntary thoughts and frailties make some of them weary of themselves; and how they even hate their hearts for believing no more, and loving God no more, and for being so strange to God and heaven, when yet there is nothing in the world so dear to them, nor hath so much of their estimation or endeavour; you would think, sure, that if such hearts had your sin and misery to feel, they would feel it to their grief indeed, unless the sin itself did hinder the feeling, as it doth with you. Let tender-hearted christians instruct you, and not be witnesses against you.