A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

Direct. XII. Let every meditation be undertaken in a humble sense of thy own insufficiency, with a believing dependence on thy Head and Saviour, to guide and quicken thee by his Holy Spirit, and to cover the infirmities of thy holiest thoughts. Whatever good is written upon our hearts, must be "written by the Spirit of the living God:" and this "trust we must have through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God," 2 Cor. iii. 3-5. How heavily will all go on, or rather how certainly shall we labour in vain, and cast off all, if Christ cast us off, and leave us to ourselves! Think not that your life and strength are radically in yourselves: go to him by renewed acts of faith, by whom you must be quickened.

Direct. XIII. Let not your holy thoughts be so seldom as to keep you strange to the matter of your meditations, nor so short as to be gone before you have made any thing of it. Now and then a cursory thought will not acquaint the soul with God, nor bring it to a habit and temperament of holiness. Whereas that which you think on frequently and seriously, as your business and delight, will become the nutriment and nature of your souls; as the air which we daily breathe in, and the food which we daily live upon, do to our bodies. And you will find that as use will breed skill and strength, so it will cause such acquaintance and familiarity, as will very much tend to the fruit and comfort of the work. Whereas they that only cast now and then a look at God and holiness, or are seldom and short in holy thoughts, do lose so quickly the little which they get, that it makes no great alteration on them.

Direct. XIV. Yet do not overdo in point of violence or length; but carry on the work sincerely according to the abilities of your minds and bodies; lest going beyond your strength, you craze your brains, and discompose your minds, and disable yourselves to do any thing at all. Though we cannot estimatively love God too much, yet is it possible to think of him with too much passion, or too long at once; because it may be more than the spirits and brain can bear; and if once they be overstrained, if they break not, like a lute-string screwed too high, they will be like a leg that is out of joint, that can pain you, but not bear you. While the soul rideth on so lame or dull a horse as the body is, it must not go the pace which it desireth, but which the body can bear; or else it may quickly be dismounted, or like one that rideth on a tired horse. It is not the horse that goeth at first with chafing heat and violence, which will travel best; but you must put on in the pace that you are able to hold out. You little know how lamentable and distressed a case you will be in, or how great an advantage the tempter hath, if once he do but tire you by overdoing!

Direct. XV. Choose not unnecessarily or ordinarily the bitterest or most unpleasant subjects for your meditation, lest you make it grow a burden to you; but dwell most on the sweet, delightful thoughts of the infinite love of God revealed by Christ, and the eternal glory purchased by him, and the wonderful helps and mercies in the way. As it is the gospel which Christ's ministers must preach to others, so it is the gospel which in your meditations you must preach most to yourselves. It is love and pleasure which you must principally endeavour to excite: and you must do it by contemplating amiableness and felicity, the objects of love and pleasure. For the thoughts of terror, and wrath, and misery, are unfit to stir up these: though to the unconverted, dull, secure, presumptuous, or sensual sinner, such thoughts are very necessary to awake him, and prepare him for the thoughts of love and peace. It is the principal part of this art, to keep off loathing and averseness, and to keep up readiness and delight.

Direct. XVI. When you are in company, let out the fruit of your secret meditations, in holy, edifying discourse. Gather not for yourselves only, but that you may communicate to others. The "good scribe instructed to the kingdom of God," must "bring forth out of his treasure things new and old," Matt. xiii. 52. That is good which doth good. God is communicative; and the best men are likest to him: nay, a fluent discourse sometimes is a great instructor to ourselves, and bringeth those things into our minds with clearness, which long meditation would not have done. For one thing leadeth in another; and in a warm discourse the spirits are excited, and the understanding and memory are engaged to a close attention; so that just in the speaking, we have oftentimes such a sudden appearance of some truth, which before we took no notice of, that we find it is no small addition to our knowledge, which comes in this way. As some find that vocal prayer doth more excite them, and keep the mind from wandering, than mere mental prayer doth; so free discourse is but a vocal meditation. And what man's thoughts are not more guilty of disorder, vagaries, and interruptions, than his discourse is?

Direct. XVII. Obey all that God revealeth to you in your meditations, and turn them all into faithful practice; and make not thinking the end of thinking. Else you will but do as the ungodly and disobedient in their prayers, who offer to God the "sacrifice of fools, and consider not that they do evil," Eccl. v. 1, 2. Away with the sin, and do the duty, on which you think.

Direct. XVIII. Think not that the same measure of contemplation and striving with their own affections, is necessary to all; but that an obediential, active life may be as acceptable to God, when he calleth men to it, as a more contemplative life. This leadeth me necessarily to give you some directions about the difference of these ways.

Tit. 4. The Difference between a contemplative Life, and an obedient, active Life, with Directions concerning them.

This task will be best performed by answering those questions which here need a solution.