A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

Direct. XIX. Consider that your desires do but make those wants a burden and misery to you which otherwise would be none. Thirst makes the want of drink a torment, which to another is no pain or trouble at all. The lustful wanton is ready to die for love of the desired mate which nobody else cares for, nor is ever the worse for being without. A proud ambitious Haman thinks himself undone if he be not honoured, and is vexed if he be but cast down into the mean condition of a farmer; when many thousand honest, contented men live merrily and quietly in as low a condition. It is men's own desires, and not their real wants, which do torment them.

Direct. XX. Remember that when you have done all, if God love you he will be the chooser, and will not grant your sick desires, but will correct you for them till they are cured. If your child cry for a knife, or for unwholesome meat, or any thing that would hurt him, you will quiet him with the rod if he give not over. And it is a sign some rod of God is near you, when you are sick for this, or that, or the other thing, and will not be quiet and content unless your fancy and concupiscence be humoured.

Tit. 4. Directions against Sinful Mirth and Pleasure.

Mirth is sinful, 1. When men rejoice in that which is evil; as in the hurt of others, or in men's sin, or in the sufferings of God's servants, or the afflictions of the church, or the success or prosperity of the enemies of Christ, or of any evil cause: this is one of the greatest sins in the world, and one of the greatest signs of wickedness, when wickedness is it that they rejoice in.[331] 2. When it is unseasonable, or in an unmeet subject: as to be merry in the time and place of mourning; to feast when we should fast; or for an unsanctified, miserable soul to be taken up with mirth, that is in the power of sin and Satan and near to hell. 3. Mirth is sinful when it tendeth to the committing of sin, or is managed by sin: as to make merry with lies and fables, and tempting, unnecessary, time-wasting dances, plays, or recreations; or with the slander or abuse of others; or with drunkenness, gluttony, or excess. 4. Mirth is sinful when it is a hinderance to our duty and unfitteth the soul for the exercise of that grace which is most suitable to its estate: as when it hindereth a sinner's conviction and humiliation, and resisteth the Spirit of God, and bawleth down the calls of grace, and the voice of conscience, that they cannot be heard: and when it banisheth all sober consideration about the matters that we should most regard, and will not give men leave to think with fixedness and sobriety, upon God and upon themselves, their sin and danger, upon death and judgment and the life to come: when it makes the soul more unfit to take reproof, to profit by a sermon, to call upon God. This drunken mirth which shuts out reason, and silenceth conscience, and laughs at God, and jesteth at damnation, and doth but intoxicate the brain, and make men mad in the matters where they should most show their wisdom, I say, this mirth is the devil's sport, and the sinner's misery, and the wise man's pity: of which Solomon speaketh, Eccl. ii. 2, "I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doth it?" Prov. xxvi. 18, 19, "As a mad-man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?" Prov. x. 23, "It is as sport to a fool to do mischief." 5. But mirth is most horridly odious when it is blasphemous and profane: when incarnate devils do make themselves merry with jesting and mocking at Scripture, or at the judgments of God, or the duties of religion; or in horrid oaths and cursed speeches against the servants of the Lord.

Direct. I. First see that thou be a person fit for mirth,[332] and that thou be not a miserable slave of Satan, in an unregenerate, unholy, unjustified state! Thou wouldst scarce think the innocent games or sports were becoming a malefactor that must die to-morrow. An unregenerate, unholy person, is sure whenever he dieth such to be damned; if he believe not this, he must deny God or the gospel to be true. And he is not sure to live an hour. And he is sure that he shall die ere long. And now, if you have not fooled away your reason, tell me whether your reason can justify the mirth of such a man? Dost thou ask, what harm is it to be merry? None at all for one that hath cause to be merry, and rejoiceth in the Lord. But for a man to be merry in the way to hell, and that so near it; for a man to be merry before his soul be sanctified, and his sin be pardoned, or before he seeketh it with all his heart, this is harm; if folly and unbelief, and contempt of God and his dreadful justice, be any harm. O hearken to the calls of God; abhor thy sins, and set thy heart on heaven and holiness, and then God and conscience will allow thee to be merry. Get a renewed heart and life, and get the pardon of thy sins, and a title to heaven, and a readiness to die, and then there is reason and wisdom in thy mirth.[333] Then thy mirth will be honourable and warrantable; better than the lame man's that was healed, Acts iii. 8, that went with Peter and John into the temple, "walking, and leaping, and praising God." But it is a most pitiful sight to see an ungodly, unregenerate sinner, to laugh, and sport, and play, and live merrily, as if he knew not what evil is near to him! It would draw tears from the eyes of a believer that knoweth him, and thinketh where he is like to dwell for ever. I remember the credible narrative of one that lived not far from me, that in his profaneness was wont to wish that he might see the devil; who at last appeared to him in his terror; and sometime he smiled on him; and the man was wont to say, that he never seemed so ugly and terrible as when he smiled (and the man was affrighted by it into a reformed life). So though a servant of the devil be never comely, yet he never seemeth so ghastly as when he is most merry in his misery.

Direct. II. Yet do not destroy nature by overmuch heaviness, under pretence that thou hast no right to be merry. For, 1. The very discovery of thy misery puts thee into the fairer hopes of mercy. 2. And many of God's children live long without assurance of their justification, and yet should not therefore cast away all joy. 3. And so much ease and quiet of mind must be kept up by the unsanctified themselves, as is necessary to preserve their natures, that they may have time continued, and may wait on God till they obtain his grace. Above all men, they have reason to value their lives, lest they die and be lost, before they be recovered. And therefore, as they must not famish themselves by forbearing meat or drink, so their sorrows must not be such as may destroy their bodies (of which more anon).

The true method of rejoicing.

Direct. III. See that you first settle the peace of your souls upon solid grounds, and get such evidences of your special interest in Christ and heaven, as will rationally warrant you to rejoice; and then make it the business of your lives to rejoice and delight yourselves in God, and take this as the principal part of grace and godliness, and not as a small or indifferent thing; and so let all lawful, natural mirth be taken in, as animated and sanctified by this holy delight and joy; and know that this natural, sanctified mirth is not only lawful, but a duty exceeding congruous and comely for a thankful believer in his way to everlasting joy.

This is the true method of rejoicing. Though, as I said, so much quietness may be kept up by the unregenerate, as is needful to keep up life and health, and the gospel where it cometh is tidings of great joy to those that hear it; yet no man can live a truly comfortable, merry life, but in this method; but all his mirth, beside that which either supporteth nature, or meeteth mercy in his returning to God, will be justly chargeable with madness; and maketh him a more pitiful sight.[334]

The first thing therefore to be done, is to lay the groundwork of true mirth. And this is done by unfeigned repenting, and turning to God by faith in Christ, and becoming new creatures, a sanctified, peculiar people, and being justified and adopted to be the children of God; and then by discerning (upon sober trial) the evidences and witness of all this in ourselves, that we may know that we have passed from death to life.