A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

14. Thou wilt not thyself be mocked out of thy house, or land, or right, nor from thy meat, or drink, or rest: wouldst thou cast these away, if another should mock but thee for using them? I think thou wouldst not. And wouldst thou have wise men be mocked out of their salvation?

15. Thou wouldst not think it reasonable that thy children or servants be derided for loving or obeying thee? or thy very horse dispraised for serving thee? And do they owe thee more, than we all owe God?

16. God highly honoureth them and dearly loveth them, for that very thing that thou hatest and deridest them for. John xvi. 27, and xiv. 21, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Psal. xi. 7, "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness: his countenance doth behold the upright." Psal. cxlvi. 8, "The Lord loveth the righteous." 2 Cor. vi. 16-19, "For ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." And darest thou scorn the sons and daughters of the Almighty? even for that very thing for which he hath promised to receive them, and to be a Father to them? How contrary then art thou to God! Mal. iii. 16-18, "A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name; and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels: and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him:" and darest thou scorn God's jewels, and those that are thus precious to him? "For them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed," 1 Sam. ii. 30. And wilt thou be one of his despisers, opposing that in others, for which God himself hath promised to honour them?

17. To hate and scorn at holiness, is to hate and scorn at God's own image; and the clearest image of God that is under heaven; even that which Christ came down from heaven to give us the first draught of; even that copy of the holy life of Christ, which by the Spirit of God is drawn upon the heart.[556] And he that scorneth at this image of God, doth scorn at the Holy Ghost that made it, and scorn at Christ who gave us the first pattern, and scorn at God himself whose image it is. Saith Chrysostom, God is loved and hated in his servants, as a king is honoured or despised in his image. And he that dare scorn God, and scorn Jesus Christ, and scorn the Holy Ghost, in the image of God upon his children, methinks should never have the face once to expect to be saved by the God that he doth scorn.

18. Thou art the shame of human nature; and makest man so like a devil, that it is hard to prove that the devils can do much worse than thou.[557] Can there be a greater sin, than for a creature to scorn and deride the image and laws of his Creator? and hate and oppose, or persecute men for obeying him, and seeking to please him, and to save their souls? What couldst thou do worse if thou wouldst study to be as bad as thou canst? What a shame it is to thy understanding to be so blind! and to thy heart to be so wicked! It were not half so great a shame to scorn the sun for shining, or the earth for bearing fruit; for though these are God's creatures, yet they bear not the image of his holiness as his children do. When he will condemn men at last it will be upon this account. Matt. xxv. 40, 45, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it not (or did it) to one of the least of these (my brethren) ye did it not (or did it) unto me." Oh wonderful, that the nature of man can ever come to this, to hate, and oppose, and scorn the image and obedience of his Maker, and make a mock of the holiness of God! It is a great question whether the very tempting men to such sins as these be not the devil's greatest sin: and to commit it is worse than to tempt thee to commit it (cæteris paribus). And for a man that hath a Saviour offered him, thus to scorn his Saviour's grace, and mock his servants, must needs be far worse than for the devil to do it who hath no Saviour, no pardon offered, and no hope, but is shut up under endless desperation: as it is worse for a child to curse his father, or scorn him, than for an enemy to do it. Think and tremble, how near this deriding or opposing the work of the Holy Ghost, doth come to the unpardonable blasphemy against him.[558]

19. What villany may not be expected from thee, that canst commit such a sin as this? May not thy neighbour look for any mischief that thy carnal interest shall lead thee to do against him? Is it any wrong to thee to think that thou art a thief, a murderer, a whoremonger, a deceiver, unless it be for want of a temptation to commit them; or that thou wouldst be a traitor against thy king and country; or perfidious to thy truest friend, if thou wert tempted to it; when thou scornest men for obeying God himself?[559] Can that man stick at any wickedness that he is equally tempted to, who dare scorn his Maker, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier; and spit contempt upon holiness itself, the image of his Judge? For my part, if ever I trust thee or any such man as thou, with life or liberty, or with the worth of a groat, it shall be thy interest and not thy honesty and conscience that I will trust; I will trust thee little further than I would trust the devil himself that governs thee.

20. Lastly, consider what thou wilt think of thyself for this at death and judgment.[560] Will it comfort thee when thou art going to be judged of God, to think that thou art now going into the presence of that God whom thou wast wont to scorn? When thou seest Christ come with thousands of his holy angels to judge the world, will it comfort thee to think, this is he whose holy life, and precepts, and servants I mocked or persecuted on earth? Now I must be judged by him that I derided. Oh dreadful case! for a scorner or persecutor of godliness, to go to be judged by that holy God whose ways he scorned and persecuted![561] If you say, It was not Christ but a man that you derided; see Matt. xxv. 40, 45; Luke xix. 27; Acts ix. 4, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" If thou scorn a child for that in which he resembleth, imitateth, or obeyeth his Father, thou wilt find in the day of judgment to thy woe, that it was the Father himself that was the utmost and principal object of thy scorn. Then I had rather be the vilest toad than such a man. Then wilt thou stand to what thou saidst? Wilt thou then maintain thy slanders and reproach? Wilt thou then condemn or scorn the godly, when thou seest them justified at Christ's right hand, or glorified with him in heaven? No! as Mal. iii. 18, when God makes up his jewels, "then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." Then how gladly would you eat all the words of reproach and scorn, that ever you uttered against a saint; and wish that you had never spoken them! I tell you it is an unseemly thing for the same man now to scorn at godliness, who will so speedily tremble before the righteous God in the remembrance of it!

I have thought these discoveries of the horridness of this sin, to be the best directions against it; for as it is a sin thou gettest nothing by, so it is a sin that thou mayst easily leave if thou be willing. But for those that are yet but in the way to it, or in danger of it, I shall add these further directions to keep them from so desperate a wickedness.

Direct. I. Avoid the company of those distracted men, that dare revile the servants and ways of God. There is that in your corrupted natures, which will incline you to imitate the most horrid blasphemies if you often hear them. We have seen it in our days, that in imitation of others, men have been drawn to sins not to be named: to drink healths to the devil, to make "God damn me" an ordinary by-word. Be not therefore companions of them.

Direct. II. Take heed of sinning yourselves into blindness of mind and hardness of heart. Forsake not God, lest you be forsaken by him. It is men forsaken of God that ordinarily come to this desperate degree of sin: insomuch that the book of Homilies thus describing them saith, "The third sort he calleth scorners, that is, a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with malice, that they are not contented to dwell in sin, and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness, but also they do contemn and scorn in others, all godliness, true religion, all honesty and virtue. Of the two first sorts of men, I will not say but they may take repentance and be converted unto God: of the third sort, I think I may without danger of God's judgment pronounce, that never any yet were converted unto God by repentance, but continued still in their abominable wickedness, heaping up to themselves damnation against the day of God's inevitable judgment."[562] Though I take this to be too severe, yet it is the judgment of the church of England, and terrible to scorners that profess their assent to it.