A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

Because the devil knoweth that you will not receive his doctrine in his own name, his usual method is to propound and preach it in the name of Christ, which he knoweth you reverence and regard. For if Satan concealed not his own name and hand in every temptation, it would spoil his game; and the more excellent and splendid is his pretence, the more powerful the temptation is.[73] They that gave heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, no doubt thought better of the spirits and the doctrines, especially seeming strict, (for the devil hath his strictnesses,) "as forbidding to marry, and abstinence from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving," 1 Tim. iv. 1, 3. But the strictnesses of the devil are always intended to make men loose. They shall be strict as the Pharisees in traditions and vain ceremonies, and building the tombs of the prophets, and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous, that they may hate and murder the living saints that worship God in spirit and in truth. Licentiousness is the proper doctrine of the devil, which all his strictness tendeth to promote. To receive such principles is pernicious; but to father them upon Christ and the gospel, is blasphemous.

The libertines, antinomians, and autonomians of this age, have gathered you too many instances. The libertine saith, "The heart is the man; therefore you may deny the truth with your tongue, you may be present at false worship, (as at the mass,) you need not suffer to avoid the speaking of a word, or subscribing to an untruth or error, or doing some little thing; but as long as you keep your hearts to God, and mean well, or have an honest mental reservation, and are forced to it by others, rather than suffer, you may say, or subscribe, or swear any thing which you can yourselves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds, or comply with any outward actions or customs to avoid offence and save yourselves."

The antinomians tell you, that "The moral law is abrogated, and that the gospel is no law; (and if there be no law, there is no governor nor government, no duty, no sin, no judgment, no punishment, no reward); that the elect are justified before they are born, or repent, or believe; that their sin is pardoned before it is committed; that God took them as suffering and fulfilling all the law in Christ, as if it had been they that did it in him: that we are justified by faith only in our consciences: that justifying faith is but the believing that we are justified: that every man must believe that he is pardoned, that he may be pardoned in his conscience; and this he is to do by a divine faith, and that this is the sense of the article, 'I believe the forgiveness of sins,' that is, that my sins are forgiven; and that all are forgiven that believe it: that it is legal and sinful to work or do any thing for salvation: that sin once pardoned need not be confessed and lamented, or at least, we need not ask pardon of sin daily, or of one sin oft: that castigations are no punishments; and yet no other punishment is threatened to believers for their sins; and consequently that Christ hath not procured them a pardon of any sin after believing, but prevented all necessity of pardon; and therefore they must not ask pardon of them, nor do any thing to obtain it: that fear of hell must have no hand in our obedience, or restraint from sin. And some add, that he that cannot repent or believe, must comfort himself that Christ repented and believed for him (a contradiction)."[74] Many such doctrines of licentiousness the abusers of grace have brought forth.

And the sect which imitateth the father of pride in affecting to be from under the government of God, and to be the law-givers and rulers of themselves and all others, (which I therefore call the autonomians,) are licentious and much more. They equally contend against Christ's government, and for their own: they fill the world with wars and bloodshed, oppression and cruelty, and the ears of God with the cries of the martyrs and oppressed ones; and all that the spiritual and holy discipline of Christ may be suppressed, and seriousness in religion made odious, or banished from the earth, and that themselves may be taken for the centre, and pillars, and lawgivers of the church, and the consciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or fears of offending God, in comparison of offending them; and may absolutely submit to them; and never stick at any feared disobedience to Christ: they are the scorners and persecutors of strict obedience to the laws of God, and take those that fear his judgments, to be men affrighted out of their wits; and that to obey him exactly (which, alas! who can do, when he hath done his best) is but to be hypocritical or too precise: but to question their domination, or break their laws, (imposed on the world, even on kings and states, without any authority,) this must be taken for heresy, schism, or a rebellion, like that of Korah and his company. This Luciferian spirit of the proud autonomians hath filled the christian world with bloodshed, and been the greatest means of the miseries of the earth, and especially of hindering and persecuting the gospel, and setting up a pharisaical religion in the world: it hath fought against the gospel, and filled with blood the countries of France, Savoy, Rhætia, Bohemia, Belgia, Helvetia, Polonia, Hungary, Germany, and many more; that it may appear how much of the Satanical nature they have, and how punctually they fulfil his will.

And natural corruption containeth in it the seeds of all these damnable heresies: nothing more natural to lapsed man, than to shake off the government of God, and to become a lawgiver to himself, and as many others as he can; and to turn the grace of God into wantonness. Therefore the profane, that never heard it from any heretics but themselves, do make themselves such a creed as this, that "God is merciful, and therefore we need not fear his threatenings, for he will be better than his word: it belongeth to him to save us, and not to us, and therefore we may cast our souls upon his care, though we care not for them ourselves. If he hath predestinated us to salvation, we shall be saved; and if he have not, we shall not; whatever we do, or how well soever we live. Christ died for sinners, and therefore though we are sinners, he will save us. God is stronger than the devil, and therefore the devil shall not have the most: That which pleaseth the flesh, and doth God no harm, can never be so great a matter, or so much offend him, as to procure our damnation. What need of so much ado to be saved, or so much haste to turn to God, when any one that at last doth but repent, and cry God mercy, and believe that Christ died for him, shall be saved? Christ is the Saviour of the world, and his grace is very great and free, and therefore God forbid that none should be saved but those few that are of strict and holy lives, and make so much ado for heaven. No man can know who shall be saved, and who shall not; and therefore it is the wisest way, to do nobody any harm, and to live merrily, and trust God with our souls, and put our salvation upon the venture: nobody is saved for his own works or deservings; and therefore our lives may serve the turn as well as if they were more strict and holy." This is the creed of the ungodly; by which you may see how natural it is to them to abuse the gospel, and plead God's grace to quiet and strengthen them in their sin, and to embolden themselves on Christ to disobey him.

But this is but to set Christ against himself; even his merits and mercy against his government and Spirit; and to set his death against the ends of his death; and to set our Saviour against our salvation; and to run from God and rebel against him, because Christ died to recover us to God, and to give us repentance unto life; and to sin, because he died to save his people from their sins, "and to purify a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works," Matt. i. 21; Tit. ii. 14. "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," 1 John iii. 8; John viii. 44.

Direct. XVIII. Watch diligently both against the more discernible decays of grace, and against the degenerating of it into some carnal affections, or something counterfeit, and of another kind. And so also of religious duties.

We are no sooner warmed with the celestial flames, but natural corruption is inclining us to grow cold; like hot water, which loseth its heat by degrees, unless the fire be continually kept under it. Who feeleth not that as soon as in a sermon, or prayer, or holy meditation, his heart hath got a little heat, as soon as it is gone, it is prone to its former earthly temper, and by a little remissness in our duty, or thoughts, or business about the world, we presently grow cold and dull again. Be watchful, therefore, lest it decline too far. Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining: when faintness telleth you that your stomach is emptied of the former meat, supply it with another, lest strength abate. You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interest and inclinations; and therefore intermit not too long, lest you go faster down by your ease, than you get up by labour.

How grace may degenerate.

The degenerating of grace, is a way of backsliding, very common, and too little observed. It is, when good affections do not directly cool, but turn into some carnal affections somewhat like them, but of another kind: as, if the body of a man, instead of dying, should receive the life or soul of a beast, instead of the reasonable, human soul. For instance: 1. Have you believed in God, and in Jesus Christ, and loved him accordingly? You shall seem to do so still as much as formerly, when your corrupted minds have received some false representation of him; and so it is indeed another thing that you thus corruptly believe and love. 2. Have you been fervent in prayer? You shall be fervent still; if Satan can but corrupt your prayers, by corrupting your judgment or affections, and get you to think that to be the cause of God, which is against him; and that to be against him, which he commandeth; and those to be the troublers of the church, which are its best and faithfullest members: turn but your prayers against the cause and people of God by your mistake, and you may pray as fervently against them as you will. The same I may say of preaching, and conference, and zeal: corrupt them once, and turn them against God, and Satan will join with you for zealous and frequent preaching, or conference, or disputes. 3. Have you a confidence in Christ and his promise for your salvation? Take heed lest it turn into carnal security, and a persuasion of your good estate upon ill grounds, or you know not why. 4. Have you the hope of glory? Take heed lest it turn into a careless venturousness of your soul, or the mere laying aside of fear and cautelous suspicion of yourselves. 5. Have you a love to them that fear the Lord? Watch your hearts, lest it degenerate into a carnal or a partial love. Many unheedful young persons of different sexes, at first love each other with an honest, chaste, and pious love; but imprudently using too much familiarity, before they were well aware it hath turned into a fleshly love, which hath proved their snare, and drawn them further into sin or trouble. Many have honoured them that fear the Lord, who insensibly have declined to honour only those of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour, or that were esteemed for their parts or place by others, and little honoured the humble, poor, obscure christians, who were at least as good as they: forgetting that the "things that are highly esteemed among men, are abomination in the sight of God," Luke xvi. 15; and that God valueth not men by their places and dignities in the world, but by their graces and holiness of life. Abundance that at first did seem to love all christians, as such, as far as any thing of Christ appeared in them, have first fallen into some sect, and over-admiring their party, and have set light by others as good as them, and censured them as unsound, and then withdrawn their special love, and confined it to their party, or to some few; and yet thought that they loved the godly as much as ever, when it was degenerate into a factious love. 6. Are you zealous for God, and truth, and holiness, and against the errors and sins of others? Take heed lest you lose it, while you think it doth increase in you. Nothing is more apt to degenerate than zeal: in how many thousands hath it turned from an innocent, charitable, peaceable, tractable, healing, profitable, heavenly zeal, into a partial zeal for some party, or opinions of their own; and into a fierce, censorious, uncharitable, scandalous, turbulent, disobedient, unruly, hurting, and destroying zeal, ready to wish for fire from heaven, and kindling contention, confusion, and every evil work. Read well James iii. 7. So if you are meek or patient, take heed lest it degenerate into stupidity or contempt of those you suffer by. To be patient is not to be merely insensible of the affliction; but by the power of faith to bear the sense of it, as overruled by things of greater moment.