A Christian Directory, Part 2: Christian Economics

by Richard Baxter

Direct. VIII. Engage some faithful friend to assist thee in thy watch. Open all thy case to some one, that is fit to be thy guide or helper; and resolve that whenever thou art tempted to the sin, thou wilt go presently and tell them before thou do commit it; and entreat them to deal plainly with you; and give them power to use any advantages that may be for your good.

Direct. IX. Do your first works, and set yourselves seriously to all the duties of a holy life; and incorporate yourselves into the society of the saints: for holy employment and holy company are very great preservatives against every sin.

Direct. X. Go presently to your companions in sin, and lament that you have joined with them, and earnestly warn and entreat them to repent; and if they will not, renounce their course and company, and tell them what God hath showed you of the sin and danger.[93] If really you will return, as with Peter you have fallen, so with Peter go out and weep bitterly; and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren, and help to recover those that you have sinned with, Luke xxii. 32.

I have suited most of these directions to those that relapse into sins of sensuality, rather than to them that fall into atheism, infidelity, or heresy; because I have spoken against these sins already; and the directions there given, show the way for the recovery of such.

Tit. 2. Directions for preventing Backsliding, or for Perseverance.

Apostasy and backsliding is a state that is more easily prevented than cured; and therefore I shall desire those that stand, to use these following directions, lest they fall.

Direct. I. Be well grounded in the nature and reasons of your religion. For it is not the highest zeal and resolution that will cause you to persevere, if your judgments be not furnished with sufficient reasons to confute gainsayers, and evidence the truth, and tell you why you should persevere. I speak that with grief and shame which cannot be concealed; the number of christians is so small that are well seen in the reasons and methods of christianity, and are able to prove what they hold to be true, and to confute opposers, that it greatly afflicteth me to think, what work the atheists and infidels would make, if they once openly play their game, and be turned loose to do their worst! If they deride and oppose the immortality of the soul, and the life to come, and the truth of the Scriptures, and the work of redemption, and office of Christ; alas, how few are able to withstand them, by giving any sufficient reason of their hope! We have learnt of the papists, that he hath the strongest faith that believeth with least reason; and we have been (truly) taught that to deny our foundations is the horrid crime of infidelity; and therefore because it is so horrid a crime to deny or question them, we thought we need not study to prove them: and so most have taken their foundation upon trust, (and indeed are scarce able to bear the trial of it,) and have spent their days about the superstructure, and in learning to prove the controverted, less necessary points. Insomuch, that I fear there are more that are able to prove the points which an antinomian or an anabaptist do deny, than to prove the immortality of the soul, or the truth of Scripture, or christianity; and to dispute about a ceremony, or form of prayer, or church government, than to dispute for Christ against an infidel. So that their work is prepared to their hands, and it is no great victory to overcome such raw, unsettled souls.

Direct. II. Get every sacred truth which you believe, into your very hearts and lives; and see that all be digested into holy love and practice. When your food is turned into vital nutriment, into flesh and blood, it is not cast up by every thing that maketh you sick, and turneth your stomachs; as it may be before it is concocted, distributed, and incorporated. Truth that is but barely known, is but like meat that is undigested in the stomach: but truth which is turned into the love of God, and of a holy life, is turned into a new nature, and will not so easily be let go.

Direct. III. Take heed of doctrines of presumption and security, and take heed lest you fall away, by thinking it so impossible to fall away, that you are past all danger.[94] The covenant of grace doth sufficiently encourage you to obey and hope, against temptations to despair and casting off the means: but it encourageth no man to presume or sin, or to cast off means as needless things. Remember that if ever you will stand, the fear of falling must help you to stand; and if ever you will persevere, it must be by seeing the danger of backsliding, so far as to make you afraid, and quicken you in the means which are necessary to prevent it. It is no more certain that you shall persevere, than it is certain that you shall use the means of persevering: and one means is, by seeing your danger, to be stirred up to fear and caution to escape it. Because it is my meaning in this direction, to save men from perishing by security upon the abuse of the doctrine of perseverance, I hope none will be offended that I lay down these antidotes.

1. Consider, that the doctrine of perseverance hath nothing in it to encourage security. The very controversies about it, may cause you to conclude, that a certain sin is not to be built upon a controverted doctrine. Till Augustine's time, it is hard to find any ancient writers, that clearly asserted the certain perseverance of any at all. Augustine and Prosper maintain the certain perseverance of all the elect, but deny the certain perseverance of all that are regenerated, justified, or sanctified; for they thought that more were regenerate and justified than were elect, of whom some stood (even all the elect) and the rest fell away: so that I confess, I never read one ancient father, or christian writer, that ever maintained the certainty of the perseverance of all the justified, of many hundred, if not a thousand years after Christ. And a doctrine, that to the church was so long unknown, hath not that certainty, or that necessity, as to encourage you to any presumption or security. The churches were saved many hundred years without believing it.