A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ... / by Richard Baxter.

BUt I know you will say, [Alas, what need you exhort us to spiritual pleasures and consolations? Do you think there is any man in love with sorrows? or unwilling to live a joyful life? O that you could tell us how we might attain it; and you should quickly see that we are willing.]

Answ. And if you are so willing to attain it, as to be also willing to use the means, you shall quicklyer see that I shall cer∣tainly inform you how you may attain it; and how you may come to find a life of Holiness to be the most sweet and pleasant life. I therefore desire and require you to practise these Directi∣ons following.

Direct. 1. Make it your first and principal business to attain the fullest fixed knowledge of God in his Attributes, and Covenant-Re∣lations to you.]

1. Study him in his Attributes. If infinite Goodness take not up the soul with Love and with Delight, it is because it is not known. Where there is all things that the soul of man desires to its high∣est felicity and content, and yet contentment and delight is want∣ing, it must needs be ignorance and distance that is the cause. If the Sun seem not light to you, it is because you have not eye-sight, or look not on the light. If you find no pleasure in the most plea∣sant food, it is because your appetites are diseased, or you do not taste it. If your most suitable and most affectionate friend seem not amiable to you, it is because you know not his suitableness and love. So if the eternal God, that is infinitely powerful, wise and good, most perfect and most suitable to your highest affections, do not possess you with abundant Pleasures and Delights of Love, it is because you are unacquainted with him. Study then his infi∣nite perfections: and be much with him in secret prayer and me∣ditation, where the retired soul having fewest avocations, is fittest for the most near familiar converse. And still remember that it is Love it self that you have to do with. For God is Love. It is the fountain of all delights and pleasures that you draw near to. It is a cold heart indeed that fire it self cannot warm: and a dead heart indeed that life it self cannot revive: Conceive of God as God, and you will delight in him: Abhort all unworthy diminutive

thoughts of him: Set up his Love and Goodness in your estima∣tion, as infinitely above all the creatures. Believe it, the Love of your dearest friends, is an inconsiderable drop to the Ocean of his Love. Think not of him as cruel, or an enemy, if you would love him, or delight in him. Love and Delight are never forced by bare commands and threatnings, but drawn forth magnetically by attractive Goodness. Were not God most amiable, and friendly, and desirable to us, it is not saying, [Love me, or I will damn thee,] that would ever have caused man to love him; but rather to fear, and hate, and fly from him. Think but of Gods Love, and Goodness, and Fidelity, as you do of his Power, and then you will find that there are rivers of pleasure in his presence, and ful∣ness of joy at his right hand, the fore-tastes whereof are the only delights that can quiet the troubled thirsty soul.

2. And if you say, [What is all this to me, any more then to the ungodly world, on whom the wrath of God abideth?] I answer, Thou art in Covenant with him, and he is thine in the Covenant Relations, even thy Reconciled Father, thy Saviour and thy San∣ctifier. No husband is so inviolably bound to a wife, nor will so faithfully answer his Relation, as the blessed Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier unto thee. Didst thou well know and consider, what it is to have God himself to be thine in Covenant, to all these uses, and to all the ends that thou canst reasonably desire, it would fill up thy soul with satisfying delights.

There is nothing that thou wantest, but what belongs to God to give thee, in one of these three great relations. And sooner shall the day be turned into night, and the frame of nature be dissolved, then God will violate his Covenant of Grace. Jer. 33. 20, 21. [Thus saith the Lord, If you can break my Covenant of the day, and my Covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season: then may also my Covenant be broken, &c.] Isa. 54. 4. 5, &c. [Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed, &c. For thy Maker is thy Husband: (the Lord of Hosts is his name) and thy Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called: For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when when thou wast refused, saith thy God: For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee: In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with ever∣lasting

kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Re∣deemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth: So have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee: For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.] And though yet we have our troublesom imperfections, it belongeth to our God, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, to make us perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, that to him may be the glory for ever, Heb. 13. 20, 21. It is his work [to com∣fort all that mourn; to appoint to them that mourn in Zion, and to give them beauty for ashes, the oyl of joy for mourning, the garment of praise, for the spirit of heaviness, that they migh•• be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glori∣fied—They shall be named The Priests of the Lord; men shall call them The ministers of our God—Everlast∣ing joy shall be unto them—For the Lord will direct their work in truth, and make an everlasting Covenant with them—All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed whom the Lord hath blessed: Therefore should we greatly rejoyce in the Lord; and our souls should be joyful in our God: For he hath cloathed us with the garments of salvation; he hath covered us with the robes of righteousness, as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels.] Isa. 61. [A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put into you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh: and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements and do them—and I will save you from all your uncleanness, &c.] Ezek. 36. 25, 26, 27, 29. [And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me: Yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good, &c. Jer. 32. 38, 39, 40, 41. [Happy are the people

that are in such a case: yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord, Psal. 144. 15.

Nature doth not give you such security that the Sun shall shine, and that the streams shall run, that the earth shall be fruitful, as the covenant of the Lord doth give you of all that is ne∣cessary to you Happiness. Study therefore the mercies and riches of the Covenant.

Dir. 2. Understand and remember that it is your Covenant con∣sent, that it is the condition of your title to all the following blessings of the Covenant.]

I add this as supposing you will say [What are all these benefits to me, unless I were sure that I were indeed in the Covenant?] It is not your merit, but your consent that is required: God offereth himself to be your Reconciled Father, and Christ to be your savi∣our, and the Holy Spirit to be your sanctifier. Do you consent to this, or not? All the question is whether you are willing? and whether your sin be not so sweet to you, that you will rather venture your souls on the wrath of God, then you will be saved from it. If you heartily consent, assuredly you are in the Cove∣nant, and the benefits are yours; and therefore the Joy and comfort should be yours. If you do not consent; instead of despairing, presently consent; and refuse not your happiness while you lament your misery.

Object. But it is not only Covenant-making, but Covenant∣keeping that must save us: and I have broak my Covenant, and there∣fore have no title to the benefits. Answ. What Covenant have you broken? This Covenant in question that engageth you to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? If you have broken this, you have withdrawn your Consent: For while you heartily consent, you break it not in any essential part. As it is not every breach of the Laws, that makes a man a traytor or rebel, nor every fault or falling out between husband and wife that dissolveth their rela∣tion; so is it not every sin, nor any that is consistent with true consent to the terms of the Covenant, that is a Covenant-break∣ing forfeiture of the benefits. If you would not have God to be your Portion, your Father, your Saviour, and your Sanctifier, you are then Covenant-breakers; And if you be so, Consent yet, and return to your fideli••y, and the comforts of the Co∣venant may yet be yours, for all your former viola∣tion.

Dir. 3. Moreover, if you would find the Pleasure of a Holy life, see that the flesh be fool you not into an over high estimation of any worldly thing: that so your appetites may not be corrupted with such contrary unwholsome Pleasures, nor your hearts be overwhelmed with worldly cares, or griefs or troubles. If you will glut your selves with other kind of pleasures, you cannot ex∣pect that Holiness should be your pleasure. You cannot find your delight in God, when you turn from him to seek it in the creature. If you ••ought for less in friends, and health, and prosperity in the world, you might have more in God. How should you find content in God, when you set so light by him, that the promise of beholding him in endless glory, will not please you, unless you may also have your fleshly desires, or selfish inclinations pleased here? This is it that perverteth your judgements and affections, and causeth you to injure God and your selves. You first fancie that it is an excellent thing to be Rich and Renowned and to rule over others, or to have plenty of all accommodations for your flesh: and then because God sa∣tisfieth not these carnal fancies, you think he neglecteth you, o•• deals hardly with you! As if every person in the Town should murmur because they are not B••yliffs or Justices; when if they had the wit to know it, they are but kept from a double encumber∣ance, and from a burden which perhaps would break their backs. When the people are thus befooled by the flesh into brutish con∣ceits of the nature of felicity, and into an over-valuing of these worldly things, they are then always eitheir tickled by deluding pleasures, or troubled for the crossing of their carnal wills, so that they grow out of relish and liking with the true and dura∣ble delights. Take heed therefore of this carnality.

Dir. 4. Study the greatness of the mercy which you have re∣ceived: You abound with mercies; and yet undervalue them, and over look them, and sweeten not your souls with the serious observation and remembrance of them: you study principally your afflictions and your wants: And thus when you live in a land that floweth with milke and honey, you will not feed on the pre∣pared feast, but keep still the gall and wormwood in your mouths; and how then should you be acquainted with the pleasures of a holy life.

Yea you must use to look more to the spiritual part of all your

mercies; and see the love of God that appeareth in them; and taste the blood of Christ in them; and lose not the kernel: and take not up with the common carnal part, which every wicked man can value and enjoy. Consider in all your mercies, what there is in them for the benefit of your souls, much rather then how they accommodate your flesh. Could you do thus, you would find the benefit of afflictions; and that the denyal of what you have accounted your necessary mercies, is not the smallest of your mercies. And thus judging truly by the spirit, and not by the flesh, there is no condition (except that of sin) in which you might not find cause of joy.

Dir. 5. Take heed of sinning: Keep still upon your watch against temptation; sin is the cause of all your sufferings; when it promiseth you delight, it is preparing for your sorrow; when it flattereth you into presumption, it is preparing for despair; when it promiseth you secresie and security, it prepareth for your shame: and be sure your sin will find you out, Numb. 32. 23. If therefore you have offended, delay not your Repentance; and spare not the flesh in your return; but (unless the honour of God forbid it) take shame to your selves by free confessi∣on, and make the fullest reparation of the injury that you can to God and man. If you would thus get out the thorn that vexeth you, the ways of God would be more pleasant.

Dir. 6. Daily live in the exercise of faith, upon the everlasting pleasures: Dwell as at the gates of Heaven; as men that are waiting every hour when they are called in, and when death will draw aside the vaile, and shew them the blessed face of God. And take heed that the enmity of interposing Death, pre∣vail not against the Joys of faith. But look to Christ that hath conquered it, and will conquer it for you; And if thus you could live as strangers here, and as the Citizens of Heaven, that are ready to step into the immortal pleasures, you would then taste the Pleasures of a holy life, in the first fruits and foretasts there∣of. It is your Treasure that must Delight you; As your Heart must be there, so your pleasure must be derived thence. Strangers to Heaven will be strangers to the Believers Joys; As the plea∣sure of the Carnal world, consisteth in the sense of what they have in hand; so the pleasure of Believers consisteth in the fore∣apprehensions of what they shall enjoy with God for ever. If

therefore you exercise not those apprehensions; if you look not frequently, seriously, and believingly into the world that you must live in for ever, how can the comforts of that world illu∣strate and refresh you in this present world? The Light and Heat, which is the Beauty and Life of this lower world, proceed∣eth not from any thing in this world, but from the Sun which is so far above us, and sends down hither its quickning influence and rays. They are not the genuine comforts of Christianity, which are not fetcht from the world above.

Dir. 7. If you would have the experience of the Pleasures of a life of Faith and Holiness, neither desire nor cherish any fears or sorrows, but such as as are subservient to Faith, and Hope, and Love, and preparatory to Thankfulness and Joy. Think not Religion consisteth in any other kind of sorrows. Nay if any other should assault you, be so far from taking them for your duty or religion, as to resist them, and lament them as your sin. That is true and saving Humiliation, 1. which makes you vile in your own eyes, and loath your selves for sin. 2. And maketh you more desirous to be delivered and cleansed from your sin, than to live in it, how sweet or gainful soever it may seem, and 3. which maketh you set more by a Saviour to deliver you, than by all the pleasures, riches, and honours of the world. What ever want of Grief or tears you find, if you have these signs, your Repentance and humiliation is sincere. Do not therefore refuse your Peace because you have not greater sorrows; nor disturb your souls by strugling for excessive sorrow: Take not part with them, but do your best to cast them out, if they are such as would destroy your Love and Joy, and drive you from Christ, and hinder your Thansgivings. Know that the Life of your Religion consisteth in the Holy Love of God and of his Image and servants and holy ways. Love is your duty and your felicity and reward: Therefore let all tend to the exercise of Love, and value most those means which most promote it; and think your selves best when you abound most in Love; and not when you are overwhelmed with those Fears and Griefs which hinder Love. Study therefore above all, the Love of God revealed in Christ, which is the best attractive of your Love to him: and hate all suggestions which would represent God unlovely and undesirable to you.

Dir. 8. Use cheerful company: Not carnal, but holy; not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches, or filthy, or prophane or scornful jeastings: But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts; and are best acquaint∣ed with a Life of Faith, and whose speeches and cheerful con∣versations, do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God, and of the Grace of Christ, and the eternal happiness of the Saints. There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful, thankful, heavenly believers: Use it there∣fore if you can have it.

Dir. 9. In your addresses to God in holy worship, be sure that Praise and Thansgiving have its due proportion. They are the chief and most excellent and acceptable part, and therefore let them not have the smallest room. Though your sins and wants be as great as you imagine in your complaints, it is yet your duty to Praise the Excellencies and Attributes and works of your Cre∣ator, and to be Thankful for the preparations made by Christ, and freely offered you, so that they shall certainly be yours, if you accept them. But much more Thankful should you be that have but the evidence of Desire and Consent to prove your Inte∣rest in Christ and in his Covenant.

I would intreat poor troubled fearful souls to Resolve upon this one thing, which is reasonable, necessary and in their power, that when they are upon their knees with God, they will spend as much of their Time and words in confessing mercies and Praising God, as in confessing sin, and condemning themselves and lamenting their wants, and weaknesses, and distress. Though they cannot do it cheerfully as they should, let them do it as they can. And at last while they keep in the right way of duty, and use themselves to the commemoration of that which is sweet and grateful to the soul, Religion it self will become sweet and grateful; and chearfulness of heart will be promoted by our own considerations & expressions.

The same I desire of them as to their Thoughts; that they will do their best to spend as many thoughts and as much time upon Mercy as upon sin and misery; and upon the Goodness, and Love of God in Christ, as upon his threatnings and terrous.

Dir. 10. If you would taste the comforts of a holy life, be sure that you give up your selves to Christ without reserve, and follow him fully, and place all your hopes and confidence in his

promised rewards: Serve him with your best, yea with your all; and not with some cheap and heartless service. Comforts are the Rewards of faithfulness: They that do God the most sincere and costly service, and save nothing from him which he calleth them to lose, are likest to be encouraged by his sweetest comforts. It is sluggish neglects, and unfruitfulness, doing no good in the world, but thinking to be saved by a dull profession▪ that makes so many uncomfortable professors as there be: Though I know that on the other extream, too many live in pining sadness, by not understanding the Covenant of Grace, which accepteth of sincerity, and secureth the weak and infants in the family of Christ. But yet the barren unprofitable. Christi∣ans (I mean that comparatively are such, though they be sin∣cere) shall find that God will not encourage any in sloathfulness by his smiles and consolations.

Direct. 11. If you would know the Rest and Comfort of Be∣lievers, see that you Rest in the Will of God in all Conditions, as the Center and only bottom for your souls. His will is not to be reduced to yours: strive therefore to bring yours most fully and quietly to his. Gods Will is the Universal Original and End of all things, and there is no Felicity or Rest for man, but in the ful∣filling, and pleasing and disposals of his will. Be not too desi∣rous of the fulfilling of your own wills, and murmure not against the disposals of the Will of God. It cannot but be Good which proceedeth from that will which is the Spring of good. The ac∣complishment of Gods Will, is the perfection of all created be∣ings, being that End for which they are all created. If you Rest in your own wills, your Rest will be imperfect, disturbed and short of duration; For your wills are the wills of weak and vi∣cious men: They are frequently misguided by an ignorant mind, and perverted by a corrupt and byassed heart: But Gods will is never misguided; nor ever determined of any thing but for the best. If you Rest here, you Rest in safety; you may be sure you shall never be deceived by him: You may Rest in constant peace and quietness; for God is unchangeable, and will not be off and on with us, as we are with him, and with our selves. As you pray that his Will may be done, acquiesce in the doing of his Will; and whatever befall you, repose and satisfie your hearts in this.

Direct. 12. Lastly, let me add, that when you have all the Directions that can be given, you trust not too much to your own understanding and skill for the application of them to your selves, in any weighty difficult cases. But as you will not think it enough for the health of your bodies, to have Physick Books and Physick Lectures, unless you have also a Physicion who knoweth more then you, to direct you in the application; so think it not enough that you have the best Books and Sermons, unless you have also a faithful and judicious Pastor, whose advice you may crave in particular difficulties, and who may direct you in the discovery of your own diseases, and applying the fittest reme∣dies in their seasons and measures, with such Rules and Cautions as are necessary to the success. If God had not known that there would still be many children and weak ones in his family, that would stand in need of the instruction, support and encourage∣ment of the strong, he would never have settled Pastors in his Church to watch over all the flocks, and to be alwayes ready at hand, for the confirmation and encouragement of such as need their help. There had been no Physicions, if there had been no diseases. Tire not your Physicions with needless consultations, for easie and ordinary cases: but be not without them in your greater straits, and wants, and doubts. And [blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the com∣fort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God: For as the suf∣ferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings, which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your con∣solation and salvation.] 2 Cor. 1. 4, 5, 6. While you are sick or infants, the stronger must support you. You cannot stand, or go, or suffer of your selves: And God is so tender of his weak and little ones, that he hath not only given strength to others for their sakes, and commanded the strong to bear the burdens and infirmities of the weak, Gal. 6. 1, 2. Rom. 15. 1, 2, 3, 4. but also established the Ministerial office much for this end. Mal. 2. 7. For the Priests lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

Not that we should disclose our Consciences, and depend for guidance on every ignorant or ungodly man, that hath the name and place of a Priest; Even among the Papists, men have leave to choose such Confessors as are fittest for them. If the Priests [de∣part ou•• of the way, and cause many to stumble at the Law, and corrupt the Covenant of Levi, the Lord will make them contemptible and base before all the people, according as they have not kept his wayes, but been partial in the Law.] Mal. 2. 8, 9. But use those that are qualified and sent by the Spirit of God; who [in sim∣plicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the Grace of God, have had their conversation in the world, especially to you∣wards.] 2 Cor. 1. 12. Such as [you have acknowledged in part, that they are your rejoycing, as you also are theirs in the day of the Lord Jesus. vers. 14.] Not using them as such as have dominion over your faith, but as those that by office, qualification, and wil∣lingness and disposition are Helpers of your Joy. vers. 24.

In the saithful practice of these Directions, you will find that Holiness is the most Pleasant way; and that the Godly choose the better part; and that the ungodly sensualists do live as BRUTES, while they unreasonably refuse to live as SAINTS.