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And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul; to join with you in prayer and other holy exercises; to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers, and to stir up in you the grace of God, and remember to you of the life to come, and cheerfully accompany you in the ways of holiness.Richard Baxter,A Christian Directoiy: or, Sum ofPractical7heology, and Cases of Conscience, 11.1 (7he Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter [London: James Duncan, 1830], IV, 30).
The peace which the hypocrite has is built upon the sand; he has not one promise that he can rationally lay any claim to. Nay, the whole Word of God assaults him and tells him how vain his confidence is and that if, for all this, he will speak peace to himself, that he must try shortly whether he can make it good when conscience, Scripture, law and gospel, God and man appear in the field against him. In a word, the cause of his peace is ignorance, hardness, deadness. The god of this world hath blinded his eyes; God is author of the saint's peace and the devil of the sinners (Matt. 7:24; Luke 11:21; Rom. 15:4; Phil. 4:7).
Hypocrisy in religion springs from the bitter root of some carnal affection unmortified…. God is in the hypocrite's mouth, but the world is in his heart, which he expects to gain through his good reputation.
It is sincere faith that is the strong faith, sincere love that is the mighty love. Hypocrisy is to grace as the worm is to the oak, the rust to the iron—it weakens them because it corrupts them.
The Christian, by his sorrow, shows himself a conqueror of that sin which even now overcame him, while the hypocrite, by his pride, shows himself a slave to a worse lust than that he resists. While the Christian commits a sin, he hates it, whereas the other loves it while he forbears it.
All lip labor is but lost labor; when men's hearts are not in their devotion, their devotion is mere dissimulation. These hypocrites sought God and inquired early after God, but it was still with old hearts, which are no hearts in the account of God.
Hypocrites love to share with Christ in His happiness, but they do not love to share with Christ in His holiness. They are willing to be redeemed by Christ, but they are not cordially willing to submit to the laws and government of Christ. They are willing to be saved by His blood, but they are not willing to submit to His scepter. Hypocrites love the privileges of the gospel, but they do not love the services of the gospel, especially those that are most inward and spiritual.
A hypocrite may offer sacrifice with Cain and fast with Jezebel, and humble himself with Ahab and lament with the tears of Esau, and kiss Christ with Judas and follow Christ with Demas, and offer fair for the Holy Ghost with Simon Magus; and yet for all this, his inside is as bad as any of theirs. A hypocrite is a Cato without and a Nero within, a Jacob without and an Esau within, a David without and a Saul within, a Peter without and a Judas within, a saint without and a Satan within, an angel without and a devil within.
It is not the presence of hypocrisy but the reign of hypocrisy that damns the soul; that hypocrisy that is discerned, resisted, opposed, and mourned over will never make a Christian miserable. Where the standing frame and general bent of a man's heart is upright, there the presence of hypocrisy cannot denominate a man a hypocrite. All men must stand and fall forever according to the standing frame and general bent of their hearts; if the standing frame and general bent of their hearts be sincere, they are happy forever!
Heaven is a state of perfect holiness and of a continual love and praise to God, and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love and praise and holiness which are here to be attained they have no mind of, much less of that which is so much greater. The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot desire them.
Friendship must be cemented by piety. A wicked man can be no true friend.
How often have I found that human friendship is a sweet addition to our woe, a beloved calamity, an affliction which nature will not be without! Not because nature loves evil nor is wholly deceived in its choice, for there is good in friendship and delight in holy love, but because the good which is here accompanied with so much evil is the beginning of a more high and durable friendship and points us to the blessed society and converse which we shall have with Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Love God in His saints and delightfully converse with Christ in them while thou hast opportunity. But remember thou livest not upon them or on their love, but upon God. And therefore desire their company but for His; and if thou hast His, be content if thou hast not theirs. He wants not man that enjoys God.
A Christian in the holy assemblies and in his reading, learning, prayer, conference is laying up for everlasting, when the worldling in the market, in the field, or shop is making provision for a few days or hours. Thou gloriest in thy riches and preeminence now, but how long wilt thou do so?
Usually other causes go before this disease of melancholy (except in some bodies naturally prone to it), and therefore before I speak of the cure of it, I will briefly touch them. And one of the most common causes is sinful impatience, discontents and cares proceeding from a sinful love of some bodily interest and from a want of sufficient submission to the will of God, and trust in Him, and taking heaven for a satisfying portion. I must necessarily use all these words to show the true nature of this complicated disease of souls. The "ands" tell you that it is a conjunction of many sins, which in themselves are of no small malignity; and were they the predominant bent and habit of heart and life, they would be the signs of a graceless state. But while they are hated and overcome not grace, but our heavenly portion is more esteemed, chosen, and sought than earthly prosperity, the mercy of God through Christ doth pardon it and will at last deliver us from all.
Judge not of so great a cause in a time of melancholy, when fears and confusions make you unfit. But in such a case as that, as also whenever Satan would disturb your settled faith or tempt you at his pleasure to be still new questioning resolved cases and discerned truths, abhor his suggestions and give them no entertainment in your thoughts, but cast them back into the tempter's face. There is not one melancholy person of a multitude but is violently assaulted with temptations to blasphemy and unbelief when they have but half the use of reason and no composedness of mind to debate such controversies with the devil. It is not fit for them in this incapacity to hearken to any of those suggestions which draw them to dispute the foundations of their faith, but to cast them away with resolute abhorrence.
Rightly understand what delight in God it is that you must seek and exercise. It is not a mere sensitive delight, which is exercised about the objects of sense or fancy and is common to beasts with men; nor is it the delights of immediate intuition of God, such as the blessed have in heaven; nor is it an enthusiastic delight, consisting in irrational raptures and joys, of which we can give no account of the reason. Nor is it a delight inconsistent with sorrow and fear, when they are duties; but it is the solid, rational complacency of the soul in God and holiness, arising from the apprehensions of that in Him, which is justly delectable to us. And it is such as, in estimation of its object and inward complacency and gladness though not in passionate joy or mirth, must excel our delight in temporal pleasure and must be the end of all our humiliations and other inferior duties.
Diligently labor, that God and holiness may be thy chief delight. And this holy delight may be the ordinary temperament of thy religion.
Behold Him in the infinite perfections of His being: His omnipotence, omniscience, and His goodness; His holiness, eternity, immutability, etc. And as your eye delights in an excellent picture or comely buildings or fields or gardens not because they are yours, but because they are a delectable object to the eye, so let your minds delight themselves in God considered in Himself, as the only object of highest delight.
I find not one in ten of the most obstinate, scornful wretches in the parish but when they come to die will humble themselves, confess their faults, seem penitent, and promise, if they should recover, to reform their lives. With what resolution will the worst of them seem to cast away their sins, exclaim against their follies and the vanities of the world when they see that death is in earnest with them! I confess it is very common for persons at such a season to be frightened into ineffectual purposes, but not so common to be converted to fixed resolutions. Yet there are some exceptions.
Wicked men can be delighted in talking together of their wickedness; and should not Christians then be delighted in talking of Christ, and the heirs of heaven in talking of their inheritance? This may make our hearts revive, as did Jacob's to hear the message that called him to Goshen, and to see the chariots that should bring him to Joseph. O that we were furnished with skill and resolution to turn the stream of men's common discourse to these more sublime and precious things! and, when men begin to talk of things unprofitable, that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven, and say, as Peter of his bodily food, "Not so, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean!"Saints Everlasting Rest, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/saints_rest/cache/saints_rest.pdf
In public our speeches are long, and we quite over-run their understandings and memories, and they are confounded and at a loss, and not able to follow us, and one thing drives out another, and so they know not what we said. But in private we can take our work gradatim, and take our hearers along with us; and, by our questions, and their answers, we can see how far they understand us, and what we have next to do. In public, by length and speaking alone we lose their attention; but when they are interlocutors, we can easily cause them to attend.Reformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular sinner, as to himself: for the plainest man that is, can scarcely speak plain enough in public for them to understand; but in private we may do it much more. In public we may not use such homely expressions, or repetitions, as their dulness requires, but in private we mayReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
. I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an hour's close discourse, than they did from ten years' public preachingReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
They will under stand a familiar speech, who understand not a sermon; and they will have far greater help for the application of it to themselves. Besides, you will hear their objections, and know
where it is that Satan hath most advantage of them, and so may be able to show them their errors, and confute their objections, and more effectually convince them. We can better bring them to the point, and urge them to discover their resolutions for the future, and to promise the use of means and reformation, than otherwise we could do. What more proof need we of this, than our own experience? I seldom deal with men purposely on this great
business, in private, serious conference, but they go away with some seeming convictions, and promises of new obedience, if not some deeper remorse, and sense of their conditionReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
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