Tag Archives: Richard Baxter

Promote Thy Own Joy By Helping Theirs

14 Wednesday Oct 2015

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“As it is on earth I must do good to others, so it must be in a manner suited to their earthly state. Souls are here closely united to bodies, by which they must receive much good or hurt. Do good to men’s bodies, if thou wouldest do good to their souls. Say not—Things corporeal are worthless trifles, for which the receivers will be never the better. They are things that nature is easily sensible of, and sense is the passage to the mind and will. Dost thou not find what a help it is to thyself, to have at any time any ease and alacrity of body; and what a burden and hinderance pains and cares are?

Labour then to free others from such burdens and temptations, and be not regardless of them. If thou must ‘rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep,’ promote then thy own joy by helping theirs; and avoid thy own sorrows, in preventing or curing theirs.

But, alas! what power has selfishness in most? How easily do we bear our brethren’s pains and reproaches, wants and afflictions, in comparison of our own! How few thoughts, and how little cost and labour, do we use for their supply, in comparison of what we do for ourselves! Nature indeed teaches us to be sensible of our own case; but grace tells us, that we should not make so great a difference as we do, but should love our neighbour as ourselves.

 

”Richard Baxter, Dying Thoughts

Why Should One be Trained to Give Counsel?

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Richard Baxter

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6. And unskilful teachers do cause the griefs and perplexities of very many. Some cannot open to them clearly the tenor of the covenant of grace; some are themselves unacquainted with any spiritual, heavenly consolations; and many have no experience of any inward holiness, and renewal by the Holy Ghost, and know not what sincerity is, nor wherein a saint doth differ from an ungodly sinner. As wicked deceivers make good and bad to differ but a little, if not the best to be taken for the worst; so some unskilful men do place sincerity in such things as are not so much as duty; as the Papists, in their manifold inventions and superstitions; and many sects, in their unsound opinions.

And some unskilfully and unsoundly describe the state of grace, and tell you how far a hypocrite may go, so as unjustly discourageth and confoundeth the weaker sort of Christians, and cannot amend the mis-expression of their books or teachers. And too many teachers lay men’s comforts, if not salvation, on controversies which are past their reach, and pronounce heresy and damnation against that which they themselves understand not. Even the Christian world, these one thousand three hundred, or one thousand two hundred years, is divided into parties, by the teachers’ unskilful quarrels about words, which they took in several senses. Is it any wonder if the hearers of such are distracted?

From Richard Baxter’s sermon, “What are the Best Preservatives Against Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow?”

 

What are the best preservatives against melancholy and overmuch sorrow?

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

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WHAT ARE THE BEST PRESERVATIVES AGAINST MELANCHOLY AND OVERMUCH SORROW?[1]

Lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.—2 Corinthians 2:7.

THE brevity of a sermon not allowing me time for any unnecessary work, I shall not stay to open the context…these three doctrines which I shall handle all together; namely,—

I. That sorrow, even for sin, may be overmuch.

II. That overmuch sorrow swalloweth one up.

III. Therefore it must be resisted and assuaged by necessary comfort, both by others, and by ourselves.

In handling these, I shall observe this order: I. I shall show you when sorrow is overmuch. II. How overmuch sorrow doth swallow a man up. III. What are the causes of it. IV. What is the cure.

I. It is too notorious that overmuch sorrow for sin is not the ordinary case of the world.

A. A stupid, blockish disposition is the common cause of men’s perdition. The plague of a hard heart and seared conscience keeps most from all due sense of sin, or danger, or misery, and of all the great and everlasting concerns of their guilty souls. A dead sleep in sin doth deprive most of the use of sense and understanding… But most men so little regard or feel them, that they have neither time nor heart to think of them as their concern, but hear of them as of some foreign land, where they have no interest, and which they never think to see.

B. Sorrow is overmuch when it is fed by a mistaken cause.—All is too much where none is due; and great sorrow is too much when the cause requireth but less.

Superstition always breeds such sorrows, when men make themselves religious duties which God never made them, and then come short in the performance of them.

C. Sorrow is overmuch when it hurteth and overwhelmeth nature itself, and destroyeth bodily health or understanding.—… God will have mercy, and not sacrifice; and he that would not have us kill or hurt our neighbour on pretence of religion, would not have us destroy or hurt ourselves; being bound to love our neighbour but as ourselves.

II. When sorrow swalloweth-up the sinner, it is overmuch, and to be restrained: as,

A. The passions of grief and trouble of mind do oft overthrow the sober and sound use of reason.—

 B. Overmuch sorrow disableth a man to govern his thoughts; and ungoverned thoughts must needs be both sinful and very troublesome.—

 C. Overmuch sorrow would swallow-up faith itself, and greatly hindereth its exercise.—

 D. Overmuch sorrow yet more hindereth hope.—When men think that they do believe God’s word, and that his promises are all true to others, yet cannot they hope for the promised blessings to themselves. Hope is that grace by which a soul that believeth the gospel to be true, doth comfortably expect that the benefits promised shall be its own; it is an applying act. The first act of faith saith, “The gospel is true, which promiseth grace and glory through Christ.” The next act of faith saith, “I will trust my soul and all upon it, and take Christ for my Saviour and Help.” And then hope saith, “I hope for this salvation by him.” But melancholy, overwhelming sorrow and trouble, is as great an adversary to this hope, as water is to fire, or snow to heat. Despair is its very pulse and breath. Fain such would have hope, but they cannot. All their thoughts are suspicious and misgiving, and they can see nothing but danger and misery, and a helpless state. And when hope, which is the anchor of the soul, is gone, what wonder if they be continually tossed with storms?

E. Overmuch sorrow swalloweth-up all comfortable sense of the infinite goodness and love of God, and thereby hindereth the soul from loving him.—And in this it is an adversary to the very life of holiness. It is exceeding hard

F. And then it must needs follow, that this distemper is a false and injurious judge of all the word and works of God, and of all his mercies and corrections.—

 G. And by this you see that it is an enemy to thankfulness.—It rather reproacheth God for his mercies, as if they were injuries, than giveth him any hearty thanks.

H. And by this you may see, that this distemper is quite contrary to the joy in the Holy Ghost.—

I. And all this showeth us, that this disease is much contrary to the very tenor of the gospel.—

J. Yea, it is a distemper which greatly advantageth Satan to cast-in blasphemous thoughts of God, as if he were bad, and a hater and destroyer even of such as fain would please him.—

 K. This overmuch sorrow doth unfit men for all profitable meditation.—

L. And it is a distemper which maketh all sufferings more heavy

III. QUESTION. “What are the causes and cure of it?”

A. ANSWER I. With very many there is a great part of the CAUSE in distemper, weakness, and diseasedness of the body; and by it the soul is greatly disabled to any comfortable sense. But the more it ariseth from such natural necessity, it is the less sinful and less dangerous to the soul; but never the less troublesome, but the more.

Three diseases cause overmuch sorrow:—

1. Those that consist in such violent pain as natural strength is unable to bear. But this, being usually not very long, is not now to be chiefly spoken of.

2. A natural passionateness, and weakness of that reason that should quiet passion. …. Even many that fear God, and that have very sound understandings and quick wits, have almost no more power against troubling passions, anger and grief, but especially fear, than they have of any other persons.

3. But when the brain and imagination are crazed, and reason partly overthrown, by the disease called “melancholy,” this maketh the cure yet more difficult; for commonly it is the foresaid persons, whose natural temper is timorous and passionate, and apt to discontent and grief, who fall into crazedness and melancholy: and the conjunction of both, the natural temper and the disease, doth increase the misery. The signs of such diseasing melancholy, I have often elsewhere described. As,

a. The trouble and disquiet of the mind doth then become a settled habit.

b. If you convince them, that they have some evidences of sincerity, and that their fears are causeless and injurious to themselves and unto God, and they have nothing to say against it; yet either it takes off none of their trouble, or else it returneth the next day: for the cause remaineth in their bodily disease; quiet them a hundred times, and their fears a hundred times return.

c. Their misery is, that what they think they cannot choose but think.

d. And, when they are grown to this, usually they seem to feel something beside themselves, as it were, speaking in them, and saying this and that to them, and bidding them do this or that; and they will tell you, “Now it saith this or that,” and tell you when and what it hath said to them; and they will hardly believe how much of it is the disease of their own imagination.

e. In this case they are exceeding prone to think they have revelations. ….And many of them turn heretics,

f. But the sadder, better sort, feeling this talk and stir within them, are oft apt to be confident that they are possessed by the devil, or at least bewitched, of which I will say more anon.

g. And most of them are violently haunted with blasphemous injections, at which they tremble; and yet cannot keep them out of their minds. Either they are tempted and haunted to doubt of the scripture, or Christianity, or the life to come, or to think some ill of God; and oft-times they are strangely urged, as by something in them, to speak some blasphemous word of God, or to renounce him; and they tremble at the suggestion, and yet it still followeth them; and some poor souls yield to it, and say some bad word against God; and then, as soon as it is spoken, somewhat within them saith, “Now thy damnation is sealed! thou hast sinned against the Holy Ghost! there is no hope.”

h. When it is far gone, they are tempted to lay some law upon themselves,—never to speak more, or not to eat; and some of them have famished themselves to death.

i. And when it is far gone, they oft think that they have apparitions; and this and that likeness appeareth to them, especially lights in the night about their beds: and sometimes they are confident that they hear voices, and feel something touch or hurt them.

j. They fly from company, and can do nothing but sit alone and muse.

k. They cast off all business, and will not be brought to any diligent labour in their callings.

l. And when it cometh to extremity, they are weary of their lives, and strongly followed with temptations to make away [with] themselves; as if something within them were either urging them either to drown themselves, or cut their own throats, or hang themselves, or cast themselves headlong, which, alas! too many have done.

m. And if they escape this when it is ripe, they become quite distracted.

EXCURSUS on the Devil and “Possession”

1. And, first, we must know what is meant by Satan’s “possession” either of the body or the soul. It is not merely his local presence and abode in a man that is called his “possession;” for we know little of that, how far he is more present with a bad man than a good. … but he possesseth only the souls of the ungodly by predominant habits of unbelief and sensuality.

2. And so also he is permitted by God to inflict persecutions, and crosses, and ordinary diseases on the just; but when he is God’s executioner of extraordinary plagues, especially on the head, depriving men of sense and understanding, and working above the bare nature of the disease, this is called his “possession.”

3. And as most evil motions on the soul have Satan for their father, and our own hearts as the mothers, so most or many bodily diseases are by Satan, permitted by God, though there be causes of them also in the body itself. And when our own miscarriages, and humours, and the season, weather, and accidents may be causes, yet Satan may bythese be a superior cause.  [He defines the word broadly to refer to affect by the Devil: which may range from temptation or physical affliction to possession “of the soul” – which seems similar to what is commonly meant by “possession”.] From all this it is easy to gather:—

a. That for Satan to possess the body is no certain sign of a graceless state; nor will this condemn the soul of any, if the soul itself be not possessed. …

b. Satan’s possession of an ungodly soul is the miserable case which is a thousand times worse than his possessing of the body. But every corruption or sin is not such a possession; for no man is perfect, without sin.

c. No sin proveth Satan’s damnable possession of a man, but that which he loveth more than he hateth it, and which he had rather keep than leave, and wilfully keepeth.

d. And this is matter of great comfort to such melancholy honest souls, if they have but understanding to receive it,—that of all men none love their sin which they groan under so little as they; yea, it is the heavy burden of their souls. …

e. And it is the devil’s way, if he can, to haunt those with troubling temptations whom he cannot overcome with alluring and damning temptations. As he raiseth storms of persecution against them without, as soon as they are escaping from his deceits; so doth he trouble them within, as far as God permitteth him. We deny not but Satan hath a great hand in the case of such melancholy persons; for,

i. His temptations caused the sin which God corrects them for.

ii. His execution usually is a cause of the distemper of the body.

iii. And as a tempter, he is the cause of the sinful and troublesome thoughts, and doubts, and fears, and passions which the melancholy causeth. The devil cannot do what he will with us, but what we give him advantage to do. He cannot break open our doors, but he can enter if we leave them open.

f. But I add, that God will not impute his mere temptations to you, but to himself, be they never so bad, as long as you receive them not by the will, but hate them. Nor will he condemn you for those ill effects which are unavoidable from the power of a bodily disease, any more than he will condemn a man for raving thoughts or words in a fever, frenzy, or utter madness. But so far as reason yet hath power, and the will can govern passions, it is your fault if you use not the power, though the difficulty make the fault the less.

B. ANSWER II. But 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.

1. 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.

 

…. But yet it beseemeth even a pardoned sinner to know the greatness of his sin, that he may not favour it, nor be unthankful for forgiveness.

I will therefore distinctly open the parts of this sin, which bringeth many into dismal melancholy.

a.  It is presupposed that God trieth his servants in this life with manifold afflictions; and Christ will have us bear the cross, and follow him in submissive patience. Some are tried with painful diseases, and some with wrong by enemies, and some with the unkindness of friends, and some with froward, provoking relatives and company, and some with slanders, and some with persecution, and many with losses, disappointments, and poverty.

i. And here impatience is the beginning of the working of the sinful malady. Our natures are all too regardful of the interest of the flesh, and too weak in bearing heavy burdens; and poverty hath those trials which full and wealthy persons, that feel them not, too little pity; especially in two cases:—

I When men have not themselves only, but wives and children in want, to quiet.

II And when they are in debt to others; which is a heavy burden to an ingenuous mind, though thievish borrowers make too light of it.

2. And this impatience turneth to a settled discontent and unquietness of spirit, which affecteth the body itself, and lieth all day as a load or continual trouble at the heart.

3. And impatience and discontent do set the thoughts on the rack with grief and continual cares, how to be eased of the troubling cause. They can scarce think of any thing else; and these cares do even feed upon the heart, and are to the mind as a consuming fever to the body.

4. And the secret root or cause of all this is the worst part of the sin, which is, too much love to the body and this world. …

5. There is yet more sin in the root of all, and that is, it showeth that our wills are yet too selfish, and not subdued to a due submission to the will of God, but we would be as gods to ourselves, and be at our own choosing, and must needs have what the flesh desireth. We want a due resignation of ourselves and all our concerns to God, and live not as children, in due dependence on him for our daily bread, but must needs be the keepers of our own provision.

6. And this showeth that we be not sufficiently humbled for our sin; or else we should be thankful for the lowest state, as being much better than that which we deserved.

7. And there is apparently much distrust of God and unbelief in these troubling discontents and cares. Could we trust God as well as ourselves, or as we could trust a faithful friend, or as a child can trust his father, how quiet would our minds be in the sense of his wisdom, all-sufficiency, and love!

8. And this unbelief yet hath a worse effect than worldly trouble; it showeth that men take not the love of God and the heavenly glory for their sufficient portion. Unless they may have what they want or would have for the body,—this world; unless they may be free from poverty, and crosses, and provocations, and injuries, and pains; all that God hath promised them here or hereafter, even everlasting glory, will not satisfy them: and when God, and Christ, and heaven are not enough to quiet a man’s mind, he is in great want of faith, hope, and love, which are far greater matters than food and raiment.

C.  ANSWER III. Another great cause of such trouble of mind is the guilt of some great and wilful sin; … There is some more hope of the recovery of these, than of dead-hearted or unbelieving sinners, who work uncleanness with greediness, ..

But yet if God convert these persons, the sins which they now live in may possibly hereafter plunge their souls into such depths of sorrow, in the review, as may swallow them up.

D.  ANSWER IV. But among people fearing God, there is yet another cause of melancholy, and of sorrowing overmuch; and that is ignorance and mistakes in matters which their peace and comforts are concerned in. I will name some particulars:—

1. One is ignorance of the tenor of the gospel or covenant of grace: …

2. And many of them are mistaken about the use of sorrow for sin, and about the nature of hardness of heart. They think that if their sorrow be not so passionate as to bring forth tears and greatly to afflict them, they are not capable of pardon, though they should consent to all the pardoning covenant; and they consider not that it is not our sorrow for itself that God delighteth in, but it is the taking down of pride, and that so-much humbling sense of sin, danger, and misery, as may make us feel the need of Christ and mercy, and bring us unfeignedly to consent to be his disciples, and to be saved upon his covenant-terms. Be sorrow much or little, if it do this much, the sinner shall be saved.

…

3. And abundance are cast down by ignorance of themselves, not knowing the sincerity which God hath given them. Grace is weak in the best of us here; and little and weak grace is not very easily perceived, for it acteth weakly and unconstantly, and it is known but by its acts; and weak grace is always joined with too strong corruption; …

4. And, in such a case, there are too few that know how to fetch comfort from bare probabilities, when they get not certainty; much less, from the mere offers of grace and salvation, even when they cannot deny but they are willing to accept them; and if none should have comfort but those that have assurance of their sincerity and salvation, despair would swallow up the souls of most, even of true believers.

5. And ignorance of other men increaseth the fears and sorrows of some. They think, by our preaching and writing, that we are much better than we are. And then they think that they are graceless, because they come short of our supposed measures; whereas if they dwelt with us and saw our failings, or knew us but as well as we know ourselves, or saw all our sinful thoughts and vicious dispositions written in our foreheads, they would be cured of this error.

6. And unskilful teachers do cause the griefs and perplexities of very many. Some cannot open to them clearly the tenor of the covenant of grace; some are themselves unacquainted with any spiritual, heavenly consolations; and many have no experience of any inward holiness, and renewal by the Holy Ghost, and know not what sincerity is, nor wherein a saint doth differ from an ungodly sinner. As wicked deceivers make good and bad to differ but a little, if not the best to be taken for the worst; so some unskilful men do place sincerity in such things as are not so much as duty; as the Papists, in their manifold inventions and superstitions; and many sects, in their unsound opinions.

And some unskilfully and unsoundly describe the state of grace, and tell you how far a hypocrite may go, so as unjustly discourageth and confoundeth the weaker sort of Christians, and cannot amend the mis-expression of their books or teachers.* And too many teachers lay men’s comforts, if not salvation, on controversies which are past their reach, and pronounce heresy and damnation against that which they themselves understand not. Even the Christian world, these one thousand three hundred, or one thousand two hundred years, is divided into parties, by the teachers’ unskilful quarrels about words, which they took in several senses. Is it any wonder if the hearers of such are distracted?

IV. I have told you the causes of distracted sorrows, I am now to tell you what is THE CURE, But, alas! it is not so soon done as told; and I shall begin where the disease beginneth, and tell you both what the patient himself must do, and what must be done by his friends and teachers.

A.  Look not on the sinful part of your troubles, either as better or worse than indeed it is.

1. Too many persons, in their sufferings and sorrows, think they are only to be pitied; and take little notice of the sin that caused them, or that they still continue to commit: and too many unskilful friends and ministers do only comfort them, when a round chiding and discovery of their sin should be the better part of the cure. …

2. And yet when, as foolishly, they think that all these sins are marks of a graceless state, …

B.  Particularly, give not way to a habit of peevish impatience.—…Prepare for the loss of children and friends, for the loss of goods, and for poverty and want. Prepare for slanders, injuries, or poisons; for sickness, pain, and death. It is your unpreparedness that maketh it seem unsufferable.

And when you feel distracting cares for your deliverances, remember that this is not trusting God. Care for your own duty, and obey his command; but leave it to him what you shall have: tormenting cares do but add to your afflictions. …

C. Set yourselves, more diligently than ever, to overcome the inordinate love of the world.—…That which men love they delight in, if they have it; and mourn for want of it, and desire to obtain it. The will is the love: and no man is troubled for want of that which he would not have.

1.  But the commonest cause of passionate melancholy is, at first, some worldly discontent and care: either wants, or crosses, or the fear of suffering, or the unsuitableness and provocation of some related to them, or disgrace, or contempt, do cast them into passionate discontent; and [then] self-will cannot bear the denial of something which they would have. And then when the discontent hath muddied and diseased a man’s mind, temptations about his soul do come-in afterwards; and that which began only with worldly crosses doth after seem to be all about religion, conscience, or merely for sin or want of grace.

2.  Why could you not patiently bear the words, the wrongs, the losses, the crosses that did befall you? Why made you so great a matter of these bodily, transitory things? Is it not because you over-love them? …

D.  If you are not satisfied that God alone, Christ alone, heaven alone, is enough for you, as matter of felicity and full content, go, study the case better, and you may be convinced.—…

E.  And study better how great a sin it is, to set our own wills and desires in a discontented opposition to the wisdom, will, and providence of God; and to make our wills, instead of his, as gods to ourselves.—…

F.  And study well how great a duty it is wholly to trust God, and our blessed Redeemer, both with soul and body, and all we have.—…

O that you knew what a mercy and comfort it is for God to make it your duty to trust him! If he had made you no promise, this is equal to a promise: if he do but bid you trust him, you may be sure he will not deceive your trust.

1.  OBJECTION. “But it is none but his children that he will save.”

2.  ANSWER. True: and all are his children that are truly willing to obey and please him. If you are truly willing to be holy, and to obey his commanding will, in a godly, righteous, and sober life, you may boldly rest in his disposing will, and rejoice in his rewarding and accepting will: for he will pardon all our infirmities through the merits and intercession of Christ.

G.  If you would not be swallowed up with sorrow, swallow not the baits of sinful pleasure.—…The more pleasure you have in sin, usually the more sorrow it will bring you; …Never look for joy or peace as long as you live in wilful and beloved sin. This thorn must be taken out of your hearts before you will be eased of the pain; unless God leave you to a senseless heart, and Satan give you a deceitful peace, which doth but prepare for greater sorrow.

H. … is, the cure of that ignorance and those errors which cause your troubles.

 

[1] This is an outline of the first half of Sermon XI from volume three of “Puritan Sermons”; James Nichols, 1844

The Commonplace of Eloquence

29 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by in John A. Broadus, Preaching

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Broadus explains that a sermon to be good, to be effective must be “eloquent”. At this we must be careful: Eloquence does not mean rhetorically complex or “sophisticated.” Rather, eloquence creates change: an eloquent sermon moves the hearer:

Eloquence is so speaking as not merely to convince the judgment, kindle the imagination and move the feelings, but to give a powerful impulse to the will. All of these are necessary elements of eloquence, but that which is most characteristic is the last. There may be instruction and conviction without eloquence. The fancy may be charmed, as by a poem or novel, when you would not think of calling it eloquence. The feelings may be deeply stirred by a pathetic tale or a harrowing description, but no corresponding action being proposed, we do not speak of it as eloquence.

TPDS, 5. Eloquence, thus, only appears in the effect. An eloquent sermon does something. In this, Broadus runs in Baxter dictum, Preach as a dying man to dying men. There must be a desperation in the sermon to save, to transform.

Broadus next notes that eloquence derives from that most plain and common. Although he does not examine the point, I think it fair to note that only those things which touch near our skin have the power to transform — distant, abstract matters cannot stir the emotions.

Politicians manipulatively speak of “mothers” or “apple pie” or “kitchen tables” or more recently the human body as a point of political dispute. It is difficult to get most people to care about bond yields, but they will care about death and pain.

The sermon must concern itself with such commonplace matters or it will not move, and thus it will not be eloquent:

“What is the true ground of eloquence,” says Vinet, “if it is not commonplace? When eloquence is combined with high philosophical considerations, as in many modern examples, we are at first tempted to attribute to philosophy the impression we receive from it; but eloquence is something more popular; it is the power of making the primitive chords of the soul (its purely human elements) vibrate within us—it is in this, and nothing else, that we acknowledge the orator.”2 It is impossible to be eloquent on any subject, save by associating it with such ideas as that of mother, child, friends, home, country, heaven, and the like; all of them familiar, and, in themselves, commonplace. The speaker’s task is, by his grouping, illustration, etc., and by his own contagious emotion, to invest these familiar ideas with fresh interest, so that they may reassert their power over the hearts of his hearers.

TPDS, 7. What commonplace must occupy the center of the sermon:

The preacher can be really eloquent only when he speaks of those vital gospel truths which have necessarily become familiar. A just rhetoric, if there were no higher consideration, would require that a preacher shall preach the gospel—shall hold on to the old truths, and labor to clothe them with new interest and power.

TPDS, 7.

Dying Thoughts.2

03 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Meditation, Puritan, Richard Baxter

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What and why must be the concern of the Christian in this life? First, it is a good to the church that one’s life and one’s society be peaceful, civil, ordered:

 

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4

 

Second, it is good that the church have peace — not for the sake of peace alone, but for the good which can come from the church’s peace.

 

Third, it is good to be thankful for the health of one’s body. It is a wicked Gnosticism which makes the real world into a false or unimportant one. For example, the biblical counselor must be sensitive to the physical body. It is often best to send a counselee to see a medical doctor at the first — either their state has caused injury to their body (through worry or anxiety), or their physical condition in part gives rise to one’s distress.  Only a fool would sever the body and soul as to make the body the tomb and the soul a bird set to fly away — as the pagans had it, soma sema (and no, the “flesh” in Paul does not mean the physical body is the source of sin).

 

Baxter proves this from the Lord’s own actions: if the physical body were nothing, than why did Jesus grant physical healing:

 

32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. Mark 1: 32-34.

 

(Note: demons are associated with disease — not as the cause for some sin. Second, not every disease was caused by a demon.) Second, The Lord himself came in a physical body — a point which believers must not deny:

 

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 1 Joh 3:1-3.

 

He also  physically resurrected:

 

36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

43 and he took it and ate before them. Luke 24:36-42

 

And believers are promised a physical resurrection:

 

1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened-not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.

 

In fact, it was this point which brought on the gawfaws of the Mars Hill crowd:

 

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

33 So Paul went out from their midst.

34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:29-34

 

Without question then the physical body must be affirmed and seen as good (corrupted by sin, yes; but not intrinsically evil).

 

Moreover, enjoyment of physical good is commended:

18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil-this is the gift of God.

20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

 

We must also rejoice in our friends, and join in their sorrows:

 

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Romans 12:14-16

 

We are also called to give comfort to other in distress:

 

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 2 Corinthians 1:3-6

 

Thus, the real life of others is a matter of great concern. It is such a matter to be considered at the time of judgment:  At the separation of the sheep and goats, The Lord will commend those who cared for the prisoner, the hungry, the naked, the stranger:

 

37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:27-40

 

Likewise, the wicked will condemned for their refusal to care for the poor — for they failed to care for The Lord himself. This is a constant reference for the judgment which came upon Israel:

 

6 Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals-

7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;

8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. Amos 2:6-8

 

Baxter also gives thanks for “the land of my nativity” (8).  He notes the connection between the ordering of the civil state and the good of the Gospel. Now, Baxter wrote at such a time that godliness could easily land one in prison or worse. Oppression on all sides was the order of the day — he lived through the working out of freedom of conscience (a thing rare under the sun).

 

What Baxter did not see was the poison which the state could feed religion by gradual compromise and coziness.

Dying Thoughts.1

03 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Hope, Meditation, Puritan, Richard Baxter, Uncategorized

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(These posts are based upon Richard Baxter’s Dying Thoughts, as printed in the Banner of Truth version (itself, an abridgment of Baxter’s original). The book may be found here: http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/item_detail.php?4952. These  posts track the order of Baxter’s thoughts and contain some quotations from Baxter — but his original will be different in many respects. While I am reading Baxter 300 years later — and will be in another 300 years (should the Lord tarry) — my notes on his work will be rather transitory. Thus, guide yourself accordingly. They will be useful for my own teaching. The best good they could do you would be to direct to Baxter.)

Richard Baxter, Dying Thoughts

What is Desirable in this Present Life

 

A man born is like a candle, he flare up at the beginning – but its end always stands firm. As Solomon notes in Ecclesiastes, the life of a man or beast, wise or fool will all end; thus, all life is vain. Where it not for hope, what happiness would their be? Life would be one of troubles:

 

For affliction does not come from the dust,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

but man is born to trouble

as the sparks fly upward.

Job 5:6-7

 

Obviously Baxter does not reject any incidental pleasures — indeed he will affirm as such. But all pleasures and loves are infected with decay — only a fool would have no realization of such:

 

9 All you beasts of the field,

come to devour-

all you beasts in the forest.

10 His watchmen are blind;

they are all without knowledge;

they are all silent dogs;

they cannot bark, dreaming,

lying down, loving to slumber.

11 The dogs have a mighty appetite;

they never have enough.

But they are shepherds who have no understanding;

they have all turned to their own way,

each to his own gain, one and all.

12 “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;

let us fill ourselves with strong drink;

and tomorrow will be like this day,

great beyond measure.” Isaiah 56:9-12

 

Just as the certainty of the coming judgment should have alerted Israel’s leaders, even so the certainty of death should awaken the heart:

 

12 In that day

the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning,

for baldness and wearing sackcloth;

13 and behold, joy and gladness,

killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

14 The LORD of hosts

has revealed himself in my ears:

“Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you

until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts. Isaiah 22:12-14

 

Thus, can there be nothing in this life promises any good to a human being? That a Christian knows of more than the end of life is itself a good, ‘Though even in this life, as related to a better and as we ourselves are exercised about things of a higher nature than the men of the world” (2).

 

However, the fact and hope of life after a world of death, does count this present life as of no account, “Even in this world short of death, there is some good so much to be regarded as may justly prevail with believers to prefer it before the present hasting of their reward” (3).

 

What then is the good of this life? First, God has willed that we live — and so we must. That, by nature of the one who willed, must be a good.

 

Second, our life now determines and prepares for our to come, “Heaven is won or lost on earth; the possession is there, but the preparation is here.” And thus all of our work which can be done only here, must be done here, “All that we ever do for salvation, must be done here” (4). Moreover, there is work for others to be done. We cannot simply think that this life is simply a life given for our own escape and to hell with the rest. Thus, for even eternal matters — if you will — this life, and our being in this world are of the gravest importance.

 

Christianity can never be rightly understood as a selfish endeavor for my own soul to escape this world. Conversely, we cannot think that ignoring the world to come will make us better for this world: to fail on either account would be to live beyond reality. A rightly lived life must take hold of both ends firmly.

 

Baxter gives quaint advice on how to hold both ends in right tension:

 

A man that travels to the most desirable home, has a habitual desire to it all the way; but his present business is his journey, and therefore his horse, inns and company, his roads and fatigues may employ more of his thoughts, and talk and action than his home (6).

 

The metaphor is apt for it corresponds to reality. As such, it helps to hold the ends of life in right relation: All our work must be toward home — and yet we must take care to our journey. We would be foolish to build a home in the airport terminal rather than make the flight home. A fool would think a hotel home.  And yet in our hurry to be home, we may not think our present circumstance to be despised.

 

Our Lord appointed our present circumstance. The Lord determined the lay of the land. The people about us are people for whom Jesus lived and died; these are the people God has commanded us to love. For many of these people, the time at present will be the only time we possess to express that love of Christ.

 

Indeed, fleeting life and the overwhelming fact of judgment and eternity make this time more precious and more important.

Richard Baxter, Directions to the Unconverted: God Created

07 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Apologetics, Richard Baxter

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Richard Baxter continues his directions respecting the unconverted. In the fourth point, Baxter stated that he will “Supposed, therefore, there thou dost confess there is a God ….If thou wilt deny there is a God, thou must deny that thou art a man, and that there is any man, or any being.”

From the place of presupposition, There is a God,  Baxter reasons. First, God must be the Creator. If God is not the Creator, then he does not deserve the title of God:

For he is not God, if he be not the Creator, and therefore our Owner, our Rule, and Benefactor, our absolute Lord, our most righteous Governor, and our most loving Father, or Benefactor.

Baxter’s point matters a great deal:  The demands made by God stem from the status of Creator. A god who did not create us is a god who can make no demand upon us beyond, I’m bigger than you. Indeed, much complaint about God, as depicted in the Bible, is that he is a bully.

The complaint of a bully is a complaint that one has no right to make such demands. Consider: If a police officer gives someone a ticket for running a red light, it is not the act of a bully. The state has legitimate authority for health and safety. But if the police officer stops motorists and demands that they give him personally $20, he is being a bully. He is simply using his power to abuse others. A robber is just a bully writ large.

When people complain of God’s demands, they essentially complain that he is a bully. But in making the bully argument, they are actually stating, (1) God has no right to make such a demand. (2) I don’t like his demand. Both elements are necessary, because few people complain that God hates murder. However, they do complain when God forbids some specific act.

The complaint against God only arises when one’s desire has been crossed. At that point, the complaint will issue, God has no right! (That is really the thrust of the argument concerning evil: God has not right to judge me! He is worse than I am.) Baxter will drive home the point of God’s right by first noting establishes, God is the Creator.

As Creator, God establishes meaning in the most fundamental aspect:  If God did not create, the concept of meaning in creation would be gibberish: there would be no creation. If God did create, then meaning is something built into creation. As Creator, God establishes meaning, and hence morality and all other aspects of meaning.

In fact, the existence of moral facts (e.g., the Holocaust was evil) is a basic proof of God’s existence. (If God does not exist, then one may state his strong dislike of murder, but to argue that it is evil is silly:  unless by the word one merely means, I really strongly and passionately dislike it. Or one may mean, It is a fundamentally bad idea – I might get killed. But one cannot really mean “evil.” Such Humpty-Dumpty refashioning of words get us very little. If we keep up this nonsense, we’ll have no conversation at all.)

A Creator God is a God who establishes meaning, this is right and that is wrong – which also necessitates a concept of order. Thus, to obtain the end of “liberation” one must jettison God, which means throwing out meaning:

For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries,  the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an  instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was  simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust. The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever.

Aldus Huxley, Ends and Means (1946), 272. A copy of the work may be found here: http://www.archive.org/stream/endsandmeans035237mbp/endsandmeans035237mbp_djvu.txt

Rather than meaning, there is “preference”.  The preference of God for X is no better than my preference for Y, albeit, God might have a bigger hammer and so God may cow my desire.

Thus, Baxter rightly notes that the conversation cannot get going unless we both begin with a God who created. Paul, proceeds from this point in Romans. He notes the wrath of God revealed against the suppression of the truth. Note how his argument concerning the Gospel comes anchored in God creates:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:18–25 (ESV)

I am convinced

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Puritan, Quotations, Richard Baxter

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I am convinced that it is far better to depart and be with Christ than it is to be here. But this conviction alone does not excite the desires of my soul. They are opposed by a natural aversion to death, which sin has greatly increased; by the remains of unbelief, which avails itself of the darkness in our flesh, and our too great familiarity with the visible world; and also by the want of a more lively foretaste of heaven. What is it that must be done to overcome this opposition? Is there no remedy? Yes, there is a Divine teaching by which we must learn “so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” When we have read and heard, spoken and written the soundest truth, and the strongest arguments, we will know as if we knew not, and believe as if we believed not, unless God powerfully impresses the same thing on our minds, and awakens our souls to feel what we know. Since we fell from God, the communion between our senses and understanding,  and also between our understanding and our will and our affections is violated and we are divided in ourselves by this schism in our faculties.

The Dying Thoughts of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Abridged., ed. Benjamin Fawcett (London: Religious Tract Society, n.d.), 107-8.

 

 

Presuppositionalism in Richard Baxter

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Apologetics, Puritan, Revelation, Richard Baxter

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Baxter’s directions to the unconverted require presupposition that we all know God to exist:

 

I suppose thee to be one that knowest that thou didst not make thyself; …I suppose, therefore, that thou does confess that there is a God; for there to be the eternal, infinite Being, and the most powerful, wise, and good, and the first cause of all created being, and power, and wisdom, and goodness, and (with the subsequent relations to the creature) to be God.

 

(Christian Directory, I.I.4). Baxter makes a series of arguments in this presupposition. First, he argues to the presupposition of the other: I suppose you know and confess that God exists.  However, this statement is actually more complex than may first appear.

I will presume that you know that you did not make yourself: Let us consider what this entails:

If something exists, then it was created/made by a creator.

You exist.

Therefore, you were created.

This argument is a modus ponenes: If A, then B. A. Therefore, B. However, Baxter structures the argument in such a way as move toward his primary point: The nature and function of the Creator. In making his argument in such a manner, Baxter is not being a bare bully. Rather, he begins with a good biblical assertion: God exists, and his existence is demonstrated by creation (Rom. 1:18-25). Note that the argument is not necessarily structured around some particular detail of creation as proof for God: rather the argument seems to be based more generally in the fact of existence, being itself. That something exists is evidence of God.

This argument is known as the cosmological argument. In its current form, it would be stated thus:

1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause.
2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God.
3. The universe exists.
4. Therefore, the explanation of the universe’s existence is God.

This can be found in William Lane Craig’s piece in Christianity Today,”God is not Dead”, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/july/13.22.html

Craig also discusses the Kalam argument which more closely matches the version of the argument made by Baxter, above.

The next sentence in Baxter’s argument concerning the “first cause” is a reference to Thomas Aquinas’ version of the cosmological argument. The reference to “eternal, infinite Being” may be an oblique reference to St. Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God.

Thus, it is interesting Baxter takes a presuppositionalist position, We both know God exists — and yet states it in a way evidences arguments for the existence of God. Baxter’s position is thus not only biblically sound (the Bible starts with the presupposition that God exists) and yet he demonstrates that his position is capable of reasonable demonstration: Such arguments do not create faith, but they do demonstrate that Christian faith is not illogical or absurd (however, difficult or mysterious a doctrine such as the Incarnation or the Trinity).

What about the man who insists that God does not exist? What of a rabid atheism? Baxter continues:

If thou wilt deny that there is a God, thou must deny that that thou art a man, and that there is any man or any being.

The denial of God is a denial of the image of God upon humanity. The intrinsic value of human beings lies in the image of God upon humanity. Should we deny that basis, then human beings become utilitarian objects: You exist for the good which you can do for me.  Arguing to consistent moral demands becomes impossible — or at least arbitrary — very quickly.  It becomes impossible to ground good in anything other than my personal desire. Ethical argument become emotional appeal. You may like or dislike something, but you cannot say that it is evil or good.

The denial of “any being” seems to mean that a denial of God is as absurd as denying one’s own existence.

Finally, it must be noted that the atheist claim that God cannot be found is in a manner true: God is personal and cannot and will not be found like a rock or bird. Sand can be found at the beach, but God will not found in the same manner. For the atheist to say that he cannot see God, is to say nothing more than a man who suppresses the knowledge of the wrath of God cannot and will not know God — even in the blinding light of Creation (Rom. 1:18-25). Wallowing in sin debases the mind and corrupts the heart.

However, the atheist is wrong to think that God cannot be found. God will be found only in the expression of the Father, in the revelation of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-4):

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.2 Corinthians 5:16–21 (ESV)

 

 

 

 

The Desire for Happiness & Evangelism

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Richard Baxter

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The desire to be happy as an opening to Jesus Christ:

Baxter continues in his presuppositions of the unbeliever by noting:

I suppose thee to have a natural self-love and a desire for thy own preservation and happiness.

This desire for happiness is a stock left over despite the Fall upon which to graft the Gospel. For what is more conducive to one’s happiness than the Father of Lights showing grace in his Son and imparting the Spirit?

Richard Baxter

A Christian Directory