Direct. I. Labour to know God, and to be affected with his attributes, and always to live as in his sight.—No man can know sin perfectly, because no man can know God perfectly. You can no further know what sin is than you know what God is, whom you sin against; for the formal malignity of sin is relative, as it is against the will and attributes of God. The godly have some knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they have some knowledge of God that is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical, prevalent knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they have no such knowledge of God. They that fear God will fear sinning; they that in their hearts are bold irreverently with God, will, in heart and life, be bold with sin: the atheist, who thinks there is no God thinks there is no sin against him. Nothing in world will tell us so plainly and powerfully of the evil of sin, as the knowledge of the greatness, wisdom goodness, holiness, authority, justice, truth, &c. of God. The sense of his presence, therefore, will revive our sense of sin’s malignity.
Direct. II. Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and the holy life of Christ.—His office is to expiate sin, and to destroy it. His blood was shed for it: his life condemned it. Love Christ, and you will hate that which caused his death. Love him, and you will love to be made like him, and hate that which is so contrary to Christ. These two great lights will show the odiousness of darkness.
Direct. III. Think well both how holy the office and work of the Holy Ghost is, and how great a mercy it is to us.—Shall God himself, the heavenly light, come down into a sinful heart, to illuminate and purify it? And yet shall I keep my darkness and defilement, in opposition to such wonderful mercy? Though all sin against the Holy Ghost be not the unpardonable blasphemy, yet all is aggravated hereby.
I’m involved in a bible study at work on the book of Hebrews and thought I would post them on my Blog.
| Description | Location |
| John Owen Commentary | Link to Owens Commentary |
| John Calvin Commentary | Link to Calvins Commentary |
| Monergism Resources | Link to Monergism Resources |
| Matthew Henry | Link to Matthew Henry Commentary |
| William Gouge | Link to William Gouge Commentary |
| Puritanboard | Link to Hebrews Resources |
My Blogging from the reading of Richard Baxter’s, “A Christian Directory”, continues. In this blog entry Baxter outlines the duties of human speech that consist of:
1. To glorify God by the magnifying of his name; to speak of the praises of his attributes and works.
2. To sing psalms of praise to him, and delight our souls in the sweet commemoration of his excellencies.
3. To give him thanks for the mercies already received, and declare to others what he hath done for our souls and bodies, for his church and for the world.
4. To pray to him for what we want, and for our brethren, for the church, and for the conversion of his and our enemies.
5. To appeal to him and swear by his name when we are called to it lawfully.
6. To make our necessary covenants and vows to him, and to make open profession of our belief, subjection, and obedience to him, before men.
7. To preach his word, or declare it in discourse, and to teach those that are committed to our care, and edify the ignorant and erroneous as we have opportunity.
8. To defend the truth of God by conference or disputation; and confute the false doctrine of deceivers.
9. To exhort men to their particular duties, and to reprove their particular sins; and to endeavor to do to them good as we are able.
10. To confess our own sins to God and man as we have occasion.
11. To crave the advise and help of others for our souls; and inquire after the will of God, and the way to salvation.
12. To praise that which is good in others, and speak good of all men, superiors, equals, and inferiors, so far as there is just ground and cause.
13. To bear witness to the truth, when we are called to it.
14. To defend the cause of the just and innocent, and vindicate them against false accusers.
15. To communicate and convey to others the same good impressions and affections of mind, which God hath wrought on us, and not only the bare truths themselves which we have received.
16. Lastly, to be instruments of common converse; of expressing our mutual affections and respects, and transacting all our worldly business: for learning, arts, manufactures, &c.
Richard Baxter gives some sound advise to follow of thieves that should be avoided:
Thief I: One of the greatest time-wasting sins consists of idleness or sloth. One only needs to read the book of Proverbs to see this point expounded. Remember that you run for the immortal crown; and therefore see that you lose no time, and look not at the things that are behind;
Thief II: The next thief or time-waster is excess of sleep.
Thief III: The next thief or time-waster is an inordinate adorning of the body. This would include clothing, jewelry, and the like.
Thief IV: Another time-wasting thief is unnecessary pomp and curiosity in retinue, attendance, house furniture, provision and entertainments, together with excess of compliment and ceremony, and servitude to the humors and expectations of time-wasters.
Thief V: Another time-wasting sin is needless and tedious feastings, gluttony, and tippling. O remember, while you are eating and drinking, what a corruptible piece of flesh you are feeding and serving; and how quickly those mouths will be filled with dust! and a soul that is posting so fast to eternity, should find no time to spare for vanity; and that you have important work enough to do, which is performed, will afford you a sweeter and a longer feast.
Thief VI:Another time-waster is idle talk.
Thief VII: Another thief which by the aforesaid means would steal your time, is vain and sinful company. Remember, assimilation begets association.
Thief VIII: Another notorious time-wasting thief, is needless, inordinate sports and games, which are stigmatized by the offenders themselves, with the infamous name of pastimes, and masked with deceitful title of recreations; And to think that they sold that precious time for a little fleshly sport, in which they should have been working out their salvation , and making their calling and election sure.
Thief IX:Another time-wasting thief is excess of worldly cares and business. Not much needs to be said of this as there a plethora of examples within our society.
Thief X: Another time-waster is vain ungoverned and sinful thoughts.
Thief XI: Another dangerous time-waster sin is the reading of vain books , play-books, romances, and feigned histories; and also unprofitable studies, undertaken but for vain-glory, or the pleasing of a carnal or curious mind.
Thief XII: But the master-thief that robs men of their time is an unsancitified , ungodly heart; for this loseth time whatever men are doing;because they never intend the glory of God;
I’m currently in the process of reading Richard Baxter’s, A Christian Directory and I came across 10 things that he outlines in the book that I thought I would share:
(1) That the Holy Ghost, as given since the ascension of Christ, is his agent on earth, or his advocate with men;
(2) This Holy Spirit, so sent, infallibly inspired the holy apostles and evangelists, first to preach, and then to write the doctrine of Christ, contained in the Holy Scriptures.
(3) This same Spirit in them, sealed this holy doctrine, and the testimony of these holy men, by many miracles and wonderful gifts, by the which they did actually convince the unbelieving world, and plant the churches.
(4) The same Spirit(having first by the apostles, given a law or canon to the universal church, constituting its offices and the duty of the officers and the manner of their entrance) doth qualify and dispose men for the stated, ordinary ministerial work, (which is to explain and apply the foresaid Scriptures,) and directeth those that are to ordain and choose them (they being not wanting on their part); and so he apppointeth pastors to the church. (Ephesians 3: 2-4) (Ephesians 3:8,13).
(5) The same Spirit assisteth the ministers to teach and apply the holy Scriptures according to the necessities of the people, the weight of the matter, and the majesty of the word of God.
(6) The same Spirit doth by this word(heard or read) renew and sanctify the souls of the elect; illuminating their minds, opening and quickening their hearts, prevailing with, changing, and resolving their wills, thus writing God’s word, and imprinting his image by his word upon their hearts, making it powerful to conquer and cast out their stronge st, sweetest, dearest sins, and bringing them to the saving knowledge, love, and obedience of God in Jesus Christ. See Acts xxvi.
(7) The same Holy Spirit assisteth the sanctified in the exercise of this grace, to the increase of it, by blessing and concurring with the means appointed appointed by him to that end: and helpeth them to use those means , perform those duties , conquer temptations, oppositionss and difficulties, and so confirmeth and preserveth them to the end.
(8) The same Spirit helpeth believers, in the exercise of grace, to feel it, and discern the sincerity of it in themselves, in that measure as they are meet for, and in those seasons when it is fittest for them.
(9) The same Spirit helpeth them hereupon to conclude that they are justified and reconciled to God, and have right to all the benefits of his covenant.
(10) Also, he assisteth them actually to rejoice in the discerning of this conclusion. For though reason of itself may do something of itself in these acts, yet so averse is man to all that is holy, and so many are the difficulties and hinderences in the way that to the effectual performance, the help of the Spirit of God is necessary.
I was doing some research the other day on the history of the Puritans and ran across this site. You’ll need iTunes to download all of the MP3’s, but it’s well worth it. Don’t worry you don’t need to own an IPod, you can listen to the MP3’s directly on your PC or MAC.
http://itunes.rts.edu/