FOR

WEAK CHRISTIANS;

AND THE CHARACTER OF A

CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN.

BY

RICHARD BAXTER.

IN TWO PARTS.

WITH A PREPACE

BY THE REV. H. J. SPERLING, A. M.

RECTOR OF PAPWORTA ST. AGNES, CAMBRIDGESHIRE,
AND CHAPLAIN TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF CHOLMONDELEY.

LONDON:
HOLDSWORTH AND BALL,

AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW,

CONTENTS.

PART I..

PAGE

EDITOR'S PREFACE ....ix

BAXTER'S PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

The Text opened. What it is to receive Christ. The nature

of justifying faith in its three essential acts. How to know
that we have received Christ. What it is to walk in him.
What to be rooted, to be grounded, and built up, &c. . .

The Doctrine of the necessity of weak Christians seeking

stability, confirmation, and increase of grace. What confir-

mation is, in the understanding, 'will, affections, and in the

life ...................

Twenty Motives to convince weak Christians of the great need

of growth and confirmation . . .. . ... 14

A Lamentation for the Weaknesses of Christians : in their

knowledge, in their practice, in public worship, in inward

grace, in outward obedience; about known duties, con-

fession, reproof, &c. ; their uncharitableness, backbiting,

pride, &c. .

..

.. 48

• The two first pages are omitted, as being addressed to BAXTER's flock
at Kidderminster, and as containing a line of illustration unsuited to the
taste of these fastidious days.

PAGE

Ten more Considerations to convince them that it is not

trifling, but great things which God requireth at their hands 62

Twenty Directions for confirmation and increase of grace · 83

PART II.

PREFACE.

The character of a strong confirmed Christian .... . 159

1. He liveth by such a faith in unseen things, as governeth

his soul instead of sight ........... 166

2. He hath cogent reasons for his religion ...... 169

3. He seeth the well-ordered frame of sacred verities, and

the integral parts in their harmony; and setteth not up

one truth against another. .......... 171

4. He adhereth to them, and practiseth them, from an in-

ward connatural principle, called the Divine Nature,

and the Spirit of Christ ........... 172

5. He serveth not God for fear only, but for love .... 174

6. He loveth God, 1. Much for his goodness to himself;

2. and more for his goodness to the church ; 3. and

most of all for his essential goodness and perfection . . 176

7. He taketh this love and its expressions for the heart and

height of all his religion ........... 179

8. He hath absolutely put his soul and all his hopes into the

hand of Christ, and liveth by faith upon him as his

Saviour ................ 181

9. He taketh Christ as the teacher sent from God, and his

doctrinc for the truest wisdom, and learneth of none but

in subordination to him ........... 183

10. His repentance is universal and effectual, and hath gone

to the root of every sin ........... 185

11. He loveth the light, as it showeth him his sin and duty;

and is willing to know the worst of sin, and the most of

duty ................. 188

12. He desireth the highest degree of holiness, and hath no

sin which he had not rather leave than keep, and had

rather be the best though in poverty, than the greatest

in prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

PAGE

13. He liveth upon God and heaven as the end, reward, and

motive of his life ............. 193

14. He counteth no cost or pains too great for the obtaining

it, and hath nothing so dear which he cannot part with

for it .. .... ... ....... 195

15. He is daily exercised in the practice of self-denial, as

(next to the love of God) the second half of his religion 198

16. He hath mortified his fleshly desires, and so far mastereth

his senses and appetite, that they make not his obedience

very uneasy or uneven ........... 203

17. He preferreth the means of his holiness and happiness in-

comparably before all provisions and pleasures of the flesh 205

18. He is crucified to the world, and the world to him by the

cross of Christ, and contemneth it through the belief of

the greater things of the life to come ....... 208

19. He foreseeth the end in all his ways, and judgeth of all

things as they will appear at last ........ 211

20. He liveth upon God alone, and is content with his favour

and approbation, without the approbation and favour of

men .................. 215

21. He hath absolutely devoted himself, and all that he hath,

to God, to be used according to his will ...... 217

22. He hąth a readiness to obey, and a quick and pleasant

compliance of his will to the will of God. ..... 219

23. He delighteth himself more in God, and heaven, and

Christ, and holiness, than in all the world: religion is

not tedious and grievous to him ........ 221

24. He is conscious of his own sincerity, and assured of his

justification, and title to everlasting joys . . . . . . 228

25. This assurance doth not make him more careless and

remiss, bụt increaseth his love and holy diligence . . . 230

26. Yet he abhorreth pride as the first-born of the devil, and

is very low and vile in his own eyes, and can easily en-

dure to be low and vile in the eyes of others .... 231

Being acquainted with the deceitfulness of the heart, and

the methods of temptation, he liveth as among snares,

and enemies, and dangers, in a constant watch ; and can

conquer many, and subtle, and great temptations, through

grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234