On Religious affections: Richard Baxter

A few days ago I stopped at a second-hand bookstore and perused through their religious section. I found a couple of books on apologetics that looked interesting as well as a reference book on the history of theology. With these books in hand I also took a look at the antique religious books they had on the shelf.

I found an interesting volume which I added to my stack: The World's Greatest Sermons edited by S. E. Frost Jr. It contains over 50 sermons spanning thousands of years from the time of Christ to 1900s.

Last night I decided to read the sermon by Richard Baxter. The sermon is entitled "Making Light of Christ and Salvation". Baxter produces a list of questions to determine if there are any listeners who might be "slighters of Christ and your own salvation" (The World's Great Sermons, 82-3). These are the questions:

• Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation that think of them so seldom and coldly in comparison of other things?
• Do not those men make light of Christ and salvation that shun the mention of his name, unless it be in a vain or sinful use?
• Do not those men make light of Christ and salvation that have lived twenty or thirty years in uncertainty whether they have any part in these or not, and yet never seek out the right resolution of their doubts?
• If men made not light of these things what workings of affection would be in their hearts?
• Do not those men make light of Christ and salvation that think religious duty requires too much of them?
• Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation that take such care to leave their children an earthly inheritance and yet do so little to help them to heaven?
• Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation when they go to great troubles to learn their trades and callings but refuse to study religion? (The World's Great Sermons, 82-6)

Since I am in the process of reading and working through Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards, the fourth question and its ensuing paragraph were particularly interesting. Here is that paragraph:

The things that we value do deeply affect us, and some motions will be in the heart according to our estimation of them. O sin, if men made not light of these things, what working would be in the hearts of our hearers! What strange affections would it raise in them to hear of the matters of the world to come! How would their hearts melt before the power of the Gospel! What sorrow would be wrought in the discovery of their sins! What astonishment at the consideration of their misery! What unspeakable joy at the glad tidings of salvation by the blood of Christ! What resolution would be raised in them upon discovery of their duty! Oh what hearers we should have, if it were not for their sin! Whereas now we are liker to weary them, or preach them asleep with matters of this unspeakable moment. We talk to them of Christ and salvation till we make their heads ache: little would one think by their careless carriage that they heard and regarded what we said, or thought we spoke at all to them.(The World's Greatest Sermons, 82-6, emphasis mine)

It seems, as is often the case, that in studying a subject that many issues related to that subject begin to appear as out of thin air. Of course, it is only that our focus has changed to include that said subject, but nevertheless it is interesting to see how often I find something about 'religious affections in what I am reading, watching, discussing, or thinking about.