d
my commandments; I gave them nothing, I promised them nothing but the
filthy pleasures of a night, or the joys of madness, or the delights
of a disease; I never hanged upon the cross three long hours for them,
nor endured the labors of a poor life thirty-three years together for
their interest; only when they were Thine by the merit of Thy death,
they quickly became mine by the demerit of their ingratitude; and when
Thou hadst clothed their soul with Thy robe, and adorned them by Thy
graces, we stript them naked as their shame, and only put on a robe of
darkness, and they thought themselves secure and went dancing to
their grave like a drunkard to a fight, or a fly unto a candle; and
therefore they that did partake with us in our faults must divide with
us in our portion and fearful interest." This is a sad story because
it ends in death, and there is nothing to abate or lessen the
calamity. It concerns us therefore to consider in time that he that
tempts us will accuse us, and what he calls pleasant now he shall then
say was nothing, and all the gains that now invite earthly souls and
mean persons to vanity, was nothing but the seeds of folly, and the
harvest in pain and sorrow and shame eternal. But then, since this
horror proceeds upon the account of so many accusers, God hath put it
in our power by a timely accusation of ourselves in the tribunal of
the court Christian, to prevent all the arts of aggravation which at
doomsday shall load foolish and undiscerning souls. He that accuses
himself of his crimes here, means to forsake them, and looks upon them
on all sides, and spies out his deformity, and is taught to hate them,
he is instructed and prayed for, he prevents the anger of God and
defeats the devil's malice, and, by making shame the instrument of
repentance, he takes away the sting, and makes that to be his medicine
which otherwise would be his death: and, concerning this exercise, I
shall only add what the patriarch of Alexandria told an old religious
person in his hermitage. Having asked him what he found in that
desert, he was answered, "Only this, to judge and condemn myself
perpetually; that is the employment of my solitude." The patriarch
answered, "There is no other way." By accusing ourselves we shall make
the devil's malice useless, and our own consciences clear, and be
reconciled to the Judge by the severities of an early repentance, and
then we need to fear no accusers.

BAXTER

MAKING L