Philpot Quote:
"But the desires of the FLESH seem to be those grosser
and more sensual lusts and passions which are connected,
so to speak, with the lower part of our nature. The desires
of the MIND are those which are connected with its higher
qualities."
"Enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures."
Titus 3:3 by Thomas Watson
Lust is an inordinate desire or impulse, provoking the
soul to the gratifying of its carnal desires. Aristotle calls
them 'brutish lusts' because when lusts are violent, they
will not let reason or conscience be heard; but a man is
carried brutishly to the satisfying of the flesh.
Men are enslaved by their drunken lusts. Though death
is in the cup, they will drink it up. One having almost lost
his eye-sight, the physician told him there was no cure for
him, unless he would leave off his excessive drinking.
"Then," replied he, "farewell sweet light!"
Men are enslaved by their impure lusts. Men are said to
"burn in lusts," Romans 1:27. The apostle intimates that
lust is a kind of fever. Feverish heats are not more deadly
to the body, than lust is to the soul. O what folly is it—for
a drop of pleasure to drink a sea of wrath!
He wrote 168 or so separate works -- such treatises as the Christian Directory, the Methodus Theologiae Christianae, and the Catholic Theology, might each have represented the life's work of an ordinary man. His Breviate of the Life of Mrs Margaret Baxter records the virtues of his wife, and reveals Baxter's tenderness of nature. Without doubt, however, his most famous and enduring contribution to Christian literature was a devotional work published in 1658 under the title Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live. This slim volume was credited with the conversion of thousands and formed one of the core extra-biblical texts of evangelicalism until at least the middle of the nineteenth century.
Richard Baxter was ordained into the Church of England, 1638, but in two years allied with Puritans opposed to the episcopacy of his church. At Kidderminster (1641-60) he made the church a model parish. The church was enlarged to hold the crowds. Pastoral counseling was as important as preaching, and his program for his parish was a pattern for many other ministers. Baxter played an ameliorative role during the English Civil Wars.
He was a chaplain in the parliamentary army but then helped to restore the king (1660). After the establishment of the monarchy, he fought for toleration of moderate dissent in the Church of England. Persecuted for more than 20 years and was imprisoned (1685) for 18 months, the Revolution of 1688, replacing James II with William and Mary, brought about an Act of Toleration that freed Baxter to express his opinions.
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