The Duty of the

rich and poor

by Richard Baxter
T
he Christian Directory is the richest and the best single counseling resource
available.It is the fullest, most thorough, and most profound treatment of
Christian spirituality and standards that has ever been attempted by an evangeli-
cal author.Back to Baxter would make a good and healthful motto for the Chris-
tian leadership of our time.
- J. I. Packer
Introduction
Next to the Bible, Richard Baxters Christian Directory, is the greatest Christian
book ever written, wrote Dr. J.I. Packer. It, continues Packer, is the richest and best
single counseling resource available to those who give pastoral guidance today.
It is the fullest, most thorough, most profound treatment of Christian spirituality
and standards that has ever been attempted by an evangelical author.Back to
Baxter, would make a good and healthful motto for the Christian leadership of
our time.
1
Richard Baxter (1615-1691), considered one of the most infuential of the English
Puritan Teologians, attained his education largely through self-instruction. Some
1. Dr. J. I. Packer, Introduction, in A Christian Directory, Richard Baxter (Soli Deo Gloria, P.O. Box
451, Morgan, Pa. 15064) 1997.
Family Duties:
A Christian Directory Part II
Christian Economics
Family and Home Management
Te Duties of the Family in All its Relationships
Abridged and Updated by Wayne Rogers
25 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
of his more familiar works still being
reprinted today are Te Saints Everlast-
ing Rest, Te Reformed Pastor, and A
Call to the Unconverted. Te Christian
Directory was rst published in 1673.
Aectionately referred to as Bax-
ter on everything, Te Christian Di-
rectory is staggering in its exhaustive
scope. Someone has suggested that the
Directory is the product of notes Bax-
ter made after pastoral visits. It gives
practical directions for Christian liv-
ing in every area of life. Divided into
four parts or books, Baxters Direc-
tory provides practical directions
on Christian Ethics (Personal Duties),
Christian Economics (Family Duties),
Christian Ecclesiastics (Church Du-
ties), Christian Politics (Duties to our
Rulers and Neighbors).
Te entire Directory has been re-
published by Soli Deo Gloria in one
volume and is almost a thousand pages
in length. Because of the small print
and oversized pages, the Soli Deo Glo-
ria edition is the equivalent of eight
to ten volumes by todays publishing
standards. Te chapters from Christian
Economics have been abridged by me.
Dr. Timothy Keller calls this the
greatest manual on biblical counseling
ever produced. Baxter provides much
more than the typical spiritual psycho-
babble oered by many contemporary
authors. Nor does he just skim over the
basic biblical principles. Rather, Baxter
approaches the hard issues of life with
a wise, deeply rooted application of the
Bible. J.I. Packer comments that Baxter
was like the other Puritans of his day in
that he embraces both spirituality and
standards.It is possible to see clearly
the dierence between the how-to
books that todays evangelicals write for
each other and the how-to teaching of
the Directory, which is so much wiser
and digs so much deeper. Our how-tos
how to have a wonderful family, great
sex, fnancial success, in a Christian way;
how to cope with grief, life-passages, cri-
ses, fears, frustrating relationships, and
what not else give us a formula to be
followed by a series of supposedly simply
actions on our part, to be carried out in
obedience to instructions in the manner
of a person painting by numbers or acti-
vating a computer. Wisdom in role play
is all; heart-work hardly comes into i
.Baxter zeros in on the heart-work of
right action.
2
Some of Baxters Directions are
Concerning Pursuing Marriage, Direc-
tions for Choosing Servants and Mas-
ters (Employees and Employers), Te
Necessity of Family Worship, General
Directions for the Holy Government of
Families, Special Motives to Persuade
Men How to Govern Teir Families,
Special Motives for Training Children,
Te Mutual Duties of Husbands and
Wives to Each Other, Te Special Duties
of Husbands to Teir Wives, Te Spe-
cial Duties of Wives to Teir Husbands,
Te Duties of Parents to Teir Chil-
dren, Te Duties of Children to Teir
Parents, Te Duties of Children and
Youth to God, Te Duties of Servants
to Masters (and Employees to Employ-
ers), Te Duty of Masters to Servants
(and Employers Employees), Te Duties
of Children to Each Other, Directions
for Edifying Conversation, Directions
on How to Spend the Ordinary Days of
the Week, Directions on How to Spend
the Lords Day, Directions for Prot-
ably Hearing Gods Word Preached,
Directions for Protably Reading Gods
2. Dr. J. I. Packer, Introduction, in A Christian
Directory, Richard Baxter (Soli Deo Gloria,
Morgan, PA, 1997).
Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
26
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
Word, Directions for Reading Books,
Directions for the Right Teaching
of Children, Directions Concerning
Prayer, Directions for the Poor, Di-
rections for the Rich, Directions for
the Aged and Weak, Directions for
the Sick, Directions for the Friends of
the Sick, to list but a few.
Many Christians are sadly un-
familiar with Baxter, or at least this
work. Te reprint available by Soli Deo
Gloria costs more than most people
will be willing to pay and should they
purchase it, the print is so small that
most contemporary readers simply
will not take the time to mine Bax-
ters gold. I originally purchased it
on Packers recommendation. When
I received and perused it bit, I myself
laid it aside because of the tiny print. It
was not for a few years that I reached
for it again one day looking for some
help on a counseling issue. I have not
put it down since.
Tese abridgements are an at-
tempt to make some of Baxters gold
more accessible to contemporary
Christians. While I have sought to
make as few changes as possible in
Baxters language, I have taken the
liberty to modernize some of the
King James language, while seeking
to remain faithful to his words and
thought. While some of his com-
ments are clearly culturally condi-
tioned and contextualized, and may
seem strange to us, they are never-
theless, pure gold.
Tese two chapters are certainly
out of order from the book. I am
placing them here at this time sim-
ply because these are two that I have
again turned to recently in preaching
through a series on 1 Tim. 6:17-19,
Te Duties of the Rich, and they are
fresh on my mind. If you nd these
helpful, please let us know which will
encourage us to provide more.
A Christian
Directory
Richard Baxter
Part II Christian Economics
Soli Deo Gloria Publications
Directions for the
Poor (and the not so
poor)
Chapter 24: Pp. 514-517
Directions to the Poor, Te Tempta-
tions of the Poor, and Te Special
duties of the Poor
Tere is no condition of life that is so
low or poor that it may not be sancti-
ed, fruitful, and comfortable if our
own misunderstanding, sin, or neg-
ligence does not pollute it or embit-
ter it to us. If we do the duty of our
condition faithfully, we will have no
cause to complain. Terefore I shall
here direct the poor in the special
duties of their condition; and if they
will but conscionably perform them,
it will prove a greater kindness to
them than if I could deliver them
from their poverty and give them as
much riches as they desire. Tough
I doubt this would be more pleasing
to most of them, and they would give
me more thanks for money than for
teaching them how to live without it.
1. First understand the use and
place of all earthly things. Material
possessions were never made to be
the ultimate source of your joy and
happiness but your provision and
27 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
help in the way to heaven. Tey are
therefore to be seen as means to the
greatest good, not desired simply for
themselves but only as they are means
to the greatest good. Tat condition
is to be desired and rejoiced in which
aords us the greatest help toward
heaven, and that condition only is to
be lamented and disliked which hin-
ders us most from heaven and from
our duty.
2. See that you take all these
things as matters that are indif-
ferent in themselves and of little
concern to you, and not worthy of
much love, care, or sorrow if you
lack them, further than they may
contribute to greater things.
We are all like runners in a race,
and heaven or hell shall be our goal.
Terefore, woe to us if by looking
aside, turning back, stopping, or
triing about these matters, or bur-
dening ourselves with worldly trash,
we should lose the race and lose our
souls. O what greater matters than
poverty or riches have we to mind!
2 Corinthians 4:18, We do not
look at the things which are
seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporary,
but the things which are not
seen are eternal.
Shall we whine under those
light aictions which may be
so improved as to work for us
a far more exceeding and eter-
nal weight of glory?
2 Cor. 4:17. Our present life
is not in the abundance of the
things we possess, Luke 12:15;
much less is our eternal life
in the abundance of things we
possess.
3. Do not judge Gods love or your
own happiness or misery by your
riches or poverty. Know that pros-
perity or adversity comes alike to all,
and they do not necessarily reveal
Gods love or hatred toward you. You
do not consider a surgeon an enemy
because he bleeds a patient, nor a
physician because he purges the pa-
tient, nor a father because he corrects
his child. How much less is God to
be judged your enemy or unmerciful,
because His wisdom, and not your
folly, disposes your life and propor-
tions out your estates. A carnal mind
will judge its happiness and the love
of God by carnal things because it sa-
vors not spiritual mercies; but grace
gives a Christian a dierent judg-
ment, enjoyment, and desire; just as
nature sets a man above the food and
pleasure of a beast.
4. Confdently and continu-
ally believe that God is wiser than
you are to dispense of your es-
tate and yourself (see 1 Sam. 3:18;
Acts 21:14). He is innitely wise
and knows what is best and most t
for you; he knows beforehand what
good or hurt any state of plenty or
want will do you; he knows all your
corruptions, and what condition will
most conduce to strengthen them or
destroy them, and which will be your
greatest temptations and snares, and
which will prove your safest state,
much better than any doctor or par-
ent knows the best diet for his patient
or child. It is the Lord; let him do
what seems him good, 1 Sam. 3:18.
Te will of God should be the rest and
satisfaction of our wills, Acts 21:14.
5. Steadfastly believe that
riches are ordinarily far more dan-
gerous to our soul than poverty and
Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
28
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
a greater hindrance to our salvation.
Believe experience: how few of the rich
and rulers of the earth are holy, heav-
enly, self-denying, mortied men.
Believe our Savior, Luke 18:24, 25,
27, And when Jesus saw that he became
very sorrowful, He said, How hard it is
for those who have riches to enter the
kingdom of God! For it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the king-
dom of God. But He said, Te things
which are impossible with men are pos-
sible with God.
1 Corinthians 1:26, For you see
your calling, brethren, that not
many wise according to the esh,
not many mighty, not many no-
ble, are called.
6. Even though no man must pray ab-
solutely either for riches or poverty,
yet, of the two, poverty usually has
fewer dangers to our souls. It is more
sensible to pray against riches than for
them and to be rather troubled when
God makes us rich rather than when he
makes us poor. No wise man will long
for anything that hinders his salvation,
or pray to God to make it as hard a
thing for him to be saved as for a camel
to go through a needles eye when salva-
tion is of such unspeakable importance
and our strength is so small and our dif-
culties so many and great already.
(Editor: We should not disparage or
deny the promises, blessings, and oppor-
tunities which riches and wealth bring
to us. As we know, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob were wealthy men, Gen. 13:2, 6,
26:12-14, 28:13-15, 32:10. Solomon and
Job also enjoyed great material wealth, I
Kings 3:13, Job 1:3, 42:10. It was wealthy
Christians in the NT who supported the
ministry of Christ and the poor of the
church: Luke 8:3, Acts 2, 5, 2 Cor. 8:14, 1
Tim. 6:18. Paul, while content, knew how
to be abased, but he did not deliberately
seek to be so, however, Phil 4:12. Jesus did
not teach that poverty is a sign of spiri-
tuality; Although many of the poor will
be more blessed than the rich (cf. Luke
6:17-26), the cause of their blessedness
is their faith in the gospel, not their pov-
erty, Your Wealth in Gods World, John
Jeerson Davis, pg. 19.)
Objection: How can we be thank-
ful to God for giving us riches or bless-
ing our labors then? Answer: (1). You
must be thankful for them, because in
their own nature they are good and it is
only by your corruption that they become
dangerous. (2). Because you may do good
with them to others if you have the heart
to use them well. (3). Because God in giv-
ing them to you rather than to others may
signify that you are more competent to
use them than others. It is a kindness to
foolish children to keep re, swords, and
knives out of their way. However, all these
tools are useful to people that have the
skill to use them properly.
7. See that your poverty is not
the fruit of your idleness, gluttony,
drunkenness, pride, or any other
fesh-pleasing sin. If you bring pov-
erty upon yourself you cannot con-
sider that it will be sanctifed to your
good until genuine repentance has
turned you from the sin; nor are you
the worthy object of much pity from
man for your poverty which you have
produced.
[1]. Slothfulness and idleness are
sins that naturally tend to lack, and
God has caused them to be punished
with poverty:
29 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
Proverbs 12:24, Te hand of the
diligent will rule, but the lazy
man will be put to forced labor.
Proverbs 12:27, Te lazy man
does not roast what he took in
hunting, but diligence is mans
precious possession.
Proverbs 18:9, He who is sloth-
ful in his work is a brother to him
who is a great destroyer.
Proverbs 21:25, Te desire of the
lazy man kills him, for his hands
refuse to labor.
Proverbs 24:34, So shall your
poverty come like a prowler, and
your need like an armed man.
Proverbs 26:14, As a door turns
on its hinges, so does the lazy
man on his bed.
Proverbs 6:11, So shall your
poverty come on you like a
prowler, and your need like an
armed man.
Proverbs 6:1, My son, if you be-
come surety for your friend, If
you have shaken hands in pledge
for a stranger,
Proverbs 20:13, Do not love
sleep, lest you come to poverty;
Open your eyes, and you will be
satised with bread.
2 Tessalonians 3:10, For even
when we were with you, we com-
manded you this: If anyone will
not work, neither shall he eat.
Genesis 3:19, In the sweat of
your face you shall eat bread Till
you return to the ground, For out
of it you were taken; For dust
you are, And to dust you shall
return.
If you please your fesh with
ease, it must be displeased with
lack; and you must sufer what
you choose.
[2]. Gluttony and drunkenness
are such beastly devourers of
mercy and abusers of mankind
that shame and poverty are their
punishment and curse.
Proverbs 23:20-21, Do not mix
with winebibbers, Or with glut-
tonous eaters of meat; for the
drunkard and the glutton will
come to poverty, and drowsiness
will clothe a man with rags.
[3]. Pride also is a most consuming,
wasteful sin: it sacrices Gods mercies
to the devil in serving him by them in
what was his rst sin. Proud persons
must lay out their pride in pomp and
gaudiness in order to set forth them-
selves to the eyes of others in buildings
and entertainments, and ne clothes
and curiosities; poverty is also both the
proper punishment and cure of this sin;
and it is cruel for any to save them from
it and thus resist God who by humbling
them is taking the way to do them good.
Proverbs 11:2, When pride
comes, then comes shame; but
with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 29:23, A mans pride
will bring him low, but the hum-
ble in spirit will retain honor.
Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes be-
fore destruction, and a haughty
spirit before a fall.
[4]. Falsehood, deceit, and un-
just getting tend to poverty too,
for God often even in the present
life enters into judgment with
the unjust.
Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
30
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
Ill-gotten wealth is like a fre on
the roof and often brings a curse
and destruction on all the rest of
the house.
Te same may be said of unmer-
cifulness to the poor which is
often cursed with poverty itself
when the generous are blessed
with plenty.
Proverbs 11:24, Tere is one
who scatters, yet increases more;
and there is one who withholds
more than is right, But it leads
to poverty.
Proverbs 11:25, Te generous
soul will be made rich, and he
who waters will also be watered
himself.
Isaiah 32:8, But a generous man
devises generous things, and by
generosity he shall stand.
8. Be aware of the special temptations
of the poor in order that you may be
prepared to resist them. Every condi-
tion has its own temptations.
[1]. One temptation of poverty is to
cause you to think too much about and
too highly of riches.
[2]. You will be tempted to care too
much about your wants and worldly
needs and excuse yourself from other
required duties. Take care to discharge
your duties; if you will take care of what
you should be and do, God will care
suciently for what you shall have. Do
your business faithfully; your undue
care will add nothing to your success
and make you any richer, but only vex
and disquiet your mind.
It is the poor as well as the rich
that God has commanded to be anx-
ious for nothing, and to cast all their
care on Him, Phil. 4:6-7.
[3]. Poverty will also tempt you to
complain and be impatient, discontent,
and argumentative.
[4]. It may also tempt you to covet
after more. Satan makes poverty a snare
to draw many needy creatures to great-
er covetousness than many of the rich
are guilty of. None thirst more eagerly
after more, and yet their poverty blinds
them so that they cannot see that they
are covetous or else they excuse it as
justied.
[5] You will be tempted to envy the
rich, therefore criticizing them in mat-
ters in which you are not competent to
judge. It is usual for the poor to speak
of the rich with envy and censorious-
ness; they call them covetous, merely
because they are rich, especially if they
give them nothing when they know not
what ways of necessary expenses they
have, nor know how many others they
are liberal to. Till you see their ac-
counts you are unft to censure them.
[6]. You will sometimes be tempted
to use unlawful means to supply your
needs. How many by the temptation of
necessity have been tempted to com-
ply with sinners and wound their con-
sciences, and lie and atter for favor or
preferment, or to cheat, or steal or over-
reach? A dear price!
[7]. You will sometimes be tempted
to neglect your own souls and your
spiritual duties, as Martha did, and be
troubled about many things while the
most important thing is forgotten. You
will think that necessity will excuse
all this; yea, some will think they will
be saved because they are poor, and
say God will not punish them in this
31 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
life and another too. But, alas, you
are more inexcusable than the rich if
you are ungodly and unmindful of the
life to come. It is true that you are not
called to spend so many hours of the
week days in reading and meditation as
some that have greater leisure are, but
you have as much reason to seek heaven
and set your hearts upon it as much as
they do. Poverty will excuse ungodli-
ness in no one. God will save no man
because he is poor but He will condemn
poor and rich who are ungodly.
[8]. Another great temptation of
the poor is to neglect the holy educa-
tion of their children so that in most
places there are none as ignorant, rude,
heathenish, and unwilling to learn, as
the poorest people and their children;
they never teach them to read, nor teach
them anything for the saving of their
souls; and they think that their poverty
will be an excuse for it, when reason
tells them that none should be more
careful to help their children to heaven
than they that can give them nothing
upon earth.
[9]. Be acquainted with the spe-
cial duties of the poor, and carefully
perform them.
[1]. Let your suerings teach you to
despise the world and it will be a happy
poverty to you if it but help to wean
your aections from all things below,
that you set as little by the world as it
deserves.
[2]. Be immanently heavenly-mind-
ed. You are at least as capable of the heav-
enly treasures as the greatest princes.
Matthew 6:33, But seek rst the king-
dom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you.
Matthew 6:19-21, Do not lay
up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where
thieves break in and steal; but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.
[3]. Learn to live upon God alone;
study His goodness and faithfulness,
and all-suciency. If your poverty has
this eect on you, it will be better for
you than all the riches in the world.
[4]. Be diligent and hard working in
your calling. Both precept and necessity
call you unto this, and if you cheerfully
serve him in the labor of your hands
with a heavenly and obedient mind, it
will be as acceptable to him than if you
had spent all that time in more spiritual
exercises for he had rather have obedi-
ence than sacrices.
[5]. Be humble and submissive to
all. A proud poor man is doubly hate-
ful and if poverty cure your pride and
help you to be truly humble, it will be
no small mercy to you.
[6]. You are especially obligated to
mortify the esh and keep your senses
and appetites in subjection because
you have greater helps for it than the
rich; you dont have as many baits of
lust, wantonness, gluttony and sensual
gratication as they do.
[7]. Your temporal needs must
make you more sensitive to your spiri-
tual needs and teach you to value spiri-
tual blessings. Tink to yourself, if a
hungry, cold, and naked body is such a
great calamity, how much greater is a
guilty, graceless soul, a dead or diseased
heart? If bodily food and necessities are
Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
32
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
so desirable, O how desirable Christ
and his Spirit and the love of God and
life eternal!
[8]. You must above all men be
careful redeemers of your time; es-
pecially of the Lords day. Your labors
take up so much of your time that you
must be the more careful to catch every
opportunity for your souls. Rise earlier
to get half an hour for holy devotions,
and spend the Lords Day in special dili-
gence, and be glad for such times.
[9]. Be willing to die seeing that the
world gives you so cold entertainment;
be content to let it go when God shall
call you, for what is here to detain your
hearts?
[10]. Above all men you should be
most fearless of suerings from men,
and therefore true to God and con-
science, for you have no great matter of
honor or riches or pleasure to lose just
as when you do not fear a thief when
you have nothing for him to rob you of.
[11]. Be especially careful to pre-
pare your children for heaven; provide
them a portion which is better than a
kingdom here for you can provide but
little for them in this world.
[12]. Be exemplary in your patience
and content with your state, for that
grace should be the strongest in us
which is most exercised, and poverty
calls you to the frequent exercise of this.
10. Consider all the reasons that
you have to be happy and content in
your state and suppress every thought
of anxiety and discontent.
[1]. Te best condition for you is
the one that helps you most to get to
heaven, and God knows best what will
do you good or harm.
[2]. It is rebellion to grudge at the
will of God.
[3]. Look over the life of Christ who
chose a life of poverty for your sakes
and had no place to lay his head.
[4]. Look to all his apostles and
most holy servants and martyrs. Were
not they as great suerers as you?
[5]. Consider that the rich will all
shortly be as poor as you; naked they
came into this world and naked they go
out.
[6]. It is no more comfort to die rich
than poor, but usually much less be-
cause the pleasanter the world is to the
rich the more it grieves them to leave it.
[7]. All men cry out that the world
is vanity at the end. How little is it val-
ued by a dying man and how sadly the
world cast him o.
[8]. Te time is very short and un-
certain in which you must enjoy it; we
have but a few days more to walk about
and we are gone. Alas, of how small
concernment is it whether a man be
rich or poor that is about to step into
another world.
[9]. Te love of this world draw-
ing the heart from God is the common
cause of mens damnation; and is not
the world-liker to be over-loved by the
world when it entertains you with pros-
perity than when it uses you like an en-
emy? Are you displeased that God thus
helps to save you from the most damn-
ing sin and that he does not make your
way to heaven more dangerous?
[10]. You little know the troubles of
the rich. He that has much has much
to do with it and much to care for, and
many persons to deal with, more prob-
lems and anxieties than you imagine.
33 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
[11]. It is but the esh that suers and
that furthers your mortication of it.
[12]. You pray but for your daily
bread and therefore should be content
with it?
[13]. Is not God and Christ and
heaven enough for you? Should that
man be discontent that will live in
heaven?
[14]. Is it not your lust rather than
your well-informed reason that is dis-
content?
I do but name all these reasons for
brevity; you may enlarge upon them in
your own meditations.
A Christian Directory
RICHARD BAXTER
Part II Christian
Economics
Soli Deo Gloria Publications
CHAPTER 28
PP. 517 - 519
Directions for the
Rich
B
axter wrote a great deal about cov-
etousness or worldliness, and about
good works in Part I On Christian
Ethics, as well as in his book on Self-
denial, and also on Crucifying the
World. Terefore, his comments here
are brief.
1. Remember that riches are not
the source of your ultimate happi-
ness. If you have nothing better than
riches, you are a hopeless person. When
the esh is in the dust, it is rich no more.
Since the days of Adam, all wealth is
brought down equal with the lowest
person in the dust at death.
2. Remember that riches can be
a special temptation and danger to
your soul. If they are loved above God
and make earth seem better for you
than heaven, they have undone you.
It is not for nothing that Christ gives
so many warnings about riches (Luke
12:17-20; 16:19-21; 18:21-23).
Fire burns most when it has the
most fuel, and riches are the
fuel of worldly love and eshly
lust (1 John 2:15-16; Romans
13:13-14).
3. Understand what it is to love and
trust in worldly prosperity and
wealth. Many deceive themselves here
to their destruction. Tey persuade
themselves that they desire and use
their riches only for necessity and that
they do not love them or trust in them
because they can say that heaven is bet-
ter and wealth will leave them at the
grave. To trust in riches is not to trust
that they will never leave you, for every
fool knows that. To trust in riches is to
rest and comfort your minds in them as
that which most pleases you. Like him
that said in Luke 12:18-19, Soul take
thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry, thou
hast enough laid up for many years this
is to love and trust in riches.
4. Take heed of a secret and hypo-
critical hope of reconciling the world
to heaven, dreaming of serving God
and mammon. Te true state of the
hypocrites heart and hope is to love his
worldly prosperity best and desire to
keep it as long as he can, for the enjoy-
ment of his eshly pleasures; and when
he must leave this world against his
will, he hopes then to have heaven as
Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
34
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
his reserve because he thinks it is better
than hell, and with his mouth he can say
that heaven is better than earth, though
his will and aections say the opposite.
Beware of trying to love God and love
worldly possessions at the same time.
You cannot and must not.
5. Take heed that when you seem
to resign yourself and everything you
have to God that you think you will
never have any difculties or loses
in the world. A knowing hypocrite is
not ignorant that the terms of Christ
proposed in the gospel, Luke 14:26,
27, 33, are no less than forsaking all;
and that in baptism and our covenant
with Christ, all must be designed and
devoted to him and the cross taken up
instead of all, or else we are not Chris-
tians and not in covenant with Christ.
But the hypocrites hope is that Christ
will never test him as to his profession
by putting these upon him, or ever call
him to forsake all, and therefore, if he
is ever put to such trial he will not per-
form the promise he made.
He is like a patient that promises
to abide by whatever his doctor pre-
scribes, hoping that he will not ask
him to do or take something he can-
not bear. But when the bitter pill is
prescribed he says I cannot take it;
I hoped you would have given me a
sweeter medicine.
6. Take heed that while you pre-
tend to live for God and to use all that
you have as his steward for his service
that you only give him only as much
as your fesh can spare. It is not likely
that the damned gentleman in Luke 16
never gave anything to the poor. Tere
are few rich men of all of them that go
to hell that were devoid of any human
compassion or of the sense of their own
reputation that they would not give
anything at all to the poor. But God will
have all, though not all for the poor, yet
all as he commands and He will not be
satised with your tithes or scraps. His
stewards confess that they have noth-
ing of their own.
7. Let the use of your riches in
prosperity show that when you are
tried and tested that you will not
evade or equivocate concerning your
promise to forsake all for Christ. You
may know whether you are true or false
in your covenant with Christ and what
you would do in a day of trial by what
you do in your daily life. How can a man
leave all for Christ under trial that can-
not daily serve him with his riches, nor
leave that little which God requires in
the discharge of his duty in pious and
charitable works? What is it to leave
all for God but to leave all rather than
to sin against God? Study, as faithful
stewards, to serve God to the utmost
with what you have now and then you
may expect that his grace should enable
you to leave everything under trials and
that you will not prove to be a withering
hypocrite and apostate.
8. Do not be rich in feshly wills
and lusts. Remember that the rich,
as well as the poor, are called to be
spiritual and to mortify the fesh. Let
lust never fare better because of all the
riches of your estate. Fast and humble
your souls never the less; please an in-
ordinate appetite never the more with
meat and drink; live never the more in
unprotable idleness. Te rich must la-
bor as constantly as the poor, though not
in the same kind of work. Te rich must
live soberly, temperately, and heavenly,
and must as much mortify all eshly de-
sires as the poor. Gentlemen think that
35 Counsel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2011
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
their riches allow them to live without
any protable labor and to gratify their
esh and dine deliciously every day as if
it were their privilege to be sensual, and
to be damned, Rom. 8:1, 5-9, 13.
9. Remember that you are called
to far greater self-denial and fear
and watchfulness against sensuality
and wealthy vices than the poor are.
Mortication is as necessary to your
salvation as to theirs, but much more
dicult. Is not the rich more easily
drawn to gluttony or excess in quality
and quantity who has a table of plenty
and enticing, delicious food before him,
than he who never sees such a temp-
tation but once in a year and a half?
Doubtless the rich, if ever they will be
saved, must watch more constantly and
set a resolute guard upon the esh, and
live more in fear of sensuality than the
poor as they live in greater temptations
and dangers.
10. Recognize the temptations of
prosperity:
1) Pride is a temptation.
2) Fullness of bread (Ezek. 16): Con-
stant and costly pleasing of the appetite.
3) Idleness is a temptation.
4) Time wasting sports and recre-
ations are another temptation. Tey
think their hours are devoted to the esh
when actually and honestly their whole
lives are devoted to it. Tey think their
wealth allows them to play, and court,
and compliment away that precious
time, which men have no more need to
redeem, and they tell God that he has
given them more time than they need,
and God will shortly cut it o and tell
them that they shall have no more.
5) Lust and wantonness, fullness
and idleness, cherish both the cognition
and inclinations unto lthiness; they
that live in gluttony and drunkenness are
likely to live in wantonness.
6) Curiosity and wasting their lives
in a multitude of little, ceremonious, un-
protable things to the exclusion of the
great business of life. Well may we say
that mens lusts are their jailors and their
chains when we see to what a wretched
kind of life a multitude of the rich con-
demn themselves to. Tey have so many
ne clothes and ornaments to get and
use, and so many rooms to beautify and
adorn, and so many servants to talk with
that attend to them, and so many dishes
and sauces to take care of, and so many
owers to plant, and dress, and walks,
and places of pleasure in mind; and so
many visitors to entertain with whole
hours of unprotable talk, and so many
great persons accordingly to visit; and so
many rules of etiquette to observe, and so
many games to play, and so many hours
to sleep, that the day, the year, their lives
are gone before they could have time to
know what they lived for.
7) Tyranny and oppression: When
men are above others how commonly
do they think that their wills must be
fullled by all men and none must cross
them, and they live as if all others below
them were as their beasts that are made
for them to serve and please them.
11. Let your fruitfulness to God
and the public good be proportionate
to your possessions. Do as much more
good in the world than the poor since
you are better furnished with it than
they are. Let your servants have more
time for the learning of Gods Word,
and let your families be the more re-
ligiously instructed and governed. To
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36
Te Duty of the Rich & Poor
whom God gives much, from them he
expects much.
12. Dont just do good when
some request is made of you, but
study how to do all the good you can
as those that are zealous for good
works (Titus 2:14).
Zeal for good works will make you:
1. Plan for and pursue them. 2. Consult
and ask advice for them. 3. Glad when
you meet with a hopeful opportunity
to do good. 4. Do it generously and not
sparingly. 5. Make you do it speedily,
without unwilling backwardness and
delay. 6. Do it constantly to your lifes
end. 7. You pinch your own esh and
suer somewhat yourselves to do good
to others. 8. Labor in it as your very job.
9. Glad when good is done and not to
begrudge what it cost you. 10. In a word,
it will make your neighbors to be to you
as yourselves, and the pleasing of God
to be above yourselves, and therefore to
be as glad to do good as to receive it.
13. Do good to both mens souls
and bodies, but always let bodily ben-
efts be granted in order to beneft the
soul.
14. Consider how you will wish
that your estates had been used when
you are at death, and use them that
way now. Why should a man of reason
not do that which he knows beforehand
he shall vehemently wish that he had
done?
15. As you must care in a special
manner about your family and chil-
dren, take heed of the common error
of the world in thinking that your
children must ever have so much and
Gods work have ever so little. When
selsh men can keep their wealth no
longer to themselves, they leave it to
their children and all is cast into this
gulf except some insignifcant parcels.
16. Keep daily account of your
use and improvement of your mas-
ters talents, not that you should too
much remember your own good works,
but remember to do them. Ask yourself,
What good have I done with all I have
this day or week?
17. Do not look for long life for
then you will think that a long jour-
ney needs great provisions; but die
daily and live as those that are going to
give an account, then your conscience
will force you to ask whether you have
been faithful stewards, and lay up trea-
sure in heaven, and make friends of the
mammon that others use in unrigh-
teousness, and lay up a good foundation
for the time to come, and be glad that
God has given you that opportunity, the
improvement of which may further the
good of others and your salvation.
Living and dying, let it be your care
and business to do good.
richard baxter