Richard Baxter

“ Art thou not ready to be saved from hell, when thou art even ready to be cast remedilessly into it? Alas, man! dost thou know what thou dost? If thou die unconverted there is no doubt to be made of your damnation, and thou art not sure to live an hour: and yet are thou not ready to turn and to come in? O miserable wretch! Hast thou not served the flesh and the devil long enough? Yet hast thou not enough of sin? Is it so good to thee; or so profitable for thee?—Dost thou know what it is, that thou wouldest yet have more of it? ”

“ Our telling you of your misery is not it that makes you miserable, but drives you out to seek for mercy. It is you that have brought this death upon yourselves. We tell you also of another death; even remediless and much greater torment, that will fall on those that will not be converted. But, as this is true, and must be told you, so it is but the last and saddest part of our message. We are first to offer you mercy if you will turn; and it is only those that will not turn, nor hear the voice of mercy, to whom we must foretel damnation to. ”

“ Yea, heaven itself is ready; the Lord will receive thee into the glory of his saints, a vile brute as thou hast been: if thou wilt but be but cleansed, thou mayst have a place before his throne; his angels will be ready to guard thy soul to the place of joy, if thou do but unfeignedly come in. And is God ready, the sacrifice of Christ ready, the promise ready, and pardon ready?—Are ministers ready, and the people of God ready, and heaven itself ready, and angels ready, and all these but waiting for your conversion, and yet art thou not ready? ”

“ Will you but cast away your transgressions, delay no longer, but come away at the call of Christ, and be converted, and become new creatures, and we have not a word of damning wrath or death to speak against you.—I do here in the name of the Lord of life, proclaim to you, all that hear me this day, to the greatest, the oldest sinner, that you may have mercy and salvation, if you will but turn. There is mercy in God, there is sufficiency in the satisfaction of Christ, the promise is free, and full, and universal; you may have life, if you will but turn. ”

“ How easily can he lay thee upon the bed of languishing, and make thee lie roaring there in pain, and make thee eat the words of reproach which thou hast spoken against his servants, his word, his worship, and his holy ways, and make thee send to beg their prayers whom thou didst despise in your presumption! How easily can he lay thy flesh under gripes and groans, and make it too weak to hold thy soul, and make it more loathsome than the dung of the earth! That flesh which now must have what it loves, and must not be displeased though God be displeased ”

“ It is a fearful sign if all this move thee not, or if it do but half move thee; and much more if it make thee more careless in your misery, because thou hearest of the mercifulness of God. The working of the medicine will partly tell us whether there be any hope of the cure. O what glad tidings would it be to those, that are now in hell, if they had but such a message from God! What a joyful word would it be to hear this, Turn and live.—Yea, what a welcome word would it be to thyself, when thou hast felt that wrath of God but an hour! ”

“ It is not to serve the flesh and the world, in a more reformed way, without any scandalous disgraceful sins, and with a certain kind of religiousness; but it is to change your master, and your works, and end, and to set your face the contrary way, and do all for the life that you never saw, and dedicate yourselves and all you have to God. This is the change that must be made, if you will live.
Yourselves are witnesses now, that it is salvation, and not damnation, that is the great doctrine I preach to you, and the first part of my message to you. ”

“ Would he have astonished angels and men by his condescension? Would God have dwelt in flesh, and have come in the form of a servant, and have assumed humanity into one person with the Godhead? And would Christ have lived a life of suffering, and died a cursed death for sinners, if he had rather taken pleasure in their death? ”

“ Hear, all ye that are void of the love of God, whose hearts are not toward him, nor taken up with the hopes of glory, but set more by your earthly prosperity and delights than by the joys of heaven; all you that are religious but a little by the by, and give God no more than your flesh can spare ”

“ But God hath yet done none of this, but hath patiently forborne thee, and mercifully upheld thee, and given thee that breath which thou didst breathe out against him, and given those mercies which thou did sacrifice to thy flesh, and afforded thee that provision, which thou spentest to satisfy thy greedy throat; he gave thee every minute of that time which thou didst waste in idleness, or drunkenness, or worldliness: and doth not all his patience and mercy shew that he desired not thy damnation? Can the candle burn without the oil? Can your houses stand without the earth to bear them? ”

“ If our lives lay on it, we cannot persuade you to it: We study day and night what to say to you, that may convince you and persuade you, and yet it is undone: We lay before you the word of God, and shew you the very chapter and verse where it is written, that you cannot be saved except you be converted, and yet we leave the most of you as we find you:—We hope you will believe the word of God, though you believe not us, and that you will regard it when we shew you the plain scripture for it: but we hope in vain, and labour in vain, as to any saving change upon your hearts. ”

“ It is not to mend the old house, but to pull down all, and build anew on Christ, the rock and sure foundation. It is not to mend somewhat in a carnal course of life, but to mortify the flesh, and live after the spirit. ”

“ It loves the strong drink and sweet morsels; it loves its ease, and sport, and merriment: it loves to be rich, and well spoken of by men, and to be somebody in the world: but doth it love the curse of God? Doth it love to stand trembling before his bar, and to be judged to everlasting fire? Doth it love to be tormented with the devils for ever?—Take all together: for there is no separating sin and hell, but only by faith and true conversion; if you will keep one you must have the other. If death and hell be pleasant to you, no wonder then if you go on in sin ”

“ Well, the Lord here sweareth that he hath no pleasure in your death, but rather that you would turn and live; if yet you will go on and die rather than turn; remember it was not to please God that you did it; it was to please the world, and to please yourselves. And, if men will damn themselves to please themselves, and run into endless torments for delight, and have not the wit, the heart, the grace, to hearken to God or man, that would reclaim them, what remedy? They must take what they get by it, and repent it in another manner, when it is too late! ”

“ To see how near you are to hell, and we cannot make you believe it, and consider it! To see how easily, how certainly you might escape, if we knew but how to make you willing! How fair you are for everlasting salvation, if you would but turn and do your best, and make it the care and business of your lives! ”

“ If we do not obey them, and humour them in baptising the children of the most obstinately wicked, and giving them the Lord’s Supper, and doing all that they would have us, though never so much against the word of God, they will hate us, and rail at us; but if we beseech them but to confess and forsake their sins, and save their souls, they will not do it.—We tell them, if they will but turn, we will deny them none of the ordinances of God, neither baptism to the children, nor the Lord’s Supper to themselves ”

“ As well can you live one hour without the support of God. And why did he so long support thy life, but to see when thou wouldest bethink thee of the folly of thy ways, and return and live. Will any man purposely put arms into his enemy’s hands to resist him; or hold a candle to a murderer that is killing his children, or to an idle servant that plays or sleeps the while? Surely it is to see whether you will at last return and live, that God hath so long waited on thee.
5. It is farther proved, by the suffering of his Son, that God taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked. ”

“ The holy scripture calleth upon thee to turn; the ministers of Christ call upon thee to turn; the Spirit cries turn; thy conscience cries turn; the godly, by persuasions and example cry turn; the whole world, and all the creatures therein, that are presented to thy consideration, cry turn; the present forbearance of God, cries turn; all the mercies which thou receivest cry turn; the rod of God’s chastisement cries turn; thy reason, and the frame of thy nature bespeaks thy turning; and so do all your promises to God; and yet hast thou not resolved to turn? ”

“ It is the voice of every mercy thou dost possess. If thou couldst but hear and understand them, they all cry out unto thee, turn. Why doth the earth bear thee, but to seek and serve the Lord? Why doth it afford thee its fruits, but to serve him? Why doth the air afford you breath, but to serve him? Why do all the creatures serve thee with their labours and their lives, but that thou mightst serve the Lord of them and thee? Why doth he give thee time, and health, and strength, but for to serve him? Why hast thou meat, and drink, and clothes, but for his service? ”

“ The Lord here professeth that this is what he takes pleasure in, that the wicked turn and live. Heaven is made as sure to the converted, as hell is to the unconverted. Turn and live is as certain a truth as turn or die. God was not bound to provide us a Saviour, nor open to us a door of hope, nor call us to repent and turn when once we had cast ourselves away by sin, but he hath freely done it to magnify his mercy. ”

“ In a word, you see then the meaning of the text, that God, the great law giver of the world, doth take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn and live; though yet he be resolved that none shall live but those that turn, and, as a judge, even delighteth in justice, and in manifesting his hatred of sin, though not in the misery, which they have brought upon themselves, in itself considered. ”

“ Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin and death? Not any that bear the image of God, for they must be like minded to him. God knows it is small pleasure to your faithful teachers to see you serve your deadly enemy, and madly venture your eternal state, and wilfully run into the flames of hell. ”

“ The devil indeed takes pleasure in your sin and death; for this is the very end of all his temptations. For this, he watches night and day: you cannot devise to please him better than to go on in sin: how glad is he when he sees thee going to the alehouse, or other sin and when he heareth you curse, or swear, or rail? How glad is he when he heareth thee revile the minister that would draw thee from thy sin, and help to save thee? ”

“ It is in the glass of the word and creatures that in this life we must know God; and so, according to the nature of man, we ascribe to him understanding and will, removing all the imperfections that we can, because we are capable of no higher positive conceptions of him. ”

“ The angels of heaven obey his will, when he sends them to minister to such silly worms as we on earth, Heb. i. 14.—And yet, if he command but a sinner to turn, he will not obey him; he only thinks himself wiser than God, and he cavils and pleads the cause of sin, and will not obey. If the Lord Almighty say the word, the heavens and all therein obey him; but if he call but a drunkard out of an alehouse, he will not obey; or if he call a worldly fleshly sinner to deny himself; and mortify the flesh, and set his heart on a better inheritance, he will not obey him. ”

“ For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife: wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, “we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before us, which we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.” ”

“ If thou hadst any spiritual life and sense in thee, at least thou wouldst say, “This call is the dreadful voice of God, and who dares disobey?”—For says the prophet, Amos iii. 8. “The lion hath roared, who will not fear?” God is not a man, that thou shouldst dally and play with him: remember what he saith to Paul at his conversion, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” Acts ix. 5. Wilt thou yet go and despise his word, and resist his Spirit, and stop thine ear against his call? ”

“ Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,” Ephes. v. 14. “The night is spent, the day is at hand; it is now high time to awake out of sleep; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and in drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,” Rom. xiii. 11, 12, 13, 14.—This text was the means of Austin’s conversion. ”