Richard Baxter

“ Think what it is, to have a purified, cleansed soul; to be free from the slavery of the flesh and its concupiscence; to have the sensitive appetite in subjection unto reason, and reason illuminated and rectified by faith; to be alive to God, and disposed and enabled to love and serve him; to have access to him in prayer, with boldness and assurance to be heard; to have a sealed pardon of all our sins, and an interest in Christ, who will answer for them all and justify us; to be the children of God, and the heirs of heaven; to have peace of conscience, and the joyful hopes of endless joys ”

“ Unworthy soul! canst thou love a drop of goodness in thy friend; and canst thou not love the ocean of goodness in thy God? Is a spark in the creature more amiable than the fire that kindled it? Thou canst love thy friend for all his blemishes, his ignorance, his passions, and manifold imperfections: and canst thou not love thy God, who hath none of these, nor any thing to discourage or damp thy love? Thou lovest, and deservedly lovest thy friend, because he loveth thee, and deals friendly with thee: but oh how much greater is the love of God! Did ever friend love thee as he hath loved thee? ”

“ Doth it not leave them all in sorrow at last? Woe to the man that hath his portion in this life! O miserable health, and wealth, and honour, which procureth the death, and shame, and utter destruction of the soul! Was not he in as prosperous a case as you, Luke xvi. that quickly cried out in vain for a drop of water to cool his tongue? There is none of you so senseless as not to know that you must die. And must you die? must you certainly die? and shall that day be no better prepared for? Shall present prosperity make you forget it, and live as if you must live here for ever? ”

“ To think what hearts the blessed have that see his glory, and live with Christ! how full of love they are! and what a delight it is to them thus to love! must needs affect the heart of a believer.—Lift up thy head, poor drowsy sinner! look up to heaven, and think where thou must live for ever! Think what the holy ones of God are doing! Do they love God, or do they not? Must it not then be thy life and work for ever? And canst thou forbear to love him now, that is bringing thee to such a world of love? ”

“ Is it so great a madness to serve an idol of silver, or gold, or stone, or wood? what better is it to serve an idol of flesh and blood; a paunch of guts; that is full of filth and excrements within, and the skin itself, the cleanest part, is ashamed to be uncovered? We may say to the carnal worldling, as Elijah to the Baalists, and more; "Call upon your God in the hour of your distress: cry aloud; perhaps he is asleep, or he is blowing his nose, or vomiting, or purging: certainly he will be shortly rotting in the grave, more loathsome than the dirt or dung upon the earth." ”

“ I have now plainly showed you, and fully proved, from the word of God, by what infallible signs an ungodly man may know that he is ungodly, if he will. May you not know whether it be thus with you, if you are willing to know? May you not know, if you will, whether your desire and design of life be more for this world or that to come? and whether heaven or earth be preferred and sought first? and whether your fleshly prosperity and pleasure, or your souls, be principally cared for and regarded? May you not know, if you will, whether you love or loathe the serious worshippers of God? ”

“ Open the eye of faith and reason, and behold thy God! Do not forget him, or unbelievingly deny him, and then say, He is not here. Do not say, that the sun doth not shine, because thou winkest. O do not quench thy love to God, by feigning him to be out of reach, and taken up with other converse! Turn not to inferior delights, by thinking that he hath turned thee off to these: and love him not as an absent friend; but as the friend that is always in thy sight, in thy bosom, and in thy heart; the fuel that is nearest to the flames of love. ”

“ Then you will find that hell is no jesting matter. If you mock yourselves out of your salvation, where are you then? If you play with time, and means, and mercy till they are gone, you are undone for ever. O dally not till you are past remedy. Alas, poor dreaming trifling hypocrites! Is time so sweet, and life so short, and death so sure and near, and God so holy, just, and terrible, and heaven so glorious, and hell so hot, and both everlasting, and yet will you not be in earnest about your work? Up and be doing, as you are men! and as ever you care what becomes of you for ever! ”

“ Would it not be strange that a man should be penitent and godly, that never once thought of the matter with any seriousness in his life? Can so many and great diseases of soul be cured, before you have once soberly considered that you have them, and how great and dangerous they are, and by what remedies they must be cured? Can grace be obtained and exercised, while you never so much as think of it? Can the main business of our lives be done without any serious thoughts; when we think it fit to bestow so many upon the trivial matters of this world? ”

“ O how glorious is the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God, in all the frame of nature! Every creature silently speaks his praise, declaring him to man, whose office is, as the world's high priest, to stand between them and the great Creator, and expressly offer him the praise of all. Psal. viii. 3-6, 9, "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. ”

“ And when thou art in sickness, thou wilt be burdensome to others. It is likely thou must have their helps, even to feed thee, to dress thee, to turn thee, and keep thee clean; and when all is done, thou must die, and be laid in darkness in a grave! There must thou lie rotting night and day, till thy flesh be turned into earth. The grass doth wither when it is cut down, but yet it is sweet; the tree that is cut down will rot in time, but not with such a loathsome stink as we. ”

“ A believing view of the nature, undertaking, love, obedience, doctrine, example, sufferings, intercession, and kingdom of Jesus Christ, must needs inflame the believer's heart with an answerable degree of the love of God. To look on a Christ and not to love God, is to have eyes and not to see, and to overlook him while we seem to look on him. He is the liveliest image of Infinite Goodness, and the messenger of the most unsearchable, astonishing love, and the purchaser of the most invaluable benefits that ever were revealed to the sons of men. ”

“ Thy life, thy health, thy love, and joy, are not nearer to thee than thy God: he is now before thee, about thee, within thee, moving thee to good, restraining thee from evil, marking and accepting all that is well, disliking and opposing all that is ill. The light of the sun doth not more certainly fill the room, and compass thee about, than God doth with his goodness. He is as much at leisure to observe thee, to converse with thee, to hear and help thee, as if thou wert his only creature: as the sun can as well illuminate every bird and fly, as if it shined unto no other creature. ”

“ Thy heart may say, I am undone, I can find no comfort in any friend, no evidence of grace within me, no comfort in God, in Christ, or in the promises, no comfort in my life, which is but a burden to me; I cannot pray, I cannot believe, I cannot answer the objections of Satan, I can strive no longer against my fears, I cannot bear my wounded conscience. All this is the failing of the heart; but proveth not any failing of God, whose grace is sufficient for thee, and his strength is manifested perfect in thy weakness. The heart hath a thousand sayings and conceits, which God is utterly against. ”

“ Must God stay till thy cards, and dice, and pride, and worldly, unnecessary cares will dismiss thee, and spare thee for his service? Must he wait on the devil, the world, and the flesh, to take their leavings, and stay till they have done with thee? Canst thou marvel if he make thee pay for this? if he turn away, and leave thee to spend thy time in as much vanity and idleness as thou desirest? Must God and all his creatures wait on a careless sinner, while he is at his fleshly pleasures? Must life and time be continued to him, while he is doing nothing that is worthy of his life and time? ”

“ Can we feel how coldly and unbelievingly we pray, how ignorantly or carnally we discourse, how confusedly and vainly we think, and how slothfully we work, and how unprofitably we live, and yet be proud, and not be covered with shame? Oh! for a serious christian to feel how little of God, of Christ, of heaven is upon his heart, and how little appeareth in any eminent holiness, and fruitfulness, and heavenliness of life, is so humbling a consideration, that we have much ado to own ourselves, and not lie down as utterly desolate. ”

“ They forsake Christ, and heaven, and their salvation for it. They forsake all the solid comforts of this life, and all the joys of the life to come for it. They sell all that they have, and lay down the price at its feet; yea, more than all they have, even all their hopes of what they might have to all eternity. They suffer a martyrdom in the flames of hell for ever, for their flesh. All the pains they take is for it. All the wrong they do to others, and all the stirs and ruins they make in the world, is for it. ”

“ The blessed angels and saints in heaven, will find enough in God alone to employ their minds to all eternity. Oh horrid darkness and atheism that yet remaineth on our hearts! that we should want matter for our thoughts, to keep them from feeding upon air or filth! or want matter for our delight, to keep our minds from begging it at the creature's door, or hungering for the husks that feed the swine! when we have the infinite God, omnipotent, omniscient, most good and bountiful, our life, and hope, and happiness, to think on with delight. ”

“ And is he not sufficient for thee, that is sufficient for all the world? Who ever sped ill that trusted in him? or who hath prospered by trusting in themselves or any other, without him, or against him? Unworthy soul! wilt thou atheistically deny the sufficiency, or truth, or goodness of thy God? Shall thy distrust deny him, or blaspheme him? Wilt thou idolatrously set up a worm above him? Is there more in man, or any thing else, to hurt or ruin thee, than in God to save thee? Whom wilt thou trust, if thou trust not God? Darest thou think that any other is fitter for thy confidence? ”

“ Remember whither all his mercies tend, and where they will leave thee, even in the bosom of Eternal love. Think with thyself, how good is this with the love of God! this and heaven are full enough for me. Coarse fare, and coarse clothing, and coarse usage in the world, and hard labour, and a poor habitation, with heaven after all, is mercy beyond all human estimation or conceiving. Nothing can be little, which is a token of the love of God, and leadeth to eternal glory. The relation to heaven is the life and glory of every mercy. ”

“ Pride is so natural and deep-rooted a sin, that I dare say thou hast not overcome it, if thou have not overcome thy sensuality. And is thy credit no more worth with thee? wilt thou for a cup of drink be made the talk of the country, the scorn of the town, the sport and laughing-game of boys, and the pity of sober persons? If thou be a great man among them, and they dare not speak it to thy face, and thou hearest not what they say of thee, yet in private they make bold with thy name, to talk of thee as of a filthy beast. Canst thou think that sober men do honour thee? ”

“ I dare appeal to that man that is most sensual, and saith, I am not able to deny my appetite, or rule my senses, whether he would not be able if he did but see at the same time what is done in the other world? If he saw heaven, and hell, the glorified and the damned, and saw the majesty of that God who commandeth him to forbear, would he not then be able to let alone the cup, the dish, the harlot, the sport, which is now so powerful with him? ”

“ O be not unthankful for the little which thou hast received, when God might have shut thee out in that darkness which the greatest part of the world lieth in, and have left thee to thyself, to have desired no higher knowledge, than such as may feed thy fancy, and pride, and lust. Art thou so far drowned in flesh and sense, as to take intellectual apprehensions for dreams, unless thy sense may see and feel? Wilt thou take thy soul, thyself for nothing, because thou art not to be seen or felt? Shall no subjects honour and obey their king, but they that have seen his court and him? ”

“ Judas brought back his money, and hanged himself, when conscience was but once awakened. Money will not enlighten a blinded mind, nor soften a hard heart, nor humble a proud heart, nor justify a guilty soul. It will not keep off a fever or consumption, nor ease the gout, or stone, or tooth-ache. It will not keep off ghastly death, but die thou must, if thou have all the world! Look up to God, and remember that thou art wholly in his hands; and think whether he will love or favour thee for thy wealth. ”

“ It is but to drive my foolish heart unto himself, that I may have the solid delights and happiness of his love. O then let his blessed will be done! Come home, my soul, my wandering, tired, grieved soul! Love, where thy love shall not be lost: love Him that will not reject thee, nor deceive thee; nor requite thee as the world doth, with injuries and abuse: despair not of entertainment, though the world deny it thee. The peaceable region is above. In the world thou must have trouble, that in Christ thou mayst have peace. ”

“ How small a time will leave thee in eternity! What a small and hasty moment will bring thee to the state in which thou must remain for ever! Every night is as the death or end of one of the few that are here alloted thee. How little a while is it till thy mortal sickness!—till thou must lie under languishing decays and pain!—till thy vital powers shall give up their office, and thy pulse shall cease, and thy soul shall take its silent, undiscerned flight, and leave thy body to be hid in darkness, and carried by thy friends to the common earth! ”

“ How many thousands in hell are wishing now in vain, that they had those hours again to spend in prayer and repentance which they spent in the alehouse, and senselessly cast away with their companions in sin! Is the glass turned upon thee, and death posting towards thee, to put an end to all thy time, and lay thee where thou must dwell for ever; and yet canst thou sit tippling and prating away thy time, as if this were all that thou hadst to do with it? Oh what a wonder of sottishness and stupidity is a hardened sinner, that can live so much below his reason! ”