KNOWING GOD

'We shall never be capable of clearly knowing till we are capable of fully enjoying...' 

Richard Baxter in Belden C Lane, Ravished by Beauty, p.105. 

CONTROVERSY OVER SIN

'It is almost incredible how much ground the devil takes when he has once made sin a matter of controversy: some are of one mind, and some of the other; you are of one opinion, and I am of another. If it were ever a controversy whether drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, swearing, stealing, or any villainy were a sin or not, it would be committed more commonly and with much less regret of conscience. By this means, good men themselves are dangerously disabled to resist sin, and are more prepared to commit it. Take heed lest the devil cast you into this sleep of carnal security.'  

Richard Baxter in Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, Openness Unhindered, p.135.

MEDITATION

'Meditation does, as it were, open the door between the head and the heart.'

Richard Baxter in Graham Beynon, Emotions, p.100.

HEAVEN

'The very love of holiness and holy persons, and your desire to know God and perfectly love him, do show that heavenly nature or spirit within you, which is your surest evidence for eternal life. For that spirit was sent from heaven to draw up your hearts and fit you for it; and God does not give you such natures, and desires, and preparations in vain. God would not have given us a heavenly nature or desire, if he had not intended us for heaven.'

Richard Baxter, 'Directions for a Peaceful Departure' in Nancy Guthrie (Ed.), O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, p.101.

HEAVENLY REWARDS

'If there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it? One would think, if a man did once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink, and should care for nothing else, and speak of and enquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure. And yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little mind it, or labour for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.'

Richard Baxter in Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions & Eternity, p.137.

PASTORAL CARE

...we have a knotty generation to deal with...'
Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.231.

MINISTRY

'Duties are to be taken together: the greatest is to be preferred, but none are to be neglected, that can be performed; no one is to be pleaded against another, but each is to know its proper place. But if there were such a case of necessity, that we could not carry on further studies, and instruct the ignorant too, I would throw aside all the libraries in the world, rather than be guilty of the perdition of one soul; or at least, I know that would be my duty.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.215.

MINISTRY TRAINING

'He will be ablest physician, lawyer, and divine too, that addeth practice and experience to his studies: while that man shall prove a useless drone, that refuseth God's service all his life, under pretence of preparing for it, and lets men's souls pass on to perdition while he pretendeth to be studying how to recover them, or to get more ability to help and save them.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.214.

MINISTRY

'The harvest is great, the labourers are few; the loiterers and hinderers are many, the souls of men are precious, the misery of sinners is great, and the everlasting misery to which they are near is greater, the joys of heaven are inconceivable, the comfort of a faithful minister is not small, the joy of extensive success will be a full reward. To be fellow-workers with God and his Spirit is no little honour; to subserve the blood-shedding of Christ for men's salvation is not a light thing. To lead on the armies of Christ through the thickest of the enemy; to guide them safely through a dnagerous wilderness; to steer the vessels through such storms and rocks and sands and shelves, and bring it safe to the harbour of rest, requireth no small skill and diligence. The fields now seem even white to harvest; the preparations that have been made for us are very great; the season of working is more calm than most ages before us have ever seen. We have carelessly loitered too long already; the present time is posting away; while we are trifling, men are dying; oh how fast are they passing into another world! And is there nothing in all of this to awaken us to our duty, nothing to resolve us to speedy and unwearied diligence? Can we think than a man can be too careful and painful under all these motives and engagements?'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.202.

CHURCH DISCIPLINE

'We have a base man-pleasing disposition, which will make us let men perish lest we lose their love, and let them go quietly to hell, lest we make them angry with us for seeking their salvation: and we are ready to venture on the displeasure of God, and risk the everlasting misery of our people, rather than draw on ourselves their ill-will. This distemper must be dilligently resisted.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.192.

MINISTRY

'I am convinced, by sad experience, that it is none of the least impediments to their salvation, and to a true reformation of the Church, that the people understand not what the work of a minister is, and what is their own duty to him. They commonly think, that a minister hath no more to do with them, but to preach to them, and administer the sacraments to them, and visit them in sickness; and that, if they hear him, and receive the sacraments from him, they owe him no further obedience, nor can he require any more from their hands. Little do they know that the minister is in the church, as the schoolmaster in his school, to teach, and take account of every one in particular; and that all Christians, ordinarily, must be disciples or scholars in such a school.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.181.

PASTORAL CARE

'By means of it you will come to be familiar with your people, and may thereby win their affections. The want of this, with those who have very numerous congregations, is a great impediment to the success of our labours. By distance and unacquaintedness, abudance of mistakes between ministers and people are formented; while on the other hand, familiarity will tend to beget those affections which may open their ears to future instruction. Besides, when we are familiar with them, they will be encouraged to open their doubts to us and deal freely with us. But when a minister knows not his people, or is as strange to them as if he did not know them, it must be a great hinderance to his doing any good among them.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.177.

CHRISTIAN UNITY

'It is a great and common sin throughout the Christian world, to take up religion in a way of faction; and instead of a love and tender care of the universal Church, to confine that love and respect to a party. No but that we must prefer, in our estimation and communion, the purer parts before the impure, and refuse to participate with any in their sins; yet the most infirm and diseased part should be compassioned and assisted to the utmost of our power; and communion must be held as far as is lawful, and nowhere avioided, but upon the urgency of necessity...'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.157.

PRIDE

'When we are telling the drunkard that he cannot be saved unless he become temperate, and the fornicator that he cannot be saved unless he become chaste, have we not as great reason, if we are proud, to say to ourselves, that we cannot be saved unless we become humble? Pride, in fact, is a greater sin than drunkenness or whoredom; and humility is as necessary as sobriety and chastity.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.145.

KNOWLEDGE

'Is it not a pity...that our hearts are not so orthodox as our heads?'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.134.

PREACHING

'It is, at best, a sign that a man hath not well digested the matter himself, if he is not able to deliver it plainly to others.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.116.

LEADERSHIP

'The Holy Ghost makes men bishops and overseers of the Church in three several respects: By qualifying them for the office; by directing the ordainers to discern their qualifications, and know the fittest men; and by directing them, the people and themselves, for the affixing them to a particular charge.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.129.

MINISTRY

'Others are glad of the leisure of the Lord's day, and now and then of an hour besides, when they can lay hold upon it. But we may keep a continual Sabbath. We may do almost nothing else, but study and talk of God and glory, and engage in acts of prayer and praise, and drink in his sacred, saving truths. Our employment is high and spiritual. Whether we be alone, or in company, our business is for another world. O that our hearts were but more tuned to this work! What a blessed, joyful life should we then live! How sweet would our study be to us! How pleasant the pulpit! And what delight would our conference about spiritual and eternal things afford us! To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions whenever we please - all these, and many other similar privileges of the ministry, bespeak our unwearied dilligence in the work.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.128.

MINISTRY

'Our whole work must be carried on under a deep sense of our own insufficiency, and of our entire dependence on Christ. We must go for light, and life, and strength to him who sends us on the work. And when we feel our own faith weak, and our hearts dull, and unsuitable to such a great work as we have to do, we must have recourse to him, and say, "Lord, wilt thou send me with such an unbelieving heart to persuade others to believe? Must I daily plead with sinners about everlasting life and everlasting death, and have no more belief and feeling of these weighty things myself? O, send me not naked and unprovided for to the work; but, as thou commandest me to do it, furnish me with a spirit suitable thereto." Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching: he preacheth not heartily to his people, that prayeth not earnestly for them.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.123.

MINISTRY

'Most men judge of the counsel, as they judge of the affection of him that gives it: at least, so far as to give it a fair hearing. Oh, therefore, see that you feel a tender love to your people in your breasts, and let them perceive it in your speeches, and see it in your conduct. Let them see that you spend, and are spent, for their sakes; and that all you do is for them, and not for any private ends of your own.'

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.118.