Working much =Living much

What have we our time and strength for, but to lay both out for God? What is a candle for, but to be burnt? Burnt and wasted we must be, and is it not fitter we should be in lightening men to heaven, and in working for God, than in living to the flesh? What comfort will it be at death, that you, lengthened your life by shortening your work? He that works much, lives much. [Richard Baxter]

The great work of conversion

The work of conversion is the great thing that we must first strive at, and labour with all our might to effect…He that will let a sinner go to hell for want of speaking to him doth set less by souls than the Redeemer of souls did, and less by his neighbour than rational charity will allow him to do by his greatest enemy. Therefore brethren, whomsoever you neglect not the most miserable..ply this great work of converting souls, whatever else you leave undone![Richard Baxter]

7 directions on Mirth

1. First see that thou be a fit person for mirth, and that thou shall not be a miserable slave of Satan in an unregenerate, unholy, unjustified state.

2. Yet do not destroy nature by over much heaviness, under pretence that thou hast no right to be merry.

3. Mark well, the usefulness and tendency of all thy mirth. A Christian that hath acquaintance with himself and with the work of holy watchfulness, may discern what his mirth is, by the tendency and effects, and know whether it doth him good or harm.

4. Take heed that the flesh defile not your mirth.

5. Consider what your mirth is like to prove to others, as well as to yourslves.

6. Never leave out reason and godliness from any of your mirth. Abhor that mirth that maketh man a fool, or playeth the fool.

7. Watch your tongues in all your mirth; for they are very apt to take liberty then to sin. Mirth is to the tongue as as holidays and playdays to idle scholars; who are glad of them as time in which they think they have liberty to game and fight and do amiss. [Richard Baxter]

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Sorry about the lack of posts; I’m quite ill at the moment. Normal service shall be resumed, ASAP.

Meditations on things unseen

It is only a life of faith that will be a life of holy heavenly joy. Excercise yourselves therefore to believing contemplations of things unseen. It must not be now and then a glance of the eye of the soul towards God…but a walking with him, and frequent addresses of the soul unto Him, which must help you to the delight which believers find in communion with him. [Richard Baxter]

The poor, humble, drooping soul, entering into the rest

Thou that now spendest thy days in sorrow, and thy breath in sighings, and turnest all thy voice into groanings; who knowest no garments but sackcloth, no food but the bread and water of affliction; who minglest thy bread with tears, and drinkest the tears which thou weepest; what sayest thou to this great change, from all sorrow to more than all joy? Thou poor soul, who prayest for joy, waitest for joy, complainest for want of joy, longest for joy; why, then, thou shalt have full joy, as much as thou canst hold, and more than ever thou thoughtest on, or thy heart desired. And, in the mean time, walk carefully, watch constantly, and then let God measure out thy times and degrees of joy. It may be he keeps them till thou have more need: thou mayst better lose thy comfort than thy safety: if thou shouldst die full of fears and sorrows, it will be but a moment, and they are all gone, and conclude in joy unconceivable. As the joy of the hypocrite, so the fears of the upright are but for a moment. And as their hopes are but golden dreams, which, when death awakes, doubts and fears are but terrible dreams, which, when they die, do all vanish; and they awake in joyful glory. For “God’s anger endureth but a moment, but in his favour is life: weeping may endureth in the morning,” Psal. xxx. 5. O blessed morning, thrice blessed m orning! poor, humble, drooping soul, how would it fill thee with joy now, if a voice from heaven should tell thee of the love of God; of the pardon of thy sins; and should assure thee thy actual possession shall convince thee of thy title and thou shalt be in heaven before thou art well aware! when the angels shall bring thee to Christ, and when Christ shall, as it were, take thee by the hand, and lead thee into thy purchased possession, and bid thee welcome to his rest, and present thee unspotted before his Father, and give thee thy place about his throne! Poor sinner, what sayest thou to such a day as this? Wilst thou not be almost ready to draw back and say, What I Lord, I, the unworthy neglecter of thy grace! I the unworthy disteemer of thy blood, and slighter of thy love! Must I have this glory? “Make me a hired servant, I am no more worthy to be called a son” But love will have it so; therefore must thou enter into his joy. [Richard Baxter]

Hard job of speaking the truth in love

Alas! it is no pleasure to a minister to speak to people upon such an unwelcome subject, any more than it is to a pitiful physician to tell his patient, I do despair of your life, except you let blood. Why, I beseech you, think on it reasonably without prejudice or passion, and tell me where doth God give any hope of your salvation, till you are new creatures? And will it do you any good for a minister to give you hopes where God gives you none? or would you desire him to do so? Why, what would you think of such a minister when those hopes foresake you; or what thanks will you give him when you find yourself in hell? Would you not lie there and curse him for a deciever for ever? I know this to be true, and there I had rather you were displeased with me here, than curse me there. [Richard Baxter]

Having mercy upon our own souls

Behold! O man, thy soul was formed by God Himself. It is of a finer texture than the trodden clod—endowed with an intelligence of a higher nature than animal instinct. It is a vile degradation of its powers to feed it only with the beggarly elements of earth–thou oughtest  to set thy affections on things that are above, and to commune with the invisible and the eternal.  Thou robbest the Almighty–thou art treasuring up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God. Thou canst not perish absolutely, for God will not annihilate thee.  Be zealous and repent, lest thou become an eternal monument of his just vengeance. Oh that some Jonas had this point in hand, to cry in your ears, ‘Yet a few days and the rebellious shall be destroyed;’  till you were brought down on your knees in sackcloth and ashes! Oh if some John Baptist might cry it abroad, ‘Now if the axe laid to the root of the trees; every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire!’ Oh that some son of thunder, who could speak as Paul, till the hearers tremble, were now to preach this doctrine to thee! Alas! as terribly as you think I speak, yet is it not with the thousandth part of what must be felt; for what heart can now possibly conceive, or what tongue can express, the dolours of those souls that are under the wrath of God? Ah, that ever blind sinners should willfully bring themselves to such unspeakable misery! You will then be crying to Jesus Christ,–Oh mercy! Oh, pity, pity on a poor soul! Why, I do now in the name of the Lord Jesus cry to thee, Oh, mercy, pity man, upon thine own soul! Who can stand before the Lord and hide the fierceness of his anger? Methinks thou shouldst need no more words, but presently cast away thy soul damning sins, and wholly deliver thyself up to Christ. Resolve on it immediately, man, and let it be done, that I may see thy face in rest among the saints. The Lord persuade thy heart to strike this covenant without any longer delay; but if thou be hardened unto death, and there be no rememdy, yet do not say another day that thou wasn’t faithfully warned, nor that thou hadst a friend that would fain have prevented thy damanation. [Richard Baxter]

Keeping eternity in view

We must endeavour after the most succesful way, and pray for a just prosperity for our Labours; And when God doth prosper us with Wealth, we must take it thankfully (tho with fear) and use it to his Service, and do all the good with it that we can. Look up to Heaven men; and remember that there is thy Home, and there is thy Hope, or else thou art a man undone forever; and therefore it is for that thou must care and labour. [Richard Baxter]

The Almighty God

If he be good, and infinitely good, there is all the reason in the world that you should love him; and there is no reason in the world that you should love the world or sin before him. If he be faithful and true, his threatenings must be feared, and his promises must not be distrsusted; and there is no reason that you should make any question of his Word. If he be holy…then he must be an enemy to sin, and to all that are unholy, because they are contrary to his nature. Consider that he is almighty, and there is no resisting him…in the twink of an eye can he snatch thy guilty soul from thy body, and cast it where sin is better known. A word of his mouth can set all the world against thee, and set thine own conscience against thee too..and if he be thine enemy, it is no matter who is thy friend, for all the world cannot save thee, if he do but condemn thee. He was from eternity, and thou art but as it were of yesterday: thy being is from him; thy life is always in his hands, thou canst not live an hour without him, nor think a thought, nor speak a word, nor stir a foot or hand without him..no love can be great enough, and no praises can be high enough, and no service can be holy and good enough for such a God..this is not a God to be neglected, or dallied with; nor a God to be resisted or provoked by the wilful breaking of his laws..O therefore dwell on the meditations of the Almighty! [Richard Baxter]

Redeeming the time

Live as those that are going to the grave…spend every day in preparation for death; and in all your business remember, whither you are going and where you must dwell forever. [Richard Baxter]

Everything in its place

If we give to reason, memory, study, books, methods, forms, etc, but their proper place in subordination to Christ and His Spirit, they are so far from being quenchers of the Spirit, that they are necessary in their places and such means as we must use, if ever we will expect the Spirit’s help. [Richard Baxter]

Are you willing?

Are you heartily willing to take God for your portions and had you rather live with Him in Glory, in His favour and fullest love, with a soul perfectly cleansed from all sin, and never more to offend Him, rejoicing with His Saints in His everlasting praises, than to enjoy the delights of the flesh on earth in a way of sin and without the favour of God? Are you heartily willing to take Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel, that is to be your only Saviour and Lord, and to give you pardon by HIs blood shed and to sanctify you by His Work and Spirit and to govern you by His laws? Note that to be willing to be ruled by His laws both to heart and outward actions, that they command a Holy, Spiritual, Heavenly life, that they command things so cross and unpleasing to the flesh that the flesh will be ever murmuring and striving against obedience; particuarly, they command things quite cross to the inclinations of the flesh as to forgive wrongs, to love enemies, to forbear malice and revenge, to restrain and mortify lust and passion, to abhor and mortify pride and to be low in our own eyes, and humble and meek in spirit. These are the laws of Christ which you must know before you can determine whether you are indeed unfeignedly willing to obey them. [Richard Baxter]

Profitting from hearing the Word

Come not to hear with a careless heart, as if you were to hear a matter that little concerned you, but come with a sense of the unspeakable weight, necessity, and consequence of the holy word which you are to hear; and when you understand how much you are concerned in it, it will greatly help your understanding of every particular truth.… Make it your work with diligence to apply the word as you are hearing it.… Cast not all upon the minister, as those that will go no further than they are carried as by force.… You have work to do as well as the preacher, and should all the time be as busy as he … you must open your mouths, and digest it, for another cannot digest it for you … therefore be all the while at work, and abhor an idle heart in hearing, as well as an idle minister. [Richard Baxter]

On preaching

How few ministers do preach with all their might, or speak about everlasting joys and everlasting torments in such a manner as may make man believe that they are in good earnest! Alas, we speak so drowsily or gently, that sleepy sinners cannot hear. The blow falls so light that hard-hearted sinners cannot feel. The most of ministers will not so much as exert their voice, and stir up themselves to an earnest utterance. But if they do speak loud and earnestly,³how few do answer it with weight and earnestness of matter! And yet without this, the voice does little good; the people will esteem it but mere bawling, when the matter doth not correspond. It would grieve one to the heart to hear what excellent doctrine some ministers have in hand, while yet they let it die in their hands for want of close and lively application.… O sirs, how plainly, how closely, how earnestly, should we deliver a message of such moment as ours.… In the name of God, brethren, labour to awaken your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners. Remember they must be awakened or damned, and … a sleepy preacher will hardly awaken drowsy sinners. Though you give the holy things of God the highest praise in words, yet, if you do it coldly, you will seem by your manner to unsay what you said in the matter.… It is only here and there, even among good ministers, that we find one who has an earnest, persuasive, powerful way of speaking, that the people can feel him preach when they hear him.…

Though I move you not to constant loudness in your delivery (for that will make your fervency contemptible), yet see that you have a constant seriousness; and when the matter requireth it (as it should do, in the application at least), then lift up your voice, and spare not your spirits. Speak to your people as to men that must be awakened, either here or in hell. Look around upon them with the eye of faith, and with compassion, and think in what a state of joy or torment they must all be for ever; and then, methinks, it will make you earnest, and melt your heart to a sense of their condition. Oh, speak not one cold or careless word about so great a business as heaven or hell

I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience, that I publish to my flock the distempers of my own soul. When I let my heart go cold, my preaching is cold; … and so I can oft observe also in the best of my hearers that when I have grown cold in preaching, they have grown cold too; and the next prayers which I have heard from them have been too like my preaching.… O brethren, watch therefore over your own hearts: keep out lusts and passions, and worldly inclinations; keep up the life of faith, and love, and zeal: be much at home, and much with God … a minister should take some special pains with his heart, before he is to go to the congregation: if it be then cold, how is he likely to warm the hearts of his hearers? Therefore, go then specially to God for life.  [Richard Baxter]

³ 3.Loudness marked a number of Puritan preachers: Thomas Hooker was once (at least) referred to as ‘bawling Hooker’, and William Whateley was known as ‘the Roaring Boy of Banbury’.

Family Reformation

You are not likely to see any general reformation, till you procure a family reformation. Some little religion there may be, here and there; but while it is confined to single persons, and is not promoted in families, it will not prosper, nor promise much future increase.[Richard Baxter]

Making diligent use of the Means

Come into the light, with due self-suspicion, and impartiality, and diligently use all God’s means, and avoid the causes of deceit and error, and the light of truth will at once show you the truth  [Richard Baxter]

God's call to all to re-TURN

It is the unchangeable law of God, that the wicked shall live, if they will but turn; God takes pleasure in men’s conversion and salvation, but not in their death or damnation…; This is a most certain truth, which…God…hath confirmed… solemnly by His oath; The Lord doth redouble His commands and persuasions to the wicked to turn; The Lord condescendth to reason the case with them, and asketh the wicked, why they die? If after all this, the wicked will not return, it is not long of God that they perish, but of themselves.. they die because they will die.[Richard Baxter]

A Call to the Unconverted

God's call to all to re-TURN

It is the unchangeable law of God, that the wicked shall live, if they will but turn; God takes pleasure in men’s conversion and salvation, but not in their death or damnation…; This is a most certain truth, which…God…hath confirmed… solemnly by His oath; The Lord doth redouble His commands and persuasions to the wicked to turn; The Lord condescendth to reason the case with them, and asketh the wicked, why they die? If after all this, the wicked will not return, it is not long of God that they perish, but of themselves.. they die because they will die.[Richard Baxter]

A Call to the Unconverted

Conscience is not the standard to judge by

Make not your own judgments or consciences your law, or the maker of your duty; which is but the discerner of the law of God, and of the duty which he maketh you, and of your own obedience or disobedience to him.
There is a dangerous error grown too common in the world [it is commoner still today] that a man is bound to do every thing which his conscience telleth him is the will of God; and that every man must obey his conscience, as if it were the lawgiver of the world; whereas, indeed, it is not ourselves, but God, that is our lawgiver. And conscience is … appointed … only to discern the law of God, and call upon us to observe it: and an erring conscience is not to be obeyed, but to be better informed.… [Richard Baxter]

Providing for Heaven

If heaven be too high for you to think on, and to provide for, it will be too high for you to ever possess. [Richard Baxter]

Christian faithfulness in doing good

When the earth is soft, the plough will enter. Take a man when he is under affliction, or in the house of mourning, or newly stirred by some moving sermon, and then set it home, and you may do him good. Christian faithfulness doth require us, not only to do good when it falls in our way, but to watch for opportunities of doing good.  [Richard Baxter]

Preparation for Perfection

This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection; but the preparation for it. [Richard Baxter]

Wounds of a friend are faithful

A foolish physician he is, and a most unfaithful friend, that will let a sick man die for fear of troubling him; and cruel wretches are we to our friends, that will rather suffer them to go quietly to hell, than we will anger them, or hazard our reputation with them. [Richard Baxter]

Plying our duty

He that wants assurance of the truth of his grace and the comfort of assurance, must not stand still and say "I am so doubtful and uncomfortable that I have no  mind to duty" but ply his duty, and exercise his grace till he finds his doubts and discomforts to vanish. [Richard Baxter]

The Shepherd and His Sheep

He is not drowning His sheep when He washeth them, nor killing them when He is shearing them. But by this He showeth that they are His own; and the new shorn sheep do most visibly bear His name or mark, when it is almost worn out and scarce discernible on them that have the longest fleece. [Richard Baxter]