“What if you had once seen hell open, and all the damned there in their easeless torments, and had heard them crying out of their slothfulness in the day of their visitation, and wishing that they had but another life to live, and that God would but try them once again; one crying out of this neglect of duty, and another of his loitering and trifling, when he should have been labouring for his life; what manner of person would you have been after such a sight as this ? (284)”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Of two duties we must choose the greater, though of two sins we must choose neither (556).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Oh! what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided conscience(93)!”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“I would desire every divine to beware that he tell not the unsanctified, that whoever hath the least degree of love to God for himself, and not as a means to carnal ends, shall certainly be saved ; for he would certainly deceive many thousand miserable souls that should persuade them of this (670).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“We may reconcile ourselves to the world at our peril, but it will never reconcile itself to us. . . . This unwillingness to die, doth actually impeach us of high treason against the Lord : is it not a choosing of earth before him ; and taking these present things for our happiness, and consequently asking them our very God (469)?”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Yet I must tell you, that all these graces which are expressed by passions of sorrow, fear, joy, hope, love, are not so certainly to be tried by the passion that is in them, as by the will that is either contained in them, or supposed in them; not as acts of the sensitive, but of the rational appetite (358).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Consideration doth, as it were, open the door between the head and the heart: the understanding having received truths, lays them up in the memory now, consideration is the conveyer of theme from thence to the affections (571).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Do I not well deserve to be turned into hell, if the scorns and threats of blinded men, if the fear of silly, rotten earth, can drive me thither (588)?”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“The most dangerous mistake that our souls are capable of, is, to take the creature for God, and earth for heaven (374).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“As all our senses are the inlets of sin, so they are become the inlets of sorrow (99).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“[T]here is no greater strengthener of sin, and destroyer of the soul, than Scripture misapplied (317).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“[T]his is the strongest encouragement to them in sinning; and we have need to lay all our batteries against this bulwark of presumption (361).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“O sirs, how many souls, then, have every one of us been guilty of damning! What a number of our neighbours and acquaintance are dead, in whom we discerned no signs of sanctification, and never did once plainly tell them of it, or how to be recovered! If you had been the cause but of burning a man's house through your negligence, or of undoing him in the world, or of destroying his body, how would it trouble you as long as you lived! If you had but killed a man unadvisedly, it would much disquiet you. We have known those that have been guilty of murder, that could never sleep quietly after, nor have one comfortable day, their own consciences did so vex and torment them. O, then, what a heart mayst thou have, that hast been builty of murdering such a multitude of precious souls! Remember this when thou lookest thy friend or carnal neighbour in the face, and think with thyself, Can I find in my heart, through my silence and negligence, to be guilty of his everlasting burning in hell? Methinks such a thought should even untie the tongue of the dumb. . . . [H]e that is guilty of a man's continuing unregenerate, is also guilty of the sins of his unregeneracy. . . . Eli did not commit the sin himself, and yet he speaketh so coldly against it that he also must bear the punishment . Guns and cannons spake against sin in England, because the inhabitants would not speak. God pleadeth with us with fire and sword, because we would not plead with sinners with our tongues (410-11).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“The strongest Christian is unsafe among occasions to sin (519).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“The sum is this, —As thou makest conscience of praying daily, so do thou of the acting of thy graces in meditation; and more especially in meditating on the joys of heaven, To this end, set apart one hour or half hour every day, wherein thou mayst lay aside all worldly thoughts, and with all possible seriousness and reverence, as if thou wert going to speak with God himself, or to have a sight of Christ, or of that blessed place so do thou withdraw thyself into some secret place, and set thyself wholly to the following work: if thou canst, take Isaac's time and place, who went forth into the field in the evening to meditate; but if thou be a servant, or poor man, that cannot have that leisure, take the fittest time and place that thou canst, though it be when thou are private about thy labours.
Were there left one spark of wit or reason, they would never sell their rest for toil, or sell their glory for worldly vanities, nor venture heaven for the pleasure of a sin (627).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Thou has heard the words of Christ. . . .
Dost thou weep, when I have thee, Poor soul, what aileth thee? Dost thou weep, when I have wept so much? Be of good cheer ; thy wounds are saving, and not deadly. It is I that have made them, who mean thee no hurt : though I let out thy blood, I will not let out thy life (628).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“If the good so loved and desired do appear possible and feasible in the attaining, then it exciteth the passion of hope, which is a compound of desire and expectation : when we look upon it as requiring our endeavour to attain it, and as it is to be had in a prescribed way, then it provokes the passion of courage or boldness, and concludes in resolution. Lastly, If this good be apprehended as preset, then ti provoketh to delight or joy. If the thing itself be present, the jy is greatest. If but the idea of it, either through the remainder or memory of the good that is past, or through the fore-apprehension of that which we expect, yet even this also exciteth our joy. And this joy is the perfection of all the rest of the affections, when it is raised on the full fruition of the good itself(575).”
Source: The Godly Home
“Woe to the soul which God rejoiceth to punish! . . . . Is it not a terrible thing to a wretched soul, when it shal lie roaring perpetually in the flames of hell, and the God of mercy himself shall laugh at them; when they shall cry out for mercy, yea, for one drop of water, and God shall mock them instead of relieving them; when non in heaven or earth can help them but God, and hell shall rejoice over them in their calamity(244)?”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Meditation puts reason in its authority and preeminence. It helpeth to deliver it form its captivity to the sense, and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When reason is silent, it is usually subject; for when it is asleep the senses domineer. . . . Reason is at the strongest when it is most in action. Now, meditation produceth reason into act (573).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“The sweetest poison doth often bring the surest death (645).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“[W]hen the pleasure is at the sweetest, death is the nearest (461)[.]”
“The name of this city much helpeth Jew and Gentile to see the state of peace, for this is called Jerusalem, and that in Canaan hath Christ destroyed: this name should clearly have taught bot h the Hebrews not to look and pray daily for to return to Canaan, and pseduo-catholics not to fight for special holiness there (658-9).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“So then, let "Deserved" be written on the door of hell, but on the door of Heaven and life, "The free gift" (68).”
“As one can hardly find any thing in a house where nothing keeps its place, but all is cast on a heap together; so it is in the heart where all things are in disorder, especially when darkness is added to this disorder: so that the hear t is like an obscure cave or dungeon, where there is but a little crevice of light, and a man must rather grope than see No wonder if men mistake in searching such a heat, sand so miscarry in judging of their estate (304).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Till thou hast learned to suffer from a saint a well as from the wicked, and to be abused by the godly as well as the ungodly, never look to live a contented or comfortable life, nor ever think thou has truly learned the art of suffering (383).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Lothness to displease men, makes us undo them (394).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“The door of the visible church is incomparably wider than the door of heaven (522)[.]”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“What if you had seen haven open as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory, and enjoying the end of their labours and sufferings, what a life would you lead after such a sight as this! Why, you will see this with your eyes before it be long.
Thou hast the more cause to doubt a great deal, because thou never didst doubtl and yet more because thou hast been so careless in thy confidence. What do these expressions discover, but a wilful neglect of thy own salvation? As a shipmaster that should let his vessel alone, and mind other matters, and say, I will venture it among the rocks, and sands, and gulfs, and waves, and winds; I will never touble myself to know wheter it shall come safe to the harbour; I will trust God with it; it will speed as well as other men's vessels do. Indeed, as well as other men's that are as careless and idle, but not so well as other mens's that are diligent and watchful. What horrible abuse of God is this, for men to pretend that they trust God with their souls only to cloak their own wilful negligence! (290-291)”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“I am persuaded our discontents, and murmurings with out unpleasing condition, and our covetous desires after more, are not so provoking to God, nor so destructive to the sinner, as our too sweet enjoying, and rest of spirit in a pleasing state. . . . Our rest is our heaven, and where we take our rest, there we make our heaven(457).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow, and loves the most merry and joyful life; yet few do love the way to joy, or will endure the pains by which it is obtained; they will take the next that comes to hand, and content themselves with earthly pleasures, rather than they will ascend to heaven to seek it ;l and yet when all is done, they must have it there, or be without it (491).”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest
“If you do not see yourselves and all things as living, moving, and having their being in God, you see nothing, whatever you may think you see.”
Source: Watch Your Walk
“Despair of ever being saved, "except thou be born again," or of seeing God "without holiness," or of having part in Christ except thou "love him above father, mother, or thy own life." This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven.”
Source: The saints everlasting rest: or, a treatise of the blessed state of the saints, in their enjoyment of God in glory
“Sinful zeal doth make men doubly sinful.”
Source: The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter: With a Life of the Author, and a Critical Examination of His Writings
“As holy zeal is the fervency of our grace, so sinful zeal is the intention and fervency of sin.”
Source: The Practical Works of Richard Baxter; with a Preface, Giving Some Account of the Author, and of this Edition of His Practical Works; an Essay on His Genius, Works, and Times ...
“Special mercy arouses more gratitude than universal mercy.”
“When the Son of God comes to rescue us and bring us back to God, He does not find in us the ability to believe.”
“Sinners, hear and consider, if you wilfully condemn your souls to bestiality, God will condemn them to perpetual misery.”
Source: The practical works of Richard Baxter: with a life of the author and a critical examination of his writings by William Orme
“Do not mathematics and all sciences seem full of contradictions and impossibilities to the ignorant, which are all resolved and cleared to those that understand them?”
Source: The practical works of Richard Baxter: with a life of the author and a critical examination of his writings by William Orme
“If I were but sure that I should live to see the coming of the Lord, it would be the joyfulest tidings in the world. O that I might see His kingdom come! It is the characteristic of His saints to love His appearing, and to look for that blessed hope. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."”
“You shall find this to be God's usual course: not to give his children the taste of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them.”
Source: The Saint's Everlasting Rest, Or, A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Heaven
“Speak to your people as to men that must be awakened, either here or in hell.”
“A little love has made me willingly study, preach, write, and even suffer.”
Source: The Saints' Everlasting Rest: Or, a Treatise on the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Heaven : to which are Added Dying Thoughts
“Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied. We know little of the creature, till we know it as it stands related to the Creator.”
Source: The Reformed Pastor ... Revised and Abridged by the Rev. William Brown ... With an Introductory Essay, by the Rev. Daniel Wilson. [With a Portrait.]
“I must confess, as the experience of my own soul, that the expectation of loving my friends in heaven principally kindles my love to them while on earth.”
Source: Converse with God in Solitude, etc
“You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew.”
Source: The poor man's best companion: in plain and familiar dialogues. With forms of prayer for various uses ... By the Rev. Richard Baxter
“Paganism attributes the creation of the world to blind chance.”
“It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make a man wise or good, but the well-reading of a few, could he be sure to have the best. And it is not possible to read over many on the same subject without a great deal of loss of precious time.”
Source: The Practical Works of Richard Baxter; with a Preface, Giving Some Account of the Author, and of this Edition of His Practical Works; an Essay on His Genius, Works, and Times ...
“Overvalue not therefore the manner of your own worship, and overvilify not other men's of a different mode.”
“You will cast away your cards and dice when you find the sweetness of youthful learning.”
“Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of; in nothing on which you might not pray for the blessing of God; in nothing which you could not review with a quiet conscience on your dying bed; in nothing which you might not safely and properly be found doing if death should surprise you in the act.”
