Inspirational Quotes by Richard Baxter
“So then, let "Deserved" be written on the door of hell, but on the door of Heaven and life, "The free gift" (68).”
“It much honoureth God, when his servants can quietly and fearlessly trust in him, in the face of all the dangers and threatenings which devils or men can cast before them; and can joyfully suffer pain or death, in obedience to his commands, and in confidence on his promise of everlasting happiness.—This showeth that we believe indeed that "there is a God," and that "he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him," Heb. xi. 6; and that he is true and just; and that his promises are to be trusted on; and that he is able to make them good, in despite of all the malice of his enemies; and that the threats or frowns of sinful worms are contemptible to him that feareth God. Psal. lviii. 11, "So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth," and that at last will judge the world in righteousness.”
“Marriage should be the result of love between the couple getting married and not brute force from their parents.”
“he may resolve to save thee, not from affliction and persecution, but in it, and by it.”
“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.”
“If preachers would speak only to men's fancies or understandings, and not meddle too smartly with their hearts, and lives, and carnal interests, the world would bear them, and hear them as they do stage-players, or at least as lecturers in philosophy or physic. A sermon that hath nothing but some general toothless notions in a handsome dress of words, doth seldom procure offence or persecution: it is rare that such men's preaching is distasted by carnal hearers, or their persons hated for it. "It is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun," Eccles. xi. 7; but not to be scorched by its heat.”
“This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.”
topics: Holiness
“I take the love of God and self-denial to be the sum of all saving grace and religion.”
“God takes men's hearty desires and will, instead of the deed, where they have not power to fulfill it; but he never took the bare deed instead of the will.”
topics: God
“You come hither to learn to die, I am not the only person that must go this way: I can assure you, that your whole life, be it ever so long, is little enough to prepare for death. Have a care of this vain deceitful world and the lusts of the flesh: Be sure you choose God for your portion, heaven for your home, God's glory for your end, his word for your rule, and then you need never fear but we shall meet with comfort.”
“remember, you cannot decline and neglect your duty, to your own hurt alone; many will be losers by it as well as you.”
“If family religion were duly attended to and properly discharged, I think the preaching of the Word would not be the common instrument of conversion.”
topics: Family
“The churchyard is the market place where all things are rated at their true value, and those who are approaching it talk of the world and its vanities with a wisdom unknown before.”
topics: Death
“It is as hard a thing to maintain a sound understanding, a tender conscience, a lively, gracious, heavenly spirit, and an upright life in the midst of contention, as to keep your candle lighted in the greatest storms.”
“God has made the desire of our own happiness so necessary to the soul of man, that it cannot be separated from our desire to please him. Therefore, both in respect to God, and to our own happiness, “we must believe that he is the everlasting Rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
― Richard Baxter ,
from Dying Thoughts
“In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”
“What else is the law made for, but to be the rule of life, and the rule of judgment? Read Psal. i. and xv.; Matt. v. vii. and xxv.,”
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He wrote 168 or so separate works -- such treatises as the Christian Directory, the Methodus Theologiae Christianae, and the Catholic Theology, might each have represented the life's work of an ordinary man. His Breviate of the Life of Mrs Margaret Baxter records the virtues of his wife, and reveals Baxter's tenderness of nature. Without doubt, however, his most famous and enduring contribution to Christian literature was a devotional work published in 1658 under the title Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live. This slim volume was credited with the conversion of thousands and formed one of the core extra-biblical texts of evangelicalism until at least the middle of the nineteenth century.
Richard Baxter was ordained into the Church of England, 1638, but in two years allied with Puritans opposed to the episcopacy of his church. At Kidderminster (1641-60) he made the church a model parish. The church was enlarged to hold the crowds. Pastoral counseling was as important as preaching, and his program for his parish was a pattern for many other ministers. Baxter played an ameliorative role during the English Civil Wars.
He was a chaplain in the parliamentary army but then helped to restore the king (1660). After the establishment of the monarchy, he fought for toleration of moderate dissent in the Church of England. Persecuted for more than 20 years and was imprisoned (1685) for 18 months, the Revolution of 1688, replacing James II with William and Mary, brought about an Act of Toleration that freed Baxter to express his opinions.