Quote 4337
In public our speeches are long, and we quite over-run their understandings and memories, and they are confounded and at a loss, and not able to follow us, and one thing drives out another, and so they know not what we said. But in private we can take our work gradatim, and take our hearers along with us; and, by our questions, and their answers, we can see how far they understand us, and what we have next to do. In public, by length and speaking alone we lose their attention; but when they are interlocutors, we can easily cause them to attend.
Richard Baxter
Reformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdfOther Quotes from the Author & Topic
And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul; to join with you in prayer and other holy exercises; to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers, and to stir up in you the grace of God, and remember to you of the life to come, and cheerfully accompany you in the ways of holiness.Richard Baxter,A Christian Directoiy: or, Sum ofPractical7heology, and Cases of Conscience, 11.1 (7he Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter [London: James Duncan, 1830], IV, 30).
Wicked men can be delighted in talking together of their wickedness; and should not Christians then be delighted in talking of Christ, and the heirs of heaven in talking of their inheritance? This may make our hearts revive, as did Jacob's to hear the message that called him to Goshen, and to see the chariots that should bring him to Joseph. O that we were furnished with skill and resolution to turn the stream of men's common discourse to these more sublime and precious things! and, when men begin to talk of things unprofitable, that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven, and say, as Peter of his bodily food, "Not so, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean!"Saints Everlasting Rest, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/saints_rest/cache/saints_rest.pdf
I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular sinner, as to himself: for the plainest man that is, can scarcely speak plain enough in public for them to understand; but in private we may do it much more. In public we may not use such homely expressions, or repetitions, as their dulness requires, but in private we mayReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
. I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an hour's close discourse, than they did from ten years' public preachingReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
They will under stand a familiar speech, who understand not a sermon; and they will have far greater help for the application of it to themselves. Besides, you will hear their objections, and know
where it is that Satan hath most advantage of them, and so may be able to show them their errors, and confute their objections, and more effectually convince them. We can better bring them to the point, and urge them to discover their resolutions for the future, and to promise the use of means and reformation, than otherwise we could do. What more proof need we of this, than our own experience? I seldom deal with men purposely on this great
business, in private, serious conference, but they go away with some seeming convictions, and promises of new obedience, if not some deeper remorse, and sense of their conditionReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
Let your holy conference with others be much about the glorious excellencies, works, and mercies of the Lord in way of praise and admiration. This is indeed to speak to edification and as the "oracles of God."
Against all that I have said in behalf of discipline you will plead, "Our people are not ready for it; they will not yet bear it." But is not the meaning of this that you will not bear the trouble and hatred which it will occasion? I beseech you, in order that you may make a comfortable account to the Chief Shepherd and that you may not be found unfaithful in the house of God, that you do not shrink from duty because of the trouble that may attend it. Reformed Pastor
The neglect of discipline has a strong tendency to the deluding of souls by making men think that they are Christians when they are not because they are not separated from such as are, and by making scandalous sinners think their sin tolerable because it is so tolerated by the pastors of the church. We hereby corrupt Christianity itself in the eyes of the world and do our part to make them believe that to be a Christian is only to be of such or such an opinion, and that the Christian religion requires holiness no more than the false religions of the world. Reformed Pastor
The accusations of none, not even the best in the church, should be taken without proof. A minister should never make himself a party before he has sufficient evidence of the case. It is better to let many vicious persons go unpunished and without censure when we want full evidence against them than to censure one unjustly, which we may easily do if we go upon bold presumptions alone. And that will bring upon a pastor the scandal of partiality and unrighteous dealing, which will make all his reproofs and censures become contemptible.
Sometimes, the guilt of renewed infirmities or decays doth renew distrust and make us shrink, and we are like the child in the mother's arms that fears when he loses his hold, as if his safety were more in his hold of her than in her hold of him. Weak duties have weak expectations of success. In this case, what an excellent remedy has faith in looking to the perpetual intercession of Christ. Is He praying for us in the heavens, and shall we not be bold to pray and expect an answer? O remember that He is not weak when we are weak.
The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all.
They will give you leave to preach against their sins, and to talk as much as you will for godliness in the pulpit, if you will but let them alone afterwards, and be friendly and merry with them when you have done, and talk as they do, and live as they. and be indifferent with them in your conversation. For they take the pulpit to be but a stage; a place where preachers must show themselves, and play their parts; where you have liberty for an hour to say what you list; and what you say they regard not, if you show them not, by saying it personally to their faces, that you were in good earnest, and did indeed mean them
Keep up your conjugaI love in a constant heat and vigor. Love Will suppress wrath; you cannot have a bitter mind upon small provocations, against those that you dearly love; much less can you proceed to reviling words, or to averseness and estrangedness, or any abuse of one another. Or if a breach and wound be unhappily made, the balsamic quality of love will heal It. But when love once cooleth, small matters exasperate and breed distaste.
This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.
A heavenly mind is a joyful mind; this is the nearest and truest way to live a life of comfort, and without this you must need be uncomfortable. Can a man be at a fire and not be warm? Can your heart be in heaven, and not have comfort?
God himself will have his servants tried and exercised by difficulties. He never intended us the reward for sitting still; nor the crown of victory, without a fight.
Of all preaching in the world, (that speaks not stark lies,) I hate that preaching which tendeth to make the hearers laugh, or to move their mind with tickling levity, and affect them as stage-players use to do, instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God.
The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on our mortification of deeds of the flesh.
If God be not enough for you, you will never have enough. Turn to him more, and know him better, if you would have a satisfied mind.
Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.
Lay siege to your sins, and starve them out by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance and life.
To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions whenever we please.
O what a blessed day that will be when I shall . . . stand on the shore and look back on the raging seas I have safely passed; when I shall review my pains and sorrows, my fears and tears, and possess the glory which was the end of all!
I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.
Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow.
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