Richard Baxter

1615-1691 17th century

Meditation kept as a regular appointment, and the humility that comes of the frequenting itself.

Who was Richard Baxter?

Minister of Kidderminster, he was ill all his life and wrote his most-read book expecting to die, far from his parish, when he was a little over thirty. He refused a bishopric, was driven from his living, and jailed at sixty-nine by a judge who hated him. Married late to Margaret Charlton, twenty years younger, he wrote after her death a small book telling the story of their household without embellishment.

In their own words

The chief end of this duty is, to have acquaintance and fellowship with God, and therefore if thou come but seldom to it, thou wilt keep thyself a stranger still.

The Saints' Everlasting Rest, ch. XIII, § 10 (1st ed. 1650; ch./§ numbering of the Fawcett abridgement)

Intercourse with God will keep men low, and that lowliness will promote their intercourse.

The Saints' Everlasting Rest, ch. XII, § 6 (1st ed. 1650; ch./§ numbering of the Fawcett abridgement)

Now the poor soul complains, "Oh that I could love Christ more." Then, thou canst not choose but love him.

The Saints' Everlasting Rest, ch. I, § 12 (1st ed. 1650; ch./§ numbering of the Fawcett abridgement)