Baxter: none harm

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
    Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691
Meditation:
    But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Will it do you any hurt to leave your beastly, sensual lives, and to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ?” This is the doctrine of saving grace. Would it do you any harm to be assured of salvation, and ready to die, and to know that angels shall conduct your departing souls to Christ, and that you shall live in joy with him for ever? Or to be employed in those holy works that must prepare you for this day, and help you to this assurance? If God be naught for you, if holiness, and righteousness, and temperance be naught for you, then you may as well say, heaven is naught for you.
    ... Richard Baxter (1615-1691), Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, v. VIII, London: J. Duncan, 1830, p. 181 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me the self-control to wait in patience for Your day. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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