Richard Baxter's Introduction: A Message to the Worldly and Ungodly
To all the ignorant, worldly, and ungodly who love pleasure more than God, who pursue this world more than eternal life, and who live according to the flesh rather than the Spirit: These calls and counsels are directed to you in hope of your conversion to God and your salvation.
Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.
Miserable Souls.
There is a life, light, and love in every true believer, but especially in every faithful minister of Christ, that compels us to long and labor for your salvation. Life is communicative and active. It makes us keenly aware that faith is not a fantasy, true religion is not a stage play, and our hopes of eternal happiness are not a dream. And just as we desire nothing more for ourselves than to have more of the holy life which we possess (alas, in such small measure), what should we desire more for others?
With the eye of an infallible (though too weak) faith, we see the heaven you neglect and the blessed souls in glory with Christ, whose companions you could be forever. We see the multitudes of souls in hell who arrived there by the same path you are now traveling. They are shut out from the glorious presence of God and are now among those devils who deceived them, remembering that they had their good things here (Luke 16:25), and how they spent the day of their visitation, and how lightly they once regarded God, Christ, heaven, and mercy while mercy was earnestly pleading for their hearts.
And with our physical eyes we see at the same time a multitude of poor sinners living around us as if there were no God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell, no judgment, and not even death to be expected. They live as if a human being were merely a superior beast, meant to rule the rest and feed on them and perish with them.
If you could see for yourselves what we see by faith (believing God), and at once behold the saints in heaven, the lost despairing souls in hell, and the senseless worldly sinners on earth who still refuse to take any of this to heart, surely it would make you marvel at the stupidity of humanity. Wouldn't you say, "Oh, what a deceiver is the devil who can thus lead souls on to their own damnation! Oh, what a cheat is this passing world that can make people so forget the world where they must live forever! Oh, what an enemy is this flesh that drags people's souls down from God! Oh, what a stupefying thing is sin that turns a reasonable soul into something worse than a beast!"
Through faith, we see your condition clearly enough to pity you. At the same time, we've tasted enough of God's goodness, the sweetness of His ways, and the happiness believers enjoy that we can't help wishing you had experienced these same delights just once. If you had, the pleasures of sin would turn to disgust. God knows we want nothing more for ourselves than the perfection and eternity of this holiness and happiness we believe in and taste. Shouldn't we want the same for you?
Moved by this necessary pity, we ask God what He would have us do for your salvation. He has told us in Scripture that preaching His gospel is the means He uses. Our task is to explain the truth plainly and earnestly, frequently urging you to turn from the flesh and the world to God through Jesus Christ. His grace is ready to work alongside this message for your salvation, unless stubborn resistance causes the Holy Spirit to abandon the sinner and leave him to himself, to follow his own plans, lusts, and desires.
We entered the sacred ministry with this hope in mind, dedicating ourselves to this great and critically important work. We did so with a deep awareness of our own inadequacy, but also with a clear understanding of your souls' desperate need. When we first began, we weren't naive enough to think this would be easy. We knew it would demand hard work, self-denial, and patience. We knew the devil would do everything in his power to obstruct us, and that all kinds of people serving his purposes would oppose our efforts and threaten your souls.
What do you think would motivate us to take on a calling that goes so completely against our natural comfort and self-interest? Don't we know the path to ease and honor, to wealth and pleasure, just as well as anyone else? Don't we have the same human nature as everyone else? Wouldn't we be happy to let the cup of reproach, scorn, slander, poverty, and hard labor pass us by, if it weren't for God's will and your salvation?
I've explained our reasons. I've told you our mission and what we're asking of you. Now it's up to God and you sinners to determine what kind of reception and results we'll get. Will it still be neglect and ungrateful contempt? Will you keep turning away your ears and hearts, saying you have other things to worry about? Will you keep letting this deceptive world trick you, spending all your days stuffing your bellies and caring for flesh that will soon be rotting in a grave?
Were you made for nothing better than this? Can't we bring you to think soberly about your condition, not even for one hour to seriously consider where you're headed? What, not even one awakened look into the world where you'll spend eternity? Not one thought that lifts your heart toward everlasting glory? Not one thought that pierces your heart about all your Savior's love? Not one tear for your entire sinful life? God forbid. Don't let our work be so despised. Don't treat your God, your Savior, and your souls so lightly.
Poor sinners! We're not talking to you like actors on a stage, using rehearsed words just because speaking this way is our job. We're as serious with you as if we saw you all killing yourselves and were trying to persuade you to save your lives. How can anyone who believes God joke with you? Anyone who by faith sees where you're headed, what you're losing, and where the game of sin will end?
We confess with shame and grief that we never speak to you about these things as their truth and weight deserve, nor with the skill and wisdom, the affection and intensity that should mark people engaged in saving souls. But you can see that we're deadly serious with you. (God certainly is.) What else do we study for, work for, suffer for, live for?
Come on then, poor sinners, and help those of us who are willing to do whatever it takes to help you. Just as we first ask for God's help, we now ask for yours: Help us, because we can't save you against your will, and we can't save you without your consent and cooperation. God Himself won't save you without your participation, so how could we?
And if you want to help us, stop fighting against God and your conscience. Stop battling against Christ and His Spirit. Stop siding with the world and the flesh, which you renounced at your baptism. Pay attention to the message we're bringing you. Give it your serious, rational thought. Search the Scriptures and see whether what we're telling you is true or not.
We're not offering you anything we haven't deliberately chosen for ourselves, and that after the most careful consideration we could give it. We've looked around many times to figure out what true human happiness is. And if we'd found something better for ourselves, we would have offered something better to you. If the world could have satisfied us, it would have satisfied you too, and we wouldn't have bothered you with talk about another world. But it won't. I'm certain it won't satisfy you or make you happy, and you won't be able to keep deceiving yourself with it much longer the way you do now.
But if you won't think about these things, if you won't use the reasoning ability that makes you human, what more can we do to save your souls? O Lord, have pity on them so they may pity themselves. Show them mercy so they may show themselves some mercy. Help them so they may help themselves and us.
If you still refuse, won't your loss be far greater than ours? If we lose our labor (though we won't lose it for ourselves), if we lose our hope of seeing you saved, what is that compared to your eternal loss of salvation itself? And what is our suffering for your sake compared to your endless suffering?
