Pithy Gems from Richard Baxter. Nothing below heaven is worth setting our hearts upon. Keep up a humble sense of your own faults, and that will make you compassionate to others. unity in things necessary, liberty in things not necessary, and charity in all things.

Speak to your people as to those who must be awakened, either here or in hell. We must screw the truth into men's minds. What we most value, we shall think no pain's too great to gain.

Be of good cheer, Christian. The time is near when God in you shall be as near as you can desire. You shall dwell in his family. You shall then have joy without sorrow and rest without weariness.

There is not a soul in hell but knows that it was a mad exchange to forfeit heaven for a little mirth or fleshly pleasure or worldly riches or honor. Nothing can quench hellfire. There can be no reason to warrant a man to damn his eternal soul.

Will hell not be as hot to you as to others? Heaven will pay for the loss of anything that we lose to get it, but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven. The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot desire them.

Is it possible that a man can have any good reason to damn his own immortal soul? Is eternal damnation a thing to be desired? Are you in love with hell? What reason have you to willfully perish? There is no separating sin and hell.

Heaven is such a thing that, if you lose it, nothing can make up the loss. Hell is such a thing that, if you suffer it, nothing can remove your misery or give you ease and comfort. If damnation and hell are pleasant to you, then it is no wonder that you go on in sin.

Are the pleasures of this world to be valued above the joys of heaven? Are they worth the sufferings of eternal hellfire? Men will damn themselves for a little sinful pleasure and run into endless torments for a little earthly delight. It is easier to hear of hell than feel it.

Unless you are converted, you are but dead and damned men. O sinner, if you did but know the thousandth part of the danger that is near you, and the misery that you are running into, you would turn to God at once.