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The Reformed Pastor


by Richard Baxter, excerpted from The Reformed Pastor (1656)

Many a tailor can go in rags while making costly clothes for others. Many a cook may scarcely lick his fingers when he has prepared the most sumptuous dishes for others to eat. Believe it, brethren, that God never saved any man for being a preacher. Nor did he reject a man because he was not an able preacher. He saved a preacher because he was a justified and sanctified man.

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves first. See to it that you be the worshiper which you persuade your hearers to be. Make sure first that you believe what you persuade others daily to believe.  Make sure you have heartily entertained the Christ and the Holy Spirit in your own soul before you offer Him to others. He that bids you love your neighbor as yourself implied that you should love yourself instead of hating and destroying yourself—and others, too.

O dear brothers, what men then should we be in skill, in resolution, and in unwearied diligence, that have all this to contend with and to do?  Did not Paul cry out, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16). Can we then afford to be proud and lazy, as if we were sufficient? As Peter says to every Christian when considering the charge, there should be the reflection of our character: “What manner of person ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” (2 Peter 3:11). So may I say to every minister, seeing how all these challenges lie upon us, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy endeavors and resolutions for work!

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