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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26870	A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and wife of Richard Baxter ... : there is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughters request, called, The last work of a believer, his passing-prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1194; ESTC R1213	62,400	127

near nineteen years I know not that ever we had any breach in point of love or point of interest save only that she somewhat grudged that I had persuaded her for my quietness to surrender so much of her Estate to a disabling her from helping others so much as she earnestly desired § 4. But that even this was not from a covetous mind is evident by these instances 1. Though her Portion which was 2000 l. besides that given up aforesaid was by ill debtors 200 l. lost in her Mothers time and 200 l. after before her Marriage and all she had reduced to almost 1650 l. yet she never grudged at any thing that the poverty of Debtors deprived her of 2. She had before been acquainted with the Lord Chancellor's offering me a Bishoprick and though it might have taken off the censure of those Relations that thought she debased her self in marrying me and also might have seemed desirable to her for the Wealth as well as the Honour she was so far from desiring my accepting it that I am persuaded had I done it it would have alienated her much from me in point of esteem and love Not that she had any opinion against Episcopacy then that ever I could perceive but that she abhorred a worldly mercenary mind in a Minister of Christ and was a sharp Censurer of all that for gain or honour or worldly ends would stretch their consciences to any thing that they thought God forbad And I am assured though towards her end she wisht she had been abler to relieve the needy and do more good yet she lived a far more contented life in our mean condition even when she stoopt to receive from others that had been strangers to her than she would have done had I been a Bishop and she had had many thousand pounds more at her dispose yea I am persuaded the would not easily have endured it 3. Another tryal of her as to Wealth and Honour was when I and all such others were cast out of all possession and hope of all Ecclesiastical maintenance she was not ignorant of the scorn and the jealousies and wrath and prosecutions that I was like to be exposed to yea she had heard and seen it already begun by Bishop Morley's forbidding me to preach before and preaching himself and his Dean and many others fiercely against me in Kederminster Pulpit she had quickly heard them that were cast out and silenced deeply accused as if they had deserved it To chuse a participation of such a life that had no encouragement from any worldly Wealth or Honour yea that was exposed to such certain suffering which had no end in prospect on this side death did shew that she was far from covetousness Much more evidence of this I shall shew you as it falls in its place § 5. Among other troubles that her Marriage exposed her to one was our oft necessitated removals which to those that must take Houses and bind themselves to Landlords and fit and furnish them is more than for single persons that have no such clogs or cares First We took a House in Moorefields after at Acton next that another at Acton and after that another there and after that we were put to remove to one of the former again and after that to divers others in another place and County as followeth and the women have most of that sort of trouble But she easily bare it all And I know not that ever she came to any place where she did not extraordinarily win the love of the inhabitants unless in any street where she staid so short a time as not to be known to them Had she had but the riches of the world to have done the good that she had a heart to do how much would she have been loved who in her mean and low condition won so much And her carriage won more love than her liberality she could not endure to hear one give another any sowr rough or hasty word her speech and countenance was always kind and civil whether she had any thing to give or not And all her kindness tended to some better end than barely to relieve peoples bodily wants even to oblige them to some duty that tended to the good of their souls or to deliver them from some straits which fill'd them with hurtful care and became a matter of great temptation to them If she could hire the poor to hear Gods word from Conformist or Nonconformist or to read good serious practical Books whether written by Conformists or Noncon formists it answered her end and desire and many an hundred books hath she given to those ends But of these things more hereafter This is here but to answer the foresaid objection and to lead on to the following particular passages of her life § 6. While I was at Acton her carriage and charity so won the people there that all that I ever heard of greatly esteemed and loved her And she being earnestly desirous of doing good prepared her house for the reception of those that would come in to be instructed by me between the morning and evening publick Assemblies and after And the people that had never been used to such things accounted worldly ignorant persons gave us great hopes of their edification and reformation and filled the Room and went with me also into the Church which was at my door And when I was after removed the people hearing that I again wanted a house being ten miles off they unanimously subscribed a request to me to return to my old house with them and offered to pay my house-rent which I took kindly and it was much her winning conversation which thus won their love § 7. When I was carried thence to the common Goal for teaching them as aforesaid I never perceived her troubled at it she cheerfully went with me into Prison she brought her best bed thither and did much to remove the removable inconveniencies of the Prison I think she had scarce ever a pleasanter time in her life than while she was with me there And whereas people upon such occasions were not unapt to be liberal it was against her mind to receive more than necessity required Only three persons gave me just as much as paid Lawyers and prison-charges and when one offered me more she would not receive it But all was far short of the great charges of our removal to another habitation § 8. The Parliament making a new sharper Law against us I was forced to remove into another County thither she went with me and removed her Goods that were movable from Acton to Totteridge being engaged for the Rent of the house we left At Totteridge the first year few poor people are put to the hardness that she was put to we could have no house but part of a poor Farmers where the Chimneys so extreamly smoak't as greatly annoyed her health for it was a very hard Winter and the Coal-smoak so filled

she would modestly tell me of it If my very Looks seemed not pleasant she would have had me amend them which my weak pained state of Body undisposed me to do If I forgat any Week to Catechise my Servants and familiarly instruct them personally besides my ordinary Family-Duties she was troubled at my remisness And whereas of late years my decay of Spirits and diseased heaviness and pain made me much more seldom and cold in profitable Conference and Discourse in my house than I had been when I was younger and had more Ease and Spirits and natural Vigour she much blamed me and was troubled at it as a wrong to her self and others Though yet her judgment agreed with mine that too much and often Table-talk of the best things doth but tend to dull the common hearers and harden them under it as a customary thing And that too much good talk may bring it into contempt or make it ineffectual And of late years my constant weakness and pain made me unable to speak much in my ordinary course of Duty and my Writings Preachings and other publick Duty which I ever thought I was bound to prefer before lesser did so wholly take up those few hours of the day which I had out of my Bed that I was seldomer in secret Prayer with my Wife than she desired § 10. Indeed it troubleth me to think how oft I told her That I never understood Solomon's words Eccles. 7. 16. but by the Exposition of her case Be not righteous overmuch neither make thy self overwise Why shouldst thou destroy thy self I doubt not but Solomon spake of Humane Civil Righteousness and Wisdom as a means respecting Temporal Prosperity or Adversity rather than Spiritual holy Righteousness respecting God's everlasting Reward Or if it were extended to Religious Righteousness it can be but against Superstition falsly called Righteousness But as to our present case I must thus resolve the Question Whether one can be religiously wise and righteous overmuch And I Answer That we must distinguish between 1. Material and Formal Righteousness 2. Between Objective and Subjective measures of it 3. Of the good and bad consequents and effects And 1. no man can be formally and properly too wise or too righteous Else it would charge God with Errour For formal proper Righteousness is nothing but our Conformity to God's governing Will. And if our Obedience were too much and to be blamed God's commands were to be blamed that required it But very strict actions are commonly called Righteousness as a written Prayer or words are called a Prayer though properly wanting the Form it is not so And not only a good Object but a right End Principle and Mode and Circumstances go to make an Action righteous 2. That Action which compared with the Object cannot possibly be over-wise and righteous yet as compared with the Agent or Subject may be too much No man can know believe or love God too much nor answerable to his Perfections But one may possibly be transported with so earnest a desire of God Christ Christian Society Holiness and Heaven as may be more than Head and Health can bear And so it may be too much for the subject 3. Therefore the probable effects must be weighed He that should meditate read yea love God so intensly as to distract him would to it overmuch He that would do a good work precisely when the exactness would hinder the substance of another perhaps a better would be righteous overmuch And I thought this the case sometime of my dear Wife 1. She set her Head and Heart so intensly upon doing good that her Head and Body would hardly bear it As holy set Meditation is no Duty to a Melancholy person that cannot do it without confusion and danger of distraction so many other Duties are no Duties when they will do more harm than good 2 And a man is limited in his Capacity and his Time No man can do all the good he would and to omit a greater for the better doing of a lesser or to omit the substance of the one for exacter doing of another I thought was to be unrighteous by being righteous overmuch She and some others thought I had done better to have written fewer Books and to have done those few better I thought while I wrote none needlesly the modall imperfection of two was less evil than the total omission of one She thought I should have spent more time in Religious exercise with her my Family and my Neighbours though I had written less I thought there were many to do such work that would not do mine and that I chose the greatest which I durst not omit and could not do both in the measure that I desired else to have done § 11. As she saith before cited her self that if she was but in a condition in which Gods service was costly to her it would make her know whether she were sincere or not so she had her wish and proved her sincerity by her costliest obedience It cost her not only her labour and Estate but somewhat of her trouble of body and mind For her knife was too keen and cut the sheath Her desires were more earnestly set on doing good than her tender mind and head could well bear for indeed her great infirmity was the four Passions of Love Desire Fear and Trouble of Mind Anger she either had very little next none or little made it known She rarely ever spake in an angry manner She could not well bear to hear one speak loud or hastily or eagerly or angrily even to those that deserved it My temper in this she blamed as too quick and earnest When her servants did any fault unwillingly she scarce ever told them of it when one lost Ten Pounds worth of Linnen in carriage carelesly and another Ten Pounds worth of Plate by negligence she shewed no anger at any such thing If servants had done amiss and we could not prove it or knew not which did it she would never ask them her self nor suffer others lest it should tempt them to hide it by a lye unless it were a servant that feared God and would not lye I took her deep and long sense of the faults of over-loved and obliged persons to be one of her greatest faults But no one was ever readier to forgive a fault confessed or which weakness and religious differences caused I will give but one instance The good woman whom she used to hire the Rooms over St. Iameses Market-house was greatly against the Common-prayer and first made my Wife feel whether I meant to use it before she would take it I told her I intended not to use it but would not promise her Upon that my Wife told her that I would not After this I caused the Reader to read the Psalms Chapters Creed Decalogue and I used the Lord Prayer and I openly told them that we met not as a Separated distinct Church but for the time

your daily study and let me in writing see some fruits of your labours before I go hence and be seen here no more Be not wanting to your own Comforts and you cannot displease God nor your Mother who longs more after your Eternal Good than I can now utter My Love to you all and Prayers for you all I continue Your most tenderly Loving Mother M. H. § 22. In another to Oxford 1657. ALL will work for good to them that love God I hope you are one of those The Lord direct your paths that you may work out your Salvation with fear and trembling in your Youth and not let time slip till Age which will come or Death before it on all flesh and an account must be given of the precious Time which we now neglect I have more to say but when I see you it will be done with more ease The Lord keep you all and make you faithful to the Death that you may receive the Crown of Glory which is the Prayer of her that tendreth the good of your Soul M. H. § 23. In 1659. In another she writes thus MY dear Child My greatest Trouble is that I can have no better account of your health of Body yet surely the cure of the Soul is of far more worth Therefore I faint not Else I could not subsist under the heavy stroke which I have justly deserved Who knows but my sins may be some cause of thy distress of Soul However let us return to the Lord and he will heal all our breaches and will bind up all our Sores and will give us a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens where we shall never be forc'd asunder and all Infirmities shall be left behind and we shall take up all pleasure in the enjoyment of our Heavenly Redeemer In the mean time let us with courage and confidence press hard toward the mark for the price of that calling which was set before us For the things which are seen are temporal but the the things which are not seen are eternal I can go no further but cannot forget to be Thy truly Loving Mother M. H. This was written to her in her sickness when for better Air she lay at Old Mr. Richard Foly's house at Stourbridge § 24. I have transcribed these to shew the mind and care of the good Gentlewoman and what cause I and my Neighbours had of comassion to her in her Sorrows when she was separated from an only Son whose welfare she had prosecuted with so strong affection and long labour and patience and began to have much comfort in this Daughter whom she had formerly least valued and thought she must so suddenly leave her Let those that think these too little matters to be told the World remember that Neerness Love and Sorrow may be allowed to make things greater to me than they seem to those that are not so concerned in them And that Mr. Fox in his Book of Martyrs publisheth a great number of as mean Letters as any of these even some of women and some written to the Martyrs as well as those written by them And while I say that I will add that though for Nineteen years I was so seldom from her that she had few Letters of mine yet those which she had I find now among her reserved Papers And that you may see what it was that I' thought she most desired and what she her self most valued I will here add one of them not venturing to trouble such with more as are affected little with any matters but their own which is the case of most I recite this rather than others partly also as an act of repentance for those failings of her just expectations by the neglect of such helps as I should have given her which I had here mentioned For though she oft said that before she Married me she expected more sowrness and unsuitableness than she found yet I am sure that she found less zeal and holiness and strictness in all words and looks and duties and less help for her soul than she expected And her temper was to aggravate a fault much more in her nearest and dearest friends than in any others and to be far more troubled at them But this use she made of my too cold and careless converse and of all my impatiency with her impatience and of all my hasty words that she that had long thought she had no grace because she reach 't not higher than almost any reach on Earth and because she had many Passions and Infirmities perceived by me and many other esteemed Teachers that we were all as bad as she and therefore grace doth stand with more faultiness than she had imagined and that all our teaching much excelled the frame of our souls and lives and was much more worthy to be followed and therefore that God would also pardon such failings as her own THough I have received none from you but one by Mr. H. I will not be avenged on you by the like I have nothing of News or business to communicate but to tell you that we are all here yet as well as you left us excepting what your absence causeth And yet I must confess I find that it is easier to be oft speaking to God when I have no body else to speak to than when there are other Competitors Expectants or Interpellators Just as I can easier now fill my Paper to thee with some speech of God when I have nothing else to put into it than I can when many other matters are craving every one a place It is our shame that the Love and Glory of God doth not silence every other Suiter and even in the midst of crowds and business take us up and and press every creature and occasion for their service But while we are weak and compassed with flesh we must not only consider what we should do but what we can do It is our great fault that we are no skilfuller and faithfuller in helping one another that we might miss each other on better reasons than meerly from the inclinations of Love I hope God will make us better hereafter that when we are asunder each of us may say I miss the help for Watchfulness and Heavenliness for true Love and Thankfulness to God which I was wont to have But O! what an enemy is a naughty heart which maketh us unable for our duty alone and makes us need the help of others and yet will not suffer us to use it when we have it When we are alone it maketh us impediments to our selves and when we are in company it maketh us impediments to others Yet is there none no not the weakest of Christians but there is much in them that we might improve But we are so bad and backward at it that Satan too commonly hath his end in making us unprofitable to each other If a good Horse or a good House be a valuable mercy how much more

not thought that his Book was disgraced if he wrote not over again all that every one else had written before him But my fault lay 1. In believing Dr. Stillingfleet who tells us That these Papers were written in K. Edward's Reign which made me look for them in Dr. Burnet's Second Volume where they are not And another affirming to me that he saw them in that second Volume and I perusing it purposely a second time confirmed me But Dr. B. saith Dr. Stillingfleet was mistaken many years and that they were written long before in the Reign of Hen. 8. and so he hath them in his first Volume which I had not perused not expecting them there And for this hasty judging I beg his Pardon As to these little private Histories of mine own Family forementioned I was loath to cast by mine own Mother-in-Laws Life She being a person of so long and extraordinay Holiness living long with Sir Robert Harley whose Lady was her Cousin-German and after at Shrewsbury and after with my Father and me c. in so great Communion with God contempt of the World and all its Pomp and Vanity so great Victory over the flesh and so long desires to die and especially in much constant fervent successful Prayer that had marvellous answers as very few Christians attain And I was loath to have cast by the Narrative of my Wifes Mother for some Reasons not now to be mentioned and because her Daughters extraordinary Love to her made her just honour very dear to her But her Character is in the Sermon truly given you But I am convinced by the judgment of my Friends that publick things are fittest for publick notice And I feel that Love Grief and Nearness affect me with the matters that are so near me and as it doth not much concern the world to know whether I am sick or well dead or alive or whether ever I had a being though it concerns me So I should think of the concerns of my Friends Affection makes us think our own or our Friends affairs to be such as the world should be affected with I perceive this weakness and submit That which is left out of the Narrative of my Wifes Life is the occasions and inducements of our Marriage and some passages between some Relatives and her which the world is not concerned yet at least to know If this that is written seem useless to any it will not hurt them if they leave it to others that find it more suitable to them All things be not agreeable to all That may be useful to persons of her own quality which is not so to many others To her Nephews and Neeces and some other Kindred who were also near to her and for whose sake above most others I write it you cannot think that it will be altogether useless O that they would all imitate her in all that is praise-worthy and needful to themselves The grand Objection I foresee will be That I seem but to predicate some of mine own good Works by praising hers And must I needs bury the memory of them as hers for fear of the sting of such Objectors I have told them truly It is not my own acts but those that were properly hers that I there mention It is not her giving of my Money which I there recite but that which either was her own and none of mine or else procured by her for those uses and the Works such in which I was but the Executor of her Will She is gone after many of my choicest Friends who within this one year are gone to Christ and I am following even at the door Had I been to enjoy them only here it would have been but a short comfort mixt with the many troubles which all our Failings and Sins and some degree of unsuitableness between the nearest and dearest cause But I am going after them to that Blessed Society where Life Light and Love and therefore Harmony Concord and Ioy are perfect and everlasting Reader While I give thee but the Truth forgive the effects of Age Weakness and Grief And if before I get over this owned Passion I publish also a few Poetical Fragments partly suited to the condition of some sick or sad afflicted Friends and partly to my own if thou accept them not forgive them only and neglect them As the man is such will be his thoughts and works The Lord prosper our preparation for our great approaching Change To leave this world for ever and enter upon an endless Life where we shall speed according to the preparations of this little inch of time doth certainly bespeak the most scrious Thoughts the wisest and speediest Care and Diligence the most patient Suffering the most unwearied Labour the most frugal use of all our Time the most resolute resistance to all Temptations and to the Faithful the most joyful Hopes July 23. 1681. Rich. Baxter A Breviate of the Life of Margaret the Daughter of Francis Charlton Esque and late Wife of Richard Baxter who dyed June 14. 1681. CHAP. I. Her Parentage and the occasion of our acquaintance § THough due affection make me willing to give the world a Narrative which else I had omitted yet the fear of God hath not so forsaken me that I should willingly deliver any falshood through partiality or passion but as I knew more of this person than any other for the good of the Readers and the honour of Gods grace in her I shall by Gods assistance truly report the things which I knew § 2. We were born in the same County within three miles and an half of each other but she of one of the chief Families in the County and I but of a mean Freeholder called a Gentleman for his Ancestors sake but of a small Estate though sufficient Her Father Francis Charlton Esq was one of the best Justices of the Peace in that County a grave and sober worthy man but did not marry till he was aged and gray and so dyed while his children were very young who were three of which the eldest daughter and his only son are yet alive He had one surviving Brother who after the Fathers death maintained a long and costly suit about the Guardianship of the Heir yet living This Unkle Robert was a comely sober Gentleman but the wise and good Mother Mary durst not trust her only Son in the hands of one that was his next heir And she thought that Nature gave her a greater Interest in him than an Unkle had But it being in the heat of the late Civil War Robert being for the Parliament had the advantage of strength which put her to seek relief at Oxford from the King and afterwards to marry one Mr. Hanmer who was for the King to make her interest that way Her house being a sort of a small Castle was now garisoned for the King But at last Robert procured it to be besieged by the Parliament's Soldiers and stormed and