A26870:200
A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and…
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.
London: printed for B. Simmons, 1681
Chapter 8: Of her Mental Qualifications, and her Infirmities.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 16. One infirmity made her faulty in the omission of much of her duty: She was wont to say, that she had from her childhood Imprinted a deep fear and hatred of hypocrisy on her mind, that she could never do the outside of her duty, as to the speaking part, for fear of hypocrisy: I scarce ever met with a person that was abler to speak long, for matter and good language, without repetitions, even about Religious things; and few that had more desire that it were well done; and yet she could not do it her self for fear of seeming to be guilty of ostentation. In good company she would speak little of that which she most desired to hear. When I was at any time from home, she would not pray in the Family, though she could not endure to be without it. She would privately talk to the servants, and read good books to them. Most of the open speaking part of Religion she omitted, through a diseased enmity to ostentation and hypocrisy. But of late years, when she saw me and others too sparing in profitable speech to young and ignorant people, she confessed that she saw her error, and that even an hypocrite, using but the words and outside of Religion, was better to others than silence and unprofitable omission was.
§. 16. One infirmity made her faulty in the omission of much of her duty: She was wont to say, that she had from her childhood Imprinted a deep fear and hatred of hypocrisie on her mind, that she could never do the outside of her duty, as to the speaking part, for fear of hypocrisie: I scarce ever met with a person that was abler to speak long, for matter and good language, without repetitions, even about Religious things; and few that had more desire that it were well done; and yet she could not do it her self for fear of seeming to be guilty of ostentation. In good company she would speak little of that which she most desired to hear. When I was at any time from home, she would not pray in the Family, though she could not endure to be without it. She would privately talk to the servants, and read good books to them. Most of the open speaking part of Religion she omitted, through a diseased enmity to ostentation and hypocrisie. But of late years, when she saw me and others too sparing in profitable speech to young and ignorant people, she confest that she saw her error, and that even an hypocrite, using but the words and outside of Religion, was better to others than silence and unprofitable omission was.