Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

Lawson than from any Divine that gave me Animadversions, or that ever I conversed with: For two or three Passages in my first Reply to him he convinced me were Mistakes, and I found up and down in him those hints of Truths which had a great deal of Light in them, and were very apt for good Improvement: Especially his instigating me to the Study of Politics, (in which he much lamented the Ignorance of Divines) did prove a singular Benefit to me. I confess it is long of my own Uncapableness that I have received no more good from others: But yet I must be so grateful as to confess that my Understanding hath made a better Improvement (for the sudden sensible increase of my Knowledge) of Grotius de Satisfactione Christi, and of Mr. Lawson's Manuscripts, than of any thing else that ever I read; and they convinced me how unfit we are to write about Christ's Government, and Law, and Judgment, &c. while we understand not the true Nature of Government, Laws, and Judgment in the general; and that he that is ignorant of Politics and of the Law of Nature, will be ignorant and erroneous in Divinity and the sacred Scriptures.

Lawson than from any Divine that gave me Animadversions, or that ever I conversed with: For two or three Passages in my first Reply to him he convinced me were Mistakes, and I found up and down in him those hints of Truths which had a great deal of Light in them, and were very apt for good Improvement: Especially his instigating me to the Study of Politicks, (in which he much lamented the Ignorance of Divines) did prove a singular Benefit to me. I confess it is long of my own Uncapableness that I have received no more good from others: But yet I must be so grateful as to confess that my Understanding hath made a better Improvement (for the sudden sensible increase of my Knowledge) of Grotius de Satisfactione Christi, and of Mr. Lawson's Manuscripts, than of any thing else that ever I read; and they convinced me how unfit we are to write about Christ's Government, and Law, and Iudgment, &c. while we understand not the true Nature of Government, Laws, and Iudgment in the general; and that he that is ignorant of Politicks and of the Law of Nature, will be ignorant and erroneous in Divinity and the sacred Scriptures.

§ 157. 2. The Second Book which I wrote(and the first which I began) was that called, The Saints everlasting Rest: Whilst I was in Health I had not the least thought of writing Books; or of serving God in any more public way than Preaching: But when I was weakened with great bleeding, and left solitary in my Chamber at Sir John Cook's in Derbyshire, without any Acquaintance, but my Servant, about me, and was sentenced to Death by the Physician, I began to contemplate more seriously on the Everlasting Rest which I apprehended my self to be just on the Borders of. And that my Thoughts might not too much scatter in my Meditation, I began to write something on that Subject, intending but the Quantity of a Sermon or two (which is the cause that the Beginning is in brevity and Style disproportionable to the rest); but being continued long in Weakness, where I had no Books nor no better Employment, I followed it on till it was enlarged to the bulk in which it is published: The first Three Weeks I spent in it was at Mr. Nowel's House at Kirkby-Mallory in Leicestershire; a quarter of a Year more, at the Seasons which so great Weakness would allow, I bestowed on it at Sir Tho Rous's House at Rous-Lench in Worcestershire; and I finished it shortly after at Kidderminster: The first and last Parts were first done, being all that I intended for my own use; and the second and third Parts came afterwards in besides my first Intention.