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Richard Baxter (1615-1691):A Model of Pastoral Leadership for

Evangelism and Church GrowthTimothy K. Beougher

Timothy K. Beougher is Billy

Graham Professor of Evangelism and

Church Growth at The Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary, where he has

taught since 1996. Dr. Beougher co-

edited Accounts of Campus Revival and

Evangelism for a Changing World, and

is the author of several scholarly articles.

He is currently at work on a biography

of Richard Baxter.

IntroductionIn his autobiography, nineteenth centurypreacher Charles Haddon Spurgeonrecords a conversation he had with his wifeone Sunday evening: “I fear I have notbeen as faithful in my preaching today as Ishould have been; I have not been as muchin earnest after poor souls as God wouldhave me be. . . . Go, dear, to the study, andfetch down Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, andread some of it to me; perhaps that willquicken my sluggish heart.”1

Spurgeon was not the only one helpedby the seventeenth century British Puri-tan’s writings. Baxter has been called thegreatest of all English preachers, the vir-tual creator of popular Christian literature,and “the most successful preacher andwinner of souls and nurturer of won soulsthat England has ever had.”2 Who was thisman? What does he have to say to ustoday?

Dr. William Bates, who preachedBaxter’s funeral message, recognized thedifficulty of summarizing the life of thisman:

I am sensible that in speaking of himI shall be under a double disadvan-tage: for those who perfectly knewhim will be apt to think my accountof him to be short and defective, animperfect shadow of his resplendentvirtues; others, who were unac-quainted with his extraordinaryworth, will, from ignorance or envy,be inclined to think his just praisesto be undue and excessive.3

And one biographer warns of trying tocompress Baxter’s life into a few pages,saying, “Men of his size should not bedrawn in miniature.”4

Early LifeRichard Baxter was born November 12,

1615, at Rowton, a village in Shropshire,England.5 It was his destiny to live andminister throughout most of the seven-teenth century, a watershed in Englishhistory. Before his death in 1691, he wouldwitness the English Civil War, the behead-ing of Charles I, the Commonwealthunder Oliver Cromwell, the Restoration ofthe monarchy under Charles II, the perse-cution of Nonconformity, the Great Ejec-tion of some two thousand Puritan pastorsfrom their churches, and the struggle fortoleration, which culminated in the Act ofToleration of 1689. Baxter was no passiveobserver of these events, no idle bystander.As a prominent religious leader, he activelyparticipated in the numerous political andecclesiastical struggles of his day.

When viewed in light of his later influ-ence, Baxter’s early years were far fromauspicious. No one could have guessedthat this boy, born to Richard and BeatriceBaxter, would amount to much of any-thing. He was forced to live until the ageof ten with his maternal grandfatherbecause of his father’s gambling debts.6

His early schooling proved a great disap-pointment. In six years he had four differ-

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ent schoolmasters, all of them “ignorant”or “drunkards.”7

After his father’s conversion, youngRichard returned to his parental home atEaton Constantine.8 Unfortunately, how-ever, his return brought no improvementin his educational environment. The vicarthere, who was over eighty and “neverpreached in his life,” brought forth a mot-ley assortment of substitutes to fill in forhim: among them a day-labourer, a stage-player, a common drunkard.9 The condi-tion of the area clergy and churches was solow that little or nothing could be expectedfrom them in the way of spiritual nurture.10

The crude and meaningless manner ofhis confirmation at age fourteen only madematters worse. The bishop did not exam-ine any of the boys who were present as totheir spiritual condition. Instead he quicklylined them up and passed down the line,laying his hands on them and uttering afew words of a prayer that neither Baxternor the other boys could decipher. Andas Baxter later would lament, “He wasesteemed as one of the best bishops inEngland!”11 Baxter’s comments demon-strate that the Puritans had legitimate com-plaints about the spiritual state of theChurch of England.

Conversion and EducationDespite the lack of piety in the estab-

lished church, young Richard was not leftwithout spiritual guidance. Through hisfather’s example and by the reading ofsome Christian books, Baxter recounts thatat about age fifteen “it pleased God toawaken my soul.”12 The role that booksplayed in his conversion was not lost onBaxter, and he would write numeroustreatises on conversion to help others findthe way of salvation through Christianliterature.

He passionately desired universitytraining but had to settle for private tutor-ing at Ludlow Castle under RichardWickstead. Wickstead, however, all butneglected Baxter, forcing him to begin whatproved to be a lifetime of learning throughindependent study. Baxter’s greatest regretwas the neglect of languages in his educa-tion: “Besides the Latin Tongue, and but amediocrity in Greek (with an inconsider-able trial at the Hebrew long after) I hadno great skill in Languages.”13 Stephenargues that Baxter was guilty of understate-ment, claiming that Baxter was “ignorantof Hebrew—a mere smatterer in Greek—and possessed of as much Latin as enabledhim . . . to use it with reckless facility.”14

Though not formally tutored, Baxtermade good use of the excellent library atLudlow Castle.15 He was a vociferousreader, with one biographer arguing thatBaxter probably read more books than anyhuman being before him.16 While thatclaim would be impossible to verify, one isoverwhelmed by Baxter’s incessant cita-tion of other sources in his own writings,often from memory.

Baxter’s lack of formal training refinedhis logical mindset, independent thinking,and his eclecticism. He was beholden to noparticular school of thought; he felt free toborrow from them all, and to critique themall. When criticized for taking a positionagainst the common consensus on a par-ticular issue, Baxter replied that he valuedtheologians by “weight, not by number.”17

OrdinationA growing desire to be used in the

conversion of others led him to seek ordi-nation within the Church of England.Immediately after his ordination Baxterserved for nine months as a schoolmasterin Dudley while preaching in vacant pul-

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pits on Sundays. In the autumn of 1639Baxter left Dudley for the position ofcurate (assistant pastor) in Bridgnorth,where he remained for nearly two years.

While Baxter was at Bridgnorth, theparishioners of Kidderminster18 threatenedto petition Parliament against their vicarand his assistant on charges of incompe-tence and drunkenness. (Baxter recordsthat the vicar’s preaching was so terriblethat his own wife would leave the servicesin shame.19 ) To avoid the scandalous con-sequences of exposure from such a petition,the Vicar of Kidderminster agreed to dis-miss his assistant and offered to give uphis pulpit to any lecturer whom the parish-ioners might select.20 The parishionersformed a “selection” committee of fourteenmembers, and in March, 1641, they invitedBaxter to be their lecturer.21

Pastoral MinistryBaxter accepted the position of lecturer

at Kidderminster in 1641. Here in a town-ship of three or four thousand, Baxterexercised his pastoral ministry first forfifteen months, and then, after a five yearinterruption because of the English CivilWar, for fourteen years. It is ironic thatthe very thing for which Baxter is nowrenowned, his pastoral work, was not fore-most on his heart when he accepted thecharge. In fact, one of the great attractionsof this position to him was that at Kidder-minster he would have no official pastoralobligations outside of merely preachingeach week.22

When the Civil War broke out in 1642,Baxter was forced to withdraw from hisparish. Though loyal to the monarchy, hehad already intimated his sympathy withthe Parliamentary party, regarding it as thechampion of religion and liberty. Baxter’ssympathies with Parliament inflamed the

Royalists of the town against him. Theentire county had declared openly itssupport for the king, and Kidderminsterwas entirely under the influence of Royal-ist families living there. So despite hisefforts to remain aloof from the struggle,after one of the townspeople had publiclydenounced him as a traitor, Baxter foundhe could only remain there at the risk oflosing his life.23

When he left, Baxter fully expected toreturn within a few weeks, thinking thewar would come to a speedy end. Actu-ally, he was away for nearly five years. Hefirst went to Coventry, where he preachedonce a week to the soldiers. Three yearslater he accepted a chaplaincy in Crom-well’s army, a post he held for two years.

He was forced to resign his chaplaincybecause of poor health, and for five monthsBaxter languished near death at the homeof friends, Sir Thomas and Lady Jane Rous.During these months in 1647 he took uphis pen and wrote most of The Saints’ Ever-

lasting Rest.Baxter notes in the dedication that he

wrote the book with “one foot in thegrave.” His account of the origin andprogress of the work is interesting:

The second book which I wrote . . .was that called The Saints’ Everlast-ing Rest. Whilst I was in health I hadnot the least thought of writingbooks, or of serving God in any morepublic way than preaching. Butwhen I was weakened with greatbleeding . . . and was sentenced todeath by the physicians, I began tocontemplate more seriously on theeverlasting rest which I appre-hended myself to be just on the bor-ders of. And that my thoughts mightnot too much scatter in my medita-tion, I began to write something onthat subject . . .24

The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, eventually

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published in 1649, was a runaway best-seller, bringing Baxter immediate fame. Inten years it went through ten editions, sell-ing thousands of copies.

Baxter maintains, “Weakness and painhelped me to study how to die; that set meon studying how to live.”25 Baxter believedthat his sickness provided numerous ben-efits including greatly weakening tempta-tions, keeping him in a great contempt ofthe world, and teaching him to highlyesteem time.26 Most significantly, Baxterclaims that his illness, “made me study andpreach things necessary, and a little stirredup my sluggish heart to speak to sinnerswith some compassion, as a dying man to

dying men.”27

This phrase became his motto, a guide-post for his life and ministry. He uses thephrase over and over in his works. Hislife was a continual struggle against death.He was harassed by a constant cough, fre-quent bleedings from the nose, migraineheadaches, digestive ailments, kidneystones, gall stones, etc., etc., etc. He hasbeen referred to as a virtual “museum ofdiseases.”28 Living in an era before pain-killers, Baxter tells us that from the age oftwenty-one onwards that he was “seldoman hour free from pain.”29 Eayrs notes thatBaxter was “at death’s door twentytimes.”30 John Brown asserts, “If RichardBaxter had done nothing but take care ofhimself as an invalid, no one would havehad the heart to blame a man to whom lifewas thus one long and weary battle withdisease.”31

After “recovering” from his illness hereturned to his ministerial duties32 atKidderminster in June 1647, where his lifebecame a model of ministerial consistencyand faithfulness. In addition to his regularparish work between 1647 and 1660 he stillfound time to write and publish fifty-seven

books, including The Reformed Pastor, A

Treatise on Conversion, and A Call to the

Unconverted.33

He also served as the catalyst in form-ing the Worcestershire Association of Min-isters in the area around Kidderminster.They met together regularly for mutualedification and to co-operate in furtheringthe gospel in their county. When onceasked to which church he belonged, Baxterreplied:

I am a Christian, a Meer Christian,of no other Religion; and the Churchthat I am of is the Christian Church,and hath been visible where ever theChristian Religion and Church hathbeen visible: But must you knowwhat Sect or Party I am of? I amagainst all Sects and dividing Par-ties: [As a Meer Christian] . . . [I fol-low] Meer Christianity.34

C. S. Lewis acknowledges his indebted-ness to Baxter for the title of his famouswork, Mere Christianity. In the Preface,Lewis explains the scope and intention ofMere Christianity. His book, he says, offers“no help to anyone who is hesitatingbetween two Christian denominations”since he is not seeking “to convert anyoneto my own position.” Lewis says he isconcerned not with controversial mattersin dispute between different communionsbut with the exposition and defense “ofwhat Baxter calls ‘mere Christianity.’”35

One of Baxter’s favorite quotations was“unity in things necessary, liberty in thingsunnecessary, and charity in all.”36 Thephrase, though not original with Baxter,was popularized by him, not only in GreatBritain, but also on the European Conti-nent.

Baxter’s success at Kidderminster is leg-endary. Initially he recorded the names ofall his converts, but they became so numer-ous that he was obliged to discontinue the

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practice. He writes, “in the beginning of myministry, I was wont to number them asjewels; but since then I could not keepany number of them.”37 (An amazingadmission by a pastor/evangelist!) Andlest we think his task was easy, note care-fully John Brown’s observations on pre-Baxter Kidderminster:

If I were asked what, in the year1646, was one of the most unprom-ising towns in England to which ayoung man could be sent, who wasstarting his career as a preacher andpastor, I should feel inclined to pointat once to the town of Kidderminsterin Worcestershire. With a populationat that time of between three andfour thousand, mainly carpet-weav-ers, it had been, morally and spiri-tually, so grossly neglected as almostto have sunk into practical heathen-ism.38

Baxter describes the transformation thatGod brought to the city:

The congregation was usually full,so that we were fain to build fivegalleries after my coming thither . . .Our private meetings also were full.On the Lord’s Days there was nodisorder to be seen in the streets, butyou might hear a hundred familiessinging Psalms and repeating ser-mons as you passed through thestreets. In a word, when I camethither first, there was about onefamily in a street that worshippedGod and called on his name, andwhen I came away there were somestreets where there was not passedone family in the side of a street thatdid not do so; and that did not byprofessing serious godliness, give ushopes of their sincerity . . .39

And the fruit remained! Illustrative ofthe quality of his ministry is the followingstatement, written some six years after hewas forced to leave Kidderminster:

. . . though I have now been absent

from them for about six years, andthey have been assaulted with pul-pit-calumnies, and slanders, withthreatenings and imprisonments,with enticing words, and seducingreasonings, they yet stand fast andkeep their integrity . . . not one, thatI hear of, are fallen off, or forsaketheir uprightness.40

But Baxter’s ministry was not limited toKidderminster. After King Charles I wasbeheaded in 1649, Baxter preached beforeCromwell, the Lord Protector of the newlyformed Commonwealth. After the service,the Protector asked him to a meeting.Cromwell proceeded to enter into a lengthyexposition and justification of his policyand the changes in the government whichhe said God had made. Baxter’s reply wasblunt: “I told him that we took our ancientmonarchy to be a blessing and not an evilto the land.”41

While he wrote freely upon Cromwell’sfaults, Baxter forthrightly acknowledgedthat under his rule religion had prospered:“I bless God who gave me, even under anusurper whom I opposed, such liberty andadvantage to preach his Gospel with suc-cess, which I cannot have under a kingto whom I have sworn and performedtrue subjection and obedience.”42 Baxterbelieved no previous era in English historyhad afforded such opportunities for thespread of the gospel.

After Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658and the short rule by his son, Richard, Par-liament voted on May 1, 1660 to recallCharles II. Baxter was in London at thetime, working for religious reconciliationand concord.

On the day before this crucial decision,April 30, Baxter preached before themembers of the House of Commons in St.Margaret’s, Westminster. His subject wasRepentance; his text, Ezekiel 36:31.43 He

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also preached on May 10th at St. Paul’sCathedral before the Lord Mayor. The dayhad been appointed by the House of Com-mons as a Day of Thanksgiving for Gen-eral Monk’s success, and the prospectiverestoration of the monarchy. The point ofBaxter’s sermon was too obvious to bemissed. Titled Right Rejoicing, his text wasLuke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in thisrejoice not, that the spirits are subject untoyou; but rather rejoice, because your namesare written in heaven.”44

After King Charles II’s coronation,Baxter became one of his chaplains. Hepreached before the King45 and for a time,exercised considerable influence at Court.Charles would later offer him the bishop-ric of Hereford, which he declined ratherthan give up his Nonconformist views.These days at Court were to prove but thecalm before the storm. Twenty years of bru-tal oppression would soon begin, duringwhich Baxter would be harassed by spies,fined, and imprisoned under the rule of thissame king.

The Nonconformists were largely Puri-tans who could not in good conscience sub-scribe to all the tenets of the Church ofEngland—some of which were remnantsfrom Roman Catholicism, especially theprescribed use of the Prayer Book. On May19, 1662 the Act of Uniformity establishedthese doctrines and practices as the officialposition of the Church of England andofficially removed from their ecclesiasticalassignments or places of ministry all whodisagreed and refused to “conform.” Notwaiting until the August 24th deadlinewhen the Act would be enforced, Baxterlet it be known immediately that he wouldnot conform, leaving the Church ofEngland on May 25th.46 Two thousand ofhis fellow ministers would follow soonthereafter.

MarriageThe disappointment of his “silencing”

(as he called it) was somewhat temperedby an unexpected but blessed event: onSeptember 10, 1662, Baxter married Mar-garet Charlton.47 In the earlier period of hisministry, Baxter had resolved not to marryso that he might pursue his pastoral andministerial duties without interruption.48

Because of his clear belief that most clergyshould not marry due to the demands ofministry, Baxter notes that his marriagecaused quite a stir: “And it everywhererung about, partly as a wonder and partlyas a crime . . . And I think the king’smarriage was scarce more talked of thanmine.”49 After his ejection, however, hav-ing no specific pastoral responsibilities,he thought himself sufficiently free to takea wife.

Margaret served as a beautiful help-meet to Richard. She was in every sense awoman of God in her own right. Friendsnoted that they had never known anyonewith a more fervent prayer life. She kept askull on her nightstand to remind her ofthe brevity of life. (One side note abouttheir relationship: If Baxter had gotten hisway, he would have spent virtually everywaking hour in his writing ministry. Mar-garet forced Richard to put down his penand come to the table for his meals, and tothere talk about “mundane matters bear-ing no relation to theology.”)

Writing MinistryDuring the three years of his residence

in London, two before and one after his“silencing,” Baxter preached in variousplaces as opportunities presented them-selves. In July 1663 he moved from Lon-don to the country village of Acton, thathe might devote himself more fully tostudy and writing.

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He was one of the most voluminouswriters in English history, writing between141 and 200 books, depending on how onedivides his writing. (I argue for the num-ber 168). Baxter wrote treatises on graceand salvation, apologetics, “popery,”antinomianism, the sacraments, millen-arianism, ethics, nonconformity, devotion,conversion, politics, and history, not tomention a systematic theology (in Latin).Someone has observed: “To ask Baxter fora reason for the faith that was in him wasto invite an answer in three volumes.” Yethe had not only quantity, but also quality.N. H. Keeble says, “The influence of hisbooks is incalculable: from the early 1650’sthey enjoyed greater sales than those of anyother English writer.”50

As he continued his writing ministry,people continued to desire his preachingand teaching. Despite the recently enactedCoventicle Act, Baxter held meetings in hishome. The Coventicle Act of 1664 forbadethe assembly of more than five personswho were above sixteen years of age forpurposes of worship, otherwise than bythe forms of the Church of England. Baxterfelt he could continue to hold meetings inhis home despite this Act, because hisactivities (preaching, praying and singingPsalms) were in agreement with the formsof the Church of England.51

During his residence at Acton, the GreatPlague of London burst forth with tremen-dous fury. Beginning in December, 1664,this pestilence raged for over a year. YetBaxter recognized God’s providence evenin this horrible event. Many of the ejectedministers seized the opportunity of preach-ing in the neglected or deserted pulpitswith good results:

when the plague grew hot most ofthe conformable ministers fled, andleft their flocks in the time of their

extremity, whereupon divers Non-conformists, pitying the dying anddistressed people that had none tocall the impenitent to repentance,nor to help men to prepare foranother world, nor to comfort themin their terrors, when about ten thou-sand died in a week, resolved thatno obedience to the laws of mortalmen whatsoever could justify themfor neglecting of men’s souls andbodies in such extremities. . . . There-fore they resolved to stay with thepeople, and to go into the forsakenpulpits, though prohibited, and topreach to the poor people beforethey died; also to visit the sick andget what relief they could for thepoor.52

The conditions were ripe for a significantresponse:

The face of death did so awakenboth the preachers and the hearers,that preachers exceeded themselvesin lively, fervent preaching, and thepeople crowded constantly to hearthem. And all was done with sogreat seriousness, as that, throughthe blessing of God, abundance wereconverted from their carelessness,impenitence, and youthful lusts andvanities; and religion took that holdon the peoples hearts as could neverafterwards be loosed.53

To make matters worse, scarcely hadthe plague ceased when the great Londonfire began. Seeing earthly goods go up inflames only increased Baxter’s awarenessof the vanity of this world.54

Initially, no action was taken againstBaxter for his preaching at Acton. But hisservices became so popular, with peoplecrowding in and out of his house to hear,that it could no longer be ignored. Theauthorities issued a warrant for his arrestin June 1669 on charges of holding ser-vices contrary to law. Baxter was impris-oned for six months in the New Prison atClerkenwell.

His imprisonment, Baxter says, was “no

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great suffering to me.” He had a good jailer,a large room, and Margaret had the free-dom of visitation. He notes that, except forthe interruption of his sleep, the accommo-dations at the jail were better than the lodg-ings he stayed in during his frequent tripsto London!55 When someone suggestedthat his views might change somewhat dueto his imprisonment, Baxter replied, “truthdid not change because I was in a Gaol.”56

After being released from prison, Baxtersettled back into his writing ministry, mov-ing to a new home in Totteridge and thento London to escape the continual threatof arrest at Acton. He considered that the“vows of God were upon him,” and thathe must continue to preach whereverDivine providence opened a door for him.Therefore, despite continual harassmentand persecution, he continued to preach atevery available opportunity.

He spoke at various churches in the city,facing constant harassment and confisca-tion of his property. On one occasion, theauthorities even took Baxter’s bed fromunderneath him, despite the fact that he laythere sick! But Baxter kept it all in perspec-tive: “Naked came I into the world, andnaked must I go out. But I never wantedless what man can give, than when manhad taken all away. . . .”57

He would also note:

. . . I am more apprehensive that suf-ferings must be the Church’s mostordinary lot, and Christians indeedmust be self-denying cross-bearers,even where there are none but for-mal nominal Christians to be thecross-makers.58

He was a powerful preacher, and it isrecorded on one occasion, when he waspreaching a sermon on judgment, that theofficials in the audience who had come tospy on him fled in terror!

The coming of James II to the throneupon Charles II’s death in 1685 boded illfor the Nonconformists, especially forBaxter. James was a pronounced RomanCatholic who saw his strongest opponentsamong the Nonconformists. Baxter wasagain imprisoned, this time for eighteenmonths, beginning in 1685.59 His prisonsentence was based upon the ludicrouscharge that his Paraphrase of the New Testa-

ment was an attack on the establishedchurch and the state.

The charge was sedition: the way Baxterhad paraphrased some of the verses wasseen as an attack on England’s rulers.60

(Baxter later commented that by the samelogic, he could have been indicted foruttering the words “deliver us from evil”).

The unjustness of his trial is legendaryin English history. Judge Jeffries ridiculedBaxter and his supporters, saying to Baxter,“you are full of poison and deceit; I can seeit in your face.” Baxter replied, “Oh, I didnot realize that my face was a mirror.”61

Baxter appeared for sentencing on the 29thof June. Jeffries wished him to be publiclywhipped, but the other judges would notconsent that a man to whom a bishoprichad been offered should be punished asa felon. Baxter was fined five hundredmarks, and imprisoned until it was paid.

He refused to pay the fine imposedupon him, because he knew that it mostlikely would be repeated and enforcedevery time he attempted to preach, orwhenever he wrote anything that couldpossibly be objected to by the Court. Healso refused, on principle, to petition forhis release from an unjust imprisonment.He was finally freed on November 24, 1686.Upon his release Baxter continued his writ-ing ministry, as well as assisting MatthewSylvester in his ministerial labors. He con-tinued to preach until his body could no

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longer take the strain, with William Batesobserving that the last time he preachedhe “almost died in the pulpit.” Bates says,“It would have been his glory to have beentransfigured on the mount.”62

Even on his deathbed, Baxter did notabandon his calling. He was the same inhis life and death; his last hours were spentpreparing others and himself to appearbefore God. To some who came to visit him,he remarked

You come hither to learn to die; I amnot the only person that must go thisway. I can assure you that yourwhole life, be it never so long, is littleenough to prepare for death. Havea care of this vain, deceitful world, andthe lusts of the flesh. Be sure youchoose God for your portion, heavenfor your home, God’s glory for yourend, His Word for your rule; andthen you need never fear but that weshall meet with comfort.63

A few hours before his departure, Baxterwas asked how he was. His reply?“Almost well.”64 On December 8th, 1691,the great preacher entered into that“everlasting rest” of which he had sooften and so confidently spoken.

LegacyWhat legacy did this great man of God

leave to us? He was ahead of his time interms of encouraging support for missions.He corresponded regularly with John Eliotand said, ”No part of my prayers are sodeeply serious as that for the conversionof the infidel and ungodly world.”65 Hispoetical works and hymns have alsoblessed believers. “Ye Holy Angels Bright”and “Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care” aretwo of his more prominent works.

Baxter’s ongoing influence has largelybeen through his Practical Works, espe-cially The Reformed Pastor, Call to the

Unconverted, and The Saints’ Everlasting

Rest. Alexander Gordon says, “RichardBaxter, in his best days, was a strongerpower with the religious people ofEngland, than either the WestminsterAssembly or the Parliamentary leaders.”66

The influence of The Reformed Pastor wasgreat in his own day and has continued tothe present. Its contemporary influence isreflected in the extant correspondence ofBaxter. Numerous letters from fellow min-isters testified as to its influence in theirlives. Phillip Jacob Spener, Wesley, Ruth-erford, and Asbury all spoke in glowingterms of the book’s impact on their lives.J. I. Packer suggests that every pastorshould read The Reformed Pastor everysingle year of his ministry.

So what about us today? What can welearn from the life and ministry of thisman? In typical Puritan fashion, I wouldlike to end with application, or what thePuritans would call “uses.”

Exhortation to theContemporary Church

Let me begin this section with two dis-claimers. First, Baxter was far from perfect,especially from a Baptist perspective. AsSouthern Baptists, we would want to helpBaxter with a few of his formulations,especially his emphasis on infant baptism,his views on episcopacy, his lack of empha-sis on equipping the saints for the work ofministry, and certainly his views on thebenefits of a celibate clergy.

Second, we need to remember thatBaxter lived in a very different world thanwe do today. Kidderminster was part of aparish system, where all the inhabitants ofthe city saw Baxter’s church as their church.Kidderminster was also prominent as acarpet-weaving town, and most peopleworked in their homes. Those realities gave

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Baxter great freedom to pursue the homevisits for which he is widely remembered.

Despite the differences in theologicalperspectives on some issues, and the dis-tance of time and culture, I believe Baxterstill has a great deal to say to the contem-porary church. While most of my observa-tions will deal with pastoral leadership, theimplications should not be lost on those ofus involved in training persons for pasto-ral ministry. If these were the standards towhich Baxter would hold pastors, howmuch more significant are these issues forthose of us involved in training persons forministry!

I mentioned earlier that Baxter servedas the catalyst in forming the Worches-tershire Association of Ministers in the areaaround Kidderminster, the first associationof its kind in England. This association pro-vided the context for the writing of whatmany consider to be Baxter’s most influ-ential work, The Reformed Pastor.

The members of the Association hadcommitted themselves to adopt Baxter’splan of systematic catechizing. They fixeda day of prayer and fasting to seek God’sblessing on the undertaking, and askedBaxter to preach. When the day came,however, Baxter was too ill to go; so hepublished the material he had prepared, amassive exposition and application of Acts20:28: “Take heed therefore unto your-selves, and to all the flock, over the whichthe Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,to feed the church of God, which he hathpurchased with his own blood.”

By “reformed” Baxter means, notCalvinistic in doctrine (though he wasbasically in the Reformed camp), butrenewed in practice. He sought a renewalin how pastors envisioned their calling andministry.

I will conclude this paper by setting

forth eight exhortations, taken largely fromThe Reformed Pastor, that I am convincedBaxter would want to give to the contem-porary church and to the pastors of today.

Focus on ConversionBaxter’s emphasis in ministry was on

conversion. Other Puritans wrote on con-version, but Baxter wrote more than anyother, and apparently was read more thanany other writer on this topic. His Call to

the Unconverted was the most popular bookof its day in all of England.67 It sold 20,000copies the first year (which is significanteven by today’s standards!) He receivedletters virtually every week from peopleconverted through reading the book.68

John Eliot, the great missionary to theIndians, translated Call to the Unconverted

into Algonquian as soon as he had finishedtranslating the Bible. Orme suggests thatthe overall effects of this book in theconversion of people “have been greaterprobably than have arisen from any othermere human performance,” and that itsinfluence is “beyond all calculation.”69

Baxter understood the necessity of con-version. “It is the very drift of the gospel,”Baxter claimed, “the main design of thewhole Word of God, to convert men fromsin to God, and build them up when theyare once converted. . . . Conversion is themost blessed work, and the day of conver-sion the most blessed day, that this worldis acquainted with.”70

He challenged ministers, therefore, tofocus on conversion in their ministries:

We must labour, in a special man-ner, for the conversion of the uncon-verted. The work of conversion is thefirst and great thing we must driveat; after this we must labour with allour might. Alas! the misery of theunconverted is so great, that itcalleth loudest to us for compassion.

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. . . He that seeth one man sick of amortal disease, and another onlypained with the toothache, will bemoved more to compassionate theformer, than the latter; and willsurely make more haste to help him,though he were a stranger, and theother a brother or a son. . . . I con-fess, I am frequently forced toneglect that which should tend tothe further increase of knowledge inthe godly, because of the lamentablenecessity of the unconverted. . . . O,therefore, brethren whomsoever youneglect, neglect not the most miser-able! . . . O call after the impenitent,and ply this great work of convert-ing souls, whatever else you leaveundone.71

As a further application of focusing onconversion, Baxter would lament ourcommon use of the term “unchurched,”insisting instead that we call persons“lost.”

Understand the True Natureof Conversion

Baxter taught that conversion was aprocess. People lie dead in sin and cannotrespond until God moves them to do sothrough effectual grace. But this does notmean that they are to sit by idly and waitfor God to work. They should preparethemselves through seeking God and lis-tening to his word (though Baxter avoidedsaying that such preparation makes Godbeholden to an individual, a position some-times erroneously attributed to him).

Some recent interpreters have character-ized the Puritans as teaching that all mustfollow a set pattern of experiences to beconverted. Baxter knew from Scripture andobservation that this was not the case andtaught that “God breaketh not all men’shearts alike.”72 Breaking them, however, inthe sense of causing inbred love of sin toshrivel up so that love for Christ and holi-ness can blossom is something that God

must do and does, one way or another, inevery case of genuine new birth.

Baxter anticipated, in a way, the currentdebate about “lordship salvation.” “Faithentereth at the mind,” he taught, “but ithath not all its essential parts, and is notthe gospel faith indeed, till it hath pos-sessed the will. The heart of faith is want-ing, till faith hath taken possession of theheart.”73 Christ must be believed in withall a person’s heart, soul, and strength:

you must receive and close withChrist entirely, in his whole office,as he is to accomplish all theseworks, or else you cannot be unitedto him. He will not be divided: youshall not have Christ as justifier ofyou, if you will not have him asguide, and ruler, and sanctifier ofyou. He will not be a partial Saviour:if you will not consent that he shallsave you from your sins, he will notconsent to save you from hell.74

Baxter would challenge the contemporarychurch to carefully to examine her under-standing of the nature of conversion.

Guard Your Own HeartBaxter began his exhortation in The

Reformed Pastor with Paul’s opening phrasein Acts 20:28, “Take heed to yourself.” Henotes that before we can take heed to theflock, we must first take heed to ourselves.He writes, “Content not yourselves withbeing in a state of grace, but be also carefulthat your graces are kept in vigorous andlively exercise, and that you preach toyourselves the sermons which you study,before you preach them to others.”75

He reflects on the importance of protect-ing our own walk with God:

When I let my heart grow cold, mypreaching is cold; and when [myheart] is confused, my preaching isconfused; and so I can oft observealso in the best of my hearers, that

15

when I have grown cold in preach-ing, they have grown cold too; andthe next prayers which I have heardfrom them have been too like mypreaching. We are the nurses ofChrist’s little ones. If we forbear tak-ing food ourselves, we shall famishthem . . .76

Perhaps Baxter’s greatest challenge tocontemporary pastors guarding their heartswould be in the area of pride. He asks,

Is not pride the sin of devils—the first-born of hell? Is it not thatwherein Satan’s image doth muchconsist? and is it to be tolerated inmen who are so engaged againsthim and his kingdom as we are? Thevery design of the gospel is to abaseus . . . Humility is not a mere orna-ment of a Christian, but an essentialpart of the new creature. It is a con-tradiction in terms, to be a Christian,and not humble.77

Baxter would give his hearty agreementto James Denney’s observation that, “Noman can bear witness to Christ and tohimself at the same time. . . . No man cangive at once the impression that he isclever and that Christ is mighty to save.”78

For Baxter, the key is not what you dobut who you are. “We must study as hardhow to live well,” he argued, “as how topreach well.”79

Preach the WordInscribed on Baxter’s pulpit in Kid-

derminster are the words from 2 Corin-thians 4:5, “we preach not ourselves, butChrist Jesus the Lord.” Baxter would givetwo specific exhortations for contemporarypreaching.

First, preach with passion. In his Poetical

Fragments he gives his perspective onpreaching:

Still thinking I had little time to live,My fervent heart to win men’s souls

did strive;I preached, as never sure to preach

again,And as a dying Man to dying Men.80

Baxter would challenge us to preach “asnever sure to preach again, and as adying man to dying men.” He believedmost preachers needed more passion intheir preaching:

If we were heartily devoted to ourwork, it would be done more vigor-ously, and more seriously, than it isby the most of us. How few minis-ters do preach with all their might,or speak about everlasting joys andeverlasting torments in such a man-ner as may make men believe thatthey are in good earnest!

O sirs how plainly, how closely,how earnestly, should we deliver amessage of such moment as ours,when the everlasting life or ever-lasting death of our fellow-men isinvolved in it! . . . What! speak coldlyfor God, and for men’s salvation?Can we believe that our people mustbe converted or condemned, and yetspeak in a drowsy tone? In the nameof God, brethren, labour to awakenyour own hearts, before you go tothe pulpit, that you may be fit toawaken the hearts of sinners. . . . Oh,speak not one cold or careless wordabout so great a business as heavenor hell. Whatever you do, let thepeople see that you are in goodearnest.81

A second exhortation Baxter would giveto contemporary preachers is to preach with

balance. Our culture disdains what istermed “fire and brimstone preaching.”But Baxter emphasized, “fear must drive,as love must draw.”82 Baxter would tell uswe must challenge people not only to fleefrom the wrath to come, but to flee to theOne who bore that wrath for lost and guiltysinners. Baxter would exhort us to makesure our preaching is balanced betweenfear driving and love drawing.

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Minister to IndividualsThe key to Baxter’s pastoral method was

personal care of individuals, based uponintimate knowledge of their daily lives,prompted and sustained by an unaffectedand impartial love for all. At first he wascontent to catechize only “in the Church,”and to talk with individuals “now andthen.” He discovered, however, that for hispreaching to be fruitful he must follow itup with direct personal discourse withevery family in his parish. He urged pas-tors to take up this ministry of personalinstruction with this heartfelt plea:

I study to speak as plainly and mov-ingly as I can, and yet I frequentlymeet with those that have been myhearers eight or ten years, who knownot whether Christ be God or man,and wonder when I tell them thehistory of his birth and life anddeath, as if they had never heard itbefore. . . . I have found by experi-ence, that some ignorant persons,who have been so long unprofitablehearers, have got more knowledgeand remorse of conscience in half anhour’s close discourse, than they didfrom ten years’ public preaching. Iknow that preaching the gospel pub-licly is the most excellent means,because we speak to many at once.But it is usually far more effectualto preach it privately to a particularsinner, as to himself: for the plainestman this is, can scarcely speak plainenough in public for them to under-stand; but in private we may do itmuch more.

. . . I conclude, therefore, thatpublic preaching alone will not besufficient . . . Long may you studyand preach to little purpose, if youneglect this duty [of personalinstruction].83

Baxter had approximately eight hun-dred homes in his parish, and found thatby visiting fifteen or sixteen families eachweek, each year he could discern the spiri-tual condition of each person in the com-

munity.84 He developed adult catechisms,basic material on Christian growth, to giveto persons in various stages of spiritualdevelopment.

Baxter would exhort us today todevelop a “data base” of the spiritual con-dition of persons in our church. What if ourchurch is too large for us to fulfill this taskby ourselves? Then get help, Baxter wouldsay. (He brought on an assistant to help himwith his visits due to his continual illhealth.) To shepherd properly the flock wemust know the spiritual condition of eachperson.

Pursue Family ReformationBaxter would exhort us today to make

family ministry a high priority. “We musthave a special eye upon families,” hesaid, “to see that they are well ordered, andthe duties of each relation performed.85

Why the emphasis on family ministry?Baxter shares what he has learned throughexperience:

You are not like to see any generalreformation, till you procure familyreformation. Some little religionthere may be, here and there; butwhile it is confined to single persons,and is not promoted in families, itwill not prosper, nor promise muchfuture increase.86

Keep Your Heart in HeavenBaxter wrote much on the topic of medi-

tation, particularly in The Saints’ Everlast-

ing Rest. He believed meditation was avital discipline to motivate the heart forvigorous prayer and subsequent vigorousobedience. He especially advocated medi-tating on “the hope of glory.” Meditationon heaven was for Baxter less an occasionalactivity than a way of energizing one’sspiritual life.

Baxter ’s method was to focus the

17

believer’s mind on the greatness and good-ness of God. He said, “The most covetousman will let go silver, if he might have goldinstead of it.” Listen to his pointed remarks:

If thou wouldst have light and heat,why art thou no more in the sun-shine? For want of this recourse toheaven, thy soul is as a lamp notlighted, and thy duty as a sacrificewithout fire. Fetch one coal dailyfrom this altar, and see if thy offer-ing will not burn. . . . In thy want oflove to God, lift up thy eye of faithto heaven, behold his beauty, con-template his excellencies, and seewhether his amiableness and perfectgoodness will not ravish thy heart.As exercise gives appetite, strength,and vigour to the body, so theseheavenly exercises will quicklycause the increase of grace and spiri-tual life.87

We use the expression today that somepeople are “too heavenly-minded to be ofany earthly good.” Baxter would say to us,“unless you are heavenly-minded you willnot be of much earthly good.” Baxter main-tains, “As digestion turns food into nour-ishment for the body, so meditation turnsthe truths received and remembered intowarm affection, firm resolution, and a holylifestyle.”88

Maintain a Balance of Headand Heart

Last, but not least, Baxter would arguethat we need both head and heart in ourministry, both doctrine and practice. Somein our day seem to make a keen mind anti-thetical to a warm heart, and a focus ontheology antithetical to a commitment topractical ministry. As Carl F. H. Henry saidin 1967, “in these next years we must striveharder to become theologian-evangelists,rather than to remain content as justtheologians or just evangelists.”89 Henry’schallenge mirrors James Denney’s famous

dictum: “If evangelists were our theologiansor theologians our evangelists, we shouldat least be nearer the ideal church.”90

Richard Baxter was such a man, andreminds us we should be as well. We wouldall do well to heed the words of Spurgeonand “Go fetch Baxter!”

ENDNOTES1C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon Autobi-

ography: The Early Years (1834-1859), rev.ed., originally compiled by SusannahSpurgeon (Edinburgh: The Banner ofTruth Trust, 1976) 417.

2A. B. Grosart, Representative Non-Con-

formists (London, 1879) 137.3Dr. William Bates, A Funeral Sermon . . .

for Richard Baxter (London: Brab. Aylmer,1692) 86.

4Grainger, Biographical History, cited inJ. M. Lloyd Thomas’s “Introduction” toBaxter’s Autobiography (London: J. M.Dent, 1925) xxiv-xxv.

5The starting point for any considerationof Baxter’s life must be his own autobi-ography, Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696),published by his friend and colleagueMatthew Sylvester. This was issued inabridged form in 1925 by J. M. LloydThomas, and reissued in 1974 by N. H.Keeble under the title The Autobiography

of Richard Baxter (London: J. M. Dent &Sons). Citations in this paper are fromKeeble’s edition (hereafter cited simplyas Autobiography) except where theaccount only appears in the Reliquiae

Baxterianae (cited as R.B.). The best biog-raphy is G. F. Nuttall’s Richard Baxter

(Stanford: Stanford University Press,1965), surpassing F. J. Powicke’s twoworks, A Life of the Reverend Richard

Baxter, 1615-1691 (London: JonathanCape, 1924), and The Reverend Richard

Baxter Under the Cross, 1662-1691 (Lon-

18

don: Jonathan Cape, 1927). Nuttallhas filled in numerous gaps in ourknowledge of Baxter’s life by utiliz-ing historical references scatteredthrough Baxter’s other publishedworks and especially in his manu-script correspondence, which Nut-tall was the first to calendar andread in chronological order.

6Autobiography, 3. Ladell speculatesthat “the boy’s mother was notstrong enough to attend to her child,and his father was too busy withpressing financial difficulties tocare to have him under his roof.” SeeA. R. Ladell, Richard Baxter: Puritan

and Mystic (London: S.P.C.K., 1925)36. Powicke places young Richard’smother with him in Rowton forthese ten years, both then beingapart from his father (A Life, 15).Unfortunately Powicke gives nojustification for this departure fromBaxter’s straightforward declara-tion: “And there I lived from my

parents with my grandfather . . .[emphasis added]” (Autobiography,

3).7Autobiography, 3.8Baxter’s father was converted “bythe bare reading of the Scriptures inprivate, without either preaching, orgodly company, or any other booksbut the Bible” (ibid., 4). Eayrs notesthat copies of the Scriptures wererapidly multiplied after the newtranslation of 1611. See GeorgeEayrs, Richard Baxter and the Revival

of Preaching and Pastoral Service (Lon-don: National Council of Evangeli-cal Free Churches, 1912) 8.

9Autobiography, 4-5. These men “readCommon Prayer on Sundays andHoly-Days” and “taught school and

tippled on the weekdays.”10Baxter says, “Only three or four con-

stant competent preachers livednear us, and those (though conform-able all save one) were the commonmarks of the people’s obloquy andreproach, and any that had butgone to hear them, when he had nopreaching at home, was made thederision of the vulgar rabble underthe odious name of a Puritan” (ibid.,4). Nuttall notes that it later becameone of Baxter’s primary aims to“assist in the effective remedying ofsuch a state of affairs” (Richard

Baxter, 8).11Baxter, “Confirmation and Res-

tauration, the Necessary Means ofa Reformation and Reconciliation,for the Healing of the Corruptionsand Divisions of the Churches”(1658), in The Practical Works of

Richard Baxter (London: George Vir-tue, 1838) 4:316.

12Autobiography, 7. Baxter’s accountof his conversion, taken from theAutobiography, is included in Conver-

sions: The Christian Experience, ed.Hugh T. Kerr and John M. Mulder(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 29-33.

13R.B., 1:6.14An Excerpt from Reliquiae Baxterianae,

with an Essay by Sir James Stephen

on Richard Baxter, ed. Francis John(New York: Longmans, Green, andCo., 1910) 68-69.

15Baxter gives some account of hisreading: “[I] read a multitude of ourEnglish Practical Treatises, before Ihad ever read any other Bodies ofDivinity. . . Next [to] Practical Divin-ity, no Books so suited with myDisposition as Aquinas, Scotus,

Durandus, Ockam, and their Dis-ciples; because I thought they nar-rowly searched after Truth, andbrought Things out of the darknessof Confusion: For I could never frommy first Studies endure Confusion!”(R.B., 1:6).

16Eayrs, 131.17The precise quotation is, “I never

thought that my faith must followthe major vote; I value Divines alsoby weight, and not by number.” SeeRichard Baxter, Aphorismes of Justi-

fication (London: Francis Tyton,1649), “Appendix,” 12.

18Barbara Stewart provides an excel-lent discussion on the town of Kid-derminster in her work, “RichardBaxter: The Beloved Pastor of Kid-derminster” (unpublished Mastersthesis, Regent College, Vancouver,British Columbia, April 1985) 18-32.See also Powicke’s treatment in ALife, 35-46.

19Powicke, A Life, 84.20That the vicar took the people seri-

ously can be seen in the financialarrangements he offered. The newlecturer would be paid a sum of £60per annum out of the £200 which thevicar’s living provided. The vicarsecured the agreement by posting abond of £500.

21Nuttall, 24.22At the time of his ordination, while

professing that “a fervent desire ofwinning Souls to God was mymotive,” Baxter acknowledges thathe “had no inclination” to “a Pasto-ral Charge.” See the Preface in Plain

Scripture Proof of Infants Church-

Membership and Baptism (London:Robert White, 1653).

23Davies argues that “from the begin-

19

ning to the end of the civil troublesBaxter was a Royalist at heart.” JohnHamilton Davies, Life of Richard

Baxter of Kidderminster: Preacher and

Prisoner (London: W. Kent, 1887) 98.Nuttall claims that “Baxter’s politi-cal hopes were to be disappointed,and he never ceased to condemn theexecution of the King; but at thebeginning of the war so convinceda Puritan could not do otherwisethan side with the Parliament” (31-32). Baxter himself says that “bothparties were to blame” and thathe “will not be he that shall justifyeither of them” (Autobiography, 36-37).

24Autobiography, 94. Baxter apologizesfor the lack of marginal citations,noting that he wrote most of thebook when he had no resources buta Bible and a Concordance. Yet hesays, “I found that the transcript ofthe heart hath the greatest force onthe hearts of others” (ibid., 95). Latereditions would include such mar-ginal citations.

25From a letter to Anthony O. Wood,cited in J. M. Lloyd Thomas’s“Introduction” to Baxter’s Autobiog-

raphy, xxv.26See R.B., 1:21 for Baxter’s complete

list of how his illnesses benefitedhim.

27Autobiography, 26 [emphasis added].28Timothy Beougher and J. I. Packer,

“Go Fetch Baxter,” Christianity

Today, 16 December 1991, 27.29Autobiography, 76.30Eayrs, 49.31Brown, Puritan Preaching in England

(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,1900) 168.

32He returned to his previous position

as lecturer (curate), refusing toaccept the vicarage, but Eayrs notesthat “Baxter was vicar in all butname and emoluments” (23).Powicke relates the story of how thetownspeople, without Baxter ’sknowledge or approval, had peti-tioned the Westminster Assembly toappoint Baxter to the position ofvicar. Baxter served three years asLecturer before he found out whatthe people had done. He did not re-gard it as making any difference tohis position. “In his own eyes,”Powicke says, “he was, andremained to the last, simply Minis-ter, or Preacher of the Gospel, atKidderminster” (A Life, 83).

33The Treatise on Conversion and Call

to the Unconverted were originallypreached. Baxter wrote his pulpitnotes in shorthand. Thomas Bald-win, who lived with him and tookover the ministry at Kidderminsterwhen Baxter was ejected, learned todecipher Baxter’s shorthand notes,and transcribed many of his ser-mons for the printer.

34Baxter, Preface to Church-History of

the Government of Bishops and their

Councils Abbreviated (London: JohnKidgell, 1680).

35C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (NewYork: Macmillan, 1952) 6.

36Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest

(1649), in The Practical Works of

Richard Baxter, vol. III (London:George Virtue, 1838) 3.

37R.B, 1:84.38See Brown, 165-166.39R.B., 1:84-85.40Ibid., 86. In fact, on December 1,

1743, George Whitefield visitedKidderminster and wrote to a

friend: “I was greatly refreshed tofind what a sweet savour of goodMr. Baxter’s doctrine, works anddiscipline remain to this day.”

41Autobiography, 140.42Ibid., 80.43The House of Commons ordered the

next day that the sermon be printed.See A Sermon of Repentance (London:Francis Tyton, 1660).

44Baxter says the response was mixed:“The moderate were pleased withit, the fanatics were offended withme for keeping such a thanksgiving,the diocesan party thought I didsuppress their joy” (Autobiography,143). Stephen argues that the ser-mon “could not have been recitedby the most rapid voice in less thantwo hours.” See An Excerpt from

Reliquiae Baxterianae, 93.45The sermon was published by a spe-

cial command. See The Life of Faith

(London: Francis Tyton, 1660).46Nuttall asserts that Baxter’s imme-

diate action had considerable influ-ence on other ministers (92).

47Margaret had been convertedunder Baxter’s preaching at Kidder-minster. Baxter tells the story of theirmarriage in his tribute to her titledA Breviate of the Life of Margaret, the

Daughter of Francis Charlton, of

Apply in Shropshire, Esq; and Wife of

Richard Baxter. For the use of all, but

especially of their Kindred (London: B.Simmons, 1681). It was reprinted in1928 as Richard Baxter and Margaret

Charlton: A Puritan Love Story, ed.John T. Wilkinson (London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin) and in 1997 as AGrief Sanctified: Passing Through Grief

to Peace and Joy, ed. J. I. Packer (AnnArbor, MI: Servant).

20

48E.g., in his Christian Directory, Baxterclaims that while it is not “unlaw-ful” for ministers to marry, “so greata hinderance [sic] ordinarily is thistroublesome state of life to thesacred ministration which theyundertake, that a very clear callshould be expected for their satis-faction” (Works, 1:400). Though thiswas not published until after hismarriage (1673), it may be taken tobe representative of his thoughtthroughout his life. After his mar-riage he not only recorded hisbelief that for himself at Kidder-minster “my single Life afforded memuch advantage” but he continuedto commend celibacy for ministersin general. He says that even Mar-garet “lived and died in the samemind” (Breviate, 101). See also myarticle, “The Puritan View of Mar-riage: The Nature of the Husband/Wife Relationship in PuritanEngland as Taught and Experiencedby a Representative Puritan Pastor,Richard Baxter,” Trinity Journal 10n.s. (Fall 1989) 131-158.

49Autobiography, 174.50See Keeble, “Introduction” to The

Autobiography of Richard Baxter (Lon-don: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1974) xiv.

51Powicke, The Rev. Richard Baxter, 23.52R.B., 3:2.53Ibid.54Autobiography, 199. His observations

in the aftermath of the fire are worthnoting: “It was a sight that mighthave given any man a lively senseof the vanity of this world, and allthe wealth and glory of it, and ofthe future conflagration of all theworld. To see the flames mount uptowards heaven, and proceed so

furiously without restraint; to seethe streets filled with people aston-ished, that had scarce sense leftthem to lament their own calamity;to see the fields filled with heaps ofgoods, and sumptuous buildings,curious rooms, costly furniture andhousehold stuff, yea, warehouses,and furnished shops and libraries,etc., all on a flame, and none durstcome near to receive anything . . .”

55Ibid., 207-210. Yet he regretted hisimprisonment for the interruptionit caused his work, removing himfrom the “poor people in such hope-ful beginnings of a common refor-mation . . . “

56R.B., 3:59.57Autobiography, 252. He grieved most

for the loss of the library he hadcarefully collected. Some of hisbooks, saved from capture by theadroitness of his wife, were sent toHarvard University in America. SeeDavies, 368.

58Autobiography, 121.59Baxter did not continue his auto-

biography beyond the year 1685.Biographers therefore must rely onother sources to fill in informationabout this time period.

60The charge specifically broughtagainst Baxter was that he reflectedon the bishops of the AnglicanChurch in a manner that legally wasseditious. The passages objected towere: Matthew 5:19; Mark 3:6; Mark9:39; Mark 11:31; Mark 12:38-40;Luke 10:2; John 11:57; and Acts 15:2.

61See Lord Macaulay, The History of

England, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan,1913) 484-488 and William Orme,The Life and Times of the Rev. Richard

Baxter with a Critical Examination

of His Writings, 2 vols. (Boston:Crocker & Breuster, 1831) 2:364-370.The following abbreviated accountis from Orme, 2:368-369:

Lord Chief Justice Jeffries said:“Richard, Richard, dost thou thinkwe’ll hear thee poison the court?Richard, thou art an old fellow, anold knave; thou hast written booksenough to load a cart, every one asfull of sedition, I might say treason,as an egg is full of meat. Hadst thoubeen whipped out of thy writing-trade forty years ago, it had beenhappy. Thou pretendest to be apreacher of the gospel of peace, andthou hast one foot in the grave; it istime for thee to begin to think whataccount thou intendest to give. Butleave thee to thyself, and I see thatthou’lt go on as thou hast begun;but, by the grace of God, I’ll lookafter thee. . . . Come, what do yousay for yourself, you old knave?—come, speak up.”

Baxter responded, “Your lordshipneed not fear, for I’ll not hurt you.But these things will surely beunderstood one day; what fools onesort of Protestants are made, to per-secute the other. I am not concernedto answer such stuff, but I am readyto produce my writings for the con-futation of all this, and my life andconversation are known to many inthis nation.”

62Bates, 123.63Ibid., 123-124.64Matthew Sylvester, Elisha’s Cry

after Elijah’s God (1696), 15. This ser-monic tribute to Baxter by Sylvesteris bound together with my copy ofthe Reliquiae Baxterianae.

65Autobiography, 117.

21

66Alexander Gordon, “Richard Baxteras a founder of Liberal Nonconfor-mity,” in Heads of English Unitarian

History (London: Philip Green, 1895)65.

67Sommerville’s research demon-strates the enormous popularityof Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted.See C. John Sommerville, Popular

Religion in Restoration England

(Gainesville: University of FloridaPress, 1977) 47-48.

68R.B., 1:114-115. William Batesremarks that six brothers were atone time converted by this book,and that “every week he receivedletters of some converted by hisbooks” (113).

69Orme, 2:79.70Baxter, A Treatise of Conversion

(1657), in The Practical Works of

Richard Baxter, 2:435, 399.71The Reformed Pastor, 94-97.72R.B., 1:7.73Baxter, Directions and Persuasions to

a Sound Conversion (1658), in The

Practical Works of Richard Baxter,2:623.

74Ibid., 624.75The Reformed Pastor, 61.76Ibid.77Ibid., 143.78James Denney, Studies in Theology

(London: Hodder and Stoughton,1895) 161.

79The Reformed Pastor, 64.80Baxter, “Love Breathing Thanks and

Praise,” Poetical Fragments (London:T. Snowden, 1681).

81The Reformed Pastor, 147-148.82The Life of Faith (1669), in The Practi-

cal Works of Richard Baxter, 2:665.83The Reformed Pastor, 196.84Ibid, 43.

85Ibid, 100.86Ibid, 102.87Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest,

edited with an Introduction byTimothy K. Beougher (Wheaton:Billy Graham Center, 1994) 23-24.

88Ibid., 58.89Carl F. H. Henry, “Facing a New

Day in Evangelism,” in One Race,

One Gospel, One Task, ed. C. F. H.Henry and W. S. Mooneyham, vol.1 (Minneapolis: World Wide Publi-cations, 1967) 13.

90James Denney, The Death of Christ

(New York: Hodder and Stoughton,1911) viii.