Richard Baxter (1615-1691): A Model of Pastoral Leadership for Evangelism and Church Growth Timothy K. Beougher

Timothy K. Beougher is Billy Introduction And one biographer warns of trying to Graham Professor of Evangelism and In his autobiography, nineteenth century compress Baxter’s life into a few pages, Church Growth at The Southern Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon saying, “Men of his size should not be Theological Seminary, where he has records a conversation he had with his wife drawn in miniature.”4 taught since 1996. Dr. Beougher co- one Sunday evening: “I fear I have not edited Accounts of Campus Revival and been as faithful in my preaching today as I Early Life Evangelism for a Changing World, and should have been; I have not been as much Richard Baxter was born November 12, is the author of several scholarly articles. in earnest after poor souls as God would 1615, at Rowton, a village in Shropshire, He is currently at work on a biography have me be. . . . Go, dear, to the study, and England.5 It was his destiny to live and of Richard Baxter. fetch down Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, and minister throughout most of the seven- read some of it to me; perhaps that will teenth century, a watershed in English quicken my sluggish heart.”1 history. Before his death in 1691, he would Spurgeon was not the only one helped witness the English Civil War, the behead- by the seventeenth century British Puri- ing of Charles I, the Commonwealth tan’s writings. Baxter has been called the under Oliver Cromwell, the Restoration of greatest of all English preachers, the vir- the monarchy under Charles II, the perse- tual creator of popular Christian literature, cution of Nonconformity, the Great Ejec- and “the most successful preacher and tion of some two thousand Puritan pastors winner of souls and nurturer of won souls from their churches, and the struggle for that England has ever had.”2 Who was this toleration, which culminated in the Act of man? What does he have to say to us Toleration of 1689. Baxter was no passive today? observer of these events, no idle bystander. Dr. William Bates, who preached As a prominent religious leader, he actively Baxter’s funeral message, recognized the participated in the numerous political and difficulty of summarizing the life of this ecclesiastical struggles of his day. man: When viewed in light of his later influ- ence, Baxter’s early years were far from I am sensible that in speaking of him auspicious. No one could have guessed I shall be under a double disadvan- tage: for those who perfectly knew that this boy, born to Richard and Beatrice him will be apt to think my account Baxter, would amount to much of any- of him to be short and defective, an thing. He was forced to live until the age imperfect shadow of his resplendent virtues; others, who were unac- of ten with his maternal grandfather quainted with his extraordinary because of his father’s gambling debts.6 worth, will, from ignorance or envy, His early schooling proved a great disap- be inclined to think his just praises to be undue and excessive.3 pointment. In six years he had four differ- 4 ent schoolmasters, all of them “ignorant” He passionately desired university or “drunkards.”7 training but had to settle for private tutor- After his father’s conversion, young ing at Ludlow Castle under Richard Richard returned to his parental home at Wickstead. Wickstead, however, all but Eaton Constantine.8 Unfortunately, how- neglected Baxter, forcing him to begin what ever, his return brought no improvement proved to be a lifetime of learning through in his educational environment. The vicar independent study. Baxter’s greatest regret there, who was over eighty and “never was the neglect of languages in his educa- preached in his life,” brought forth a mot- tion: “Besides the Latin Tongue, and but a ley assortment of substitutes to fill in for mediocrity in Greek (with an inconsider- him: among them a day-labourer, a stage- able trial at the Hebrew long after) I had player, a common drunkard.9 The condi- no great skill in Languages.”13 Stephen tion of the area clergy and churches was so argues that Baxter was guilty of understate- low that little or nothing could be expected ment, claiming that Baxter was “ignorant from them in the way of spiritual nurture.10 of Hebrew—a mere smatterer in Greek— The crude and meaningless manner of and possessed of as much Latin as enabled his confirmation at age fourteen only made him . . . to use it with reckless facility.”14 matters worse. The bishop did not exam- Though not formally tutored, Baxter ine any of the boys who were present as to made good use of the excellent library at their spiritual condition. Instead he quickly Ludlow Castle.15 He was a vociferous lined them up and passed down the line, reader, with one biographer arguing that laying his hands on them and uttering a Baxter probably read more books than any few words of a prayer that neither Baxter human being before him.16 While that nor the other boys could decipher. And claim would be impossible to verify, one is as Baxter later would lament, “He was overwhelmed by Baxter’s incessant cita- esteemed as one of the best bishops in tion of other sources in his own writings, England!”11 Baxter’s comments demon- often from memory. strate that the Puritans had legitimate com- Baxter’s lack of formal training refined plaints about the spiritual state of the his logical mindset, independent thinking, Church of England. and his eclecticism. He was beholden to no particular school of thought; he felt free to Conversion and Education borrow from them all, and to critique them Despite the lack of piety in the estab- all. When criticized for taking a position lished church, young Richard was not left against the common consensus on a par- without spiritual guidance. Through his ticular issue, Baxter replied that he valued father’s example and by the reading of theologians by “weight, not by number.”17 some Christian books, Baxter recounts that at about age fifteen “it pleased God to Ordination awaken my soul.”12 The role that books A growing desire to be used in the played in his conversion was not lost on conversion of others led him to seek ordi- Baxter, and he would write numerous nation within the Church of England. treatises on conversion to help others find Immediately after his ordination Baxter the way of salvation through Christian served for nine months as a schoolmaster literature. in Dudley while preaching in vacant pul- 5 pits on Sundays. In the autumn of 1639 Royalists of the town against him. The Baxter left Dudley for the position of entire county had declared openly its curate (assistant pastor) in Bridgnorth, support for the king, and Kidderminster where he remained for nearly two years. was entirely under the influence of Royal- While Baxter was at Bridgnorth, the ist families living there. So despite his parishioners of Kidderminster18 threatened efforts to remain aloof from the struggle, to petition Parliament against their vicar after one of the townspeople had publicly and his assistant on charges of incompe- denounced him as a traitor, Baxter found tence and drunkenness. (Baxter records he could only remain there at the risk of that the vicar’s preaching was so terrible losing his life.23 that his own wife would leave the services When he left, Baxter fully expected to in shame.19 ) To avoid the scandalous con- return within a few weeks, thinking the sequences of exposure from such a petition, war would come to a speedy end. Actu- the Vicar of Kidderminster agreed to dis- ally, he was away for nearly five years. He miss his assistant and offered to give up first went to Coventry, where he preached his pulpit to any lecturer whom the parish- once a week to the soldiers. Three years ioners might select.20 The parishioners later he accepted a chaplaincy in Crom- formed a “selection” committee of fourteen well’s army, a post he held for two years. members, and in March, 1641, they invited He was forced to resign his chaplaincy Baxter to be their lecturer.21 because of poor health, and for five months Baxter languished near death at the home Pastoral Ministry of friends, Sir Thomas and Lady Jane Rous. Baxter accepted the position of lecturer During these months in 1647 he took up at Kidderminster in 1641. Here in a town- his pen and wrote most of The Saints’ Ever- ship of three or four thousand, Baxter lasting Rest. exercised his pastoral ministry first for Baxter notes in the dedication that he fifteen months, and then, after a five year wrote the book with “one foot in the interruption because of the English Civil grave.” His account of the origin and War, for fourteen years. It is ironic that progress of the work is interesting: the very thing for which Baxter is now renowned, his pastoral work, was not fore- The second book which I wrote . . . was that called The Saints’ Everlast- most on his heart when he accepted the ing Rest. Whilst I was in health I had charge. In fact, one of the great attractions not the least thought of writing of this position to him was that at Kidder- books, or of serving God in any more public way than preaching. But minster he would have no official pastoral when I was weakened with great obligations outside of merely preaching bleeding . . . and was sentenced to each week.22 death by the physicians, I began to contemplate more seriously on the When the Civil War broke out in 1642, everlasting rest which I appre- Baxter was forced to withdraw from his hended myself to be just on the bor- ders of. And that my thoughts might parish. Though loyal to the monarchy, he not too much scatter in my medita- had already intimated his sympathy with tion, I began to write something on 24 the Parliamentary party, regarding it as the that subject . . . champion of religion and liberty. Baxter’s sympathies with Parliament inflamed the The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, eventually 6 published in 1649, was a runaway best- books, including The Reformed Pastor, A seller, bringing Baxter immediate fame. In Treatise on Conversion, and A Call to the ten years it went through ten editions, sell- Unconverted.33 ing thousands of copies. He also served as the catalyst in form- Baxter maintains, “Weakness and pain ing the Worcestershire Association of Min- helped me to study how to die; that set me isters in the area around Kidderminster. on studying how to live.”25 Baxter believed They met together regularly for mutual that his sickness provided numerous ben- edification and to co-operate in furthering efits including greatly weakening tempta- the gospel in their county. When once tions, keeping him in a great contempt of asked to which church he belonged, Baxter the world, and teaching him to highly replied: esteem time.26 Most significantly, Baxter claims that his illness, “made me study and I am a Christian, a Meer Christian, of no other Religion; and the Church preach things necessary, and a little stirred that I am of is the Christian Church, up my sluggish heart to speak to sinners and hath been visible where ever the with some compassion, as a dying man to Christian Religion and Church hath been visible: But must you know 27 dying men.” what Sect or Party I am of? I am This phrase became his motto, a guide- against all Sects and dividing Par- post for his life and ministry. He uses the ties: [As a Meer Christian] . . . [I fol- low] Meer Christianity.34 phrase over and over in his works. His life was a continual struggle against death. C. S. Lewis acknowledges his indebted- He was harassed by a constant cough, fre- ness to Baxter for the title of his famous quent bleedings from the nose, migraine work, Mere Christianity. In the Preface, headaches, digestive ailments, kidney Lewis explains the scope and intention of stones, gall stones, etc., etc., etc. He has Mere Christianity. His book, he says, offers been referred to as a virtual “museum of “no help to anyone who is hesitating diseases.”28 Living in an era before pain- between two Christian denominations” killers, Baxter tells us that from the age of since he is not seeking “to convert anyone twenty-one onwards that he was “seldom to my own position.” Lewis says he is an hour free from pain.”29 Eayrs notes that concerned not with controversial matters Baxter was “at death’s door twenty in dispute between different communions times.”30 John Brown asserts, “If Richard but with the exposition and defense “of Baxter had done nothing but take care of what Baxter calls ‘mere Christianity.’”35 himself as an invalid, no one would have One of Baxter’s favorite quotations was had the heart to blame a man to whom life “unity in things necessary, liberty in things was thus one long and weary battle with unnecessary, and charity in all.”36 The disease.”31 phrase, though not original with Baxter, After “recovering” from his illness he was popularized by him, not only in Great returned to his ministerial duties32 at Britain, but also on the European Conti- Kidderminster in June 1647, where his life nent. became a model of ministerial consistency Baxter’s success at Kidderminster is leg- and faithfulness. In addition to his regular endary. Initially he recorded the names of parish work between 1647 and 1660 he still all his converts, but they became so numer- found time to write and publish fifty-seven ous that he was obliged to discontinue the 7 practice. He writes, “in the beginning of my from them for about six years, and they have been assaulted with pul- ministry, I was wont to number them as pit-calumnies, and slanders, with jewels; but since then I could not keep threatenings and imprisonments, any number of them.”37 (An amazing with enticing words, and seducing reasonings, they yet stand fast and admission by a pastor/evangelist!) And keep their integrity . . . not one, that lest we think his task was easy, note care- I hear of, are fallen off, or forsake 40 fully John Brown’s observations on pre- their uprightness. Baxter Kidderminster: But Baxter’s ministry was not limited to If I were asked what, in the year Kidderminster. After King Charles I was 1646, was one of the most unprom- beheaded in 1649, Baxter preached before ising towns in England to which a Cromwell, the Lord Protector of the newly young man could be sent, who was starting his career as a preacher and formed Commonwealth. After the service, pastor, I should feel inclined to point the Protector asked him to a meeting. at once to the town of Kidderminster Cromwell proceeded to enter into a lengthy in Worcestershire. With a population at that time of between three and exposition and justification of his policy four thousand, mainly carpet-weav- and the changes in the government which ers, it had been, morally and spiri- tually, so grossly neglected as almost he said God had made. Baxter’s reply was to have sunk into practical heathen- blunt: “I told him that we took our ancient 38 ism. monarchy to be a blessing and not an evil to the land.”41 Baxter describes the transformation that While he wrote freely upon Cromwell’s God brought to the city: faults, Baxter forthrightly acknowledged that under his rule religion had prospered: The congregation was usually full, so that we were fain to build five “I bless God who gave me, even under an galleries after my coming thither . . . usurper whom I opposed, such liberty and Our private meetings also were full. advantage to preach his Gospel with suc- On the Lord’s Days there was no disorder to be seen in the streets, but cess, which I cannot have under a king you might hear a hundred families to whom I have sworn and performed singing Psalms and repeating ser- true subjection and obedience.”42 Baxter mons as you passed through the streets. In a word, when I came believed no previous era in English history thither first, there was about one had afforded such opportunities for the family in a street that worshipped God and called on his name, and spread of the gospel. when I came away there were some After Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658 streets where there was not passed and the short rule by his son, Richard, Par- one family in the side of a street that did not do so; and that did not by liament voted on May 1, 1660 to recall professing serious godliness, give us Charles II. Baxter was in London at the 39 hopes of their sincerity . . . time, working for religious reconciliation and concord. And the fruit remained! Illustrative of On the day before this crucial decision, the quality of his ministry is the following April 30, Baxter preached before the statement, written some six years after he members of the House of Commons in St. was forced to leave Kidderminster: Margaret’s, Westminster. His subject was Repentance; his text, Ezekiel 36:31.43 He . . . though I have now been absent 8 also preached on May 10th at St. Paul’s Marriage Cathedral before the Lord Mayor. The day The disappointment of his “silencing” had been appointed by the House of Com- (as he called it) was somewhat tempered mons as a Day of Thanksgiving for Gen- by an unexpected but blessed event: on eral Monk’s success, and the prospective September 10, 1662, Baxter married Mar- restoration of the monarchy. The point of garet Charlton.47 In the earlier period of his Baxter’s sermon was too obvious to be ministry, Baxter had resolved not to marry missed. Titled Right Rejoicing, his text was so that he might pursue his pastoral and Luke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in this ministerial duties without interruption.48 rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto Because of his clear belief that most clergy you; but rather rejoice, because your names should not marry due to the demands of are written in heaven.”44 ministry, Baxter notes that his marriage After King Charles II’s coronation, caused quite a stir: “And it everywhere Baxter became one of his chaplains. He rung about, partly as a wonder and partly preached before the King45 and for a time, as a crime . . . And I think the king’s exercised considerable influence at Court. marriage was scarce more talked of than Charles would later offer him the bishop- mine.”49 After his ejection, however, hav- ric of Hereford, which he declined rather ing no specific pastoral responsibilities, than give up his Nonconformist views. he thought himself sufficiently free to take These days at Court were to prove but the a wife. calm before the storm. Twenty years of bru- Margaret served as a beautiful help- tal oppression would soon begin, during meet to Richard. She was in every sense a which Baxter would be harassed by spies, woman of God in her own right. Friends fined, and imprisoned under the rule of this noted that they had never known anyone same king. with a more fervent prayer life. She kept a The Nonconformists were largely Puri- skull on her nightstand to remind her of tans who could not in good conscience sub- the brevity of life. (One side note about scribe to all the tenets of the Church of their relationship: If Baxter had gotten his England—some of which were remnants way, he would have spent virtually every from Roman Catholicism, especially the waking hour in his writing ministry. Mar- prescribed use of the Prayer Book. On May garet forced Richard to put down his pen 19, 1662 the Act of Uniformity established and come to the table for his meals, and to these doctrines and practices as the official there talk about “mundane matters bear- position of the Church of England and ing no relation to theology.”) officially removed from their ecclesiastical assignments or places of ministry all who Writing Ministry disagreed and refused to “conform.” Not During the three years of his residence waiting until the August 24th deadline in London, two before and one after his when the Act would be enforced, Baxter “silencing,” Baxter preached in various let it be known immediately that he would places as opportunities presented them- not conform, leaving the Church of selves. In July 1663 he moved from Lon- England on May 25th.46 Two thousand of don to the country village of Acton, that his fellow ministers would follow soon he might devote himself more fully to thereafter. study and writing. 9 He was one of the most voluminous extremity, whereupon divers Non- conformists, pitying the dying and writers in English history, writing between distressed people that had none to 141 and 200 books, depending on how one call the impenitent to repentance, divides his writing. (I argue for the num- nor to help men to prepare for another world, nor to comfort them ber 168). Baxter wrote treatises on grace in their terrors, when about ten thou- and salvation, apologetics, “popery,” sand died in a week, resolved that antinomianism, the sacraments, millen- no obedience to the laws of mortal men whatsoever could justify them arianism, ethics, nonconformity, devotion, for neglecting of men’s souls and conversion, politics, and history, not to bodies in such extremities. . . . There- fore they resolved to stay with the mention a systematic theology (in Latin). people, and to go into the forsaken Someone has observed: “To ask Baxter for pulpits, though prohibited, and to a reason for the faith that was in him was preach to the poor people before they died; also to visit the sick and to invite an answer in three volumes.” Yet get what relief they could for the he had not only quantity, but also quality. poor.52 N. H. Keeble says, “The influence of his books is incalculable: from the early 1650’s The conditions were ripe for a significant they enjoyed greater sales than those of any response: other English writer.”50 As he continued his writing ministry, The face of death did so awaken both the preachers and the hearers, people continued to desire his preaching that preachers exceeded themselves and teaching. Despite the recently enacted in lively, fervent preaching, and the Coventicle Act, Baxter held meetings in his people crowded constantly to hear them. And all was done with so home. The Coventicle Act of 1664 forbade great seriousness, as that, through the assembly of more than five persons the blessing of God, abundance were converted from their carelessness, who were above sixteen years of age for impenitence, and youthful lusts and purposes of worship, otherwise than by vanities; and religion took that hold the forms of the Church of England. Baxter on the peoples hearts as could never afterwards be loosed.53 felt he could continue to hold meetings in his home despite this Act, because his To make matters worse, scarcely had activities (preaching, praying and singing the plague ceased when the great London Psalms) were in agreement with the forms fire began. Seeing earthly goods go up in of the Church of England.51 flames only increased Baxter’s awareness During his residence at Acton, the Great of the vanity of this world.54 Plague of London burst forth with tremen- Initially, no action was taken against dous fury. Beginning in December, 1664, Baxter for his preaching at Acton. But his this pestilence raged for over a year. Yet services became so popular, with people Baxter recognized God’s providence even crowding in and out of his house to hear, in this horrible event. Many of the ejected that it could no longer be ignored. The ministers seized the opportunity of preach- authorities issued a warrant for his arrest ing in the neglected or deserted pulpits in June 1669 on charges of holding ser- with good results: vices contrary to law. Baxter was impris- oned for six months in the New Prison at when the plague grew hot most of the conformable ministers fled, and Clerkenwell. left their flocks in the time of their His imprisonment, Baxter says, was “no 10 great suffering to me.” He had a good jailer, The coming of James II to the throne a large room, and Margaret had the free- upon Charles II’s death in 1685 boded ill dom of visitation. He notes that, except for for the Nonconformists, especially for the interruption of his sleep, the accommo- Baxter. James was a pronounced Roman dations at the jail were better than the lodg- Catholic who saw his strongest opponents ings he stayed in during his frequent trips among the Nonconformists. Baxter was to London!55 When someone suggested again imprisoned, this time for eighteen that his views might change somewhat due months, beginning in 1685.59 His prison to his imprisonment, Baxter replied, “truth sentence was based upon the ludicrous did not change because I was in a Gaol.”56 charge that his Paraphrase of the New Testa- After being released from prison, Baxter ment was an attack on the established settled back into his writing ministry, mov- church and the state. ing to a new home in Totteridge and then The charge was sedition: the way Baxter to London to escape the continual threat had paraphrased some of the verses was of arrest at Acton. He considered that the seen as an attack on England’s rulers.60 “vows of God were upon him,” and that (Baxter later commented that by the same he must continue to preach wherever logic, he could have been indicted for Divine providence opened a door for him. uttering the words “deliver us from evil”). Therefore, despite continual harassment The unjustness of his trial is legendary and persecution, he continued to preach at in English history. Judge Jeffries ridiculed every available opportunity. Baxter and his supporters, saying to Baxter, He spoke at various churches in the city, “you are full of poison and deceit; I can see facing constant harassment and confisca- it in your face.” Baxter replied, “Oh, I did tion of his property. On one occasion, the not realize that my face was a mirror.”61 authorities even took Baxter’s bed from Baxter appeared for sentencing on the 29th underneath him, despite the fact that he lay of June. Jeffries wished him to be publicly there sick! But Baxter kept it all in perspec- whipped, but the other judges would not tive: “Naked came I into the world, and consent that a man to whom a bishopric naked must I go out. But I never wanted had been offered should be punished as less what man can give, than when man a felon. Baxter was fined five hundred had taken all away. . . .”57 marks, and imprisoned until it was paid. He would also note: He refused to pay the fine imposed upon him, because he knew that it most . . . I am more apprehensive that suf- likely would be repeated and enforced ferings must be the Church’s most ordinary lot, and Christians indeed every time he attempted to preach, or must be self-denying cross-bearers, whenever he wrote anything that could even where there are none but for- possibly be objected to by the Court. He mal nominal Christians to be the cross-makers.58 also refused, on principle, to petition for his release from an unjust imprisonment. He was a powerful preacher, and it is He was finally freed on November 24, 1686. recorded on one occasion, when he was Upon his release Baxter continued his writ- preaching a sermon on judgment, that the ing ministry, as well as assisting Matthew officials in the audience who had come to Sylvester in his ministerial labors. He con- spy on him fled in terror! tinued to preach until his body could no 11 longer take the strain, with William Bates Unconverted, and The Saints’ Everlasting observing that the last time he preached Rest. Alexander Gordon says, “Richard he “almost died in the pulpit.” Bates says, Baxter, in his best days, was a stronger “It would have been his glory to have been power with the religious people of transfigured on the mount.”62 England, than either the Westminster Even on his deathbed, Baxter did not Assembly or the Parliamentary leaders.”66 abandon his calling. He was the same in The influence of The Reformed Pastor was his life and death; his last hours were spent great in his own day and has continued to preparing others and himself to appear the present. Its contemporary influence is before God. To some who came to visit him, reflected in the extant correspondence of he remarked Baxter. Numerous letters from fellow min- isters testified as to its influence in their You come hither to learn to die; I am lives. Phillip Jacob Spener, Wesley, Ruth- not the only person that must go this way. I can assure you that your erford, and Asbury all spoke in glowing whole life, be it never so long, is little terms of the book’s impact on their lives. enough to prepare for death. Have J. I. Packer suggests that every pastor a care of this vain, deceitful world, and the lusts of the flesh. Be sure you should read The Reformed Pastor every choose God for your portion, heaven single year of his ministry. for your home, God’s glory for your So what about us today? What can we end, His Word for your rule; and then you need never fear but that we learn from the life and ministry of this shall meet with comfort.63 man? In typical Puritan fashion, I would like to end with application, or what the A few hours before his departure, Baxter Puritans would call “uses.” was asked how he was. His reply? “Almost well.”64 On December 8th, 1691, Exhortation to the the great preacher entered into that Contemporary Church “everlasting rest” of which he had so Let me begin this section with two dis- often and so confidently spoken. claimers. First, Baxter was far from perfect, especially from a Baptist perspective. As Legacy Southern Baptists, we would want to help What legacy did this great man of God Baxter with a few of his formulations, leave to us? He was ahead of his time in especially his emphasis on infant baptism, terms of encouraging support for missions. his views on episcopacy, his lack of empha- He corresponded regularly with John Eliot sis on equipping the saints for the work of and said, ”No part of my prayers are so ministry, and certainly his views on the deeply serious as that for the conversion benefits of a celibate clergy. 65 of the infidel and ungodly world.” His Second, we need to remember that poetical works and hymns have also Baxter lived in a very different world than blessed believers. “Ye Holy Angels Bright” we do today. Kidderminster was part of a and “Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care” are parish system, where all the inhabitants of two of his more prominent works. the city saw Baxter’s church as their church. Baxter’s ongoing influence has largely Kidderminster was also prominent as a been through his Practical Works, espe- carpet-weaving town, and most people cially The Reformed Pastor, Call to the worked in their homes. Those realities gave 12 Baxter great freedom to pursue the home forth eight exhortations, taken largely from visits for which he is widely remembered. The Reformed Pastor, that I am convinced Despite the differences in theological Baxter would want to give to the contem- perspectives on some issues, and the dis- porary church and to the pastors of today. tance of time and culture, I believe Baxter still has a great deal to say to the contem- Focus on Conversion porary church. While most of my observa- Baxter’s emphasis in ministry was on tions will deal with pastoral leadership, the conversion. Other Puritans wrote on con- implications should not be lost on those of version, but Baxter wrote more than any us involved in training persons for pasto- other, and apparently was read more than ral ministry. If these were the standards to any other writer on this topic. His Call to which Baxter would hold pastors, how the Unconverted was the most popular book much more significant are these issues for of its day in all of England.67 It sold 20,000 those of us involved in training persons for copies the first year (which is significant ministry! even by today’s standards!) He received I mentioned earlier that Baxter served letters virtually every week from people as the catalyst in forming the Worches- converted through reading the book.68 tershire Association of Ministers in the area John Eliot, the great missionary to the around Kidderminster, the first association Indians, translated Call to the Unconverted of its kind in England. This association pro- into Algonquian as soon as he had finished vided the context for the writing of what translating the Bible. Orme suggests that many consider to be Baxter’s most influ- the overall effects of this book in the ential work, The Reformed Pastor. conversion of people “have been greater The members of the Association had probably than have arisen from any other committed themselves to adopt Baxter’s mere human performance,” and that its plan of systematic catechizing. They fixed influence is “beyond all calculation.”69 a day of prayer and fasting to seek God’s Baxter understood the necessity of con- blessing on the undertaking, and asked version. “It is the very drift of the gospel,” Baxter to preach. When the day came, Baxter claimed, “the main design of the however, Baxter was too ill to go; so he whole Word of God, to convert men from published the material he had prepared, a sin to God, and build them up when they massive exposition and application of Acts are once converted. . . . Conversion is the 20:28: “Take heed therefore unto your- most blessed work, and the day of conver- selves, and to all the flock, over the which sion the most blessed day, that this world the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, is acquainted with.”70 to feed the church of God, which he hath He challenged ministers, therefore, to purchased with his own blood.” focus on conversion in their ministries: By “reformed” Baxter means, not Calvinistic in doctrine (though he was We must labour, in a special man- ner, for the conversion of the uncon- basically in the Reformed camp), but verted. The work of conversion is the renewed in practice. He sought a renewal first and great thing we must drive in how pastors envisioned their calling and at; after this we must labour with all our might. Alas! the misery of the ministry. unconverted is so great, that it I will conclude this paper by setting calleth loudest to us for compassion. 13 . . . He that seeth one man sick of a must do and does, one way or another, in mortal disease, and another only pained with the toothache, will be every case of genuine new birth. moved more to compassionate the Baxter anticipated, in a way, the current former, than the latter; and will debate about “lordship salvation.” “Faith surely make more haste to help him, though he were a stranger, and the entereth at the mind,” he taught, “but it other a brother or a son. . . . I con- hath not all its essential parts, and is not fess, I am frequently forced to the gospel faith indeed, till it hath pos- neglect that which should tend to the further increase of knowledge in sessed the will. The heart of faith is want- the godly, because of the lamentable ing, till faith hath taken possession of the necessity of the unconverted. . . . O, heart.”73 Christ must be believed in with therefore, brethren whomsoever you neglect, neglect not the most miser- all a person’s heart, soul, and strength: able! . . . O call after the impenitent, and ply this great work of convert- you must receive and close with ing souls, whatever else you leave 71 Christ entirely, in his whole office, undone. as he is to accomplish all these works, or else you cannot be united As a further application of focusing on to him. He will not be divided: you shall not have Christ as justifier of conversion, Baxter would lament our you, if you will not have him as common use of the term “unchurched,” guide, and ruler, and sanctifier of insisting instead that we call persons you. He will not be a partial Saviour: if you will not consent that he shall “lost.” save you from your sins, he will not consent to save you from hell.74 Understand the True Nature of Conversion Baxter would challenge the contemporary Baxter taught that conversion was a church to carefully to examine her under- process. People lie dead in sin and cannot standing of the nature of conversion. respond until God moves them to do so through effectual grace. But this does not Guard Your Own Heart mean that they are to sit by idly and wait Baxter began his exhortation in The for God to work. They should prepare Reformed Pastor with Paul’s opening phrase themselves through seeking God and lis- in Acts 20:28, “Take heed to yourself.” He tening to his word (though Baxter avoided notes that before we can take heed to the saying that such preparation makes God flock, we must first take heed to ourselves. beholden to an individual, a position some- He writes, “Content not yourselves with times erroneously attributed to him). being in a state of grace, but be also careful Some recent interpreters have character- that your graces are kept in vigorous and ized the Puritans as teaching that all must lively exercise, and that you preach to follow a set pattern of experiences to be yourselves the sermons which you study, converted. Baxter knew from Scripture and before you preach them to others.”75 observation that this was not the case and He reflects on the importance of protect- taught that “God breaketh not all men’s ing our own walk with God: hearts alike.”72 Breaking them, however, in the sense of causing inbred love of sin to When I let my heart grow cold, my preaching is cold; and when [my shrivel up so that love for Christ and holi- heart] is confused, my preaching is ness can blossom is something that God confused; and so I can oft observe also in the best of my hearers, that 14 when I have grown cold in preach- did strive; ing, they have grown cold too; and I preached, as never sure to preach the next prayers which I have heard again, from them have been too like my And as a dying Man to dying Men.80 preaching. We are the nurses of Christ’s little ones. If we forbear tak- ing food ourselves, we shall famish Baxter would challenge us to preach “as them . . .76 never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” He believed Perhaps Baxter’s greatest challenge to most preachers needed more passion in contemporary pastors guarding their hearts their preaching: would be in the area of pride. He asks, If we were heartily devoted to our Is not pride the sin of devils— work, it would be done more vigor- the first-born of hell? Is it not that ously, and more seriously, than it is wherein Satan’s image doth much by the most of us. How few minis- consist? and is it to be tolerated in ters do preach with all their might, men who are so engaged against or speak about everlasting joys and him and his kingdom as we are? The everlasting torments in such a man- very design of the gospel is to abase ner as may make men believe that us . . . Humility is not a mere orna- they are in good earnest! ment of a Christian, but an essential O sirs how plainly, how closely, part of the new creature. It is a con- how earnestly, should we deliver a tradiction in terms, to be a Christian, message of such moment as ours, and not humble.77 when the everlasting life or ever- lasting death of our fellow-men is involved in it! . . . What! speak coldly Baxter would give his hearty agreement for God, and for men’s salvation? to James Denney’s observation that, “No Can we believe that our people must be converted or condemned, and yet man can bear witness to Christ and to speak in a drowsy tone? In the name himself at the same time. . . . No man can of God, brethren, labour to awaken give at once the impression that he is your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to 78 clever and that Christ is mighty to save.” awaken the hearts of sinners. . . . Oh, For Baxter, the key is not what you do speak not one cold or careless word but who you are. “We must study as hard about so great a business as heaven or hell. Whatever you do, let the how to live well,” he argued, “as how to people see that you are in good preach well.”79 earnest.81

Preach the Word A second exhortation Baxter would give Inscribed on Baxter’s pulpit in Kid- to contemporary preachers is to preach with derminster are the words from 2 Corin- balance. Our culture disdains what is thians 4:5, “we preach not ourselves, but termed “fire and brimstone preaching.” Christ Jesus the Lord.” Baxter would give But Baxter emphasized, “fear must drive, 82 two specific exhortations for contemporary as love must draw.” Baxter would tell us preaching. we must challenge people not only to flee First, preach with passion. In his Poetical from the wrath to come, but to flee to the Fragments he gives his perspective on One who bore that wrath for lost and guilty preaching: sinners. Baxter would exhort us to make sure our preaching is balanced between Still thinking I had little time to live, fear driving and love drawing. My fervent heart to win men’s souls 15 Minister to Individuals munity.84 He developed adult catechisms, The key to Baxter’s pastoral method was basic material on Christian growth, to give personal care of individuals, based upon to persons in various stages of spiritual intimate knowledge of their daily lives, development. prompted and sustained by an unaffected Baxter would exhort us today to and impartial love for all. At first he was develop a “data base” of the spiritual con- content to catechize only “in the Church,” dition of persons in our church. What if our and to talk with individuals “now and church is too large for us to fulfill this task then.” He discovered, however, that for his by ourselves? Then get help, Baxter would preaching to be fruitful he must follow it say. (He brought on an assistant to help him up with direct personal discourse with with his visits due to his continual ill every family in his parish. He urged pas- health.) To shepherd properly the flock we tors to take up this ministry of personal must know the spiritual condition of each instruction with this heartfelt plea: person.

I study to speak as plainly and mov- Pursue Family Reformation ingly as I can, and yet I frequently meet with those that have been my Baxter would exhort us today to make hearers eight or ten years, who know family ministry a high priority. “We must not whether Christ be God or man, have a special eye upon families,” he and wonder when I tell them the history of his birth and life and said, “to see that they are well ordered, and death, as if they had never heard it the duties of each relation performed.85 before. . . . I have found by experi- Why the emphasis on family ministry? ence, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable Baxter shares what he has learned through hearers, have got more knowledge experience: and remorse of conscience in half an hour’s close discourse, than they did from ten years’ public preaching. I You are not like to see any general know that preaching the gospel pub- reformation, till you procure family licly is the most excellent means, reformation. Some little religion because we speak to many at once. there may be, here and there; but But it is usually far more effectual while it is confined to single persons, to preach it privately to a particular and is not promoted in families, it will not prosper, nor promise much sinner, as to himself: for the plainest 86 man this is, can scarcely speak plain future increase. enough in public for them to under- stand; but in private we may do it Keep Your Heart in Heaven much more. . . . I conclude, therefore, that Baxter wrote much on the topic of medi- public preaching alone will not be tation, particularly in The Saints’ Everlast- sufficient . . . Long may you study ing Rest. He believed meditation was a and preach to little purpose, if you neglect this duty [of personal vital discipline to motivate the heart for instruction].83 vigorous prayer and subsequent vigorous obedience. He especially advocated medi- Baxter had approximately eight hun- tating on “the hope of glory.” Meditation dred homes in his parish, and found that on heaven was for Baxter less an occasional by visiting fifteen or sixteen families each activity than a way of energizing one’s week, each year he could discern the spiri- spiritual life. tual condition of each person in the com- Baxter’s method was to focus the 16 believer’s mind on the greatness and good- dictum: “If evangelists were our theologians ness of God. He said, “The most covetous or theologians our evangelists, we should man will let go silver, if he might have gold at least be nearer the ideal church.”90 instead of it.” Listen to his pointed remarks: Richard Baxter was such a man, and reminds us we should be as well. We would If thou wouldst have light and heat, all do well to heed the words of Spurgeon why art thou no more in the sun- shine? For want of this recourse to and “Go fetch Baxter!” heaven, thy soul is as a lamp not lighted, and thy duty as a sacrifice ENDNOTES without fire. Fetch one coal daily 1 from this altar, and see if thy offer- C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon Autobi- ing will not burn. . . . In thy want of ography: The Early Years (1834-1859), rev. love to God, lift up thy eye of faith ed., originally compiled by Susannah to heaven, behold his beauty, con- template his excellencies, and see Spurgeon (Edinburgh: The Banner of whether his amiableness and perfect Truth Trust, 1976) 417. goodness will not ravish thy heart. 2A. B. Grosart, Representative Non-Con- As exercise gives appetite, strength, and vigour to the body, so these formists (London, 1879) 137. heavenly exercises will quickly 3Dr. William Bates, A Funeral Sermon . . . cause the increase of grace and spiri- tual life.87 for Richard Baxter (London: Brab. Aylmer, 1692) 86. 4 We use the expression today that some Grainger, Biographical History, cited in people are “too heavenly-minded to be of J. M. Lloyd Thomas’s “Introduction” to any earthly good.” Baxter would say to us, Baxter’s Autobiography (London: J. M. “unless you are heavenly-minded you will Dent, 1925) xxiv-xxv. 5 not be of much earthly good.” Baxter main- The starting point for any consideration tains, “As digestion turns food into nour- of Baxter’s life must be his own autobi- ishment for the body, so meditation turns ography, Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696), the truths received and remembered into published by his friend and colleague warm affection, firm resolution, and a holy Matthew Sylvester. This was issued in lifestyle.”88 abridged form in 1925 by J. M. Lloyd Thomas, and reissued in 1974 by N. H. Maintain a Balance of Head Keeble under the title The Autobiography and Heart of Richard Baxter (London: J. M. Dent & Last, but not least, Baxter would argue Sons). Citations in this paper are from that we need both head and heart in our Keeble’s edition (hereafter cited simply ministry, both doctrine and practice. Some as Autobiography) except where the in our day seem to make a keen mind anti- account only appears in the Reliquiae thetical to a warm heart, and a focus on Baxterianae (cited as R.B.). The best biog- theology antithetical to a commitment to raphy is G. F. Nuttall’s Richard Baxter practical ministry. As Carl F. H. Henry said (Stanford: Stanford University Press, in 1967, “in these next years we must strive 1965), surpassing F. J. Powicke’s two harder to become theologian-evangelists, works, A Life of the Reverend Richard rather than to remain content as just Baxter, 1615-1691 (London: Jonathan theologians or just evangelists.”89 Henry’s Cape, 1924), and The Reverend Richard challenge mirrors James Denney’s famous Baxter Under the Cross, 1662-1691 (Lon- 17 don: Jonathan Cape, 1927). Nuttall tippled on the weekdays.” Durandus, Ockam, and their Dis- has filled in numerous gaps in our 10Baxter says, “Only three or four con- ciples; because I thought they nar- knowledge of Baxter’s life by utiliz- stant competent preachers lived rowly searched after Truth, and ing historical references scattered near us, and those (though conform- brought Things out of the darkness through Baxter’s other published able all save one) were the common of Confusion: For I could never from works and especially in his manu- marks of the people’s obloquy and my first Studies endure Confusion!” script correspondence, which Nut- reproach, and any that had but (R.B., 1:6). tall was the first to calendar and gone to hear them, when he had no 16Eayrs, 131. read in chronological order. preaching at home, was made the 17The precise quotation is, “I never 6Autobiography, 3. Ladell speculates derision of the vulgar rabble under thought that my faith must follow that “the boy’s mother was not the odious name of a Puritan” (ibid., the major vote; I value Divines also strong enough to attend to her child, 4). Nuttall notes that it later became by weight, and not by number.” See and his father was too busy with one of Baxter’s primary aims to Richard Baxter, Aphorismes of Justi- pressing financial difficulties to “assist in the effective remedying of fication (London: Francis Tyton, care to have him under his roof.” See such a state of affairs” (Richard 1649), “Appendix,” 12. A. R. Ladell, Richard Baxter: Puritan Baxter, 8). 18Barbara Stewart provides an excel- and Mystic (London: S.P.C.K., 1925) 11Baxter, “Confirmation and Res- lent discussion on the town of Kid- 36. Powicke places young Richard’s tauration, the Necessary Means of derminster in her work, “Richard mother with him in Rowton for a Reformation and Reconciliation, Baxter: The Beloved Pastor of Kid- these ten years, both then being for the Healing of the Corruptions derminster” (unpublished Masters apart from his father (A Life, 15). and Divisions of the Churches” thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, Unfortunately Powicke gives no (1658), in The Practical Works of British Columbia, April 1985) 18-32. justification for this departure from Richard Baxter (London: George Vir- See also Powicke’s treatment in A Baxter’s straightforward declara- tue, 1838) 4:316. Life, 35-46. tion: “And there I lived from my 12Autobiography, 7. Baxter’s account 19Powicke, A Life, 84. parents with my grandfather . . . of his conversion, taken from the 20That the vicar took the people seri- [emphasis added]” (Autobiography, Autobiography, is included in Conver- ously can be seen in the financial 3). sions: The Christian Experience, ed. arrangements he offered. The new 7Autobiography, 3. Hugh T. Kerr and John M. Mulder lecturer would be paid a sum of £60 8Baxter’s father was converted “by (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 29- per annum out of the £200 which the the bare reading of the Scriptures in 33. vicar’s living provided. The vicar private, without either preaching, or 13R.B., 1:6. secured the agreement by posting a godly company, or any other books 14An Excerpt from Reliquiae Baxterianae, bond of £500. but the Bible” (ibid., 4). Eayrs notes with an Essay by Sir James Stephen 21Nuttall, 24. that copies of the Scriptures were on Richard Baxter, ed. Francis John 22At the time of his ordination, while rapidly multiplied after the new (New York: Longmans, Green, and professing that “a fervent desire of translation of 1611. See George Co., 1910) 68-69. winning Souls to God was my Eayrs, Richard Baxter and the Revival 15Baxter gives some account of his motive,” Baxter acknowledges that of Preaching and Pastoral Service (Lon- reading: “[I] read a multitude of our he “had no inclination” to “a Pasto- don: National Council of Evangeli- English Practical Treatises, before I ral Charge.” See the Preface in Plain cal Free Churches, 1912) 8. had ever read any other Bodies of Scripture Proof of Infants Church- 9Autobiography, 4-5. These men “read Divinity. . . Next [to] Practical Divin- Membership and Baptism (London: Common Prayer on Sundays and ity, no Books so suited with my Robert White, 1653). Holy-Days” and “taught school and Disposition as Aquinas, Scotus, 23Davies argues that “from the begin- 18 ning to the end of the civil troubles as lecturer (curate), refusing to friend: “I was greatly refreshed to Baxter was a Royalist at heart.” John accept the vicarage, but Eayrs notes find what a sweet savour of good Hamilton Davies, Life of Richard that “Baxter was vicar in all but Mr. Baxter’s doctrine, works and Baxter of Kidderminster: Preacher and name and emoluments” (23). discipline remain to this day.” Prisoner (London: W. Kent, 1887) 98. Powicke relates the story of how the 41Autobiography, 140. Nuttall claims that “Baxter’s politi- townspeople, without Baxter’s 42Ibid., 80. cal hopes were to be disappointed, knowledge or approval, had peti- 43The House of Commons ordered the and he never ceased to condemn the tioned the Westminster Assembly to next day that the sermon be printed. execution of the King; but at the appoint Baxter to the position of See A Sermon of Repentance (London: beginning of the war so convinced vicar. Baxter served three years as Francis Tyton, 1660). a Puritan could not do otherwise Lecturer before he found out what 44Baxter says the response was mixed: than side with the Parliament” (31- the people had done. He did not re- “The moderate were pleased with 32). Baxter himself says that “both gard it as making any difference to it, the fanatics were offended with parties were to blame” and that his position. “In his own eyes,” me for keeping such a thanksgiving, he “will not be he that shall justify Powicke says, “he was, and the diocesan party thought I did either of them” (Autobiography, 36- remained to the last, simply Minis- suppress their joy” (Autobiography, 37). ter, or Preacher of the Gospel, at 143). Stephen argues that the ser- 24Autobiography, 94. Baxter apologizes Kidderminster” (A Life, 83). mon “could not have been recited for the lack of marginal citations, 33The Treatise on Conversion and Call by the most rapid voice in less than noting that he wrote most of the to the Unconverted were originally two hours.” See An Excerpt from book when he had no resources but preached. Baxter wrote his pulpit Reliquiae Baxterianae, 93. a Bible and a Concordance. Yet he notes in shorthand. Thomas Bald- 45The sermon was published by a spe- says, “I found that the transcript of win, who lived with him and took cial command. See The Life of Faith the heart hath the greatest force on over the ministry at Kidderminster (London: Francis Tyton, 1660). the hearts of others” (ibid., 95). Later when Baxter was ejected, learned to 46Nuttall asserts that Baxter’s imme- editions would include such mar- decipher Baxter’s shorthand notes, diate action had considerable influ- ginal citations. and transcribed many of his ser- ence on other ministers (92). 25From a letter to Anthony O. Wood, mons for the printer. 47Margaret had been converted cited in J. M. Lloyd Thomas’s 34Baxter, Preface to Church-History of under Baxter’s preaching at Kidder- “Introduction” to Baxter’s Autobiog- the Government of Bishops and their minster. Baxter tells the story of their raphy, xxv. Councils Abbreviated (London: John marriage in his tribute to her titled 26See R.B., 1:21 for Baxter’s complete Kidgell, 1680). A Breviate of the Life of Margaret, the list of how his illnesses benefited 35C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New Daughter of Francis Charlton, of him. York: Macmillan, 1952) 6. Apply in Shropshire, Esq; and Wife of 27Autobiography, 26 [emphasis added]. 36Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest Richard Baxter. For the use of all, but 28Timothy Beougher and J. I. Packer, (1649), in The Practical Works of especially of their Kindred (London: B. “Go Fetch Baxter,” Christianity Richard Baxter, vol. III (London: Simmons, 1681). It was reprinted in Today, 16 December 1991, 27. George Virtue, 1838) 3. 1928 as Richard Baxter and Margaret 29Autobiography, 76. 37R.B, 1:84. Charlton: A Puritan Love Story, ed. 30Eayrs, 49. 38See Brown, 165-166. John T. Wilkinson (London: George 31Brown, Puritan Preaching in England 39R.B., 1:84-85. Allen & Unwin) and in 1997 as A (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 40Ibid., 86. In fact, on December 1, Grief Sanctified: Passing Through Grief 1900) 168. 1743, George Whitefield visited to Peace and Joy, ed. J. I. Packer (Ann 32He returned to his previous position Kidderminster and wrote to a Arbor, MI: Servant). 19 48E.g., in his Christian Directory, Baxter furiously without restraint; to see of His Writings, 2 vols. (Boston: claims that while it is not “unlaw- the streets filled with people aston- Crocker & Breuster, 1831) 2:364-370. ful” for ministers to marry, “so great ished, that had scarce sense left The following abbreviated account a hinderance [sic] ordinarily is this them to lament their own calamity; is from Orme, 2:368-369: troublesome state of life to the to see the fields filled with heaps of Lord Chief Justice Jeffries said: sacred ministration which they goods, and sumptuous buildings, “Richard, Richard, dost thou think undertake, that a very clear call curious rooms, costly furniture and we’ll hear thee poison the court? should be expected for their satis- household stuff, yea, warehouses, Richard, thou art an old fellow, an faction” (Works, 1:400). Though this and furnished shops and libraries, old knave; thou hast written books was not published until after his etc., all on a flame, and none durst enough to load a cart, every one as marriage (1673), it may be taken to come near to receive anything . . .” full of sedition, I might say treason, be representative of his thought 55Ibid., 207-210. Yet he regretted his as an egg is full of meat. Hadst thou throughout his life. After his mar- imprisonment for the interruption been whipped out of thy writing- riage he not only recorded his it caused his work, removing him trade forty years ago, it had been belief that for himself at Kidder- from the “poor people in such hope- happy. Thou pretendest to be a minster “my single Life afforded me ful beginnings of a common refor- preacher of the gospel of peace, and much advantage” but he continued mation . . . “ thou hast one foot in the grave; it is to commend celibacy for ministers 56R.B., 3:59. time for thee to begin to think what in general. He says that even Mar- 57Autobiography, 252. He grieved most account thou intendest to give. But garet “lived and died in the same for the loss of the library he had leave thee to thyself, and I see that mind” (Breviate, 101). See also my carefully collected. Some of his thou’lt go on as thou hast begun; article, “The Puritan View of Mar- books, saved from capture by the but, by the grace of God, I’ll look riage: The Nature of the Husband/ adroitness of his wife, were sent to after thee. . . . Come, what do you Wife Relationship in Puritan Harvard University in America. See say for yourself, you old knave?— England as Taught and Experienced Davies, 368. come, speak up.” by a Representative Puritan Pastor, 58Autobiography, 121. Baxter responded, “Your lordship Richard Baxter,” Trinity Journal 10 59Baxter did not continue his auto- need not fear, for I’ll not hurt you. n.s. (Fall 1989) 131-158. biography beyond the year 1685. But these things will surely be 49Autobiography, 174. Biographers therefore must rely on understood one day; what fools one 50See Keeble, “Introduction” to The other sources to fill in information sort of Protestants are made, to per- Autobiography of Richard Baxter (Lon- about this time period. secute the other. I am not concerned don: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1974) xiv. 60The charge specifically brought to answer such stuff, but I am ready 51Powicke, The Rev. Richard Baxter, 23. against Baxter was that he reflected to produce my writings for the con- 52R.B., 3:2. on the bishops of the Anglican futation of all this, and my life and 53Ibid. Church in a manner that legally was conversation are known to many in 54Autobiography, 199. His observations seditious. The passages objected to this nation.” in the aftermath of the fire are worth were: Matthew 5:19; Mark 3:6; Mark 62Bates, 123. noting: “It was a sight that might 9:39; Mark 11:31; Mark 12:38-40; 63Ibid., 123-124. have given any man a lively sense Luke 10:2; John 11:57; and Acts 15:2. 64Matthew Sylvester, Elisha’s Cry of the vanity of this world, and all 61See Lord Macaulay, The History of after Elijah’s God (1696), 15. This ser- the wealth and glory of it, and of England, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan, monic tribute to Baxter by Sylvester the future conflagration of all the 1913) 484-488 and William Orme, is bound together with my copy of world. To see the flames mount up The Life and Times of the Rev. Richard the Reliquiae Baxterianae. towards heaven, and proceed so Baxter with a Critical Examination 65Autobiography, 117. 20 66Alexander Gordon, “Richard Baxter 85Ibid, 100. as a founder of Liberal Nonconfor- 86Ibid, 102. mity,” in Heads of English Unitarian 87Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, History (London: Philip Green, 1895) edited with an Introduction by 65. Timothy K. Beougher (Wheaton: 67Sommerville’s research demon- Billy Graham Center, 1994) 23-24. strates the enormous popularity 88Ibid., 58. of Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted. 89Carl F. H. Henry, “Facing a New See C. John Sommerville, Popular Day in Evangelism,” in One Race, Religion in Restoration England One Gospel, One Task, ed. C. F. H. (Gainesville: University of Florida Henry and W. S. Mooneyham, vol. Press, 1977) 47-48. 1 (Minneapolis: World Wide Publi- 68R.B., 1:114-115. William Bates cations, 1967) 13. remarks that six brothers were at 90James Denney, The Death of Christ one time converted by this book, (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, and that “every week he received 1911) viii. letters of some converted by his books” (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. 21