The seventeenth century in England was a time of constant and often violent controversies over religion and politics. Despite finding himself cruelly vulnerable at the centre of many of these, Richard Baxter managed, as both pastor and writer, to proclaim Christ in a remarkable way.
Baxter was born in Shropshire in 1615. When he was ten, his father, who had been a drunk, had a dramatic conversion to Christ. It was an event that contributed to his son’s conversion shortly afterwards. Baxter had only an informal education, but made up for his lack of further education through an extraordinary amount of reading.
In 1638 Baxter became master of a school in the Midlands and was ordained as a minister of the Church of England. At this time the Puritans, with their zeal for a more fully reformed and biblical church, were a powerful force and although Baxter never subscribed to every aspect of Puritan theology, he became very supportive.
In 1641 Baxter was given charge of the Anglican church in the small Worcestershire town of Kidderminster. With a break to serve as a chaplain in the Parliamentary army during the Civil War, he was to minister there until 1660. What Baxter achieved in Kidderminster remains a remarkable example of a fruitful Christian ministry to a community. Baxter didn’t just preach but went out to homes in a programme of visiting each family and working through the basics of Christianity with them. The results were dramatic. The already sizeable parish church had to have five galleries fitted to accommodate the new members. By the time Baxter left, Kidderminster was considered ‘largely converted’. The transformation endured; when evangelist George Whitfield visited the town nearly a century later, he declared that Baxter’s impact could still be felt.
In 1660, following the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, the Church of England began to impose order on the religious confusion that had arisen during the Civil War. At first, things looked promising for Baxter and he was offered the position of Bishop of Hereford. He rejected it on principle. In 1662, however, matters took a darker turn when an Act of Uniformity outlawed many Puritan beliefs: the result was that over 2,000 clergy, including Baxter, were expelled from the Church of England and he now found himself prevented from holding church office, preaching or even having links with Kidderminster. Tragically, this supreme pastor and preacher was now prevented from access to either parish or pulpit.
For the next quarter of a century Baxter, based in London, found himself restricted and persecuted by the state. He was regularly fined and imprisoned for 18 months. With most of the doors to ministry blocked, Baxter threw his considerable energies into writing. He wrote 150 books, some of which are considered devotional classics and two of which – The Saints’ Everlasting Rest and The Reformed Pastor – have never been out of print. Baxter proved to be a wise writer with not only deep insights into spiritual matters but the gift of clarity.
Baxter has bequeathed the church many insightful quotes and here are a few.
- Nothing below heaven is worth setting our hearts upon!
- If my life is short – then why should I be sad to welcome endless glory?
- It is a contradiction to be a true Christian – and not humble.
- Heaven will pay for any loss we may suffer to gain it – but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven!
- Prayer is the vital breath of the Christian.
- Oh, that Christians would learn to live with one eye on Christ crucified, and the other on his coming!
In 1662, when Baxter was almost fifty, he married one of his converts, Margaret Charlton. It proved to be a supportive marriage that lasted until her death in 1681. Baxter, troubled not just by a bullying state but by a whole range of painful ailments and illnesses, certainly needed support. Finally, in 1687, new legislation granted him freedom from prosecution and Baxter’s final years before his death in 1691 were peaceful.
Three things strike me powerfully about Richard Baxter.
First, Baxter was a man of dedication. He was dedicated to God; when he wrote about spiritual matters he drew on his own rich experience. Yet Baxter was also dedicated to people; to sharing his knowledge of God with them. Baxter went out from his church to bring people into it. Perhaps no better phrase expresses Baxter’s dedication than his quote: ‘I preached, as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.’
Second, Baxter was a man of moderation. He lived at a time when narrow and extreme views were commonly adopted and bitterly defended. Although Baxter never denied anything fundamental to the gospel, his outlook was one of a generous breadth. He referred to himself as a ‘mere Christian’, a phrase that C.S. Lewis was happy to borrow. One aspect of Baxter’s moderation was his desire for peace-making. Here he suffered the fate common to those who seek that role: he often found himself under attack by both sides. Although the phrase didn’t originate with him, Baxter was frequently quoted as saying, ‘In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.’ Wise words!
Finally, Baxter was a man of application. He became a learned theologian, but he never sought truth as an end in itself; for him, theological knowledge was always something to be applied to life. He wanted to feed the sheep. For example, one of his works – A Christian Directory – is well over a million words on how Christians should live and a book that, in our own day, Tim Keller has described as ‘the greatest manual on biblical counselling ever produced’.
A remarkable pastor and remarkable writer, Richard Baxter remains a hero well worth discovering.
J.John
Reverend Canon
