Richard Baxter (1615-1691): A Model Of Pastoral Leadership .
Richard Baxter (1615-1691):A Model of Pastoral Leadership forEvangelism and Church GrowthTimothy K. BeougherTimothy K. Beougher is BillyGraham Professor of Evangelism andChurch Growth at The Southern BaptistTheological Seminary, where he hastaught since 1996. Dr. Beougher coedited Accounts of Campus Revival andEvangelism for a Changing World, andis the author of several scholarly articles.He is currently at work on a biographyof 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.”1Spurgeon was not the only one helpedby the seventeenth century British Puritan’s writings. Baxter has been called thegreatest of all English preachers, the virtual 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 disadvantage: 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 unacquainted with his extraordinaryworth, will, from ignorance or envy,be inclined to think his just praisesto be undue and excessive.34And one biographer warns of trying tocompress Baxter’s life into a few pages,saying, “Men of his size should not bedrawn in miniature.”4Early 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 seventeenth century, a watershed in Englishhistory. Before his death in 1691, he wouldwitness the English Civil War, the beheading of Charles I, the Commonwealthunder Oliver Cromwell, the Restoration ofthe monarchy under Charles II, the persecution of Nonconformity, the Great Ejection 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 influence, Baxter’s early years were far fromauspicious. No one could have guessedthat this boy, born to Richard and BeatriceBaxter, would amount to much of anything. He was forced to live until the ageof ten with his maternal grandfatherbecause of his father’s gambling debts.6His early schooling proved a great disappointment. In six years he had four differ-
ent schoolmasters, all of them “ignorant”or “drunkards.”7After his father’s conversion, youngRichard returned to his parental home atEaton Constantine.8 Unfortunately, however, his return brought no improvementin his educational environment. The vicarthere, who was over eighty and “neverpreached in his life,” brought forth a motley assortment of substitutes to fill in forhim: among them a day-labourer, a stageplayer, a common drunkard.9 The condition of the area clergy and churches was solow that little or nothing could be expectedfrom them in the way of spiritual nurture.10The crude and meaningless manner ofhis confirmation at age fourteen only madematters worse. The bishop did not examine 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 demonstrate that the Puritans had legitimate complaints about the spiritual state of theChurch of England.Conversion and EducationDespite the lack of piety in the established 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 tutoring 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 education: “Besides the Latin Tongue, and but amediocrity in Greek (with an inconsiderable trial at the Hebrew long after) I hadno great skill in Languages.”13 Stephenargues that Baxter was guilty of understatement, 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.”14Though 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 citation 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 particular issue, Baxter replied that he valuedtheologians by “weight, not by number.”17OrdinationA growing desire to be used in theconversion of others led him to seek ordination within the Church of England.Immediately after his ordination Baxterserved for nine months as a schoolmasterin Dudley while preaching in vacant pul-5
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 incompetence and drunkenness. (Baxter recordsthat the vicar’s preaching was so terriblethat his own wife would leave the servicesin shame.19 ) To avoid the scandalous consequences of exposure from such a petition,the Vicar of Kidderminster agreed to dismiss his assistant and offered to give uphis pulpit to any lecturer whom the parishioners might select.20 The parishionersformed a “selection” committee of fourteenmembers, and in March, 1641, they invitedBaxter to be their lecturer.21Pastoral MinistryBaxter accepted the position of lecturerat Kidderminster in 1641. Here in a township 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 foremost on his heart when he accepted thecharge. In fact, one of the great attractionsof this position to him was that at Kidderminster he would have no official pastoralobligations outside of merely preachingeach week.22When 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 the6Royalists of the town against him. Theentire county had declared openly itssupport for the king, and Kidderminsterwas entirely under the influence of Royalist 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.23When he left, Baxter fully expected toreturn within a few weeks, thinking thewar would come to a speedy end. Actually, 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 Cromwell’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’ Everlasting Rest.Baxter notes in the dedication that hewrote 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’ Everlasting 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 apprehended myself to be just on the borders of. And that my thoughts mightnot too much scatter in my meditation, I began to write something onthat subject . . .24The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, eventually
published in 1649, was a runaway bestseller, bringing Baxter immediate fame. Inten years it went through ten editions, selling 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 benefits including greatly weakening temptations, 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 todying men.”27This phrase became his motto, a guidepost 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, frequent 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 painkillers, 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.”31After “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-sevenbooks, including The Reformed Pastor, ATreatise on Conversion, and A Call to theUnconverted.33He also served as the catalyst in forming the Worcestershire Association of Ministers 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 Parties: [As a Meer Christian] . . . [I follow] Meer Christianity.34C. S. Lewis acknowledges his indebtedness 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.’”35One 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 Continent.Baxter’s success at Kidderminster is legendary. Initially he recorded the names ofall his converts, but they became so numerous that he was obliged to discontinue the7
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 carefully John Brown’s observations on preBaxter Kidderminster:If I were asked what, in the year1646, was one of the most unpromising 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-weavers, it had been, morally and spiritually, so grossly neglected as almostto have sunk into practical heathenism.38Baxter 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 sermons 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 . . .39And 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 absent8from them for about six years, andthey have been assaulted with pulpit-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.40But 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.”41While 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 success, 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, Parliament 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
also preached on May 10th at St. Paul’sCathedral before the Lord Mayor. The dayhad been appointed by the House of Commons as a Day of Thanksgiving for General 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.”44After 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 bishopric 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 brutal oppression would soon begin, duringwhich Baxter would be harassed by spies,fined, and imprisoned under the rule of thissame king.The Nonconformists were largely Puritans who could not in good conscience subscribe 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 Margaret Charlton.47 In the earlier period of hisministry, Baxter had resolved not to marryso that he might pursue his pastoral andministerial duties without interruption.48Because 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, having no specific pastoral responsibilities,he thought himself sufficiently free to takea wife.Margaret served as a beautiful helpmeet 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. Margaret forced Richard to put down his penand come to the table for his meals, and tothere talk about “mundane matters bearing no relation to theology.”)Writing MinistryDuring the three years of his residencein London, two before and one after his“silencing,” Baxter preached in variousplaces as opportunities presented themselves. In July 1663 he moved from London to the country village of Acton, thathe might devote himself more fully tostudy and writing.9
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 number 168). Baxter wrote treatises on graceand salvation, apologetics, “popery,”antinomianism, the sacraments, millenarianism, ethics, nonconformity, devotion,conversion, politics, and his
Richard Baxter (1615-1691): A Model of Pastoral Leadership for Evangelism and Church Growth Timothy 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 .
Richard Baxter 1615-1691 It’s time once again for my annual Christian biography. On or around Reformation Day each year I present a biography of a significant person from our Christian history. Reformation Day commemorates Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg. From a historical
shared admiration for Richard Baxter (1615–1691), a classic Puritan writer on the Christian life, perhaps best known for his work The Reformed Pastor. One of Baxter’s main concerns as a pastor was to relieve depression. Resonating with Baxter’s concern, Lundy and Packer came to think that a mini-treatise
RICHARD BAXTER AND THE HEALING OF THE NATION WALTER DOUGLAS Andrews University In this essay an attempt will be made to establish the role and influence of Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in working for peace and unity within the English nation in the difficult period following the Civil War (1645-1648). The first part of the study covers the
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men like Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Richard Baxter (1615-1691),John Owen (1616-1683), Thomas Watson (d. 1686),John Flavel (1627-1691), Jonathan Edwards (1702-1758), and that later Puritan Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). These men produced material so serious in its nature and so weighty in its
Baxter, Richard (1615-1691) Brown, William (Editor) Publisher: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Grand Rapids, MI : Rights: Public Domain : Date Created: . Richard Baxter, Teacher of the Church at Kederminster.” It is scarcely possible to speak in too high terms of the excellence of this work. It is not a directory
Richard Baxter 1615-1691· The seventy-six years of Richard Baxter's life spanned an era in English history that was, to an extraordinary degree, tragic, heroic, and pathetic. It was a time of revolution and counter-revolution in church and state, of brutal religious persecution and fierce controversy in print about almost everything.
Civil Procedure Code 3 272 of the Names and Emblems of the United Nations Organization and other In-tergovernmental Organisations. 2 This court is also competent to order interim measures before an action is pending. Art. 6 Commercial Court 1 The cantons may designate a special court that has jurisdiction as sole cantonal instance for commercial disputes (Commercial Court).
