| Richard Baxter |
 |
| Born |
12 November 1615
Rowton, Shropshire |
| Died |
8 December 1691 (aged 76)
London |
| Nationality |
English |
| Occupation |
church leader, theologian, controversialist, poet |
| Religion |
Puritan |
Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer,[1] theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long and prolific career as theological writer. After the Restoration he refused preferment, while retaining a non-separatist presbyterian approach, and became one of the most influential leaders of the nonconformists, spending time in prison.
Baxter was born at Rowton, Shropshire, at the house of his maternal grandfather. Richard's early education was poor, being mainly in the hands of the local clergy, themselves virtually illiterate. He was helped by John Owen, master of the free school at Wroxeter, where he studied from about 1629 to 1632, and made fair progress in Latin. On Owen's advice he did not proceed to Oxford (a step which he afterwards regretted), but went to Ludlow Castle to read with Richard Wickstead, chaplain to the Council of Wales and the Marches.
He was reluctantly persuaded to go to court, and he went to London under the patronage of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, with the intention of doing so, but soon returned home, resolved to study divinity. He was confirmed in the decision by the death of his mother.
After three months spent working for the dying Owen as a teacher at Wroxeter, Baxter read theology with Francis Garbet, the local clergyman, adding to his reading (initially in devotional writings, of Richard Sibbes, William Perkins and Ezekiel Culverwell, as well as the Calvinist Edmund Bunny at age 14,[2] and then in the scholastic philosophers) orthodox Church of England theology in Richard Hooker and George Downham, and arguments from conforming puritans in John Sprint and John Burges. In about 1634, he met Joseph Symonds (assistant to Thomas Gataker) and Walter Cradock, two Nonconformists.[3]
In 1638, Baxter became master of the free grammar school at Dudley, where he commenced his ministry, having been ordained and licensed by John Thornborough, Bishop of Worcester. His success as a preacher was at first small; but he was soon transferred to Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, where, as assistant to a Mr Madstard, he established a reputation for conscientiousness.
Baxter remained at Bridgnorth for nearly two years, during which time he took a special interest in the controversy relating to Nonconformity and the Church of England. He soon became alienated from the Church on several matters; and after the requirement of the "et cetera oath", he rejected episcopacy in its English form. He became a moderate Nonconformist; and continued as such throughout his life. Though regarded as a Presbyterian, he was not exclusively tied to Presbyterianism, and often seemed prepared to accept a modified Episcopalianism. All forms of church government were regarded by him as subservient to the true purposes of religion.
One of the first measures of the Long Parliament was to reform the clergy; with this view, a committee was appointed to receive complaints against them. Among the complainants were the inhabitants of Kidderminster. The vicar George Dance agreed that he would give £60 a year, out of his income of £200, to a preacher who should be chosen by certain trustees. Baxter was invited to deliver a sermon before the people, and was unanimously elected as the minister. This happened in April 1641, when he was twenty-six.
Title page of a 1657 edition of
The Reformed Pastor.
His ministry continued, with many interruptions, for about 19 years; and during that time he accomplished many reforms in Kidderminster and the neighbourhood. He formed the ministers in the country around him into an association, uniting them irrespective of their differences as Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Independents. The Reformed Pastor was a book which Baxter published in relation to the general ministerial efforts he promoted.
On the outbreak of the First English Civil War, Baxter blamed both parties and recommended the Protestation; but Worcestershire was a Royalist county, and he was exposed to annoyance and danger in Kidderminster. He temporarily retired to Gloucester. He was preaching at Alcester, on 23 October 1642, during the Battle of Edgehill. He returned, but only to be driven out again. He moved next to Coventry. There he found himself with no fewer than 30 fugitive ministers, among whom were Richard Vines, Anthony Burges, John Bryan and Obadiah Grew. He officiated as chaplain to the garrison, preaching once each Sunday to the soldiers, and once to the townspeople and strangers, including Sir Richard Skeffington, Colonel Godfrey Bosvile, George Abbot the layman scholar, and others. After the Battle of Naseby he took the situation of chaplain to Colonel Edward Whalley's regiment, and continued to hold it till February 1647. During these stormy years he wrote his Aphorisms of Justification, which on its appearance in 1649, excited great controversy.[3] Of numerous critics[4] the one with whom Baxter engaged most closely was Christopher Cartwright.[5]
He regretted that he had not previously accepted Oliver Cromwell's offer to become chaplain to the Ironsides. Cromwell avoided him; but Baxter, having to preach before him after he had assumed the Protectorship, chose for his subject the old topic of the divisions of the church, and in subsequent interviews argued with him about liberty of conscience, and even defended the monarchy he had subverted. This contact with Cromwell occurred when Baxter was summoned to London to assist in settling "the fundamentals of religion".[3]
In 1647, Baxter was staying at the home of Lady Rouse, wife of Sir Thomas Rouse, 1st Baronet, of Rouse Lench in Warwickshire. There, though debilated by illness, he wrote the most of a major work, The Saints' Everlasting Rest (1650).[3]
On his recovery he returned to Kidderminster, where he also became a prominent political leader, his sensitive conscience leading him into conflict with almost all the contending parties in state and church. A debate all day on 1 January 1650, with John Tombes at Bewdley ended in confused disorder.[6]
18th-century engraving of Richard Baxter, after a 17th century portrait by John Riley.
After the Restoration in 1660, Baxter, who had helped to bring about that event, settled in London. He preached there till the Act of Uniformity 1662 took effect, and looked for such terms of comprehension as would have permitted the moderate dissenters with whom he acted to have remained in the Church of England. In this hope he was sadly disappointed. The goal of comprehension was obstructed by forces on both sides: by conforming churchmen and dissenters alike. The Savoy conference resulted in Baxter's Reformed Liturgy, though it was cast aside without consideration. Baxter continued to advocate for a comprehensive "national church," off and on, until his death.
The same reputation which Baxter had obtained in the country he secured in London. The power of his preaching was universally felt, and his capacity for business placed him at the head of his party. He had been made a king's chaplain, and was offered the Bishopric of Hereford, but he could not accept the offer without assenting to things as they were.
After his refusal, he was not allowed, even before the passing of the Act of Uniformity, to be a curate in Kidderminster, and Bishop George Morley prohibited him from preaching in the diocese of Worcester. Baxter married on 24 September 1662, Margaret Charlton, a woman like-minded with himself. She died in 1681. Baxter wrote the words for the hymn Ye Holy Angels Bright in that year.
From 1662 until the indulgence of 1687, Baxter's life was constantly disturbed by persecution of one kind or another. He retired to Acton in Middlesex, for the purpose of quiet study, but was placed in prison for keeping a conventicle. Baxter procured a habeas corpus in the court of common pleas.
He was taken up for preaching in London after the licences granted in 1672 were recalled by the king. The meeting house which he had built for himself in Oxendon Street was closed to him after he had preached there only once.
In 1680, he was taken from his house; and though he was released that he might die at home, his books and goods were seized. In 1684, he was carried three times to the sessions house, being scarcely able to stand, and without any apparent cause was made to enter into a bond for £400 in security for his good behaviour.
But his worst encounter was with the chief justice, Sir George Jeffreys, in May 1685. He had been committed to the King's Bench Prison on the charge of libelling the Church in his Paraphrase on the New Testament, and was tried before Jeffreys on this accusation. No authoritative report of the trial exists; if the partisan account on which tradition is based is accepted, Jeffreys was infuriated. Baxter was sentenced to pay 500 marks, to lie in prison till the money was paid, and to be bound to his good behaviour for seven years. Jeffreys is even said to have proposed he should be whipped behind a cart. Baxter was now 70 years old, and remained in prison for 18 months, until the government, hoping to win his influence, remitted the fine and released him.
Baxter's health had grown even worse, yet this was the period of his greatest activity as a writer. He wrote 168 or so separate works, including major treatises such as the Christian Directory, the Methodus Theologiae Christianae, and the Catholic Theology. His Breviate of the Life of Mrs Margaret Baxter records the virtues of his wife. A slim devotional work published in 1658 under the title Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live formed one of the core extra-biblical texts of evangelicalism until at least the middle of the 19th century.
The remainder of his life, from 1687 onwards, was passed peacefully. He died in London and his funeral was attended by churchmen as well as dissenters.
Richard Baxter held to a form of Amyraldism, a moderated form of Calvinism which rejected the idea of a limited atonement in favor of a universal atonement similar to that of Hugo Grotius. He devised an eclectic middle route between doctrines of grace, namely the Bezan Reformed, Grotius's Arminian, John Cameron's Amyraldism, and Augustine's Roman traditions. Interpreting the kingdom of God in terms of Christ as Christus Victor and Rector of all men, Baxter explained Christ's death as an act of universal redemption (penal and vicarious, though substitutionary in explication), in virtue of which God has made a "new law" offering pardon and amnesty to the penitent. Repentance and faith, being obedience to this law, are the believer's personal saving righteousness.
Baxter insisted that the Calvinists of his day, armed with their unyielding allegiance on the sola fide of the Reformation, ran the danger of ignoring the conditions that came with God's gift of the covenant of grace. Justification, Baxter insisted, required at least some degree of faith and works as the human response to the love of God: "[I]f in acknowledgement of the favour of his Redemption, he will but pay a pepper corn, he shall be restored to his former possession, and much more."
Baxter's theology was set forth most elaborately in his Latin Methodus theologiæ Chriatianæ (London, 1681); the Christian Directory (1673) contains the practical part of his system; and Catholic Theology (1675) is an English exposition. His theology made Baxter very unpopular among his contemporaries and caused a split among the Dissenters of the eighteenth century. As summarized by Thomas W. Jenkyn, it differed from the Calvinism of Baxter's day on four points:
- The atonement of Christ did not consist in his suffering the identical but the equivalent punishment (i.e., one which would have the same effect in moral government) as that deserved by mankind because of offended law. Christ died for sins, not persons. While the benefits of substitutionary atonement are accessible and available to all men for their salvation; they have in the divine appointment a special reference to the subjects of personal election.
- The elect were a certain fixed number determined by the decree without any reference to their faith as the ground of their election; which decree contemplates no reprobation but rather the redemption of all who will accept Christ as their Savior.
- What is imputed to the sinner in the work of justification is not the righteousness of Christ but the faith of the sinner himself in the righteousness of Christ.
- Every sinner has a distinct agency of his own to exert in the process of his conversion. The Baxterian theory, with modifications, was adopted by many later Presbyterians and Congregationalists in England, Scotland, and America (Isaac Watts, Philip Doddridge, and many others).
Baxter is best understood as an eclectic scholastic covenantal theologian for whom the distinction between God's conditional covenant (the voluntas de debito) and his absolute will (the voluntas de rerum eventu) is key to the entire theological enterprise. Despite the difficulty in classifying Baxter, his emphasis on the conditionality of the covenant of grace and therefore on the necessity of faith and works for our standing before God is undeniable.
Baxter's autobiography, called Reliquiae Baxterianae or Mr Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most memorable Passages of his Life and Times (published by Matthew Sylvester in 1696). Edmund Calamy the Younger abridged this work (1702). The abridgment forms the first volume of the account of the ejected ministers; the reply to the accusations which had been brought against Baxter is found in the second volume of Calamy's Continuation. William Orme's Life and Times of Richard Baxter appeared in 2 vols. in 1830; it also forms the first volume of "Practical Works" (1830, reprinted 1868). Sir James Stephen's paper on Baxter, contributed originally to the Edinburgh Review, is reprinted in the second volume of his Essays. Estimates of Baxter were given by John Tulloch in his English Puritanism and Its Leaders, and by Dean Stanley in his address at the inauguration of the statue to Baxter at Kidderminster (see Macmillan's Magazine, xxxii. 385). Geoffrey Nuttall lists 141 books written by Baxter in his biography of Baxter, published in 1965.
There is a portrait of Baxter in Dr Williams's Library, Gordon Square, London.
A tribute of general esteem was paid to him nearly two centuries later, when a statue was erected to his memory at Kidderminster. Unveiled 28 July 1875, sculpted by Sir Thomas Brock. Originally in the Bull Ring but moved to its present site, outside St Mary's parish church, March 1967.[7][8] There have also been numerous sightings of the ghost of an old man in this area that some individuals have identified as possibly being that of Baxter.[9]
Baxter House, a boarding house at Old Swinford Hospital school in Stourbridge, is named after him.
The high school, Baxter College, and a public park, Baxter Gardens in Kidderminster, are both named after him.
Baxter's House in Bridgnorth is still standing near the High Street with a name plaque on the front.
In 1674, Baxter cast in a new form the substance of Arthur Dent's book The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven under the title, The Poor Man's Family Book. In this way, Arthur Dent of South Shoebury was a link between Baxter and another great Puritan John Bunyan.
Max Weber (1864–1920), the German sociologist, made significant use of Baxter's works in developing his thesis for "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1904, 1920).
His influence in New England is referenced in the first chapter of the 19th century devotional work "I Will Be A Lady - a book for girls" by Mrs. Tuthill.
Until July 2011 he was one of the six houses (the others Acton, Clive, Darwin, Houseman and Webb) The Priory School, Shrewsbury. The houses are named after Historical People from Shropshire. Later this year the houses will change to Tree Names.
Richard Baxter is commemorated in the Calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with a feast day on December 8.
In George Eliot's "Mill on the Floss" Richard Baxter's "Saints Everlasting Rest" is listed as one of aunt Glegg's books.[10]
- ^ Christian Hymns ed. Paul E G Cook & Grahan Harrison,Evangelical Press of Wales,Bridgend,Wales 1977 ISBN 978-1-85049-017-3
- ^
"Bunny, Edmund". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ a b c d "Baxter, Richard". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ Anthony Burges, John Crandon, William Eyre, George Lawson, John Tombes, Thomas Tully, and John Wallis; see Christopher FitzSimons Allison, The Rise of Moralism: The Proclamation of the Gospel from Hooker to Baxter (2003), p. 154.
- ^ "Cartwright, Christopher". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ "Tombes, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 p207
- ^ Kidderminster Since 1800, Ken Tomkinson and George Hall, 1975 p209-210
- ^ Worcestershire, The Haunted County, Anne Bradford, 2007 p57
- ^ Mill on the Floss; Book 1;chapter 12 Mr and Mrs Glegg at Home
For more on Baxter's autobiography and its historical usefulness, see Lee Gatiss, "The Autobiography of a "Meer Christian": Richard Baxter's Account of the Restoration' at http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/baxterianae.html
For Baxter's involvement in the Great Ejection and the persecution of puritans, see Lee Gatiss, The Tragedy of 1662: The Ejection and Persecution of the Puritans at http://www.latimertrust.org/ls66.htm
For a small selection of Baxter's hymns, see his Cyberhymnal page.
- Several of Baxter's works at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- Self-Denial one of the sermons of Richard Baxter
- Plain Scripture Proof of Infants Church-Membership and Baptism by Richard Baxter (1656)
- Five Disputations of Church-Government, and Worship by Richard Baxter (1659)
- A Saint or a Brute: The Certain Necessity and Excellency of Holiness by Richard Baxter (1662)
- The Life of Faith by Richard Baxter (1670)
- Reliquiæ Baxterianæ: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the Most Memorable Passages of His Life and Times by Richard Baxter (1696)
- An Abridgement of Mr. Baxter's History of His Life and Times: With an Account of the Ministers, &c. who Were Ejected at the Restauration, of King Charles II...and the Continuation of Their History to the Passing of the Bill Against Occasional Conformity, in 1711 by Edmund Calamy (1713)
- The Reformed Pastor; A Discourse on the Pastoral Office by Richard Baxter, ed. Samuel Parker (1808)
- A Christian Directory: Or, A Body of Practical Divinity and Cases of Conscience, Volume I by Richard Baxter (Richard Edwards, 1825)
- A Christian Directory: Or, A Body of Practical Divinity and Cases of Conscience, Volume II by Richard Baxter (Richard Edwards, 1825)
- A Christian Directory: Or, A Body of Practical Divinity and Cases of Conscience, Volume III by Richard Baxter (Richard Edwards, 1825)
- A Christian Directory: Or, A Body of Practical Divinity and Cases of Conscience, Volume IV by Richard Baxter (Richard Edwards, 1825)
- A Christian Directory: Or, A Body of Practical Divinity and Cases of Conscience, Volume V by Richard Baxter (Richard Edwards, 1825)
- The Description, Reasons and Reward of Walking With God: On Genesis V.24 by Richard Baxter (J. Owen, 1825)
- Memoirs of Margaret Baxter: Daughter of Francis Charlton and Wife of Richard Baxter (Richard Edwards, 1826)
- A Call to the Unconverted. To Which Are Added Several Valuable Essays by Richard Baxter, with an Introduction by Thomas Chalmers (1829)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume I, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume II, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume III, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume IV, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume V, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume VI, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume VII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume X, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XI, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XIII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XV, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XVI, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XVII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XVIII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XIX, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XXI, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XXII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, Volume XXIII, ed. William Orme (1830)
- The Life and Times of the Rev. Richard Baxter: With a Critical Examination of His Writings, Volume I by William Orme (1831)
- The Life and Times of the Rev. Richard Baxter: With a Critical Examination of His Writings, Volume II by William Orme (1831)
- Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter, Volume I, ed. Leonard Bacon (1831)
- Converse with God in Solitude by Richard Baxter (C. Wells, 1833)
- Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter, Volume II, ed. Leonard Bacon (1835)
- Jesuit Juggling: Forty Popish Frauds Detected and Disclosed by Richard Baxter (Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, 1835)
- "Making Light of Christ and Salvation," "A Call to the Unconverted," "The Last Work of a Believer," and "The Shedding Abroad of God's Love" by Richard Baxter, ed. Thomas W. Jenkyn (1846)
- What We Must Do to Be Saved by Richard Baxter, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (1868)
- The Saints' Everlasting Rest; or, A Treatise on the Blessed State of the Saints in their Enjoyment of God in Heaven by Richard Baxter (T. Nelson & Sons, 1872)
- The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter by the American Tract Society (19th century)
- How to Spend the Day with God by Richard Baxter (on www.theologynetwork.org)
| Persondata |
| Name |
Baxter, Richard |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
|
| Date of birth |
12 November 1615 |
| Place of birth |
Rowton, Shropshire |
| Date of death |
8 December 1691 |
| Place of death |
London |
