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BAXTER, RICHARD (1615-1691)
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See also:BAXTER, See also:RICHARD (1615-1691) , See also:English puritan divine,
called by See also:Dean See also:Stanley " the See also:chief of English See also:Protestant School-men," was See also:born at See also:Rowton, in See also:Shropshire, at the See also:house of his maternal grandfather, in See also:November (probably the 12th) 1615. His ancestors had been gentlefolk, but his See also:father had reduced himself to hard straits by loose living. About the See also:time of Richard's See also:birth, however, he changed decisively for the better. The boy's See also:early See also:education was poor, being mainly in the hands of the illiterate and dissolute See also:clergy and readers who held the
neighbouring livings at that time. He was better served by See also: He remained at Bridgnorth nearly two years, during which time he took a See also:special See also:interest in the controversy See also:relating to See also:Nonconformity and the See also: He formed the ministers in the See also:country around him into an association for the better fulfilment of the duties of their calling, uniting them together irrespective of their See also:differences as Presbyterians, Episcopalians and See also:Independents. The spirit in which he acted may be judged of from The Reformed Pastor, a See also:book published in relation to the See also:general ministerial efforts he promoted. It drives home the sense of clerical responsibility with extraordinary See also:power. The result of his See also:action is that, to this See also:day his memory is cherished as that of the true apostle of the See also:district where he laboured.
The interruptions to which his Kidderminster life was subjected arose from the See also:condition of things occasioned by the See also:civil See also:war. Baxter blamed both parties, but See also:Worcestershire was a See also:cavalier See also:county, and a man in his position was, while the war continued, exposed to annoyance and danger in a place like Kidderminster.
He therefore removed to See also:Gloucester, and afterwards (1643--1645) settled in See also:Coventry, where he preached regularly both to the See also:garrison and the citizens. After the See also:battle of See also:Naseby he took the situation of chaplain to See also:Colonel See also:Whalley's See also:regiment, and continued to hold it till See also:February 1647. During these stormy years he wrote his Aphorisms of See also:Justification, which on its See also:appearance in 1649 excited great controversy.
Baxter's connexion with the See also:Parliamentary See also:army was a very characteristic one. He joined it that he might, if possible, counteract the growth of the sectaries in that See also: His success in converting the soldiery to his views does not seem to have been very great, but he preserved his own consistency and fidelity in a remarkable degree. By public disputation and private See also:conference, as well as by See also:preaching, he enforced his doctrines, both ecclesiastical and See also:political, and shrank no more from urging what he conceived to be the truth upon the most powerful See also:officers than he did from instructing the meanest followers of the See also:camp. Cromwell disliked his loquacity and shunned his society; but Baxter having to preach before him after he had assumed the Protectorship, See also:chose for his subject the old topic of the divisions and distractions of the church, and in subsequent interviews not only opposed him about See also:liberty of See also:conscience, but spoke in favour of the See also:monarchy he had subverted. There is a striking See also:proof of Baxter's insight into See also:character in his See also:account of what happened under these circumstances. Of Cromwell he says, " I saw that what he learned must be from himself." It is worthy of See also:notice that this intercourse with Cromwell occurred when Baxter was summoned to London to assist in settling " the fundamentals of religion," and made the memorable See also:declaration, in See also:answer to the objection that what he had proposed as fundamental " might be subscribed by a Papist or Socinian,"—" So much the better, and so much the fitter it is to be the See also:matter of See also:concord." In 1647 he was staying at the home of See also:Lady Rouse of Rouse-Lench, and there, in much See also:physical weakness, wrote a great part of his famous work, The See also:Saints' See also:Everlasting See also:Rest (165o). On his recovery he returned to his See also:charge at Kidderminster, where he also became a prominent political See also:leader, his sensitive conscience leading him into conflict with almost every one of the contending parties in state and church. His conduct now, as at all times, did " See also:credit to his conscientiousness rather than to his See also:wisdom." After the Restoration in 166o Baxter, who had helped to bring. about that event, settled in London. He preached there till the See also:Act of Uniformity took effect in 1662, and was employed in seeking 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 See also:hope he was sadly disappointed. There was at that time on the part of the rulers of the church no wish for such comprehension, and their See also:object in the negotiations that took place was to excuse the See also:breach of faith which their rejection of all reasonable methods of concession involved. The chief See also:good that resulted from the See also:Savoy conference was the See also:production of Baxter's Reformed See also:Liturgy, a work of remarkable excellence, though it was See also:cast aside without See also:consideration. The same kind of reputation which Baxter had obtained in the country he secured in the larger and more important circle of the See also:metropolis. 
The power of his preaching was universally See also:felt, and his capacity for business placed him at the See also:head of his party. He had been made a See also: He was, in 1684, carried three times to the sessions house, being scarcely able to stand, and without any apparent cause was made to enter into a See also:bond for £400 in See also:security for his good behaviour. But his worst encounter was with the chief See also:justice, Sir See also:George See also:Jeffreys, in May 1685. He had been committed to the king's See also:bench prison on the ridiculous charge of libelling the Church in his See also:Paraphrase on the New Testament, and was tried before Jeffreys on this See also:accusation. The trial is well known as among the most brutal perversions of justice which have occurred in England, though it must be remembered that no authoritative See also:report of the trial exists. If the See also:partisan account on which tradition is based is to be accepted, it would appear that Jeffreys. himself acted like an infuriated madman. (See JEFFREYS, SIR EORGE.) Baxter was sentenced to pay 500 marks, to See also:lie in prison till the See also:money was paid, and to be See also:bound to his good behaviour for seven years. It was even asserted at the time that Jeffreys proposed he should he whipped at the See also:cart's tail through London. The old man, for he was now seventy, remained in prison for eighteen months, when the government, vainly hoping to win his See also:influence to their See also:side, remitted the See also:fine and released him. During the long time of oppression and injury which followed the ejectment, Baxter was sadly afflicted in See also:body. His whole life was indeed one continued illness, but in this part of it his See also:pain and languor had greatly increased. Yet this was the period of his greatest activity as a writer. He was a most voluminous author, his See also:separate See also:works, it is said, amounting to 168. They are as learned as they are elaborate, and as varied in their subjects as they are faithfully composed. Such See also:treatises as the See also:Christian See also:Directory, the Methodus Theologiae Christianae, and the See also:Catholic Theology, might each have occupied the See also:principal part of the life of an See also:ordinary man. His Breviate of the Life of Mrs Margaret Baxter records the virtues of his wife, and reveals on the part of Baxter a tenderness of nature which might otherwise have been unknown. His editors have contented themselves with re-See also:publishing his " See also:Practical Works," and his ethical, philosophical, See also:historical and political writings still await a competent editor.
The See also:remainder of Baxter's life, from 1687 onwards, was passed in See also:peace and See also:honour. He continued to preach and to publish almost to the end. He was surrounded by attached See also:friends, and reverenced by the religious See also:world. His saintly behaviour, his great talents, and his wide influence, added to his extended age, raised him to a position of unequalled reputation. He helped to bring about the downfall of See also: He thought every one was amenable to reason—bishops and See also:levellers included. And yet he was as far as possible from being a quarrelsome man. He was at once a man of fixed belief and large appreciation, so that his dogmatism and his liberality sometimes came into collision. His popularity as a preacher was deservedly pre-eminent; but no more diligent student ever shut himself up with his books. He was singularly fitted for intellectual debate, but his devotional tendency was equally strong with his Jogical aptitude. Some of his writings, from their metaphysical subtilty, will always See also:puzzle the ]earned; but he could write to the level of the common See also:heart without loss of dignity or pointedness. His Reasons for the Christian Religion is still, for its evidential purpose, better than most works of its kind. His Poor Man's See also:Family Book is a See also:manual that continues to be worthy of its See also:title. His Saints' Everlasting Rest will always command the grateful admiration of pious readers. It is also charged with a robust and manly eloquence and a rare and unsought felicity of See also:language that make it a masterpiece of See also:style. Perhaps no thinker has exerted so great an influence upon nonconformity as Baxter has done, and that not in one direction only, but in every form of development, doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical. He is the type of a distinct class of the Christian ministry—that class which aspires after scholarly training, prefers a broad to a sectarian theology, and adheres to rational methods of religious investigation and See also:appeal. The rational See also:element in him was very strong. He had a settled hatred of fanaticism. Even Quakerism he could scarcely endure. Religion was with him all and in all—that by which all besides was measured, and to whose interests all else was subordinated. See also:Isaac See also:Barrow said that " his practical writings were never minded, and his controversial ones seldom confuted," and John See also:Wilkins, bishop of See also:Chester, asserted that " if he had lived in the See also:primitive time he had been one of the fathers of the church." There is a good portrait of Baxter in the See also:Williams library, See also:Gordon Square, London. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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