Richard Baxter

English theologian and writer

• Born: November 12, 1615
• Birthplace: Rowton, Shropshire, England
• Died: December 8, 1691
• Place of death: London, England

Through his preaching, writing, and friendship with many political and church leaders, Baxter aided substantially in establishing an English cultural tradition of Nonconformity and freedom of conscience.

Early Life

Reaching maturity as the English Civil War began, Richard Baxter can be understood only with some knowledge of the historical context in which he lived. As a chaplain to the parliamentary forces, Baxter was an eyewitness of many of the battles and sieges of the war. He served as an influential minister during the years of the Puritan Commonwealth and so lost his ecclesiastical office during the Restoration of the Stuart kings. Continuing his work in a less prominent fashion, particularly by writing many books, he lived to serve freely once again after the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Baxter was born on November 12, 1615, in the ancestral home of his mother in Rowton, Shropshire, and he lived there with his grandparents until he was ten years old. His father possessed a small estate ten miles away at Eaton Constantine. The estate had several rent-paying tenants, providing a modest income for the family. Baxter went to live with his parents at their estate at about the time of the coronation of Charles I in 1625.

An eager, sensitive, intelligent boy, Baxter was an avid reader, delighting especially in historical romances. He later wrote that he was “addicted” to playfulness and regretted stealing fruit from his neighbors’ orchards. One of his father’s tenants was the town piper, and Baxter recalled colorful dances in the village with bells jingling from the legs of the dancers’ costumes. His schooling, however, was sporadic and inconsistent under eight different schoolmasters, most of them poorly educated and lazy.

Baxter then spent eighteen months at nearby Ludlow Castle, reading in preparation for the university, which he never attended. As a result, Baxter was largely self-taught. He loved poetry, music, art, and imaginative thought. “What is heaven to us if there be no love and joy?… Harmony and melody are the pleasure and elevation of my soul,” he wrote.

Baxter was frequently ill with violent coughing, tuberculosis, and even smallpox, often fatal in the seventeenth century. He thought he would not live long but believed that his illnesses actually aided his education. As he later put it, “Weakness and pain helped me to study how to die; that set me on studying how to live; and that on studying [the Scriptures].”

Baxter grew up regularly attending the Church of England and at fifteen was confirmed in the Church along with thirty other boys his age. He thought that his spiritual awakening or conversion came gradually, particularly through the study of the Scriptures, just as his father’s had earlier. The reality of the brevity of life struck home when his mother died when he was only nineteen. A year later, his father married the sister of two governors, one of Shrewsbury, the other of Banbury. Baxter always respected and admired his stepmother and found in her a kindred spirit.

In 1638, Baxter received a license to teach and an ordination certificate and spent a year at Dudley as schoolmaster. He often preached there and in neighboring villages where poor workers crowded churches, sitting even in windows and outside to hear his messages. From Dudley he moved to Bridgenorth, the second largest town of Shropshire, as assistant pastor. In April, 1641, Baxter left Bridgenorth for Kidderminster, where he began his life’s work.

Life’s Work

The first years of Baxter’s first pastorate at Kidderminster coincided with the First English Civil War (1642-1646), and Baxter could not avoid the conflict. The issues in the war were essentially two: first, the political issue as to whether the king could govern without the consent of Parliament; second, the ecclesiastical issue as to whether the Church of England would follow an episcopal or a presbyterian form of governance. The episcopal form was hierarchical in nature, with the king and the bishops of the church essentially dictating policy and form of worship. The presbyterian form of church governance allowed for much more freedom of conscience at the grassroots level.

Baxter actually preferred a moderate episcopacy with room for the individual conscience to obey God directly, subject to one’s own understanding of Scripture. The essential Reformation doctrine to Baxter was the “priesthood of all believers,” or the direct relationship of each member to God through Jesus Christ. The political implications of this doctrine for representative democracy were enormous. Yet Baxter also believed in monarchy as the best form of government, a limited monarchy wherein the king would govern with the strong influence of Parliament and according to Christian principles. Baxter observed, however, that the more wicked types of men that he knew joined with the king and the more religious ones sided with Parliament, as did he.

Baxter accepted an invitation to join one of Oliver Cromwell’s regiments as chaplain. In this capacity, he saw much fighting: at the Battle of Langport, the Siege of Bridgewater, and the final assaults on Bristol, Exeter, Oxford, Banbury, and Worcester. His father and many of his friends were imprisoned by the royal forces. While in prison, their houses were plundered by the king’s soldiers. Baxter himself lost most of his possessions, except some books. Because of the disruption of war and its effects on morality, Baxter thought that “it must be a very clear and great necessity that can warrant a war.”

The victory of the parliamentary forces in the Civil War led to the execution of King Charles I and the establishment of a commonwealth for England, without a monarch or a House of Lords. Authority rested in the hands of the House of Commons, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, and his army. A presbyterian church government was established, with some allowance made for other varieties of Protestantism. Leaders from the English and Scottish churches met at Westminster and carefully prepared one of the most famous church doctrinal statements, the Westminster Confession (1646). Even Baxter, moderate Episcopalian that he was, thought it one of the most accurate statements of orthodox doctrine in church history.

Back in Kidderminster, Baxter resumed his ministerial work. Beside his regular formal preaching and administering of the sacraments of the Church, he visited every family in his church regularly, fourteen each week, to discuss the catechism they were memorizing. He was involved in evangelism, apologetics, and counseling as well and helped to organize an association of ministers of several different Protestant persuasions. One of his chief goals in life was to foster the unity of believers and yet allow diversity of conscience within the English Church. To this end, he helped organize a petition drive that collected thousands of signatures in an effort to gain parliamentary support for national religious unity. He even had two private four-hour discussions on the matter with Cromwell. Although he failed in this endeavor, he acknowledged that the people had more religious freedom under the Commonwealth than they had had under any English king or queen.

The Restoration of the monarchy by parliamentary vote in 1660 brought Charles II to the throne. With several important exceptions, the new king recognized that a political partnership existed between king and Parliament and did not try to govern as arbitrarily as had his father and grandfather. Baxter welcomed this historical change and for a time was prominent in London and in the royal court. He preached both at Westminster Abbey, before members of Parliament, and at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. In June of 1660, Baxter became a chaplain to the new king and met with him personally. A month later, he preached before the king and was even offered a bishopric under the new episcopal system.

Anglicans were restored to their former positions by the Act for the Confirming and Restoring of Ministers (September, 1660), and the next year the Act of Uniformity required that all clergy not episcopally ordained and consenting to everything in the Prayer Book would lose their licenses to preach, subject to imprisonment for violations. The lawfulness of any attempt to change the form of government of either church or state was repudiated. This law affected schoolmasters and even private tutors as well as ministers. Some two thousand ministers were immediately silenced and their congregations subjected to a radical change in leadership. As a result of this violation of religious liberty, Baxter found himself in the odd position of being a Nonconformist Episcopal. He preached a farewell sermon at St. Anne’s, Blackfriars, and then ceased preaching at once.

The public silencing of Baxter in 1661 (except for his occasional writing) had an unexpected consequence. Baxter was forty-six years of age at the time of the Act of Uniformity and had led such a busy life that he had decided to remain unmarried in order to give himself more completely to his work. Now, however, he had a chance to reconsider. The result was his marriage on September 10, 1662, to Margaret Charlton, an aristocratic Shropshire woman some twenty years his junior. That she married Baxter at the lowest point of his career emphasizes the depth with which she cared for her husband for the nineteen years remaining in her lifetime. Well educated, she knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and conversed intelligently and with great wit. Margaret was a practical and understanding wife, of whom Baxter always spoke with the utmost tenderness. The Baxters had no children.

Religious persecution continued in the Restoration Parliament. The Conventicle Act of 1664 struck at personal liberties. Presbyterian, Quaker, and Baptist meetinghouses were destroyed. Anyone found in a religious service not conducted according to the liturgy of the Church of England could be imprisoned for three months and fined five pounds; on the third offense, he could be exiled to one of the American colonies. Hundreds of people were crammed into filthy, damp prisons merely for attending an “unauthorized” church service.

The Baxters lived in the town of Acton, where people crowded into their house on Sundays to hear Baxter preach privately. Once, a bullet, shot through his window, whizzed past him and narrowly missed his sister-in-law. In 1669, Baxter was arrested and held in jail for two weeks before being released on a technicality.

Charles II died in 1685, and his brother James II tried to reestablish Roman Catholicism in England. The heavy hand of government persecution, however, lasted for only three more years. In the process, Baxter was unfairly tried and imprisoned for eighteen months at the King’s Bench Prison. Members of Parliament, Anglicans, and Nonconformists united against this renewed persecution and invited William of Orange and Mary Stuart, both related to the Stuart kings, to come from the Netherlands to rule England under a constitutionally limited monarchy. They were crowned William III and Mary II. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 followed, as did the Toleration Act of 1689, which made the Nonconformity of churches apart from the Church of England legal. Baxter was thereafter licensed as a “Nonconforming minister” and worked freely until his death, on December 8, 1691.

Significance

As part of his ministerial work and political activism, Baxter wrote 141 books and literally hundreds of letters, articles, and sermons. This literary achievement staggers the imagination, particularly in view of his very active life. His writings are not polished and often were written too hastily, without proper editing and revisions. He admitted as much and used writing as a means of organizing and clarifying his thinking. He deliberately wrote in an informal and intimate tone so that his writing could substitute for and reinforce his personal counseling.

Typical of both the Puritans and the great Catholic theologians of the Middle Ages, Baxter wrote in a clear, methodical, analytical style, building from basic axioms in a logical, deductive way. When his starting point is the existence of the universe and its form, for example, he demonstrates that there is no metaphysical necessity for the diversity seen everywhere in nature and argues that such variety could come only from a purposeful, creative, self-existing God. Similarly, when his starting point is his own existence, he observes that a human being has personality, what he calls “power,” “understanding,” and “will,” none of which could come from an inanimate, material source.

Baxter believed in a rational faith based on Scripture, and the titles of several of his books reflect that perspective: The Unreasonableness of Infidelity (1655), The Reasons of the Christian Religion (1667), and More Reasons for the Christian Religion (1672). He considered himself a philosopher and had a coherent and defensible position in each of the basic categories of philosophy: the natures of reality, of the universe, of God, of human beings, and of ethics; he also had a theory of knowledge.

Baxter saw both sides of issues, the mark of a true scholar. He sought toleration toward opponents and reconciliation within the framework of adherence to basic truths of Scripture. He wanted people to accept a “mere Christianity” that included room for freedom of conscience and Christian liberty. Consequently, he recommended listening to conciliatory men of all factions, including many Episcopalians, such as Bishop James Ussher ; Presbyterians, such as John Calvin; and Congregationalists, such as Giles Firmin.

Baxter’s writings, too, are important as a record of the Christian experience, the searching of a sincere heart after God, and in the process the finding of meaning in life. He saw the hand of Providence in the mysteries and unanswered questions of life and thought the personal control of God far more satisfying than the concept of life being blown about by impersonal chance, fortune, or fate. His pilgrimage influenced many others and left a mark on history for good and for freedom.

Bibliography

Baxter, Richard. The Autobiography of Richard Baxter: Being the “Reliquiae Baxterianae” Abridged from the Folio, 1696. Edited by J. M. Lloyd Thomas. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1925. Baxter’s autobiography, filled with anecdotes and observations on historical events taking place around him. One cannot completely understand Baxter without reading this book.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, with a Preface, Giving Some Account of the Author, and of This Edition of His Practical Works: An Essay on His Genius, Works, and Times, and a Portrait. 4 vols. London: G. Virtue, 1846. Reprint. Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 2000. Contains four of Baxter’s books: The Christian Director, A Call to the Unconverted, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, and The Reformed Pastor.

Cragg, Gerald R. Puritanism in the Period of the Great Persecution, 1660-1688. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1957. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, 1971. Excellent account of religious conflict during the Commonwealth and Restoration periods, charting the rise and decline of Puritan influence in England. The most complete analysis available.

Keeble, N. H. Richard Baxter: Puritan Man of Letters. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. One of the more scholarly works on Baxter; focuses on his writings to discuss his worldview and philosophical presuppositions.

Lamont, William. Puritanism and Historical Controversy. Montreal, Que.: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996. Focuses on the lives of Baxter and other Puritans to examine the influence of Puritanism upon capitalism, revolution, science, and other areas of seventeenth century life.

Lim, Paul Chang-Ha. In Pursuit of Purity, Unity, and Liberty: Richard Baxter’s Puritan Ecclesiology in Its Seventeenth Century Context. Studies in the History of Christian Thought 112. Boston: Brill, 2004. Describes Baxter’s concepts of the true church within the context of the second half of the seventeenth century.

Loane, Marcus L. “Richard Baxter: A Mere Non-conformist.” In Makers of Religious Freedom in the Seventeenth Century. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1961. A concise and sympathetic account of Baxter’s life, borrowing heavily from Baxter’s autobiography. Loane views Baxter as both a witness and a participant in the growth of dissent within the Church of England.

Morgan, Irvonwy. The Nonconformity of Richard Baxter. London: Epworth Press, 1946. Explains the issues dividing Episcopalians from Presbyterians and discusses Baxter’s advocacy of a more moderate episcopacy.

Nuttall, Geoffrey F. Richard Baxter. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1965. One of the most interesting Baxter biographies, containing detailed information, insightful anecdotes, and quotations. Shows Baxter as a conciliatory peacemaker who sought to unite the various factions in the ecclesiastical quarrel. Helpful bibliography.

Watts, Michael R. The Dissenters. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1978. An account of dissent in England from 1641 to 1689. Discusses the wide variety of Dissenters, of whom Baxter represented only one type.