A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

THIS EDITION OF HIS PRACTICAL WORKS.

It is no vain boast, through a fondness of our own nation, but is generally owned by our protestant brethren beyond the seas, that there is no language in which there are more valuable treatises of practical divinity to be met with, than in ours. And perhaps upon the strictest search and comparison, as far as there is any occasion for a decisive judgment, it might be found that there are no writings of that kind among us that have more of a true christian spirit, a greater mixture of judgment and affection, or a greater tendency to revive pure and undefiled religion; that have been more esteemed abroad, or more blessed at home, for the awakening the secure, instructing the ignorant, confirming the wavering, comforting the dejected, recovering the profane, or improving such as are truly serious; than the Practical Works of this author. Many of them have been often reprinted, and are as generally spread through the kingdom as any tracts whatever. Others of them have been printed but once, and are not so commonly known as they deserve. Others are small, and might in time be as good as lost, if not preserved by being joined with the rest of his works. This collection of them is designed for the benefit of the present age, and of posterity; to be a standing monument in our libraries of the unwearied endeavours of one to promote serious godliness in the land; who under a mean education made mighty improvements; who in a crazy body had a most active soul; and in a private sphere had a noble public spirit, that would have filled the most eminent station with advantage. It is also intended for the advantage of ministers and students in divinity, who will here have, at an easy rate, such a treasure of practical divinity as no other part of the christian church can furnish with. And for a help to families, who will here find what may suit them, in all their different relations, capacities, and circumstances, and under that vast variety of providential dispensations in which they may need assistance.

That great man, Bishop Wilkins, was used to say of Mr. Baxter, That if he had lived in the primitive times he had been one of the fathers of the church. What then more fit than a collection of his works, that posterity may be taught to do him justice? It was a great attempt in a time of war; and the going through with it at such a time is a hopeful prognostic, that the God of peace hath blessed ends to serve by it; a subserviency to which cannot but be a matter of comfortable reflection.

It is usual to prefix to collections of this sort, some historical account of the author. This were perhaps as little needful in the case of Mr. Baxter, as of any other that could be mentioned, because of the large account of himself that he left prepared for the press, which has been published since his death in folio; an abridgement of which was afterwards drawn up in octavo, that has been as generally read by persons of all sentiments and persuasions as most narratives of that kind. But that the want of it may not be charged as an unpardonable omission, and that such as have not consulted either of those narratives, may know what sort of person he was that was the author of those works, which after having been long extant separately, are here published together, the following brief account of him is thought fit to be added.

He was a native of Shropshire, and came into the world, Nov. 12, 1615. His family was of some standing in that county, and had made some figure. John Baxter, Esq. in the time of Edward the Fourth, was thrice bailiff of Shrewsbury; and owned a whole street in that town, which with other estates went with a daughter to Mr. Barker, of Hammond, grandfather to Colonel Mildmaye's lady. His nephew Roger married a co-heiress of Richard Leighton, of Leighton, Esq. by whom descended to him several hundreds per annum, of which he was deprived after long law-suits with the heir male. His son William was reduced to the quality of a freeholder, of £60 per annum, but was married to Elizabeth the daughter of Roger Biest, of Atcham Grange, a gentleman of £400 per annum. His son Richard married the daughter of Richard Forrester, of Sutton, of the family of Sir William Forrester, of Watling-street in Shropshire, who was secretary to Bishop Bonner. His son Richard married one of the Adeneys, who were wealthy clothiers in Worcestershire; and he was the father of our Richard, whose fame spread itself throughout the kingdom.

The estate of the family was clogged with debts, which among other inconveniences that attended it, proved a great hinderance in his education. The schoolmasters of his youth, who were such as those parts of the country then afforded, were neither eminent for their learning, nor the strictness of their morals. His greatest help in grammar learning was under Mr. John Owen, master of the free-school at Wroxeter, with whom he continued till he had been some time the captain of his school, and was advanced as far as his assistance would forward him. His friends not being able to support the charge of an academical life, his master Mr. Owen recommended him to Mr. Richard Wickstead, who was chaplain to the council at Ludlow, with whom he spent a year and half. The main advantage he had while he was with him, lay in the free use of his library, which was valuable: and this advantage he improved to his utmost. Afterwards, he went through a course of philosophy, with the assistance of the learned Mr. Francis Garbett, then minister of Wroxeter, who conducted his studies, and much encouraged him: and he was making a hopeful progress, when on a sudden he was diverted.

Being about eighteen years of age, he was persuaded to make trial of a court life, as the most likely way to rise in the world. In order to it, he was sent up to Whitehall, to Sir Henry Herbert, master of the revels. He received him courteously, but could not prevail with him to stay: his inclinations were set quite another way; and Providence had other purposes to serve by him in the world. He returned down into the country, and followed his studies with indefatigable earnestness; and soon made such improvements as amazed those that knew how slender his helps were, and how difficult it is for a man to beat out his way himself. Though he never led an academical life, (which he much desired,) yet by the divine blessing upon his rare dexterity and diligence, his sacred knowledge (as Dr. Bates expressed it in his funeral sermon) was in that degree of eminence, as few in the University ever arrive to.

His early seriousness was remarkable. Dr. Bates tells us, that his father said with tears of joy to a friend, My son Richard I hope was sanctified from the womb; for when he was a little boy in coats, if he heard other children in play speak profane words, he would reprove them, to the wonder of them that heard him. As he grew up, he listened to the instructions and example of his father, and abhorred those profane sports which were common on the Lord's days, in the places where he lived; and while the rest were dancing, he was employed in religious exercises. He betimes loved his Bible, and was afraid of sinning. He loathed the company of scoffers; and loved religion the better for their reproaches. And yet corruption even in him had its sallies in childhood and youth, which he afterwards lamented with great concern and sorrow. But when he was fourteen years of age, upon his reading "Parsons of Resolution," as corrected by Bunny,[1] such impressions were made upon his spirit as never wore off to the day of his death. His bodily weakness kept him afterwards very solicitous about the state of his soul: he read all the practical treatises he could meet with, in order to his direction and satisfaction; and yet was long kept with the calls of approaching death as it were at one ear, and the questionings of a doubtful conscience at the other. The exercise of his spirit was very pressing for a great while; till at length it pleased God to quiet him, by giving him a probability of the safety of his state, though he had not an undoubted certainty. He observes of himself, that though for the greatest part of his life afterwards, he had no such degree of doubtfulness as was any great trouble to him, or procured any sinking, disquieting fears, yet he could not say that he had such a certainty of his own sincerity in grace, as excluded all doubts and fears to the contrary.

From the age of twenty-one, till near twenty-three, his weakness was so great, that he hardly thought it possible he should live above a year; yet being willing to do some good to ignorant and careless sinners before he died, he even then entered into the ministry, and was examined and ordained by the bishop of Worcester, who also gave him a licence to teach school at Dudley, where Mr. Richard Foley, of Stourbridge, had a little before erected a free-school, which he committed to his care.

He owns that when he received orders, he never had read over the Book of Ordination, nor half the Book of Homilies, nor considered the Book of Common Prayer with any exactness, nor weighed sufficiently some controverted points in the Thirty-nine Articles: and yet having read Downham, and Sprint, and Burgess, he concluded they had the better of the nonconformists, with whom he then had no acquaintance; and being told that they were men of little learning, he concluded they were in the wrong; and having no scruples he freely subscribed as usually. But when after his settlement at Dudley, he came to read Ames's "Fresh Suit against Ceremonies," and other books on that side, he repented his rashness in subscribing so hastily, and grew dissatisfied as to some parts of conformity. He continued there preaching to a numerous auditory with good success for about three quarters of a year, and then removed to Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, where he became assistant to Mr. William Madstard. This removal was the more agreeable to him, because the place being privileged from all episcopal jurisdiction, except the triennial visitation of the archbishop, he was the less in danger of being put upon any part of conformity that he then scrupled. He never baptized with the sign of the cross, nor wore the surplice, (being not satisfied as to either,) and yet came into no trouble. At his first coming hither he was an instrument of the conversion of several to God and a holy life; but was not afterwards so successful here as in other places.

Soon after his settlement here, the et cætera oath put him upon a more close inspection into the English frame of church government, which he thought he had need to be well satisfied in, before he swore he would never consent to an alteration. He read Bucer de Gubernatione Ecclesiæ, Didoclavii Altare Damascenum, Parker de Politeia Ecclesiastica, and Baynes's Diocesan's Trial; and though upon the whole he saw no reason to believe all kind of episcopacy unlawful, he yet was far from so approving the English episcopacy, as to think it lawful to swear he would never consent to have it altered. And he observed upon this occasion, that that oath which was designed unalterably to subject the nation to diocesans, did but set many the more against them; and that instead of ruining the nonconformists, which was intended, it proved a great advantage to them, and inclined many to fall in with them.

The broils in Scotland quickly followed, that were occasioned by the imposing the Common Prayer Book, and English ceremonies. There were great tumults there, and the design was to subdue that nation by force: and at the same time there were great dissatisfactions in England upon the account of ship money, and other impositions that were reckoned illegal. The Scots entering into England, there was a form of prayer to be used against them in all churches, printed by the bishops, though there was no command of the king for it. Mr. Baxter would not use it, at which some were disturbed.

The long parliament upon its being opened, fell directly upon a reformation of church and state. Among other things that were determined, a committee was soon appointed to hear petitions and complaints against such as were scandalous among the clergy. Amongst other complainers the town of Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, had drawn up a petition against their vicar and his two curates as insufficient. The vicar was rather for compounding the business, than suffering the petition to be presented. The living was worth near £200 per annum, out of which he offered to allow £60 per annum to a sufficient preacher, to be chosen by fourteen trustees. They hereupon unexpectedly invited Mr. Baxter to give them a sermon; and upon hearing him, unanimously chose him to be their minister. He accepted their invitation, and settled among them, making this observation, That among all his changes he never went to any place he had before desired, designed, or thought of; but only to those places he never thought of till the sudden invitation did surprise him.

He spent two years at Kidderminster before the civil war broke out, and above fourteen years after, and yet never touched the vicarage house, though authorized by an order of parliament; but the old vicar lived there without molestation. He found the place like a piece of dry and barren earth; ignorance and profaneness as natives of the soil were rife among them: but by the blessing of Heaven upon his labour and cultivating, the face of paradise appeared there in all the fruits of righteousness. At first rage and malice created him much opposition; but it was soon over, and a special divine blessing gave his unwearied pains among that people an unexpected success.

On a day when they had in that town a yearly show, in which they walked about the streets with the painted forms of giants, he was one part of the game of the rabble. Having preached the doctrine of original sin, many railed at him, and represented him as saying that God hated and loathed infants. Thereupon he next Lord's day returned to the same doctrine again; and told them that if their children had no original sin, they had no need of Christ, or of baptism, or of renewing by the Holy Ghost. And after that, they were ashamed and silent. Another time one of the drunken beggars of the town reported, that Mr. Baxter was under a tree with a woman of ill fame. He got some that spread this report bound to their good behaviour; and then he that raised it confessed in court, that he saw Mr. Baxter in a rainy day stand on horseback under an oak in a thick hedge, and the woman mentioned standing for shelter on the other side the hedge, under the same tree, though he believed they saw not one another. They all asked Mr. Baxter forgiveness; and were released. At another time, when the parliament's order came down for demolishing all images of the Persons of the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, &c. in churches, or crosses in church-yards, the churchwarden of the town being about to take down a crucifix upon the cross in the church-yard, the drunken crew took the alarum, and ran with weapons to defend the crucifix. It being reported Mr. Baxter was the actor, they sought for him, and might probably enough have murdered him, had he come in their way. But as Providence ordered it he had taken a walk out of town; and in his return when the hurly-burly was over, he was surprised to hear some of them curse him at their doors; and quickly understood how fairly he had escaped. The next Lord's day he told them publicly, that seeing they so requited him, as to seek his blood, he was willing to leave them, and save them from that guilt. Whereupon they appeared amazed and ashamed, and took on terribly, and after all were loth to part with him.

But notwithstanding such opposition, his unwearied labours in this town had amazing success. He preached twice every Lord's day before the civil war; afterwards once; and once every Thursday, besides occasional sermons in the lectures at Worcester, Shrewsbury, Dudley, Sheffnall, &c. On the Thursday evenings such as were so disposed met at his house, one of them repeated the sermon, and afterwards they propounded to Mr. Baxter any doubts they had about it, or any other case of conscience, which he resolved. On Mondays and Tuesdays in the afternoon, in every week, he and his assistant took fourteen families between them for private catechising and conference, spending about an hour with a family. Every first Wednesday in the month he had a meeting for parish discipline. Every first Thursday in the month there was a meeting of the neighbouring ministers for discipline, and amicable disputation about matters theological: and every Thursday in the month besides, he had several ministers at his house, after the lecture was over, with whom the afternoon was spent in profitable conversation, till the neighbours came in to repetition and conference.

He had an attentive, diligent auditory, that was very numerous. On the Lord's day there was no disorder to be seen in the town, but you might hear a hundred families singing psalms, and repeating sermons, as you passed along the streets. When he first came, there might be a family in a street that worshipped God, and called on his name; and when he came away there was not above a family on the side of a street that did not do it. Nay, in the most unlikely families, even inns and alehouses, usually some in each house seemed to be religious. He had six hundred communicants; and there were not above twelve of them, of whose sincerity in religion he had not hopes. There were few families in the whole town that refused to submit to his private catechising and personal conference; and few went away without some tears, or seemingly serious promises of a godly life.

The greatest enemies of serious religion in that town were carried off by the war. When that was over he had the favour of the government there. He had a great interest in the affections of the inhabitants, for which his practising physic among them gratis, gave him a great advantage; and he had much assistance in his work, from the zeal and diligence of those among them that were pious. Many were won upon by their exemplary conversation. Their unity and concord were remarkable. All were of one mind, and mouth, and way. The private meetings that were kept up amongst them, (which were under his oversight and guidance,) were also very helpful to promote serious religion. His stated income was not above £90 per annum, besides which he some years had 60 or £80 a year of the booksellers for his books, which being given away amongst the people, (except so much as was necessary for his comfortable subsistence,) made them the readier to listen to him. He took several of their children that had capacities from school, and sent them to the University, where he maintained them by his own and others' contributions, some of which afterwards proved useful ministers.

One of his main difficulties when he fixed in this town, was how to set up any thing of a true ecclesiastical discipline, without being satisfied with the shadow instead of the reality of it on one hand, or unchurching the parish church on the other. Upon mature consideration, he determined to take the parish for the church, if they were willing to own their church membership, and acknowledge him for their pastor. He desired all that were willing, to give in their names, or some other way to signify their consent; and the rest he desired to be silent. This kept many quiet that were not church members, because they knew they might come in if they would. He baptized all their children, (if desired,) upon their giving an account of their faith. If the father were a scandalous sinner, he made him openly confess his sin with seeming penitence, before he would baptize his child. If he refused it, he forbore till the mother came to present it; rarely, if ever, finding both father and mother so destitute of knowledge and faith, as, in a church sense, to be utterly incapable. Sir Ralph Clare, a noted cavalier, discovered the greatest dissatisfaction of any in the parish, with his method of proceeding. He would not communicate unless he would administer the sacrament to him kneeling, and upon a distinct day, and not with those that received it sitting. Mr. Baxter having openly told the parishioners, that if they scrupled sitting at the Lord's table, they should have the liberty of their own gesture, sent word to Sir Ralph, that if he could not upon reasoning be otherwise satisfied, he would give it him kneeling; but that as for doing it at a distinct stated time from the rest, it would make such a breach or schism as he could have no hand in. However, the generality acquiesced; and church discipline was kept up, though not without some difficulty. A young fellow given to excessive drinking, offering himself to communion, was told that he could not be admitted, without a humble, penitent confession, and promise of amendment. He thereupon confessed his sin, and promised to amend, but soon relapsed. He was oft admonished, and as often renewed the profession of his concern, and promises of amendment. But still persisting, Mr. Baxter warned him publicly, and prayed earnestly for him several days successively in the church, but he was not reclaimed. At last he declared him utterly unfit for church communion, and required all to avoid unnecessary conversation with him. Afterwards he grew extravagantly mad, would freely curse Mr. Baxter to his face; and once as he was going into the church laid violent hands on him, with a design to have murdered him. He continued raging about a year, and then died of a fever, in great horror of conscience. Three or four more also were cast out; one for slandering, and the rest for drunkenness; and they were enraged and much the worse after it, and so were loud warnings to others. In short, so much of the presence of God did Mr. Baxter find accompanying him in his work, and so affectionate was his regard to the loving people of that place, that he would not willingly have changed his relation to them for any preferment in the kingdom, nor could he without force have been separated from them.

When the civil war broke out, he was dubious how to steer. He took the protestation which the parliament required, to defend the king's person, honour, and authority, the power and privileges of parliaments, the liberties of the subject, and the protestant religion, against the common enemy. And he joined with the magistrates of Kidderminster, in offering the same protestation to the people. A little after, the king's Declarations were read there in the market-place, and the commission of array was set on foot; upon which the rabble grew so riotous and furious, that he was advised to withdraw awhile from home. He retired to Worcester, and so to Gloucester, where he first met with the anabaptists; and after a month's absence he returned home, lest his absence should be interpreted either as the effect of fear on the account of some guilt, or as signifying his being against the king. At his return he found the drunken rabble very boisterous; and their common cry was this, We shall take an order with the puritans ere long. He did not think himself in safety if he stayed at home, and so he withdrew again. He preached at Alcester, on that Lord's day that was the day of Edge-hill fight; and was informed while he was preaching, by the noise of the cannon, that the armies were engaged. And the next day he went into the field of battle.

The soldiers on one side or the other still passing to and fro, and being ready to make a prey of whatsoever came before them, he determined to go to Coventry, and stay there till one side or other had got the victory, and the war was ended, which it was then thought would be in a very little time. The committee and governor of that city desired him to stay with them and lodge in the governor's house, and preach to the soldiers; which offer he readily accepted. He continued there a year, preaching once a week to the soldiers, and once on the Lord's day to the people, having nothing but his diet for his pains. Here he had the society of about thirty worthy ministers, who fled to the same place for safety, and among the rest, of Mr. Vines and Mr. Anthony Burgess. When his year expired, he found the war so far from being ended, that it had dispersed itself into almost all the land. He determined therefore to continue there another year; and in that time preached over all the controversies against the anabaptists, and against the separatists, and so kept the garrison sound. After the fight at Naseby, (not far from Coventry,) he went into the army to visit some of his old intimate friends. He stayed there a night, and got such intelligence as to their state as amazed him. He found plotting heads were designing to subvert both church and state. The sectaries were like to carry all before them, and were resolved to take down not only bishops, liturgies, and ceremonies, but all that did withstand them. This made him lament that the ministers had left the army, as they generally did, after Edge-hill fight. It made him also repent his refusing of Cromwell's invitation to be the pastor of his troop, when he first raised it; by which means he would have had an opportunity of dealing freely with those that afterwards headed much of the army, and were the forwardest in all the public changes. But he was told that it was not even yet too late to do service, if he would come into the army; and was invited by Colonel Whalley to be chaplain to his regiment. He returned to Coventry, and consulted the ministers that were there, and with their advice, (in order to do what in him lay to prevent the mischief that was threatened by the prevailing temper of the army,) he accepted the invitation.

When he came thither, Cromwell welcomed him but coldly. He set himself from day to day to discourse the officers and soldiers out of their mistakes, both religious and political. He found a few fiery, self-conceited men among them made all the noise and bustle, and carried about the rest as they pleased. Some of these became the laughing-stock of the soldiers before he left them. He marched with the army westward, and was at the taking of Bridgwater, and the siege of Bristol, and Sherborne Castle, and Exeter. He was also with Colonel Whalley before Banbury Castle, and at the siege of Worcester. He had full employment in opposing the sectaries in all places: and particularly he had at one place a dispute with them of a whole day's continuance. And by what success he met with, he found reason to apprehend, that if there had but been a competent number of ministers, each doing their part, the whole plot of the furious party might have been broken, and king, parliament, and religion preserved. But he was separated from the army by great weakness, occasioned by the loss of a gallon of blood at the nose; upon which, retiring to Sir Thomas Rouse's, he was taken up with daily medicines to prevent a dropsy, and was in continual expectation of death.

He did what he could to keep his people at Kidderminster free from a concern in the public changes. He kept them from taking the Covenant, as fearing it might be a snare to their consciences: nay, he prevented its being much taken in all that county. When the Engagement came out, he spake and preached against it, and dissuaded men from taking it. He had a whole day's disputation with Mr. Tombs, in his church at Bewdley, upon infant baptism; and thereby kept his people free from the spreading notions of those times. When the army was going against King Charles II. and the Scots, he wrote letters to several of the soldiers to tell them of their sin, and desired them at last to begin to know themselves. And instead of praying for their success in public, he freely inveighed against the forcing men to run to God upon such errands of blood and ruin; especially where brethren were concerned. He often and various ways declared against Cromwell's usurpation, when he had got the ascendant: he preached once before him after he was Protector, by means of the Lord Broghill and the Earl of Warwick: his text was 1 Cor. i. 10. The design of his sermon was to show how mischievous it was for politicians to maintain divisions in the church for their own ends. A little while after the Protector sent for him, and made a speech to him of an hour's length, about the providence of God in changing the government, and favouring that change by such great things done at home and abroad. Mr. Baxter freely told him, that the honest people of the land took their ancient monarchy to be a blessing; and desired to know how they had forfeited that blessing, and to whom the forfeiture was made. He with some passion replied, that there was no forfeiture, but God had changed it as it pleased him.

In the controversy about church government, which was then so hotly agitated, Mr. Baxter was all along against extremes. He neither fell in with the Erastian, nor episcopal, nor presbyterian, nor independent party entirely; but thought all of them had so much truth in common among them, as would have made these kingdoms happy, had it been unanimously and soberly reduced to practice, by prudent and charitable men. At the desire of the neighbouring ministers he drew up an agreement for church order and concord, containing only so much church order and discipline, as he apprehended the episcopal, presbyterian, and independent were agreed in, as belonging to the pastors of each particular church; which he afterwards published in a book called "Christian Concord:" and the ministers of those parts associated upon that bottom; not disputing with each other in order to an agreement in their opinions, but agreeing in the practice of what was owned by all.

Upon Oliver's becoming Protector, the extent of the toleration was the subject of many debates. The committee of parliament proposed that it should be extended to all that held the fundamentals of religion: hereupon it was queried which were the fundamentals of religion? and it was agreed that the members of the committee, who were fourteen in number, should each of them nominate a divine; and that they meeting together, should draw up a list of the fundamentals, to be as a test to the toleration. Mr. Baxter was upon this occasion nominated for one, (in the room of Archbishop Usher, who refused,) by the Lord Broghill, and took a journey accordingly to London. There he met Mr. Marshal, Mr. Reyner, Dr. Cheynel, Dr. Goodwin, Dr. Owen, Mr. Nye, Mr. Sydr. Sympson, Mr. Vines, Mr. Manton, and Mr. Jacomb, who were also nominated. Mr. Baxter was for offering to the parliament the creed, the Lord's prayer, and ten commandments, as the fundamentals of christianity: but the rest were not for so large a bottom, but were for having a greater number of fundamentals. If he did no other service among them, he at least prevented the running many things so high as might otherwise have been expected.

Truth and peace were the things he earnestly pursued all his days. He by writing treated with Dr. Brownrigg, bishop of Exeter, about concord with the diocesan party in this nation: and made also some proposals to Dr. Hammond to this purpose, a little before the Restoration of King Charles. By means of Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen, two anabaptist ministers, whom he prevailed with to quit the way of separation, he dealt with the rest of the anabaptists, about communion with other churches. He treated with Mr. Nye about an agreement with the independents, in a moderate scheme; and he was often engaged in disputes with the papists also. And indeed it is amazing how one of so much weakness, who was constantly followed with divers bodily infirmities, should be capable of so much service.

He came to London just before the deposition of Richard Cromwell. He preached before the parliament the day before they voted for King Charles's return. He preached also before the lord mayor and aldermen of the city at St. Paul's, on the day of thanksgiving for Monk's success. And when the king was actually restored, he became one of his chaplains in ordinary, in conjunction with some others of his brethren of the same sentiments with him. He preached once before him in that capacity; and often waited on him with the rest of the ministers, in order to obtain by his means some terms of peace and union with the bishops and their adherents, who were many of them inclined to run things to extremity. He assisted at the Savoy conference as one of the commissioners, and then drew up a "Reformed Liturgy;" which some persons not very likely to be prejudiced in his favour, have thought to be the best of the kind they ever saw. He has under this head fallen under the censure of our late English historian, who, vol. iii. p. 235, makes this reflection: "He drew up an absolute form of his own, and styled it the 'Reformed Liturgy;' as if he had the modesty to think that the old Liturgy, compiled by a number of very learned confessors and martyrs, must now give place to a new form composed by a single man, and he by education much inferior to many of his brethren." But had this gentleman been so just as to have read the reasons which Mr. Baxter gave,[2] for his doing that which he represents as so assuming, he would have seen little occasion for his reflection. For the design of this Liturgy was not to jostle out the old one, where persons were satisfied with it, but to relieve those that durst not use the old one as it was, by helping them to forms taken out of the word of God. Or suppose we, that the old Liturgy had in the esteem of many fallen short of this new one; others are at a loss to discover why this should appear so preposterous, unless it be unaccountable for persons to prefer a Liturgy entirely Scriptural, to one that is made up of human phrases, and some of them justly enough exceptionable. It must be owned that the old Liturgy was framed by sundry confessors and martyrs, and upon that account it deserves respect: and it was a great step in their day, for them to cast so many corruptions out of the public service as they did, at that time, when this Liturgy was drawn out of the several forms that were in use in this kingdom before. But it was but a pursuit of their design, to render the public service yet more Scriptural: and had they risen from the dead, there is good reason to believe they would generally have approved of it; and been so far from looking upon it as detracting from them, that they would have applauded it as a good superstructure upon their foundations. Suppose then he that drew up this "Reformed Liturgy," was by education much inferior to many of his brethren; it neither follows from thence that he must really be so much inferior to them in useful knowledge and valuable abilities, as this author would seem to intimate; nor can it justly be thence argued that his performance was contemptible; nor that there was any want of modesty neither, when his brethren put him upon the undertaking. And besides, they approving it when they perused it, and joining in the presenting it, made it their own; as sufficiently appears from the preface prefixed; and some of them had academical education, and great applause in the world too, and yet thought not Mr. Baxter at all their inferior.

He was also one of the three that managed the dispute at the end of the conference at the Savoy, and freely charged some things in the Liturgy as sinful, and contrary to the word of God. As, that ministers are obliged in baptism to use the transient image of the cross; that none be admitted to communion in the Lord's supper that dare not receive it kneeling, &c. The forementioned author speaking of this in his history, says, "That it seems very strange that he and his brethren should undertake to mention eight unlawful things in the Liturgy, when they could not affirm any one of those things to be in itself unlawful; but argued altogether upon the unlawful imposition of them, which they might as well have done by the same argument in eight hundred of other indifferent and most innocent matters." But if this gentleman had considered, that the unwarrantableness of keeping up such impositions in the church was the thing which Mr. Baxter and his brethren undertook to prove, in opposition to those who were zealous for retaining them, and how little in that case depends upon the simple unlawfulness of the things imposed, (abstracting from all circumstances in a metaphysical sense,) the strangeness of their proceeding would have disappeared. For though the same argument would have done in eight hundred indifferent things, (had there been so many so imposed,) yet it does not follow but that it would be good and valid in those eight things mentioned, in which they thought they should be bound up by the ecclesiastical constitution, (if they really must have been so confined,) while they could not discover their compliance to be lawful.

The same author also falls in with Bishop Morley, in representing Mr. Baxter as very perverse and disingenuous, by persisting in his denial of a certain proposition, after it had been turned and altered several ways. But had he thought fit to have considered what is suggested upon that head in the abridgement of his Life, which he had so often consulted, and quoted upon other occasions, he would have seen the aspersion wiped off, which he so freely repeats: and whether in so doing he has meted with the measure he would have used towards himself, upon occasion, is left to his second thoughts.

When the king's Declaration came out, Mr. Baxter was offered the bishopric of Hereford, and some of his brethren some other preferments in the church; but he refused acceptance, because of the uncertainty of the continuance of the terms of that Declaration, and so did several others: and Mr. Calamy and he were, by a majority of three voices, chosen by the city clergy to be their clerks in the convocation; but were by the bishop of London excused from sitting there. A continuance at Kidderminster was what he had most desired of any thing; and he did all that he was able in order to it; but Providence forced him another way.

While he was away from the town of Kidderminster, in great weakness, more likely to die than live, after his great loss of blood, the people renewed their articles against Mr. Danse, the old vicar, and his curate; and the committee sequestered the place, and left the profits in the hands of divers inhabitants to pay a preacher till it was disposed of. Mr. Baxter, though pressed, would not accept the vicarage, but continued to officiate among them as their minister. He would have taken no more out of the profits of the living than the £60 per annum which the vicar had before bound himself to pay him, but they made it £90. At length the people fearing some one should get a grant of the sequestration from the committee, went privately and got an order to settle Mr. Baxter in it; but never showed it him, till King Charles came out of Scotland towards Worcester, when they desired him to take and keep it, and save them harmless by it, if they were called to repay what they had received and disbursed. After this, the tithes were gathered in his name by some of his neighbours: but he gave them orders, that if any refused to pay that were poor, it should be forgiven them; but if they were able, what was due should be sought for with the help of the magistrates with damage; and that both his part and his damages should be given to the poor. When this was known, none that were able would do the poor so great a kindness as to refuse payment.

Upon King Charles's restoration the old vicar was restored. He had before lived unmolested in the vicarage house, and had £40 per annum duly paid him. Mr. Baxter would now very willingly have been his curate. Being often with my Lord Chancellor, he begged his favour about a settlement there, which he signified to him he preferred to a bishopric. Sir Ralph Clare was the great obstacle. He once told Mr. Baxter, in Bishop Morley's chamber, that of eighteen hundred communicants in the town, he had not above six hundred for him. To clear which he sent to Kidderminster, and in a day's time his friends there got the hands of sixteen hundred of those eighteen hundred for him; which subscription being shown, made both the Bishop and Sir Ralph the more against his return thither. My Lord Chancellor wrote to Sir Ralph, but without effect. Mr. Baxter going down thither to make terms with the vicar, he would not suffer him to preach above twice or thrice. He could not be accepted, though he would have preached for nothing. It would not be allowed him so much as to administer the sacrament to the people, and preach a farewell sermon to them. Bishop Morley denied him the liberty of preaching in his diocess. He told him that he would take care the people should be no losers. And for awhile he sent the most acceptable preachers among them; and once took the pains to preach to them himself, but it was in a way of invective against Mr. Baxter and the presbyterians. Dr. Warmestry did the same once and again, but with little success. When Bishop Morley forbad him preaching in his diocess, he asked him leave but to preach in some small village among the ignorant, where there was no maintenance for a minister: and he told him, that they were better to have none than him. Mr. Baldwin the minister was present.

There being no further capacity of service in those parts, Mr. Baxter for some time preached up and down occasionally in the city, and at length was fixed a lecturer with Dr. Bates at St. Dunstan's in Fleet Street; and obtained Bishop Sheldon's licence, upon his subscribing a promise, not to preach against the doctrine of the church, or the ceremonies, in his diocess, as long as he used his licence. Here he had a crowded auditory; and the crowd unhappily drove him from his place of preaching. One day in the midst of sermon a little lime dust fell down in the belfry, which made people think the steeple and church were falling. All were presently in a confused haste to get away, and the noise of the feet in the galleries sounded like the fall of the stones. Some cast themselves from the galleries, because they could not get down-stairs; and the terror was universal: all made such haste to get out that they hindered one another. Mr. Baxter, when the hurry was a little over, with great presence of mind reassumed his discourse, with this remarkable passage, to compose the spirits of the people. "We are" (said he) "in the service of God, to prepare ourselves, that we may be fearless at the great noise of the dissolving world, when the heavens shall pass away, and the elements melt in fervent heat; the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up," &c. And when he had gone on a little while, a bench near the communion table breaking under the weight of those that stood upon it, renewed the fear and hurry, and made it rather worse than before. He was forced to preach the rest of his quarter at St. Bride's church, while St. Dunstan's was repairing. He preached also once every Lord's day at Black-friars, gratis; and a week-day lecture in Milk Street.

During this short interval of public liberty, those ministers that were not for episcopacy, Liturgy, and ceremonies, were represented as seditious, and loaded with calumnies and reproaches. Many of them were imprisoned, together with some sober gentlemen, in several counties, under pretence of their plotting against the government. Particularly a plot was hatched in Worcestershire. A packet was pretended to be found under a hedge, left there by a Scotch pedlar. In it there were letters from several ministers; and among the rest, one from Mr. Baxter; intimating, that he had provided a considerable body of men well armed, which should be ready against the time appointed. And indeed where men were taken up and imprisoned in distant counties, it was said to be for Baxter's plot. The noise of these plots in so many counties, paved the way for the Act of Uniformity, which gave all the ministers who could not conform no longer time than till Bartholomew day, 1662, when they were all cast out. Mr. Baxter preached his last sermon in public on the 25th of May before, at Black-friars. The reason of his forbearing preaching so soon, was partly because the lawyers did interpret a doubtful clause in the Act of Uniformity, as putting an end to the liberty of lecturers at that time; and partly because he would let all the ministers in the nation understand in time what his intentions were, lest any might be influenced to a compliance, upon a supposition that he intended to conform.

After this, if the ejected ministers did but meet to pray together it was a seditious conventicle. Dr. Bates and Mr. Baxter were desired to pray at a friend's house, for his wife that was sick of a fever, and had they been there they had been apprehended by a warrant from two justices. Finding therefore his public service at an end, he retired to Acton, in Middlesex; where he went every Lord's day to the public church, and spent the rest of the day with his family, and a few poor neighbours that came in to him. In the time of the plague, in 1665, he went to Mr. Hampden's, in Buckinghamshire; and returned back again to Acton when it was over. He stayed there as long as the Act against Conventicles was in force, and when it was expired, he had so many came to hear him, that he wanted room. Hereupon he by a warrant of two justices, was committed to New-Prison gaol for six months. But he got a Habeas Corpus, and was released; and removed to Totteridge, near Barnet. While he was there, Duke Lauderdale going into Scotland, signified to him a purpose there was of taking off the oath of canonical obedience, and all impositions of conformity, save only that it should be necessary to sit in presbyteries and synods with the bishops and moderators; and that he had the king's consent to offer him what place in Scotland he would choose, either a church, or a college, or a bishopric. But he excused himself from his weakness and indisposition, and the circumstances of his family.

After the Indulgence, in 1672, he returned to his preaching in the city. He was one of the Tuesday lecturers at Pinner's Hall; and had a Friday lecture at Fetter Lane; but on Lord's days he only preached occasionally. He afterwards preached in St. James's Market house, where on July 5, 1674, they had a marvellous deliverance. For a main beam, that had before been considerably weakened by the weight of the people, gave such cracks, that three several times they ran out of the room, concluding it was falling. The next day taking up the boards they found that two rends in the beam were so great, that it was a wonder of Providence that the floor had not fallen, and the roof with it, to the destruction of multitudes. He was afterwards apprehended as he was preaching his Thursday lecture at Mr. Turner's; but soon released, because the warrant was not signed by a city justice, as it should have been, when he was apprehended for preaching in the city. In 1676, by the assistance of his friends, he built a new meeting-house in Oxenden Street, and when he had preached there but once, a resolution was taken to surprise him the next time, and to send him for six months to gaol upon the Oxford Act. But he being out of town, Mr. Seddon, a Derbyshire minister, preaching for him, was sent to the Gate-house in his room, though the warrant did not suit him; and he was forced to continue there three months, till he had a Habeas Corpus. He afterwards built another meeting-house in St. Martin's parish, but was forcibly kept out of it by constables and officers: and thereupon Mr. Wadsworth, in Southwark, dying, he upon the invitation of his people preached to them many months in peace. And when Dr. Lloyd succeeded Dr. Lamplugh, in St. Martin's parish, he offered him his chapel, in Oxenden Street, for public worship, and accepted it.[3]

Anno 1682. He was suddenly surprised in his house, by an informer with constables and officers, who served upon him a warrant, to seize on his person for coming within five miles of a corporation; and five more warrants in distraint for £195 for five sermons. He was going with them to a justice, though extremely bad as to his health, till meeting Dr. Cox, he forced him back to his bed, and went and took his oath before five justices that he could not go to prison without danger of death. The king being consulted, consented that his imprisonment should for that time be forborne. But they executed the warrants on the books and goods in the house, though he made it appear they were none of his; and they sold the bed he lay upon. Some friends paid down the money they were appraised at, and he repayed them. Being afterwards in danger of new seizures, he was forced to retire to private lodgings.

Anno 1684. He was again seized upon and carried to the sessions, when he was scarce able to stand, and bound in a bond of £400, to his good behaviour; and was told that this proceeding was only to secure the government against suspected persons. He was some time after carried again to the sessions-house in great pain, and forced to continue bound. He refused to stand bound, not knowing what they might interpret a breach of the peace. But his sureties would be bound, lest he should die in a gaol. He was carried thither a third time, and still bound; though for the most part he kept his bed.

Though he was thus treated all King Charles's reign, he yet prayed as heartily for him as any man; and he was often consulted about terms and measures for a union between the conformists and nonconformists, as to which he was ever free to give his sentiments. He was not for comprehension without indulgence; nor for a bare indulgence without the enlargement of the Act of Uniformity to a greater comprehension; but for the conjunction of both. He declared this when he was consulted by a person of honour, anno 1663. In the year 1668, Dr. Bates and he waited on the Lord Keeper Bridgman by desire, in order to a treaty about a comprehension and toleration, and were afterwards met by Dr. Wilkins and Mr. Burton, with whom they conferred. The thing they most differed about was re-ordination. At length by conference with Sir Matthew Hale, that point was thus adjusted, that there should be an admission into the ministry of the church of England, of such as had been before ordained according to this form of words: "Take thou legal authority to preach the word of God, and administer the holy sacraments in any congregation of England, where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto." It was agreed the ceremonies should be left indifferent, and the Liturgy altered; and that there should be an indulgence of such as could not be comprehended. And a bill was drawn up by Judge Hale, to be presented to the parliament; but the high-church party made such an interest, that it was carried by a vote that no man should bring in a bill of this nature. He afterwards in the year 1673, upon the desire of the Earl of Orrery, drew up terms of union between the conformists and the nonconformists, in order to their joint vigorous opposing popery. And the next year there was also an agreement upon like terms, between Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson, and Dr. Manton, Dr. Bates, Mr. Pool, and Mr. Baxter, and an act was proposed to be brought in the next session of parliament, in pursuance of the treaty; but Dr. Tillotson wrote word to Mr. Baxter, that as circumstances stood, such an act could not pass in either house, without the concurrence of a considerable part of the bishops, and his Majesty's countenance, which at that time he saw little reason to expect.

In the reign of King James II. Mr. Baxter was committed to the King's Bench prison by warrant from the Lord Chief Justice Jefferies, for his "Paraphrase on the New Testament," which was called a scandalous and seditious book against the government. On May 30, 1685, he was brought to his trial. The passages mentioned in the information, were his paraphrase on Matt. v. 19; Mark ix. 39; xi. 31; xii. 38-40; Luke x. 2; John xi. 57; Acts xv. 2: and a certain noted clergyman put into the hands of his enemies some accusations out of his paraphrase on Rom. xiii. &c. as against the king, to touch his life; but no use was made of them. Jefferies interrupted his council in pleading for him, and treated Mr. Baxter most scornfully and rudely. He had given judgment against him, June 29, when he was fined 500 marks, and to lie in prison till he paid it; and bound to his good behaviour for seven years. But the next year King James altering his measures, many of the dissenters that were imprisoned were released; and their fines were remitted: and among the rest, Mr. Baxter obtained his pardon by the mediation of the Lord Powis. His fine was remitted; and Nov. 24, Sir Samuel Astrey sent his warrant to the keeper of the King's Bench to discharge him. But he gave sureties for his good behaviour: his Majesty declaring for his satisfaction, that it should not in him be interpreted a breach of the good behaviour for him to reside in London, which was not allowable by the Oxford Act; and this was entered upon his bail-piece. He continued some time in the Rules; and in February following removed to a house in Charter-house Yard.

After his settlement there, he gave Mr. Sylvester (whom he peculiarly valued, and had a special intimacy with) and his flock, his pains, gratis, every Lord's day in the morning, and every other Thursday morning at a weekly lecture. And thus he continued for about four years and a half; rejoicing as much as any man at the happy revolution under the conduct of King William, though he appeared not much in public. And when he was quite disabled from public service by his growing weakness, he still continued to do good in his own hired house, where he opened his doors morning and evening every day, to all that would come to join with him in family worship; reading and expounding the Scriptures with great seriousness and freedom. At length his distempers took him off from this also, and confined him first to his chamber, and then to his bed. Under sharp pains, he was very submissive to the will of God; and when he was inclined to pray most earnestly for a release, he would check himself and say, "It is not fit for me to prescribe: Lord, when thou wilt, what thou wilt, how thou wilt." As his end drew near, being often asked by his friends, how it was with his inward man, he replied, "I bless God I have a well-grounded assurance of my eternal happiness, and great peace and comfort within." He gave excellent counsel to young ministers that visited him, earnestly prayed God to bless their labours, and expressed great hopes that God would do a great deal of good by them, and great joy that they were of moderate and peaceable spirits. Being at last asked how he did, his answer was, "Almost well;" and at length he expired, Dec. 8, 1691, and was a few days after interred in Christ Church, in London, whither his corpse was attended by a numerous company of persons of different ranks, and especially of ministers, some of them conformists, who paid him the last office of respect. There were two discourses made upon occasion of his funeral, one by Dr. Bates, and the other by Mr. Sylvester, which are both in print: the former may be met with in the Doctor's Works; and the latter at the end of Mr. Baxter's Life in folio.

His last will and testament bore date July 7, 1689. The preamble was something peculiar, and ran thus: "I Richard Baxter, of London, clerk, an unworthy servant of Jesus Christ, drawing to the end of this transitory life, having through God's great mercy the free use of my understanding, do make this my last will and testament, revoking all other wills formerly made by me. My spirit I commit, with trust and hope of the heavenly felicity, into the hands of Jesus my glorified Redeemer and Intercessor; and by his mediation into the hands of God my reconciled Father, the infinite, eternal Spirit, Light, Life, and Love, most great, and wise, and good, the God of nature, grace, and glory; of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things; my absolute Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor, whose I am, and whom I (though imperfectly) serve, seek, and trust; to whom be glory for ever. Amen. To him I render most humble thanks, that he hath filled up my life with abundant mercy, and pardoned my sin by the merits of Christ, and vouchsafed by his Spirit to renew me, and seal me as his own; and to moderate and bless to me my long sufferings in the flesh, and at last to sweeten them by his own interest, and comforting approbation, who taketh the cause of love and concord as his own," &c. He ordered his books to be distributed by Mr. Matthew Sylvester and Mr. Roger Morrice among poor scholars, which was done accordingly. All that remained of his temporal estate, after a few legacies to his kindred, he disposed of for the benefit of the souls and bodies of the poor. And he left Sir Henry Ashhurst, Baronet, Rowland Hunt of Boraton, Esq., Mr. Thomas Hunt, merchant, Edward Harley, Esq., Mr. Thomas Cooke, merchant, Mr. Thomas Trench, merchant, and Mr. Robert Bird, gentleman, his executors.

Few ever had more weakness to imbitter their lives than he; and yet this heightened and cherished the peculiar seriousness of his spirit. Few ever were more strongly tempted to infidelity; and yet, as Providence overruled it, that contributed in the issue to his greater establishment. He was tempted sorely to question the truth of the Scriptures, the immortality of the soul, and the life to come. This sort of temptations did not assault him in that way that is usual with melancholy persons, but with a show of sober reason. Hereupon he was forced to dig to the very foundations of religion, and seriously to examine the reasons of christianity, and to give a hearing to all that could be said against it; and his preaching and writings were upon this account the more useful. And he at last found that nothing is so firmly believed, as that which hath been some time doubted of.

He was a great observer of Providence, and in the course of his life met with many surprising deliverances. When he was seventeen years of age, riding on an unruly horse, who would often get the bit in his teeth, and run away with his rider, he was run away with in a very dangerous place. He was in a field of high ground, where there was a quick-set hedge on the side of him, that was the only fence; on the other side of which was a deep narrow lane, about a story's height below him. When the horse was running away with him, he turned aside on a sudden, and leaped over the hedge into the lane. He came to the ground before the horse, and yet received no hurt, thought it seemed marvellous how his feet could fall besides him. At another time, being about the same age, and at Ludlow Castle, in company of several idle gentlemen, he was learning to play at tables of the best gamester in the house. When his opposite had once so much the better, that it was a hundred to one, besides the difference of their skill, he still held on, though both he and the standers-by laughed at him for not giving up, and told him the game was lost: he was so confident of it as to offer a hundred to one; and actually did lay down ten shillings to sixpence. When the wager was laid, he told him there was no possibility of the game, but by one cast often: and it so fell out, that he had that same cast for several times successively, so that by that time a man could go four or five times about the room, his game was gone, which caused great admiration. He took the hint, feared that the devil had the ruling of the dice, and did it to entice him to be a gamester, and so gave him his ten shillings again, and resolved never more to play at tables whilst he lived. At another time, travelling from London into the country, about Christmas, in a very deep snow, he met on the road a loaded waggon, where he could not pass by but on the side of a bank: passing over which, all his horse's feet slipped from under him, and all the girts broke, so that he was cast just before the waggon wheel, which had gone over him, but that it pleased God the horses suddenly stopped, without any discernible cause, till he got out of the way. Often was he brought very low while he was at Kidderminster, so as to receive the sentence of death in himself, when his poor honest, praying neighbours there met together, and upon their fasting and earnest prayers, he hath been recovered. Once when he had been very low for three weeks together, and was unable to go abroad, on the very day that they prayed for him, which was on the Friday, he recovered so as to be able to preach to them, and administer the sacrament, on the Lord's day following. Another time he had a tumour rose on one of the tonsils of his throat, white and hard like a bone, above the hardness of any scirrhous tumour. He feared a cancer, and applied such remedies by the advice of the physician as were thought fittest, but without alteration; for it remained hard as at first. At the end of a quarter of a year, he was under some concern, that he had never praised God particularly for any of the deliverances he had formerly afforded him. And thereupon being speaking of God's confirming our belief of his word, by his fulfilling his promises, and hearing prayers, (as it is published in the second part of his "Saints' Rest,") he annexed some thankful hints as to his own experiences; and suddenly the tumour vanished, leaving no sign where it had been remaining; though he neither swallowed it down, nor spit it out, nor could ever tell what became of it. Another time having read in Dr. Gerhard the admirable effects of the swallowing a gold bullet upon his own father, in a case much like his, he got a gold bullet, between twenty and thirty shillings weight; and having taken it, he knew not how to be again delivered of it. He took clysters and purges for about three weeks, but nothing stirred it. And a gentleman having done the like, the bullet never came from him till he died, and it was cut out. But at last his neighbours set apart a day to fast and pray for him, and he was free from his danger in the beginning of that day. And at another time, being in danger of an ægilopse, he had also sudden relief by their prayers. At another time riding upon a great hot, mettled horse, as he stood upon a sloping pavement in Worcester, the horse reared up, and both his hinder feet slipped from under him; so that the full weight of the body of the horse fell upon his leg, which yet was only bruised, and not broken: when considering the place, the stones, and the manner of the fall, it was a wonder his leg was not broken in shivers. Another time as he sat in his study, the weight of his greatest folio books broke down three or four of the highest shelves, when he sat close under them; and they fell down on every side of him, and not one of them hit him, except one upon the arm. Whereas the place, the weight, and greatness of the books was such, and his head just under them, that it was a wonder they had not beaten out his brains, or done him an unspeakable mischief. One of the shelves just over his head having Dr. Walton's Polyglot Bible, all Austin's Works, the Bibliotheca Patrum, Marlorate, &c. At another time, viz. March 26, 1665, as he was preaching in a private house, a bullet came in at the window, and passed by him, but did no hurt. Such things as these he carefully took notice of, and recorded. And indeed his being carried through so much service and suffering too, under so much weakness, was a constant wonder to himself, and all that knew him; and what he used himself often to take notice of, with expressions of great thankfulness.

There was scarce a man in England so consulted about cases of conscience as he was. He was applied to in matters of more than common concern and difficulty, by persons of all ranks and qualities. His "Directory" may give the world satisfaction how fit he was for that province: and had he kept an exact account of the various cases that had been proposed to him, with his solutions, we should have had yet fuller evidence.

He loved a retired life, but could not so conceal himself as not to be observed and much respected. My Lord Broghill, who was afterwards Earl of Orrery and Lord President of Munster, gave him many marks of his respect. Archbishop Usher used great freedom with him, and urged him to some of his writings. In the worst of times he had some even in King Charles's court that were very respectful to him. Duke Lauderdale was one of these: and let him be ever so ill a man himself, this must be said, that Mr. Baxter had sometimes an interest in him for the procuring good, and the avoiding mischief. While he lived at Acton, he had free conversation with his neighbour Sir Matthew Hale. And he manifested his respect to Mr. Baxter, by giving a high encomium of him both for piety and learning, before all the judges at the table at Serjeants' Inn, at the time when he was in prison upon the Oxford Act. My Lord Balcarres and his Lady had also a very great value for him. He had many letters full of respects from eminent divines in foreign parts. But there was no friend in the whole course of his life whom he more valued and respected, and by whom he was more beloved, than that noted citizen Henry Ashhurst, Esq. commonly called Alderman Ashhurst, who was the most exemplary person for sobriety, self-denial, piety, and humility, that London could glory of. In short, living and dying, he was as much respected by some, and as much slighted by others, as any man of the age.

Hardly any man was ever more calumniated and reproached than he. Dr. Boreman, of Trinity College, charged him in print with killing a man with his own hand in cold blood. Some years after, the same charge was brought against him in a coffee-house; but he that brought it being afterwards convinced, professed his sorrow, and asked his pardon. But Sir Roger L'Estrange published a story a little like it in his "Observator," and it was also inserted in the preface to the "Life of Dr. Heylin," and was lately inserted in a book entitled, "Ordination by mere Presbyters proved Void and Null, in a Conference between Philalethes and Pseudocheus." The story was this, that Mr. Baxter finding one Major Jennings in the war time among the bodies of the dead and wounded, looked on while Lieutenant Hurdman, that was with him, ran him through the body in cold blood. And that Mr. Baxter took off with his own hand the king's picture from about his neck, telling him as he was swimming in his gore, that he was a popish rogue, and that was his crucifix: which picture was kept by Mr. Baxter till it was got from him, but not without much difficulty, by one Mr. Somerfield who lived with Sir Thomas Rouse, who restored it to the true owner, who was supposed to be dead of his wounds: and this narrative was subscribed by Jennings himself, that it might pass for the more authentic.—Mr. Baxter, on the contrary, solemnly protested in print[4] upon occasion of the publication, that he knew not that he ever saw Major Jennings; that he never saw him or any other man wounded; that he never took such a picture from him, or saw who did it; nor was in the field when it was done; much less spoke any thing like the words reported: but that being at Longford House, while it was a garrison for the parliament, a soldier showed a small medal of gilt silver, bigger than a shilling; and said that he wounded Jennings, took his coat from his back, and the medal from his neck, which Mr. Baxter bought for eighteen pence, no one offering more: and that hearing afterwards he was living, he freely desired this Somerfield to give it him, supposing it was a mark of honour which might be useful to him. And this story was all the thanks that ever he had.

When he preached before King Charles, his Majesty sent the lord chamberlain to him to require him to print his sermon, and he accordingly printed it, and added in the title page, "by his Majesty's special command." Dr. Pierce afterward asserted to several, that he was none of the king's chaplain, and that he had no order from him for the printing of his sermon. And he could scarce preach a sermon, but he was represented as having some seditious design, covered over with innocent words.

He was vehemently aspersed by those that were fond of extremes on all hands. When the lecture was set up at Pinner's Hall, if he did but preach for unity and against division, or unnecessary withdrawing from each other, or against unwarrantable narrowing the church of Christ, it was presently said he preached against such and such persons. If he did but say that the will of man had a natural liberty, though a moral thraldom to vice; and that men might have Christ and life if they were but truly willing, though grace must make them willing; and that men have power to do better than they do; he was said to preach up Arminianism and free-will. And on the other hand, when he in public told the people, that they must not make the world believe that they were under greater sufferings than they really were, nor be unthankful for their peace; and that they ought when any hurt them, to love and forgive them, and see that they failed not of their duty to them; but should not forsake the owning and just defending by Scripture evidence, the truth opposed; some of the high-church party, in a printed account, told the world, that he bid the people resist, and not stand still and die like dogs: for the falsity of which he was forced to appeal to the many hundreds that heard him.

Nay, he was aspersed even after his death. For it was reported that in the latter part of his life even till he died, he was in great doubt and trouble about a future state; that he inclined to think there was no future state at all, and ended his days under such a persuasion, to his no small trouble; he having written so many things to persuade persons to believe there was. Which was abundantly answered by Mr. Sylvester, in his preface prefixed to the "History of his Life and Times."

His love to the honest people of Kidderminster, who had the prime of his strength and the flower of his labours, was very remarkable. He told them, in the preface to the "Saints' Rest," that the offers of greater worldly accommodations, with five times the means that he received with them, was no temptation to him once to question whether he should leave them. But he was afterwards forced to leave them, by Bishop Morley, and Mr. Danse the old vicar. He did not part with them without mutual grief and tears. And when he went from them, he left Mr. Baldwin, to live privately among them, and oversee them in his stead; and he advised them to frequent the public church assemblies, in conjunction with their private helps, unless the public minister was utterly insufficient, or preached heresy, or in his application set himself against the ends of his office, by endeavouring to make a holy life seem odious. After parting from them, he wrote a letter to them but once a year, lest it should be the occasion of their suffering; and for fear lest if they did any thing that was displeasing, it should be represented as the effect of his suggestions. But in process of time even this honest and quiet people were exasperated. They were alienated from the prelates and their adherents, for running down Mr. Baxter and those of his mind, as deceivers. Repeating sermons in their houses they were laid in gaols with common malefactors, their goods were seized, and they were fined and punished again and again. At length they were hardly more angry with the bishops, than they were with Mr. Baxter himself, whom they censured upon his publishing the book called "The Cure of Church Divisions," as strengthening the hands of persecutors by persuading them of the lawfulness of communicating in their parish church, with a conformable minister in the Liturgy. But he still continued his care of them, and concern for them. And at length he became capable of helping them to a valuable, useful man, that would make it his business to promote serious religion among them. For Colonel John Bridges had sold the patronage of the living to Mr. Thomas Foley, upon condition that he should present Mr. Baxter next if he were capable of it; and if not, that he should present one with his consent. When the old vicar died, many thought that Mr. Baxter himself would have conformed. Archbishop Stern, of York, particularly, bid a minister take it on his word that he conformed, and was gone to his beloved Kidderminster. But Mr. Baxter had no such thoughts, though he would gladly have assisted them in getting a suitable person. But the people there refused to have any hand in bringing in another minister into the church, lest they should seem to consent to his conformity, or be obliged to own him in his office. They were not to be prevailed with to concur; and for that reason Mr. Baxter refused to meddle in the choice. When Mr. Foley had put in a valuable man to be their minister, Mr. Baxter wrote to them to join with him in prayers and sacrament, at that time when they had no opportunity for separate meetings. But their sufferings had so far alienated them from the church party, that they would not yield that his letter should be so much as read among them. However, Mr. Baxter kept up a peculiar respect to them, and concern for them, as long as he lived.

His works were various. Dr. Bates, in his funeral sermon, says that his books, for the number and variety of matter in them, make a library. They contain a treasure of controversial, casuistical, positive, and practical divinity; and the excellent Bishop Wilkins did not stick to say that he had cultivated every subject he handled. I will touch only upon those of his works that are here collected together in four volumes.

The first volume contains his "Christian Directory." The first part of it, which he calls "Christian Ethics," is perhaps the best body of practical divinity that is extant in our own or any other tongue. And though in the "Ecclesiastical Cases" there are some things that are not to every man's gust, (and no other could well be expected where there is so vast a variety,) yet he that will have the patience to read through, will find his pains rewarded by ample instruction.

The second volume contains, I. "The Reasons of the Christian Religion;" which book hath relieved many when under temptations to infidelity. II. "The Unreasonableness of Infidelity;" where a clear account is given of the nature of the witness of the Spirit to the truth of Christianity, and of the unpardonable sin committed in opposition to it. And a discourse is added about the arrogancy of reason in opposition to divine revelation, that is very proper for those who being for a freedom of thought would know how to keep it within due bounds, so as to prevent extravagance. III. "More Reasons for the Christian Religion;" which contains a vindication of the Holy Scriptures from the charge of contradictions; and some animadversions on my Lord Herbert "De Veritate." IV. His "Treatise of Conversion;" a set of plain sermons preached at Kidderminster, explaining the nature and the necessity, the benefits and hinderances, of a thorough change of heart and life. V. "A Call to the Unconverted;" which has been blessed by God with marvellous success in reclaiming persons from their impiety. Six brothers were once converted by reading it. Twenty thousand of them were printed and dispersed in little more than a year's time. It was translated into French and Dutch, and other European languages. And Mr. Eliot translated it into the Indian language; and Mr. Cotton Mather gives an account of a certain Indian prince, who was so affected with this book, that he sat reading it with tears in his eyes till he died, not suffering it to be taken from him. VI. "Now or Never;" in which all are seriously urged to improve the present time, in order to a hearty return to God through Jesus Christ. VII. "Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion;" a book that has been useful to many souls, by preventing those mistakes in practical religion, which are often fatal. VIII. "A Saint or a Brute;" being some plain sermons preached to his people at Kidderminster, concerning the necessity and excellency of holiness. IX. "The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance, and Benefits of Self-Acquaintance;" being some plain sermons preached at St. Dunstan's, in Fleet Street, to prevent persons from devouring others, while they did not know themselves. X. "A Right Method for Settled Peace of Conscience;" written for the benefit of a melancholy lady; a book by which many dejected christians have been revived. XI. "God's Goodness Vindicated;" an essay to clear up that darling attribute of the Deity about which melancholy persons often run into such unhappy mistakes. XII. "Directions to a Weak Christian how to Grow in Grace; with Characters of a Sound Christian;" well worth the perusal of such as desire to have right and clear notions of christianity.

The third volume contains, I. "The Saints' Everlasting Rest;" a book written in a very languishing condition, when in the suspense of life and death; and yet it has the signatures of a holy and vigorous mind. Multitudes will have cause to bless God for ever for this book. Among others, holy Mr. John Janeway was thereby converted.[5] II. "A Treatise of Self-Denial"; in which the nature and grounds of that capital part of our holy religion are opened and cleared. III. "Of Crucifying the World by the Cross of Christ;" an affecting caveat against worldliness. IV. "The Life of Faith;" which was an enlargement of the sermon preached before King Charles II., soon after his Restoration. Though there are many things to be met with here, that occur in his other writings, (a thing not to be avoided in one that wrote so much,) yet has the method in which they are here put together been advantageous to many. V. "The Divine Life;" in which there are three Treatises: viz. "Of the Knowledge of God," "Of Walking with God," and "Of Conversing with God in Solitude;" in which there is more solid and useful divinity than in some bulky volumes. VI. "The Divine Appointment of the Lord's day;" written for the satisfaction of some that were inclined to the seventh-day sabbath. VII. "Obedient Patience." VIII. "His Dying Thoughts;" in which though there are some peculiarities, and an account of some temptations, that it is amazing that such a man as Mr. Baxter should be at all troubled with; there yet are some as noble thoughts as to the happiness of the saints departed, and as to our blessed Saviour's transfiguration, and the improvableness of it, as can easily be met with.

The fourth and last volume contains, I. "Compassionate Counsel to Young Men;" which many have had cause to bless God for. II. "The Mother's Catechism;" designed for the instruction of children, and for the assistance of mothers in discharging their duty in that respect. III. "Catechising of Families;" a plain manual; familiarly opening the great essentials of religion in a catechetical way. IV. "The Poor Man's Family Book;" a book that hath been given away by many landlords to their tenants with good success. V. "Confirmation and Restoration," &c.; being an essay to revive the true primitive discipline, by bringing the baptized publicly to own their standing to the baptismal vow when they come to age; and proposing that such as fall into scandalous sins should be restored by a public profession of repentance. VI. "Gildas Salvianus, or the Reformed Pastor;" which perhaps contains the best model of a gospel minister that ever was published. We may indeed there meet with a free confession of ministerial faults; which confession some endeavoured to turn to his reproach: but the confessing and amending real faults, is a much more likely way to secure the honour of the sacred ministry, than either a denying them, or a seeking to cloak, extenuate, or cover them. VII. "The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite;" where hypocrisy is freely detected and unmasked. VIII. "Cain and Abel;" in which the malignity of the enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, is proved to have discovered itself from the first. IX. "Knowledge and Love;" wherein conceited knowledge is exposed, and the excellency of divine love displayed. X. "Catholic Unity;" a sermon preached in St. Martin's Church, in which it is shown how greatly ungodliness tendeth to divisions, and godliness to the truest unity and peace. XI. "The True and only Way of Concord." XII. Sermons preached upon sundry particular occasions; with a few "Directions to Justices of Peace," &c.

I shall only add, that if the recommendations of others would have any influence upon the readers, or their characters of the author increase their esteem, few writers would have more advantage than Mr. Baxter. For besides that there are none of our practical divines whose works have been translated into more foreign languages, nor are read with more admiration abroad than his, there is no one who by the fittest judges has been more applauded.

Mr. Pitcaren, in his "Harmony of the Evangelists," p. 269, professes a great esteem for his learning, acuteness, and piety.

Mr. Wood, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews, in his answer to Mr. Lockier, represents Mr. Baxter as a most judicious, acute, and godly man.

The Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. declared Mr. Baxter to be the fittest man of the age for a casuist because he feared no man's displeasure, nor hoped for any man's preferment.

He was often quoted by some of the most celebrated divines of the church with respect; as by Bishop Patrick, Bishop Stillingfleet, Bishop Burnet, and Dr. Sherlock; as also by Mr. Hotchkis, and Mr. Wade, and others.

Sir William Morrice, in his book of the "Lord's Supper," p. 32, speaks of Mr. Baxter as one in the dust of whose feet (according to the Hebrew proverb) he should gladly roll himself; and notwithstanding some little difference in opinion, yet he could never have a quarrel with him. And he declares that he could only say as Phavorinus did of Adrian, It is not for me to contend with him who commands legions of notions and arguments. For me (says he) to throw a dart at him from Bellona's temple, (which was the denunciation of war,) were to show myself like one of the priests of that goddess, which were all fanatic, and used to tear their own flesh. I should be loth to transform the most favourable patron I have found, into the most formidable enemy I can meet with. And as he that thought it enough to eternize his memory, to inscribe upon his monument, his friendship he had with Sir Philip Sidney; so (says he) my tombstone could not have been ambitious of a more honourable epitaph, than Mr. Baxter's approbation.

Mr. Glanvil, in his "Philosophia Pia," p. 110, thus expresses himself concerning Mr. Baxter,—That worthy man I think is to be honoured much for his stout, rational, and successful opposition of the mischievous antinomian follies, when the current systematic divinity, then called orthodox, was very overgrown with them; and for his frequent asserting the reasonableness of religion, against the madness of spreading enthusiasm; for his earnest endeavours for the promotion of peace and universal charity, when it was held a great crime not to be fierce in the way of a sect. That he was a person worthy of great respect; and that he (viz. Mr. Glanvil) could scarce forbear affirming concerning him, as a learned doctor of the church of England did; viz. that he was the only man that spake sense in an age of nonsense.

Mr. Woodbridge, in his "Treatise of Justification," says, that Mr. Baxter was a man made on purpose to encounter with opposition for the sake of truth.

And Dr. Manton, upon occasion, declared in the hearing of several, that he thought Mr. Baxter came nearer the apostolical inspired writers, than any man in the age.

It having been proposed to reprint the PRACTICAL WORKS of the excellent Mr. BAXTER, in Four Volumes; a design fitted to promote and propagate serious religion, not only in the present age, but to posterity: we whose names are subscribed, do most heartily recommend it to all ministers, gentlemen, and others, (to whom the interest of our Lord Jesus Christ is dear,) that they would to their utmost encourage so good a work.

Among all the great and useful projects of this kind that have been set on foot this age, perhaps there have been none so likely to reach all the desirable purposes this may be serviceable for. Here you have not only a few particular heads of christian faith and practice, but christianity itself, in its full extent and compass, most accurately handled, and at the same time with greatest plainness suited to the meanest capacities, and pressed home upon the consciences of readers with inimitable life and fervour. And how great an advantage must it be to have such a help at hand in families, to which you may have recourse upon all occasions, to clear your judgments in the great articles of religion, to ease your minds in the most perplexing cases of conscience, to engage and direct you in the several most important exercises of godliness! You need not fear any danger from hence of being influenced for or against any party of christians, as such. For in all his writings you will find the evidences of a large and truly christian spirit, too great to be confined to the narrow limits of one or other party; and that noble catholic temper is what he every where labours to infuse into his readers: a temper not only most pleasant to the persons themselves in whom it has place, but which at last must heal all the unhappy differences in the christian world, if ever God have so much mercy for us.

GEORGE HAMMOND,
ABRAHAM HUME,
SAMUEL STANCLIFF,
THOMAS DOOLITTLE,
RICHARD STRETTON,
JOHN QUICK,
MATTHEW SYLVESTER,
DANIEL WILLIAMS,
DANIEL BURGESS,
JOHN SPADEMAN,
SAMUEL POMFRET,
JOHN SHOWER,
TIMOTHY ROGERS,
THOMAS GOODWIN,
JOSHUA OLDFIELD,
BENJAMIN ROBINSON,
THOMAS COTTON,
WILLIAM TONG,
ROBERT FLEMING,
JOHN SHEFFIELD,
JOHN BILLINGSLEY,
DANIEL ALEXANDER,
ROBERT BILLIO,
THOMAS REYNOLDS,
EDMUND CALAMY,
SAMUEL BURY,
SAMUEL DOOLITTLE,
ZACH. MERRELL,
THOMAS FREKE,
WILLIAM HARRIS,
SAMUEL PALMER,
BENJAMIN GRAVENER,
MICHAEL POPE,
SAMUEL ROSEWEL.

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