THE HEAVY SHOVE.
(Vol. v., p. 416.)
Like your correspondent Mr. Clark, I too have kept a sharp look-out for this curious piece ascribed to Baxter; but having been unable to track it, I had long since come to the conclusion that its existence was apocryphal.
The Rev. James Graves, in his Spiritual Quixote, written to ridicule Moravians and Methodists, notes it "as a very good book of old Baxter's," among several others of questionable identity, forming the library of Geoffrey Wildgoose's grandmother.
When we recollect the temptation offered in the quaint and uncouth titles of the old Presbyterians, we can hardly wonder at their enemies improving upon them; and in this way, it appears to me, we are to account for the respectable name of Baxter being popularly attached to a book which everybody talks about, but which nobody has seen.
It is again mentioned by Richard Cooksey, in his Life of Lord Somers, Worcester, 1791, and, taking its existence for granted, the author is astonished that Baxter, whom he extols to the skies, "could so far condescend to the temper and debased humour of the times as to entitle one of his tracts A Shove, &c. Commenting upon this, Wilson, in his History of Dissenting Churches, London, 1808, is the next who alludes to the book in question, but merely to shift its authorship from "the famous Richard Baxter of Kidderminster" to a more obscure individual of the same name,—described as "an elder (in 1692) of the Particular Baptist congregation worshipping in Winchester House." Of this person he says, "I know nothing excepting that he appears to have been a Fifth Monarchy man, and to have been far gone in enthusiasm."
Although thus doubting that the author of the Saints' Rest wrote such a book as that described, I
do not deny that there is a piece bearing the title in existence; but upon it the name of "William Bunyan" figures as the author. A copy of this was in the Theological Portion of the late Mr. Rodd's books, sold by Sotheby & Co. in 1850, and bears the imprint of "London, 1768." This, I am inclined to think, is the only Shove Mr. Clark is likely to meet with; and although I can give no further account of it, I am disposed to consider it the spurious catchpenny of some ignorant scoffer, who, taking his cue from Graves, or rather from some earlier writer who has noticed it, thought it would be a good spec., and therefore launched into the world his "Effectual Shove."
J. O.