A FEW THINGS ABOUT RICHARD BAXTER.
In the year 1836, I visited Kidderminster for the purpose of seeing the place where Richard Baxter spent fourteen of the most valuable years of his life; and of ascertaining if any relics were to be found connected with the history of this remarkable man. Baxter thought much of Kidderminster, for with strong feeling he says, respecting this place, in his poem on "Love breathing Thanks and Praise" (Poetical Fragments, 1st edit. 1681):—
"But among all, none did so much abound,
With fruitful mercies, as that barren ground,
Where I did make my best and longest stay,
And bore the heat and burden of the day;
Mercies grew thicker there than summer flowers:
They over-numbered my daies and hours.
There was my dearest flock, and special charge,
Our hearts in mutual love thou didst enlarge:
'Twas there that mercy did my labours bless,
With the most great and wonderful success."
While prosecuting my inquiries, I was shown the house in which he is said to have resided. It is situated in the High Street, and was, at the time of my visit, inhabited by a grocer; but I had my doubts, from a difference of opinion I heard stated as to this being the actual house. After looking at this house, I visited the vestry of the Unitarian Chapel, and examined the pulpit; the description of which given by your correspondent is very correct. He omits to mention Job Orton's chair, which was shown me, as well as that of Bishop Hall. From all I could learn at the time, and since, I should say that there is not the slightest probability of any engraving having been published of this pulpit. Sketches may have been made by private hands, but nothing I believe in this way has ever been given to the public. I have long taken a deep interest in everything, pertaining to Richard Baxter. I some years ago collected ninety-seven out of the one hundred and sixty-eight works which he wrote, most of them the original editions, and principally on controversial subjects. After they had served the purpose for which I purchased them, I parted with them, reserving to myself the first editions of the choicest of his practical writings. The folio edition of his works contains only his practical treatises. One of the most remarkable facts connected with the history of Baxter, is the prodigious amount of mechanical drudgery to which he must have patiently submitted in the production of his varied publications. He had a very delicate frame: he was continually unwell, and often greatly afflicted. To this constant ailment of body he refers in a very affecting note in his Paraphrase on the New Testament under the fifth verse in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. The reference is to the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, who had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
Note. "How great a mercy is it, to live eight and thirty years under God's wholesome discipline? How inexcusable was this man, if he had been proud, or worldly, or careless of his everlasting state? O my God! I thank thee for the like discipline of eight and fifty years. How safe a life is this, in comparison of full prosperity and pleasure."
His ministerial duties were of an arduous nature, and yet he found time to write largely on theological subjects, and to plunge perpetually into theological controversy. The Saint's Rest, by which his fame will ever be perpetuated, was published in 1619, 4to. It is in four parts, and dedicated respectively to the inhabitants of Kidderminster, Bridgenorth, Coventry, and Shrewsbury. It was the first book he wrote, and the second he published (The Aphorisms of Justification being the first published): it was written under the daily expectation of dying. The names of Brook, Hampden, and Pym, which have a place in the first edition, are, singularly enough, omitted in the later ones. Fifty years after the appearance of the Saint's Rest, and a few months only before his death, he published the strangest of all his productions; it is—
"The Certainty of the World of Spirits, fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts, Operations, Voices, &c. Proving the Immortality of Souls, the Malice and Misery of Devils and the Damned, and the Blessedness of the Justified. Written for the Conviction of Sadducees and Infidels."
12mo. 1691.
His Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, folio, 1686, is the text-book for the actual every-day life of this eminent divine.
H. M. BEALBY.
North Brixton.