THE

LIFE AJVD TIMES

REV. RICHARD BAXTER:

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF IIIS WRITINGS.

BY REV. WIIitlAM ORME,
AUTHOR OF "the LIFE OF JOHIf OWEN, D.D.j" "bIBLIOTHECA BIBUCA," ETC.

L\ TWO VOLUMES  VOL. U.

BOSTON;
PUBLISHED BY CROCKER &, BREWSTER,
47, Washington Street:
NEW YORK:— JONATHAN LEAVITT,
J82, Broadway. 1831.

CONTENTS TO VOL. IL

CHAPTER I.
Page
WORKS ON THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION.
Introductory Observations on the Theological Literature of
the period — Arrangement of this Part of the Work — Im
portance of the Evidences of Religion — 'Unreasonahleness
of Infidelity' — Dedication to Broghill — Intended as a Reply
to Clement Writer — Nature and Plan of the Work —
'Reasons of the Christian Religion' — View of the Work —
'More Reasons for the Christian Religion' — Intended as a
Reply to Lord Herbert — 'On the Immortality of the Soul'
— Notice of First Attack in English on this Doctrine — Glan-
vil — Dr. Henry More — Baxter's Notions of the Soul's Im
materiality — 'Certainty of the World of Spirits' — Singular
Nature of this Book — Remarks on Witchcraft and Appari
tions — Baxter, the First Original Writer in English on the
Evidences of Revelation — Mornay — Grotius — Bishop Foth-
erby — Stillingfleet — Concluding Observations, . 9
CHAPTER II.
DOCTRINAL WORKS.
Introductory Observations — 'Aphorisms of Justification' — Ani
madversions on the Aphorisms by Burgess, Warren, Wallis,
Cartwright, and Lawson — Other Antagonists — 'Apology' —
Molinseus, Crandon, Eyres — 'Confession of Faith' — 'Perse
verance' — Kendal — Barlow — Shepherd — 'Saving Faith' —

CONTENTS TO VOL. II.

Page

'Dissertations on Justification' — 'On Justifying Righteous
ness' — Controversy with Tully — 'Original Sin' — 'Universal
Redemption'— 'Catholic Theology'— 'Methodus Theologiaj'
— 'End of Doctrinal Controversies' — General View of Bax
ter's Doctrinal Sentiments — Strictures on his Manner of con
ducting Controversy — Conclusion, . . 34
CHAPTER III.
WORKS ON CONVERSION.
Introductory Remarks — 'Treatise of Conversion' — 'Call to the
Unconverted' — 'Now or Never' — Directions for a Sound
Conversion' — 'Directions to the Converted' — 'Character of
a Sound Christian' — 'Mischiefs of Self-ignorance' — The
Countess of Balcarras — Controversy with Bishop Morley —
'A Saint or a Brute' — Various smaller Treatises — Conclud
ing Observations, . ... 72

CHAPTER IV.

WORKS ON CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
Introductory Remarks — 'Right Method for settled Peace of
Conscience' — Colonel Bridges — 'The Crucifying of the
World'— Thomas Foley, Esq.— 'Treatise on Self-Denial'—
'Obedient Patience' — 'Life of Faith' — 'Knowledge and Love
compared' — Sir Henry and Lady Diana Ashurst — 'God's
Goodness Vindicated' — Various Discourses — 'Cure of Mel
ancholy' — Baxter's Experience among Persons thus afflicted
— Conclusion, . . . . • 96

CHAPTER V.

WORKS ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
Introductory Observations — Systematic Theology — The Fathers
— Shoolmen — Casuists — Reformers — Calvin's Institutions —
Works of Perkins — Archbishop Usher's System — Leigh's
Body of Divinity — Baxter's 'Christian Directory' — Intended
as the Second Part of his 'Methodus' — His own Account of
it — Remarks on the arrangement — Opposed to the Politics
of Hooker — Progress of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience
in England — Character of the 'Directory' — Compared with
the 'Ductor Dubitantium' of Taylor — The 'Reformed Pastor'
— 'Reasons for Ministerial Plainness' — 'Poor Man's Family

CONTENTS TO VOL. II. V
Page.
Book'— 'The Catechising of Families'— 'The Mother's
Catechism' — 'Sheets for the Poor and Afflicted' — 'Direc
tions to Justices of the Peace' — 'How to do Good to Many'
— 'Counsels to Young Men' — The Divine Appointment of
the Lord's Day — Concluding Remarks, . . 121
CHAPTER VI.
WORKS ON CATHOLIC COMMUNION.
Unity of the Early Christians — Causes of Separation — Means
of Re-Union — Sentiments of Hall on this Subject — Baxter,
the Originator, in Modern Times, of the true Principle of
Catholic Communion — His Various Labors to promote it —
'Christian Concord' — Baxter's Cburch Communion at Kid
derminster — 'Agreement of Ministers in Worcestershire' —
'Disputations of Right to the Sacraments' — Sir William
Morice — 'Confirmation and Restauration' — 'Disputations on
Church Government' — Dedicated to Richard Cromwell —
'Judgment concerning Mr. Dury — Some account of Dury —
Universal Concord' — Baxter's Efforts in promoting Union re
tarded by the Restoration — 'Catholic Unity' — 'True Catholic
and Catholic Church' — 'Cure of Church Divisions' — Contro
versy with Bagshaw — 'Defence of the Principles of Love' —
'Second Admonition to Bagshaw' — 'Church told of Bagshaw's
Scandal' — Further Account of Bagshaw— 'True and Only
Way of Concord' — 'Catholic Communion Defended,' in Five
Parts — 'Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale' — 'Baxter's Sense
of the Subscribed Articles' — 'Church Concord' — 'Of Na
tional Churches' — 'Moral Prognostication' — Summary View
of Baxter's Sentiments on Catholic Communion and Church
Government, ..... 152

CHAPTER VII.

WORKS ON NONCONFORMITY.
Introductory Observations on the History of Nonconformity —
'The Nonconformist Papers' — Never answered — 'Sacrile
gious Desertion of the Ministry — 'The Judgment of Noncon
formists of the Office of Reason in Matters of Religion' —
'Of the Difference between Grace and Morality' — 'About
things Indifferent'— About things Sinful'— 'What Mere Non
conformity is not' — 'Nonconformists' Plea for Peace' — Sec
ond Part of Ditto — Defence of Ditto — Correspondence with
Tillotson — 'Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet' — 'Second Defence of
the Mere Nonconformist' — 'Search for the English Schis-

vi CONTENTS TO VOL. II. Page
matic' — 'Treatise of Episcopacy' — 'Third Defence of the
Cause of Peace — 'Apology for the Nonconformists' Ministry'
— 'English Nonconformity' — Conclusion, . 188
CHAPTER VIII.
WORKS ON POPERY.
Introductory Observations — 'The Safe Religion' — 'Winding-
Sheet for Popery' — 'Grotian Religion' — Controversy with
Pierce, Womack, Heylin, and Bramhall — 'Key for Catho
lics' — 'Successive Visibility of the Church' — Controversy
with Johnson — 'Fair Warning' — 'Difference between the
Power of Church Pastors and the Roman Kingdom' — 'Cer
tainty of Christianity without Popery' — 'Full and Easy
Satisfaction, which is the True Religion' — Dedicated to
Lauderdale — 'Christ, not the Pope, the Head of the Church'
— Roman Tradition Examined' — 'Naked Popery' — 'Contro-
troversy with Hutchinson — 'Which is the True Church' —
'Answer to Dodwell' — 'Dissent from Sherlock' — 'Answer to
Dodwell's Letter calling for more answers' — 'Against Re
volt to a Foreign Jurisdiction' — 'Protestant Religion truly
stated' — Conclusion, .... 212
CHAPTER IX.
WORKS ON ANTINOMIANISM.
The Nature of Antinomianism — Its Appearance at the Refor
mation — Originated in Popery — Origin in England — The
Sentiments of Crisp — Baxter's early Hostility to it — The
chief Subject of his 'Confession of Faith' — Dr. Powier —
Baxter's 'Holiness, the Design of Christianity' — 'Appeal to
the Light' — 'Treatise of Justifying Righteousness' — Publi
cation of Crisp's Works — Controversy which ensued — Bax
ter's 'Scripture Gospel defended' — The Influence of his
Writings and Preaching on Antinomianism — Leading Errors
of the System, ..... 228

CHAPTER X.
WORKS ON BAPTISM, QUAKERISM, AND MILLENA-
RIANISM.

l/l

Toductory Remarks — Controversy with Tomhes — 'Plain
Proof of Infant Baptism' — Answered by Tombes — 'More
Proofs of Infant Church-Membership' — Controversy with

CONTENTS TO VOL. II. Vll
Pago
Danvers — 'Review of the State of Christian Infants' —
Controversy with the Quakers — Early Behavior of the Qua
kers — 'Worcestershire Petition to Parliament' — 'Petition
Defended' — 'Quaker's Catechism' — 'Single Sheets' relating
to the Quakers — Controversy with Beverley on the Millen
nium — Account of Beverley — 'The Glorious Kingdom of
Christ described' — Answered by Beverley — Baxter's 'Reply'
—Conclusion, ..... 246

CHAPTER XI.

POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS.
Introductory Observations — 'Humble advice' — 'Holy Common
wealth' — Origin and Design of the Work — Involved the Au
thor in much Trouble — The Political Principles which it
avows — Recalled by Baxter — Motives for doing so — 'Church
History of Bishops' — Attacked by Morice — 'True History
of Bishops and Councils defended' — 'Breviat of the Life of
Mrs. Baxter' — 'Penitent Confession' — Conduct of Long to
wards Baxter — 'Reliquiae Baxteriante' — Character of this
Work — Imperfectly Edited by Sylvester — Calamy 's Ac
count of it, and its Reception — His Abridgement of it —
controversy to which it led, . . . 246

CHAPTER XII.

DEVOTIONAL WORKS.
Introductory Observations — 'The Saint's Everlasting Rest' —
Written for his own use in the time of Sickness — Com
posed in Six Months — Notices of Brook, Pym, and Hamp
den, whose names are omitted in the later Editions —
Description, Character, and Usefulness, of the Work —
Attacked by Firmin — Baxter's 'Answer to his Exceptions'
— 'The Divine Life' — Occasioned by a request of the Count
ess of Balcarras — Its Object and Excellence — 'Funeral
Sermons' for various Persons — 'Treatise of Death' — 'Dy
ing Thoughts' — 'Reformed Liturgy' — 'Paraphrase on the
New Testament' — 'Monthly Preparations for the Commu
nion' — 'Poetical Fragments' — 'Additions' to the Fragments
— 'Paraphrase of the Psalms' — General Review of his Poe
try — Conclusion, . . . 292

CONTENTS TO VOL. II.

CHAPTER XIII.

GENERAL CONCLUSION.

Page

Baxter, the author of Prefaces to many Books by others —
Leaves various Treatises in Manuscript — His extensive Cor
respondence still preserved — Letter to Increase Mather —
Account of Transactions with his Booksellers — Concurrence
of Opinions respecting him as a Writer — Barrow — Boyle —
Wilkins — Usher — Manton — ^Bates — Doddridge  Kippis —
Orton — Addison — Johnson — Granger — Wilberforce  His
own Review of his Writings — Its characteristic candor and
fidelity — ^The magnitude of his Labors as a Writer — The
number and variety of his Works — His Readiness — His
Style — Sometimes injudicious, both in his Writings and his
Conduct — Deficient in the full statement of Evangelical
Doctrine — Causes of this Deficiency — Conclusion, . 317

Chronological List of the Works of Baxter, . . 345

THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

RICHARD BAXTER

CHAPTER I.

WORKS ox THE EVIDENCES OF EELIGION.
Introductory ObservatioBs on the Theological Literature of the Period — Arrangement "of,[this
Part ofthe Work — Importance of the Evidences of Ileligion — * Unreasonableness of Infidel
ity ' — Dedication to Broghill — Intended as a Reply to Clement Writer — Nature and Plan of
the Work — ' Reasons of the Christian Religion ' — View of the Work — ' More Reasons for the
Christian Religion * — Intended as a Reply to Lord Herbert — * On the Immortality ofthe Soul ' —
Notice of First .Attack in English on this Doctrine — Granvil — Ur Henry More — Baxter's No
tions ofthe Soul's lomiortality — 'Certainty of the World of Spirits' — Singular Mature of thie
Book — Remarks oo Witchcraft and Apparitions — Baxter, the First Original Writer in Eng
lish on the iJvidenees of Revelation — .Mornay — Grotius — Bishop Fotherby — Stillingfleet — Con-
clading Obsen'ations.
Haying completed the regular memoir of Baxter's public and
private life, we now proceed to what may be regarded as the
second part of this work, an historical and critical account of
his very numerous writings. These occupied the principal part
of his time for raany years, and by these he will continue, though
dead, to profit the church of God for ages to come. I have
previously avoided almost every thing respecting his works, but
the enumeration of them in the respective periods in which they
appeared. To have noticed them in connexion with his life
and times, would either have been destructive of the continuity
of the narrative, or to avoid this, the account must have been so
brief and general, as greatly to destroy its interest. I have,
therefore, reseryed the consideration of his writings till the
close of his life, that I might give them an entirely distinct de
partment. The remark which is commonly made respecting authors,
that they are chiefly to be known by their writings, is only to a
limited extent applicable to Baxter. The forraer part of this
work shows, that independently of his writings, he would have
been known to posterity as one of the most considerable raen
of his times, in the class to which he belonged. He took an
active part in all those transactions that distinguished the reli
gious body with which he was connected, and whose affairs often
involved the politics and interests of the nation at large. His
VOL. II. 2

10 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
influence among his brethren throughout the country, the respect
in which he was held by the government, his popularity as a.
preacher, and the sufferings which he endured, all prove that his
title to celebrity does not exclusively rest on his published works.
He was not a mere recluse student, or a professional writer ; but
an active, laborious, and public-spirited man.
Still, the writings of Baxter, which formed so important a por
tion of those labors in which he so long engaged, were regarded
by himself as among the chief means of his usefulness, and furnish
us witli such a comprehensive view of his mind, that they are
justly entitled, in a life of him, to the most ample consideration.
By their means, too, his usefulness has been extended and per
petuated beyond the period of his own existence, and far beyond
the immediate sphere of his personal labors.
Baxter lived at a time when the literature of Great Britain was
influenced in a~n_jBxtraordinary degree by the peculiar circum
stances of a civil and ecclesiastical nature, which then occurred ;
after it had made considerable progress in some departments,
but before it had acquired that fixed character, and definite
form, which it assuraed in the course of the following century.
For a long period after the Reformation, the chief subject which
occupied the attention ofthe theological writers ofEngland was
the Popish controversy. They judged it then necessary to act
both offensively and defensively towards the church of Rorae ; to
maintain the grounds on which the reformed church separated
frora that corrupt system ; and to show that its doctrine, cere
monies, and genius, were all at variance with Christianity. English
divinity was then also a new thing ; hence it became of more im
portance to supply a wholesome pabulum, than to expend much
labor in dressing it ; to furnish the converts from Rome with
food of such a quality as would most effectually perserve them
from longing after the delicacies of the iraperial strurapet.
Out of the controversy, respecting the principles of the Re
formation, arose the puritanical and the nonconformist debates.
Many, from the beginning, were not content to s.top at Canter
bury ; they conceived that the principles of the Reformation re
quired ihem to proceed further ; they wished to divest them
selves of every rag and relic which had belonged to the mother
of abominations ; and sought to save their souls, not merely by a
speedy, but by a far-distant flight from her. Hence the ques
tions about iraposition, ecclesiastical authority, church govern
ment, forms and vestments. The influence of the court, which
was never reformed, except in name, and the tiraid and worldly
policy of church rulers, were constantly opposed to too wide
a separation from Rome.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 1 I
From this state of things sprang the nonconformist separation
from the Anglican church, and the numerous discussions which
occupied so large a portion of our theological literature down to
the times of Baxter. No period of rest aud liberty had really
been enjoyed. The public mind had corae to no settled con
clusions on many important points. Debates on matters appa
rently trifling, were often fiercely maiiitained, because they
implied a diversity of opinion on other things of far more im
portance tlian themselves.
Where much oppression was exercised on the one hand, and
much suffering endured on the other ; in the one case a con
stant struggle to maintain authority, and in the olher to secure
existence ; it would be vain to expectthe refinements and delica
cies of literature. Biblical science, profound and elegant theolo
gical disquisition, the exercises of taste and fancy, in reference to
religion, could not flourish in such circurastances. Among the
Puritans and Nonconformists, especially, these things are not to
be looked for. They were men born to suffering and to combat.
Accustomed to the din of war from iheir infancy, tbey insen
sibly acquired its language, and soraething of its spirit. Their
polemics were a part of their existence ; tlieir sufferings some
times chastened, but more frequently roused their spirits. Hence
they studied not so much the polish of the weapon as its temper ;
and were more careful to maintain their sentiraents, than fas
tidious in the mode of expressing them.
Their writings were, from these circumstances, in a great mea
sure, limited to two departraents, practical and controversial ; the
former including all that was felt to be necessary for the sup
port of the Christian hfe in tiraes of peculiar distress and peril ;
the latter, all that was deemed necessary in self-defence or vin
dication, or for the promotion of those principles, on account
of which they were exposed to great tribulation. In both these
departments they alraost exhaust the subjectswhich they discuss.
They brought forward both arguraent and consolation in masses.
They had neither time nor disposition to prune or abridge. It
was often necessary to raeet the adversary with the weapon
which could be immediately seized, or most effectively eraployed ;
and as the appetite for instruction was voracious, the supply
was required to be abundant, rather than of the finest quality.
" The agitated state of surrounding circumstances gave them
continual proof of the instability of all things temporal ; and
inculcated on them the necessity of seeking a happiness which
might be independent of external things. They thus practically
learned the vanity and nothingness of life, except in its relation
to eternity ; and they declared to their fellow-creatures the
mysteries of the kingdom of God, with the tone of raen who
knew that the lightest word which they spoke outweighed in the

12 THE LIFE AND TVRITINGS
balance of reason, as well as of the sanctuary, the value of
all earth's plans, and pohtics, and interests. They were upon
high and firra ground. They stood in the midst of that tem
pestuous ocean, secure on the rock of ages ; and as they ut
tered to those around them their invitations or remonstrances,
or consolations, they thought not of the tastes, but of the
necessities of men, — they thought only of the difference between
being lost and being saved, and they cried aloud, and spared
not. " There is, no doubt, a great variety of thought, and feeling,
and expression, to be met with in the theological writers of that
class ; but deep and solemn seriousness is the common cha
racter of them all. They seem to have felt much. Religion
was not allowed to remain as an unused theory in their heads ;
they were forced to live on it as their food, and to have recourse
to it as their only strength and comfort. Hence their thoughts
are never given as abstract views : they are always deeoly im
pregnated with sentiment. Their style rerainds us of the hght
which streams through the stained and storied windows pf an
ancient cathedral. It is not light merely, but hght modified by
the rich hues, and the quaint forms, and the various incidents
of the pictured medium through which it passes : so these vene
rable worthies do not merely give us truth, but truth in its his
torical application to the various struggles, and difficulties, and
dejections, of their strangely-chequered lives." ^
These beautiful sentences accurately characterise the writings
of the Puritans and Nonconformists in general, while they justly
explain the cause of those peculiarities by which they are dis
tinguished. From the time of the civil wars, another circumstance affect
ed the character of our theological writing. The restraints on the
press, and consequently on the minds of men, being then taken
away, every man who began to breathe the air of freedom, and
who deemed himself capable of putting his thoughts together,
judged that he had a call to do so. There was no longer any
fear of the Star Chamber or High Commission. A nation of
writers was born in a day. Sects increased, controversies raul
tiplied, the press teemed with an innumerable progeny
' Hourly conceived,
And hourly bom ;'
whose nature partook of the quality ofthe circumstances which
gave them birth. They were crude, ill-formed, and misshaped ;
and capable, for the raost part, of only an ephemeral existence.
" Then," as Milton says, " was the time in special, to write and
speak what might help to the further discussing of matters in
(a) Erskine's ' Introductory Essay to Baxter's Saint's Rest,' pp. 7, ..

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 13
agitation. The temple of Janus, with his controversial faces,
might not insignificantly be regarded as set open. All the
winds of doctrine vvere let loose to play upon tbe earth ; but
truth vvas prepared to grapple vvith falsehood, and sustained no
injury in a free and open encounter." ''
Of the infinite and motley generation of writers thus pro
duced, but a small number of master spirits could be expected
to survive that obhvion to wbich the great body vvas inevitably
doomed ; and even these could not escape injury from the bad
qualities of those circumstances by which they vvere constantly
surrounded. Only a few men of any age are destined for ira
mortality on earth ; the far greater number must always be for
gotten. Spencer, Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, and a few others,
are the men of their respective periods, to whom alone alraost
the world of intellect looks back with admiration, as giving cha
racter and importance to the times in which they lived.
Hooker, and Hall, Taylor, Barrow, and Chillingworth, Owen,
Baxter, and Howe, occupy a sirailar place araong the religious
writers of their respective tiraes. The great majority of their
contemporaries have already ceased to exist as autliors ; and
even a more select class are slowly floating to an oblivion which
certainly awaits them. The principal productions of the above,
and perhaps of a few more writers, relate to matters of univer
sal perpetual interest, which render it iraprobable that they
will ever be left behind by the stream of time. Their principles
are founded in immutable truth, while the strength of their in
tellectual powers, or the brilliancy of their imaginations, are
not likely to be surpassed by any of the future race of mortals.
But even they were infected or influenced by the circum
stances to which we have adverted. None of thera are faultless.
If they are distinguished for their splendid quahties, they are
also strongly marked by deformities and vices. They wrote
too rauch, and therefore raust often have written carelessly.
They entered deeply into the controversies of the times, and
hence caught something oftheir tone and spirit. They knew not
when to stop, or to consider their subject done. They choke
their pages with learned quotations, and load them with marginal
stuffings, which often savor more of conceit and pedantry than
tend to the reader's edification. They studied impression ra
ther than beauty, and often astonish us by the rugged grandeur
of their conceptions, rather than please by the felicity of their
language, or the harmony oftheir periods.
These remarks apply raost fully and particularly to Baxter,
as a writer. He posseses all the good and high qualities which
have been ascribed to the choice spirits with whom he ranked.
(b) Areopagetica, Prose Works, p. 394. Edit. 1697.

14 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
He was inferior to none of them in fertility of mind, loftiness of
genius, or veisatility of talent. He wrote more than any of
his brethren ; and more, of what he did write, continues to be
read and admired. But if he partook oftheir excellencies, he
also shared largely in their fauhs ; the forraer belonged properly
to the raan, the latter to his circurastances.
Baxter wrote both voluminously and on almost every topic
of religion. His works form a system and library of themselves.
Instead, therefore, of reviewing them in the chronological order
of their publication, I have divided them into classes, to each of
which I have devoted a chapter. Following the best arrange
ment I could adopt, under the several heads of — Works on the
Evidences of Religion — On the Doctrines of Religion — On
Conversion — On Christian Experience — On Christian Ethics —
On Catholic Communion — On Nonconformity — On Popery —
On Antinomianisra — On the Baptist, Quaker, and Millenna-
rian Controversies— ^Historical and Political Works — Devotion
al, Expository, and Poetical Works ; some account will be
found of every thing which Baxter published.
By pursuing this course, a more accurate view may be obtain
ed of his genius and labors as a writer : while the reader may
make his own selection of topics, on which to consult the opin
ions of this erainent raan. In general, I have not deemed it
necessary to present an analysis of his works. This would have
been impracticable within the bounds of my undertaking, and
perhaps uninteresting to the reader. I have, however, always
represented their nature and design ; the circumstances in which
they were produced, and any known effects or consequences
which arose from them. In this exaraination of his writings, va
rious occurrences, omitted in the regular narrative of his life,
will be found, and notices of raany of his conterapoaries, both
friends and opponents, will be given. The reraainder of this
chapter will, therefore, be devoted to the works on the Eviden
ces of Religion.
The evidences of religion do not always occupy that place in
the attention of men, which their great importance merits. The
truth of revelation is so much taken for granted among Chris
tians, that few, comparatively, give themselves the trouble of ex
araining into the grounds of their faith. But the mind of Baxter
was so constituted that it could not be satisfied without the most
rigid examination of that subject, which was of all others the
most important to hira. He was early affected with doubts
and difficulties, to remove which, he instituted the most rigid
inquiry into the truth of rehgion. He made it his business to sift
and weigh every argument, and to give to the various kinds and
degrees of evidence, only that weight in the scale which intrin-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 15
sically belonged to them. On this subject, the following pas
sage from his ovvn Ufe is entitled to attention.
" Among truths certain in themselves, all are not equally
certain unto me ; and even of the mysteries of the Gospel, I
mustneeds say with Mr. Richard Hooker, in his ' Eccles. Polit.,'
' that whatever men may pretend, the subjective certainty can
not go beyond the objective evidence ; for it is caused thereby,
as the print on the wax is caused by that on the seal.' I do
more of late, therefore, than ever, discern a necessity of a me-
diodical procedure in maintaining the doctrine of Christianity,
and of beginning at natural verities, as presupposed fundamen
tally to supernatural ; though God may, when he pleases, reveal
all at once, and even natural truths by supernatural revelation.
It is a marvellous great help to my faith, to find it built on
so sure foundations, and so consonant to the law of nature. I
am not so foolish as to pretend ray certainty to be greater than
it is, merely because it is a dishonor to be less certain ; nor
will I by shame be kept from confessing the infirmities, which
those have as much as I, who hypocritically reproach me with
them. " My certainty that I am a man, is before my certainty that
there is a God ; for quod facit notum, est -magis notum. My
certainty that there is a God, is greater than my certainty that
he requireth love and holiness of his creature ; my certainty of
this is greater than my certainty of the hfe of reward and pun
ishment hereafter ; my certainty of that is greater than my cer
tainty of the endless duration of it, and of the iramortality of
individuate souls ; ray certainty of the Deity is greater than ray
certainty of the Christian faith ; my certainty of the Christian
faith, iu its essentials, is greater than my certainty of the per
fection and infallibility of all the holy Scriptures ; my certainty of
that is greater than my certainty of the raeaning of raany par
ticular texts, and so of the truth of raany particular doctrines,
or of the canonicalness of some certain books. So that as you
see by what gradations ray understanding doth proceed, so also
that ray certainty differeth as the evidences differ. And they
that will begin all their certainty with that of the truth of the
Scripture, as the principium cognoscendi, raay meet me at the
same end ; but they must .give me leave to undertake to prove
to a heathen or infidel, the being of a God, and the necessity
of holiness, and the certainty of a reward or punishment, even
while yet he denieth the truth of Scripture, and in order to his
believing it to be true." "
Whatever may be thought of the necessity of pursuing the
above plan, in the discussion of the evidences of Christianity,
(o) Life, part i. p. 128.

16 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
there is much justice in the train of Baxter's argument. The
man who looked so narrowly and cautiously for proof of every
thing that he believed, was undoubtedly well quahfied to write
on the subject of evidence, for the benefit of others.
In directing our attention to the wrhings of Baxter on the
evidences of rehgion, the first work which presents itself, both in
the order of time and that of nature, is his ' Unreasonableness of
Infidelity.' ^ This work is dedicated to Lord Broghill, then Lord
President of the Council of State for the affairs of Scotland.
Baxter, we have already seen, was well acquainted with hira :
he speaks of him, in this dedication, very respectfully, as a re
ligious man, while he gives. him, as was his custom, some very
wholesome admonition. In this respect, Baxter's dedications
are worthy of imitation. They are polite and courteous, but
never flattering or adulatory. Ke knew how to point a compli
ment, but never forgot, in addressing others, what was due to
his own character, as a man of God. There is much beauty as
well as fidelity in the address to Lord Broghill, who made a con
siderable figure in the political world for many years. The
occasion of writing and publishing this book, which appeared
in 1655, he tells us, was his forming " a troublesome acquaint
ance with Clement Writer, of Worcester, " an ancient man, who
had long seemed a forward professor of religiousness, and of a
good conversation, but had been perverted to he knew not what.
A Seeker he professed to be, but was either a juggling Papist,
or an infidel ; more probably the latter. He had written a
scornful book against the ministry, called ' Jus Divinum Presby
terii,' and afterwards, two more against the Scriptures and me.
His assertion to me was, that no man is bound to beheve
in Christ, who doth not see confirming miracles with his own
eyes." ^
It is very instructive to find the grand arguraent against
Christianity, of which David Hume supposed himself to be the
inventor, anticipated by a fanatical Seeker of the times of the
Comraonwealth. Mr. Hume's favorite dograa was, that a
miracle is incapable of such proof frora human testimony, as
to entitle it to beUef. Clement Writer's idea seems to have
been, " that whatever reality might have belonged to the miracles
of Christ, they cannot be proved so as to oblige us." Campbell
successfully demolished the ablest and most acute sceptic of
(d) Works, vol. XX.
(e) A curious account of Clement Writer is given by Edwards in his 'Gan-
grena.' In his usual style of invective, he calls him " an arch heretic — a
fearful apostate— an old wolf— and a subtile man." He represents him as a
materialist and mortalist — a denier ofthe divinity of the Scriptures, and of the
rights ofthe ministry, unless possessed of apostolic powers. — Part i. p. 27.
(f) Life, part i. p. 116. »- r r

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 17
modern times ; Baxter was no less successful in overturning his
adversary, s
He intended it also as a supplement to the second part of his
' Saint's Rest,' which treats of the proofs of the truth and cer
tain futurity of our rest, and attempts to show that the Scrip
tures which promise it, are the perfect, infallible word of God.
Although the propriety of referring to the truth of the divine
testimony as the foundation of hope in the rest of God cannot
be called in question, the necessity of devoting the fourth part
of a devotional treatise to an inquiry into the truth of religion,
is very questionable. This was objected to at the time, as ap
pears from his preface to this part of the latter editions of his
* Rest.' He did not alter the book, however ; but the objections
appear to have led him to discuss the subject in this separate
treatise. ' The Unreasonableness of Infidelity,' is divided into four parts.
In the first, he considers the Spirit's extrinsic witness to Chris
tianity, with the question proposed to him by Cleraent Writer,
whether the miraculous works of Christ and his disciples do
oblige those to believe who never saw them ? In the second, he
considers the Spirit's internal witness to the truth of Christianity.
In the third, he furnishes a demonstration that the Spirit and
works ofChrist were the finger of God, to ])revent what he con
sidered to be the sin against the Holy Ghost ; and in the last, he
endeavors to show that the arrogancy of reason and the pride
of ignorance, are the great causes of men's infidelity and quar
relling with the Word of God.
Such is the outline of the plan pursued in this very valuable
treatise. It evidently embraces, with one exception, which I
shall afterwards notice, the great leading arguments on which
Christianity is founded, and by which it may be raorally demon
strated to have come frora God. He naturally and properly
coramences with the external, or what he calls the extrinsic tes
timony of the Spirit, which he considers to be the rairaculous
works performed by Christ and his apostles. These, frora their
magnitude, from their number and variety, from the circum
stances in which they were performed, and from the overwhelm
ing conviction they produced at the time, satisfactorily prove
that the Christian revelation is from heaven and not from men.
The following appears to me to place the argument frora mira
cles in a very forcible point of view.
" If any shall seal the doctrine that he bringeth in the name
of God, with the testimony of such numerous, evident, undeni-
(e) As apiece of beautiful argument, there is, perhaps, no book in the En
glish language better entitled to the reader's attention, than ' The Treatise on
Miracles,' by Dr Campbell. As a mere intellectual exercise, it will richly repay
a careful examination.
VOL. II. 3

18 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
able miracles, it is the highest proof of the truth of his doctrine,
that flesh f nd blood can expect. And if God do not give us
sufficient help to discover a falsehood iu the testimony, we must
take it for his voice aud truth. For if God shall let men or
devils use the highest raark of a divine testimony to confirm a
lie, vvhiie they pretend it to be divine, and do not control this,
he leaveth men utterly remediless. For we cannot go up into
heaven to see what haud these thhigs are wrought by. We are
certain they cannot be done witbout divine permission and com
mission ; we are sure that God is the true, just, merciful
Governor of the world ; and as sure as it belongeth to a Rector
to promulgate, as well as enact his own laws, they cannot
oblige us, till promulgated, that is, sufficiently revealed. And'
if he shall suffer any to say, ' God sent me to you on this mes
sage, and to back this affirmation with such a stream of mira
cles through a whole age by many thousand hands, and shall
not any way contradict them, nor give us sufficient help to dis
cover the delusion, then it must needs be taken for God's own
act, seeing by office he is our Rector ; or else that God hath
given up the world to the dispose and government of the devil.
Now, let any man of right reason judge whether it be possible
that the just and merciful God, being naturally our governor as
we are his creatures, should give permission or commission to
the devil to deceive the world in his name, by changing and
working against the very course of nature, and by means that no
man can possibly try ; and so, leave his creature remedilessly to
be misled and perish.'"'
The theological scholar will scarcely require to be informed
that in this passage the substance of the argument of Farmer's
celebrated treatise on miracles, is comprised. The object of that
able and unanswerable work is to show, that miracles prove the
truth of the doctrine, not the doctrine the reality of the miracles ;
and that in every case in which they have been really perform
ed, they have been wrought by a diVine agency, and in proof of
a message or testimony sent frora God. 1 am far frora thinking
that Baxter has maintained his argument with the same clear
ness and consistency as Farraer : but making allowance for the
manner in which he was accustomed to treat every subject, it is
precisely of the same nature, and managed with distinguished
ability. Baxter concedes to Satan a power which Farmer denies to
him — that of operating on human creatures in a supernatural
manner. In this very book, he tells numerous apparition and
ghost stories ; but they are not introduced to prove that Satan
has the power of working miracles ; but to show from the oppo-
(h) Works, vol. xx. p. 333.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 19
site nature of Christ's works and his, that they could not proceed
from the same quarter. It seems to me very evident, though
Baxter did not pursue il, that the argument in the passage ex
tracted above, goes all the leiigdi of Fanner.
The view which he took of miracles as the grand testimony
ofthe Spirit to the.U'uth, led him to consider ihe nature of that
channel through which this species of evidence has been brought
down to us. Here he takes up the historical testimony, or the
universal and unbroken tradition, not of the church, but of all
kinds of moral and historic evidence, that the Scriptures in our
hands are the writings of the persons whose names they bear,
and that the facts which they record have been recognised or
admitted from the very beginning. The argument in this and the
preceding part is maintained with great power, and scarcely infe
rior, in clearness and cogency, to the masterly reasoning of Paley.
It is singular that, in treating the external evidence, he takes
no notice of the subject of prophecy. He assigns no reason
for this omission ; and therefore I apprehend he merely regard
ed it as unnecessary to the strength of his argument, and would
not allow hiraself to be diverted from its regular prosecution
by the introduction of another topic, which would have requir
ed very extended consideration, and perhaps have distracted
both his ovvn mind and th-dt of his readers. And as Writer
had not adverted to the difficulties connected with prophecy,
but to those belonging to miracles, he did not feel called to en
ter on that subject.
In the second treatise in the volume, he examines very parti
cularly the Spirit's internal testimony to the truth of the Gospel.
By this intrinsic evidence he does not mean, the proofs which
the Scriptures themselves furnish of their divine origin ; what
Owen calls their " self-evidencing power ;" but "Christ's witness
within us," which he regards " the believer's special advantage
against the teraptations to infidelity." It is founded on " He
that believeth hath the witness in hiraself," ' (1 John v. 10,) a
text which has been variously expounded, and which Baxter
thinks signifies that those enlightened and holy impressions form
ed lon the soul by the Spirit, become in us a standing testimony
or witness for the tiuth within us, as the word and miracles of
Christ are without us. " For none but the sacred Redeemer of
the world, approved by the Father, and working by his Spirit,
(i) In this important passage I believe that the apostle uses the word testimo
ny, iiapTvpia, by a common figure of speech, for the thin? testified. This,
as appears from the following verse, is the fact, that believers have eternal life
through the Son of God : — "He who believeth this testimnny— has tliat which
Christ's undertaking is designed to bestow, viz. eternal life — in himself; it is
not an object of tuture hope, but of present enjoyment," ver. 12. This interpre
tation is supported by the whole context, and removes every dilEculty from the
passage.

20 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
could do such works as are done on the souls of all that are
truly sanctified." This is, in fact, an argument derived from the
power and adaptation of Christianity, considered as a moral
remedy. It is rather the evidence of experiraent than an inter
nal witness. For, after all that can be said on the subject of
the inward witness, it resolves itself entirely into the consci
ousness of the individual that he has truly received the divine
testimony, and that the feelings he experiences, and the outward
conduct which he pursues, are the result of God's word ope
rating upon him. This experience is often peculiarly satisfac
tory to the Christian hiraself, though it will go but little way in
convincing unbeUevers. On this view of the subject, Baxter
says many admirable things. His illustration of the apostle's
triumphant challenge, Rom. viii. 35 — 39, is exceedingly beau
tiful and appropriate.
It may appear very singular that he should take up the
' Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost,' at such length as he does in
this treatise : but he was naturally led to it by the particular
view which he takes of the miracles of Christ; his grand ob
ject being to shovv that they were works which could not have
been perforraed by the devil ; and that they are, therefore, de
monstrative of a divine mission, which whosoever rejects or
calumniates raust perish. On the nature of the particular sin of
which he treats, he perhaps dwells at too great length for his
purpose ; but he has a great deal on the topic itself which is
valuable and interesting. The following passage, in which he
sums up his own views of the subject, is worthy of the reader's
attention, k
" This much is out of doubt with me, that this sin lieth in the
rejecting of the objective testimony of the Spirit extraordinarily
then attesting Christ's doctrine, as being the highest and last
objective remedy of unbehef. The three persons in the blessed
trinity have each one their several ways of recovering man, and
for the remission of his sin, and there are several ways of sinning
against each of them, as men sin against these dispensations.
When we had sinned against the Creator and his perfect law,
he gave us his Son to be our Redeemer. There was his proper
work for our pardon, together with the acceptance of the price
of redemption and the giving us into the hands of his Son as
his redeemed ones. The Son made satisfaction to justice, and
sent forth to the world a conditional pardon under his hand and
(k) Though in possession of Baxter's work when I published my ' Discourses
on the Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,' 1 had forgotten that he wrote on the
subject. Had I thotight to have consulted him, I would have availed myself of
some of his ideas. For though I do not agree with him in m£my of his remarks
and reasonings, various things which he suggests are worthy of attention ; and
the reader who chooses to compare the doctrine of the Discourses with the pas
sages quoted in the text, will find that we agree very nearly in our conclusion, aa
to the character of the oflence, and what constitutes its irremissible nature.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 21
seal, with his word and Spirit to persuade them to accept it.
This is his work antecedent to our believing. The Spirit endit-
eth and sealeth this written, delivered pardon, by mighty works,
and importuneth the hearts of sinneis to accept it. If it be
accepted. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, do actually pardon us.
If it be not accepted merely as sent by the word of the Son, we
sin against the Son by unbelief. If it be not accepted or believed
as sealed and urged by the Spirit (yea, or if sealed extrinsically
only), then it is the sin against the Spirit, supposing that seal be
discerned and considered of, and yet resolvedly rejected. So that
here are three, the last remedying means rejected at once. VVhen
man was fallen, the Father provideth a sacrifice for his sin, and
but one sacrifice ; the Son tendereth to us a remedying covenant,
and but one such covenant. The Spirit of Christ, especially in
his extraordinary works, is the convincing, attesting seal, to
draw men to believe, and there is but one such Spirit and seal.
He that sinned against the law of works, hath all these reraedies
in their several orders. But if you refuse this one sacrifice, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sin ; if you refuse this one rem
edying covenant, there is no other covenant after it to be ex
pected ; and if you refuse this sealing and sanctifying Spirit,
which would draw you into the covenant, there is no other
Spirit or seal to be expected. This rauch is out of doubt; and
therefore, he that finally continueth to refuse this sacrifice, cov
enant, and seal of the Spirit, shall perish for ever." '
The last part of the work on infidelity, strikes at the grand
root of the evil : the pride of man's intellect or reason, and the
obstinacy of his ignorance. It belongs to the heart I'ather than
to tbe understanding. This was the case in the days of our
Lord and his aposdes; it was the case in the days of Baxter;
and it is exemplified in a still greater degree now than former
ly. There is less argumentative or speculative infidelity ; but
probably much more sullen, determined, and high-minded op
position to the word of God, than at any former period of the
world's history. The light is greater, and hence the resistance
to that light must, to be successful, be the more resolute.
To supply what Baxter deemed the deficiencies of the work
we have now considered, he published in 1667, ' The Reasons of
the Christian Religion.'" Thisis a quarto volume, of six hundred
pages, on which the author must have bestowed a large portion
of attention. There are two dedications prefixed to it, one ad
dressed to the Christian reader, with another to the " hypocrite
reader." It is worthy of observation, that he assigns, as one
(1) Works, XX. 251.— This part of the work on Infidelity, viz. ' The Treatise
on the Sin against the Holy Ghost,' appeared in German, some time after its
publication in EngUsh . — fValchii Bib. Theol. Sel. tom. i. p. 254.
(m) Works, vols. xx. and xxi.

22 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
reason for the writing of this work, his desire to promote the
" conversion of idolaters and infidels to God and to the Chris
tian faith." At a period when few were directing their thoughts
to the state ofthe heathen world, it appears from various parts
of the wrifings of Baxter, that his inind was deeply occupied
with h. As we have already seen, beside being the fi-iend of
Boyle, he vvas the correspondent of Elliot, and the ardent ad
mirer of his zeal and his success. He expresses in one of these
dedications, the great pain he felt at the " doleful thought that
five parts of the world were still heathens and Mahoraetans ;
and that Christian princes and preachers did no more for
their recovery." " The opening of the true method for such a
work," he says, "is the highest part of my design."
How far his work is adapted to this end, is a different ques
tion. It is divided into two parts : ' Of Natural Religion, or
Godliness;' and 'Of Christianity and Supernatural Religion.'
In the first part, he considers what man is in himself, a creature
of sense and reason, " a hving weight, having an active power,
an understanding to guide it, and a will to command it." What
he is in relation to things beneath him, to his fellow-creatures
around him, and to the great First Cause above hira. Tliis
leads him to consider what this Cause is in itself — God ; and
what he is in relation to his creatures, especially man ; in
which he treats of him as our Owner, Governor, Benefactor ;
and of man's obligation to God, as his End or chief Good. He
then discusses the nature of raan's present condition, the evi
dences of a future state of retribution ; and the natural light
we have of God's raercy, and ofthe raeans of recovery.
Frora this brief sketch of the plan pursued in this part of the
treatise, tbe reader will perceive that it is in fact a dissertation on
natural religion; or, an atterapt to ascertain how far men may
become acquainted with God, with their own duties, and with a fu
ture state, independent of revelation. The argument is conducted
Avith very considerable ability and regularity, and displays ,a
great deal of thought, and like, all the other works of Baxter,
a great fund of reading. On the nature and uses of natural
religion, considerable diversity of opinion prevails. It seems
generally to have been overlooked, that man has never been
left entirely to the guidance of his own unassisted reason in the
affair of rehgion. From the beginning, there was a revelation
of the character of God, beyond that vvhich belonged to the
mere works of God. In paradise God conversed with Adam, and
gave him information above what his unassisted faculties raight
have derived from the external manifestations of divine power
and goodness. These original communications were never en
tirely lost ; and hence, though the invisible things of God
may be understood from the things which he has made, so that

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 23
men are left without excuse, the responsibility of the creature
must be considered as greatly increased l)y the superadded re
velation, though it has been in many instances thoughtlessly or
wantonly lost. Baxter's ' Reasons' may be regarded as prepar
ing the vvay for the unanswerable work of Halyburton, ' Natural
Reason insufficient; and Revealed, neccessary to i\tan's Happi
ness in his present state.' A book far more satisfactory than
any other whicli has yet been published on this part of the de-
istical controversy. °
The second part of Baxter's work is devoted to a regular ex
amination of the e\'idences of Christianity considered as a re
velation from God, and is altogether a very able performance.
Contrary to the plan of some works on the evidences of revela
tion, which leave out every thing concerning the matter or sub
ject of the revelation itself; Baxter makes a full statement of
the nature and properties of the Christian religion, and of its
" congruities ;" or in other words, its suitableness to our natu
ral notions of God, and its adaptation to our own characters
and wants. He then proceeds to discuss the " witness of Jesus
Christ ; or, the demonstrative evidence of his verity and au
thority." This he arranges in four parts : Prophecy, or an
tecedent testimony^ to his Messiahship — His personal character,
as he is the image of God in his person, life, and doctrine — His
miracles and those of his disciples — And the constant evidence
of his power and character in the salvation of men. Beside
these, there are raany collateral topics exarained, and a multi
tude of difficulties, supposed to belong to the Christian faith, met
and resolved.
It is not practicable, within the liraits to which I ara under the
necessity of restricting rayself, to convey a full idea ofthe valuable
reasonings of this work : but even the imperfect outline now
given, may show that it is well entitled to the reader's attention.
Some ofthe pecuharities of Baxter's style and manner of treat
ing subjects, exist in it; but it is full of the indications of his
genius, originality, and powerful intellect. His piety also richly
imbues the whole. It contains a prayer, which, were it not too
long to be quoted here, I would introduce at large, as one of
the subhmest pieces of devotion in the English language. I
do not know whether most to admire the holy ardor which it
breathes, the power by which it is sustained, or the felicitous
language in which it is expressed. The concluding paragraph
Iwill venture to give, entreating the reader to examine the whole.
Addressing the divine Spirit, he says :
(n) Halyburton's work was published in 4to, in 1714, after the death of the au
thor, which took place in 1712. He was professor of divinity in the University
of St. Andrew ; and was no less distinguished for his sound and ardent piety,
than by his masculine understanding and his extensive leaming.

24 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
" As thou art the agent and advocate of Jesus my Lord, O
plead his cause effectually in my soul against the suggestions of
Satan and my unbelief; and finish his healing, saving vyork,
and let not the flesh or world prevail. Be in me the resident
witness of my Lord, the author of my prayers, the spirit of
adoption, the seal of God, and the earnest of mine inheritence.
Let not my nights be so long and my days so short, nor sin
eclipse those bearas vvhich have often illurainated my soul.
Without thee, books are senseless scrawls, studies are dreams,
learning is a glow-worm, and wit is but wantonness, imper
tinence, and folly. Transcribe those sacred precepts Dn rny
heart, which by thy dictates and inspirations are recorded in
thy holy word. I refuse not thy help for tears and groans ; but
O shed abroad that love upon my heart, which may keep it in
a continual life of love. Teach me the work which I must
do in heaven; refresh my soul with the delights of holiness,
and the joys which arise from the believing hopes of the ever
lasting joys. Exercise my heart and tongue in the holy praises
of my Lord. Strengthen me in sufferings ; and conquer the
terrors of death rnd hell. Make me the more heavenly, by how
much the faster I am hastening to heaven ; and let my last
thoughts, words, and works on earth, be likest to those which
shall be my first in the state of glorious immortality ; where
the kingdom is delivered up to the Father, and God will for
ever be All, and in all ; of whom, and through whora, and to
whora, are aU things, to whom be glory for ever. — Amen."
In a long appendix to the preceding work, he discusses the doc
trine of the soul's immortality, and immateriality ; and in 1672,
he published a sraall duodecimo volurae, enthled ' More Rea
sons for the Christian Religion, and no Reason against it ;' °
designed as a second appendix to his work on the Evidences.
Part of this little treatise is intende.l as an answer to an un
known letter- writer, who charged the holy Scriptures with con
tradictions ; and the chief part consists of animadversions on
Lord Herbert's work ' De Veritate,' which had not raet with
any answer previously in this country. Herbert was the earhest
formal deistical writer produced by England, whose labors
have attracted any attention. The first edition of his work
'De Veritate' appeared at Paris in 1624. Itwas republished in
London, along with his treatise ' De Causis Errorura,' and his
' Religio Laici,' in 1683. His work ' De Religione Gentilium,'
which Baxter does not appear to have seen, was printed at
Amsterdam, in 1663. Herbert's great object seems to have
(o) Works, vol. xxi.

OF RICH.4.RD BAXTER. 26
been, to overthrow revelation, and substitute what he called
natural religion, or deism, in its place.
Baxter addresses this little work, in a letter written with
great dehcacy, to Sir Henry Herbert, influenced, he says, " by
his personal, ancient obligations to him ; by his approved wis
dom and moderation, in the ways of charity and peace, in these
tiying times ; and by his relation to the noble author on whose
writings he animadverts. As it is your honor," he says, "to
be the brother of so learned and ingenious a lord, and the bro
ther of so excellently holy, as well as learned and ingenious a
person, Mr. George Herbert ; so it obligeth me the more to
give you an account ofthis animadversion."
He complains of " the sad case of many of his acquaintance,
and of the increase of infidelity of late, especially araong de
bauched, sensual gahants," whose increase was chiefly to be
ascribed to the profligacy of the reigning raonarch, and the
dissoluteness of the court. Baxter points out the true source
of Herbert's infidelity j and, indeed, of all the infidelity of the
Christian world — the raoral state of the heart. " Had so great
a wit," he says, " had but the internal conditions due to such
an intellectual apprehension, as his and your holy and excellent
brother had, no doubt but our supernatural revelations and
verities would have appeared evident to hira, and possessed his
soul with as sweet a gust, and fervent, ascendant, holy love, as
breatheth in G. Herbeit's poeras; and would have raade them
as clear to him in their kind, as sorae of his notitia communes.
The truth is, as he was too low for us, who nuraber not our
divine revelations with the verisimilia, but with the certain
verities ; so he was too high for the atheistical sensualists of
his age."
Baxter treats his lordship with great respect and candor;
but remarks very freely on his fahacies, inconsistencies, and the
imperfections of the scheme which he would substitute in the
place of God's revelation. Leland raakes honorable mention
of Baxter, as the first of our English writers who replied to
Lord Herbert. It is not to be considered, however, a full an
swer. Baxter was followed by Locke, who, both in his ' Trea
tise on the Human Understanding,' and in his work on the
' Reasonableness of Christianity,' raeets the Baron of Cherbury.
Whitby also wrote a very excellent tract on ' The Verity and
Usefulness of the Christian Revelation,' in which his lordship's
system is considered. But the grand and conclusive reply to
the father of our English Deists, is, the work of Professor Haly
burton, referred to in a former page. It has alleged everything
necessary to be said on this subject.
VOL. II. 4

26 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Id 1682, Baxter published, in a sraall 12mo' volume, two
treatises, ' Of the Immortality of Man's Soul, and of the Nature
of it, and of other Spirits.' The first is in the form of a letter,
addressed to an unknown doubter, whose epistle he prefixes ;
tlie other is a reply to Dr. Henry More's animadversions ad
dressed to Baxter in a private letter, and afterwards published
by hira in the second edition of Joseph Glanvil's ' Sadducismus
Triumphatus ; or, History of AppariUons.' In the preface to
these discourses, he refers to his former works, the ' Reasons of
the Christian Religion,' and the ' Unreasonableness of Infidelity,'
and thus connects them together. The appendix to his ' Rea
sons of the Christian Rehgion,' is, in fact, a labored " defence'
of the soul's immortality against the Somatists and Epicureans
and other pseudo-philosophers ; " of which this small treatise is,
therefore, but a continuation. His great object is to prove the
immateriality and immortality of the soul; not by the testi
mony of revelation ; but by the hght of nature and metaphysi
cal arguments. For this kind of discussion Baxter was pecu
liarly fitted by his natural acuteness, and the metaphysical
character of his raind. He could " distinguish things that
differ" more readily than most raen of his own or any other
age ; and the reader, who attentively exaraines these treatises,
will find that most of the arguments usually derived from reason,
and from the acknowledged properties of mind and matter, are
adduced by him.
The doctrine of the immateriality and immortality of the soul,
was first attacked in English, as far as I know, in a pamphlet,
published at Amsterdam, in 1643, and re-published, enlarged,
at London, in 1655. 'Man's Mortallitie, wherein 'tis proved,
both theologically and philosophically, that whole man (as a
rational creature) is a compound wholly mortal, contrary to
that coramon distinction of soul and body : and that the pre
sent going of the soul into Heaven or Hell is a meer fiction :
and that at the resurrection is the beginning of our iramortality,
and then, actual condemnation and salvation, and not before,'
&c. The author signs himself " R. O." Who or what he
was. Archdeacon Blackburn says, cannot now be traced. I
believe he was Richard Overton, one of the fierce republicans of
the commonwealth. The production is not destitute of talent,
but is altogether sceptical in its nature and tendency. It was
answered in an anonymous paraphlet, ' The Prerogative of Man ;
or, his soul's iraraortality and high perfection defended, and ex
plained against the rash and rude conceptions of a late writer,
who hath inconsiderately ventured to impugn it.' 4to, 1645.
Blackburn, who could not give the title of this pamphlet, sneers
at the author of it, and represents it as very feeble. I think
differently ; it is well written, and destitute neither of leaming

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 27
»or argument. Baxter's small ti-eatises on this subject were
written many years after these productions, so that he had pro
bably forgotten them, if indeed he ever saw them among the
ephemerae of the Commonwealth.
The Book of Glanvil, published by More, is a very singular
production, and in many points resembles Baxter's book on ap
paritions and witches, noticed at the end of this chapter. The
first part treats of the possibility of witches ; the second, oftheir
real existence. It is full of scriptural and philosophical argu
ments according to the views of the author, and abounds with
ghost stories of all descriptions. Many of these are »'ery strik
ing, and authenticated by the names of the parties. The book
originated in an occurrence at the house of John Murapeson of
Tedwortli ; which was, for some time, disturbed by the beating
of an invisible drum every night. This happened in 1663.
Glanvil pubhshed in 1666 some philosophical considerations,
touching the being of witches and witchcraft ; which laid the
foundation of a great deal of discussion, that lasted till his
death. As an apology for Baxter, it should be raentioned, that
Glanvil was a clergyraan, a chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty,
and one of the first and raost useful merabers of the Royal So
ciety. Anthony Wood says, " that he was a person of raore
than ordinary parts : of a quick, warm, spruce, and gay fancy ;
and more lucky, at least in his own judgment, in his first hints
and thoughts of things, than in his after notions, examined and
digested by longer and more mature deliberation, i" Baxter
was acquainted with Glanvil, though after the Restoration they
pursued very different courses. He speaks of him, in his ' De
fence of the Mere Nonconformists,' with considerable respect,
though he disapproved of part of his conduct. Among the
Baxter MSS. there are several letters from Glanvil to Baxter,
full of the warmest expressions of affection and admiration.
In one of thera, he begs Baxter's acceptance of the publication
referred to; in another he acknowledges the honor done him
by Baxter, in sending him his manuscript answer to the Bishop
of Worcester. There is also a long letter, full of curious learn
ing, in defence of the pre-existence of souls ; a doctrine which
Glanvil beheved, and to which he would gladly have made Bax
ter a convert. He appears to have been an amiable, philoso
phical enthusiast.
Dr. Henry More possessed great personal excellence, but had
a very peculiar conformation of mind. Deeply read in the
philosophy of Plato, the mysteries of tbe Cabalists, and a
profound admirer of the Cartesian philosophy; he became
the most learned mystic of his own, or perhaps of any other
(p) Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 496.

28 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
tirae; and one ofthe deepest students of the apocalyptic visions
and prophecies. He was learned, but credulous; pious, but
superstitious ; philosophical, and yet the sport of vulgar fancies,
and popular errors. His writings on philosophical, theological,
and mystical subjects, are numerous, and were extensively
read at the time ; though now regf.rded rather as objects of
curiosity, than sought after on account of their utility. Between
More and Baxter there appears to have been some personal in
timacy, and in several respects they were congenial spirits. In
the second edition of Glanvil's ' Sadducismus Triumphatus,'
published by More, he inserted a private letter from Baxter,
with some animadversions on it, which led to what Baxter calls
his " placid collation." According to More's account, Baxter
was a " Psychopyrist, that is, a philosopher, who holds all cre
ated spirits to be a kind of more pure and subtile fire." Bax
ter complains that he held no such notion, but that his language
thus interpreted had been entirely raisunderstood. The follow
ing remarkable passage conveys an obscure idea of his specu
lations on this nice and difficult subject, and of the nature of
the difference between hira and More.
" Do you think," he asks, " that the soul carrieth a body out
of the body inseparable with it, or only that it receiveth a new
body when it passeth out of the old ? If the latter, is there
any instant of tirae between the dispossession of the old, and
the possession of the new ? If any, then the soul is some time
without a body ; and how can you teh how long .'' If not, what
body is it that you can imagine so ready to receive it without
any interposition .'' I have not been without temptation to over
inquisitive thoughts about these raatters ; and I never had so
much ado to overcorae any such temptation, as that to the
opinion of Averrhoes, tbat, as extinguished candles go ah into
one illurainated air, so separated souls go all into one common
anima mundi, and lose their individuation, and that materia
receptiva individual ; and then, indeed, your notion would be
probable, for the anima mundi mundum semper animat, and so
my separated soul should be still embodied in the world, and
should have its part in the world's animation ; but both Scrip
ture and apparitions assure us of the individuation of spirits
and separate souls.
" I confess to you that I have often told the Sadducees and
infidels that urge seeming irapossibilities against the resurrec
tion, and the activity of separate souls for want of organs, that
they are not sure that the soul taketh not with it, at its depar
ture hence, some seminal material spirits, etherial and airy ; and
so that this spirituous or igneous body which it carrieth hence,
is a semen to the body which it shall have at the resurrection :

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 29
no man knoweth the contrary, and no man knoweth that it is
SO." 1
The Christian reader will probably think that there is not
much edification to be obtained from these speculations. The
immateriality and immortality of the soul, are clearly taught
in the sacred Scriptures, whose testimony, on these and ni-dny
other subjects, is far more satisfactory than all the a priori,
or metaphysical reasonings of the acutest minds. Baxter him
self appears to have felt this, as he says, towards the conclusion
of his first treatise : '' But all that I have said to you, is but the
least part, in comparison of the assurance which you raay have
by the full revelation of Jesus Christ, where the state, the doora,
the rewards, and punishraent of souls, are asserted."
The last work in this departraent is intimately connected
with the preceding, though the strangest of all Baxter's produc
tions. ' The Certainty ofthe World of Spirits fully evinced by
unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts, Ope
rations, Voices, &ic. Proving the Iraraortality of Souls, the
Malice and Misery of Devils and the Damned, and the Blessed
ness ofthe Justified. Written for the Convicton of Sadducees
and Infidels.' ^ This treatise appeared in a 12mo volurae, in the
year 1691, only a few raonths before the author's death. The
subject, however, had long occupied his attention ; for his
' Saint's Rest,' written forty years before, contains some things
ofthe same nature. And, indeed, several ofhis works contain
discussions of this kind. It is necessary, however, to hear the
author's own account of the origin and design of this publica
tion. " As to the original of this collection, it had its rise from my
own, and other men's need. When God first awakened me to
think, with preparing seriousness, of ray condition after death, I
had not any observed doubts of the reality of spirits, or tbe ira
mortality of the soul, or of the truth of the Gospel ; but all ray
doubts were about ray own renovation and title to that blessed
Ufe. But when God had given rae peace of conscience, Satan
assaulted me with those worse temptations : yet, through God's
grace, they never prevailed against ray faith ; nor did he ever
raise in me the least doubt of the being and perfections of God ;
nor of my duty to love, honor, obey, and trust him ; for I still
saw that to be an Atheist was to be mad.
" But I found that my faith of supernatural revelation must
be more than believing man, and that if it had not a firm
(q) On the Nature of Spirits, pp. 8, 9.
(r) This singular book was translated into German, and published at Nurem
berg, in 1731. Several of the stories contained in it came from Germany, so that
they would get back to their native country, probably with some improvements.

30 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
foundation and rooting, even sure evidence of verity, surely ap
prehended, it was not like to do those great works that faith
had to do, to overcorae the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and to make my death to be safe and comfortable. Therefore,
I found that all confirming helps were useful ; and araong those
of the lower sort, apparitions, and other sensible manifestations
cf the certain existence of spirits of themselves invisible, were a
means that might do much with such as are prone to judge by
sense. The uses hereof, I mention before the book, that the
reader raay knovv that I write it for practice, and not to please
men with the strangeness and novelty of useless stories.
" It is no sraall nuraber of wrhers on such subjects that I have
read, for near threescore years time from the first occasion ;
and finding that almost all the Atheists, Sadducees, and infidels,
did seem to profess, that were they but sure of the reality of the
apparitions and operations of spirits, it would cure thera ; I
thought this the raost suitable help for thera that have sinned
themselves into an incapacity of more rational and excellent
arguments. And I have long feared, lest secret unobserved
defectiveness in their belief of the iramortality of the soul,
and the truth of the Scripture, is the great cause of ah men's
other defects. There lieth usually the unsoundness of world
ly hypocrites, where it is prevailing ; and thence is the weak
ness of grace in the best, though it prevail not against their
sincerity. By which motives I did, though it displeased sorae,
make it the second part ofmy book, called, 'The Saint's Rest;'
and, afterwards, provoked by Clement Writer, I did it much
more fully in a book called ' The Unreasonableness of Infidel
ity.' After that, provoked by tlie copy of a paper dispersed in
Oxford, said to be Dr. Walker's, questioning the certainty of
our religion, and seeing no answer to it come from the universi
ty men, I wrote yet raore methodically of all, in a book called
' The Reasons of the Christian Religion.' 1 after added a
small discourse, called ' More Reasons for it,' provoked by one
tbat called himself Herbert, in which also I answered the Lord
Herbert De Veri'ate. Since then, a nameless Sadducee hath
drawn rae to publish an answer to him; and in my 'Life of
Faith,' and other books, I have handled the same subject. All
which I tell the reader, that he may see why 1 have taken this
subject as so necessary, why I am ending my life with the pub
lication of these historical letters and collectjons, wbich I dare
say have such evidence, as will leave every Sadducee that read
eth them, either convinced or utterly without excuse." '
To enter on any investigation of the truth of the extraordinary
stories of witchcraft, apparitions, and prodigies, contained in this
(s) Preface.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 31
book, would be foreign from the design of these memoirs. It is
difficult to account for many of the narratives, as they w re fur
nished by persons of respectability, on whose veracity, therefore,
every dependence may be placed. ' Many things can be explain
ed by tlie supposition, that the parties vvere under the influence
of diseased imaginations, and really believed that they saw the
things of which they speak. In other cases gross imposition was
without doubt practised ; and a stricter scrutiny would have de
tected the imposture and knavery of the parties. Sorae of the
prodigies may be accounted for from the operation of natural
causes, raany of which have now become familiar to us, and
others that are still occult may yet be discovered. Much must
be attributed to the credulity of the age. Hence it is the less
surprising that Baxter was the subject of it, when vve find such
men laboring under it as Judge Hale, Rlore, Robert Boyle, and
many other eminent individuals. It is not long since the statute
book ofthe country was freed hom laws, the operation of which,
with the superstition of all classes, brought many an innocent
individual to a horrible death. "
T am afraid that Baxter's object in compiling and authenti
cating these stories, the conviction of the Sadducees, has not
been accomplished by them. It will commonly be found, I ap
prehend, that if men do not believe Moses and the prophets,
neither wih they believe on the authority of " witches, hobgob-
hns, or chimeras dire." It is not from want of evidence that they
do not beheve, but frora dislike to religion, which predisposes
them to reject or to trifle with all evidence that the nature of
the subject admits or requires.
Various causes may be assigned for the superstitious feel
ings, and the dread of supern-atural beings, which generally
belong to an unenlightened state of society. There seeras na
turally to exist in man, not only " a longing after iramortality,"
but also a kind of dread of that world of spirits to which a
part of his nature is allied. With this is combined a strong
desire to know what belongs to that state, and its mysterious
transactions. Certain passages of Scripture, misunderstood,
have tended to nourish the idea, that, as in early tiraes,
(t) Without referring to the foreipiers, whose accounts are introduced by Bax
ter in this volume, there are narratives furnished by many persons of eminence
in our own country. Lord Broghill, the Duke of Lauderdale, the Bev. Thos.
Emlyn, of Dublin, and Dr. Dan. Williams.
(u) Honorable mention ought to be made of John Webster, practitioner in
physic, who, in 1677, when the doctrine of witchcraft was very generally believ
ed, and most zealously contended for, published ' The Displaying of supposed
Witchcraft,' in a folio volume, full of curious learning ; in which he combats the
erroneous opinions which then prevailed, and had been advocated by such men
as Glanvil -and Casaubon. Baxter published his work long after this of Webster
appeared ; it is rather surprising that he either knew itnot, or if he was acquaint
ed with it, that he took no notice of it.

32 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
" Descending spirits have convers'd with men,
And told the secrets of the world unknown,"
such things may happen again. The Roraish dcctrine of pur
gatory, with the legends of the saints, have been fruitful sources
of superstition,' and have supplied a large portion ofthe raaterial
which has been wrought into the innuraerable fictions that still
continue afloat, and even yet too frequently constitute the ter
ror of the nursery and the cottage. The appearance and ad
vance of light, however, invariably operate on these supersti
tious fancies, like the fabled influence of the cock crowing or
appearance of the raorning, on the spirits of the deep. They
cannot stir, or walk abroad, under the light of heaven.
I cannot take leave of this portion of the writings of Baxter,
without reraarking, what 1 beheve has not been attended to,
that he is the first original writer on the evidences of revealed
religion in the English language. Before Herbert's tirae the
deistical controversy had not appeared in this country, and Bax
ter was the first to grapple with his lordship's argument. In
1604, a translation of a work by an illustrious French Pro
testant, appeared with the following title, ' A work concerning
the trueness of Christian Religion, written in French against
Atheists, Epicures, Payniras, Jews, Mahoraetists, and other
infidels, by Philip Mornay, Lord of Plessie Rlarlie. Begun
to be translated by Sir Philip Sydney, and at his request fin
ished by Arthur Golding, 4to.' This is a work of very con
siderable raerit. Of the treatise of Grotius ' De Veritate,'
which had also been translated before, it is superfluous to speak ;
its merits are well known, and duly estiraated.
Had the ' Atheomastix ' of Bishop Fotherby, published in
1622, been completed, it would have enjoyed the precedence in
this departraent which now properly belongs to Baxter. That
learned writer proposed to treat of four subjects : — " That there
is a God — That there is but one God — That Jehovah, our God,
is that one God — And, that the Holy Scriptures are the word
of God." His pubhcation, however, embraces only the first
two topics. These are discussed with considerable ability,
and with a vast profusion of learning, which excite regret that
the bishop was not spared to grapple with infidelity, after so
ably demolishing Atheism.
Stillingfleet's ' Origines Sacrae,' first appeared in 1663, where
the subject is treated with great learning and ability, and very
elaborately. This distinguished perforraance is entitled to
great praise. It contains a large portion of recondite learning ;
prosecutes the subject with great strength of argument ; and
exhibits "the grounds of the Christian faith, as to the truth
and divine authority of the Scriptures," in a manner that can

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 33
scarcely fail to produce conviction in the rainds of honest in
quirers. The works of Baxter on the evidences of religion,
are neither so learned nor so systematically arranged, but they
are more adapted to popular and general usefulness than is the
production of Stillingfleet. They are written with more point,
and contain a greater mixture of those views of Christianity
vvhich are necessary to be received as the great object of its
testimony, and without whicli the discussion of its evidence is
httle calculated to profit. Neither Baxter nor Stillingfleet ap
pears to have borrowed from the other ; and each is excehent
in his own way.
Since that time, a multitude of works on every branch of the
Christian evidence has been published. The diversified forras
in which revelation has been attacked, have only occasioned a
corresponding diversity of defence. If infidelity has racked
its ingenuity to undermine or overthrow the citadel of God,
talent not less powerful, and genius equally splendid, have been
employed in successfully resisting the atterapt. In argument,
infidels have long since been driven from the field. They have
been stripped of their arraor ; their sophistry and guile have
been exposed; their malice detected, and their wit tumed
against themselves. If on the one side can be ranked a Hurae
and a Gibbon, a Voltaire and a Paine ; on the other can be
placed, Campbell, and Hales, Lardner, Watson, Paley, and
Gregory, with a numerous host beside ; in learning and talents
equal to any of the adversaries of the faith, and in moral worth
and weight of character not to be mentioned in connexion with
such men. If their invaluable writings have in some measure
superseded those of Baxter, it is not because they contain
stronger arguments, or raore ingenious reasonings, but because
they are better adapted to the peculiar forms which infidelity
has more recently assumed. While grateful for their labors, it is
proper we should remeraber, that their predecessors did wor
thily in their time. They in fact cleared the ground, and laid
the foundation of that noble structure which more raodern arch
itects have succeeded in rearing. '
(t) The latest work in this department of literature, which I have seen, is
' The Divine Origin of Christianity, deduced from some of those Evidences
which are not founded on the Authority of Scripture.' By John Sheppard. 2 vols.
I2mo. 1829. The author of this work is well known to the public by his beau
tiful little work on private devotion ithe present, is of an entirely different char
acter ; but does no less credit to his talents, his learning, and his acuteness. He
is quite a Baxter for his scrupulosity in weighing and balancing proofs ; and mach
more judicious in hia manner of urging them. The work is in some danger of
repelling superficial readers; both the arrangement and the learning of it require
more study than they who wish to arrive at the knowledge of all science and art
by the shortest road, are generally disposed to give to any subject. But the lov
er of close argument, and satisfactory information, will be amply repaid by the
studious examination of these volumes.
VOL. II. 5

34 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER II.

DOOTUINAL WORKS.

Introductory Observations—' Aphorisms of Justification ' — Animadversions on the Aphorisms
by Burgess, Warren, Wallis, Cartwright, and Lawson— Other Antagonists—' Apology '—
MoliniBua, Cranrlon, Eyres—' Confession of Faitb '—'Perseverance '—Kendal— Barlow— Shep
herd— ' Saving Faith '— ' Dissertations on Justiflcation '— ' On Justifying Righteousness '—
Controversy with 'i'ully— ' Original Sin ' — ' Universal Redemption '—'Catholic Theology '—
' Methodus TheologiK '— ' End of Doctrinal Controversies '—General View of Baxter's
Doctrinal Sentiments— Strictures on his Manner of conducting Controversy— Conclusion.
The doctrinal works of Baxter, v/hich naturally follow his
writings on the evidences of rehgion, with the controversies in
which they involved him, occupied a large portion of his active
and useful life. It will he expected, therefore, that a full ac
count of this class of his writings, and of his peculiar theological
sentiments, should be given in this chapter. Though I have not
shrunk from labor, in endeavoring to accomplish the task which
I have voluntarily undertaken, I frankly confess that this part of
it has been more difficult than any other ; and I fear it may not
afibrd the reader all the satisfaction he anticipates or desires.
The iraraense extent of Baxter's writing on disputable subjects ;
the peculiar character of his mind — subtle, acute, and versa
tile, in an extraordinary degree ; the manner in which he was
assailed by the men of all parties and of ah creeds, which led
to a great diversity of defence and attack on his part; his fa
vorite scherae of union and reconciliation — involving a variety
of concessions, and tempting hira to avail himself of many re
fined and untangible distinctions, are some of the causes and
sources of those difficulties which belong to the attempt to as
certain his precise sentiments, and correctly to represent the de
sign of his voluminous productions.
Whatever view may be taken of his opinions on various sub
ordinate subjects, it is certain that on all matters of essential
and vital importance in the evangelical system, he held those
truths which are raost surely believed among all genuine
Christians. He had, indeed, his own mode of explaining certain
points, which a man who thought so much and so independent
ly must have had. He was not formed to be an implicit believer
in human creeds, or to follow in the steps of any uninspired

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 35
master. On the other hand, he had no ambition to be the
founder of a new school of theology ; for, though his name has
been prefixed to a class, that class has never constituted a se
parate party, but, in as far as it has existed, has been found
among persons of various parties : few even of vvhom would
probably have beeu acknowledged by Baxter hiraself as alto
gether of his mind, and still fewer of them, perhaps, would have
acknowledged him as their apostle.
The time has been when it would have been dangerous to
the reputed orthodoxy of an individual who shoidd have pro
fessed great respect for the doctrinal views of Baxter. High
Arminians on the one hand, and high Calvinists on the other,
agreed to revile him. Baxterianism was a term of reproach,
readily applied to many, who were sounder in the faith than
some of those who arrogated to themselves the exclusive ap
pellation of ortliodos. That time, however, has passed away.
The character of Baxter has oudived all the reproaches fulmi
nated against it ; and we may now, without fear of dishonor,
state his opinions, analyze, his doctrines, and defend or advocate
his cause where we beheve it to be just. It is my business to
give a faithful statement of raatter of fact, " neither to extenuate,
nor set down aught in malice," respecting our author ; with
whom I soraetiraes agree, and soraetimes differ, on the topics
discussed in this chapter.
In 1649, Baxter began his career of authorship by a sraall
pubhcation, entitled " Aphorisms of Justification." This work
deserves attention, not so much on its own account, for he ac
knowledges it was written " in his iraraature youth, and the
crudity ofhis new conceptions," " as because it contains the
germs of his leading sentiments, and was the occasion of the
greater part of the doctrinal controversies in which he engaged.
The professed object of it is, to explain the nature of jusfifi-
cation, the covenants, satisfaction, righteousness, faith, works,
&tc. This he atterapts in a series of eighty theses, or proposi
tions, with their respective explanations. That he did not
succeed to his own satisfaction, he freely acknowledges; and
that it was still less satisfactory to others, appears frora the nura
erous animadversions and defences which it occasioned. He
blames himself for deficiency and incautiousness, and for med-
dhng imprudently with Dr. Owen. " It was overrauch valued,"

(u) The copy of the Aphorisms used by me is one of the second edition, which
was pretended to be printed at the Hague, 16S5, but in reality was printed sur
reptitiously by a Cambridge bookseller. This copy contains many marginal
notes, and alterations of the text, in the hand-writing of Mr. Baxter. Of these
the expression quoted above is part. Many of these notes and alterations dis
cover the progress of the writer's mind, and the amiable candor by which it was
distinguished. At the head of one thesis, he says, "There is nothing in this
section worth reading."

36 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
he says, " by some, and overmuch blamed by others ; both
contrary to my own esteem of it. It cost me more than any
other book that 1 have written ; not only by men's offence, but
especially by putting me on long and tedious writings. But it
was a great help to ray understanding, for the animadverters
were of several rainds, and what one approved another confuted,
being further from each other than any of thera were frora rae."
Among those who furnished him with strictures, sorae in ma
nuscript, and some in print, were Mr. Anthony Burgess, to whora,
and Richard Vines, it was dedicated. Mr. John Warren ; Dr.
John Wallis, one of the scribes to the Wesminister Assembly,
and weU known for his mathematical talents ; Mr. Christopher
Cartwright, of York, a Presbyterian minister of considerable
learning ; and Mr. George Lawson, of whom Baxter gives rather
a long description. But I raust give his own account of these
individuals, as it contains some things worthy of being recorded.
" The first that I craved animadversions from was Mr. Bur
gess, and with much ado, extorted only two or three letters
against justification by works, as he called it ; which, with my
answers, were afterwards published ; when he had proceeded to
print against me what he would not give me in writing.
" The next and full animadversions which I received, were
from Mr. John Warren, an honest, acute, ingenious man, to
whom I answered in freer expressions than others, because he
was my junior and farailiar friend ; being a school-boy at
Bridgnorth when I was preacher there, and his father was
my neighbor. Next to his, I had animadversions from Dr. John
Walhs, very judicious and raoderate, to which I began to write
a reply, but broke it off in the middle, because he httle differed
frora me.
" The next I bad, was from Mr. Christopher Cartwright, of
York, who defended the king against the Marquis of Worcester.
He was a raan of good reading, as to our later divines, and was
very well versed in the common road ; a very good Hebrician,
and a very honest, w*^orthy person. His animadversions were
most against my distinction of righteousness into legal and
evangelical, according to the two covenants. His answer was
full of citations out of Amesius, Whittaker, Davenant, he. I
¦wrote hira a full reply ; and he wrote me a rejoinder ; to which,
my time not allowing me to write a full confutation, I took up
all the points of difference between him and me, and handled
thera briefly, confirming my reasons for the ease of the reader
and myself.
"The next animadverter was Mr. George Lawson, the
ablest man of them all, or of almost any I know in England ;
especially by the advantage of his age, and very hard studies,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 37
and methodical head, but above all, by his great skiO in poli
tics, wherein he is most exact, which contributeth not a httle
to the understanding of divinity. He was himself near the
Arminians, differing Irom them only in the point of perseverance
as to the confirmed, and some little matters more ; and though
he went further thanl did from the Antinoraians, yet being con
versant with men of another taind, to redeem himself frora their
offence, he set hiraself against sorae passages of raine, which others
marvelled that he, of all raen, should oppose ; especially about
the object of faith and justification. He afterwards published
an excellent sum of divinity, called T/iecpoiitica; in which he
insisteth on these two points, to make good what he had said in
his AIS. against rae.
" He hath written, also, animadversions on Hobbes, and a
piece on ecclesiastical and civil policy, according to the raethod
of politics ; an excellent book, were it not that he seeraeth tojus
tify the king's death, and meddles too boldly with the political
controversies of the times, though he was a Conformist. I have
also seen some ingenious manuscripts of his for the taking of
the engagement to be true to the Commonwealth, as established
without a king and house of lords, his opinions being much for
subraitting to the present possessor, though a usurper ; but I
thought those papers easily answerable. His animadversions on
my papers were large, in which he frequently took occasion to
be copious and distinct, in laying down his own judgment, which
pleased me very well. I returned him a full answer, and re
ceived from him a large reply ; instead of a rejoinder to which,
I summed up our differences, and spoke to them briefly and dis
tinctly, and not verbatim to the words of his book. I must
thankfully acknowledge that I learned raore from Mr. Lawson
than from any divine that gave me animadversions, or that ever
I conversed with. For, two or three passages in my first reply
to him, he convinced mc, were raistakes ; and I found up and
down in him those hints of truths which had a great deal of light
in them, and were very apt for good improveraent, especially
his instigating me to the study of politics, in which he rauch
lamented the ignorance of divines, did prove a singular benefit
to rae. I confess it owing to ray own uncapableness that I
have received no more good from others. But yet I must be
so grateful as to confess that my understanding hath raade a
better improvement of Grotius ' De Satisfactione Christi,' and
of Mr. Lawson's manuscripts, than of any thing else that ever I
read. They convinced me how unfit we are to wrne about
Christ's government, laws and judgment, while we understand
not the true nature of governraent and laws in general ; and
that he that is ignorant of pohtics, and of the law of nature, will

38 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
be ignorant and erroneous in divinity and the sacred Scrip
tures." '^
Thus did Baxter, at a very eariy period ofhis life, launch into
the ocean of controversy, on sorae of the raost interesting sub
jects that can engage the human mind. The manner in
which he began to treat them was little favorable to arriving at
correct and satisfactory conclusions ; but the persons whom he
engaged to discuss them with hira, were all men of respectable
powers in theological arguraent, frora whose letters or publi
cations he derived considerable profit.
To give a concise and accurate opinion of these Aphorisms, is
no easy task. This difficulty arises frora the great nuraber of
separate propositions, vvhich are neither always consistent with
truth nor with one another. As a book, it abounds in moral and
metaphysical distinctions, and yet its definitions are frequently
both inaccurate .and obscure. It contains a large portion of
truth, mixed and interwoven with no sraall portion of error.
When he thus expresses himself about our participation of
Christ's righteousness, every true Christian is prepared to go
along with him: "That God, the Father, doth accept the
sufferings and mediation of his Son, as a full satisfaction to his
violated law, and as a valuable consideration, upon which he
wih wholly forgive and acquit the offenders themselves, receive
them again into favor, and give them the addition also of a
more excehent happiness, so they will but receive his Son
upon the terms expressed in the Gospel." But when he
coraes to explain " the terras of the Gospel," and the raanner in
which raen subrait to them, we meet with rauch that is incau
tious. To a good deal of the objectionable language of his
theses, he indeed gives a harraless interpretation in the accom
panying explanation, or in some subsequent proposition renders
it entirely nugatory. But stih there remains much which is cal
culated to mislead. He speaks about the Gospel being " a new
law, the conditions of which are easier than those of the old ; " of
" faith as the righteousness of a Christian." He defines this
faith as " the condition of the new covenant," and includes in it
the whole of religion. He represents the death of Christ as not
" affecting any sins against the Gospel ; " speaks of " works" as
" part of the condition on which Christ's righteousness becomes
ours," and raaintains that "we are justified by sincere obedi
ence." To this language, no man who understands aright the
gratuitous justification which is through faith in the blood of
Christ, will ever subscribe.
These were some of the expressions or sentiments which
involved Baxter in most of the doctrinal altercations that oc-
(x) Life, part i. pp. 107, 108.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 39
cupied so large a portion of his future life, and on account of
which his name has been placed at the head of a pecuhar creed.
While he explained, modified, and retracted, raany things in this
first, and perhaps raost objectionable of his works, he adhered
to the substance of its sentiments to the last. ^
Along with those sentiraents, vvhich most persons of evange
lical views agree to be incorrect, he has introduced sorae others
on which various opinions have been entertained. He denies
the distinction, or rather the use that has been raade of it, be
tween the active and passive righteousness of Christ ; the latter
as the Christian's title to forgiveness, and the former to hfe. He
contends, if I understand him aright, that the sufferings of the
Redeemer include the whole of his earthly undertaking, terrai
nated by his death, and that these furnish at once the ground of
acceptance, and the channel of heavenly and eternal life. On
the nature and extent of the death, threatened on account of
the Adamic transgression, also, he held views not generally en
tertained : " That raan should live here for a season a dying
hfe, separated from God, devoid of his image, subject to bodily
curses and calaraities, dead in law, and at last his soul and body
be separated ; his body turning to dust from whence it came,
and his soul enduring ev^erlasting sorrow, yet nothing so great,
as those that are threatened iu the new covenant." These
things, however, he mentions in the preface, that he does not
very confidently insist on. ^
(y) It is to be regretted that the incorrect language of Baxter, on some of the
above topics, is by no means peculiar to him. Even Dr. Doddridge, whose evan
gelical sentiments are so well known, is very injudicious sometimes in his defi
nitions. Thus, in his lectures, where we should suppose great accuracy would
be studied, he says, " Christ has made satisfaction for the sins of all those who
repent of their sins, and return to God in the way of sincere though imperfect obe
dience." p. 418. " Faith in Christ is a very extensive principle, and includes,
in its nature, and inseparable effects, the -whole of moralmrtue." p. 424. 2d Edit.
This mode of speaking of the way of acceptance, is as objectionable as any
thing I have met with in Baxter. In other places, however, both Baxter and
Doddridge show that they were more consistent with the trath, though not con
sistent with themselves.
(z) The extent of the Adamic curse has occasioned a good deal of discussion.
The majority, I believe, of Calvinistic writers contend that it includes death,
temporal, spiritual, and eternal. — Vide Calvini Inst. lib. ii. c. 3. Westminster
Conf. chap. vi. Dr. Doddridge objects to this view of it, without intimating
what his own was. — Lectures, pp. 415, 416. 2d Edit. Bishop Law maintained
that it meant an entire destruction, rather than a perpetual punishment — an an
nihilation of the soul, and a resolution of the body into its original dust. Theo
ry of Relig. pp. 339—331. 7th Edit. I suppose Bishop Bull was of the same
opinion with Law.— See Life, by Nelson, pp. 89, 197, 198, 225. Joseph Hallet
also seems to have been nearly of this opinion. — Notes and Observations, vol. i.
pp. 313 — 326. Mr. Archibald M'Lean, of Edinburgh, in his tract on original sin,
endeavors to establish that the curse extended no further than to. natural death,
or the dissolution of soul and body. That a resurrection was not provided by the
Adamic constitution, and belongs entirely to the redemption of Christ, seems to
be plainly intimated in the New Testament.— 1 Cor. xv. 21—23 5 Rom. v. 12—21.
Dr. Vyatts had some views of this subject peculiar to himself — See his Ruin and
Recovery, m. 324 — 347. Dr. Ridgley also had an hypothesis of his own.— See
Body of Divinity, p. II.

40 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
In the appendix to this small work, he makes an acknow
ledgment vvhich explains the reason of the perplexities that
occur in this and sorae other of his controversial writings.
" To tell the truth, while I busily read what other men said
in these controversies, my mind was so prepossessed with their
notions, that I could not possibly see the truth in its own na
tive and naked evidence ; and vyhen I entered into public dis
putations concerning it, though I was truly willing to know the
truth, my raind was so forestalled whh borrowed notions, that
I chiefly studied hovv to make good the opinions which 1 had
received, and ran farther from the truth. Yea, when I read
the truth in Dr. Preston's and other men's writings, 1 did not
consider and understand it ; and when I heard it from them
whom I opposed in wranghng disputations, or read it in books
of controversy, I discerned it least of all. Till at last, being in
my sickness cast far frora home, where I had no book but my
Bible, I set to study the truth from thence, and so, by the bless
ing of God, discovered more in one week, than I had done be
fore in seventeen years' reading, hearing, and wrangling."
This is a raost important testimony. It shows us that we raust
look for Baxter's doctrinal views to his practical rather than to
his controversial writings. It is much easier to applaud the fine
sentiment of ChiUingworth, that " the Bible, — the Bible alone is
the religion of Protestants," than it is fully to adopt it, and to
bring all our sentiments and thoughts under subjection to it.
Yet it is infinitely pleasanter and more satisfactory to appeal at
once to "the law and the testimony," than to be bandied from
author to author, or dooraed to explore and reconcile the endless
contradictions and jarrings of human authority, a
At the end ofhis work on Infant Baptism, published in 1650,
the year after his Aphorisms, Baxter requested the animad
versions of his brethren on them, and was soon furnished with
their remarks to the full extent of his desires. Beside those
already referred to as noticing this book, Mr. Blake, of Tam-
worth, made some exceptions to it in a work on the Covenants,
which was published soon after. KendaM, in his defence of
the doctrine of perseverance against John Goodwin, added an
appendix of animadversions on Baxter. William Eyre, of
Salisbury, attacked him in a book on Justification, ushered into
the world with a preface by Dr. Owen. But the most exten
ded work in reply to him was by John Crandon, minister at
Fawley, in Hampshire, under the affected title of " Baxter's
(a) For an account of the part which Owen took in this controversy, see ' Me
moirs of Owen,' pp. 119 — 122. Beside the persons mentioned in the text, who
wrote against the Aphorisms, and of whom Mr. Baxter himself takes notice,
John Tombes, the Baptist, wrote ' AnimadversioneB Quaedam in Aphorismos,
Richardi Baxter, de Justificatione,' 1658.

\ \

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 41
Aphorisms exorized and authorized," a huge quarto of 700
pages, with a prefatory letter by Caryl.
Baxter, nothing daunted by the appearance and front of so
many adversaries, produced, in 1654, what he calls his 'Apo
logy,' containing his ' reasons of dissent from Mr. Blake's ex
ceptions;' 'The Reduction of a Digressor,' in reply to Ken-
daU; an 'Admonition to Mr. William Eyre ;' and 'Crandon
Anatomized ; or, a Nosegay of the choicest Flowers in that
Garden presented to Joseph Caryl.' Not satisfied with repelling
his antagonists in this volurae, he goes out of the way to produce
a ' Confutation of a Dissertation for the Justification of Infidels,'
by Ludiomjeus Colvinus, alias Ludovicus Blolinaeus, professor
of history, in Oxford.
Tbe following notices of several of these opponents are fur
nished by Baxter, and vvill perhaps amuse the reader.
" As for Ludioraaeus Colvinus, it is Ludovicus Molinseus, a
doctor of physic, son to Peter MolinEeus, and public professor
of history in Oxford. He wrote a small Latin treatise against
his own brother, Cyrus Molinaeus, to prove that justification
is before faith. I thought I might be bold to confute him, who
chose the truth and his own brother to oppose. Another sraall
assault the same audior made against me (instead of a reply,)
for approving of Cameron's and Amiraldus's way about univer
sal redemption and grace, to which I answered in the preface
to the book ; but these things were so far from alienating
the esteera and affection of the doctor, that he is now at this
day, one of those friends who are injurious to the honor of
their own understandings, by overvaluing me ; and would fain
have spent his time in translating sorae of ray books into the
French tongue.
" Mr. Crandon was a raan that had run frora Arrainianism,
into the extrerae of half-antinomianisra ; and having an exces
sive zeal for his opinions (which seem to be honored by the ex
toUing of free grace), and withal being an utter stranger to rae,
he got a deep conceit that I was a Papist, and in that persua
sion, wrote a large book against my Aphorisms, which moved
laughter in many, and pity in others, and troubled his friends,
as having disadvantaged their cause. As soon as the book came
abroad, the news of the author's death came with it, who died
a fortnight after its birth. I had beforehand got all, save the
beginning and end out of the press, and wrote so much for an
answer as I thought it worthy, before the publication of it.
" Mr. Eyre was a preacher in-" Salisbury, of Mr. Crandon's
opinion, who having preached there for justification before faith,
that is, the justification of elect infidels, was publicly confuted
by Mr. Warren, ^and Mr. Woodbridge, a very judicious minister
VOL. II. 6

42 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
of Newbury, who had lived in New England. Mr. Wood-
bridge printed his sermon, which very perspicuously opened
the doctrine of justification, after the raethod that I had done.
Mr. Eyre, being offended with me as a partner, gave me some
part of his opposition, to whom I returned an answer in the
end; and a few words to Mr. Caryl, who licensed and ap
proved Mr. Crandon's book, for the Antinominians were com
monly Independents. No one of aU the parties replied to
this book, save only Mr. Blake, to sorae part of that which
touched him." ''
The Apology containing so raany parts, is a thick quarto,
fuh of that subde and acute reasoning for which its author was
erainently distinguished. The main point in the controversy,
the subject of justification, is often lost sight of in the strife of
words, and the multifarious discussions perpetually occurring.
He generally treats his adversaries respectfully, with the excep
tion of Crandon, who had assailed hira with intolerable inso
lence and abuse. He prefixed to the volume, an adrairable
dedication to his old friend and corapanion in the army, " the
Honorable Commissary-General Whalley." As it is not my
intention to dwell in detail on the contents of this volurae, I
shall extract a passage from the dedication, where the author
defends his engaging in controversy by an ingenious reference to
the wars in which Whalley and himself had reluctantly engaged,
and concludes with a beautiful address to the veteran soldier.
" The work of these papers has been, to ray mind, somewhat
like those sad employments wherein I attended you : of them
selves, grievous and ungrateful ; exasperating others, and not
pleasing ourselves. The remembrance of those years is so lit
tle delightful to me, that I look back upon thera as the saddest
part of ray life ; so the review of this aporogy is but the renew
ing of my trouble ; to think of our coraraon frailty and darkness,
and what revered and rauch-valued brethren I contradict ; but
especially, the fear lest men should make this collision an occa
sion of derision, and, by receiving the sparks into combustible
affections, should turn that to a conflagration, which I intended
but for an ihumination. If you say, I should then have let it
alone, the sarae answer must serve as, in the former case, we
were wont to use. Some say, that I, who pretend so rauch for
peace, should not write of controversies. For myself, it is not
much matter : but raust God's truth stand as a butt for every raan
to shoot at ? Must there be such liberty of opposing it, and none
of defending .'' One party cannot have peace without the other's
consent. To be buffeted and assaulted, and commanded to
deliver up the truth of God, and called unpeaceable, if I defend
(b) Life, parti, pp. 110, ill.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 43
it and resist, this is such equity as we were wont to find. In a
word, both works were ungrateful to me, and are so in the re
view ; but in both, as Providence and raen's onset imposed a
necessity, and drove me to that strait, that I must defend or do
worse, so did the same Providence clear my way, and draw
me on, and sweeten unusual troubles whh unusual mercies, and
issue all in testimonies of grace, that as I had great raixtures of
comfort vvith sorrow in the performance, so have I in the re
view ; and as I had more eminent deliverances, and other mer
cies, in those years and ways of blood and dolor, than in most
of my hfe besides, so have 1 had more encouraging light since I
was engaged iu those controversies. For I speak not of these
few papers only, but of raany raore of the like nature that have
taken up my tirae ; and as I still retained a hope that the end
of ah our calamities, and strange disposings of Providence,
would be soraewhat better than was threatened of late, so ex
perience hath taught me to think that the issue of my most
ungrateful labors shah not be in vain ; but that Providence
which extracted them, hath some use to make of them better
than I ara yet aware of; if not in this age, yet in tiraes to come.
The best is, we now draw no blood : and honest hearts will not
feel themselves wounded with that blow which is only given to
their errors. However, God must be served when he calls for
it, though by the harshest and most unpleasing work. Only,
the Lord teach us to watch carefully over our deceitful hearts,
lest we should serve ourselves while we think and say we are
serving him ; and lest vve should militate for our own honor
and interest, when we pretend to do it for his truth and glory !
" I hope, sir, the diversity of opinions in these days wih not
diminish your estimation of Christianity, nor raake you suspect
that aU is doubtful, because so rauch is doubted of. Though
the tempter seems to be playing such a garae in the world, God
will go beyond him, and turn that to illustration and confirma
tion which he intended for confusion and extirpation of the
truth. You know it is no news to hear of raen, ignorant, proud,
and licentious, of what religion soever they be : this trinity is
the creator of heresies. As for the sober and godly, it is butin
lesser things that they disagree ; and raostly about words and
methods, more than matter, though the sraahest things of God
are not conteraptible. He that wonders to see wise men differ,
doth but wonder that they are yet imperfect, and know but in
part ; that is, that they are yet mortal sinners, and not glorified
on earth ! Such wonderers know not what man is, and are too
great strangers to theraselves. If they turn these differences to
the prejudice of God's truth or dishonor of godliness, they show
themselves yet more unreasonable than those who blame the sun,
that men are purbhnd ; and, indeed, were pride and passion

44 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
laid aside in our disputes, if men could gently suffer contradiction,
and heartily love and correspond with those that in lower mat
ters do gainsay them, I see not but such friendly debates might
edify. " For yourself, sir, as you were a friend to sound doctrine, tO
unity, and to piety, and to the preachers, defenders, and prac
tisers, thereof, while I conversed whh you, and, as farae inform
eth us, have continued such, so I hope that God, who hath so
long preserved you, will preserve you to the end ; and he that
hath been your shield in corporal dangers wih be so in spiritual.
" Your great warfare is not yet accomplished : the worms of
corruption that breed in us will live, in some measure, tih we
die ourselves. Your conquest of yourself is yet imperfect. To
fight with yourself, you will find the hardest but most necessary
conflict that ever yet you were engaged in ; and to overcome
yourself, the most honorable and gainful victory. Think not
that your greatest trials are all over. Prosperity hath its peculiar
temptations, by which it hath foiled many that stood unshaken
in the storms of adversity. The tempter, who hath had you on
the waves, wih now assault you in the calra, and hath his last
garae to play on the mountain, till nature cause you to descend.
Stand this charge, and you win the day." •>
Whalley, to whom these faithful admonitions were addressed,
was one of the most active of the republican officers iu the par
liaraentary army. He was one of the king's judges, and took
a leading part in procuring the resignation of Richard Crora-
weU. He left England with his son-in-law, Gough, for Ame
rica, a few cays before the Restoration. Landing at Boston, they
waited on Governor Endicott, and told him who they were. They
then took up their residence in that neighborhood, till a hue and
cry foUowed them from Barbadoes. Then they removed to New-
haven, where they owed their preservation to John Davenport,
the minister ofthe place ; who had the courage to preach to the
people, when their pursuers arrived,- from Isaiah xvi. 3, 4.
Though large rewards were offered for them, and Davenport
threatened, as it was known he had harbored thera, they were
stih concealed. Their hiding place was a cave on the top of a
rock, a few miles from the town. Here they lurked two or
three years, when they moved to Hadley, where they were
concealed by Russel, the minister, fifteen or sixteen years.
During their residence in this place, a singular opportunity was
afforded one of the fugitives to render momentous assistance
to his preservers. During a long war between the English
sealers and the Indian chief of Pokanoket, the Indians sur
prised Hadley in the time of pubhc worship. The"^ men of
(b) Dedication.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 45
the town, though in the habit of taking arms with them when
they attended divine service, were panic-struck and confounded ;
and, in all probability, not a soul of them would have been
saved, had not an old and venerable man, whose dress was dif
ferent from the inhabitants, and whom no one had seen before,
suddenly appeared among them. He rallied them, put himself
at their head, gave his orders like one accustomed to battie,
led them on, routed the enemy, and, vvhen the victory was com
plete, vvas no longer to be found. This deliverer, whom the
people believed to be an angel, was General Gough ! Whalley
died at Hadley in 1688, and Gough some time after. The his
tory is not without interest; and the reader will not suppose it
is made to do honor to the regicides, when he is informed that
the statement is taken from the Quarterly Review. "^ Con
sidering the opinion entertained of Whalley by Baxter, and
the latter part of his history, there is reason to regard him as an
other of those men who, " in evU tiraes," devoted themselves to
the interests of their country, and whose principles and charac
ter (though every part of their conduct is not to be vindicated)
have long been most infamously misrepresented.
To return to Baxter. Finding that his Apology had not an
swered the end for which it was made — the satisfaction of his
opponents — in 1655 he published his 'Confession of Faith,
especially concerning the interest of repentance, and sincere
obedience to Christ, in our justification and salvation.' 4to. The
object of the confession, he tells us in his own life, was " to save
any raore misunderstanding ofhis Aphorisms, and to declare
his suspension of them till he should reprint thera ;" which he
never did. " In ray Confession," he says, " I opened the whole
doctrine of Antinomianisra, and brought the testimonies of
abundance of our divines, who gave as much to other works,
beside faith, in justification, as I did." '
This remark places before us one peculiarity in Baxter's
system. He regarded faith not merely as the sine qua non
of a sinner's justification, but as what was imputed for right
eousness ; and included in this faith whathe considered sincere
obedience to Christ as a Lord or Lawgiver. Yet he had his
own way of explaining this phraseology consistently with his
strong and repeated declaration that "faith itself doth not
raerit our pardon or justification, nor justify us as a work, nor
as faith ;" that " no works of the regenerate, internal or exter
nal, are to join with Christ's sufferings and raerits, as any part
of satisfaction to God's justice for our sins; no, not the least
part of the least sin ;" and that " neither faith, love, repentance,
(c) ' Quarterly Review' for Wovember, 1309. vol. ii. p. 32. The story is told
by Holmes in his ' Annals of America.'

46 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
nor any works of ours, are true, efficient causes of our reraission
or justification, ehher principal or instrumental." He declares
in the raost solemn manner, " I do heartily approve of the
shorter catechism of the assembly, and of all therein contained ;
and I take it for the best catechism I ever yet saw." " I have
perused," he says, " aU the articles of the Synod of Dort, and
unfeignedly honor them, as containing sound and moderate
doctrine; and there is nothing that I have observed in it aU,
that my judgment doth contradict, if I be allowed these few
expositions." These expositions do not affect any of the lead
ing points. He says : " In the very article of perseverance,
which some are pleased to quarrel with me about, I subscribe to
the Synod ;" " yea," he adds, " in the article of the extent of
redemption, wherein I am most suspected and accused, I do
subscribe to the Synod of Dort, without any exception, limita
tion, or exposition, of any word, as doubtful and obscure."
As every man ought to be allowed to be the expositor of
his own sentiraents, let no man, after this, question or deny
the Calvinism of Richard Baxter. He was as much a Calvinist
as thousands who then, or who now, bear the name without
suspicion. He indeed used language liable to be misunderstood,
as do all who are disposed to be too refined or metaphysical on
moral subjects. His very efforts at precision in tbe use of words
and phrases, involved hira in controversy, which, by a more gene
ral mode of speaking, he would have avoided. He was open and
honest ; what other men swallowed in a mass, he divided, ana
lyzed, and explained, often to a troublesome extent. Yet his
very scrupulosity in holding and explaining his sentiments, com
pels us to respect hira : while his suprerae regard for the hon
or of God, the holiness of his government, and the claims of
his law, entitles hira to our highest approbation. The man who
could write the following passage, cannot be regarded as holding-
either narrow or obscure views of the divine raoral governraent ;
or of the systera of rederaption which that raoral governraent
embraces and developes.
" As is the moon with the stars unto the expanded firma
ment ; as are the well-ordered cities with their ornaraents and
fortifications to the woods and wilderness, such is the church to
the rest of the world. The felicity of the church is in the love
of God, and its blessed influence, whose face is that sun which
doth enlighten and enliven it. If earth and sin had not caused
a separation and eclipse, the world and the church would have
been the sarae, and this church would have enjoyed an uninter
rupted day-light. It is the earth thai moveth and turneth from
this sun, and not the sun's receding from the earth, that brings
our night. It is not God, but man, that lost his goodness ; nor
is it necessary to our separation, that a change be made on him,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 47
but on US. Christ came not into the world to make God better,
but to make us better ; nor did he die to raake him more dis
posed to do good, but to dispose us to receive it. His purpose
was not actually to change the mind ofGod, nor to incline him
to have mercy who before was disinclined, but to make the
pardon of man's sin a thing convenient for the righteous and
holy Governor of the world to bestow, without any impeach
ment of the honor of his wisdom, holiness, or justice ; yea, to
the more erainent glorifying of thera all.
" Two things are requisite to raake raan amiable in the eyes
of God, and a fit object for the Most Holy to take pleasure in :
one is, his suitableness to the holiness of God's nature ; the oth
er respecteth his governing justice. We raust, in this hfe, see
God in the glass of the creature, and especially in raan that bear
eth his image. Were we holy, he would love us as a holy God :
and vvere we innocent, he would encourage us a righteous and
bounteous Governor. But as there is no particular governing
justice, without that universal natural justice which it pre-sup-
poseih and floweth from, so can there be no such thing as in
nocency in us as subjects, which floweth not frora a holiness of
our natures as men. We must be good, before we can live as
the good. In both these respects, raan was araiable in the eyes
of his Maker, tiU sin depraved him, and deprived him of both.
To both these must the Saviour again restore him : and this is
the work that he came into the world to do, even to seek and to
save that which was doubly lost, and to destroy that twofold work
of the devU, who hath drawn us to be both unholy and guilty.
" As in the faU, the natural real evil was antecedent to the
relative guilt ; so is it in the good conferred in the reparation.
We must, iu order of nature, be first turned by repentance unto
God, through faith in the Redeemer, and then receive the re
mission of our sins. As it was man himself that was the subject
of that twofold unrighteousness, so it is man himself that must
be restored to that twofold righteousness which he lost, that is,
sanctity, and not-guUtiness. Christ carae not to possess God
with any false opinion of us, nor is he such a physician as to
perforra but a supposed or reputative cure : he came not to per
suade his Father to judge us to be well, because He is weU ;
or to leave us uncured, and to persuade God that we are cured.
It is we that were guilty and unholy; it is we that must be jus
tified orcondemned, and therefore it is we that must be restored
unto righteousness. If Christ only were righteous, Christ only
would be reputed and judged righteous, and Christ only would
be happy. The Judge of the world wiU not justify the un
righteous, merely because another is righteous, nor can the holy
God take complacency in an unholy sinner, because another
is holy. Never did the blessed Son of God intend, in his

48

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

dying or merits, to change the holy nature of his Father, and
to cause him to love that which is not lovely, or to reconcUe
him to that which he abhorreth, as he is God. We must bear
his own iraage, and be holy as he is holy, before he can approve
us, or love us in complacency. This is the work of our blessed
Redeenier, to make man fit for God's approbation and delight.
Though we are the subjects, he is the cause. He regenerateth
us, that he may pardon us ; and he pardoneth us, that he may
further sanctify us, and make us fit for our Master's use. He
will not remove our guilt till we return, nor wiU he accept our
actual services till our guilt be removed. By supernatural ope
rations must both be accomplished : a regress from such a pri
vation as was our holiness, requireth a supernatural work upon
us ; and a deliverance frora such guilt and deserved punishraent,
requireth a supernatural operation for us. The one Christ effect
eth in us by his sanctifying Spirit, through the instruraentality
of his word, as inforraing and exciting; the other he effecteth
by his own (and his Father's) wiU, through the instrumentality
of his Gospel grant, by way of donation, raaking an universal
conditional deed of gift of hiraself, and reraission and right to
glory, to all that return by repentance and faith, His blood is
the meritorious cause of both, but not of both on the same
account; for directly it was guik only that made his blood
necessary for our recovery. Had there been nothing to do but
renew us by repentance and sanctification, this might have been
done without any bloodshed, by the work of the word and Spirit.
God at first gave man his image freely, and did not seU it
for a price of blood ; nor doth he so delight in blood, as to
desire it, or accept it for itself, but for the ends which it must,
as a convenient raeans, attain. Those ends are the demonstra
tion proximately of his governing justice, in the vindicatioQ of
the honor of his law and rule, and for the wrong of others :
ultimately and principally, it is the demonstration of his natural
sin-hating hohness, and his unspeakable love to the sons ofmen,
but especially to his elect. In this sense was Christ a sacrifice
and ransom, and may be truly said to have satisfied for our sins.
He was not a sinner, nor so esteeraed, nor could possibly take
upon himself the numerical guilt, which lay on us, nor yet a guUt
of the same sort, as having not the sarae sort of foundation or
efficient ; ours arising from the merit of our sin and the
comraination of the law; his being rather occasioned than
merited by our sin, and occasioned by the law's threatening of
us. He had neither sin of his own, nor merit of wrath from
such sin, nor did the law oblige him to suffer for our sin ; but
he obliged himself to suffer for our sins, though not as in

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 49
our persons strictly, yet in our stead in the person of a Me
diator." <*
This extract is not less worthy of attention for the beauty
and felicity of some of its language, than for the accuracy of the
thoughts and sentiments it contains. Being divested of every
thing conti'oversial, it presents before us, in a plain, inartificial
manner, the writer's views of the damage man sustained at
the fall, and of the nature of the salvation provided in the
Gospel. As conveying the real opinions of Baxter, h is worth
ten tliousand pages of his controversial wrhing ; it demohshes
the whole system of Antinomianism.
Some passages, on the subject of perseverance, in his treatise
on ' The Right Method of Peace of Conscience,' having been
misunderstood, he left them out of a second impression of that
book ; but, to prevent any misunderstanding that might arise
from this, he published a quarto pamphlet, in 1657, entitled
' Richard Baxter's Account of his Present Thoughts concerning
the Controversies about the Perseverance of the Saints.' It
contains, chiefly, a stateraent of the great variety of opinions
which prevail, according to Baxter, about the last of the
five points. He enuraerates twelve several raodes of holding
this doctrine, and gives his own views in the shape of objection
to, or approbation of, each of these modes. This method of
stating his sentiments is sufficiently tiresome and unsatisfactory.
He professes not to have attRined to certainty in under
standing this point, with all the Scriptures that concern it, bet
ter than Augustine, and the coraraon judgment of the church
for so raany ages; and, therefore, he dares not say that
he^ has attained to certainty that all the justified shall per
severe. On the other hand, he is not disposed to maintain the
opposite opinion ; but he endeavors to show that the certainty
of the final perseverance of all who have been justified is not
so necessary to comfort, much less to salvation, as raany sup
pose. What his own opinions, stripped of all controversial and
metaphysical distinctions, were, seem plainly expressed in the
foUowing passage : " Therefore, notwithstanding all the objec
tions that are against it, and the iU use that will be made of it
by many, and the accidental troubles into which it may cast
some believers, it seems to me that the doctrine of perseverance
is grounded on the Scriptures, and therefore is to be maintained,
not only as extending to aU the elect, against the Lutherans and
Arrainians, but also as extending to all the truly sanctified,
against Augustine, and the Jansenians, and other Dominicans ;
though we must rank it but among truths of its own order, and
not lay the church's peace or comraunion upon it."
(d) ' Confession of Faith,' Preface.
VOL. II. 7

50 THE LIFE ASD WRITINGS
This statement will, I apprehend, satisfy the most fastidious
reader of the substantial orthodoxy of Baxter on this point.
Had he said less about the opinions of others, in his controver
sial writings, and given us his own in fewer words than he com
monly eraploys, I apprehend he would have been found a more
consistent and thorough Calvinist than has generally been sup
posed. The grand controversy on the subject of perseverance,
about the period when Baxter wrote his pamphlet, was carried
on between Dr. Owen and John Goodwin. Kendal replied to
Goodwin in defence of Owen, and by the way offered some
remarks on Baxter's sentiments respecting justification and per
severance. " Dr. Kendal," says Baxter, " was a littie quick-spirited
man, of great ostentation, and a considerable orator and scholar.
He was driven on further by others than his own inclination
would have led him. He thought to get an advantage for his
reputation, by a triumph over John Goodwin and rae : for those
who set him to work, would needs have him conjoin us both to
gether, to intiraate that I was an Arminian. While I was reply
ing to his first assault, he wrote a second ; and when I had be
gun a reply to that, meeting rae at London, he was so earnest to
take up the controversy, engaging Mr. Vines to persuade me
that Bishop Usher might deterraine it, and I was so wUling to be
eased of such work, that I quickly yielded to Usher's arbitra
tion. He owned my judgment about universal redemption, per
severance, &c. ; but directed us to write against each other no
more. And so my second reply was suppressed."^
Baxter's ' Confession of Faith ' proving littie raore satisfac
tory than his ' Apology,' and various animadversions having
been made on it, he published, in 1658, his ' Four Disputations
of Justification,' 4to. p. 423, with a view to meet sorae of the
exceptions of his " learned and reverend brethren." The chief
of those whora he notices, was Mr. Blake,*' who died some time
before Baxter's work appeared ; Mr. Anthony Burgess, « whom
he had drawn by correspondence into a discussion with him on
the nature of faith and of imputed righteousness ; Mr. John
Warner, *" against whose " confident but dark assaults " he de-
(e) Life, parti, p. 110.
(f) The work of Blake, to which Baxter refers, is a 'Postscript,' addressed to
Baxter, at the end of his book, ' The Covenant Sealed,' which was published in
1655. It is written in a very kind and gentlemanly manner ; though it exposes,
somewhit strongly, several of Baxter's mistakes and unprofitable distinctions.
(g) The work of Burgess, on which Baxter animadverts, is ' The True Doc
trine of Justification asserted,' 4to. 1654. The author was a man of considera
ble talents and learning. He was a member of the -Vyestminster Assembly, and
the author of several considerable works. He was ejected from Sutton Cold-
field, in Warwickshire.
(h) Warner's book, to which Baxter replies, is the following, ' Diatriba Fidei
Justificanlis, &c.' or a Discourse of the object and ofiice of faith as justifying,
distinct from other objects and acts and offices of the same faith as sanctifying.

OF llICHAHl) BAXTER. 51
fends himself; and Mr. John Tombes, with whom he fought the
famous battie of Bewdley. ' AU these writers receive that meas
ure of attention vvhich he deemed due to their respective merits ;
and though he treats sorae of them rather sharply, he spoke of
them aU with great kindness and respect. The discussion is
carried on in a very elaborate and scholastic style. The differ
ences between hiraself and his brethren often turn on mere ver
bal quibbles; though in a few instances the distinctions for
which Baxter contended, are of some importance to a clear
statement of the iraportant doctrine under consideration.
In consequence of sorae remarks on the subject of faith, in
his ' Saint's Rest,' at the end of Serjeant Shepherd's work on
' Sincerity and Hypocrisy,' Baxter is animadverted on, and his
views of that subject controverted. This led him to pubhsh, in
1658, a 'Treatise ou Saving Faith,' in which his object is to
show that he had been misunderstood, and thathe had always
maintained that " saving faith is not only gradually, but specifi
cally distinct from all coraraon faith." Sorae sentiments in the
work to which he replies, are of a very dangerous nature, and
precisely similar to opinions which have been promulgated with
great confidence in our ovvn tiraes : such as, that saving faith
" is built not on the revealed testiraony of God, but upon his
imraediate revelation and testimony :" by which it is resolved
into impulse and feeling, or mere inward persuasion, instead of
resting on the broad ground of God's own declaration in his
word. Also that " regenerate men believe that Christ hath
already satisfied for their sins, so as the debt is paid, and they
freed ; that he hath reconciled the Father to thera ; that their
sins are pardoned, or they justified ; that they are the sons of
God here, and shall be the sons of God hereafter." Baxter
combats these mistaken views with great success, although some
of his own positions are not defensible. It is truly marvellous
that the subject of faith, which the Scriptures treat with so
much simplicity, should have led to such interminable and dis
tracting debates. If saving faith be something else than the
belief of what God has revealed respecting the character and
work of his Son, then is the whole affair of salvation an inexpli
cable riddle, which every man may interpret as best suits his
fancy or his disposition.
Svo. 1657. It is a scholastic and metaphysical work of some ability. The views
of the author on the subject of which he treats are both sound and well stated.
They are much more satisfactory than what Baxter would have substituted in
their place, and contain nothing of confidence or dark assaults, that I can see.
The author was bred at Oxford, but became pastor of the church of Christ at
Christ's-church , Hampshire, where he was when this treatise was written.
(i) The book of Tombes, to which Baxter replies, is the Latin animadversions
on his Aphorisms, referred to in the note to a former page. Anthony Wood says,
" They were published by the said Baxter, without the author's knowledge, in
1658."— Athen. Oxon. vol. iv. p. 1066.

52 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Serjeant Shepherd was not the author of the observations
which caUed forth the reply of Baxter. His " learned, consent
ing adversary," as he calls him, was Dr. Thoraas Bariow, then
provost of Queen's CoUege, Oxford, and afterwards bishop of
Lincoln. He was an able raan — a decided Calvinist iu his sen
timents — evidently leaning rather to the ultra than to the raod
erate side of the doctrine.
Shepherd, to whose work his anonymous remarks were ap
pended, was made serjeant-at-law and one ofthe Welsh judges,
by Crorawell. He was a considerable raan as a lawyer, but, as
was no uneomraon case at the period, he distinguished himself
also as a divine. He wrote on law and theology. The discus
sion on both sides was maintained very courteously. Baxter
contends there was no real difference between them ; and sub
scribes the prefatory letter addressed to him, " A great esteem
er ofyour piety and many labors."
Though pubhshed many years after this, yet as a part of the
volume was written about this period of Baxter's life, and
relates to the discussions in which his Aphorisms engaged him,
it may here be most convenient to notice his ' Treatise of Jus
tifying Righteousness,' in two books. It appeared in Svo in
1676, and was occasioned by Dr. Tully's attack on him in his
' Justificatio Paulina.' Beside his answer to Tully, it contains
Cartwright's Exceptions to his Apology, which had been sent
him at the time, but lost by Baxter. Having recovered the Ex
ceptions, he published them at length, with his own answer in
full. There is also, an answer to Dr, Tully's angry letter.
The first dissertation in this volume, on the imputation of
Christ's righteousness, was written in 1672, but it was not print
ed till 1675. Baxter explains the sense in which he conceives
the doctrine to be understood by sound Protestants, and vindi
cates his own views against some objections of Dr. Tully. He
professes his own belief in the definition of the subject given
in the several Protestant confessions, though he explains some
of the phrases employed by them in his own way.
Christopher Cartwright, whose Exceptions are contained in
this volume, was a highly respectable minister of York ; and is
still advantageously known as the author of some learned, rab
binic?.! works. He animadverted on Baxter's Aphorisms, par
ticularly on his distinction of legal and evangelical righteousness.
Baxter replied to this in wrhing. Cartvvright furnished the
exceptions now pubhshed, which Baxter accompanies with a
short answer.
The reference to Dr. TuUy induces me to introduce at pre
sent, also, another smaU doctrinal performance — 'Two Disputa
tions of Original Sin,' p. 245, 12mo. It appeared in 1675
at " the request of Dr. Tully," but the first part of it had been

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 53
written long before. This was one of those subjects of discus
sion which tbe ministers about Kidderminister were accustomed
to agitate at those presbyterial meetings in which Baxter always
acted as moderator.
It appears that Baxter had been suspected by some of enter
taining erroneous views on this important subject; by one class,
being considered as believing too littie, and by another, too
much. To vindicate himself from all injurious imputations,
therefore, he published these dissertations.
Dr. Thfimas Tully, Baxter's opponent on several occasions,
was a respectable clergyman of Calvinistic sentiments. In the
time of the Commonvveahh he had been principal of Edraund
Hall, Oxford. He was, after the Restoration, made a royal
chaplain, and beside other things, appointed to the deanery of
Ripon, in Yorkshire. In his treatise above referred to, he de
fends Paul's doctrine of justification without works against
some things in Bull's ' Harmonia Apostolica' "^ and Baxter's
Aphorisms. Baxter animadverted on Tully ia several of his
pieces. Tully answered the whole in a ' Letter to Mr. Rich
ard Baxter,' occasioned by several injurious reflections of his
upon a treatise, entitied, ' Justif catio Pauliiia' &i;c. This call
ed forth Baxter's answer to Dr. Tully's angry letter. — Mak
ing the usual allowance for Baxter's refinements, I do not ob
serve any sentiraent on the subject of original sin raaterially dif
ferent frora what is usuaUy held by Calvinistic writers. He was
a firm behever in the original depravity of human nature ; and
that the only cure of that depravity is furnished by the redemp
tion of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. '
I must, on the same principle, here also introduce Baxter's
book on ' Universal Redemption,' though it was not pubhshed
liU after his death. The editor, Mr. Joseph Read, informs
us, in the preface, that he transcribed it while living in Mr.
Baxter's family at Kidderminster, in 1657 ; and that " the
ministers of Worcestershire, who usually attended on his
Thursday lecture, and heard these disputations at their
monthly raeeting, were generally desirous to have them print
ed." This work is an elaborate discussion of one of the main
points on which Baxter is considered to have departed from
(k) An interesting account of the controversy between Bull and Tully on the
subject of justification, will be found in Nelson's ' Life of Bull,' pp. 212 — 244.
Tully had the best of the argument, without doubt, though Nelson ascribes the
victory to Bull. Dr. Tully died in 1675.
(1) Among the Baxter MSS. in the Redcross-street library, is a long letter ad
dressed to Baxter, and occasioned by this Treatise. It was printed in the
' Monthly Repository,' vol. xix. pp. 577, 726 ; and by the editors is ascribed to
Gilbert Gierke, who was a Unitarian of some celebrity. He was the author of
several Socinian tracts, and engaged in a controversy about the doctrine of the
Nicene Creed with Bishop Bull. A short account ofhim is given in Bull s Life
by Nelson, pp. 502—512.

54 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
the Calvinistic scherae. His mind had been directed to it at
a very early period ; for at the end of his Aphorisms, pub
hshed in 1649, he gives notice of something which "he had
written on universal redemption," and which he only kept back
for a time in consequence of his " continual sickness," and in
the expectation that it might be rendered unnecessary by some
production of another pen.
The next of his doctrinal works which requires attention, is
his ' Catholic Thf.ology — plain, pure, peaceable : for paci
fication of the dograatical word-warriors ; who, by contending
about things unrevealed, or not understood, and by putting
verbal differences for real, and their arbhrary notions for ne
cessary sacred truths, deceived and deceiving by arabiguous,
unexplained words, have long been the shame of the Christian
rehgion, a scandal and hardening to unbelievers, the incen
diaries, dividers, and distracters of the church ; the occasion of
state discords and wars ; the corrupters of the Christian faith,
and the subverters of their own souls, and those of their fol
lowers : caUing thera to a blind zeal and wrathful warfare against
true piety, love, and peace, and teaching thera to censure,
backbite, slander, and prate against each other, for things
which they never understood. In three books. I. Pacifying
Principles about God's decrees, foreknowledge, providence,
operations, redemption, grace, man's power, free will, justifica
tion, raerits, certainty of salvation, perseverance, Ste. IL A
Pacifying Praxis, or dialogue about the five articles, justi
fication, &;c., proving that men here contend alraost only about
arabiguous words and unrevealed things. III. Pacifying Dispu
tations against sorae real errors wbich hinder reconcUiation,
viz., about physical predeterminations, original sin, the extent of
rederaption, sufficient grace, imputation of righteousness, Sic.
Written chiefly for posterity, when sad experience hath taught
meo to hate theological wars, and to love, and seek, and call
for peace.'
I have quoted at large the extended and curious titie of this
folio volume, which appeared in 1 675, because it affords a spe
ciraen of Baxter's style of conducting discussion, and serves,
in a great measure, for an analysis of the work. In the preface,
he gives a brief history ofhis own raind, of some ofthe contro
versies in which he had been engaged, and of his design in this
publication in particular.
" My mind being these raany years iraraersed in studies of
this nature, and having also long wearied rayself in searching
what fathers and schoolmen have said of such things before us,
and my genius abhorring confusion and equivocals, I came, by
many years' longer study, to preceive, that most ofthe doctrinal
controversies among Protestants, are far more about equivocal

cf RICHARD BAXTER. 55
words than matter ; and it wounded my soul to perceive what
work, both tyrannical, and unskilful disputing clergyraen had
made these thirteen hundred years in the world ! Experience,
since the year 1643, tiU this year 1675, hath loudly called me
to repent of my own prejudices, sidings, and censurings of
causes and persons not understood, and of all the miscarriages
of my ministry and hfe, vvhich have been thereby caused ; and
to make it my chief work to call men that are within my hear
ing to more peaceable thoughts, affections, and practices. And
my endeavors have not been in vain, In that the rainisters of the
country where 1 lived, were very nrany of such a peaceable
teraper, and a great nuraber more through the land, by God's
grace, (rather than any endeavors of mine,) are so minded.
But the sons of the cowl were exasperated the more against me,
and accounted him to be against every man, that called all men
to love and peace, and was for no man as in a contrary way.
" And now, looking daily in this posture, when God calleth me
hence ; summoned by an incurable disease to hasten all that
ever I will do in this world ; being incapable of prevailing with
the present church disturbers, I do apply myself to posterity,
leaving them the sad warning of their ancestors' distractions,
as a pillar of salt, and acquainting them what I have found to
be the cause of our calamities, and therein they wUl find the
cure themselves." ™
This work he fully expected would expose him to trouble
and opposhion from various quarters ; but to his great astonish
ment, it raet with no adversary during his life. He expected
it would be the subject of controversy after his death ; but in this
respect also his anticipations have not been fulfilled. It stiU,
I beheve, remains without answer. It would be too much to
infer from this, that all the positions maintained in it are gene
rally adraitted, or that no persons are disposed to dispute any of
the views of its author. The size and character of the work
have, I believe, deterred raany persons fro n exaraining it with
much care. A folio volurae of 700 pages, replete with metaphy
sical distinctions, on every disputed point, in the raost difficult
doctrines of theology, has few charms for the general reader,
and is even a formidable subject for the inquisitive, theological
scholar to digest.
None of Baxter's works in English affords more striking Ulus
tration than this, of the amazing subtiety of his raind, as well
as ofthe vastness of his reading, and his indefatigable applica
tion. The innumerable distinctions of the schoolmen, the de
bates among tiie Roman Cathohc parties, and the contentions
among Protestants, on aU the subjects of which he treats,
(m) Preface.

56 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
were perfectly familiar to him. The discussion, on his part, is
carried on with so much ease, that though deeply serious, he
seems as if he were playing with the difficulties which have
perplexed and confounded others. Instead of finding
" No end, in wand'ring mazes lost,"
he threads the labyrinths with prodigious adroitness, and finds
an out-gate where others had found only a pit or an insurmount
able barrier. The depths in which many have been engulfed,
seera but as the element in which he sports without danger
and without fear. With the most peaceable intentions, he
carries war into every carap, and makes havoc of every foe ;
never being at a loss for a weapon, and never dismayed by
the front or raenace of an antagonist. Desirous of putting an
end to contention, he furnished fresh and enlarged means for
carrying it on, in the very abundance of the material of war,
with which he supplied his adversaries, and the unceremonious
manner in which he treated them. Amidst the dryness of
metaphysical disquisition, however, and the keenness of theolo
gical debate, some fine passages occur, iUustrative of tbe cora
prehensiveness of his views, and the ardor of his devotion.
Deep piety is the prominent feature of aU Baxter's works;
and it never, perhaps, appears to more advantage, than when
he is engaged in those debates, which were powerfuUy cal
culated to excite his own passions and those of others.
It was the oil that smoothed the troubled waters in which
he passed his life, and which was always uppermost what
ever was passing beneath.
If the preceding volurae appears to the reader a surprising
effort of talent and industry, he will be stiU more astonished
with the next work of Baxter in this department. I refer to
his Latin work, the only one which he wrote in that language,
'Methodus Theologij: Christian.^,' Sic. It appeared in
1681, and consists of more than 900 large folio pages : enough to
make about four volumes of the size of the new edition of his
works. Of this immense undertaking he gives the following
account. " Having long been purposing to draw up a method of theo
logy, I now began it. I never yet saw a scheme or method of
physics or theology, which gave any satisfaction to my reason ;
though many have attempted to exercise more accurateness in
distribution, than all others that went before them ; especially
Dudley Fenner, Tzegedine, Sohnius, Goraarus, Amesius, Tre-
leatius, WoUebius, he, and our present busy boaster, Dr. Ni
cholas Gibbon, in his scheme. I could never yet see any whose
confusion, or great defects, I could not easily discover ; but not
so easily amend. I had been twenty-six years convinced that

OF RICHARD BAXTER^ 57
dichotomizing will not do it, but that the divine trinity in unity
hath expressed Itself in the whole frame of nature and morality.
I had long been thinking of a true method, and making some
small attempts, but found myself insufficient for it; and so con
tinued only tiiinking of it and studying it all these years.
Campanella, I saw, had made the fairest attempt in the princi
ples of nature, and Comnienius after him ; but yet, as I believe,
he quite missed it in his first operative principles of heat and
cold ; mistaking the nature of cold and darkness. So he run
his three principles, which he calleth primalities, into many sub
sequent notions, which were not provabli=! or coherent. Having
long read his physics, metaphysics. 'Z)e Se7isu Rerum,' and
' Aiheismus Triumphatus,' I found him raention theology,
which put rae in hope that he had there also made some attempts ;
but I could never hear of any one that had seen any such book
of his. At last, Mr. George Lawson's ' Theopolitica ' came
out, which reduced theology to a method more political and
right, in the main, than any I had seen before him ; but he had
not hit on the true raethod of the Vestigia Trinitatis. Butthe
very necessity of explaining the three articles of baptisra, and
the three sumraaries of rehgion, the creed, Lord's-prayer, and
decalogue, hath led all the common catechisms, that go that
way, into a truer method than any of our exactest dichotomizers
have hit on ; not excepting Treleatius, Sohnius, or Amesius,
which are the best.
" The nature of things conviuced me that as physics are pre
supposed in ethics, and that morality is but the ordering of the
rational nature and its actions ; so that part of physics and raet
aphysics, which opens the nature of raan and of God, who
are the parties contracting, and the great subjects of theology
and morality, is more nearly pertinent to a raethod of theology,
and should have a larger place in it than is commonly thought
of and given to it. Yet I know how uncouth it would seera, to
put so rauch of these doctrines into a body of divinity ; but the
three first chapters of Genesis assured me that it was the Scrip
ture method. When I had drawn up one scheme of the crea
tion, and sent it to the Lord Chief Baron Kale, because of our
often coraraunications on such subjects ; and being now banish
ed from his neighborhood and the country where he lived, he
received it with so great approbation, and importuned me so by
letters to go on with that work, and not to fear being too much
on philosophy, as added soraewhat to ray inclinations and reso
lutions. Through the great raercy of God, in ray retireraent at
Totteridge, in a troublesome, smoky, suffocating room, in the
midst of daily pains of the sciatica, and many worse, I set up
on and finished all the schemes, and half the elucidations, in the
VOL. II. 8

58 the life and writings
end of the year 1669 and the beginning of 1670 ; whieh cost
me harder studies than any thing that ever I had before attempt
ed." °
In a subsequent part of his ' Life ' he speaks of the expense
which tiiis work put him to, and of his disappointment in regard
to its sale. " The times were so bad for selling books, that I
was fain to be myself at the charge of printing my ' Methodus
Theologiae.' Some friends contributed about eighty pounds to
wards it ; it cost me one way or other about five hundred
pounds ; about two hundred and fifty pounds of which I receiv
ed frora those Nonconformists tiiat bought them. The contrary
party set theraselves to hinder the sale of it, because it was
mine, though else the doctrine of it, being half philosophical,
and half concihatory, would have pleased the learned part of
them. But most lay it by as too hard for them, or as over
scholastieal and exact. I wrote it and my English ' Christian
Directory,' to make up oue complete body of theology ; the
Latin one the theory, and the English one the practical part.
And the latter is comraonly accepted because less difficult." °
This immense work, which occupied Baxter's raind so much
during so many years, is divided into three parts. In the first
he treats of the nature of things, in the second of the holy
Scriptures, and in the third of the whole administration and
practice of religion ; in other words, the theory of natural reli
gion, revealed religion, and the practical nature and design of
religion. Or, taking another view of his plan, he treats of the
kingdom of nature ; the kingdom of grace, under the Mosaic
economy ; the kingdom of grace under the Gospel ; and the
kingdora of glory. He discusses, with great minuteness and at
great length, the being and attributes of God ; tiie constitution
of the universe ; the character and condition of man, both before
and after the fall ; the moral administration of God under the
law ; the mediatorial or evangelical system in all its branches,
including the person and work of Christ, the doctrines, ordi
nances, and precepts, of the Gospel, and the future state of re
wards and punishments. To give even a faint outline of the
innumerable discussions and definitions contained in the work,
is impossible ; what precedes wiU afford however some idea of it.
He seems to have been partial to tracing a kind of trinity in
unity in all things. A trinity of persons in the Godhead, the
Father, the Word, and the Spirit; a trinity of principles in
man, which he caUs power, intellect, and wUl ; corresponding
imperfectly with three principles in the nature of God — life, in
tellect, and wiU. He finds three kingdoms, or dispensations,
nature, grace, and glory ; in nature he finds three principles,
(n ) Life, part iii, pp. 69, 70. (o) Life, part iii. p. 190.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 59
light, heat, and motion ; in the economy of grace he finds the
Father governing, the Son saving, the Holy Spirit sanctifying ;
and God accomplishing all his designs of mercy in us by three
principles, faith, hope, and love.
In the representation and working of this trinitarian scheme
of philosophy, metaphysics, and raorals, Baxter has displayed
considerable ingenuity and vast labor. Many of his scheraes
or tables are formed with great care, and present some happy
and useful arrangements and corabinations. There is much,
however, of what is fanciful and hypothetical in his systera, and,
taken ' as a whole, it is more calculated to amuse as a curious
speculation or effort of genius, than to answer any important
practical purpose. The work shows that the autiior is entitled
to high rank among the metaphysico-theological writers of the
period. I ara, therefore, surprised that i\lr. MorreU has entirely
omitted him in his very useful work on ' The Eleraents of the
History of Philosophy and Science.' Whatever may bs thought
of his opinions, Baxter, in point of genius, as a metaphysician,
is not unworthy of a place on the same roll with Cudworth, and
Leibnitz, and Clarke ; and is unquestionably superior to Bram
hall and Tenison, WUkins, Cumberland, and More.
As Baxter wrote occnsionally sorae Latin verse, as well as
English poetry, I shall close the account of this proof of his stu
pendous industry by quoting the lines with which he concludes it.
The last work of Baxter in this department, which it is ne-
" Munde dolose vale ; mihi vera palcestra fuisti :
Perficitur cursus : certa corona manet.
Vita fugax cessat : Prffistant sterna caducis :
Mens superos visit : pulvere pulvis erit.
Excipe Christe tuum ; tibi vixi : errata remitte ;
Spe tibi commissum perfice Christe tuum.
Tu mortis mors : vitee tu vita perennis ;
Gloria nostra tua est gloria, lumen, amor.
Non loca, non coatus, non hinc sperata videntur.
Optimus, Omnividens, Maximus ilia videt." p

(p) Ihave observed, since writing the preceding account of the ' Methodus,'
in a catalogue of his works, published at the end of his own edition of his
'Counsels to Young Men,' in 1682, a short analysis of this ponderous work, evi
dently written by himself. " It consists," he says, " of seventy-ihree tables, or
methodical schemes, pretending to a juster methodizing of Christian verities,
according to the matter and Scripture, than is yet extant; furnishing men with
necessary distinctions on every subject ; showing that trinity in unity is imprint
ed on the whole creation, and trichotomizing is the just distribution in naturals
and morals. The first part of the kingdom of nature ; the second of the king-
^m of grace before Christ's incarnation ; the third of the kingdom of grace and
the Spirit, since the incarnation ; the fourth of the kingdom of glory. All in
one political method, in the efficience, constitution, and administration, namely,
legislation, judgment, and execution. The first part mostly philosophical, with a
full scheme of philosophy or ontology. The doctrine de anima most largely ;
with above two hundred select disputations ; prolix ones on the trinity, prede
termination, the faculties of the soul, original sin, and a multitude of controver
sies briefly decided." Had Baxter lived in the days of the schoolmen, he would
have been the Thomas Aquinas, or Duns Scotus, of the period.

60 rnE I. in. vno wiuriNt:^
cessary to notice, was inililished ouly a short time lu'l'orc his
death, and 1h>:u-s a most appropriate lilK- for tho conclusion of
our account ofhis dociiiiKil \ icw.s ; ' An ImuI ol Dm trinal Coii-
trovi'i-sios, which liavi- lately troubled the Churches, by ncoii-
ciling lOxplicatiou without much Disputiiii;.' Ui'.U. .S\o.
Ill his lu-i'fai'o lu' gives a most chai-aiiciislit' acrouiit ol his
reasons for oiigagiii!; so mnch in conlroM'isv , niid ol his olijccl
in tins book in particular. " Wars," lu- says, " aiv most dread
ed und hated bv the cinuitiy vvlu're tlu-y arc ; but uot .so mufh
by the soliliors, who by them sock thoir prov ami ,s;lory, as by
tho snUbring inhabitants that loso thoroliy thoir proporty and
jioaoo, who yet aio forood, or diawii to bo siih'|-s, lost thoy sul-
fcr for noutralily.
" Kcli,i;ioiis (irroliginiis) wars aro of no less dismal ooiiso-
quonoo, boiiig about (iod himsolf, his vvill, and word; and that
vvhich more nearly loiiohoth onr souls and ovorlasiing stale, ihan
our hoiisos and worlilly wollaro do. ^ ot bocauso mon aro moro
sensible of thoir corporal than thoir spiritual ooiioorns, thoso dog
matical wars an' far loss foaiod, and loo oommuiily made tho
study and delight, not only of the military olori;y, but also of
the sodiiood and soqiiaoioiis laity : though thoso who havo tho
wisdom from above, which is |iiii'o and poacoablo, ooiidolo tho
church's oalumity iioroby ; knowing that onvy and sli-ii'(\ th(^
earthly, sonsuid, and di'vilish wisilom, oanso ooiiii'.sioii and ovo-
ry ovil work, h is u heinous aggravation, that tho uiililaiils,
being moil oonsooral(Ml lo love and poaoo, profaiioly I'atlun- llioir
mischiol's upon God, and do all ns lor rolii^ion and llio ohiiroh.
Having those rour-aiid-rorly years, al loasl, boon dooply soiisi-
blo ofthis sin, ilangor, and inisory of Chrislians, I havo proaoli-
cd much and wiitloii inoio aii'aiiisl it; to oonfiilo tlioso oxlromos
which cause divisions, and lo leeoiieilo thoso that think they dil-
I'or where ihcy do not ; sometimes, also, using importuuale poiilioiis
and pleas for poaoo, to those thai have power lo !;ivo il <ir promoti^
it, and that use eilhor word or s\voi-d against it. And with tiio sous
of peace it halh not boon iu vain ; but with tliosiMJiat ar(M'ugai;e(l
in faelion and malieious strife,! am proolaimcd to Ik^ ilu' luiliiaiit
enemy of ooiieonl, for persuading thein to eoneord ; ami writing
many books for pciioo and love, is taken for writing thom against
those, (^)ulloversios I have written of hut only to end them,
and not make them ; and w ho can roeoiieile thom that never meii-
tionelb thom, or arbitrate in a causis unlieard and not opeiiiMl ?
" But, readers, I must tell you that my title, ' An ImhI ol' Doc
trinal Controversies,' is not iiitondiMl as proguostie, bill as di
dactical and directives I am far from i^xpoeiing nn end of con-
troversios, while consecrated iguoiaiiee is hy worldly inti'rosi,
faction, and innlice, mixed with pridie sublimated to an envious
zeal; and hath set up a trade of slandering nU thoso that are

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 61
true peacemakers, not concurring with them to destroy it, on
jiretence of defondiug, by their unpeaceable, pernicious terms.
He that will now be taken I'or a peaeouial*er, must be content
lu be so called by a few, even by iIkj sect that he chooseth to
please, and be contrarily judged of by all the rest. And this
satisfieth some, beoause their faction seemeth better than
others, be they ever so few ; and otiiers because their faction is
great, or rich, or uppermost, how noxious and unpeaceable
soever." i
The conclusion of the prefitce is woilby ofthe writer, and in
his best style, " The glorious light will soon end all our con
troversies, and reconcile those vvho by unfeigned faith and love
are united in the Prince of Peace, or Head, by love dwelling in
God and God in tliem. But false-hearted, malignant, carnal
workllings, that live in the fire of wrath and strife, wUI find, so
dying, the woful maturity of their enmity to holy unity, love,
and peace ; and that the c-a'useless shutting the true servants of
Christ out of their churches, which should be the porch of
heaven, is the way to be themselves shutout ofthe heavenly
.Jerusalem. If those that havo long reproached me as unfit to be
in their church, and said Ec uno disce omnes, with their leader,
find any unsound or unprofitable doctrine hero, I shall take it
for a great favor to be confuted, even for the good of others
excluded with me, when I am dead."
This work does not contain much that is new or original. It
consists of twenty- five chapters on most of the topics on which
he had treated often and largely before ; particularly on the
points embraced in the Arminian and Calvinistic controversy.
The divine decrees, election and reprobation ; natural power and
free-wiU, original sin, universal grace, and redemption ; justifi
cation and faith ; good works, merit, assurance, perseverance,
he, all come under his review ; and on these and their collateral
subjects he m-ay be considered as delivering his last thoughts.
Having corae literally to the end of Baxter's doctrinal writ
ings, this is perhaps the most appropriate place for stating what
appears to have been his sentiments on the great leading points
which have long been controverted among Christi-ons. The
task is far from being an easy one, and I doubt whether I shaU
be able satisfactorily to perform it. Its difficulty arises from the
multitude of Baxter's controversial writings, from the innumer
able distinctions whh which they are fiUed, and from the extended
and diversified explanations that he gives of every term and
phrase which he employs. His conscientiousness, his fear of
being misunderstood, his anxiety to render every thing clear
and unambiguous, his wish to reconcUe opposite and conflicting
(q) Preface.

62 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
sentiments, and to hurable the pride of contentious parties, by
pointing out the errors to which their respective systems were
liable ; aU tend to confound and to bewilder the reader of his
controversial works, and to involve his real sentiments in con
siderable obscurity. Possessed of a mind uncoramonly pene
trating, he yet seems not to have had the faculty of compressing
within narrow hmits, his own views, or the accounts he was
disposed to give of the views of others. When we expect he
is about to state in a few words the sum of his belief, he flies off
as it were at a tangent in pursuit of some adversary whom he
has started, or proceeds to obviate some false constructions
which has been put, or which may be put on what he is going
to say. He either never returns to the subject, or when he
does return, it is but to make another flight from it, and to
leave us as before.
All this arose, not from any indisposition to be explicit ; for
no man was more disposed to give a full and candid exposition
of aU he thought, and felt, and did ; but from the peculiar
character of his raind. When, for instance, he proposes to
give an account of faith, election, grace, perseverance, instead
of giving a clear definition of the terms, and showing how
their various senses raay be accounted for from conventional
usage, consistently with the original and primary idea, he
proceeds at once to discuss the various meanings of such
words as tbey are commonly used, the ambiguities which belong
to thera, and the uncertainty of their signification, till we advert
to the circu.nsiances in which they occur. Hence, instead of
saying at once how he used such terms in his own writings, he
'tells us of many kinds of faith, various acts of grace, and
different species of election, perseverance, &c. He is perpetually
distinguishing things into physical and moral, real and nominal,
material and formal. However important these distinctions are,
they often render his writings tiresome to the reader, and his
reasonings more frequently perplexed than satisfactory.
Baxter is generally understood to have pursued a raiddle
course between Calvinism and Arminianism. That he tried to
hold and to adjust the balance between two parties, and that
he was most anxious to reconcile them, are very certain. But it
seems scarcely less evident, that he was much more a Calvinist
than he was an Arminian. His declared approbation of the
Assembly's Confession, and of the Synod of Dort's decisions,
with trifling exceptions, are, I think, decisive on this point : while
the general train of his writing, when he loses sight of controver
sy, is much more allied to the system of the Genevese Reform
er, than to that of the Dutch Remonstrants.
While this seems to me very apparent, it must be acknow
ledged, that if certain views, which have often been given of

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 63
Calvinism, are necessary to constitute a Calvinist, Richard Bax
ter was no behever in that creed. But an individual may hold
the great leading outhne of a particular system, without being
expected to defend every dogma or iota iu the writings of its
founder. If tills be implied in the profession of adherence to a
common name, I doubt whether there is a Calvinist or an Armi
nian in the world.
Baxter, if 1 may collect his sentiments from a general know
ledge of his writings, rather than from particular passages and
statements, held that there is a portion of common grace bestow
ed on aU, which, if rightiy improved, would lead to most impor
tant and salutary results ; that resistance to this constitutes a
leading part of man's guilt : yet that this grace, from the indis-
poshion of man, is not productive of saving effects, unless there
is added to it a portion of special grace, which never fails to
accomplish its design — the salvation of the individual on whom
it is bestowed.
" As there is a comraon grace," he says, " actually extended
to mankind, (that is, coramon mercies contrary to their merit,)
so there is such a thing as suflicient grace, in suo genere, which
is not effectuak By sufficient grace here, I mean such, without
which man's will cannot, and with which it can perforra, the
coraraanded act toward which it is raoved, when yet it doth not
perform it." ' In answer to the question, " Whether any men
in the world have grace sufficient to repent and believe savingly
who do not ? " he says, after telhng us that he knows nothing
about the matter, " but that if we raay conjecture upon proba
bUities, it seemeth most likely, that there is such a sufficient
grace, or power, to repent and believe savingly in sorae that use
it not, but perish." This seems to rae very inexplicable.
He believed in election, but not that reprobation is hs coun
terpart, as it is too comraonly represented. In the following
passage he seems to express this sentiment very fairly : " By aU
this it appeareth that election and reprobation go not pari pas
su, or are not equally ascribed to God ; for in election, God is
the cause of the means of salvation by his grace, and of aU that
truly tendeth to procure it. But on the other side, God is no
cause of any sin which is the means and merit of damnation ;
nor the cause of damnation, but on the supposition of man's sin.
So that sin is foreseen in the person decreed to damnation, but
not caused, seeing the decree must be denominated from the
effect and object. But in election, God decreeth to give us his
grace, and be the chief cause of all our holiness ; and doth not
elect us to salvation on foresight that we wiU do his wiU, or be
sanctified by ourselves without him." '
(r) End of Controversies, p. 162. (s) End of Controversies, p. 44.

64 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
He was accused as holding some very erroneous and danger
ous notions, respecting the work of Christ. It was chiefly in
reference to the Antinomian controversy, that these charges
were brought. But Dr. StiUingfleet in his work on the ' Sat
isfaction o( Christ,' fully vindicates him from aU those charges
which insinuated that his sentiraents were allied to Socinian-
isra. After quoting various passages frora Baxter's writings,
which had been found fault with, and showing the sense which
they must bear, to be consistent with his sentiments elsewhere
clearly expressed, StiUingfleet justiy remarks on him : " Some
hberty must be allowed to metaphysical heads to show their
skill in distinctions, above other raen ; and sometiraes when
there is no cause for them. But we must not presently
charge men with heresy, for new-invented distinctions ; where
in they may be allowed to please themselves, so they do not
cumber the faith with them ; nor be too sharp upon their
brethren for not apprehending the use of thera." ' So far were
raatters carried on this subject, by some of the keen supporters
of the high Calvinistic view of the satisfaction of Christ, that
after his death, some friend published, 'A Plea for the late Mr.
Baxter, and those that speak of the sufferings of Christ as he
does, in answer to Mr. Lobb's insinuated charge against them,
in his late appeal to the Bishop of Worcester [StiUingfleet]
and Dr. Edwards.' London, 1702.
On the subject of rederaption, it is evident that he believed it
to be, in a certain sense, general or universal ; that Christ so died
for all men, as to secure for thera a certain portion of benefit.
This view of his death he regarded as the ground of the general
invitations of the Gospel, and of God's treatraent of those who
reject it. It is clear, however, that he also believed in what
may be called a decretive speciality of the death of Christ.
" When we speak of Christ's death," he says, " as a sacrifice
for the sins of all the world, we mean no raore but that esse
cognito et volito, the undertaking was so far for aU, as that aU
should have the conditional promise, or gift of life, by the raerits
of it."" On the other point he thus expresses hiraself: " He
whose sufferings were primarily satisfaction for sin, were se
condarily meritorious of the means to bring men to the intended
end ; that is, of the word and Spirit, by which Christ causeth
sinners to believe : so that faith is a fruit of the death of Christ
in a remote or secondary sense." ^ " Christ died for aU, but
not for all alike or equally ; that is, he intended good to all,
but not an equal good, with an equal intention." ^
(t) Part ii. p. 159.
(uj Catholic Theology, part iii. p. 67. (x) Ibid. p. 69.
(y) End of Controv. p. 160. Baxter was as much a Calvinist on the subject of
the extent of the atonement, as the late Rev. Andrew Fuller ; and may be re-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 65
The foUowing statement of his sentiments on the subject of
justifying faith, though it eraploys a redundancy of language,
wUl not be objected to by many : " Justifying faith is not the
reception ofthe knowledge or sense of our former justification,
nor the behef that our sins were before actually pardoned, or
that they are so ; but it is the true belief of the Gospel, and
the sincere acceptance of Christ as he is offered therein. That
is, of Christ as Christ — as the Son of God, that hath given hira
self a sacrifice for siu, and offereth himself to me to be my Sa
viour from the guilt and power of sin, and eternal damnation ;
and to give me eternal glory, and to be my Teacher, and my
King in ruhng rae, in order thereto. Men are not called to be
heve that they are justified, but to believe for justification." ,
His views on the subject of the perseverance of the saints,
have been noticed and stated already. WhUe it appears that
he would not have expressed himself so confidently on this sub
ject as on some others, and did not rank it among truths of the
first importance, he held substantially the Calvinistic view of it.
On the freedom of the will, he has generally been considered
as holding what may be caUed hberal views, inclining more to
liberty than to necessity. But I apprehend this was more in
appearance than reality. In the following passages from his
' Catholic Theology,' he expresses sentiments in the fullest ac
cordance with the strictest views of Calvinistic theology on this
subject. They may be considered as giving the substance of
his opinions on the whole controversy; so that I shall not
trouble the reader with any more extracts.
" As all being is originally frora God, so there is a continued
divine causation of creatures, without which they would all
cease, or be annihilated; which some call a continued creation ,
and some an emanation, and some a continued action, or ope
ration, ad rerum esse. It is an intolerable error to hold, that
God hath made the world, or any part of it, self-sufficient, or
independent of hiraself, as to being, action, or perfection. We
grant, therefore, that aU the world is so far united to God, as
to depend on his continued causality ; and that the beams do
not more depend on the sun ; or light, heat, and motion, on the
sun ; or the branches, fruit, and leaves, raore depend on the
tree, than the creation on God. But yet these are not parts
of God, as the fruit and leaves are of the tree, and as the
beams are of the sun; but they are creatures, because God's
gard^d as distinguished from the other Calvinists of his time, as Fuller was dis
tinguished from Abraham Booth. Of the controversy between Owen and Baxter,
respecting the death of Christ, an account will be found in the Memoirs of Ow
en. The works of Booth and Fuller, on the same subject, are worth consulting.
(z) Confession of Faith, p. 166.
VOL. II. 9

66 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
emanation or causation is creation, causing the whole being of
the effect." ^
" It is confessed that there is no substance beside himself,
which God is not the maker of; nor any action of which he is
not the first Cause. God raay well be called the perfect first
Cause of human actions, in that he giveth man aU his natural
faculties, and a power to act or not act at this time, or to
choose this or that; and as the fountain of nature, and life, and
motion, doth afford his influx necessary to this free agency. So
that whenever any act is done, as an act in generi, God is the
first Cause of it ; for it is done by the power vvhich he giveth
and continueth, and by his vital influx, and there is no power
used to produce it which is not given by God." "¦
" I conclude with this repeated profession, that I ara fully
satisfied, that all the rest of the controversies, about grace and
nature, predestination and redemption, as they stand between
the Synod of Dort and the Arminians, are of no greater mo
ment than I have often expressed in this book ; and that the
true hfe of all the remaining difficulties is, in this controversy
between the defenders of necessary predestination, and those of
free-wiU ; that is, not what free-wiU sinners have left, but
whether ever in angels or innocent man, there was such a thing
as a wih, that can, or ever did, deterraine itself to a volition or
nolition in specie morali, without the predeterraining, efficient,
necesshating premonition of God as the first Cause."''
I apprehend that I have now pursued the doctrinal senti
ments of Baxter far enough for the satisfaction or gratification
ofthe reader. While I consider him to have held sound and
scriptural sentiments on aU important subjects, I ara very far
from thinking that he always expressed himself correctly when
discussing them. On the contrary, his language is frequently
ambiguous or obscure ; in many instances it is calculated to ob
struct the inquirer, or occasion him great perplexity ; and not
seldom, it is so grossly incorrect, as to require to be most liber
ally construed in connexion with his well-known general senti
ments, to avoid charging him with opinions subversive of the
grace and glory of the Gospel.
I am fully aware that many passages might be selected from
his controversial writings, of a very different tenor from those
which I have quoted ; and that it might be easy to prove Bax
ter a heretic, or at least guilty of gross self-contradiction, by
detaching many of his statements from the connexion in which
they occur. This, however, would be a species of injustice,
which, though common enough among controversiahsts, ought
to be discountenanced by every lover of truth. Baxter experi-
(a) Catholic Theology, part iii. p. 113,
(b) Catholic Theology, part i, p. 29. (c) Ibid, part i. p. 118,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 67
enced much of this treatment while he lived ; and it foUowed
his vvritings long after their author's death. The most perfect
speciraen of this with vvhich I am acquainted, and which may
be reverted to as a storehouse of the inconsistencies of Baxter,
is a quarto volume with the following titie : ' Baxterianism
Barefaced; drawn from a hteral Transcript of IMr. Baxter's,
and the Judgraent of others in tiie most radical Doctrines of
Faith, corapared with those of the Orthodox, both Conforraist
and Nonconformist,' 8ic. By Thomas Edwards, Esq. 1699. "^
This .N'imrod araong heresy hunters, endeavors to crucify Baxter
between the Quakers and the Roman Cathohcs, exhibiting the
doctrines of these two parties in every page, in paraUel columns,
and Baxter between them. Thus endeavoring to produce an
impression that he vvas allied in sentiment to the Popish doctrine
of the merit of good works on the one hand, and to the mis
taken views ofthe Quakers, on the subject of divine influence,
on the other. Curious coincidences do oecur ; but who that
knows any thing of the real sentiments of Baxter, can have the
least idea that his doctrinal system bears any resemblance to
either of those parties ?
To form a correct judgment of Baxter's sentiments, we must
consult his practical and devotional writings. We must attend
hira, not v;hen sitting in the crhic's chair, or occupying the con
troversial arena, but when dealing with sinners, or conversing as
a sinner hiraself, with God. His eloquent and fervid addresses
to raen, and his no less eloquent and burning addresses to the
throne of the Most High, present such a view of his real sen
timents, as cannot be mistaken. In these compositions, he is
thinking of no difficulties in his theological systera, or in the
tlieological systems of others ; he is only intent on presenting,
in the most simple and impressive forms, the great doctrines
ofthe fall and corruption of our nature, the fulness and freeness
of divine grace, and the necessity of faith and repentance. The
love of God, as manifested to apostate transgressors, in the
gift and sacrifice ofhis own Son, is then the entire theme ofhis

(d) I know nothing of this Edwards, except from his book. He seems to have
been one of the high Calvinists of the time, who entered very deeply into the
Christian controversy. He tried his poetical, as well as his polemical, powers
on Baxter. It was the fashion to write epitaphs for this excellent man ; and the
following is the doggerel slander of Thomas Edwards, Esq. : —
"Baxter, farewell! Henffydd's* epitome,
Rome's Vatican and conclave fell in thee ;
St. Omer's mourn \ for thy disciples will
By this find lesser grist come to thy mill.
To say no more, write on this tomb, Here lies
The mirror pf self inconsistencies :
Or rather thus, Papal conformity
Hid under Reformation here doth lie." — p. 223.
» This he interprets, " Rome's Faith ;" literally, " Old Faith."

68 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
discourse, as it was the only ground of his own hope. Nothing
of conditional justification, of terras and qualifications, of the
merit of works, or the hmitations of the divine call, is then
to be found. AU is represented as a scheme of sovereign
mercy, reigning through righteousness, and dispensed with in
finite generosity by Jesus Christ, our Lord.
AU |his own experience was that of a man who felt himself
to be a chief sinner, saved solely by the raercy of God. This
appears in the deep humility of his soul, in his fervent gratitude,
in his holy life, and in his happy, though humble, state of raind,
in the prospect of death. There was nothing of metaphysics
in the influence of Baxter's religion, however rauch of it be
longed to the manner of stating his sentiraents. His views
of the corruption of huraan nature, and of the responsibility
of man, led hira to dwell much on these topics, and to urge
them powerfully on all sinners. To salvation as the cure of
sin, he'attached as much importance as to salvation considered
as deliverance from its punishraent. Hence he cultivated this
curative process in hiraself, and recommended its cultivation to
others. He could find happiness only in likeness to God, which
constituted, therefore, his constant desire, as it was the object of
his most earnest recommendation.
While satisfied that among Baxter's sentiments, no important
or vital error will be found, yet in the style and method in which
he too generally advocated or defended thera, there is much to
censure. The wrangling and disputatious raanner in which he
presented raany ofhis views, was calculated to gender an un
sanctified state of raind in persons who either abetted or opposed
his sentiraents. His scholastic and metaphysical style of ar
guing is unbefitting the simplicity of the Gospel, and cannot fail
to injure it wherever such is employed. It not only savors too
much of the spirit of the schools, and the phUosophy of this
world ; but places the truths of revelation on a level vrith the
rudiments of human science.
I am not sure whether certain effects which began early in
the last century to appear among the Presbyterian part of the
Nonconformists, may not be traced in sorae degree to the spe
culative and argumentative writings of Baxter. His influence
over this class of his brethren, was evidently very great. He
contributed more than any other man to mitigate the harsh
and forbidding aspect which the Presbyterians presented dur
ing the civU wars and the commonwealth. This was well, but
he did not stop here. He was inimical to all the existing
systems of doctrine and discipline then contended for, or ever be
fore known in the world ; while he did not present any precisely
defined system as his own. He opposed Calvinism ; he opposed
Arminianism ; he would not allow himself to be considered an

OP RICHARD BAXTER. 69
EpiscopaUan, in the ordinary acceptation of the word ; he de
nied that he was a Presbyterian, and scorned to be thought an
Independent. He held something in common vvith them all, and
yet he was somewhat different from all. He contended for a
system more general and more liberal than was then approved ;
and, as we have stated, wished to place a variety of theological
truths on grounds belonging rather to philosophy or raetaphysics,
than to revelation.
On hiraself, this species of latitudinarianism produced httle
injurious effect, but I fear it had a baneful influence on
others. The rejection of all human authority and influence
in religion, requires to be balanced by a very strong sense of
the divine authority, to prevent its generating a state of
mind more characterised by pride of intellect, and indepen
dence of spirit, than by the humility and diffidence which are
essential features in the Christian character. It is a singular
fact, tbat the Presbyterians, though at first more rigid in their
doctrinal views, and more exclusive in their spirit and system of
church government, than the Independents, becarrie before the
death of Baxter the more liberal party. High views began to
be ascribed by them to their now moderate brethren ; and, to
avoid the charge of Antinomianism, which Baxter was too
ready to prefer against such as differed from sorae of his views,
the Presbyterians seera gradually to have sunk into a state of low
moderate orthodoxy, in which there was little of the warmth or
vitality of evangelical rehgion.
In further illustrations of the influence now adverted to, it
must be remarked, that the first stage in that process of dete
rioration which took place araong the Presbyterian dissenters,
was generally characterised by the term Baxterianism : a word
to which it is difficult to attach a definite meaning. It denotes
no separate sect or party, but rather a systera of opinions
on doctrinal points, verging towards Arrainianism, and which
ultimately passed to Arianism and Socinianism. Even dur
ing Baxter's own hfe, whUe the Presbyterians taxed the Inde
pendents with Antinomianism, the latter retorted the charge
of Socinianism, or at least of a tendency towards it, in some
of the opinions maintained both by Baxter and others of that
party. To whatever cause it is to be attributed, it is a melan
choly fact, that the declension which began even at this early
period in the Presbyterian body, went on slowly but surely, till
from the most fervid orthodoxy, it finally arrived at the frigid
zone of Unitarianism.
I wish not to be understood as stating, that Baxter either held
any opinions of this description, or was conscious of a ten
dency in his sentiments towards such a fearful consummation ;
but, that there was an injurious tendency in his manner of dis-

70 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
cussing certain important subjects. It was subtle, and full of
logomachy ; it tended to itnsettle, rather than to fix and deter
mine ; it gendered strife, rathfer than godly edifying. It is not
possible to study such books, as his ' Methodus,' and his ' Ca
tholic Theology,' without experiencing, that vve are brought into
a different region from apostolic Christianity : a region of fierce
debate and altercation about words, and names, and opinions;
in which all that can be said for error is largely dwelt upon,
as well as what can be said for truth. The ambiguities of lan
guage, the diversities of sects, the uncertainties of human per
ception and argument, are urged, tUl the force of revealed truth
is considerably weakened, and confidence in our own judgment
of its meaning greatly impaired. Erroneous language is main
tained to be capable of sound meaning, and the most scriptural
phrases to be susceptible of unscriptural interpretation, till truth
and error almost change places, and the mind is bewUdered,
confounded, and paralysed.
Into this mode of discussing such subjects, was this most ex
cellent man led, partly by the natural constitution of his raind,
which has often been advened to ; partly by his ardent desire
of putting an end to the divisions of the Christian world, and
producing universal concord and harraony. He faded where
success was impossible, however plausible might have been the
means which he eraployed. He understood the cause of differ
ence and contention better than their remedies ; hence the mea
sures which he used, frequentiy aggravated instead of curing the
disease. His controversial writings, it is said, " were never an
swered." To answer thera was irapracticable. They were en
trenched within such lines of words, such barriers of technicali
ties, and such interrainable series of distinctions, that any ap
proach to the main subject was rendered utterly hopeless. Bax
ter was clad in an impenetrable coat of raaUof his own framing,
which not only entirely protected its wearer, but presented innu
merable points, that rendered grappling with hira exceedingly
dangerous to the assaUant. Conscious of his own integrity and
safety, and not unconscious of his giant strength, he hurled fear
less defiance at aU adversaries, and quietiy waked the onset.
Meanwhile that cause which he had so much at heart, lost
rather than gained, from these means of promoting it. Error
was not overthrown or dislodged ; the chief difficulties attaching
to certain truths, remained where they had ever been ; for the
obscurity hanging over the divine purposes and administration,
continued as profound as ever. In all this we are taught the
irabecility of raan, and how littie he is capable" of achieving,
even with the best intentions, without the speciah blessing of
God. Man's apparent inteUigence and wisdom have often been
considered as of vast importance to the interests of truth and

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 71
of heaven ; but have nearly as often as they have been thus
regarded, occasioned disappointment and regret. It is thus
God enforces his ovvn injunction ; " Let not the wise man glory
in his wisdom ; but let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord."
WhUe a portion of evil, probably resulted from Baxter's mode
of conducting controversy, and no great light vvas thrown by
him on some ofthe dark and difficult subjects vvhich he so keen
ly discussed, 1 have no doubt he contributed considerably to
produce a more moderate spirit towards each other, between
Calvinists and .'\rminians, than had long prevailed. Though he
satisfied neither party, he must have convinced both, that great
difficulties exist on the subjects in debate, if pursued beyond a
certain length ; tiiat allowance ought to be made by each, for
tiie weakness or prejudices of the other ; and that genuine reli
gion is compatible vvith sorae diversity of opinion respecting one
or all of the five points. In as far as such an effect has arisen
from his doctrinal writings, the church of Christ has derived ben
efit from thera.. If ray opinion raay be expressed at the end of
ibis long chapter, in a single sentence, I would say, Baxter was
probably such an Arminian as Richard Watson ; and as rauch
a Calvinist as the late Dr. Edward WUharas.

72 THE LIFE AND WRITI.VGS

CHAPTER IIL

WORKS ON CONVERSION.
Introductory Remarlts— ' Treatise of Conversion' — ' Call to the Unconverted ' — • Now or Nev
er ' — ' Directions for a Sound Conversion' — ' Directions to the Converted ' — ' Character of a
Sound Chrisliai. ' — 'Mischiefs of Self-ignorance ' — The Countess of Balcarras — Controversy
with Bisliop Morley — ' A Saint or a Brute » — Various smaller Treatises — Concluding Obser
vations.
The class of books to which this chapter is devoted, must ever
rank high, perhaps I should say highest, araong the works of
Baxter. As they treat of the most important subject which can
occupy the attention of mankind in its degenerate state ; so
they discuss that subject whh a powei' which is probably un
equaUed in huraan writings. While Baxter's talents were ade
quate to any subject to which they might be directed, the conver
sion of men was the grand object to which he devoted them, in
the fullest extent in which they could be exercised. Other things
he might resort to as recreation, or submit to as duty ; this
eraployment constituted his sacred delight. His whole soul
was here eminently at home ; he revels and luxuriates in it,
exulting in the privUege of calling sinners to repentance, and
thus promoting the glory of bis Lord and Master.
In this department of writing, I ara not aware that he had
properly any predecessor in the Enghsh language. Among the
works both of the episcopal and puritan divines, raany excel
lent discourses on most branches of Christian faith and duty
had previously appeared. The Puritans exceUed especially in
the expository and didactic departments of instruction ; while
many Conformists produced very able treatises on the several
branches of theological and moral truth. But by no one nor all
of them was produced such a mass of pungent and powerful ad
dresses to the consciences of ignorant, ungodly, and thoughtiess
men, as by Baxter. Conversion in all its important aspects,
and unutterably iraportant clairas, had not before been dis
cussed, at least in our language ; nor had any man previously
employed so boundless a range of topics, in conjunction with
such an energetic and awakening style of addressing sinners.
To excel in this mode of preaching, requires talents and pro
perties of no ordinary kind. There must be a combination of

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 7;J
scriptural knowledge and ardent piety, with a correctness of
thinking, as well as a fervency of imagination and manner,
which are rarely found in one individual. Incorrect notions of
tiie boundless grace and mercy of tiie Gospel, led some of Bax
ter's predecessors in the awakening style of preaching, to deal
out the unmitigated thunders of tiie law. These, however, will
roll in the ears of sinners in vain unless mellowed with the meek
and persuasive allurements of the Gospel. Baxter knew how
to connect them, so as to alarm and convince, without driving
to despair. Taylor could describe the loathsomeness and guilt
ofthe sinner, and the certainty as well as awfulness ofhis dan
ger, with an exhaustiess and withering power of Ulustration.
He could inciUcate penance and mortification with great force
of argument. But his manner partook more of raonkish severi
ty, — of the gloora and austerity of the cloister — than of the faith
fulness and tenderness of Jesus and his apostles. Baxter's seve
rity never partakes of the nature of raisanthropy. He never
seeras to take pleasure in wounding. He eraploys the knife
with an unsparing hand ; but that hand always appears to be
guided by a tender, sympathising heart. He denounces sin
in language of tremendous energy, and exposes its hideous
nature by the light of the flames of hell itself ; but it is to urge
the sinner to flee frora the wrath to come, and to lay hold on
the hope set before him. He never appears as the minister of
divine vengeance, corae to execute wrath, and to make men
miserable before the tirae ; but as an angel of mercy, brandish
ing a flaming sword to drive men to the tree of life.
In the writings of Owen and Howe, and the preachers of the
same school, doctrinal discussion, and elaborate argument in
support and illustration of Gospel truths, are raore prorainent
than their addresses to sinners. This, perhaps, may be ac
counted for, bythe different circurastances of the people whora
they addressed. Their congregations consisted chiefly of a se
lect company of believers, or of those who made a credible pro
fession of the Gospel. Hence their discourses were chiefly em
ployed in instructing and buUding up. Baxter's hearers in
Kidderminster, where raost of his works of this class were pro
duced, were of a different description ; a large raass of igno
rant, wicked persons, chiefly in the lower walks of life. When
he entered on his labors among thera, there was scarcely a ves
tige of religion in the place. He studied the best methods of
gaining their attention, and of rousing them to repentance and
reformation. How admirably he succeeded is evident, both
from the discourses which he produced, and the effects which
resulted from thera. The character of his early preaching re
mained, as is generally the case, to the last. The Christian
minister who has this kind of work to dp (and what Christian
VOL. II. 10

74 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
minister has it not to do more or less ?) would therefore do
weU, to study this portion of Baxter's wrhings.
To excel in this kind of preaching, he was eminentiy quali
fied. He possessed an untiring capabihty of application ; an
uncommon degree of acuteness and nicety of discernment ; a
profound knowledge of the depths of iniquity belonging to the
huraan heart; a fearless fidelity in the discharge of his duty ;
a constant sense of the divine presence on his mind, along with
an impression, which seeras never to have left him, that death
was just at hand. " He preached, as never sure to preach again.
And as a dying man to dying men !"e
He was gifted with exhaustiess powers of expression, and an
exuberance of imagination which supphed unfaOing stores of
language and iUustration. He had also a soft, flexible, melo
dious voice ; a tenderness, pathos, and solemnity of manner,
which clothed aU he said with dignity and love.
With such qualifications, presenting theraselves even on the
very surface of those discourses by which his popularity is stiU
maintained, it is not surprising that, hke some distinguished men
in other professions, he carried those labors in whicli he had no
prototype, to a perfection which has never been excelled. It
might be easy to produce specimens, both from Baxter's time
and since, of greater profundity of thought, and greater origi
nality of conception ; of more refinement of language, — though
his language is often peculiarly happy ; of more accuracy of
argument and statement ; of detached passages more tremen
dous or more touching, than any occurring in Baxter's writings
on Conversion : but we have nothing that will admit of com
parison with them as a whole — nothing so pointed — so awful —
and yet so fuU of tenderness and compassion.
It is to this preaching we must chiefly look, as the means of
those amazing effects, which, under divine influence, were pro
duced at Kidderminster, whUe Baxter labored there. We have
no account of any remarkable outpouring of the Spirit, — of any
thing corresponding with what is called, in America, a revival,
— during the period of Baxter's residence in that town. But
the effects produced by his ministry are perfectly intelligible to
all who look at the means employed, and attend to the prom
ised blessing of God in connexion with them. Baxter was a
man of faith and prayer ; he was also a man of unwearied la
bor. He preached in season, and out of season. He was an
instrument fit for the work, and diligently employed all the
means which God had put in his power. While he did so, he
(e) Baxter's 'Poetical Fragments,' p. 30.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. (5
found, what every faithful laborer will also find, that he did not
labor for nought, or spend his strength in vain.
These general observations wiU supersede the necessity of
repeating the same things, on noticing the successive publica
tions relative to Conversion, which he produced ; and to which
we shall now proceed.
The first work of this class is a ' Treatise of Conversion ;
preached and now pubhshed for the use of those that are stran
gers to a true conversion, especially the grossly ignorant and
ungodly.' 1657. 4to.'' "Itwas the substance," he says, "of
some plain sermons on conversion, which Mr. Baldwin, who
hved in my house, and learned the short-hand character in which
I wrote my pulpit notes, had transcribed. Though I had no lei
sure for this or other writings, to take much care of the style, or
to add any ornaments, or citations of authors, I thought it raight
better pass as it was, than not at all ; and that if the author missed
the applause of the learned, the book might yet be profitable to the
ignorant, as it proved, through the great mercy of God." =
He dedicates the volume, in a most affectionate and faithful
manner, to the inhabitants of the borough and foreign of Kid
derminster. A few sentences of this address deserve to be
quoted, as they explain the nature of the work, and illustrate
the spirit of the man.
"As it was the unfeigned love of your souls that hath hither
to moved me much to print what I have done, that you might
have the help of those truths which God hath acquainted rae
with, when I ara dead and gone, so is it the sarae affection that
hath persuaded rae here to send you this famihar discourse. It
is the sarae that you heard preached : and the reasons that mov
ed me to preach it, do raove rae now to publish it ; that if any
of you have forgot it, it raay be brought to your remembrance ;
or if it worked not upon you in the hearing, yet, in the delib
erate perusal it may work. I bless the Lord that there are so
many among you that know, by experience, the nature of con
version, which is the cause of my abundant affection towards
you, above any other people that I know. But 1 see that there
is no place or people on earth that will answer our desires, or
free us from those troubles that constantly attend our earthly
state. I have exceeding cause to rejoice in very many of you ;
but in many, also, I have cause of sorrow. Long have I tra
vailed, (as Paul speaks. Gal. iv. 19,) as in birth, till Christ
be formed in you. For this have I studied, and prayed, and
preached ; for this have I dealt with you in private exhortation ;
for this have I sent you all such books as I conceived suitable
to your needs ; and yet, to the grief of my soul, 1 must speak it,
(f) Works, vol. vii- (g) Life, parti, p. 114,

76 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
the lives of many of you declare that this great work is yet
undone. I believe God, and therefore I know that you must
every soul of you be converted, or conderaned to everlasting
punishraent. And, knowing this, I have told it you over and
over again. I have showed you the proof and reasons of it, and
the certain misery of an unconverted state : 1 have earnestly
besought you and begged of you to return, and if I had tears
at command, I should have mixed aU these exhortations with
my tears ; and if I had but time and strength, (as I have not,) I
should have made bold to have come once more to you, and sit
with you in your houses, and entreated you on the behalf of your
souls, even twenty times for once that I have entreated you.
The God that sent me to you knows that my soul is grieved for
your blindness, and stubborness, and wickedness, and misery,
more than for aU the losses and crosses in the world ; and that
my heart's desire and prayer for you to God, is that you may
yet be converted and saved." ^
A man who speaks in this earnest and affectionate tone, can
not fail to be heard. The people raust have been impressed
with his sincerity : his love gained their confidence ; and his
plain and striking appeals thus found access to their consciences
and hearts.
The treatise itself is founded on Matt, xviii. 3, " Except ye
be converted, and becorae as little children, ye shall not enter
into the kingdora of heaven." In a series of chapters, he ex
plains the nature of conversion ; proves that none but those who
are converted can be saved ; Ulustrates the raisery of the uncon
verted, and the benefits of conversion ; and discusses at length
twenty hinderances to conversion.
It is easy to conceive of a more logical arrangement than
what is here described and foUowed. Exceptions might also
be taken to some of Baxter's definitions and distinctions, though
they do not affect any thing of importance. There will also be
perceived an occasional redundancy and repetition in some of
his thoughts ; for which there is always an apology in preach
ing : yet it is altogether a very admirable treatise. He thus
beautifully apologises for the plainness and earnestness of his
manner :
" The commonness and the greatness of men's necessity,
commanded me to do any thing that I could for their rehef, and
to bring forth sorae water to cast upon this fire, though I had
not at hand a silver vessel to carry it in, nor thought it the raost
fit. The plainest words are the most profitable oratory in the
weightiest matters. Fineness is for ornament, and delicacy
for delight ; but they answer not necessity, though sometimes
(h) Works, vol, vii. Preface, pp. iii. iv.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 77
they may modestiy attend that which answers it. Yea, when
they are conjunct, it is hard for the necessitous hearer or reader
to observe the matter of ornament and delicacy, and not to be
carried from the matter of necessity ; and to hear or read a neat,
concise, sententious discourse, and not to be hurt by it ; for it
usually hindereth the due operation of the matter, keeps it from
the heart, stops it in the fancy, and makes it seera as hght as the
style. We use not to stand upon compliment, when vve run to
quench a coramon fire, nor to call men to it by an eloquent speech.
If we see a man fall into fire or water, we stand not upon man
nerliness in plucking him out, but lay hands upon him as we can,
without delay." ' .
Common as preaching is among us, the style best adapted
to the pulpit, and to the great subjects which are there dis
cussed, is, I fear, very imperfectly understood. In some in
stances the language of the preacher is correct, chaste, clas
sical : but the discussion is flat, cold and unimpressive. The
truth is neither concealed nor raisrepresented : but there is an
entire absence of " thoughts that breathe, and words that
burn." In other cases, the pulpit is degraded by vulgarity and
oddity, or every kind of low buffoonery. This is done for
the avowed purpose of gaining attention, and rendering truth
familiar. Such persons would seem to forget that it is practica
ble to be plain, without becoming low; to strike and secure
attention, -without becoming harlequins and buffoons. Who ever
heard of men being converted by apes and mountebanks ? in a
third class, finery and ornament are mistaken for eloquence ; and
the Gospel is supposed to be preached with power, when it is
littie better than buried under the rubbish of words and masses
of gorgeous or tawdry figures.
All these and many other vices which accompany preaching,
arise frora preachers being occupied with soraething else than
their subject and the eternal good of their audience. If the
mind is but sufficiently irapressed with these, there wiU be
no disposition to cultivate either the ludicrous or the fine, the
lofty or the low, in setting forth the words of eternal life. Sim
plicity with earnestness is the only style of speaking which
becoraes the ministry of the Gospel. The one wiU enable the
preacher to convey truth to the understanding, the other wiU
give hira the command of the heart. Impressed himself, he
wUl impress others, and what he himself clearly understands, he
will make inteUigible to his audience. These were the things
which Baxter studied; and they constituted the power and
charm of his eloquence. Thousands hung upon his lips when he
preached ; not to be dazzled or amused, but to be convinced of
(i) Works, vol. vii. Preface, p. ix.

78 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
their danger, or led to the remedy. His popularity arose chiefly
from his impassioned earnestness and solemnity. His hearers
had no opportunity to be thinking of the man, or of any thing
about him ; while he spoke, their thoughts were fixed on them
selves, or on Christ ; and when they left him, ihey were com
peUed to think and to speak, not of Richard Baxter, but of the
awful or delightful subject which he had brought before thera.
His ' Treatise on Converstion,' was foUowed shortly after by
the most widely-circulated of aU its publications, ' A Call to
the Unconverted to turn and live, frora the Living God.' "^ The
preface to this treatise is dated Dec. 10, 1657. The former
treatise had appeared in June, of the same year. Of a work
so well known as the ' CaU to the Unconverted,' it is scarcely
necessary fot me to speak. It is worthy, however, of historical
record, that he was induced to undertake these works on Con
version, by Archbishop Usher. That eminent man, no doubt,
perceived what constituted the forte of Baxter, and, therefore,
suggested an employment so weU suited to his powers. • The
following passage of his preface to the ' CaU ' contains this cir
cumstance, and gives some account of the order in which he
intended to pursue his task.
" In the short acquaintance I had with that reverend, learned
servant of Christ, Bishop Usher, he was oft, from first to last,
importuning rae to write a Directory for the'several ranks of pro
fessed Christians, which might distinctiy give each one their
portion ; beginning with the unconverted, and then proceeding
to the babes in Christ, and then to the strong; and mixing
some special helps against the several sins that they are addicted
to. By the suddenness of his motion at our first congress, I
perceived it was in his mind before ; and I told him, both
that it was abundantly done by many already, and that his
unacquaintedness with my weakness might make him think me
fitter for it than I was. But this did not satisfy him, he stiU
made it his request. I confess I was not moved by his reasons,
nor did I apprehend any great need of doing more thap is done
in that way ; nor that I was likely to do more. And, therefore,
I parted from him without the least purpose to answer his de
sire. But since his death his words often carae into my raind ;
and the great reverence which I bore to hira, did the more
inchne me to think with some complacency of his raotion.
Having of late intended to write a ' FamUy Directory,' I began
to apprehend how congruously the forementioned work should
lead the way ; and the several conditions of men's souls be
spoken of, before we corae to the several relations. Hereupon
I resolved, by God's assistance, to proceed in the order follow
ing. First, to speak to the impenitent, unconverted sinners,
(k) Works, vol. vii.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 79
who are not yet so much as purposing to turn; or at least
are not setting about the work. With these, I thought, a
wakening persuasive was a raore necessary means than mere
directions ; for directions suppose men willing to obey them. But
the persons that we have first to deal with, are wilful and
asleep in sin, and as men that are past feeling, having given
themselves over to sin witii greediness. My next work must be
for those that have some purposes to turn, and are about the
work, to direct them for a thorough and a true conversion that
they miscarry not in the birth. The third part must be
directions for the younger and weaker sort of Christians, that
they may be estabhshed, built up, and persevere. The fourth
part, directions for lapsed and backsliding Christians, for their
safe recovery. Beside these, there is intended some short per
suasions against some special errors of the times, and against
some coramon kiUing sins. As for directions to doubting troubled
consciences, that is done already ; and the strong 1 shall not
write directions for, because they are so much taught of God
aheady. And then the last part is intended more especially
for famUies, as such, directing the several relations in their du
ties." '
The ' CaU ' appears to be the substance of a sermon which
he had previously preached from Ezekiel xxxiii. 11. He pre
fixes to it a prefatory address to " aU unsanctified persons who
shall read the book, especially his hearers in the parish of Kid
derminister ;" which is itself a powerfully-awakening sermon ;
full of the raost faithful stateraents and expostulations. The
results in the conversion of raen, arising frora this book, have
been greater probably than have arisen frora any other mere
human performance. His own account of the effects produced
by it, which had corae to his knowledge long before his death,
must be given in his own language. And as it has passed
through editions alraost innuraerable since, the good effected by
it is beyond all calculation.
" God hath blessed it with unexpected success beyond all the
rest that I have written, except the ' Saint's Rest.' In a little
more than a year, there were about twenty thousand of them
printed by my own consent, and about ten thousand since ; be
sides many thousands by stolen impression, which poor men
stole for lucre's sake. Through God's mercy, I have had informa
tion of almost whole households converted by this smaU book,
which I set so hght by ; and, as if aU this in England, Scotiand,
and Ireland, were not mercy enough to me, God, since I was
silenced, hath sent it over on his message to many beyond the
seas. For when Mr. EUiot had printed aU the Bible in the
(1) Works, vol. vii. pp. 331, 332.

80 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Indians' language, he next translated this my ' Call to the
Unconverted,' as he wrote to us here : and though it was here
thought prudent to begin with the ' Practice of Piety,' because of
the envy and distaste of the times against me, he had finished
it before that' advice carae to hira. Yet God would make
some further use of it ; for Mr. Stoop, the pastor of the French
church in London, being driven hence by the displeasure of
superiors, was pleased to translate it into elegant French, and
print it in a very curious letter ; and I hope h vvill not be unpro
fitable there, nor in Germany, where it is printed in Dutch." ™
Dr. Bates tells us, in his funeral sermon for Baxter, that six
brothers were at one tirae converted by this book. It has been
translated into Welsh and Gaelic, and most of the European lan
guages; and Cotton Mather, in his life, raentions an Indian
Prince who was so affected with it, that he kept reading it with
tears tiU he died.
The nature of this subject naturally leads me to connect
with the ' Call,' the next tract of this class, which we shaU
notice, though it did not immediately foUow, ' Now or Never';'"
a discourse founded on Ecclesiastes ix. 10; and in which "the
holy, serious, dihgent believer is justified, encouraged, excited,
and directed; and the opposers and neglecters convinced by the
light of Scripture and reason." These tracts are so siraUar in
character, style, and design, that I know not where the pre
ference is due in point of excellence. They are both character
ised by one strongly-raarked feature — intense earnestness —
the earestness of the author's deep convictions of the awfully-
perilous condition of unconverted raen. This was the result of the
clear and powerful perceptions which he had of the present guilt
and wretchedness, and the future loss and ruin of such persons.
It is not the working up of mental excitement till it becomes
passion ; nor is it a labored effort of human eloquence, which
we admire in these treatises. Baxter was thinking of every thing
rather than of the clothing of his thoughts, his words or figures.
He was thinking of the character and desert of a sinner, and
intent only on arresting him before it raight be too late. His
object was to gain his attention, to convince his understanding,
and to irapress his heart. For this purpose he describes, he
reasons, he expostulates, he threatens, he iraplores. He avaUs
himself of every topic calculated to alarm or to aUure. The
character of God — the responsibUity of raan — the uncertainty of
tirae — the misery of hell — tiie glory of heaven — are aU brought
forward and urged with an irresistible force of language, and in
the tenderest appeals to the conscience and the heart.
Baxter's ' Call' stands advantageously contrasted with a trea-
(m) Life, part i. p. 116. (n) Works, vol. vii.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 81
tise of a similar title. Law's ' Serious CaU to a devout and holy
Life.' I am far from thinking lightiy of this work. It contains
much important truth, and rauch serious and valuable admoni
tion ; but it wants w hat Baxter's treatises eminently possess, the
simplicity of evangelical doctrine. Law was more of the school
of Behraen than of Paul. He obscures and mystifies what Bax
ter represents in the siraplest manner. Law's ' Call ' is like the
Egyptian taskmasters, who compeUed the Israelites to make
bricks without straw ; it is an attempt to make men devout and
holy without supplying sufficiently the means, by which alone,
with divine influence, the effects can be produced. Baxter
seeks to influence the mind and character entirely by those rep
resentations of evangelical truth, which must lie at the founda
tion of all comfortable and acceptable religion. The work of
this celebrated mystic naturally tends to a species of self-right
eous Pharisaism ; the work of the Nonconformist, to make an
humble, holy, and happy Christian.
The work of Baxter I cannot help thinking preferable to a
similar production of one of his own brethren, Joseph Alleine's
' Alarm ; ' to which indeed Baxter writes a long preface, where
he unites with the autiior in sounding the alarm to the uncon
verted. Alleine's tract is written in a style of alraost unmiti
gated severity. There is a forbidding sternness in it. FuU of
" the terrors of the Lord," it is calculated to frighten rather
than to persuade. Some of the topics also are not happily chos
en, or discreetiy urged ; yet it is a powerful appeal, and on some
minds raay be fitted to prepare the way for the consideration
ofthe "raercies of the Lord." Baxter's ' Call' is adapted for
more general usefulness. It breathes a softer and kindlier spirit,
while it is no less pointed and faithful than the production of his
friend and brother.
The next work, according to Baxter's own arrangement,
which appeared, with a preface dated May 29, 1658, is his
' Directions and Persuasions to a sound Conversion for preven
tion of that Deceit and Damnation of Souls, and of those Scan
dals, Heresies, and desperate Apostasies, that are the conse
quents of a Counterfeit and Superficial Change.' ° " Having,"
he says, " in my ' Call to the Unconverted,' endeavored to
awaken careless souls, and persuade the obstinate to turn and
live, I have here spoken to thera that seem to be about the
work, and given thera some directions and persuasions to pre
vent their perishing in the birth, and so to prevent that hypocri
sy, which else they are like to be formed into ; and the deceit of
their hearts, the error of their lives, and the misery at their
death, which are likely to follow. That they hve not as those
(o) Works, vol. viii.
VOL. II. 11

82 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
that flatter God with their mouths, and ' lie unto him with their
tongues, because their heart is not right with him, neither are
they steadfast in his covenant.' Le.st, 'denying deep entertain
ment and rooting to the seed of life, or choking it by the radi
cated, predominant love and cares of the world, they wither
when the heat of persecution shall break forth : and lest, build
ing on the sands, they fall when the winds and storms arise, and
their fall be great : and so ' they go out frora us, that they may
be made manifest that they were not of us ; for if they had been
of us they would no doubt have continued with us.' "p
This work, through sorae raisnianageraent on the part of the
bookseller, was at first published at too high a price, and, in
consequence, had a less extensive circulation than sorae of
Baxter's other books. It is well calculated to undeceive those
vifho take it for granted that they have been the subjects of a
divine change, when no such change has been effected. WhUe
great alarra is experienced, it is not so weU fitted to be useful,
as after the alarra has subsided, and the conscience begins to
be satisfied, though the great change has not taken place.
Baxter's directions for conversion are frequently so express
ed, as if raen could accomphsh the change themselves ; or as
if they would do certain things with a view to their being con
verted. For instance, he says, " If you would be truly con
verted, be sure that you make an absolute resignation of your
selves, and all that you have, to God." Now, it is as plain as
possible that only a converted person wiU make such a surren
der as this. The sarae reraark will apply to many other of his
directions. No man, however, had a stronger conviction than
he, that conversion is pecuharly the work of God. His views
of its nature and consequences, as weU as his general senti
ments, afford the most satisfactory evidence, that this must
have been the case. But he did not always sufficiently discri
minate what belongs to God, frora what faUs within the province
of man, in the affairs of religion. He did not distinguish be
tween our using all suitable means to convert men, and calling
upon men to do certain things to convert themselves. Alraost
every thing he said, considered as an appeal to the understand
ings and the consciences of sinners, is strictly correct as means
which God has appointed his servants to employ for the conver
sion of the world ; but when put in the forra of requesting
sinners to perform certain acts with a view to God's converting
them, the nature and tendency of the address are considerably
altered. This gives to some of Baxter's preaching the aspect
of a self-righteous system, in which the work of salvation
is divided between God and man. But nothing could be
(p) Works, Preface, p. i.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 83
further from his design. He meant, in fact, nothing more
than is intended by those solemn appeals in which the prophets
and apostles call upon men to repent, to turn, to be con
verted, to make to them new hearts and right spirits, that they
may live and not die. This language is the voice of God to
the sinner, sleeping in security, and dead in his sins ; it is the
moral means suited to the understanding, and appointed to in
duce consideration and repentance, which the divine Spirit
brings to bear on the heart, while the heart receives the irapres
sion from which salvation and eternal life arise.
Next to this in order, though following after a considerable
interval, is his ' Directions to the Converted for their Establish
ment, Growth, and Perseverance.' i It was preached in a lecture
at Kidderminster in 1658, but was not published by Baxter till
1668. The dedication is an affecting address, to his "Dearly
Beloved, the Church at Kidderminster." In this letter he ex
presses great respect for them, and unabated confidence and af
fection. " The things which I especially loved in you," he says,
" I will freely praise, which were a special measure of humUity,
a plain siraplicity in religion, a freedom from coraraon errors,
a readiness to receive the truth, a catholic temper, without ad
dictedness to any sect ; a freedom from schism and separating
ways, and a unity and unanimity in rehgion ; a hatred and
disowning of the usurpations, perturbations, and rebeUions
against the civil government, and an open bearing of your tes
timony in all these cases ; together with seriousness in religion,
aud sober, righteous, charitable, and godly conversation. But
yet, with all this, which is truly araiable, I know you have your
frailties and imperfections. The weaker sort ofChristians, ehher
in knowledge or in hohness, to say nothing of the unsound,
are the greater number in tbe best congregation that I ever
yet knew. And what may be your case these eight years, since
I have been separated from your presence, I cannot teU, though,
through the mercy of God, I hear not of your declining. It is
our sin which hath parted us asunder, let us lay the blame upon
ourselves. I have now done expecting my ancient coraforts in
laboring araong you any more. For these six years time, in
which I thought my great experience had made rae raore capa
ble of serving my Master better than before, his wisdom and
justice have caused me to spend in grievous silence. And now
my decays and disabihty of body are so rauch increased, that if
I had leave, I have not strength, nor can ever reasonably expect
it ; therefore, once more I am glad to speak to you as I may,
and shaU be thankful, if authority wiU perrait these instructions
to come to your view, that tbe weak may have some more
(q) Works, vol. viii.

84 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
counsel and assistance. And if any shall miscarry, and disgrace
religion, there may remain on record one more testimony, what
doctrine it was that you were taught. The Lord be your teach
er and your strength, and save you from yourselves, and from
this present evil world, and preserve you to his heavenly king
dom, through Jesus Christ." "
He assigns another reason for its publication, beside that of
its being the third partof his intended plan.
" The last serraon which I preached publicly, was at Black-
friars, on this text, Col. ii. 6, 7 ; and presently after there came
forth a book called ' FareweU Sermons,' araong which this of
mine was one. Who did it, or to what end, I know not, nor
doth it concern me to inquire. But I took it as an injury, both
as it was done without my knowledge, and against my wUl, and
to the offence of ray superiors ; and because it was taken by the
notary so imperfectly, that much of it was nonsense : especiaUy
when some foreigners that lived in Poland, Hungary, and Hel
vetia, were earnest to buy this with the rest of my writings, I
perceived how far the injury was likely to go, both against rae and
many others of my brethren. Therefore, finding since among the
relics of my scattered papers, this imperfect piece, which I had
before writteu on that text, I was desirous to pubhsh it, as for
the benefit of weak Christians, so to right myself, and to cash
ier that fareweU sermon." '
The second part of this treatise came out the foUowing year,
under the title of ' The Character of a sound, confirmed Chris
tian ; as also of a weak Christian, and of a seeraing Christian."
The preface to this is addressed to his friend, Henry Ashurst,
Esq., and is dated from "his lodgings in New Prison, June 14,
1669." In reference to this work, he says, in his Life :
" The great weaknesses, passions, and injudiciousness, of
many religious persons, and their ill effects ; and especially per
ceiving that the temptations of the times, yea, the very reproofs
of the Conformists did but increase these things among the sep
arating party, caused me to offer a book to be licensed, called,
' Directions to weak Christians, how to grow in grace,' with a
second part, being 'Sixty Characters of a sound Christian, with
as many of the weak Christian, and the Hypocrite ;' which I
the rather writ to imprint on men's minds a right apprehension
of Christianity, and to be as a confession of our judgment in
this malignant age, when some Conformists would raake the
world believe that it is sorae monstrous thing, composed of fol
ly and sedition, which the Nonconforraists mean by a Christian
and a godly mau. This book came forth when I was in prison,
having been long before refused by Mr. Grigg." "
(r) Works, vol. viii. p. 255. (s) Ibid. vol. viii. p, 258, (t) Ibid, vol, viii,
(u) Life, part iii, p. 61,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 85
Of the reasons of this refusal by the bishop's chaplain, he
gives the foUowing account in another place. " This short trea
tise I offered to Mr, Thomas Grigg, the Bishop of Loudon's
chaplain, to be licensed for the press ; a man who had but late
ly conformed, and who possessed special respect to me ; but
he utterly refused it, pretending that it savored of discontent,
and would be interpreted as against the bishops and the tiraes.
The raatter was, that in several passages I spoke of the prospe
rity of the wicked, and the adversity of the godly ; described
hypocrites by their enmity to the godly, and their forsaking the
truth for fear of suffering ; and described the godly by their
undergoing the enmity of the wicked world, and being steadfast,
whatever it shall cost them. All this was interpreted as against
the Church or Prelatists. I asked thera whether they would
not hcense that of raine, which they would do of another man's,
against whom they had no displeasure ; and he told me,
no ; because the words would receive their interpretation wit.h
the mind of the author. He asked me whether I did not my
self think that Nonconformists would interpret it as against the
times. I answered him, yes ; I thought they would : and so
they do all those passages of Scripture, which speak of perse
cution, and the sufferings of the godly ; but I hoped Bibles
should be licensed for all that. I asked him whether that was
the rule which they went by, that they would license nothing of
mine, which they thought any readers would interpret as against
the bishops or their party. And when he told me plainly, that
it was their rule or resolution, I took it for my final answer, and
purposed never to offer hira raore : for I despaired of writing
that which men would not interpret according to their own con
dition and opinion ; especially against those whose crimes are
notorious before the world. This made me think what a trou
blesome thing is guilt, which, as Seneca saith, is like a sore,
which is pained not only with a little touch, but soraetiraes upon
a conceit that it is touched. It raaketh a man think that every
briar is a Serjeant to arrest him ; or, with Cain, that every one who
seeth him will kill him. A Cainite's heart and hfe, have usual
ly the attendance of a Cainite's conscience. I did but try the
hcenser with this small, inconsiderable script, that I might know
what to expect for my more valued writings ; I then told him that
I had troubled the world with so much already, and said enough
for one man's part, that I could not think it very necessary to
say any more to them ; and therefore I should accept of his
discharge. But fain they would have had my controversial
wrhings, about universal rederaption, predeterraination, Sic, in
which ray judgment is more pleasing to them ; but I was un
wUling to publish them alone, while the practical writings are
refused. I give God thanks that I once saw times of greater

86 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
liberty, though under an usurper ; or else, as far as I can discern,
scarce any of my books had ever seen the light." "
Having followed the order and connexion pointed out by
Baxter himself, in his works relating to conversion and the un
converted, we must now depart from systematic arrangement to
notice several important pieces which stUI belong to the same
class of writing. I shall follow the order of time in vvhich they
appeared : ' The Mischiefs of self-ignorance, and the Benefits of
self-acquaintance, opened in divers Sermons at St. Dunstan's,
West.' 1661. 4to. ^ This volume is dedicated to Anne, Coun
tess of Balcarras. Then follows an address to the people of
Kidderminster, giving an account of the reasons why he was
not allowed to preach in the diocese of Worcester, and which
led to a controversy between him and Bishop Morley.
The subject of which he discourses, is one of great import
ance, and hes at the foundation of aU proper knowledge and
experience of the power of religion. It is founded on 1 Cor.
xiii. 5, " Know ye not your own selves ? " This treatise is pro
bably less known to the reading public, than many of the prac
tical works of Baxter, not because it is less valuable, but be
cause it has not been regularly supplied in separate and suc
cessive editions. Its excellence consists not in doctrinaUy un
folding the econoray of grace, or in directly pressing upon the
reader the necessity of repentance towards God, or faith towards
our Lord Jesus Christ, but in tracing out the involutions of that
most intricate economy of thought and feeling, judgraent and
action, moral liking and moral antipathy, which exists entire,
and works apart in the bosora of every individual : and in this
way it is powerfully subservient to repentance and faith, by dis
turbing the apathy, and corabating the ignorant indifference,
which so fatally shut them out from men's consciences and
hearts. Its general scheme of thought is instructively arranged ;
and although its topics are numerous, they are not diffusely
treated ; whUe under each of them, there is a rich variety of
Ulustrative raatter, judiciously selected, and very aptly intro
duced. It is idle to say more ofthe manner of the writing, than
that it is the manner of Richard Baxter ; showing the writer in
every page, but clear, concise, and simple, beyond several of his
other pieces ; while it is second to none of thera in persuasive
eloquence and impressive fervor, clothing thoughts which are
not familiar, in very conspicuous language, and adapting itself,
with uncommon felicity, to the inexperienced and the undisci
plined. The whole style and spirit of the work are exactiy
suited to the nature of the subject ; and we think it well enti
tled to a place among the few books which the parent selects
(x) Life, part i, p, 123, (y) Works, vol. xvi.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 87
for his chUd, or the pastor for the young of his flock, or the
guardian for his pupU, as a means of awakening religious inqui
ry, and forming habits of early reflection. ^
Of the Countess of Balcarras, to whom this work is dedica
ted, and her husband, of whose piety the author speaks in terms
of warm commendation, tiie foUowing account wiU interest the
reader :
" She was daughter of the late Earl of Seaforth in Scotland,
towai'ds the Highlands, and was raarried to the Earl of Balcar
ras, a covenanter, but an enemy to Cromwell's perfidiousness,
and true to the person and authority of the king. With the Earl
of Glencarne, he kept up the last war for the king against
Cromwell; and his lady, through dearness of affection, marched
with him, and lay out of doors with him on the raountains. At
last, Cromwell drove them out of Scotland, and they went to
gether beyond sea to the king, whom they long foUowed. He
was taken for the head of the Presbyterians with the king ;
but, by evU instruraents, he feU out with the lord chancellor,
who, prevailing against hira upon sorae advantage, he was for a
time forbidden the court ; the grief whereof, added to the dis
tempers he had contracted by his warfare on the cold and hun
gry raountains, cast him into a consumption, of which he died.
He was a lord of excellent learning, judgraent, and honesty ;
none being praised equaUy with him for learning and under
standing in all Scotiand.
" When the Earl of Lauderdale (his near kinsman and great
friend) was prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor Castie, he fell
into acquaintance with my books, and so valued them, that he
read them aU, and took notes of them, and earnestly commend
ed them to the Earl of Balcarras, then with the king. The
Earl met, at the first sight, with sorae passages where he
thought I spake too favorably of the Papists, and differed frora
many other Protestants; so he cast them by, and sent the rea
son of his distaste to the Earl of Lauderdale, who pressed him
but to read one of the books over ; which he did, and then
read them aU, (as I have seen raany of thera raarked with his
hand,) and was drawn to overvalue them raore than the Earl of
Lauderdale. Hereupon his lady reading them also, and being
a woman of very strong love and friendship, with extraordinary
entireness swallow^ed up in her husband's love, she, for the
books' sake, and her husband's sake, became a most affectionate
friend to rae before she ever saw me. WhUe she was in France,
being zealous for the king's restoration, (in whose cause her
(z) A good edition of this work has recently been published by Collins, of
Glasgow, among the ' Select Christian Authors,' with an admirable introduction
by my excellent friend the Rev. David Young, of Perth, from which the prece
ding paragraph has been taken.

88 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
husband had pawned and ruined his estate,) by the Earl of
Lauderdale's direction, she, with Sir Robert Murray, got divers
letters from the pastors and others there to bear witness of the
king's sincerity in the Protestant rehgion ; among which there
was one to me from Mr. Caches. Her great wisdom, modesty,
piety and sincerity, made her accounted the saint at court.
When she came over with the king, her extraordinary respect
obliged me to be so often with her, as gave me acquaintance
with her eminency in aU the foresaid virtues. She was of
solid understanding for her sex; of prudence, rauch raore
than ordinary ; of great integrity and constancy in her reli
gion ; a great hater of hypocrisy ; and faithful to Christ in an
unfaithful world. She was soraewhat over affectionate to her
friends, which hath cost her a great deal of sorrow in the loss of
her husband, and since of other special friends ; and may cost
her more, when the rest forsake her, as many in prosperity
do to those that will not forsake their fidelity to Christ. Her
eldest son, the young Earl of Balcarras, a very hopeful youth,
died of a strange disease ; two stones being found in his heart,
of which one was very great. Being my constant auditor, and
over-respectful friend, I had occasion for the just praises and
acknowledgements which I have given ber ; which the occasion
ing of these books hath caused rae to raention." '^
The death of Lord Balcarras took place on the 30th of August,
1659. His eldest son, referred to above, died in 1662.'' In
the margin of the passage of Baxter's hfe which I have ex
tracted, Lady Balcarras is stated to have been afterwards
married to the Earl of Argyle. Whether this note is Baxter's
or Sylvester's, I am unable to say, nor can 1 vouch for its accu
racy. She must in that case have been second wife to the
unfortunate Argyle, who lost his hfe, as his father also had done,
on a charge of high treason, at the Market Cross of Edinburgh,
on the 30th of June, 1685.
In his letter to tbe inhabitants of Kidderminster, prefixed to this
volume, Baxter gives a short account of the Savoy Conference,
and hints that something he had said there, with which Dr.
Morley, the bishop of Winchester, was exceedingly offended, was
the cause of the bishop's refusing to allow him to preach again at
Kidderrainster, or anywhere in his diocese. " At the conclusion
of this conference," he says, " those of the other part formed an
argument, whose major proposition was to this sense : ' What
soever book enjoineth nothing but what is of itself lawful, and
by lawful authority, enjoineth nothing that is sinful.' We denied
this proposhion, and at last gave divers reasons of our denial ;
among which, one was ' It may be unlawful by accident, and,
(a) Life, parti, p. 121. (b) ' Burke's Peerage,' p, 43,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 89
tiberefore, sinful.' You know my crime, it is my concurring
with learned, reverend brethren, to give this reason of our
denial of a proposition : yet they are not forbidden to preach —
only I."
The bishop took fire at this statement with one or two other
aUusions to hiraself, and published shortly after ' A Letter to a
Friend, in vindication of hiraself from Mr Baxter's calurany.'
In this letter, his lordship denies that Baxter ever had a right to
be minister of Kidderminster ; accuses him of having robbed and
injured the lawful vicar ; represents hira to the people of Kid
derminster as a very improper person to have the charge of
thera, and accuses hira of holding various " maxims of treason,
sedition, and rebeUion, and as guilty of certain mis-statements."
In proof o( this, he introduces the testiraony of Dr. Gunning and
Dr. Pearsoti ; and concludes by making an appeal, " whether a
man of this judgment and of these affections ought to be per
mitted to preach ?"
" When the bishop's invective was read," Baxter says, " many
men were of many minds about the answering of it : those at
a distance all cried out upon me to answer ; those at hand
did all dissuade rae, and told mc that it would be imprisonment
at least to me, if I did it with the greatest truth and mildness
possible. Both gentlemen and all the city ministers told me,
that it would not do half so much good as my suffering
would do hurt ; that none believed it but the engaged party ;
that to others an answer was not necessary, and would be
unprofitable, for they would never read it. I thought that
the judgment of men that were upon the place, and knew how
things went, was most to be regarded. But yet I wrote a
full answer to his book, except about the words in my ' Holy
Commonwealth,' which were not to be spoken to, and kept it by
me, that I might use it as there was occasion. At tbat tirae,
Mr. Joseph GlanvU sent rae the ofler of his service, to write in
my defence, but I dissuaded him frora bringing hiraself into
suffering, and making himself unserviceable, for so low an end:
only I gave him, and no man else, my own answer to peruse,
which he returned with his approbation of it.
" But Mr. Edward Bagshaw (son to Mr. Bagshaw, the lawyer,
that wrote ' Mr. Bolton's Life ') without ray knowledge wrote a
book in answer to the bishop's. I could have wished he had let
it alone ; for the man hath no great disputing faculty, but only
a florid, epistolary style, and was whoUy a stranger to rae and to
the matters of fact, and, therefore, could say nothing to them :
bat only being of a bold and Roman spirit, he thought that no
suffering should deter a man from the smaUest duty, or cause
him to silence any useful truth. And I had forraerly seen a
VOL. II. 12

90 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Latin discourse of his against raonarchy, which no whit pleased
me, being a weak argumentation for a bad cause.""
Glanvil's letters, offering to write in Baxter's defence agamst
Dr. Morely, stUl remain. They are fuU of coraraendation of
Baxter's character, and of the success whh which he had met
the bishop's charges. " Methinks," he says, " 'tis a great pity
but the world should be disabused, and that your right reverend
libeUer should be made ashamed, ofhis misreports and slander
ous falsifications." He advises Baxter, by all raeans to publish,
as, tUl his defence appeared, " the reverend father's lies wiU be
taken for irreproveable truths." ^ This language is abundantly
plain frora a son of the church towards one of her reverend pre
lates ; and it is certainly more iUustrative of his attachment to
Baxter, than of his respect for the episcopal hierarchy.
Though Baxter suppressed his answer to the bishop's letter,
he took notice of it in the epistolary preface to his ' Ti-ue and
Only Way of Concord,' published in 1680, which he addressed
to Bishops Morely and Gunning, whom he considered the chief
instruraents in defeating the design of the Savoy Conference.
In sorae other of his controversial pieces, Baxter also aUudes to
the bishop's conduct.
That the bishop felt an impression had been made against
him by Baxter's publications, is very evident ; for at the distance
of twenty years from the original discussion, when in the eighty-
fifth year of his age, he published a quarto volume of raore than
five hundred pages, 'The Bishop of Winchester's Vindication of
hiraself from divers false, scandalous, and injurious Reflections,
made upon him by Mr. Richard Baxter, in several of his writ
ings.' 1683. In this large volurae, the bishop reprints the
'Letter to a Friend,' already noticed, and then in his Vindica
tion, proceeds to support his charges against Baxter, the pro
priety of his conduct in silencing him, and of his own behaviour
at the Savoy Conference. The whole is mixed up with the
bishop's political and high-church sentiraents, which were as
Uttle in accordance with the principles of the Brhish constitution,
as with the spirit of the New Testament. Baxter wrote no for
mal answer to this work ; but in reference to it, he says : " Bish
op Morley was accounted one of the most erainent ofthe clergy,
for parts and orthodoxy. One book against me, called his
Letter, is most shameless for untruths in public matters of fact.
His last and greatest is to prove against me, that tbe parliament
hath no part in legislative power, nor the whole kingdom any
right of self-defence against any commissioned by the king on
any pretence whatsoever. This accuser is an eminent member
of the best church in the world. Is this bundle of gross untruths
(c) Life, part ii, p, 378. (d) Baxter MSS,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 91
a proof that he is one of the best men in the world ? He saith
that ' the good that 1 wrote was for mischievous ends.' But
what should move a man, in pain and expectation of speedy
death, to write above six score books, great and small, that are
contrary to the bent ofhis ovvn heart? And, for that whicli he
would mischievously overthrow to spend his life against his own
affections ? " »
Having finished this digression on the controversy whh
Bishop Morley, we returu to the class of books which is the
proper subject of this chapter.
The next work vvhich flowed from the pen of our untiring
writer, in this class, bears a very singular and perhaps objection
able title, ' A Saint or a Brute. The certain necessity and
excellency of holiness, so plainly proved, and urgently applied,
as by the blessing of God may convince and save the miserable,
impenitent, ungodly sensualists, if they will not let the devil
hinder them frora a sober and serious reading.' 1662. 4to. ^
From the dedication to his flock at Kidderrainster, and his
late hearers in London, I cannot avoid quoting a paragraph or
two, beautifully written :
" Once more, through the great raercy of God, I have liberty
to send you a preacher for your private families, which may
speak to you when I cannot, and when I lie silent in the dust.
I take it for no smaU mercy, that I have been so rauch employ
ed about the great and necessary things, in despite of all the
mahce of Satan, who would have entangled me, and taken up
my time in personal vindications and barren controversies.
" I was also, when I first intended writing, under another terap
tation : being of their raind who thought that nothing should be
made public but what a raan had first laid out his raost choice
art upon, I thought to have acquainted the world with nothing
but what was the work of tirae and diligence ; but my con
science soon told rae that there was too rauch of pride and
selfishness in this, and that humihty and self-denial required me
to lay by the affectation of that style, and spare that industry
which tended but to advance my name with men, when it hin
dered the main work, and crossed my end. Providence, draw-
(e) 'Penitent Confession,' p. 65. The controversy between Morley and Bax
ter appears to have been taken up very hotly by several persons on both sides.
It occasioned — Hypocrisy Unveiled, in a Letter to Mr. Baxter, 1662 — A Letter
to a Person of Honor, containing some Animadversions on the Bishop of Wor
cester's Letter to Mr. Baxter, 1662 — A Second Letter on the same subject, 1662
— A Letter, with some Animadversions on the Animadverter on the Bishop of
Worcester's Letter, by J. C, M. D. 1662— D. E. Defeated ; or, a Reply to a
late scurrilous Pamphlet against the Bishop of Worcester's Letter, 1662 — Reflec
tions upon the Animadversions upon the Bishop of Worcester's Letter, by H. G.
1662 — Vindication of the Bishop of Worcester's Letter touching Mr, Baxter,
from the Animadversions of D. E, 1662. Behold how great a fire a little matter
kindleth !
(f) Works, vol. X.

92 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
ing forth some popular unpolished discourses, and giving them
success beyond my expectation, did thereby rebuke ray selfish
thoughts, and satisfy rae that the truths of God do perform their
work more by their divine authority, and proper evidence, and
material exceUency, than by any ornaments of fleshly wisdom.
And, as Seneca saith, though I wUl not despise an eloquent phy
sician, yet wiU I not think myself much the happier for his add
ing eloquence to his healing art. Being encouraged, then, by
reason and experience, I venture these popular sermons into the
world, and especially for the use of you, my late auditors, that
heard them. ¦ I bless God that when more worthy laborers are
fain to weep over their obstinate, unprofitable, unthankful peo
ple, and some are driven away by their injuries, and put to
shake off the dust of their feet against thera; I am rather forced
to weep over my own unthankful heart, that did not sufficientiy
value the raercy of a faithful flock, who parted with me rather
as the Ephesians with Paul, and who have lived according to the
plain and necessary doctrine which they had received. Among
whom, Papists, who persuade men that our doctrine tendeth to
divisions, can find no divisions or sects; who have constantly
disowned both the ambitious usurpations which have shaken the
kingdora, and the factions, censoriousness, and civil violence in
the church, which pride hath generated and nourished in this
trying age. Among whom, I have enjoyed so very large a pro
portion of mercy, in the liberty of so long an exercise of my
ministry, with so universal advantage and success, that I must be
disingenuously unthankful if I should murraur and repine at the
present restraining hand of God. But I raust say with David ;
'If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he wUl bring rae
again, and show me the ark and habitation.' There, or else
where, use me in his service. But if he say, ' I have no de
light in thee ; behold, here am I, let him do to me as it seemeth
good unto hira.' " s
It was not the pleasure of God (hat Baxter should resume his
labors in the place which occupied so much of his heart and
of his thoughts. Painful as he felt this trial to be, he learned
to submit to it ia quietness and patience, and no doubt found
that it was among the things which worked together for his
good. The most objectionable part of this work is its title, which
presents a more offensive aspect to the reader than is desirable,
or than the nature ofthe subject warrants. The great object of
it is to convince men " that holiness is the most pleasant way ;
that the godly choose the better part, and that the ungodly sen
sualists live as brutes, while they unreasonably refuse to live as
(g) Works, vol. X. pp. 3 — 5.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 93
saints." The treatise is founded on Luke xi. 41, 42, and, like
many other of his practical writings, is ilie substance of ihe dis
courses which he delivered from the pulpit. Part ol it relates
to the deistical controversy, and is recommended by himself lo
be read in connexion witli tlie second part of his ' Saint's Rest,'
and the ' Treatise against Infidelity.' Many of his statements
are strong and pointed, and though the argument is maintained
in a very discursive manner, it is prosecuted with his character
istic ability.
The other and smaUer performances in this class I shall group
together, as none ol them require a distinct notice. The titles
in general, sufficiently explain their nature and design. They
were all the substance of sermons preached in different places,
though published rather in the form of tracts, or treatises, than
sermons. ' Making Light of Christ and Salvation,' preached at St.
Lawrence Jewry, London. *¦ ' The One Thing Necessary ; or,
Christ's Justification of Mury's Choice.' 1684.' 'Cain and
Abel Malignity ; or, Enraity to serious Godliness, laraented,
described, detected,' fee. 1689.'' This treatise is partly de
signed to expose the evU of enraity to serious godliness, as the
root of aU persecution. Preface to Alleine's ' Alarra.' 'A Serraon
of Judgraent,' preached at St. Paul's, before the lord mayor and
aldermen of London, Dec. 1654. ' 'Redemption of Time.'"
Baxter mentions some circumstances respecting two of
these sermons, which illustrate his popularity as a preacher,
and are therefore worth the recording. " When I returned
horae, I was solicited by letters to print many of the sermons
which I had preached in London ; and in some of them I gra
tified their desires. One sermon which I published, was against
men's making light ofChrist, upon Matt. xxii. 5. This serraon
was preached at St. Lawrence Jewry, where Mr. Vines was pas
tor ; .where, though I sent the day before to secure roora for the
Lord Broghill and the Earl of Suffolk, with whora I was to go
in the coach ; yet when I came, the crowd had so little respect
to persons, that they were fain to go horae again, because they
'would not corae within hearing. The old Earl of Warwick,
who stood in the lobby, brought rae horae again ; and Mr.
Vines himself was fain to get up into the pulpit and sit behind
me, and 1 stood between his legs ; which I mention that the
reader may understand that verse in my poem concerning him,
which is printed, wiere I say that,
'At once one pulpit held us both.'
" Another of those serraons which I published, was a sermon
of judgment, which I enlarged into a smaU treatise. This was
(h) Works, vol. xvi. (i) Ibid. vol. x. (k) Ibid. (1) Ibid. (m) Ibid.

94 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
preached at St. Paul's at the desire of Sir Christopher Pack,
then lord mayor, to the greatest auditory that ever I saw." '
It is iinpossible to survey the diss of writings which we
have thus briefly brought under review, without admiring the
goodness and wisdora of God, in raising up a man capable of
producing thera. Whh aU the imperfections belonging to
them as human performances, written often in haste, and amidst
the distractions of a period of great affliction and agitation,
where shall we find, in the wide rangeof human literature, so large
a portion of powerful and heart-stirring appeal? They comprise
deeply interesting and comprehensive views of the guilt and
misery of man, and the divine provision of mercy through a
Saviour ; of the awful punishment which awaits the wicked, and
ofthe immortal blessedness provided for the righteous. These
topics are interwoven, in general, with great address, with every
thing that is tender in entreaty, solemn in warning, and faithful
in reproof and expostulation. Baxter appeals not to the pas
sions only, but to the judgment. His aim is to convince the
understanding, as well as to subdue the heart. He calculated
on no impressions being lasting or useful, but those which were
produced by enlightened views of truth and error, holiness and
sin, time and eternity. He dealt not in noisy and vapid decla
mation, but in sound and persuasive argument. He felt the
goodness of his cause, and the weight trf the reasons which he
could adduce in its support, and with a giant's strength, and an
angel's earnestness, he urged the subject home on every man's
bosom and business.
It will probably be remarked, that in these discourses there
is a larger portion ofthe Law than ofthe Gospel; and thatthey
are more calculated to operate on the fears than on the hopes
of men. While I adrait this to be true, I doubt whether it
ought to be regarded as a fault. The object of the author is to
awaken and convince ; he therefore went, what he considered to
;be, the straightforward road to it. He did not conceal the pro
mises of the Gospel, but they did not constitute the chief topics
of his preaching to raen whom he wished to rouse. Judging
fey the success attending his labors, which arose, there is
reason to believe, from the great plainness and fidelity with
which he warned men, instead of censuring, it would be well to
imitate the style of his preaching.
He was never afraid of carrying the warmth and energy of his
appeals too far. He often complains of his own coldness, but
never of the excess of his zeal. The charge of fanaticism gave
him no concern. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, he cared
notliing for the displeasure or the frown of men, but made it
(n) Life, parti, pp. III. 112,

or RICHARD BAXTER. 95
his grand concern to be found faithful. To win souls was his
object ; tiie gaining of them was his reward. Nor did he lose
his aim. If few men have labored harder, or under greater
bodily suffering, or more severe reproach, few, indeed, have
enjoyed a richer reward. In the many fruits of his labors, he
coulil exult, even while on earth ; they now constitute his crown
of rejoicing in heaven.

96 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER IV.

WORKS ON CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE,
Introductory Remarks^' Rijht Method for settled Peace of Conacience ' — Colonel Bridges —
' The Crucifying of the VVorld '—Thomas Foley, Esq.—' Treatise on Self-Denial '— ' Obedi
ent Patience ' — 'Life of Faitli' — ' Knowleilge and Love compared' — Sir Henry and Lady
Diana Ashurst — 'Gods Goodness Vindicated' — -Vnrious Discourses — * Cure of Melancho
ly* — Baxter's experience among Persons thus afflicted — Conclusion. -
If the works noticed in the preceding chapter show how ad
mirably qualified Baxter was for dealing with the unconverted,
and how powerfully and successfully he directed his energies
to benefit thera, the present chapter will bring before the reader
a class of books which equally iUustrates his capacity for in
structing and edifying Christians, and shows that this branch
of the Christian ministry was cultivated by hiin no less than
the former.
When a sinner has been converted from the error ofhis ways,
only the first step has been taken towards the kingdora of heaven.
His knowledge probably extends but to the merest elements of
religion ; or to those first truths, which as they are the simplest,
so are they the most powerfully calculated to interest the under
standing, and engage the affections. His perceptions of the
extent of his wretchedness and danger, and ofthe divine suitable
ness of Heaven's plan of recovery, coraprehend, perhaps, aU that
is true, and yet embraee but a narrow range. As he becomes
farailiar with these, he perceives their connexion with other
subjects, more difficult and complex. His mind requires fresh
excitement to counteract its natural bias, to prevent its return to
former pursuits and habits, and to carry it on in the new course
into which it has been led.
But new discoveries of truth, and of the way of righteousness,
are not the only discoveries which a man coraes to make in the
progress of Christianity. He makes discoveries of the depravity
and deceitfulness of his heart, for which he was not at first, per
haps, at aU prepared ; which astound and perplex him, lead
him to question his own sincerity, the reality of the change
which he supposes had taken place in his mind ; and thus brings
him into deep distress. His conscience is wounded, his spirits

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 97
are depressed, and his confidence in the adaptation of the Gos
pel remedy, or m his right to use it, is very considerably abated.
Much skUl is required in the treatment of persons in this
state. Severity or tenderness, when unduly or improperly ex
ercised, may be alraost equally injurious. The one may create
despondency and desperation ; the other may soothe and quiet a
wound without healing it. In some cases it is necessary to apply
a sedative, in others a stimulus. The sensibUity of some is
quicker than their understandings ; the judgment of such must
be informed. In other cases the mind is sufficientiy enlightened,
but the conscience is not properly under its guidance ; the moral
faculties of such must be tiie chief object of attention. Some
in structers, like quacks in medicine, have a spiritual panacea for
every case. This they apply without judgment or discrimina
tion, healing some, and killing others ; but in both the pro
fessions, whUe the cures are raagnified and blazoned, we hear as
littie as possible of the deaths which are inflicted.
Christianity is perfectiy adapted to aU the diversified forms
of evil which can or do occur among men. If it were not, it
would not be what the Scriptures represent it — the fruit of Je
hovah's highest wisdom, the profoundest display of his goodness
to creatures ; and therefore worthy of the reception of every
human being to whom it is addressed. Hence the great busi
ness of the Christian ministry, in relation to believers, is, to un
fold the various parts of this infinitely wise and beneficent
scheme ; to obviate the difficulties arising from their imperfect
acquaintance with it ; to iUustrate the relative connexion and
harmony of its various principles, and the holy tendency and
design of aU its provisions and enactraents.
By many iU-informed persons, who make a profession of
religion, a kind of nausea is felt, when the subject of Chris
tian experience is mentioned. It is instantiy regarded as the
cant of a party, or as something akin to fanaticism. At aU
events it is set down as what belongs only to the weaker portion
of the religious coraraunity, or is charitably ascribed to an over
sensitive conscience, or the undue cultivation of a spirituahty
which is not adapted to present circumstances. The subject is
therefore discarded, as unworthy of attention from men of
more enlarged and cultivated minds.
It is readily granted that the subject has been abused ; that
a phraseology has been employed in treating it both disgusting
and absurd ; that it has been substhuted in the place of the
higher morals of religioa, and treated as if it were compatible
with outward carelessness and even gross misconduct. StiU it
would be as foohsh to deny the existence of what is commonly
called christian experience, as to deny that individuals who
are under a process of cure or healing, have any consciousness
VOL. II. 13

98

THE LIb'E AND WRITINGS

of the effects which are produced by the medicines that are
prescribed to them. If the Gospel is destined and fitted to
act as a remedy, there must be a sensible experience to cor
respond with it. There must be a consciousness of the effects,
if the truth has exerted a searching power on the con
science, a healing influence on the heart, and a transforming
operation on the whole character. If it has infused a new
principle of life into the soul, giving a new tone and direction
to its thoughts and pursuits, and surrounding it by a healthier
and hoher atmosphere than it ever before breathed, there must
be some knowledge of aU this. As the process of divine influence
advances or retrogrades ; as it experiences checks from within,
or counteractions from without ; as there is a vigorous and per
severing co-operation on our part with God's revealed purposes
and plans, or a state of inactivity or positive resistance, so wiU
the work of salvation be advancing or receding. Now aU this
makes up what we understand by religious experience, or the
Christian life, to cultivate which both the ministry and writings
of Baxter were devoted.
The first work on this subject which he published is, his
' Right Method for Settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual
Comfort.'" 1653. 12mo. This was the fourth of Baxter's
publications, and was occasioned, chiefly, by the lady of Colonel
John Bridges, for whose benefit, in the first instance, it was com
posed and printed. He accordingly dedicates it to Colonel and
Mrs. Bridges, and to Mr. and Mrs. Foley, all of whora were per
sons in opulent circurastances, who belonged to his congregation
at Kidderminster. " Though one only," he says, " had the orig
inal interest in these papers, I now direct them to you aU, as not
knowing how, in this, to separate you. You dweU together in
my estimation and affection : one of you a member of the
church which I must teach, and, legally, the patron of its raain
tenance and minister ; the other, a special branch of that family,
to which I was first indebted in this county. You lately joined
in presenting to the parliament the petition of this county for
the Gospel and a faithful ministry. When I only told you of
my intention of sending some poor scholars to the University,
you freely and jointly offered your considerable annual allowance
thereto, and that for the continuance of my life, or their neces
sities there. I will tell the world of this, whether you wUl or
not ; not for your applause, but for their iraitation, and the shame
of many who wiU not be drawn to do the like."?
Colonel Bridges, then patron of the parish of Kidderminster,
was the long and tried friend of Baxter, and one who made a
considerable figure during the Commonwealth. He had the
command of a '•regiment in Ireland immediately before the
(») Worke, vol. ix. (p) Epistle Dedisatory, Works, vol. ix.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 99
Restoration, and, by a dexterous manoeuvre, got possession of
Dublin Castle, without bloodshed ; of which he published a
short narrative. " Had h not been for that action," says Bax
ter, " it is probable that Ireland would have been the refuge and
rendezvous for the disbanded fugitive army, and that there
they would not only have maintained the war, but have em
bodied against England, and corae over again, with resolutions
heightened by their warnings. The reward that Colonel Bridges
had for this service was the peaceful testiraony of his conscience,
and a narrow escape frora being utterly ruined ; being sued in nn
action of fourscore thousand pound ; as one that, after Edghill
fight, had taken the king's goods, which was proved false, and
he, being cleared by the court, did quickly after die of a fever,
at Chester and go to a raore peaceable and desirable world."'
" Mrs. Bridges," Baxter inforras us, " was often weeping out her
doubts to hira, about her long and great uncertainty of her true
sanctification and salvation. He told her that a few hasty words
were not direction enough for the satisfactory resolving of so
great a case ; and that he would, therefore, lay her down a few
of those necessary directions, which she should read and study,
and get weU iraprinted on her mind." When he had begun it,
he found he could not make it so brief as he had expected, and
judging that it might be useful to others as well as to the lady
who occasioned it, he enlarged it, to meet other cases beside hers.'
The small tract, originaUy designed to be but " one sheet of
paper," thus swelled out into a little volurae, containing " Thirty-
two Directions" for the attainraent or the preservation of the
important blessing — peace of mind. The Puritans and Non
conformists may be said to have excelled in the class of books
to which this work belongs. Sibbs's ' Bruised Reed, and Soul's
Conflict ; ' Symond's ' Deserted Soul's Case and Cure ; ' the
works of Preston, Perkins, BaU, and Culverwell, on similar to
pics, were all prior to this of Bax;ter's ; but cannot be regarded
as superseding it. It is better written than most of its prede
cessors of the sarae class, and is, on the whole, well calculated
to answer the purpose for which it was intended. The direc
tions are, indeed, sufficiently nuraerous, and some of them quite
as much calculated to entangle and perplex as to assist. He
found, he informs us, respecting it,
" This book pleased Dr. Hammond well, and many rational
persons, and some of those for whom it was written ; but the
women and weaker sort, I found, could not so well iraprove
clear reason as they can a few comfortable, warm, and pretty
sentences. It is style, and not reason, which doth most with
tiiem. Some of the divines were angry with it, for a passage or
(q) Life, part i. p, 105. (r) Ibid. p. 109,

100 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
two about perseverance ; because I had said that many men are
certain oftheir present sanctification, who are not certain of their
perseverance and salvation, meaning all the godly that are as
sured of their sanctification, and yet do not hold the certainty
of perseverance. But a great storm of jealousy and censure
was, by this, and some such words, raised against me by many
good men, who lay more on their opinions and party than they
ought ; therefore, as some would have had me to retract it, and
others to leave it out of the next impression, I did the latter." "
From a Dedication to the Poor in Spirit, which is prefixed
to this work, I extract an admirably descriptive passage of the
Antinomians of that period. It is equally apphcable stiU. " One
thing more, I confess, did much prevaU with me to make these
papers public, and that is, the Antinomians' common, confident
obtrusion of their anti-evangelical doctrines and methods for
comforting troubled souls. They are the most notorious moun
tebanks in this art, the highest pretenders, and most unhappy
performers, that most of the reformed churches ever knew.
And none, usually, are more ready to receive their doctrines
than such weak women or unskUful people, that, being in trou
ble, are like a sick man in great pain, who is glad to hear what
all can say, and to make trial of every thing by which he hath
any hope of ease. Then there is so much opium in these moun
tebanks' nepenthes, or antidote of rest ; so many principles of
carnal security and presumption, which tend to the present ease
of the patient, whatever follows, that it is no wonder if some
well-meaning Christians do quickly swallow the bait, and pro
claim the rare effects of this medicament, and the admirable
skill of this unskUful sect, to the ensnaring of others, especially
that are in the like distress." '
In 1658, he published ' The Crucifying of the World by the
Cross of Christ,' " a treatise in quarto, the substance of which
had originally been delivered as an assize sermon, which was
preached at Worcester, when Thoraas Foley, Esq., was high
sheriff of the county. To that gentleman it is accordingly
dedicated. He was a man of distinguished piety and benevo
lence, and the devoted friend of Baxter. From very moderate
circumstances, his father, Richard Foley, and he, rose, by means
of iron works in the county of Worcester, to the possession of
an estate of five thousand pounds per annura — an immense sum
in those days. He necessarily acquired the patronage of seve
ral livings on his extensive property, to which he invariably pre
sented worthy and useful ministers. Kidderminster fell into
his hands after Baxter had left it, having been purchased from
Colonel Bridges, and to which he would gladly have present-
Is) Life, part i. pp. 109, IIO. (t) Works, vol, ix, p, 61, (u) Works, vol. ix.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 101
ed Baxter, had he been capable of accepting it. Baxter's ' De
dication' is commendatory, but faithful. It is worthy of the
grateful friend, but not less of the conscientious servant of
Christ. Richard Foley, the founder of the family, and the
early patron of Baxter, died in 1657. He endowed a school
at Stourbridge, with five hundred pounds per annura. His great
grandson was raised to the peerage by Queen Anne, in 1711 , by
the titie of Baron Foley of Kidderminster, from whom the pre
sent noble famUy of that name has descended. " After the
dedication is a long preface ' To the Nobility, Gentry, and all
that have the riches of this World,' in which Baxter addresses
them with great fidehty respecting their easily-besetting sins,
warns them of the^danger of trusting in their external advantages,
and endeavors to excite them to the performance of good
works. ^
The discourse itself, which is founded on Gal. vi. 14, brings
the grand subject of Christianity, with its inseparable, practical
influence, powerfuUy before the reader. WhUe it preserves the
style of address throughout, it is much more of a treatise than
a sermon, having been greatiy enlarged, in every part, after its
dehvery. He first discusses, negatively, what it is not, and
then, positively, what it is to have the world crucified to us, and
to be crucified tothe world. He next shows how this is effect
ed by the cross of Christ. He then assigns various reasons, to
show that this is so, and why it raust be so. In conclusion,
he apphes the first part of the doctrme of the text, by show
ing that, for the reasons assigned, believers must glory in the
cross of Christ, abhorring the glorying of worldly men.
While the doctrine of salvation, through the sacrifice of
Christ, is clearly enough stated in the discourse, it is not the
prominent or leading topic of it. In this respect, it differs
vridely from the celebrated sermon of Maclaurin, on the same
text and subject. In that beautiful production, the work of the
Redeemer on the cross, is set forth as the highest manifesta
tion of the love and wisdom of God, with a power of iUus
tration and fehcity of expression which have never been ex
ceeded. In the discourse of Baxter, the effect ofthis doctrine
in withdrawing raen firom the love and enjoyment of the world,
and in fixing the heart on the subhmer and holier enjoyments
of religion, are the grand topics ; and they are treated with the
hand of a master. All the empty glare and noisome pollution
of the world were known to Baxter. Into the dark chambers of

\l\

Burke's ' Peerage,' art, Foley,
Among his other recommendations is one to landlords, " to engage their
tenants in their leases to learn a catechism, and read the Scriptures, and be once
a year accountable to their minister for their profiting." His recommendations
about the distribution of religious books and tracts, and visiting the poor and the
sick, were more likely to be attended to.

102 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
the human heart he pours the Ught of day, exhibiting all its
guiltiness and pollution, and exposing the inadequacy of all that
the world can supply to satisfy its " iramortal longings."
How admirably does he expose the vain show of man's
bustling life ? " It is but hke chUdren's games, where aU is
done in jest, and which wise men account not worthy their
observance. It is but like the acting of a comedy, where great
persons and actions are personated and counterfeited ; and a
pompous stir there is for a while, to- please the foolish spec
tators, that theraselves may be pleased by their applause, and
then they corae down, and the sport is ended, and they are as
they were. . It is but like a puppet play, where there is great
doings to little purpose ; or like the busy gadding of the labo
rious ants, to gather together a littie sticks and straw, which
the spurn of raan's foot will soon disperse."
With what beauty does he describe the emptiness of the
world ; and with what earnestness does he expostulate with men
on the folly of preferring it to the better enjoyments of God !
" What ? shall we prefer a mole-hiU before a kingdom .'' A
shadow before the substance ? An hour before eternity ? No
thing before all things ? Vanity and vexation before felicity ,'
— The cross of Christ hath set up such a sun as quite darkeneth
the light of worldly glory. Though earth were something, if
there were no better to be had, it is nothing when heaven
standeth by."
I know none ofthe writings of Baxter which contains passages
of greater power, or more impressive eloquence, than this. The
solemnity of the circurastances in which the discourse was deU
vered, appears to have affected him, and increased even his
accustoraed earnestness. I cannot make many quotations, but
let the reader imagine, if he can, the effect of the following
passage, addressed to the court :
" Honorable, worshipful, and all well-beloved, it is a weighty
eraployraent that occasioneth your meeting here to-day. The
estates and lives of raen are in your hands. But it is another
kind of judgment which you are all hastening towards : when
judges and juries, the accusers and accused, must all appear
upon equal terms, for the final decision of a far greater cause.
The case that is then and there to be determined, is not whether
you shall have lands or no lands, hfe or no life (in our natural
sense ;) but whether you shall have heaven or heU, salvation or
damnation, an endless life of glory with God and the Redeemer,
and the angels of heaven, or an endless life of torraent with
devUs and ungodly raen. As sure as you now sit on those seats,
you shall shortly aU appear before the Judge of aU the world,
and there receive an irreversible sentence, to an unchangeable
state of happiness or misery. This is the great business that

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 103
should presentiy caU up your most serious thoughts, and set all
the powers of your souls on work for the most effectual prepa
ration ; that if you are men, you may quit yourselves like men,
for the preventing of that dreadful doom "which unprepared souls
must there expect. The greatest of your secular affairs are but
dreams and toys to this. \N ere you at every assize to determine
causes of no lower value than the crowns and kingdoms of the
monarchs of the earth, it were but as children's games to this.
If any man of you beheve not this, he is worse than the devil
that terapteth him to unbeUef; and let him know that unbelief
is no prevention, nor will put off the day, or hinder his appear
ance ; but ascertain his condemnation at tiiat appearance.
" He that knows the law and the fact, may know before your
assize, what will become of every prisoner, if the proceedings
be aU just, as in our case they will certainly be. Christ will
judge according to his laws ; know therefore whom the law con
demneth or justifieth, and you may know whom Christ wiU con
demn or justify. And seeing all this is so, doth it not concern
us all to make a speedy trial of ourselves in preparation to this
final trial ,' I shall for your own sakes therefore, take the bold
ness, as the officer of Christ, to summon you to appear before
yourselves, and keep an assize this day in your own souls, and
answer at the bar of conscience, to what shall be charged upon
you. Fear not the trial ; for it is not conclusive, final, or a pe
remptory irreversible sentence that must now pass. Yet slight
it not ; for it is a necessary preparative to that which is final and
irreversible. Consequentially, it raay prove a justifying accusa
tion, and absolving conderanation, and if you proceed to exe
cution, a saving, quickening death, which I am now persuading
you to undergo. The whole world is divided into two sorts of
men : one that love God above all, and live for him ; and the
other that love the flesh and world above all, and live to thera.
One that seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness ;
another that seek first the things of this iife. One that mind
and savor the things of the flesh and of man ; the other that
mind and savor most the things of the Spirit and of God. One
that account all things dung and dross that they raay win Christ ;
another that make light of Christ in comparison of their busi
ness, and riches, and pleasures in the world. One that live by
sight and sense upon present things ; another that live by faith
upon things invisible. One that have their conversatipn in heav
en, and live as strangers upon earth ; another that mind earthly
things, and are strangers to heaven. One that have in resolu
tion forsaken aU for Christ, and the hopes of a treasure in heav
en ; another that resolve to keep somewhat here, though they
venture and forsake the heavenly reward, and wUl go away sor
rowful that they cannot have both. One that being born of the

104 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
flesh is but flesh ; the other that being born of the Spirit is spir
it. One that live as vrithout God in the world ; the other that
Uve as without the seducing world in God, and in and by the
subservient world to God. One that have ordinances and means
of grace, as if they had none ; the other that have houses,
lands, wives, as if they had none. One that beheve as if they
believed not, and love God as if they loved him not, and pray-
as if they prayed not, as if the fruit of these were but a shad
ow ; the other that weep, as if they wept not, for worldly things,
and rejoice as if they rejoiced not. One that have Christ as
not possessing him, and use him and his name as but abusing
them ; the other that buy as if they possessed not, and use the
world as not abusing it. One that draw near to God with their
lips, when their hearts are far from him ; the other that corpo
rally converse with the world, when their hearts are far from it.
One that serve God who is a Spirit, with carnal service, and not
in spirit and truth ; the other that use the world itself spiritual
ly, and not in a carnal worldly manner. In a word, one sort
are children of this world ; the other are the children of the
world to come, and heirs of the heavenly kingdom. One sort
have their portion in this life ; and the other have God for their
portion. One sort have their good things in this life-time, and
their reward here; the other have their evU things in this life,
and hve in hope of the everlasting reward." ^
The next work that occurs in this class, is his ' Treatise on
Self-Denial,' which was first published in 1659. " Being great
ly apprehensive," he says, " of the comraonness and danger of
the sin of selfishness, as the sum and root of all positive evil, I
preached many sermons against it, and, at the request of some
friends, I pubhshed thera in this treatise, whicli found better ac
ceptance than most of my other books, but yet prevented not
the ruin of church and state, and mUlions of souls, by that
sin."^ To understand the allusion in this sentence, the reader must
remfember that the work was published shortly before the Re
storation. Prefixed to it, is a long letter addressed to Colonel
James Berry, one of the councU of state. Of Berry, we have
had occasion to speak in a former part of this work. He was
one of the earhest friends of Baxter, in whose religious char
acter he had placed great confidence ; but, of whom, he after
wards greatly akered his opinion. Whether he was justified
in altering his opinion of Berry, belongs not to our present
subject ; but in this letter there is some admirable admonitions
on the danger of worldly greatness, by which Baxter was afraid
tiie colonel had been injured.
(y) Works, vol. ix, pp. 431—433, (z) Life, part i. p, 117,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 105
" Self is the strongest and most dangerous eneiny that ever
you fought against. It is a whole array united ; and the more
dangerous, because so near. Many that have fought as valiantly
and successfully against other enemies as you, have, at last,
been conquered and undone by self. Conquer it you cannot,
without a conflict ; and the conflict must endure as long as you
hve. Combating is not pleasing to the enemy ; and, there
fore, as long as self is the enemy, and self-pleasing is natural to
corrupted man, (that should be wholly addicted to please the
Lord,) self-denial wiU prove a difficult task ; and if somewhat
in the advice that would engage you deeper in the conflict
should seem bUter or ungrateful, I should not wonder. And let
me freely tell you, that your prosperity and advancement will
make the work so exceedingly difficult, that, since you have been
a major-general and a lord, and now a counsellor of state, you
have stood in a more slippery, perilous place, and have need of
much more grace and vigilance than when you were but Bax
ter's friend.
" I sleep most sweetly when I have travelled in the cold.
Frost and snow are friends to the seed, though they are enemies
to the flower. Adversity, indeed, is contrary to glory ; but it
befriendeth grace. Plutarch tells us, that, vvhen Cfesar passed
by a smoky, nasty viUage at the foot of the Alps, sorae of his
commanders merely asked him whether there was such a stir
fbr commands, and dignities, and honors, araong those cottages,
as there was at Rome. The answer is easy. Do you not think
that an Anthony, a Mark, aJerorae, or such other of the ancient,
retired Christians, were wiser and happier men than a Nero
or a Caligula ; yea, or a Julius Caesar ? Is it a desirable thing
to be a Lord, or ruler, before we turn to coraraon earth ; and, as
Marius, that was raade emperor one day, reigned the next,
and was slain by a soldier the next ; so to be worshipped to-day,
and laid in the dust, if not in hell, to-morrow ? It was the say
ing of the emperor Severus, 'Omnia fui, sed nihil expedit;'
and of King David, ' I have seen an end of aU perfection.' O,
value these things but as they deserve ? Speak impartially ; are
not those that are striving to get up the ladder, foolish and
ridiculous, when those that are at the top have attained but
danger, trouble, and envy ; and those that fall down are ac
counted raiserable ?
'  Sed nulla aconita bibuntur

Fictilibus -

Referring to their early intimacy, he mentions, with grati
tude, that Berry had been the instrument of introducing him into
the iriinistry. ' You brought rae into the rainistry. I ara con-

(a) Works, vol. xi, p. 16,
VOL. II. 14

106 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
fident you know to what ends, and with what intentions, I
desired it. I was then very ignorant, young, and raw ; though
my weakness be yet such as 1 must lament, I raust say, to the
praise of the great Shepherd of the flock, that he hath, since
then, offered me precious opportunities, much assistance, and
as much encouragement as to any man that I know alive. You
know my education and initial weakness were such as forbid
me to glory in the flesh : but I will not rob God of his glory to
avoid the appearance of ostentation, lest I be proud of seeraing
not to be proud. I doubt not but many thousand souls wUl thank
you when they have read, that you were the man that led
me into the ministry : and shaU I entertain a suspicion that you
wiU ever hearken to those men that would rob you of the re
ward of many such works, and engage you against the King of
Saints?"'' He concludes his letter with inimitable beauty : " But I have
been too tedious. I beseech you interpret not any of these
words as intended for accusation or unjust suspicion of yourself.
God forbid you should ever fall from that integrity that I am
persuaded you once had. But my eye is on the times with
grief, and on ray ancient, dearest friend with love : and, in an
age of iniquity and teraptation, ray conscience and the world
shaU never say that I was unfaithful to my friend, and forbore
to tell him of the coraraon dangers." "
The treatise is of considerable extent, occupying the greater
part of one of the volumes of the new edition of his works.
He divides it into seventy-three chapters, erabracing a vast
range of topics, raore or less connected with his main sub
ject. He discusses almost every thing that may engage or
ensnare the mind ; in regard to which, therefore. Christians
must be on their guard. The inveterate and extensive power
of the principle of selfishness, with its diversified modes of
operation, has never perhaps been more strikingly exhibited
than in this treatise. Self is truly and correctly described as
the great idol which all unsanctified men worship. Itis that for
which the rich and the arabitious struggle ; for which the mer
chant compasseth sea and land ; for which the soldier fights,
the tradesman deals, the ploughman labors, the traveller goes
forth. It is the ruling principle in the world, and the source
of all ambition, contention, and love of pre-eminence, in the
church. In dissecting and iUustrating its nature, Baxter is not always
strictly accurate ; but he is sufficiently so for all the purposes
of popular and practical writing. Many things to which he ad
verts, belong, perhaps, as properly to some of the other evU
(b) Works, pp. 23, 24. ( c) Ibid. pp. 25, 26.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 107
principles of our nature as to the love of self. It is, however,
one of the great roots of tiiat many-branching tree, which bears
no fruit that is good or profitable. What Bernard, as quoted by
Baxter, says of pride or ambition, may, with great propriety, be
applied to this : " Subtile malum secretum virus, pestis occulta,
doli artifex, mater hypocrisis, livoris parens, vitiorum origo,
tinea sanctitatis, excaecatrix cordiun, ex reraedns raorbos cre-
ans, ex medicina languorem generans." Such a root of evil,
the Gospel, aided by the omnipotence of divine mfluence, alone
can extirpate frora the heart of man.
In this able treatise, there are various indications that the
spirit of the author was, at the time, discomposed and fretted.
Many things in the state of the tiraes displeased hira : the con
duct ofthe ruling powers, the mukiplication of sects, the swarm
ing of errors, the want of uniformity among professors of the
Gospel, and, of that subordination which Baxter believed to be
necessary to a healthy state of religion, with the personal treat
ment which he sometimes experienced, all tended to grieve and
vex hira, and give a strong coloring to sorae of his representa
tions. These, however, are but trifling bleraishes, and affect
but in a very small degree the valuable practical instruction with
which the work abounds.
At the end of the treatise, there is a singular poetical dialogue
between the flesh and the Spirit, intended to illustrate some of
the sentiments previously stated in prose. It is, in fact, an
animated debate between the two opposing principles in man's
nature, containing more poetry in the thought than in the rhyme.
The following passage, in which the Spirit expostulates with the
flesh on its reluctance to death, contains a variety of very beau
tiful and poetical iUustrations of death and the resurrection ; and
if the reader can make some allowance for a little homeliness,
and an occasional want of harraony, he will be pleased with the
thoughts : —
" So nature breaks and casts away the shell,
Where the now beauteous singing-bird did dwell.
Thus roses drop their sweet leaves under foot j
But the Spring shows that life was in the root.
Souls are the roots of bodies ; Christ the head
Is root of both, and will revive the dead.
Our sun still shineth, when with us 'tis night ;
When he returns we shall shine in his Kght.
Souls that l)ehold, and praise God with the just,
Mourn not because their bodies are but dust.
Graves are but beds, where flesh till morning sleeps;
Or chests where God awhile our garments keeps.
Our folly thinks he spoils them in the keeping;
-Which causeth our excessive fears and weeping ;
But God, that doth our rising day foresee,
Pities not rotting flesh so much as we.
The birth of nature was deformed by sin ;
The birth of grace did our repair begin ;
The birth of glory at the resurrection
Finisheth all, and brings both to perfection.

108 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Why should not fruit, when it is mellow, fall 1
Why should we linger here when God doth call 1" d
As the virtue of patience is nearly allied to self-denial, I may
introduce Baxter's treatise on that subject in this place, since
it is now part of the same volume with the discourse on Self-
Denial, though it was published many years afterward. It is
entitied " Obedient Patience. Its nature in general, and its
exercise in twenty particular cases ; with helps to obtain and
use it, and to repress impatience." It appeared in 1 682. Bax
ter was then the subject of severe afflictions and trials, and was
thus called to the special exercise of the Christian grace which
he recommends to others. The preface both explains his views
of the doleful state of the times, and his reasons for writing
this little work :
" 1 here offer to others the same which I have prepared for
myself, and find necessary for my daily use. AU men most
savor that which they find most suita.ble to them. When I
was young, and lay under the sad suspicions of my own heart,
and the doubts ofmy sound conversion and justificatio;!, I was far
more pleased with a sermon that opened the nature of saving grace,
and helped me against such doubts, than with a sermon of affliction
and its use ; yea, though I began to be afflicted. But now, this is
the subject ofmy daily necessary thoughts : men's iraplacable en-
mitj' maketh them somewhat necessary ; but God's more imraedi
ate corrections on ray body, incoraparably rnore. And while eve
ry day alraost fills my ears with the sad coraplaints of weak, me
lancholy, afflicted, impoverished, sick, pained, or otherwise
distressed persons ; and the weekly news-books tell us of foreign
wars, persecutions, ruins, implacable contentions, malignant com
binations against the church, pursuing conscience and obedience
to God with diabolical rage to drive them out of the world ; and
ofthe successes of bloodthirsty men, and the deluge of atheism,
idolatry, Sadduceisra, infidelity, Mahometanisra, hypocrisy,
sensuahty, ambition, worldliness, lying, perjury, raalignity, and
gross ignorance, which have even drowned the earth : while there
is little but doleful tidings, complaints, and fears from kingdoms,
churches, cities, families : and God, in judgment, permitteth
mankind to be worse than serpents, toads, or wolves, if not than
devUs, to one another ; and whUe wit and learning, reverend
error and hypocrisy, are every day as hotly at work as any
smith in his flaming forge, to blow the coals of bloody malice ;
and hating and destroying others, even those whom they pretend
to love as theraselves, seera to multhudes the most honorable
and necessary work, and the kUling of love and of souls and
bodies, is taken for meritorious of everlasting happiness. I say,
(d) Works, vol. xi. p, 378,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 109
while all this is so in the world, and whUe all flesh must look
for pain, sickness, and death ; and aU men are yet worse to
theraselves, and greater burdens than aU their eneraies are, I
cannot think a treatise of patience needless or unseasonable." "
Under the twenty particular cases which call for the special
exercise of patience, he includes bodily affliction, the prospect
of death, loss of property, or actual want ; the sickness and
death of friends ; the unfaithfulness of friends ; persecution ; loss
of reputation ; the unrighteousness of rulers ; treachery and
abuse of servants and others ; temptations of Satan ; trouble of
conscience ; the loss ofthe means of grace, Ste. &ic. All these
trials, at one time or another, Baxter had endured himself, and
was thus qualified to symphathise with and instruct those who
might be suffering frora thera. Most of his suggestions are
calculated either to soothe or to reconcile the raind in the time
of sorrow. He is faithful, yet kind ; firm but tender. He could
say, with the apostie, " God hath comforted us in all our tribu
lations, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any
trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted
of God ; for, as the sufferings of Christ have abounded in us,
so our consolation also hath abounded by Christ."
In 1660, he pubUshed the 'Life of Faith, as it is tbe evi
dence of things unseen,' the substance of a serraon which he
preached before the king on the 22d of July.^ But as he after
wards, in 1670, republished tiiis work, enlarged into a 4to
volurae, it will be proper to notice it in this form. It contains
the original sermon enlarged ; instructions for confirraing he-
livers in the Christian faith ; and directions how to live by
faith, or how to exercise it on all occasions. In the discourse
itself, he discovers rauch good taste in making no personal allu
sions to the king himself. Baxter could not flatter, but he could
be courteous. A personal address to his majesty, had he at
tempted it, could scarcely have faUed to be offensive ; he there
fore entirely avoids it, and delivers only truths which were
calculated for the peasant as much as for royalty. As a sermon
on such an occasion, it contains too much theology, and in all
probabUity must have been very tiresome to Charles. But if
Barrow could occupy three hours, Baxter was quite capable of
securing attention for as long a period, though I dare say his
discourse did not occupy half that tirae in its delivery. Towards
the conclusion, he thus addresses his audience :
" Princes and nobles Uve not always ; you are not the rulers
of the unmoveable kingdora ; but, of a boat that is in a hasty
stream, or a ship under sail, that wiU speed both pilot and pas
sengers to the shore ! ' Dixi, estis Du : ut morieraini ut horaines.'
(e) Works, vol. xi. pp. 383, 384. (f) Ibid. vol. xii.

110 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
It was not the least or worst of kings that said, ' I ara a stranger
upon earth ;' ' Vermis sura, non homo :' You are the greater
worms, and we the little ones ; but we must aU say with Job,
'The grave is our house, and we must raake our beds in darkness ;
corruption is our father, and the worra our raother and our sister.'
The inexorable leveller is ready at your backs to convince you
by irresistible arguraent, that dust you are, and to dust you shaU
return. Heaven should be as desirable and heU as terrible to
you as to others. No man wlU fear you after death ; much
less wiU Christ be afraid to judge you. As the kingdoras and
glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his
temptation ; so are they inconsiderable to procure his appro
bation. Trust not therefore to uncertain riches ; value thera
but as tbey will prove at last. As you stand on higher ground
than others, it is raeet that you should see further. The greater
are your advantages, the'wiser and better you' should be; and
therefore should better perceive the difference between things
teiiiporal and eternal. It is always dark where glow-worms
shiri'e, and where a rotten post doth seem a fire." s
Ih'a very delicate manner he presents his suit on behalf of
his brethren and himself; hard must have been the heart which
would turn from such a petitioner, and refuse such a prayer.
" i shouH have become on the behalf of Christ a petitioner
to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the in
visible world ; for them that preach, and them that live in this
iife of faith. Not for the honors and riches of the worid ; but
for leave and countenance to work in the vineyard, and peace
ably to travel through the world as strangers, and live in the
comraunion ofsaints, as they believe. But, though it be for the
beloved of the Lord, the apple of his eye, the people that are
sure to prevaU and reign with Christ for ever ; whose prayers
can do more for the greatest princes than you can do for them,
whose joy is hastened by that wbich'is intended for their sor
row : I shaU now lay by any further suit on their behalf." '"
Baxter had less of the common vice of preachers of his age,
the foolish introduction of Greek and Latin in their sermons,
than most'^of them. There is one singular passage in this dis
course that may be regarded as an exception from his general
style, and for which the auditors to whom he'was preaching raay
be considered as an apology. The reference to the character
of the age, is deUcate and happy. " It has lately been a con
troversy, whether this be not the golden age. That is is ' aetas
ferrea,' we have 'felt-j"our''demonstrations are undeniable. That
it is ' aetas aurata,' we have sufficient proof : and whUe gold is
(g) Works, vol. xii. pp. 51, 52. (h) Ibid. p. 53.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. Ill
the god that rules the most, we wUl not deny it to be ' eetas aurea'
in the poet's sense :
' Aurea nunc vere sunt secula : plurimus auro
Venit honos auro conciliatur amor.'
Tliis prevalency of things seen against things unseen, is the
idolatry of the vvorid ; the subversion of nature ; the perversion
of our faculties and actions : making the soul a drudge to flesh,
and God to be used as a servant to the vvorid. It destroyeth
piety, justice, and charity : it turneth 'jus,' by perversion, into
' vis,' or, by reversion, into ' sui.' No wonder, then, if it be the
ruin of societies, when
' Gens sine justitia, sine remige navis in unda.'
It can possess even Demosthenes with a squinancy, if there be
but an Harpalus to bring him the infection. It can make a
judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome, atfaSuv x'^P'*"'
' impiorum regionem ;' contrary to Cicero's description of Sul-
puius, who was ' magis justitia quam juris consultus, et ad
facilitatera aequitatemque omnia contulit ; nee nialuit Utium
actiones constituere, quam controversias toUere.' " '
The ' Serraon on Faith' occupies about fifty pages ; but the
treatise vvhich grew out of it, and which raay be considered as a
kind of appendix, extends beyond five hundred pages : so prolific
and expansive was the mind of Baxter, when it had room and
verge enough for the exercise of its power. The work consists
of two parts : instructions for confirming believers in the Chris
tian faith ; and directions bow to exercise it on aU occasions. It
contains what every thing of Baxter's on practical reUgion does,
much that is exceUent ; but it is raore tedious than sorae other
of his treatise, and contains raore repetition than was usual with
hira. In treating on tbe confirmation ofthe faith, he introduces
many of the sarae topics which are to be found in his work,
' The Reasons of the Christian Religion.' He had observed
that that treatise was neglected by the comraon class of read
ers, as not sufficiently adapted to their understandings ; he there
fore brings forward the evidences of religion again, though in a
more popular form.
His directions for the exercise of faith, are not only numer
ous and minute, but very sirailar to raany of his rules or princi
ples in his ' Christian Directory,' though the latter work was
pubUshed after the ' Treatise on Faith.' The recurrence of the
same sentiraents, and the repetition of the same topics, were un
avoidable in so voluminous a writer as Baxter ; nor ought this
to be regretted, as he had different objects in view in his sev
eral works, which could not perhaps have been effectually at-
(i) Works, vol, xii. pp. 44, 45.

112 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
tained by any other way. He ought, however, to have reduced
some of his discussions within narrower limits.
The ' Life of Faith' is dedicated to Richard Hampden, Esq.,
the friend of Baxter, the son of the Ulustrious patriot, and the
heir of his virtues. Baxter speaks with rauch respect of the
piety of this gentleman, and his wife, Lady Lethia, and in
timates his fervent gratitude for the raanifold expressions of
their love. He also intimates his earnest desire for the good of
their " hopeful children." Alas ! the eldest of these children,
John Harapden, distinguished no less than his grandfather, for
talents and public spirit, and far more distinguishejr for learning,
came at last to a very melancholy end. Dr. Calamy, in his
' Own Life,' teUs a most affecting story of the progress of his
mind, and ofthe disraal terraination ofhis existence.'
These objections to this publication Baxter anticipated, and
meets thera in his preface more snappishly than is quite desir
able, either on his own account or that of the reader. The con
clusion of it contains what is true, but what raight have been
more mUdly stated.
" If it offend you that the directions are many of thera difficult,
and that the style requireth a slow considerate reader, I answer,
the nature of the subject requireth it, and without voluminous
tediousness, it cannot be avoided. Blame, therefore, your un
prepared, ignorant minds ; and that you are yet dull of hearing,
and thus make things hard to be uttered to your understand
ing : because you have still need of mUk, and cannot digest
strong meat, but must again be taught the principles of the
oracles of God. Think not to get knowledge without hard
study and patient learning ; by hearing nothing but what you
know already, or can understand by one hasty reading over,
lest you discover a conjunction of slothfulness with an ignorant
and unhumbled raind. Or at least, if you must learn at so cheap
a rate, or else stick stiU in your mUk and your beginnings, be
not offended if others outgo you, and think knowledge worthy
of much greater dUigence ; and if, leaving the principles, we go
on towards perfection, as long as we take them along with us,
and make thera the life of all that followeth, while we seem to
leave them : and this we wUl do, if God perrait."
The last considerable work in this class was pubUshed towards
the close of his life. The titie, which I shaU give at large, as
it is rather singular, contains a very fuU view of the subject of
which it treats, as well as of the apparent feelings of the author
at the tirae. ' Knowledge and Love Corapared ; in two parts
I. Of falsely -preteiTded knowledge. IL Of true saving know
ledge and love. 1. Against hasty judging and false conceits of
knowledge ; and for necessary suspension. 2. The excellency
(i) Vol. i. pp. 388-391,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 113
of divine love, and the happiness of being known and loved
of God. Written as greatiy needful to the safety and peace of
every Christian, and of tiie church : the only certain vvay to es
cape false religions, heresies, sects, and mahgnant prejudices,
persecutions, and sinful wars. AU caused by falsely-pretended
knowledge, and hasty judging by proud, ignorant men, who
know not then- ignorance. By Richard Baxter, who, by God's
blessing on long and hard studies, hath learned to know that he
knoweth but httie, to suspend his judgraent of uncertainties, and
to take great, necessary, certain things for the food of his faith
and coraforts, and the measure of his church communion.'"'
If a title-page could effect any thing, the above titie must
have effected a great deal : yet this is one of the smaU number
of Baxter's practical writings, which I do not think much calcu
lated for usefiilness. It was written at several intervals before,
but was pubUshed witiiin two years of his death, when besides
his memory, which he acknowledges, it is probable some other
of his faculties, had begun to fail. Not that it displays imbecil
ity ; some part of it being written with great vigor ; but it
evinces a diminished perception of what was calculated to do
good. By far the largest portion of the volume is a labored ef
fort to show the uncertainties of knowledge, with a view to
prove how ignorant man is, and to diminish confidence in his
own judgment. The tendency of this argument, pursued to the
length that Baxter carries it, I regard as exceedingly injurious.
It is calculated to destroy due respect, both for the means of
knowledge which God has provided for us, and the faculties he
has given to us. It is more fitted to gender scepticism, and
bewUder the mind, than to induce humUity. I am weU aware
the author would have deprecated this effect, and that he was
very far from being conscious that he was doing any thing to
cause it. This does not, however, alter the character of his
book. In fact, Baxter had so occupied himself with the end
less and imsatisfying discussions of scholastic and metaphysical
writers, that he had much difficulty in satisfying himself on
many subjects, and greatly injured his own faculty of judging.
In the foUowing passage of this very treatise, he lays before the
reader a view of his acquisitions in this kind of learning. It is
valuable as part of his history.
" I have looked over Hutten, Vives, Erasmus, Scaliger, Sal
masius, Casaubon, and many other critical grammarians, and
aU Grater's critical volumes. I have read almost all the physic
and metaphysics I could hear of: I have wasted much of my
time among loads of historians, chronologers, and antiquaries.
I despise none of their learning : aU truth is useful. Mathe-
(k) Works, vol. xv.
VOL. II. 15

114 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
matics, which I have least of, I find a pretty manlike sport. But
if I had no other kind of knowledge than these, what were lU)-
understanding worth ! what a dreaming dotard should I be !
Yea, had I also aU the codes and pandects, all Cujacius, Wesen
bechius and their tribe, at my fingers' ends, and all other voluraes
of civU, national, and cannon laws, witii the rest in the Encyclo
paedia, what a puppet-play would ray Ufe be, if I had no more !
" I have higher thoughts of the schoolmen than Erasraus and
our other grammarians had ; I much value the raethod and so
briety of Aquinas, the subtiety of Scotus and Ockara, tiie plain
ness of Durandus, the sohdity of Ariminensis, the profundity of
Bradwardine, the excellent acuteness of many of their followers ;
of Aureolus, Capreolus, Bannes, Alvarez, Zurael, &tc. ; of Mayro,
Lychetus, Trombeta, Faber, INleurisse, Rada, &;c. ; of Ruiz,
Pennatus, Suarez, Vasquez, &;c. ; of Hm-tado, of Albertinus, of
Lud. k Dola, and many others. But how loth should I be to
take such sauce for my food, and such recreations for my
business ! The jingling of too much and false philosophy
among them, often drowns the noise of Aaron's beUs. I feel
myself rauch better iu ' Herbert's Temple,' or in a heavenly
treatise of faith and love ; and though I do not, with Dr. Colet,
distaste Augustine above the plainer Fathers, yet I am more
taken with his Confessions than witii his grammatical and scho
lastic treatises. And though I know no raan whose genius raore
abhorreth confusion, instead of necessary distinction and method ;
yet I loathe impertinent, useless art, and pretended precepts
and distinctions, which have not a foundation in the matter."
We cannot help regretting that such a man as Baxter had
not better eraployed his time than in devouring such masses of
frivolous and unsatisfying stuff as these writers contain. His
mind required that its metaphysical propensities should be
counteracted and restrained, instead of encouraged and stimu
lated, as it must have been by such a course of reading. He
professes, it is true, to despise the subtieties of the schools, and
to be better pleased whh ' Herbert's Temple,' or ' Augustine's
Confessions,' than with logical and scholastic debates aud dis
tinctions. This, I have no doubt, was the case ; and yet he
deals in this kind of writing more than any man ofhis age. He
adverts to this objection against himself in the book, and en
deavors, though unsatisfactorily, to answer it.
" When you have written all tliis against pretended know
ledge, who is more guilty than yourself ? Who so oppresseth
his reader with distinctions ? Are aU your large writings evi
dent certamties ; even those controversies in which you have so
many adversaries i"' To this he answers,
(1) Works, vol, XV, pp. 16, 16.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 115
" 1. It is one thing to assert uncertainties, and another tiling
to anatomize, and distinctly and methodicaUy explain, to certain
truth. In aU my large writmgs, if you find that I call any thing
certain which is uncertain ; tiiat is, which I give not ascertaimng
evidence of, acquaint me with the particulars, and I shaU retract
them. "2. I never persuaded any man to write or say no more than
all men certainly know abeady ; no, not all learned divines ; for
then how should we receive edification ? Subjective certainty
is as -various as man's interests, where no two are of a size ; and
objective certaintj- must be tried by evidence, and not by otiier
men's conseniins to it." ™
The second part of the work, on the exceUency of love and
its superiority to knowledge, is more in Baxter's best style of
practical writing. He had then got through his uncertainties, and
was treating on the nature and power of love, the first and great
principle of rehgion. No man understood his object better,
and few could treat it so weU. He shows, most successfully
that knowledge is but the means to a higher end ; and this end
is the production of love to God, and to those who bear his
image. The constant and vigorous exercise of this love ought
to be the highest aim, as it is the perfection of the Christian.
To this work is prefixed a very beautiful dedication to his ex
ceUent fiiend, Sir Henry Ashurst, 'and "the Lady Diana, his
wife." " Your name," he says " is not prefixed to this Treatise,
either as accusing you of the sin herein detected, or as praising
you for those virtues which good men are more pleased to pos
sess and exercise, than to have proclaimed, though they be as
light that is hardly hid : but it is fo vent and exercise that gra
titude, which loveth not the concealment of such fi-iendship and
kindness as you and your lady eminentiy, and yom- relatives and
hers, the children of the Lord Paget, have long obUged me by ;
and it is to posterity that I record your kindness, more than for
this age, to which it hath pubhcly notified itself, during my
public accusations, reproaches, sentences, imprisonments, and
before and since : who knoweth you that knoweth not hereof.''
And it is to renew the record of that love and honor which I
owed to your deceased father formeriy, though too slenderly
recorded, to be the heir and imitator of whose faith, piety,
charity, patience, humility, meekness, impartiahty, sincerity, and
perseverance, is as great an honor and blessing as I can wish
vou, next to the conformity to our highest Pattern. And though
he was averse to worldly pomp and grandeur, and desbed that
his chUdren should not affect it, yet God, tiiat wUl honor tiiose
that honor him, hath advanced his chUdren, I beheve, partly
for his sake ; but I entreat you all (and sorae otiier of my fnends
(m) Worka, vol. iv. p. 172.

116 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
whom God hath raised a blessing to their pious and charitable
parents and themselves) to watch carefuUy, lest the deceitful
world and flesh do turn such blessings into golden fetters ; and
to be sure to use them, as they would find, at last, on their
account." "
Having noticed the principal works of Baxter in this de
partment, it remains to introduce a few of his tracts, which
belong to the same class. Araong these must be noticed
' God's Goodness Vindicated ; for the help of such, especi
aUy in melancholy, as are tempted to deny it, and think him
to be cruel, because of the present and future misery of raan
kind : with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and damna
tion.' " This was published in 1674, at the particular request
of his friend Mr. Corbet, with a view to satisfy a good man
who had fallen into deep melancholy by dwelling too much on
the nurabers who will be damned, and the difficulty of recon-
ciUng it with the divine goodness. Corbet prefixed an epistle
to it. P
The subject is one of a deeply mysterious nature, scarcely
admitting of being fully understood in our present circurastances.
Our faculties are in themselves limited ; we are furnished only
with partial information respecting the divine adrainistration,
and its ultimate objects and designs; and we are as yet far from
the end ofthe whole moral economy of God. To pronounce
dogmatically, therefore, on certain points which are but dimly
seen, would be wrong; and to allow our minds to be distracted
respecting what we do know by the things of which we are
ignorant, must be no less improper.
" It is a grossly deluding and subverting way of reasoning,"
says Baxter, " to begin at dark and doubtful consequents,
thence to argue against certain, clear, fundamental principles.
As if from some doubts about the position and motion of the
stars, or of the nature of Ught, heat, and motion, men should
argue that there is no sun, or moon, or stars at aU ; or as if, from
the many difficulties in anatomy about the circulation of the
blood ; the Toleum nervosum, tlie lymph and its vessels, the
passages and the succus of the pancreas and gall ; the transco-
lation through the intestines into the venae lactae, the chyly
glandules, and such-like ; one should arise to a conclusion that
there is no blood, no chyle, no veins, no glandules, no head, no
body. Or, frora the controversy, whether the heart be a mere
muscle, without any proper parenchymae, one should grow to
conclude that there is no heart. So such persons, frora points
beyond man's reach, about God's decrees, and intentions, and
(n) Works, vol. xv, p, 8, (o) Ibid, vol, viii,
(p) Life, part iii, p, 86.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 117
the mysteries of Providence, conclude or doubt against God's
goodness, that is, whether, indeed, there be a God." i
If it were practicable to persuade men to reason on these ob
vious principles, how large a portion of embarrassment, and how
many stumbling-blocks would be removed ! Baxter does not
foUow up his principles whh all the masterly power and close
ness of argument which distinguish the Analogy of Butler ; but
the germ of Butier's immortal work may be said to be contained
hi the above passage. There are doubtless difficulties in revela
tion, as there are difficulties in every scherae of divine Provi
dence which man can adopt ; but there is no proper resting
place between the rejection of the Gospel, on the score of its
not harmonizing with our notions of the goodness of God, and
absolute atheism. He who rejects Christianity on this ground,
must, to be consistent, doubt whether the Supreme Being takes
any interest in the affairs of his creatures ; and this is all one
with blotting Him out from his own universe.
Under this head I may also rank all Baxter's sermons preach
ed on particular occasions, and which do not require minute
consideration. TheyJ may be placed either here, or under the
head of his writings on Conversion, as they are of a mixed
character. The following are among these, ' The Vain Religion
of the Formal Hypocrite, and the Mischief of an Unbridled
Tongue, described in several Sermons, preached at the Abbey
in AVestminster, before many Merabers of the Honorable House
of Coraraons, 1660.' 'The Fool's Prosperity the Occasion of
his Destruction, a Serraon, preached at Covent Garden.' 'A
Serraon on Repentance, preached before the House of Cora
raons, on the 30th of April, 1660.' ' One on Right Rejoicing,
preached in St. Paul's before the Lord Mayor and Alderraen,
after his Majesty's return. May 10, 1660.' ' What Light must
Shine in Our Works.' ' True Christianity, or Christ's absolute
Dorainion, and Man's necessary Self-Resignation and Subjec
tion.' ' Two Assize Sermons.' His ' Farewell Sermon,' in
tended for his flock at Kidderrainster. All these discourses are
now printed together in the seventeenth and eighteenth volumes
of his works.
' The Cure of Melancholy by Faith and Physic,' a sermon
intended for the morning exercises, but which was never deliv
ered, is a curious specimen of Baxter's preaching ; abounding
in medical recipes as well as in grave religious advice. He is
quite right, however, in maintaining that physic is necessary, as
well as faith, to cure melancholy.
Baxter appears to have had great experience in dealing with
melancholy persons. The following passage in his Life relates
(q) Works, vol. viii. p. 513.

118 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
to the subject of this discourse, and for its practical instruction
deserves to be quoted. "I was troubled this year (1671)," he
says, " with multitudes of raelancholy persons, frora several parts
of the land ; some of high quality, sorae of low, sorae very ex
quisitely learned, sorae unlearned ; as I had been above twenty
years before. I know not how it carae to pass, but if men fell
melancholy, I raust hear from them or see them, more than any
physician I know. I mention it for these three uses, to the
reader, as out of aU their cases I have gathered : 1 . That we
must very much take heed lest we ascribe melancholy phan
tasms and passions to God's Spirit : for they are strange appre
hensions that melancholy can cause. 2. I would warn all young
persons to Uve modestly, and keep at a sufficient distance from
objects that tempt them to carnal lust. Above aU, I warn young
students and apprentices to avoid the beginning of this sin, as
they Uttie think what one spark may kindle. 3. I advise all
men to take heed as placing religion too much in fears, and
tears, and scruples ; or in any other kind of sorrow, but such
as tendeth to raise us to a high estimation of Christ, to the
magnifying of his grace, to a sweeter taste of the love of God,
and to the firmer resolution against sin : that tears and grief be
not commended inordinately for themselves, or as clear signs of
a converted person. We ought to call men more to look after
duty than after signs as such. Set self-love to work, and spare
not ; so will you call thera much raore to the love of God. Let
thera know that this love is their best sign, but that it ought to
be exercised for a higher reason, than as a sign of our own hopes ;
for that raotive alone wiU not produce true love to God. As the
Antinomians too much exclude humiliation and signs of grace, I' '
so many of late have made their religion too much to consist in
the seeking of these signs out of their proper time and place,
without referring them to that obedience, love, and joy, in which
true religion doth principally consist." "¦
These very judicious observations show that Baxter was not
only a most careful observer of tiie phenomena of huraan nature,
with which he was so largely conversant, but that in dealing
with raen he was guided by the soundest principles of phUosophy
and religion. He justly considered many of the mental or
spiritual diseases respecting which he was consulted, to arise
from a diseased state of the animal frame, and that the assist
ance of the physician and the laboratory was required as well
as the divine. He prescribed for the body as weU as for the
soul, though not always in either case with effect.
(r) Life, part iii. pp. 85, 86. Among the Baxter MSS. preserved in the Red-
cross-street library, are numerous letters addressed to him by persons in distress
of mind, and copies of letters sent by him in reply. Both while he was at Kid
derminster, and after his removal from it, especially about the time of his prepar
ing the above discourse, he seems to have had a great deal to do in thia way.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 119
His views of the proper metiiod of obtaining Christian corafort,
and arriving at full satisfaction respecting a personal interest in
the salvation of Christ, were sound and highly important. He
did not consider these enjoymeats, desirable as they are, as what
ought to be directiy sought, or pursued for themselves. He
regarded them as eiiects or results rather than objects of direct
pursuit. Neither health nor happiness will generally be secur
ed by seeking them for their own sake ; and will seldora fail to
be enjoyed if sought for in a proper manner. This is no less true
respecting the health and happiness of the soul ; men can never
attain them by tiieir being made tiie grand or exclusive objects
of attention.
Baxter produced the right kind of Christiaii experience, by
presenting continually before the mind a great, object of attrac
tion, whose holy influence could not fail to accomplish the most
deUghtful and salutary effects, if steadUy contemplated. To
produce love to God, which is the grand design of all true
reUgion, and the spring of aU purifying joy, he spoke of His love
in aU its fulness, and freeness, and splendor. He aimed at pro
ducing an overwhelming sense of gratitude and obligation, by
thus exhibiting the infinite riches of the divine generosity. He
knew that this would necessarily take the mind off from itself,
and engage the exercise of all its faculties on an object at
once worthy of their most active and enlarged exercise, and
capable of affording the purest and subliraest satisfaction. He
knew that the principle of love to God, being once sufficiently
roused, would exert itself in doing all the will of God, and in that
very exertion happiness would be experienced. The signs and
evidences of the Christian character would raultiply and abound,
and thus those doubts and perplexities would be removed that
haunt the soul which is directed chiefly to itself, for reasons of
comfort and confidence before God.
His own experience is a happy iUustration of the beneficial
tendency of these views, and of the conduct which he pursued
towards others Frora his habit of body, and peculiarities of
mind, it might be supposed that he would himself be the sub
ject of much morbid feeling. But this was not the case. He
teUs us that he never was the subject of raelancholy, or that
species of mental depression arising from doubts and fears
respecting the enjoyment of the divine favor, after he was pro
perly enlightened by tbe Gospel. He had penetrating views of
sin, deep and solemn impressions of death and eternity ; but
they were aU founded on his clear perceptions of the character
of God, and the declarations ofhis word ; and were always con
nected with the enjoyment of calm satisfaction and holy tran-
quUUty of mind. He feared always, but he always, loved ; he
trembled, but he also rejoiced. Religion was his life ; its dis-

120 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
coveries, both elevated and purified his mind ; and in the dis
charge of its duties he found full eraployraent for all his active
and energetic powers. In the time of suffering, he fled to it for
relief and repose ; and he never fled in vain. It was to him a
constant, as he ever found it a welcorae and a sure, refuge.
When in any measure free from personal and outward suffering,
and capable of labor, his work left hira no tirae for melancholy
musings, or harassing fears respecting his personal safety. It
was his meat and his drink to do the wiU of God, and in doing
that will he found a continual feast. Let Christianity be but
thus treated, and it wUl never fail to produce the same practical
effects, and to afford the same heavenly joy.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 121

CHAPTER V.

WORIvS ON CHEISTIAN ETHICS,
Introductory Observations — Systematic Theology — Tho- Fathers — Schoolmen — CttBUisls — Ro- .
formers — Calvin's Institutions — Works of Perkins — Archbishop Usher'a System — Leiffh's
Body of Divinity — Baxter's 'Christian Directory ' — Intended as the Second Part ol his
'Methodus' — His own Account of it — Remarks on tbe Arrangement — Opposed to the Poli
tics of Hooker— Progress of tbe Doctrine of Passive Obedience in England — I'haracter of
the 'Directory' — Compared with the 'Ductor Dubitantium' of Taylor — 'The Reformed
Pastor ' — ' Ileasoos for Ministerial Plainness ' — - Poor .Man's Family Book ' — 'The Catechi
sing of Families V-* The Mother's Catechism ' — ' Sheets for the Poor and the Afflicted ' —
• Directions to the Justices ofthe Peace' — * Ilow to do Good to Many ' — ' Counsels to Young
Men ' — ' The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day ' — Concluding Remarks,
If obedience to the wUl of God be the end and design of all re
Ugion, it ought to occupy a chief part of our attention in every
discussion of its nature. However difficult it may be to teach raen
sorae of the doctrines of religion, the most formidable difficulties
really belong to its practice. This arises not from the obscurity
which attaches lo what God requires, but from the backward
ness of man to coraply with the requisition. His natural in
clinations are all enlisted on the side of disobedience, or, at
least, of aversion to a fuU conforraity of disposition to the mind
ofGod. Hence if the vestige of a doubt rests on any divine pre
cept, or inhibition, to which it may be felt inconvenient or un
desirable to render positive compliance, advantage is sure to
be taken of that doubt. Every subterfuge or excuse which
ingenuity can devise, wiU be resorted to in order to quiet con
science, or to justify to others the conduct which is pursued.
The opportunities and means of practising this species of
evasion are very considerable. The unavoidable iraperfection
and ambiguity of human language, of which even a divine
revelation in that language is not altogether divested; the
necessary exceptions belonging to many of the general laws
of God, with the great variety of circumstances into which men
are thrown, presenting temptations to avaU themselves of sup
posed exceptions in their favor ; these, together with the deceit
fulness of the human heart, are among the things which create
difficulty to the Christian moralist, and have furnished abundant
employment to the casuistical divine.
Were it not for the mistake which extensively prevails among
mankind, that their interests and those of the law of God are
VOL. II. 16

123 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
not the same, the difficulty of coraraunicating instruction on
religion would not be very formidable. This fatal error, how
ever, is raixed up with aU our natural reasonings, and gives
a wrong direction or bias to our every thought and feeling.
The Creator of the universe is regarded whh jealousy and sus
picion by his own creature. The principles of his moral ad
ministration are supposed to concern rather his own glory,
than the happiness of the universe. His laws are pronounced
alike arbitrary and severe, if not positively unjust. If the rea
son of some of them is not-fuUy stated, that concealraent is re
garded as a sufficient apology for neglect or noncompUance :
where the reason is stated, it is not always approved ; being
perhaps regarded as proceeding from arbitrary power, rather
than arising frora justice and goodness.
Where such a state of mindprevaUs, it is at once obvious that
we have to do, not whh the understanding so much as with the
disposition. The darkness of the mind is not mere intellectual
ignorance ; which an adequate process of instruction could re
move. The understanding is indeed dark, but it arises from
" an ahenation of the Ufe from God." There is ignorance, it is
true, but it consists in what the Scriptures emphaticaUy call
" blindness of heart." Hence the influence which Christ him
self ascribes to inclination in the reception of the wiU of God :
" If any man be inclined to do the wiU of God, he shall know
of the doctrine whether it be of God ;" and hence arises the
absolute necessity of that divine teaching which the Scriptures
invariably represent as lying at the foundation of all enlighten
ed and acceptable obedience to the Most High.
The inspired writers, accordingly, never confine their instruc
tions to the understanding, or regard the reception and influ
ence of Christianity as if they raerely resulted from an inteUec
tual process. They do not record their doctrines in creeds, or
deliver their precepts in forraal sumraaries. They communicate
both chiefly in the forra of addresses to the conscience and to
the heart, or in reasonings which, while they are powerfully cal
culated to enlighten and convince the understanding, are no less
fitted to engage the warmest feelings of the soul in favor of
obedience to Hira, whose highest moral glory is summed up in
the attribute of love.
This plan has not been foUowed by the generality of writers
on systematic theology. The theory and practice of religion
have been unwisely separated frora each other to the injury of
both. Thus, what raay be regarded as speculative, has been
deprived of its most powerful recommendation ; and what is
practical, has been divested of its living principle. The one
is presented as soul without body, the other as body without
spirit. In the former, religion is generalised into abstract prin-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 123
ciples ; in the latter, it is shrivelled into outward forms, and re
duced to a joyless submission.
It cannot be denied, however, that there are some advantages
connected with the separate discussion of these subjects, when
properly conducted. This more especially belongs to the press
than to the pulpit. In the latter^ they ought never to be dis
joined. It is not the place for abstract, philosophical disqui
sition ; but for the evangelical enforcement of the truths and
duries of Christianity. It is easier to guard against misappre
hensions in a written work than in oral discourse : many things
can be convenientiy and appropriately discussed in books,
which would be altogether unsuitable as topics for pubhc
preaching. It would be vain to look for much of systematic theology in
the fathers or early writers of the Christian church. They
lived too near the period of the Aposties, to feel the necessity
or importance of this kind of writing. Nor were their circura
stances at aU favorable to it. Most of them were incapable of
any thing very profound ; the body of the people were of the
same description ; and both teachers and taught were so much
conversant with a state of suffering, as to have scarcely either
time or inclination for any thing but what bore immediately on
the practice orthe consolations of the Gospel. Origen and Cyril
of Jerusalem were the first among the Greeks who did any thing
in this way. The forraer, in his work, irspi apj^uv, — or Four Books
concerning Principles, while he gives some information, astounds
us with sdlegories and absurdities ; the latter, in his ' Cate
chetical Discourses,' which were written in his youth, conveys
some useful instruction in a less objectionable manner. Augus
tine, in his ' Enchiridion, or Treatise on Faith, Hope, and
Charity,' presents a kind of system, while, in some of his other
writings, he discusses many of those questions, which, at a
future period, were reduced into more regular form, and occa
sioned interminable disputes.
It was in the middle ages, that Scholastic Theology combined
into regular system the principles and duties of religion ; but un
fortunately it presented the subject in a shape, not only opposed
to sound philosophy, and repugnant to aU correct taste ; but was
calculated to do the most serious injury to reUgion. The works
of Abelard, Lombard, Aquinas, and the other angelical, or sera
phic, doctors of the dark ages, afford proofs of no inconsiderable
talent, especially in dialectics ; but unfortunately it was em
ployed rather to bewilder the raind than to aid the discovery of
truth. The raetaphysics of Plato, the logic of Aristotle, and
the corrupt theology ofthe church of Rome, were amalgamated
into one crude incoherent mass of unintelligible dogmas, which
was honored with the titie of the orthodox faith : and

124 THE LIFE AND WHITINGS
the slightest departure from which was deemed a pernicious
heresy. '
The Roraish Casuists may be considered as succeeding the
scholastic writers, and distinct from them. They occupied
theraselves not so much with the metaphysics of doctrine as
with the metaphysics of practice. Conscience was professedly
the chief object of their attention ; and tiie canon law, with the
opinions ofthe fathers, and the decrees of councils and popes,
was the rule by which they directed it. Auricular confession
naturaUy gendered this description of writers. It laid open the
interior of man to his fellow man to an iraproper extent ; it
created a prurient curiosity, and often called forth the utmost
effort of human ingenuity in solving real or pretended difficulties :
in finding consolation for the wounded conscience, or apologies
for the hardened sinner. To assist the junior priesthood in
trafficking advantageously with the eternal interests of men, and
to render them skilful in aU manner of devices for keeping the
conscience under subjection to papal authority, were the great
objects of the Romish Casuists. Their works are storehouses of
logical subtleties, and magazines of moral combustibles sufficient
to distract and destroy the universe. Such are the writings of
Sanchez Suarez, Escobar, and others of the sarae school.
This style of writing in the department of systematic and
casuistic theology araong the Roraanists, gave place to a simpler
and raore practical mode of treating such subjects, under the
denomination of the " Common Places" and theological counsels
of the reformers. Disgusted with the metaphysical absurdities
and logomachy of the schoolmen, Melancthon, Luther, and
others, produced compendiums, or brief systems, of religion, in
which, arranged under various heads, the principal articles of
Christian faith and duty were plainly stated. The Confessions
ofthe reforraed churches necessarily assumed a systematic form,
and expositions, or coraraentaries on thera, brought the doctrines
and duties of reUgion in regular digests before the people of ev
ery country in which they were adopted. In raost of these pro
ductions, whUe both occupy one book, the credenda and the
agenda, are always treated distinctly.
In Systematic Theology, the Institutions of Calvin, though not
the first in the order of tirae, carried off the palm from aU its
predecessors, and has not yet been surpassed by any compe
titor. Diversity of opinion raay exist respecting some of the
positions of the Genevese reformer, and even among those who
hold his general views of Christian doctrine, there may not be
an entire concurrence in every sentiment or expression ; but
while profound piety, masculine energy of mind, acuteness and
(s) See Morell'e ' Elements,' &c. p, 295,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 125
Strength of argument, perspicuity of statement, and purity of
language, continue to be respected among raen, the ' Christian
Institutes ' of John Calvin wUl secure for their author immortal
honor. Our own Reformers did not contribute much in this depart
ment, but many of the continental works were translated and
introduced into this country soon after their original publica
tion. This was the case with the leading works of Luther,
Melancthon, Calvin, and the other distinguished men who
adorned the revival of reUgion and literature in Europe. Their
writings spread with the rapidity of light itself, and produced
aU its cheering effects ; dispersing darkness, correcting errors,
and diffusing gladness and joy. Their disciples not only era-
braced their principles, but their spirit ; and wherever they
were found, reflected and multiplied the benefits which they re
ceived. WilUam Perkins is, properly, the first original writer in our
language on the theory and practice of religion, in a regular
systematic form. 'The. Golden Chain, or the Description
of Theology ; containing tiie Order of the Causes of Salva
tion and Damnation,' was written by hira in Latin, but ap
peared in English, translated by another. It was followed by
his ' Exposition of the Creed, and of the Lord's Prayer ; ' and
by his ' Three Books of Cases of Conscience.' Perkins was a
thorough predestinarian ; and in the works above enumerated,
though published at different times, he has furnished a toler
ably complete body of divinity, on Calvinistic principles. He
was a man of highly respectable talents and great piety, and
writes in a style superior to most of his contemporaries.
What is caUed Archbishop Usher's 'Body of Divinity,' was
published without his knowledge or consent, in 1645, by Mr.
Downham, and is a coUection from the writings of others,
rather than Usher's own. ' The only other work of this de
scription deserving of notice, which appeared in EngUsh, prior
to the works of Baxter, is the ' Body of Divinity,' by Edward
Leigh, which was published in 1662. The author is known as
having furnished several useful publications. His Hebrew and
Greek lexicons show that he was a respectable scholar ; and
his Annotations on the New Testament, though not elaborate,
show that he was a man of sound judgment. The system of
divinity is tolerably well arranged, and discovers very consider
able knowledge of the Scriptures ; but it is broken down into
so many divisions and subdivisions, that it appears too much of
a dry tabular representation of religion.
The work of Baxter, of which I am about to give some
(t) Parr's ' Life of Usher,' p. 62.

126 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
account, the reader wiU observe, is but the half of his system of
theology. The other half is contained in his 'Methodus,'
which is properly placed under the head of his doctrinal works.
The reason for publishing the one in Latin and the other in
English, is not very obvious or satisfactory ; but it so pleased
the author. I have been more particular in my introductory
observations on the present volume, because it is not only the
largest of aU Baxter's works, but because I purposely avoided
saying any thing on the points adverted to, when treating of
the ' Methodus.' The following is the title : —
'A Christian Directory: or a Sum of Practical Theology,
and Cases of Conscience : directing Christians how to use their
Knowledge and Faith ; how to iraprove all Helps and Means,
and to perform aU Duties ; how to overcome Temptations, and
to escape or mortify every Sin.'" It appeared in a large foho,
in 1673, besides occupying one ofthe voluraes in the folio edi
tion of his - Practical Works,' pubUshed in 1707. In addition to
what is said of this book, in connexion with the ' Methodus,'
he says of it — " As Amesius's ' Cases of Conscience'" are to
his ' MeduUa ' the second and practical part of theology, so is
this to a ' Methodus theologiaB,' which I have not yet pub
lished. ^ It was written in 1664 and 1665, except the ecclesi
astical cases of conscience, and a few sheets since added. And
since the writing of it, sorae invitation drew rae to pubUsh my
' Reasons of the Christian Religion,' my ' Life of Faith,' and
' Directions for weak Christians ; ' by whieh the work of the
two first chapters is more fully done."^
" I raust do myself the right to notify to the reader, that
this treatise was written when I was, for not subscribing, for
bidden by the law to preach ; and when I had been long sepa
rated far frora my library, and from all books, saving an incon
siderable parcel whieh wandered with me where I went. By
which raeans this book hath two defects. It hath no cases of
conscience but what ray bear raeraory brought to hand ; and
•cases are so innuraerable that it is far harder, raethinks, to
reraeraber them than to answer them ; whereby it came to pass,
¦that some of the ecclesiastical cases are put out of their proper
gplace, because I could not seasonably reraember thera : for I
(u) Works, vols, ii., iii., iv., v., vi. The Directory was translated into Ger
man, by John Nicholai, and published at Frankfort, in 1693, 4to. — Walchii Bib.
-Theol. Sel., tom. ii. p. 1106.
(x) The work of Amesius, referred to by Baxter, is a beautiful and accurate
Enchiridion. It is entitled, ' De Conscientia, et ejus jure, vel easibus Libri
'Quinque.' My edition was printed at Amsterdam in IGS^. "W-ithin the compass
of a small I2mo volume is comprised a larger portion of practical and scriptural
instruction than in almost any book that I know. He is in general remarkably
accurate in his definitions, and had a power of compression utteriy unknown to
Baxter. (y) The ' Methodus ' was not published till the year 1681.
VS'^orks, vol. ii. Advertisement, p. i.

(y)

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 127
had no one casuist but Amesius with me. After about twelve
years' separation, having received my libiary, I find that tiie
very sight of Sayrus, Fragoso, Roderiquez, Tolet, &;c., might
have helped my memory to a greater number." But perhaps
these wUl be enough for those tiiat I intend them for. And from
the same cause, the margin is unfurnished of such citations
as are accounted an ornament, and in some cases are very
useful. The scraps inserted out of ray few trivial books at
hand, being so mean, that I ara weU content (except about
monarchy, part iv.) that the reader pass them by as not worthy
of his notice.
"It is hkely that the absence of books, wiU appear to the
reader's loss in the materials of the treatise ; but 1 shaU have this
advantage by it, that he will not accuse me as a plagiary. And
it may be some little advantage to him, tbat he hath no tran
script of any man's books which he had before ; but the product
of some experience, with a naked, unbiassed perception of the
matter or things theraselves.
" Long have our divines been wishing for some fuUer casuisti
cal tractate; Perkins began weU; Bishop Sanderson hath done
exceUently, ' Dejuramento;' Amesius hath exceeded aU, though
briefly ; Mr. David Dickson hath put raore of our English cases
about the state of sanctification, into Latin, than ever was done
before him ; Bishop Jeremy Taylor hath in two folios but
begun the copious perforraance of the work. And stiU men are
calling for more, which I have attempted ; hoping that others
wUl come after and do better than we aU.''
" It is long ago since raany foreign divines subscribed a request,
that the Enghsh would give thera in Latin a sum of our prac
tical theology, which Mr. Dury sent over ; and twelve great
divines of ours wrote to Bishop Usher, as Dr. Bernard tells us
(a) It is a happy thing that Baxter was absent from his books while engaged on
this work; for had he been able to refer to the Romish casuists, he would have
been in danger of spoiling his own performance It is large enough, and minute
enough, as it is ; had it contained the stuff which these writers would have suf
fered, it would have been rendered useless, and perhaps unfit for perusal.
(b) Jeremy Taylor has accounted very justly and ingeniously for the scarcity
of casuistical books among the reformed churches in the preface to his * Ductor
Dubitantium.' He says, " they were like the children of Israel in the days of
Saul and Jonathan, forced to go down to the forges of the Philistines to sharpen
every man his share and his coulter, his axe and his mattock. We had swords
and shares of our own, enough for defence, and more than enough for disputa
tion ; but in th-s more necessary part, in the conduct of consciences, we did re
ceive onr answers from abroad, till we found that our old needs were sometimes
very ill supplied, and new necessities did every day arise." — Worfa, vol. xi. p,
346. His observations on the character and tendency of the Roman casuists, are
exceedingly just and important. " "We have found," he says, " the merchants to
be deceivers, and the wares too often falsified." The work of Dickson, referred
to by Baxter, is the ' Therapeutica Sacra, etc., or the Method of Healing the
Diseases of Conscience, &c.' It was published in Latin in 16S6 and in English
in 1695. The author was a Scottish minister, professor of divinity successively
in the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. He was a highly respectable man,
both in talents and learning, and the author of several valuable expository works.
He died in 1662.

128 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
in his Life, to draw them up a form or method. But it was
never done araong thera aU. And it is said that Bishop Dow-
narae, at last undertaking it, died in the attempt. Had this
been done, it is like my labor might have been spared. But
being undone, I have thus made this essay. But I have been ne
cessitated to leave out much about conversion, mortification,
self-denial, self-acquaintance, faith, justification, judgment,
glory, &;c., because I had written of them aU before." "
The reader will probably be amused, as I have been, with the
following defence of himself for writing many and large books.
" As to the numbers and length of ray writings, it is my own
labor that maketh them so, and my own great trouble, that
the world cannot be sufficiently instructed and edified in fewer
words. But, would not all your sermons set together be as
long ? And why is not much and long preaching blamable, if
long writings be ? Are not the works of Augustine, and Chry
sostom, rauch longer } Who yet hath reproached Aquinas or
Suarez, Calvin or Zanchy, &ic. for the number and greatness
of the volumes they have written ? Why do you contradict
yourselves by affecting great libraries .' When did I ever
persuade any one of you, to buy or read any book of raine ?
What harm wiU they do to those that let them alone .'' Or what
harm can it do you for other men to read them ? Let them be
to you as if they had never been written ; and it wiU be nothing
to you how many they are. And if all others take not you for
their tutors to choose for them what books they must read, that
is not ray doing, but their own. If they err in taking them
selves to be fitter judges than you what tendeth most to their
own edification, why do you not teach them better ? Either
it is God's truth or error which I write. If error, why doth no
one of you show so much charity as by word or writing to in
struct rae better, nor evince it to my face, but do all to others
by backbiting ? If truth, what harm will it do ? If raen had not
leisure to read our writings, the booksellers would silence us,
and save you the labor ; for none would print thera. But who
can please all men ? WhUst a few of you cry out of too
much, what if twenty or a hundred for one be yet for raore ?
How shall I know whether you or they be the wiser and the
better raen ?" "^
This is cynical enough, but very characteristic. The work
is arranged by the author under four heads : Christian Ethics,
or private Duties ; Christian Economics, or Family Duties;
Christian Ecclesiastics, or Church Duties ; and Christian Poli
tics, or Duties to Rulers and Neighbors. This plan is not so
complete or systematic as might have been expected from a man
(c) Works, vol. ii. pp. 7—9. (d) Ibid, pp. 10, II.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 129
who studied order so much as Baxter did, and who attached so
much importance to it. The arrangement of a moral system
seems accurately marked by the apostle Paul in the three ex
pressive words which he employs : (Titus ii. 12.) " Godliness,
righteousness, and sobriety." All tiie duties which belong to
man are included under tiie head of what he owes to God, what
is due to himself, and what belongs to others. This arrange
ment has usually been adopted by the modern writers on raoral
subjects. Baxter would .seem to orait the first of these heads
altogether ; and his three last departraents belong all to one
division — the duties which we owe to others. But it raust be
said for him, that he had anticipated himself greatly in some of
his former writin ;i;s, by which the regularity of his plan was in
jured ; and under the head of private duties, he includes much
of what man owes to God, as well as of what is due to his own
interests. In other respects the plan is at once raost coraprehensive and
particular, erabracing, beyond any other book with which I am
acquainted, the largest portion of practical casuistry and instruc
tion. It discovers the amazing extent and minuteness of the
author's acquaintance with the Scriptures, and with all the prin
ciples of human nature. Nothing seeras to have escaped his
observation, or appeared too difficult to deter him from, at least,
attempting its solution. That he should have always succeed
ed, is too much to expect. The undertaking was too vast even
for the raind of Baxter, and his raanner of conducting it some
times discovers weakness ; while, on the whole, the work is a
powerful illustration of the strength of his raind, and the fertility
of his genius.
What is called moral philosophy in raodern tiraes, is any thing
but the philosophy of morals. Our modern phUosophers have
supposed they should be better eraployed in discussing raental
operations and the phenoraena of human nature, than tbe princi
ples of obedience to the wiU of God. And indeed where divine
revelation is either left out of the discussion, or placed below
what is caUed natural religion, it is better that they should amuse
theraselves with other subjects than with the duties which man
owes to the Creator. Baxter's work is fuU of genuine phUoso
phy. Man's responsibility is the basis of his system ; the reve
lation of Heaven its regulating law ; his own happiness the insep
arable concomitant of the obedience thus produced, having the
divine glory for its ultimate end.
No part of the work is less satisfactory than that which treats
on politics. This is one of the subjects Baxter least under
stood, and on which, therefore, he never wrote consistentiy. It
is very entertaining to find him waging war with Hooker, whose
principles he considered too popular and democratic. Who
VOL. II. 17

130

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

would expect to find the author of the ' Ecclesiastical Polity' a
whig, and Richard Baxter the Nonconformist a tory ? Yet so
it is ; the one, inconsistentiy with his leading principles on church
government, raaintains that the people are the proper source
of all power or authority ; tbe other disputes this, no less in
consistently with sorae of his sentiraents, and with the conduct
which in regard to such raatters he had pursued.
Hooker raaintains, with great abUity, the doctrine which he
lays down in the following passage :
" That which we spake of the power of govemment, must
here be applied to the power of making laws whereby to govern ;
which power God hath over aU, and by the natural law, where
to be hath made aU subject, the lawful power of making laws
to coramand whole politic societies of raen, belongeth so proper
ly to the same entire societies, that for any prince or potentate,
of what kind soever upon earth, to exercise the same of himself,
and not either by express coraraission imraediately and person
aUy received frora God, or else by authority derived at first frora
their consent, upon whose persons they impose laws, it is no bet
ter than mere tyranny. Laws they are not, therefore, which
public approbation hath not raade so.""
The reasoning by which Hooker sustains this enlightened
constitutional doctrine, it is unnecessary that I should quote.
Baxter never appears weaker than in his attempt to overthrow
it : he thus introduces his answer, which is a fair sample of aU
the rest of his argument. Tbe passage shows his respect for
Hooker, and his want of confidence in hiraself on this subject,
while it avows a principle subversive of the most valuable rights
which we enjoy.
" .Because the authority of this faraous divine is, with his party,
so great, I shaU adventure to say soraething, lest his words do
the more harm ; but not by confident opposhion, but hurable
proposal and subraission of ray judgraent to superior and wiser
men, as, being conscious of my own inferiority and infirmity, I
take all this to be an assertion nowhere by hira proved, and by
me elsewhere disproved fully. Laws are the effects and signs
of the ruler's wUl and instruments of governraent. Legislation
is the first part of governraent ; and if the whole body are natu
rally governors, the ' Pars imperans ' and ' Pars subdita' are con
founded. If the most absolute monarch can raake no laws, then
disobeying them were no fault. It is enough that their power
be derived frora God imraediately, though the persons be chosen
by raen. Their authority is not derived from the people's con
sent, but from God, by their consent, as a bare condition, ' sine
qua non.' What if a community say all to their elected king,
(e) Works, vol. vi. p. 27.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 131
' We take not ourselves to have any governing power to give
or use, but we only choose you or your family to that office
which God hath instituted, who, in that institution, giveth you
the power upon our choice : ' can any man prove that such a
king hath no power but as a tyrant, because the people disclaim
the giving of the power, when, indeed, they do their duty .'
Remeraber that, in all this, we speak not of the goverument of
this or that particular kingdom; but of kingdoins and other
commonwealths indefinitely." ^
This passage contains the essence of the doctrine of passive
obedience as distinctiy as was ever contended for by the highest
churchman of the day. It obviously confounds the divine ap
pointraent of government, with a particular form of governraent,
or with the principles of the governing party. It is monstrous
to contend that the right to govern, or the authority to execute
laws, is not derived from the people, but from God. Such a prin
ciple is the basis of all arbitrary governraents, and w?.s the root
of all the evUs which so long affected the country, and led to
the repeated subversion of those who considered theraselves the
only legitimate possessors of the right to govern. The doctrine
contended for is not the doctiine of the Bible ; and the raain
tenance of it is a singular proof of weakness and inconsistency
in a man who took such a lead as Baxter, in a body whose very
existence iraplies the principle against which he disputes, and
whose exertions have done more to estabUsh that principle in
Great Britain than all other things together.
The ' Christian Directory' was published at the time when dis
putes on the subject of passive obedience and non-resistance
began to be busily agitated. Baxter, though a Nonconformist
in fact, was a Churchman rather than a Dissenter in principle.
His judgment was in this way entangled, and his consistency
frequently destroyed. Hallam, with his usual candor and dis
crimination, accounts for the principles and writings of some
ofthe clergy on this subject. As the passage explains, though
it does not justify, the part which Baxter took, as well as gives
a raost correct view of the nature and progress of the discus
sion, I shaU give it at large.
" It is not ray intention to censure, in any strong sense of the
word, the Anglican clergy, at tiiis time, for their assertion of ab
solute non-resistance, so far as it was done without calurany and
insolence towards those of another way of thinking, and without
self-interested adulation of the ruling power. Their error was
very dangerous, and had nearly proved destructive of the whole
constitution ; but it was one which had come down with high
recommendation, and of which they could only, perhaps, be
(f) Works, vol. vi. pp, 27, 28.

132 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
undeceived, as men are best undeceived of most errors, by ex
perience, that it raight hurt themselves. It was the tenet of
their homilies, their canons, their most distinguished divines and
casuists. It had the apparent sanction of the legislature in a
statute of the present reign. Many exceUent men, as was
shown after the Revolution, who had never made use of this
doctrine as an engine of faction or private interest, could not
disentangle their rainds frora the arguments or the authority on
which it rested. But by loo great a number it was eagerly
brought forward to serve the purposes of arbitrary power, or at
best to fix the wavering Protestantisra of the court, by profes
sions of unimpeachable loyalty. To this motive, in fact, we
may trace a good deal of the vehemence with which the non-
resisting principle had been originaUy advanced by the church
of England under the Tudors, and was continuaUy urged
under the Stuarts. If we look at the tracts and sermons
published by both parties after the Restoration, it will ap
pear manifest that the Romish and Anglican churches bade,
as it were, against each other for the favor of the two
royal brothers. The one appealed to its acknowledged prin
ciples, whUe it denounced the pretensions of the holy see to
release subjects from their allegiance, and the bold theories of
popular government, which Mariana and some other Jesuits had
promulgated. The others retaliated on the first movers of the
Reformation, and expatiated ou the usurpation of Lady Jane
Grey, not to say, Elizabeth, and the republicanism of Knox or
Calvin. " From the era of the exclusion biU, especially, to the death
of Charles II., a number of books were published in favor of an
indefeasible hereditary right of the crown, and of absolute non-
resistance. These were, however, of two very different classes.
The authors of the first, who were perhaps the more numerous,
did not deny the legal limitations of monarchy. They admitted
that no one was bound to concur in the execution of unlawful
comraands. Hence, the obedience they deeraed indispensable,
was denominated passive ; an epithet, which, iu modern usage,
is little more than redundant, but at that tirae - raade a sensible
distinction. If aU raen should confine themselves to this Une of
duty, and merely refuse to become the instruraents of such un
lawful commands, it was evident that no tyranny could be car
ried into effect. If some should be wicked enough to co-operate
against the liberties of their country, it would still be the
bounden obligation of Christians to submit. Of this, which
may be reckoned the moderate party, the most eminent were
Hickes, in a treatise called ' Jovian,' and Sherlock, in his ' Case
of Resistance to the Suprerae Powers.' To this, also, must have
belonged Archbishop Sancroft, and the great body of non-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 133
juring clergy, who had refused to read the declaration of in
dulgence under Jaraes II., and whose condnct in that respect
would be utterly absurd, except on the supposition that there
existed sorae lawful boundaries ofthe royal authority." s
But I must return to the general character of the Chris
tian Directory. It is as a book of casuistry, rather than in any
other point of view, that it must be contemplated. It is fiUed
with a multitude of directions for the regulation of conduct,
and with innuraerable cases of conscience, which the author
endeavors to solve. For this kind of work, Baxter was
pre-eminently qualified, both by the constitution of his own
mind, and by his extensive experience. What he was as a
metaphysician, has been frequently adverted to. He was trained
to casuistry by the writings of the scholastic divines, to which
he had devoted so much attention, and of whose discussions he
was a profound admirer.
In addition to this, Baxter, from various causes, had for raany
years been consulted in doubtful and difficult cases, probably by
a greater nuraber of persons than any other raan of his age.
It was an age, too, it should be reraerabered, in which that
kind of spiritual consultation and prescription, was carried to
a great extent. We are told by Bishop Heber, in his Life of
Jeremy Taylor, that during the tirae that the celebrated Dr.
Owen was dean of Christ-church, a regular office for the
satisfaction of doubtful consciences was held in Oxford, to
which the students at last ludicrously gave the narae of ' Scruple
shop."' His Lordship should not have forgotten to mention, in
connexion with this, that after the Restoration, there was an
office established in London for the sale of dispensations to
churchmen to eat flesh in the time of Lent.
Casuistry, in fact, belonged to aU the parties of the tiraes.
The ' Ductor Dubitantium' shows how it was understood and
practised by churchmen ; as the ' Christian Directory' iUustrates
the same thing in relation to the Nonconformists. Whether
the palm in this species of writing ought to belong to Taylor or
to Baxter, I am not casuist enough myself to take upon me to
determine. Taylor had more learning and a greater luxuriance
of imagination than Baxter ; but the latter was more than his
equal in acuteness, in the power of distinguishing, in his
knowledge of the human heart, and in the correct estimation of
scriptural principle and practice. Taylor deals more with
general principles ; Baxter with particular cases. ' The former is
frequentiy extremely happy in his illustrations ; the latter in his
expositions of the deceitfulness of the human heart, and the
secret workings of error and sin. Both may be consuhed oc-
(g) HaUam, vol. ii. pp. 624—627. (h) Taylor's Works, vol. i. p. 270.

134 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
casionally with profit and advantage ; but if resorted to as
oracles, they wiU frequently be found as unsatisfactory as the
responses ofthe Delphic tripod.
The grand objection to the work of Baxter is, that it atterapts
too rauch. It substitutes rainute instructions instead of the
general principles and precepts ofthe word ofGod. Itleaves too
little for the spontaneity of the Christian raind, and perplexes
and bewilders by a useless multiplication of questions and cases.
He discusses, for instance, thirty tongue sins, and twenty ques
tions for the conviction of drunkards. He proposes eighteen
necessary qualifications of lawful recreation ; describes eighteen
sorts that are sinful ; and proposes twelve convincing questions
to those who plead for such pastiraes. He answers thirty-six
questions about contracts ; twenty about buying and seUing,
sixteen representing theft ; and one hundred and seventyfour
about raatters ecclesiastical !
Among other subjects, he considers, whether a mental promise
doth oblige ; whether raoney may be given to a bishop, patron,
Ste, by way of gratitude ; whether we may use raany words
in buying and selling; whether we raay buy as cheap as we
can ; and whether a landlord raay raise his rents ,'' He inquires
whether love of sleep may be a raortal sin ; and gives direc
tions against sinful dreams. He discusses whether we may fol
low the fashions ; and whether deformity may be hid by paint
ing or apparel ; whether a rainister raay kneel down in the pul
pit, and use his private prayers when he is in the asserably.
I ara far from thinking that such questions, and raany others
on which Baxter bestowed great labor, are absolutely indifferent;
but the attempt to meet the infinite variety of puzzles which
may be presented in morals and manners, by writing books, is
the vainest in which man can engage. Many of Baxter's an
swers are quite unsatisfactory ; they either leave the question
where it was, express a vain wish that some things were differ
ent, or actually create doubts and perplexities where none ex
isted before. They tend to generate disease as weU as to cure
it. On sensitive and scrupulous rainds, they are in danger of
operating injuriously, by feeding and strengthening raorbid feel
ings ; while, to rainds of a stronger texture, which raay be dis
posed to practise evasion, they answer little purpose, or suggest
means of self-defence and justification.
While I thus freely express rayself respecting the imperfec
tions or faults of this extensive work, I entertain a strong
opinion of the large mass of valuable practical instruction
which it contains. One feature pervades it — Baxter never errs
in the way of pleading for evil, or apologizing for its appear
ance. If he errs, it is on the side of rigidity, and not of laxity.
Wherever there is a doubt, he holds that the law of God, and

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 135
not the creature, should have the benefit of that doubt. He
never teaches men how near they may approach lo evil without
danger; but invariably inculcates the necessity of keeping ut
the greatest distance from it. Many of the books of Romish
casuistry, seem to have been constructed for the purpose of jus
tifying men in the commission of sin. They are littie belter
tiian traps and snares, whose end is death. Even Taylor could
go the length of admitting, that private evil may in some cases
be done by public men, for the public necessity. But though
various of Baxter's rules may easily be abused, I have not ob
served any case in which he attempts to plead for evU or ex
cuse it.
On the whole, the best directory for conscience is an enhght
ened acquaintance with the Sciiptures, and the possession of a
spiritual state of mind. Where these exist, difficulties respect
ing conduct will not be found in any great degree, or be of long
continuance. God has engaged to raake the path of duty plain
to him who desires to be found in it, and such will always ex
perience the divine faithfulness and goodness. It is impossible
to construct nicer balances than those of the sanctuary ; or to
form better weights and measures for them, than those which
God himself has provided. When truth must be dealt out in
drams and scruples, or the state of the conscience ascertained
by a theological barometer, the health of the soul must be in a
very crazy or feeble condition. The cure in such a case must
be found, not in a " scruple shop," or in a dispensation office,
but in a resolute and persevering application to the great Phy
sician, and the proper use of his heavenly remedies. Where
these faU, or are neglected, neither a Ductor Dubitantium nor a
Christian Directory wUl render essential service. '
I purposely began this chapter on Ciiristian ethics, with Bax
ter's ' Directory,' because, though not the first of his works on
the great duties of raan, as it erabraces the whole range it was
properly entitied to priority of consideration. The work to
which I ara now about to advert, is less in bulk, but greater in
value, and has rendered the highest services to the cause of
Christianity. I refer to his
' Gildas Salvianus : The Reforraed Pastor ; showing the
nature of the pastoral work ; especially in private instruction
and catechising : with an open confession of our too open sins.
Prepared for a day of humiliation, kept at Worcester, Dec. 4th,
1655, by the rainisters of that county who subscribed the agree
ment for catechising, and personal instruction, at their entrance
(i) An ' Abridgement of the Christian Directory,' in two volumes Svo, was
published in 1804, by Dr. Adam Clarke. The only mode of abridging such a
book, is reducing its bulk, by leaving out large portions of it. Baxter, I appre
hend, would not have smiled at the various attempts which have been made to
contract his dimension!.

136 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
upon that work.' J The tide which I have here quoted, presents
at once to the reader, the nature and design of tiiis important
treatise. Baxter was eminently quaUfied to write on the nature
and design of the ministerial office. He had now occupied it
for a sufficient number of years, to enable hira to speak from his
own experience. But independentiy ofthis, the manner in which
he had discharged the duties ofthe office at Kidderrainster, and
the extraordinary success with which it had pleased God to
bless his labors, pointed him out to his brethren as the proper
person to deliver to them, not an ex cathedra oration, or a formal
co-ncio ad cle.ros, but a pious, earnest, and soleran homily on the
onerous duties and responsibihties of the pastoral function.
The manner in which he fulfilled his duties in the church, of
which the Holy Ghost had made him overseer, we have -already
seen in his own beautiful account of the causes and means of
his success. The volurae now before us unfolds the principles
by which he was actuated in the discharge of his ministry,
and the raeans by which he endeavored to make fuU proof of
it. He was himself, allowing for huraan iraperfections, the pas
tor which he describes, the minister whose portrait he sketches :
" Whose own example strengthens all his laws,
And is himself the great sublime he draws." k
It is therefore no fanciful sketch, or beau ideal of a character,
unattainable by mortals, but the representation of a living reali
ty. This gives it a force and recommendation which it would
not otherwise have ; and is calculated to meet one of the strong
est objections which naturally occur to the mind of every at
tentive reader. He is disposed at once to ask the question,
Can these things be ? iCan such ardor, such spiritual devoted
ness, such untiring labor, such unwearied patience, so much
wisdom, discrimination, faithfulness, and meekness, be attained ?
If aU these are required to the due fulfilment of the pastor's
weighty charge, who is sufficient for these things ? The effect
of such considerations on sorae minds, has been most depress
ing and discouraging, inducing doubts as to whether they have
really been called to the work of the ministry, or ought not to
abandon it.
Richard Baxter, though possessed of vast natural energy and
enterprise, was after all but a man of like passions with others.
He was sickly, and feeble in body, and had his own pecuhari
ties of raind ; but the grace of Christ wrought mightily in him,
and rendered hira capable of great things. What he effected
was raore by the force of principle, and by the diligent and per
severing use of divinely-appointed means, than by his extraordi
nary natural talents. " He studied to show himself a workman
(j) Works, vol. XV. (k) Pope, of Longinus.

CF RICHARD BAXTER. 137
approved of God." He gave himself to reading, to meditation)
and prayer ; aud was wholly in these things. This continued
and unreserved devotedness is the grand feature in Baxter's
ministerial character, and that which accounts for much that he
accoraplished at Kidderminster.
To describe minutely such a work as the ' Reforraed Pastor,'
cannot be necessary ; and no description could do full justice
to its merits. GUdas and Salvianus, whose names are placed
first on his title-page, were two writers of the fifth and sixth
centuries, distinguished for tbeir bold and faithful warnings.
Baxter says, " 1 pretend not to the sapience of Gildas, nor to
the sanctity of Salvian, as to the degree ; but by their names
I offer an excuse for plain dealing. If it was used in a much
greater measure by men so wise and holy as these, why should
it, in a lower measure, be disallowed in another ? At least, from
hence I have this encourageraent, that the plain dealing of GUdas
and Salvian being so rauch approved by us now they are dead,
how much soever they might be despised or hated whUe they
were hving, by them whom they did reprove, at the worst I may
expect some such success in times to corae.'"'
His expectation has been raore than fulfilled ; scarcely any of
his books having been more extensively read, or more generally
useful than this. Prefixed to it is an address, of considerable
length, to his reverend and dearly beloved brethren, the faithful
ministers of Christ, in Great Britain and Ireland ; fuU of tender
ness and simple fidelity. There is next a short address to the
lay reader, in which he speaks of an intention to write a second
part ofthe work, treating more fuUy ofthe duties ofthe people,
and their relations to the pastors ; but which, I believe, he nev
er executed. The discourse itself is appropriately founded on
Acts XX. 28. He first opens or expounds the raeaning of the
text, and then enters fully into his great subject ; which he divides
into seven chapters. In these he enters into a full detail of all
that is included in the oversight of the flock, the duties necessa
ry to be performed, the manner in whichthey raust be discharg
ed, the actuating motives productive of obedience, the sins of the
ministry, the encourageraents provided for the faithful, and the
threatenings addressed to the ignorant, indolent, or ungodly.
On a few leading points Baxter lays great stress, and where
they are attended to, rauch benefit wUl invariably accrue.
Awakening preaching, holy example, diligent inspection, with
catechising, and the faithful administration of discipline. On
these points he dwells and enlarges, and they were all strikingly
iUustrated in his own example. There was a cutting edge in
his preaching, which could scarcely be withstood. His own
(k) Works, Preface, p. xvii.
VOL. II. 18

138 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
character added all the force of example to his expostulations,
reproofs, and injunctions. He was constantly among the people ;
acquainted with the old and the young; familiar with their
characters and circumstances; and prepared to take advantage
of every occurrence which might promote their eternal welfare.
His discipline foUowed up his warnings and denunciations ; and,
fearless of any consequences, he administered it with aU fide
lity and impartiahty.
Such a plan and raode of acting could not faU to produce, and
they did produce, surprising and lasting effects. There is an
obvious adaptation in them to promote the great ends which
Christ has in view in the institution of the Christian ministry.
Something must no doubt depend on natural as well as raoral
qualifications, and on advantageous or disadvantageous circura
stances. But where tbere is an ordinary measure of fitness for
the work, if such raeasures as these are dUigently and persever
ingly prosecuted, the effect will most araply repay the labor.
Christain zeal, fidehty, and tenderness, can never be employed
in vain.
There is one effect which such a systera as Baxter recom
mends is calculated to produce, and must therefore be watched
with great attention. It has a direct tendency to produce pro
fession and hypocrisy, if the love of the truth itself does not
take possession of the soul. Baxter, though he could not be satis
fied with the mere adoption of the form of religion, yet laid con
siderable stress on it ; and felt as if he had gained a step,
when men were induced to comply with certain external or
dinances, though they were not converted. The observance
ofthe Sabbath, of family worship, ofthe Lord's-supper, are aU
highly iraportant in themselves ; yet men raay be persuaded to
do all these things, who are strangers to the Ufe and power of
godUness. When religion comes to be generaUy respected in a
place, or when it is powerfully recommended by certain adven
titious circumstances, many will assume the profession, and mis
take outward conformity for inward and genuine piety.
The system of Baxter could also be more fuUy acted upon,
while he was minister of the parish of Kidderminster, as circum
stances then were, than it could afterwards have been, had he re
mained in the established chnrch ; or than he could have adopted
as the minister of a separate congregation, had he taken such a
charge. While in Kidderrainster, he enjoyed aU the advantages
both of the church and dissent. He was the minister of a volun
tary congregation, and of a separated Christian society, meeting
in the parochial edifice, and supported by the funds of the estab
lishment. He had all the consequence and influence of a clergy
man, with all the privileges and independence of a dissenting
minister. No clergyman dare now act in the same manner

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 139
with Baxter ; and no dissenting minister can do all that he did :
much more, however, might perhaps be done by both, than is
generally attempted. He concludes his book with the following
vevy beautiful appeal to his brethren, and reference to the great
Author of all good for his blessing.
" I have done my advice, and leave you to the practice.
Though tiie proud may receive it with scorn, and the selfish and
slothful with sorae distaste and indignation, I doubt not but God
wiU use it, in despite of the opposUions of sin and Satan, to the
awakening of many of his servants to their duty, and promoting
the work of a right reformation : and that his rauch greater
blessing shaU accorapany the present undertaking for the saving
of many a soul, the peace of you that undertake and perform it,
the exciting of his servants through the nation to second you,
and to increase purity and the unity of his churches."'
A very good abridgement of ' The Reformed Pastor' was exe
cuted raany years ago by the late Rev. Samuel Palmer, of Hack
ney ; the circulation of it has been very extensive. A much
improved revision and abridgement of the work, by ihe Rev. Dr.
Brown, of Edinburgh, with an admirable introductory essay by
the Rev. Daniel Wilson, has been recently published by Collins,
of Glasgow. Both the abridgement and the essay are in all re
spects worthy of Baxter, and deserving of the widest diffusion.
When he published the treatise, he expressed his confidence
that the divine blessing would attend it. Long before he died,
he said with great satisfaction respecting the book, but with
great sorrow in reference to the times, " I have very great
cause to be thankftd to God for the success of that book, as
hoping raany thousand souls are the better for it, in that it pre^
vailed with many ministers to set upon that work which I there
exhort thera to : even from beyond the seas, I have had letters
of request, to direct them how they might bring on that work
according as that book had convinced them that it was their
duty. If God would but reforra the ministry, and set them on
their duties zealously and faithfully, the people would certainly
be reformed : all churches either rise or faU, as the ministry
doth rise or fall ; not in riches and worldly grandeur, but in
knowledge, zeal, and ability for the work. But since bishops
were restored, this book is useless, and that work not raeddled
with." "^
I shall conclude ray account of this invaluable book, by re
questing the attention of ray brethren in the rainistry, who raay
happen to glance at these pages, to the foUowing tL^stimony of Dr.
Doddridge : " ' The Reformed Pastor' is a most extraordinary
performance, and should be read by every young minister before
' (1) Works, vol. xiv. p. 354. (m) Life, part i. p. 115.

140 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS'
he takes a people under his stated care ; and, I think, the prac
tical part of it reviewed every three or four years. ' For nothing
would have a greater tendency to awaken the spirit of a minis
ter to that zeal in his work, for want of which, many good men
are but shadows of what, by the blessing of God they might be,
if the maxims and measures laid down in this incomparable trea
tise were strenuously pursued." "
With 'The Reformed Pastor' may be connected, with great
propriety, one of Baxter's tracts, though it was published in 1676,
' Reasons for Ministers using the greatest plainness and serious
ness possible in aU their applications to their people.' " It
occupies only a few pages ; but is fuU of the raost soleran and
serious statements, appealing at once to ministers and people.
To the forraer to induce fidelity, and to the latter to encourage
submission to its exercise.
The mind of Baxter could embrace the most sublime and the
most abstruse subjects ; it could also descend and accommodate
itself to the simplest and rudest eleraents of knowledge. Like
Watts, he could reason with philosophers, and become the
instructer of children. FaraUies were the object of his great at
tention and solicitude whUe he ministered at Kidderminster ; and
the poorest as well as the richest enjoyed his labors. In no
capacity does he appear to more advantage than as the author
of ' The Poor Man's Faraily Book.' p This is, in fact, a compen-
diura of divinity and religion, communicated in a famihar con
ference between a teacher and a hearer, extending over eight
days, and coraprehending a forra of exhortation to the sick ;
two catechisms ; a profession of Cljristianity ; forms of prayer
for various occasions, and psalms and hymns for the Lord's day.
He states the design of the book ; and appeals so affectingly to
the rich, to assist him in circulating it among the poor, that I
cannot do better than allow him to speak for hiraself.
" This book was intended for tbe use of poor families, which have
neither money to buy many books, nor time to read them : I much
desired, therefore, to have made it shorter; but I could not do
it without leaving out that which I think they cannot well spare.
That which is spoken accurately, and in few words, the ignorant
understand not : and that which is large, they have neither
money, leisure, nor memory, to make their own. Being un
avoidably in this strait, the first remedy Ueth in your hands ; I
hurably propose it to you, for the souls of raen, and the comfort
of your own, and the common good on liie behalf of Christ the
Saviour of your souls and theirs, that you wiU bestow one book
(either this or sorae fitter) upon as raany poor famUies as you
well can. If every landlord would give one to every poor tenant
(nl Doddridge's ' Lectures on Preaching and the Pastoral Care.'
(o) Works, vol. XV. (p) Works, vol, xix.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 141
that he hath, once in his life, out of one year's rent, it would be
no great charge, in comparison of the benefit wbich may be hoped
for, aud in comparison of what prodigality consumeth. The
price of one ordinary dish of meat will buy a book: and to
abate, for every tenant, but one dish in your lives, is no great
self-denial. If you, indeed, lay out all that you have better, I
have done. If not, grudge not this littie to the poor and to
youi-selves : it wiU be more comfortable to your review, when
the reckoning coraeth, than that which is spent on pomp and
cereraony, and superfluities, and fleshly pleasures. And if land
lords (whose power with their tenants is usually great) would
also require thera seriously to read it, (at least on the Lord's
day,) it may further the success. And 1 hope rich citizens, and
ladies and rich women, who cannot themselves go to talk to poor
famiUes, will send thein such a messenger as this, or sorae fitter
book to instruct thera, seeing no preacher can be got at so cheap
a rate. The Father of spirits, and the Redeeraer of souls, per
suade and assist us all to work while it is day, and serve his
love and grace for our own, and other men's salvation." p
The whole work is conducted in the forra of a dialogue, which
is maintained with great vigor by the vaiious interlocutors.
Tbe style is famihar and easy, but not vulgar. While every
sentiment is made as inteUigible as possible to the poor, there is
much to please, and scarcely any thing to offend a person of the
most dehcate taste. Baxter could distinguish, which is not al
ways done, between plainness and home dealing, and what is low
and vulgar. He made it his object to elevate the minds of the
poor, wrthout degrading the ministry, or injuring the pure and
sublime doctrines of the cross. In this book we have of course
no learned quotations, but few of his nice distinctions, and none
of his technical words and phrases. It is pure good English
writing. The prayer at the end of the book, of a dying believ
er, is exquisitely beautiful. It may be poured out in a cottage ;
it might be uttered in a palace. It is the breathing of heaven,
and the earnest of its enjoyment.
This littie work met with great acceptance when it was first
published. It appears to have been given away in great num
bers by the author himself, as weU as by benevolent individuals
who approved of this method of promoting religion. The ef
fects produced by such raeans are rarely known in this world.
The extent to which the poor and the afflicted are relieved by
books and tracts, will only be ascertained when the worid, the
scene of their dispersion, has passed away. The following
anecdote of the origin of the dissenting congregation at Da
ventry wUl perhaps interest the reader, in connexion with the
' Poor Man's Family Book :'
(p) Works, vol. xix. p. 295.

142

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

Nonconformity took early root in this parish. After the
Bartholoraew Act, in 1662, secret meetings for worship were
frequently held late at night, and conducted only occasionally
by ministers, at a house in the hamlet of Drayton, in which was
a back-door opening into the fields, to facilitate retreat in case
of detection — no unnecessary precaution in those days of per
secution. The imraediate rise of the present congregation is thus re
lated by Dr. Ashworth, as comraunicated to hira about the year
1747, by Mr. Thomas Porter, one of the members then upwards
of eighty years of age : " An aged minister, who Uved some
considerable distance beyond Daventry, in his way to London,
lay at the Swan Inn (forraerly the principal inn) in this town,
where he was taken Ul, and confined for. a week or longer. Mr.
Lindsay, who kept the house, and aU his family, behaved to him
with much kindness ; and it appears to have been a remarkably
regular house. The minister, on the evening before he depart
ed, desired the faraily to come into his room, where he partic
ularly thanked Mr. Lindsay, and each of his faraily, for their
civiUty to him, and expressed much satisfaction in the good of
the house ; but, said he, something leads me think that there is
not the fear of God in this house. It grieves me to see such
honesty, civility, economy, and decency, and yet religion is want
ing, which is the one thing needful. On tbis, he entered into
a close conversation with them on the nature and importance of
real and inward religion, which he closed with teUing tbem, he
had with him a littie book, lately printed, which he would give
them, and wished tiiem to read it carefully. On which he gave
them Baxter's ' Poor Man's FaraUy Book.' This fixes the date
to 1672, or later, the year in which that book was printed. It
is not certain who the rainister was, or that Mr. Lindsay ever
saw hira again, or knew his name ; but it was suspected that it
was Baxter himself. Mr. Lindsay read the book with pleasure,
sent for others of Mr. Baxter's books, and he and some of his
children became excellent characters. Upon this he grew weary
of the inn, and being in plentiful circumstances, retired to a house
in the middle of the High Street, which had a small close behind
it; at the extreraity of which, upon the back lane (opposite the
inlands), there stood some out buildings, which he converted in
to a meeting-house. This was probably after the Revolution.
He always intended, and often promised, to settle it in form ;
but, dying suddenly, it never was done." '^
Encouraged by the reception and success of his Poor Man's
Book, Baxter pubUshed, in 1682, what he considered a second
part of it, ' The Catechising of Families,' in which he proposes
(q) Baker's ' Northaihptonshire, 'quoted in the 'Eclectic Review' for Septem
ber, 1828. -^

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 143
to instruct householders how to teach their households; and also
to afford assistance to schoolmasters and teachers of youtli :
"expounding," he says, " First, The law of nature ; Secondly,
The evidence of tiie Gospel ; Thirdly, The Creed ; Fourthly,
The Lord's Prayer : Filthly, The Comraandraents ; Sixthly, The
Ministry ; Seventhly, Baptism ; Eighthly, The Lord's Supper.
It is suited to those that are past the common littie catechism ;
and I think these two famUy books to be ofthe greatest coraraon
use of any that I have published. If households would but
do tiieir parts in reading good books to their households, it
might be a great supply where the ministry is defective ; and no
ministry wUl serve sufficiently without raan's own endeavors for
themselves and families."'
In his estimate of this and his former work, he was by no
means mistaken. They are both admirably adapted for useful
ness among the class of persons for which they were chiefly
designed. They contain a large portion of theological instruc
tion, conveyed with much simpUcity, aud often in a very
impressive manner. In informing the understanding, Baxter
never loses sight of the heart. He is constantly preparing or
directing some arrow, which, by the blessing of God, raay be
lodged iu some breast, thus causing conviction of sin, and leading
to the righteousness which is by faith. Both the Family Book
and the Catechism are fitted for other farailies besides the poor.
There is little to offend any class of society, and much that
might instruct and profit the young, even in the highest walks
of life.
Baxter was the author of another catechism still. It appeared
after his death ; being edited by Sylvester in 1701, with the
humble titie of ' The Mother's Catechisra ; or a farailiar way
of catechi.siog chUdren iu the knowledge of God, themselves,
and the Holy Scriptures.' ^ Though it is caUed a catechism, it
is rather a farailiar dialogue between a mother and her chUd,
beginning with the first principles or elements ol knowledge, and
proceeding to some of its more advanced stages. A considerable
partof it, is very good, but is beyond the capacity of a very
young chUd, for which it was principally intended as a prepa
ration for the next catechism. It shows, however, that Baxter
could cease to be metaphysical, and that he could accoraraodate
hiraself to the simplest understanding, when he set hiraself to
that kind of work. It is only to be regretted that he sometimes
forgot " men are but children of a larger growth," and conse
quently adopted a style of instructing thera too artificial, and
more calculated to show the powers of the teacher, than to pro
mote the benefit of the taught.
(r) Life, part iii. p. 191. "^s) Works, vol. xviii.

144 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
With these publications, intended chiefly for the good of the
poor, may with propriety be connected the sheets or tracts which
lie pubhshed for their benefit, though they have now entirely
disappeared. He printed and circulated, in the year 1665, two
sheets for the instruction of poor faraiUes, and one of instruc
tion for the sick in the time of the plague. It is very evident,.
both from what he wrote, and from the practice whicli he pur
sued, that he was a great advocate for the circulation of reli
gious tracts. He spent a considerable portion of the profits of
his own works in this way. The foUowing account of these
tracts will show how little there is of novelty in modern plans of
usefulness. " When the grievous plague began at London, I printed a
half sheet, to stick on a wall, forthe use of the ignorant and un
godly, who were sick, or in danger of the sickness ; for the
godly I thought had less need, and would read those larger
books which are plentiful among us. And I the rather did it
because many well-minded people who are about the sick, that
are ignorant and unprepared, and know not what to say to
them, raay not only read so short a paper to them, but see there
ia what raethod such persons are to be dealt with, in such a
case of extremity, that they may themselves enlarge as they see
cause. " At that time, Mr. Nathaniel Lane wrote to me to intreat
me to write one sheet or two for the use of poor famUies, which
wiU not buy or read any bigger books. Though I knew that
brevity would unavoidably cause me to leave out much neces
sary matter, or else to write in a style so concise and close as
will be little moving to any but close judicious readers, yet I
yielded to his persuasions, and thought it might be better than
nothing, and might be read by raany that would read no larger,
and so I wrote two sheets for poor faraUies : the first containing
the method and motives for the conversion of the ungodly ; the
second containing the description or character of a true Chris
tian, or the necessary parts of Christian duty, for the direction
of beginners in a godly life. These three last sheets were
printed by the favor of the archbishop's chaplain, when the
Bishop of London's chaplain had put me out of hope of print
ing any more.'"
From catechising children, we must follow Baxter, in this
department of his ministry, to other classes of persons. He
published a sheet in 1 657, of ' Directions to Justices of the
Peace, especially in Corporations, for the Discharge of their
Duty to God.' " This tract wiU not be supposed of the sarae
nature with a legal directory. In fact, it does not meddle with
(t) Life, part i. pp. 121, 122, (u) Works, vol. xv.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 145
die law at aU, but contams some very good general rules, cal
culated to assist in the administration of justice, or to suggest
to the persons occupying this place important means of doing
good. It was written at the request of Mr. William Mount-
ford, baUiff of Kidderminster, " who requested me," he says,
" to write him down a few brief instructions for the due execu
tion of his office of magistracy ; which having done, consider
ing how many mayors, and bailiffi, and country justices, needed
it as weU as he, I prmted it upon an open sheet, to stick upon
a waU." " The tract shows the different state of things which
must then have obtained in the country from any whh which
we are acquainted now. Baxter assumes that the justices begin
with hearmg the word of God, and fasting and prayer ; and
that they ai-e resolved to do the wiU of God. Would that such
were the condition of society at present, that we might take it
for granted religious principles influenced generaUy the magis
tracy of the land ! He found it necessary even then, however,
to recomraend the discouragement or suppression of unnecessa
ry ale-houses, the punishraent of drunkards and swearers, Sec.
As a tract, these directions might still be circulated, perhaps, to
some advantage.
Another class of persons engaged the attention of the inde
fatigable servant of Christ — the merchants and citizens of Lon
don. He published, in 1682, ' How to do Good to Many ; or,
the Pubhc Good the Christian's Life : with Directions and Mo
tives to it.' 5' In a dedication to the ' Truly Christian Merchants
and Citizens of London,' he refers to the circurastances in
which this sermon, or rather treatise, was prepared, and address
es them with great affection.
" What doctrine it was that I last prepared for you, I thought
meet to desire the press thus to tell you : not to vindicate my
self, nor to characterize them who think that it deserves six
months' imprisonraent, but to be in your hands a provocation
and direction for that great work of a Christian life, which, sin
cerely done, will prepare you for that safety, joy, and glory,
which London, England, or earth, wUl not afford, and which
men or devUs cannot take from you : when, through the meri
torious righteousness of Christ, your holy love and good works
to him, in his brethren, shall raake you the joyful objects of
that sentence, ' Corae, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom,' Sic.
This is the Ufe that needeth not to be repented of, as spent in
vain. Dear friends, in this fareweU I return you ray most hearty
thanks for your extraordinary love and kindness to myself, much
raore for your love to Christ, and to his servants, who have more
(s.) Life, part i. p. 117. I apprehend our Tract Society has not yet thought of
adapting its single sheets to this class of persons.
(y) Works, vol. xvii.
VOL. II. 19

146 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
needed your relief. God is not unjust to forget your work and
labor of love. You have visited those that others iraprisoned,
and fed those that otiiers brought into want ; and when some
ceased not to preach for our affliction, it quenched not your im
partial charity. It has been an unspeakable mercy unto me, al
most all my days (when I received nothing from them), to have
known so great a number as I have done, of serious, humble,
holy, charitable Christians, in whom I saw tiiat Christ hath an
elect, peculiar people, quite different from the brutish, proud,
hypocritical, raalignant, unbelieving world. O how sweet hath
the familiarity of such been to rae, whom the ignorant world hath
hated ! Most of them are gone to Christ : I ara following.
We leave you here to longer trial. It is like you have a bitter
cup to drink, but be faithful to the death, and Christ will give
you the crown of life. The word of God is not bound, and the
Jerusalera above is free, where is the general assembly of the
first-born, an innumerable company of angels, the spirits of the
just made perfect, with Christ their glorified head. The Lord
guide, bless, and preserve you." ^
The great object of the discourse is to point out a variety of
methods of doing good, which may be adopted by persons of
affluence. It is fuU of sound practical wisdom, and shows that
Baxter's mind could, even under aU the depressing cil'-cumstan-
ces of the country, take an enlarged and enlightened view of
that benevolence which ought to be a leading feature in the
character of every Christian. The publication of books and
tracts, the printing and circulation of the Scriptures, the send
ing forth of missionaries, were among the plans of usefulness
wliich he proposed. The following short paragraph wiU show
that the germs of Bible, raissionary, and tract societies were all
in the mind of this raost energetic and enlightened raan.
"Is it not possible, at least, to help the poor ignorant Arrae
nians, Greeks, Muscovites, and other Christians, who have no
printing among them, nor much preaching and knowledge ; and,
for want of printing, have very few Bibles, even for their church
es or ministers? Could nothing be done to get some Bibles, cat
echisms, and practical books, printed in their own tongues, and
given among them ? I know there is difficulty in the way ; but
money, and wiUingness, and dUigence, might do something.
Might not something be done in other plantations as well as in
New England, towards the conversion of the natives there ?
Might not some skilful, zealous preachers be sent thither, who
would proraote serious piety among those of the English that
have too littie of it, and might invite the Americans to learn
the Gospel, and teach our planters how to behave themselves
christianly towards them, to win them to Christ." *
(z) Works, vol. xvii. pp. 289, 290. (a) Ibid. vol. xvii. p. 330.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 147
A third class of persons occupied his attention, and engaged
his exertions. He pubUshed, in the same year with the pre
ceding, ' Compassionate Counsel to all Young Men ; especially
London Apprentices ; Students of Divinity, Physic, and Law ;
and the Sons of Magistvates and Rich Men.' ^ This littie work
is distinguished by the great affection and faithfulness which are
combined in its pages. It contains the most affectionate coun
sels and warnings to youth, in whom he was so deeply interested.
His success in Kidderminster, and his experience afterwards, led
him to this work. "
" In the place," he says, " where God most blessed my la
bors, at Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, ray first and great
est success was upon the youth ; and, which was a marveUous
way of divine mercy, when God had touched the hearts of youug
men and girls with a love of goodness, and delightful obedience
to the truth, the parents and grandfathers, who had grown old
in an ignorant, worldly state, did many of them fall into a liking
and love of piety, induced by the love of their children, whom
they perceived to be made by it rauch wiser, and better, and
more dutiful to them. God, by his unexpected, disposing
pro-yidence, having now for twenty years placed me in and near
London, where, in a variety of places and conditions (some
times under restraint by men, and soraetimes at more liberty),
I have preached but as to strangers, in other men's pulpits,
as I could, and not to any special flock of mine; I have
been less capable of judging of my success ; but, by much ex
perience, I have been made raore sensible of the necessity of
warning and instructing youth than I was before. The sad
reports of farae have taught it to me ; the sad complaints of
mournful parents have taught it me ; the sad observation of the
wUful impenitence of some of my acquaintance tells it rae ; the
many scores, if not hundreds, of bills that have been publicly put
up to me to pray for wicked and obstinate chUdren, have told
it me ; and, by the grace of God, the penitent confessions,
lamentations, and restitutions of many converts, have more par
ticularly acquainted me with their case ; which moved rae, on
ray Thursday's lectme, awhUe to design, the first of every
month, to speak to youth, and those that educate them." '^
The last work which comes properly under the present head
is, ' The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day Proved, as a
Separated Day for Holy Worship; especially in the Church
Asserablies ; and, consequently, the cessation of the Seventh-
Day Sabbatii.' Svo. 1671."
,(b) Works, vol. xv. ..... .u r
(c He tells us in his life, that Sir Robert Atkins contributed to the expense of
printing it; and that he gave away in the city and country hfteen hundred copies,
beside what were sold by the booksellers.— Part iii. p. 190.
(d) Works, vol. XV. pp. 299, 300. (<:) lb"!- vol. xiii.

148 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
The subject discussed in this volume is one of vital impor
tance to the interests of morality, and of practical religion. The
manner in which the Sabbath is observed may justly be con
sidered as the pulse or index of religion, which shows whether it
is in a healthy or diseased state, either in communities or indi
viduals. It wiU be found to consist with general experience,
that, as the duties and privileges of this sacred day are con
scientiously or carelessly regarded, true religion will prosper or
dechne. On these accounts, not only theological, but moral
writers, have considered the subject of the- Sabbath one of the
very first importance, in treatises embracing the duties of reli
gion. A considerable diversity of opinion, however, has prevailed
respecting the grounds on which the entire consecration of the
first day of the week to holy purposes properly rests. Little is
directly said on this subject in the New Testament, much there
fore depends on inferential reasoning. The references to tbe
subject in the early Christian writers, are far from satisfactory.
It appears clearly enough, that Christians raet on that day for
public worship ; but not so clearly that they consecrated the
whole day to God. Few, if any of the Reforraers, British or
Continental, held the divine obhgation of the first day of the
week. Calvin and Cranmer, Luther and Melancthon, all agreed
in regarding it as the appointment or free choice of the church,
rather than the positive appointment of God. ^ The English
Puritans at an early period endeavored to place its obligation
on the high ground of divine appointment ; and from that period
to the present tirae, a controversy on the subject has been more
or less continually agitated.
While the first day of the week was thus matter of debate,
another question was introduced by some, whether the obhga
tion of the seventh day had really ceased ; and that it had not,
a few persons contended with considerable zeal, and some show
of argument. This view of the subject appears to have arisen
chiefly frora two causes : many of the opposers of infant baptism,
having been led to maintain that aU positive institutions of re
Ugion, must have for their foundation a positive divine command ;
and finding such a command to observe the seventh, but no such
command respecting the first day of the week, to be consistent,
they gave up the Christian Sabbath, as they had given up infant
baptism. I believe the Sabbatarians, as they have since been
called, have generally been Baptists. But this was not the only
source of the sentiment now adverted to. Many of the Puritans,
(f) The reader may consult, on this subject, the 'Augustan Confession,' fiont.
16, ' Helvetian Confession,' cap. 21. ' Calvin. Institut.' lib. ii. cap. 3. K'lct. .'54.
The works of Frith, Tindal, Barnes, and Cranmer, show that tho F.nglish Re
formers were of the same opinion — that the Sabbath wa'i a holiday appointed bv
the church.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 149
in discussing the subject of the Lord's Day, resting the strength
of their argument on the moral obligation of the fourth com
mandment, contended in fact for the observance of the first day
of the week on the principles of Judaism. This drove some
men, such as MUton, to maintain that the Sabbath had entirely
ceased. From the operation of these and other causes, there had been
a great deal of controversy respecting the Sabbath, before Bax
ter -wrote this treatise. His object in it is twofold ; to correct
those who regarded the Lord's Day as a kmd of Jewish sabbath ;
and to confute those again who either maintained the abrogation
of a day of sacred rest altogether or contended for the continu
ed obhgation of the Jewish sabbath. He had therefore to meet
the high-chureh men, who looked on the Sabbath merely as a
hohday ; such as Whhe, Heylin, and Ironside ; and those of the
Puritans who confounded it with the Mosaic system, such as
Bound, Cawdry, and Palmer ; with those who were for setting
aside the first day of the week entirely.
I consider this one of the most judicious of Baxter's works.
It judiciously combines controversial and practical discussion,
botii of which are managed with great fairness, and display
great accuracy of scriptural knowledge. The ground he takes
is stated in the foUowing series of propositions, which he after
wards proceeds to establish and Ulustrate.
The first proposition is, ' That Christ commissioned his apos
tles, as his prhicipal church miuisters, to teach the churches
all his doctrine, and dehver them aU his commands and orders,
and so to settie and guide the first churches.' The second
proposition is, 'That Christ promised his Spirk accordingly
to his aposties, to enable them to do what he had comraissioned
them to do, by leading them into aU truth, and bringing his
words and deeds to thefr reraerabrance, and by guiding them as
his church's guides.' The third proposition is, ' That Christ
performed this promise, and gave his Spirit accordingly to his
apostles, to enable them to do aU their commissioned work.
The fourth proposition is, ' That the aposties did actually sepa
rate or appoint the first day of the week for holy worship, espe
ciaUy in church assemblies.' The fifth proposition is, ' That
this act of theirs was done by the guidance or inspiration of the
Holy Ghost, which was given them.'
" When I have distinctly proved these five things, no sober,
understanding Christian can expect that I should do any raore,
towards the proof of the question in hand, whether the first
day of the week be separated by God's institution for holy wor
ship, especiaUy in church assemblies." e
(g) Works, vol. xiii. p. 371. There is only another writer of the same period

150 l-IiE LIFE AND WRITI.VGS
I am fully satisfied, that the ground here taken is the only
scriptural and satisfactory ground of the divine obligation of
this sacred day. It places it correctly on the footing of a New-
Testaraent ordinance ; while it does not deprive it of all that
support frora the analogy of the original appointraent of a day of
rest, and ofthe Mosaical institution, which it raay properly have.
Unless we reason frora the recorded example of the apostles and
primitive Christians, and regard that example as not less bind
ing than apostolic precept, we shall find very little authority for
most of the ordinances of Christianity.
" I rauch pity and wonder," says Baxter, " at those godly men
who are so much for stretching the words of Scripture to a sense
that other raen cannot find in them ; as that in the word graven
images, in the second commandment, they can find all set forms
of prayer, all composed studied sermons, and all things about
worship of man's invention, to be images or idolatry ; and yet
they cannot find the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath in the
express words of Col. ii. 16, nor the other texts which I have
cited ; nor can they find the institution of the Lord's Day in all
the texts and evidences produced for it." ''
In the course of this treatise, Baxter gives a singular account
of the way in which the observance of the Sabbath was attended
to in his early days. It is an adrairable iUustration of the Book
of Sports, the production of the far-famed wisdom of James I.,
and sanctioned by his son Charles.
" I cannot forget," he says, " that in my youth, in those late
tiraes, when we lost the labors of sorae of our conformable
godly teachers for not reading publicly the book of sports and
dancing on the Lord's Day, one of my father's own tenants was
the town piper, hired by the year (for many years together,) and
the place ofthe dancing assembly was not an hundred yards
from our door. We could not, on the Lord's Day, either read
a chapter, or pray, or sing a psalm, or catechise or instruct a
servant, but with the noise ofthe pipe and tabor, and the shout
ings in the street continually in our ears. Even among a
tractable people, we were the common scorn of all the rabble
in the streets, and called puritans, precisians, and hypocrites,
because we rather chose to read the Scriptures, than to do as
they did ; though there was no savour of nonconforraity in our
faraily. And when the people by the book were allowed to play
and dance out of public service time, they could so hardly^ break
off their sports, that many a time the reader was fain to stay
tUl the piper and players would give over. Sometimes the
with Baxter, known to me, who takes the same view of the subject, and almost
the same ground—' Warren's Jew's Sabbath Antiquated, and the Lord's Day In
stituted by Divine Authority.' 1659. 4to. It is a very able treatise.
(h) Ibid. p. 367,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 15 [
morris-dancers would come into the church in all their linen,
and scarfs, and antic-dresses, wUh morris-bells jingUng at their
legs; and as soon as common prayer was read, did haste out
presentiy to their play again." ''
Greatiy as the Sabbath is stiU neglected or profaned araong
us, it ought to afford sincere satisfaction that such scenes as the
above could not now be transacted in any part of England. Much,
however, stUl reraains to be done, before the divine obligation
ofthe Lord's Day will be generally acknowledged and respected
in this Christian country. Had the views of the reformers on
this subject been more correct, greater progress would doubtless
have been made, as their sentiments would have had an influ
ence on sorae of the legal enactraents of the country. Little
can now be done, except by the operation of Christian principle
and example on the public habits and manners of the people.
As genuine Christians increase, and their power comes to be
more exerted, many evils, and among these the profanation of
the Sabbath, wUl be gradually abated, and ultiraately abolished.
We have now gone over the various ethical writings of
Baxter. How extensively he entered into this departraent, and
how ably he treated it, must be apparent even from this im
perfect review. No class of persons, no description of duty,
escaped the vigUance of his attention. Unfettered by any pe
culiarities of bis theological system, he made it his business to
stir up all men to a sense of their duty to God and others.
Whatever the Law-maker enjoined, he considered hiraself bound
to enforce, regardless of all the excuses which raen plead, and
the apologies which they offer for any act of disobedience.
He never thought of allowing moral impotence, that is, indis
position to do the will of God, as a reason for noncompUance.
On the contrary, he made use of this very indisposition as a
reason why men should repent, and seek for strength where
alone it is to be found. If evangehcal motives do not always
occupy a conspicuous place in tbis class of his writings, it is
not because he wished to keep thera out of view, but because
he either took it for granted that they were understood, or
considered it important to give prorainence to certain other
topics, which preachers of the Gospel are sometiraes in danger
of overlooking. Take his writings of this class as a whole, they
are exceedingly valuable, and furnish a most complete answer
to aU who would charge those who preach the truth, as it is in
Jesus, whh mdifference, or inattention to the claims of morality.
No man contended more strenuously than Baxter for the preach
ing of Jesus, as a Saviour ; and no man more zealously preached
him as Christ, the Lord. (h) Works, vol, xiii. p. 444.

152 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER VI.

WOEICS ON CATHOLIC COMMUNION.
Unity of the Early Christians— Causes of Separation— Moans of Ro-Union— Sentimonts of Hall
on this Subject— Baxter, tho Originator, in Modern Times, of the true Principle of Catholic-
Communion — His various Labora to promoto it — ' Christian Concord '—Qhurch Communion
at Kidderminster— ' Agreement of Ministers in Worcestershire' — 'Disputations of'Righf
to the Sacraments ' — Sir WiUiam Morice — ' Confirmation and Rostauration ' — ' Disputations
on Church Government '— Dodicatod to Richard Cromwell—' Judgment concerning Mr. Du
ry '—Some Account of Dury—' Universal Concord '-Baxter's Efforts in promoting Union
retarded by the Ecstorotion— ' Catholic Unity '— ' True Catholic and Catholic Church ' —
' Cure of Church Divisions '— Controversy with Bagshaw—' Defence of the Principles of
Lovo'— 'Second Admonition to Bagshaw '—' Church told of Bagshaw's Scandal '-Further
Account of Bagshaw—' Truo and only Way of Concord ' — ' Catholic Communion Defended^?
in Five Parts—' Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale '— ' Baxter's Sense of tho Subscribed Arti
cles '— ' Church Concord '— ' Of National Churches '— ' Moral Prognostication '—Summary
View of Baxter's Sentiments on CathoUc Communion and Church Government.
When the kingdom of heaven was first set up among men^
there was only one narae by which its subjects were designated,
but one authority to which they aU bowed, and one fellowship
to which they all belonged. A primitive Christian could have
formed no idea of the character of a person, or the kind of
treatraent to which he was entitied, whom he was called to recog
nise as a believer, but with whora he must not have communion.
in the most sacred ordinance of the Gospel. There were
differences of opinion and practice then as well as now, but
such a thing as 1 have adverted to could neither have been
understood nor practised. Had Christianity been left to main
tain and extend itself in the world by its own unaided power,,
and hs own scriptural means, it is probable that this state of things
would have continued. But when it was thought necessary to
define it more accurately than God himself had done ; to
require raen to submit to human expositions of the faith, rather
than to the faith itself; and to eraploy coercive raeasures to pre
serve and enforce uniformity of opinion and practice, the glori
ous unity of the church of Christ was invaded and destroyed by
the very means devised to preserve it.
The wretched state of division which stUl subsists in the
Christian church, is chiefly owing to the continuance of these
causes. Terras of communion, entirely of human framing, con
tinue to enclose and hedge up the several parties into which
the Christian world is divided, and to keep them separate from

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 153
one another. God is not sufficiently trusted to take care of his
owii cause, and to preserve his kingdom frora ruin. Man must
devise his schemes of preservation and enlargement, must inter
pose the use of his power and the dictum of his authority to
maintain unity and peace. In tiie mean time, all is weakness,
alienation, and anarchy.
It can scarcely be doubted, that if Christians acted more ac
cording to their own feeUngs, and less under the influence of
authority, custom, or mterest, a different state of things would
soon appear. Did they consult the Scriptures more, and huraan
opinion less ; were it their sole object to ascertain facts and
principles as the groundwork of their own obedience, instead
of looking for the confirmation of hypotheses, or for arguraents
to justify received systems ; and did they, in connexion with
this conduct, determine to hold fellowship with all whom they
could regard as holding the same Head, substantial unity in the
church of Christ would soon be again restored. But if men
will give up nothing that they have been taught by tradition or
authority to receive ; if a difference of opinion on some of the
five points is deeraed incompatible whh the acknowledgement of
the Christian character ; if tiie ministry of a servant of Christ is
considered invalid, unless he has received it from episcopal or
presbyterian hands ; if Christian comraunion is raade dependent
on submission to a particular form of baptism, or a particular
mode of observing the Lord's supper ; if aU churches must be
regarded as sectarian and schismatical which are not established
by human laws ; then, while these things are thus viewed and
maintained, it would be absurd to look for love and union araong
the foUowers of Christ.
"If we consult the Scriptures," says an eloquent writer,
" we shall be at no loss to perceive that the unity of the
church is not merely a doctrine most clearly revealed, but
that its practical exemplification is one of the principal designs
of the Christian dispensation. We are expressly told that our
Saviour purposed by his death, to 'gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad,' and for the accom
plishraent of this design, he interceded during his last raoraents,
in language which instructs us to consider it as the grand
raeans of the conversion of the world. His prophetic antici
pations were not disappointed ; for while a visible unaniraity pre
vailed amongst his followers, his cause everywhere triumphed :
the concentrated zeal, the ardent co-operation of a comparative
few, impeUed by one spirit and directed to one object, were
raore than a match for hostUe myriads. No sooner was the
bond of unity broken by the prevalence of intestine quarrels
and dissensions, than the interests of truth languished, until
Mahometanisra in the east, and Popery in the west, com-
voL. II. 20

154 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
pleted the work of deterioration, which the the loss of primitive
simplicity and love, combined with the spirit of intolerance,
first comraenced.
" If tiie reUgion of Christ ever resumes her ancient lustre,
and we are assured by the highest authority she will, it must be
by retracmg our ste]is, by reverting to the original principles on
which, considered as a social institution, it was founded. We
must go back to the simplicity of the first ages — we raust learn
to quit a subtle and disputatious theology for a religion of love,
emanating from a few divinely energetic principles which per
vade almost every page of inspiration, and demand nothing for
their cordial reception and belief, besides an humble and con
trite heart. Reserving to ourselves the utraost freedom of
thought in the interpretation of the sacred oracles, and pushing
our inquiries, as far as our opportunities adrait, into every
department of revealed truth, we shall not dream of obtruding
precarious conclusions on others as articles of faith, but shall
receive, with open arms, all who appear to love our Lord Jeaus
Christ in sincerity, and find a sufficient bond of union, a suffi
cient scope for aU our sympathies in the doctrine of the cross.
If the Saviour appears to be loved, obeyed, and adored ; if his
blood is sprinkled on the conscience, and his Spirit resides in
the heart, why should we be dissatisfied ? We, who profess to
be actuated by no other motive, to live to no other purpose,
than the promotion of his interest." '
Concurring most cordially in the justice and importance
of the sentiraents thus admirably expressed, it is with great
pleasure I bring before the reader the opinions of Baxter,
on the subject of Catholic comraunion. Here he was greatly
in advance of the age to which he belonged : for it wiU
be found that his views did not altogether accord with those
of any party during his own time ; although there were a few
persons who then held simUar opinions. Rigid Episcopa
lians, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, aU objected to
some of his principles of religious feUowship, and to the great
objects of his efforts ; yet a few of aU these classes agreed with
(i) Hall's 'Reply to Kinghorn,' p. 250—252. The work of the Rev. Robert
Hall, A.M. from which the above quotation is made, as do his other publications in
this controversy, well deserves to be consulted ; for though they all chiefly re
fer to the subject of Baptism, his general principles admit of a much more ex
tended application. The volume of Dr. Mason, formerly of New York, on the
same subject, is also worthy of perusal. It is singular, that while Presbyterians,
Baptists, and Independents, have thus been gradually approximating to each oth
er, and are likely to amalgamate finally into one body. Episcopacy does not ap
pear to have advanced one step, or, in the slightest degree, to have lowered its
tone or its pretensions. It is as lofty and unyielding at the present moment aa
it was in the days of Baxter. The ultimate effect of this on itself, and the other
communities, it is not for me to predict; but should a general and cordial union
of the other denominations eventually take place, and lipiscopacy still refuse to
acknowledge them as brethren, the question, who are the schismatics, will no
longer be of difficult solution, and the issue of the contest will soon be decided.

OF RiOHARD BAXTER. 155
him on the main subject. That subject will probably be found
to confer on Baxter, one of his most distinguished honors ; that
he was among the first of our countrymen, who advocated the
broad and important principle, that the only term of com
munion in the Christian church ought to be a profession of the
faith of Christ, worthy of credit ; that we are bound to receive
aU whom God has received ; to exclude those only whom he
appears not to have approved ; and that though there be con
siderable diversity of opinion, and even of practice, among such
as expect to meet in heaven at last, they ought to acknowledge
one another as Christians on earth, and to hold feUowship in
all things in which they are agreed, and can walk together.
To produce this visible union among all true Christians was
the great object to which Baxter may be said to have devoted
his hfe. Most of his controversies arose out of his solicitude to
accomplish this most desirable consummation; and he never
failed more to his own mortification, than when he lost his
labor on this object, or stirred up further strife. He studied
it profoundly, he entered into the prosecution of it with the
utmost ardor ; and frora the first moment of his public life to
the last he never lost sight of it.
The reUgious disorders and dissensions in the kingdom during
the time of the civil wars, greatly affected him. In the array he
spent several years of his rainistry, endeavoring to subdue the
spirit of division which he there witnessed. When he settled
a second time at Kidderrainster, he exerted hiraself to reconcile
and harmonize all parties in the place ; and succeeded. He cor
responded privately with Gataker, Vines, Bishop Brownrig,
Owen, Hararaond, and other eminent men, on the terras and
means of union. He then made some attempts with the minis
ters of his immediate neighborhood, and at last extended the
attempt to the county of Worcester at large ; and was success
ful beyond his expectations. He aimed at nothing less than
uniting, without requiring a compromise of principle, Episco
palians and Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists, in one
common feUowship, throughout the kingdom. To accompUsh
this object, he generalized the principles of communion, pla
cing them on the siraple ground of the sincere profession of
our comraon Christianity : he inculcated strongly the doctrines
of Christian liberty and forbearance ; and endeavored to lessen
the confidence ofthe several parties in the divine right of their
respective systems. He diligently sought out the things in which
aU Christians agree, and dwelt on their iraportance ; he painted
in the brightest colors the coraparatively trivial nature of the
things in which they differ ; and represented in the strongest
terms, the guik, the folly, and the danger of maintaining divi
sive courses, or of living in alienation from Christian brethren.

156 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
The first work which he published on this highly interesting
and important subject is one, in the authorship of which he
had only a part, though that was a principal one, ' Christian
Concord ; or, the Agreement of the Associated Pastors and
Churches of Worcestershire : with Richard Baxter's Explica
tion and Defence of it, and his Exhortation to Unity.' 1653. 4to.
It contains the propositions and rules adopted by the associated
ministers, the profession of faith in which they agreed, and
Baxter's explanations of some passages in the propositions
and confession chiefly intended for the satisfaction of the peo
ple of Kidderminster.
This agreement resulted from a voluntary association of
the minister of the county of Worcester, formed chiefly by
the exertions of Baxter, and among whom he acted as a sort of
moderator, or president, during most of the time which he
spent at Kidderminster. The object of it was to promote mi
nisterial intercourse and improvement ; to assist each other in
promoting the interests of religion and raorality, and in raain
taining discipline and order in their respective congregations.
It was not strictly Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Independent.
It was not Episcopal ; for it acknowledged no superiority
araong the rainisters. It was not Presbyterian, for it disclairaed
the exercise of authority on the part of the associated minis
ters, and acknowledged the right of the people " to try and
discern" the proceedings of the rainisters. Itwas not Inde
pendent, because it recognized the right of rainisters to act
separately frora the people, acknowledged the common parochial
boundaries, and the magistrates' aid in certain cases. Yet does
tiie whole constitution of this associated body, and its rules for
the regulation of particular churches, correspond more with the
voluntary character of Congregational churches than with any
other system. This remark wiU apply generaUy to Baxter's
sentiments on the subject of church-government snd comrau
nion. He objected to being considered an Independent, as he
objected to all party distinctions ; but his writings and conduct
were more in support of modified Independency than of any
other system.
In confirmation and iUustration of this point, I shaU here
give, from himself, an account of the system he pursued whUe
at Kidderminster, though written long after he had left it. It
presents before us the whole apparatus which he employed, and
explains his general views of church-fellowship and ecclesias
tical discipline. It shows that Baxter was the minister of a
voluntary congregation, and pastor of a separate church, whose
discipUne was neither aided nor restrained by the civU powers,
though Baxter was supported by the funds which belonged to
the EstabUshment.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 157
" When I undertook a parish charge myself, I kept with mo
two ministers, to assist me at one parish church and a smaU
chapel. I had three godly justices of peace in the parish, who,
to countenance our disciphne, kept their monthly meeting at the
sarae time and place. I had four ancient godly men that per
forraed the office of deacons. I had above twenty of the seniors
of the laity, who, without pretence of any office, raet with us, to
be witnesses that we did the church and sinners no wrong, and
to awe the offenders by tiieir presence. These raet once a month
together. We had almost all the worthy ministers of the
county agreeing and associated to do the like in their several
parishes, as far as they were able, that unity might the more
convince the offenders. We had, in the same town, the next
day after our monthly town meeting, an assembly of a dozen or
twenty such ministers, to edify each other, and that those might
be tried by them and before them, whether we could persuade
them to repentance, who would not be prevaUed with by ourselves.
And, what was our ease incomparably beyond all this, neither
the tunes nor our judgment aUowing us to use discipline upon
any but such as consented to our office and relation to thera,
we told them that we had all agreed only to exercise so much
of discipline, as Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Independent,
had no controversy about (some of the Episcopal joining us) ;
and that we would exercise it in all our flocks, but we could be
pastors to none against their wiUs. Whereupon, of about three
thousand persons, one thousand eight hundred or more of
which were at age to be comraunicants, all refused to do any
more than hear me preach, for fear of discipUne, except about
six hundred, or a few raore. These six hundred were the raost
understanding, reUgious part of the parish : all the grossly
ignorant, and the coramon swearers, and aU the drunkards and
scandalous persons, were araong the refusers, except about five
or six young men that had got such a love to tippling that they
could not leave it. These hid their sin awhile, but could
not long : yet the trouble and work that these five or six
men made us, sometimes by drunkenness, sometimes by fight
ing, sometimes by slandering their neighbors, or such like,
were more than it is easy for an unexperienced person to beUeve.
So hard was it to bring thera to a confession of their sins, or to
ask their forgiveness whom they grossly wronged, that when we
endeavored, with all our skiU, to convince them, and used
gentle exhortation, and also opened to them the terrors of the
Lord ; when we prayed before them that God would give them
repentance ; when their own parents and relations joined with
us ; all would not make them confess their sin, but we were
forced to cast them out of our communion, for the most part
of them. Among aU the rest, there were some that some-

158 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
times would need admonition and reconciliation with one an
other, which found us sorae work. But if we had been troubled
with all the other thousand or twelve hundred of the parish,
and so with aU the other swearers, railers, coramon drunkards,
some infidels, fee, what work should we have had ! So much
as I dare confidently say that, without being half so strict and
troublesome as the ancient canons were, we could not possibly
have done more in the work of discipline than govern one
parish. Nor could we have done so much, but with such omis
sions as nothing but disability would have quieted our consci
ences under." "^
This extract presents a very clear and succinct view of the
systera Baxter acted on while rainister of Kidderminster,
and it may be regarded as erabodying the principles of com
raunion which he advocated to the close of his life. His
church, it is evident, was a voluntary association, distinct from
the people of the parish, and from the general congregation.
To this select body he dispensed the ordinances of the Gos
pel, and on its members alone he exercised the discipUne of
the kingdom of heaven. At the sarae time, he was regarded,
in some sense, as the parochial clergyman, and was counte
nanced in various ways by the magistrates. His brethren in the
ministry, and himself, formed also a voluntary association for
mutual counsel and aid in their general work ; and to enforce,
by their combined influence, such measures as, individually,
they might have found it difficiUt to carry. The state of the
times, as has been remarked in another place, enabled Baxter
and his brethren to pursue a line of conduct, which, either as
ministers of a regular estabhshment, or as dissenters from it,
they could not have done.
Of the publication of his ' Christian Concord,' he says,
" When we sat on foot our association in Worcestershire, ' I
was desired to print our agreement, with an explication of the
several articles, which I did in a sraall book, in which I have
given the reasons why the Episcopal, Presbyterians, and Inde
pendents, might and should unite, on such terms, without any
change of any of their principles ; but I confess that the new
Episcopal party, that follow Grotius too far, and deny the very
being of all the ministers and churches that have not diocesan
bishops, are not capable of union with the rest upon such terms.
And hereby I gave norice to the gentry and others of the roy
alists in England, of the great danger they were in of changing
their ecclesiastical cause, by following new leaders that were for
(k) ' Treatise of Episcopacy,' pp. 135, 186.
(1) In the Appendix to his Life there is inserted along paper of reply to some
exceptions against the ' W-orcestershire Agreement,' and ' Christian Concord,'
written by a nameless author, and sent by Dr. Warmstryc. The author T suppose
to have been Warmstrye himself

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 159
Grotianism. But this admonition did greatly offend the guilty,
who now began to get the reins, though the old Episcopal
Protestants confessed it aU to be true. There is nothmg bring
eth greater hatred and sufferings on a man than to foreknow
the mischief that men in power are doing and intend, and to
warn the world of it : for while they are resolutely going on
with it, they wUl proclaim him a slanderer that revealeth it,
and use him accordingly ; and never be ashamed when they have
done it, and thereby declare all which he foretold to be true." "•
He published, in 1656, 'The Agreement of divers Ministers
in the county of Worcester, and some adjacent parts, for
catechising or personal instructing all in their several parishes
that wiU consent thereunto.' 12mo. This is a smaU production
entirely practical in its nature, containing the articles of their
agreement, an exhortation to the people to submit to the neces
sary work of catechising, and the profession of faith and cate
chism, which they were expected to make and learn. In
consequence of Baxter's influence and example, the ministers
who signed this agreement, and many others, adopted the prac
tice of catechising their congregations, which it was the chief
object of the Agreement to promote. Speaking on this subject,
in reference to hiraself, he says,
" Of aU the works that ever I atterapted, this yielded rae
most comfort in the practice of it. All men thought that the
people, especially the ancienter sort, would never have submit
ted to this course, and so tbat it would have corae to nothing :
but God gave me a tractable, wiUing people, and gave me also
interest in them ; and when I had begun, and ray people had
given a good example to other parishes, and especially the min
isters so unanimously concurring, that none gainsayed us, it pre
vaUed with the parishes about. I set two days a week apart for
this employment ; my faithful unwearied assistant and myself,
took fourteen famiUes every week ; those in the town carae to
us to our houses ; those in the parish ray assistant went to, to
their houses, besides what a curate did at a chapelry. First
they recited the catechism to us, a family only being present at
a time, and no stranger admitted : after that, I first helped them
to understand it, and next inquired modestly into the state of
their souls, and lastly endeavored to set aU home to the con-
vmcing, awakening, and resolvmg, of their hearts according to
their several conditions ; bestowing about an hour and the labor
of a sermon with every family. I found it so effectual, throiigh
the blessing of God, that few went away without some seeraing
humihation, conviction, and purpose, and promise for a holy
life. Except half a dozen or thereabouts of the most ignorant
(m) Life, parti, pp. 112, 113.

160 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
and senseless, aU the famiUes in the town came to me ; and
though the first time, they came with fear and backwardness ;
after that, they longed for their turn to come again. So that I
hope God did good to many by it : and yet this was not aU tbe
comfort I had in it." °
The practice referred to was one of the raost important
means of Baxter's usefulness whUe in Kidderminster. It
brought hira into contact with every faraily and individual in his
parish, which, with the fidelity of his addresses to them, vvas
productive of the most salutary results. His connexion with
the Worcestershire Union, and the little publication of which
we have just spoken, led to his being appointed to deliver an
address to his ministerial brethren, which afterwards appeared
in the shape of ' The Reformed Pastor,' one of the most valu
able of all his publications.
His next work, in this class, is a considerable quarto volume,
entitled, ' Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments, and the
True Nature of Visible Christianity, &.C.' 1656. The nature
and object of this book I shaU leave himself to explain. The
following passage will show that Baxter held sentiraents respect
ing the purity of Christian fellowship, which were not consist
ent with the practice of the church of England.
" Mr. Blake having replied to sorae things in my Apology,
especially about right to the sacraments, or the just subjects of
baptism and the Lord's-supper, I wrote five disputations on those
points, proving that it is not the reality of a dogmatical or justi
fying faith, nor yet the profession of bare assent, called a dog
matical faith by many ; but only the profession of a saving
faith, which is the condition of men's title to church commu
nion coram ecclesia ; and that hypocrites are but analogically or
equivocally caUed Christians, believers, and saints, ho. with
much more to decide the most troublesome controversy of that
time, which was about the necessary qualification and titie of
church members and communicants. Many raen have been
perplexed about that point and that book. Some think it
Cometh too near the Independents, and some, that it is too
far from thera ; and many think it very hard that a credible
profession of true faith and repentance should be made tiie
stated qualification : because they think it incredible that aU the
Jewish members were such. But I have sifted this point more
exactly and diligently, in my thoughts, than any other contro
versy whatosever; and fain I would have found some other quali
fication to take up with : either the profession of some lower
faith than that which hath the proraise of salvation ; or, at
least, such a profession of saving faith as needeth not to be credi-
(o) Life, part i, pp. 179, 180.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 161
ble at all. But the evidence of truth hath forced me from all
other ways, and suffered me to rest no where but here. That
profession should be made necessary without any respect at all
to credibility, and consequently to the verity of the faith profess
ed, is incredible, and a contradiction, and the very word pro
fession signifieth more. I was forced to observe that those who
in charity would believe another profession to be the title to
church communion do greatly cross their own design of charity.
While they would not be bound to beUeve men to be what
they profess, for fear of excluding many whom they cannot be
Ueve, they do leave themselves and all others as not obUged to
love any church member as such with the love which is due to
a true Christian, but only with such a love as they owe to the
members of the devil ; and so deny thera the kernel of charity,
by giving the shell to a few more than they should do. Where
as, upon my deepest search, I am satisfied that a credible profes
sion of true Christianity is it that denominateth the adult visible
Christian." p
There may be some theoretical difference of opinion among
Christians about what is included in, or essential to a credible
profession, but, generally speaking, religious persons comraonly
agree in their opinion of those who are entitied to be regarded
as Christians. Now if this kind of profession is held to be ne
cessary to Christian coramtmion, it is at once obvious that the
principles of the church of England make no suitable provision
for their operation. There is not in that estabhshment any line
of demarcation between the openly profane or worldly, and the
people of God. The evidence of the possession of true religion
is not in it, the condition of enjoying even the most sacred or
dinances. On this pomt, therefore, Baxter approached nearer
to the Independents than he seemed wUling to avow ; and his
practice while at Kidderminster appears to have corresponded
with his theoretical views on this subject. In a parish consisting
of several thousands, with a regular congregation of about eigh
teen hundred persons, there were only about six hundred whom
he regarded as church merabers, to whom he adrainistered the
ordinances of the Gospel ;, and such was his regard to character,
that he declared there were not a dozen of those persons in whose
piety he had not great confidence.
The discussions of this volurae, therefore, are of great im
portance ; and, on the several points of which it treats, the read
er who is desirous of knowing Baxter's sentiments, or of forra
ing his own, may consuh it to advantage. The following are
the leading topics : " Whether ministers may admit persons in
to the church of Christ by baptism, upon the bare, verbal pro-
(p) Life, part i. pp. 113, 114.
VOL. II. 21

162 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
fession of the true Christian, saving faith, without staying for,
or requiring any further evidences of, sincerity ? " This he de
termines in the affirmative. " Whether ministers raust or raay
baptize the children of those that profess not saving faith, upon
the profession of any other faith that coraes short of it ? " This
he resolves in the negative. " Whether the infants of noto
riously ungodly baptized parents have right to be baptized ?
Whether any besides regenerate believers and their seed have a
right to the sacraraents, given them by God, and may thereupon
require them and receive thera ,-' " Both these questions he
answers negatively. " Whether hypocrites, and other unre
generate persons, be caUed church members. Christians, be
lievers, saints, adopted, justified, &.c. ; univocally, analogically,
or equivocally ? "
Into aU these subjects he enters very fully, but in his cha
racteristic manner ; dividing, distinguishing, and explaining, till
he leaves it sometimes doutbful how he is to be understood,
unless we advert to his own practice. What is dubious in his
theoretical discussions, may thus be easily explained. Bax
ter did not regard differences of opinion on various doctrinal
questions, or respecting church governraent of much irapor
tance, while he could regard the parties as real Christians, and
disposed to live in peace with others. To these two points he
considered all other things subordinate. Christian feUowship,
with hira, was not the fellowship of Calvinists or Arminians, of
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, or Baptists ; it was
the fellowship of Christians, holding the one faith and hope of
our Lord Jesus Christ, in unity of spirit and righteousness of
life. This is the only CathoUc comraunion which is worth con
tending for ; and which, it cannot be doubted, wiU, in due tirae,
absorb aU other party distinctions and disputes.
The only book which discusses the principles of this work of
Baxter's, known to rae, is the ' Ccena quasi Koine ; or, the
New Closures broken down, and the Lord's Supper laid forth
in coraraon for all Church Members having a Dograatical Faith.'
By WUUam Morice, Esq. of Werrington. 1657. 4to. It is not a
professed answer to Baxter, but takes up the ground with a vast
profusion of raiscellaneous learning. The author was quite an
Erastian, on the subject of church government, and contended
for principles which are utterly destructive of all discipline, ex
cept as administered by the civU magistrate. He was knighted
by Charles II. at his landing, and occupied the important post
of Secretary of State for seven years after the Restoration.
The work above-mentioned is a great curiosity for the display of
classical reading which it affords. Every page is stuck full of
learned quotation, evincing the knowledge of the author, but
affording smaU evidence of his judgraent. He bestows a la-

OF RIOHARD BAXTER. 163
bored panegyric on Baxter, which, if it were not too long, I
would introduce, both as an iUustration of the character of the
book, and of the adrairation in which Baxter was held by hira.
In the preface to tiie second edition of his ' Five Disputa
tions,' Baxter refers to this work of Mr. Morice. " When I
saw this book," he says, "made up of so much reading, and
expressing so much industry and learning, I much rejoiced that
England had such a gentleman ; and I look on the book as a
shaming reprehension of tiie idleness and ignorance of the mul
titude of the gentry who spend that time in hawkmg, and hunt
ing, and corapUmenting, which, if better spent, might make
them a blessmg, and not a burden, to the land. But out of that
learned volume, I am not able to find any clear discovery of
what the author raeans by a dogmatical faith." Baxter thinks
diat Morice did not differ widely from himself; and Morice
was exceedingly averse to being considered as an adversary to
Baxter. The principles contended for by the two writers could
not fail to be productive of very different results in practice.
Baxter could only approve of select comraunion ; Morice main
tained open and promiscuous, "i
The next work in this class which claims our attention, is
' Confirmation and Restauration the necessary means of Re
formation and Reconciliation.'"^ The work, with this rather
siugiUar and alliteral title, appeared in 12rao, in 1658. Its
connexion with Baxter's -views of Catholic coraraunion is at once
obvious frora the scope of the book, and frora his own account
of it. " Having in divers writings," he says, " raoved for the
restitution of a soleran transition of all that pass frora an infant
state of church-membership into the nuraber of the adult, and
are admitted to their privileges ; and the associated ministers of
this county having made it an article of their agreeraent, at
last came forth an exceUent exercitation on confirmation, written
by Mr. Jonathan Hanmer, very learnedly and piously endeavor
ing the restoration of this practice. ^ Being very glad of so
good a work, upon an invitation, I prefixed an epistle before it,
which hath occasioned this following disputation. For when
the book was read, the design was generally approved, as far
as I can learn, and very acceptable to good men of all parties.
(q) Beside the main questions discussed in this work of Baxter's, there is a
great deal of wrangling debate with Dr. Owen and others ; particularly at the
end, where he assigns reasons for making no answer to Mr. Robertson, or amore
particular reply to Mr. Blake, or Dr. Owen. It would only distract the attention
of the reader ftom the main subject of the chapter to refer to these personal de
bates, and therefore I have not adverted to thertf in the text.
(r) Works, vol. xiv.
(s) The book of Hanmer, adverted to by Baxter, is ' An Exercitation upon
Confirmation, the ancient way of completing Church Members,' 1658. Svo. The
author was minister of Bishop's Tawton, in Devonshire, from which he was
ejected in 1662. He was an Episcopalian, though a Nonconformist, and a man
of very good learning.

164 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
But many of them caUed to me to try whether some more
Scripture proofs might not be brought for it, that the preceptive,
as weU as the mediate necessity, might appear. At the desire
of some reverend, godly brethren, I hastily drew up this, which
is here offered you, partly to satisfy them in the point of Scrip
ture evidence, but principally to satisfy my own earnest desires
after the reformation and healing of the churches, to which I
do very confidently apprehend this exceUent work to have a
singular tendency. Here is a medicine so effectual to heal our
breaches, and set our disordered societies in joint, being owned
in whole by the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, and
Erastian, and in half by the Anabaptists. Thus, nothing but our
own self-conceitedness, perverseness, laziness, or wilful enmity to
the peace of the churches, is able to deprive us of a blessed suc
cess. But, alas, our minds are the subjects of disease, and are so
alienated, exulcerated, and so selfishly partial and uncharitable,
that when the plaster is offered us, and peace brought to our
doors, I must needs expect that many should peevishly cast it
away, and others betray it by a lazy commendation, and so dis
able the few that would be faithful, practical, and industrious,
from that general success which is so necessary and desirable."'
The titie of this work might lead the reader to suppose that
it was a defence of the episcopal rite of confirmation, whereas
it is, in fact, nothing more than a labored effort to prove that aU
who are baptized in infancy ought to make a personal and
public profession of religion when they come to the years of
maturity ; and that unless this profession is satisfactory to the
minister of the congregation to which the party propose to be
long, they ought not to enjoy the Lord's-supper, or be consider
ed merabers of the church. His fifth proposition raay be said
to erabrace the whole subject : " As a personal faith is the con
dition before God, of title to the privileges of the adult ; so the
profession of this faith is the condition of his right before the
church ; and without this profession, he is not to be taken as an
adult member, nor admitted to the privUeges of such." "
As Episcopahans consider confirmation an ordinance of Chris
tianity, Baxter endeavors to show that this is the only scriptural
notion of confirmation. He does not object to the laying on of
hands, provided the persons themselves agreed to it, or thought
it necessary, but does not regard it as essential. And so far
from thinking that only diocesan bishops have a right to con
firm, " he shows, that it belongs to all ministers or pastors of
(t) Works, vol. xiv. pp. 403, 404, (u) Ibid. p. 414,
(x) So far from having great respect for episcopal confirmation, he tells the
following story of his own confirmation ; — " When I was a school-boy, about fif
teen years of age, the bishop coming into the county, many went to him to be
confirmed ; we that were boys ran out to see the bishop among the rest, not
knowing any thing of the meaning of the business. When we came thither we
met about thirty or forty in all, of our own stature and temper, that had come to

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 165
the church, and that in fact they alone can properly exercise it,
as they alone can know who deserve to be thus treated. As
Presbyterians require a personal profession, and Independents a
suU more particular profession of personal reUgion in order to
church membership ; he endeavors to show that aU the parties,
not excluding Baptists, might easily harmonize on this subject,
and that thus a Une of demarcation between the world would
be clearly and beneficiaUy established. The object he had
in view is certainly of great importance, but untfl the parties
whom he wished to unite be agreed on some other important
pomts than those which his discussion directiy embraces, they
are not hkely to be united by agreement on such a rite or service
as that in question. It may be the effect of reformation, but is
not likely to be the cause or the means of it. ^
Closely connected with the treatises on Right to Sacraments,
and confirmation, is the next work of Baxter in this department,
' Five Dissertations of Church Govemment and Worship.' 4to.
1 659. The design ofthis, as of all Baxter's works in this class,
was to promote union and reconcihation among all parties.
This object, however desirable in itself, has not yet been attained
in the Christian church ; nor were the means employed by
Baxter always most wisely adapted to promote it, though most
sincerely intended on his part. " In the first of these Disputa
tions," he says, " I proved that the English diocesan prelacy
is intolerable, which none hath answered. Inthe second, I have
proved the validity of the ordination then exercised without
diocesans in England, which no man hath answered, though
many have urged men to be re-ordained. In the third, I have
proved that there are divers sorts of episcopacy lawful and de
sirable. In the fourth and fifth, I show the la-wfulness of some
ceremonies, and of a liturgy, and what is unlawful here.
" This book being published when bishops, liturgy, and cere
monies, were most decried and opposed, was of good use to
declare my judgment when the king came in ; for if I had said
as much then, I had been judged but a temporizer. But as it
was effectual to settle many in a moderation, so it made abun-
be bishopped, as then it was called. The bishop examined ns, not at all in one
article of faith, but in a church-yard ; in haste we were set in a rank, and he
passed hastily over ns, laying his hands on our heads, and saying a few words,
which neither I, nor any that I spoke with, understood, so hastily were they ut
tered, and a very short prayer recited, and there was an end. But whether we
were Christians, or infidels, or knew so much as that there waa a God, the bishop
little knew nor inquired. And yet he was esteemed one of the best bishops in
England. And though the canons reqnire that the curate or minister send a cer
tificate that the children have leamed the catechism, there was no such thing
done, but we ran of our own accord to see the bishop only, and almost all the
rest of the county had not this much ; this was the old careless practice of this
excellent duty of confirmation."— Wor/», vol, xiv. pp. 431, 482.
(y) This book Calamy says is highly commended by Dr. Patrick, the bishop of
Ely, in his work, entitled ' Aqua Genitalis/— C'atomi/'s Abridgment, vol. i. p.
413.

166 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
dance of Conformists afterwards, or was pretended at least to
give them satisfaction. Though it never meddled with the
greatest parts of conforraity, renouncing vows, assent and con
sent to all things in three books, &,c. ; and though it unanswer
ably confuted our prelacy and re-ordination, and consequently
the renunciation of the yow against prelacy ; and opposed the
cross in baptisra. But, sic vitant stulti vitia, as ray Aphorisras
made sorae Arrainians; if you discover an error to a injudi
cious man, he reeleth into the contrary error, and it is hard to
stop him in the middle verity."'^
This stateraent, by himself, of the subject and design of the
work, is sufficient to explain its natute. Could Baxter have suc
ceeded in getting Episcopalians to give up all that is pecu
Uar in Episcopacy; and Presbyterians aU that is peculiar to
Presbyterianism; and Independents all that is distinctive in
Independency, he would have succeeded in producing some
agreement in a simple and practical systera of church order
and governraent. This consummation, however, is yet to come.
If only pious persons were concerned in stich matters ; if
there were no secular obstacles and interests in the way; if the
doctrine of authority, and the influence of^ this world, were
wUhdrawn, the church of Christ would probably .soon assume
a very different appearance from what it has yet done. Bax
ter's grand objection to raany of those things, about which
men then differed, was, their unquaUfied and unscriptural
enforcement. He puts the case very admirably, and with sorae
huraor, in the following passage.
"I confess it is lawfid for rae to wear a helmet on my head
in preaching ; but it were not well if you would institute the
wearing of a helmet, to signify our spiritual militia, and then
resolve that all shall be silenced and imprisoned during Ufe that
will not wear it. It is lawful for rae to use spectacles, or to go
on crutches ; but wiU you therefore ordain that all men shaU
read with spectacles, to signify our want of spiritual sight, and
that no man shaU go to church but on crutches, to signify our
disability to come to God of ourselves. So, in circumstantials,
it is lawful for me to wear a feather in my hat, and a hay-
rope for a girdle, and a hair-cloth for a cloak; but if you
should ordain that if any man serve God in any other habit,
he shaU be banished, or perpetually iraprisoned, or hanged ; in
ray opinion, you did not well : especially, if you add that he
that disobeyeth you must also incur everlasting damnation. It
is in itself lawful to kneel when we hear the Scriptures read,
or when we sing psalms ; but yet it is not lawful to drive all
from hearing and singing, and lay them in prison that do it not
(z) Life, parti, pp. 117, 118,

OF RIOHARD BAXTER. 167
kneeling. And why raen should have no comraunion in the
Lord's-supper tiiat receive it not kneeUng, or in any one com
manded posture, and why men should be forbidden to preach
the Gospel that wear not a linen surplice, I cannot imagine any
such reason as wUl hold weight at the bar of God." "
This work is dedicated to his " Highness, Richard, Lord Pro
tector." A few sentences from this document will show the
feeUngs of Baxter towards Richard CroraweU, and what, accord
ing to him, were the feelings of the country.
" These papers are ambitious of accompanying those against
Popery into your highness's presence, for the tender of their
service, and that upon the same account. The controversies
here decided are those that have had a hand in most of the
great transactions that, of late years, have here passed, and
that StiU have a hand in the differences that hinder our desired
peace. I observe that the nation, generaUy, rejoiceth in your
peaceable entrance upon the government ; and are affected
with indignation if they hear but any rumors that troublesorae
persons would disturb their hopes. And many are persuaded
that you have been strangely kept frora participating in any
of our late bloody contentions, that God might make you the
healer of our breaches, and employ you in that teraple work,
which David himself raight not be honored with, though it was
in his raind, because he had shed blood abundantiy and made
great wars." *"
While this passage shows the good feeling towards Richard
Cromwell by which Baxter was influenced, and that he could
readily submit to his government, it also shows, in connexion
with what follows of the dedication, and with many parts of
the book, his anxiety to get the magistrate to interfere, to put
an end to religious differences, and to establish something hke a
uniform system. His leaning to this kind of interference often
led hun to write inconsistently with his better and more scrip
tural views. He would have been content with a very mode
rate system of state administration ; but even the most raode
rate, according to his views, would have produced effects, of
which he would have been the first to complain. Till magis
trates are "left to manage the affairs of this world, and the
church left to manage its own affairs, and to provide for its own
interests, under the direction of Scripture and the influence of
Christ's authority and SpirU, it is vain to expect any thing
like general agreement or harraony among the subjects of the
sarae kingdora. The interference of worldly men with the
church of Christ must, of necessity, be injurious to it ; whUe
the parties who admit this interference on the one hand, and
(a) Works, vol. xiv. pp. 430, 431. (b) Ibid. pp. I, 2,

168 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
those who decline it on the other, are placed on an unequal
footing, and contend on unequal terms.
Baxter was not the only laborer in the cause of peace and
of catholic communion. One other individual at least entered
fully and cordially into his views, and devoted much time and
labor to promote thera, not in England only, but throughout
Protestant Europe. The following Tract of Baxter's is con
nected with his exertions in this cause : ' The Judgment and
Advice of the Associated Ministers of Worcestershire, concern
ing Mr. John Dury's Endeavors after Ecclesiastical Peace.'
1658. 4to. The account given by the author of this small pub
hcation, is as foUows : — " Mr. John Dury having spent thirty
years in endeavors to reconcUe the Lutherans and Calvinists,
was now going over sea again in that work, and desired the judg
ment of our association, how it should be successfuUy expedited ;
which at their desire I drew up more largely in Latin, and more
briefly in English. The English letter he printed, as my letter
to Mr. Dury for pacification." "
Of the respectable individual who spent so many years in the
interesting work of reconcUiation, it is impracticable to give any
satisfactory account. He appears to have been a native of Scot
land, but resided many years in Gerraany. In the year 1628,
he was minister to the English Company of Merchants at Elb-
ing, in Prussia, and was then led, through the influence of the
learned and excellent Dr. Goderaan, a privy counseUer to Gus
tavus Adolphus of Sweden, to engage along with him in an at
tempt to unite the Lutheran aud Calvinistic churches. They
held conferences on this subject with the Chancellor Oxenstiern,
who encouraged them in their atterapt. Dury petitioned Gus
tavus to lend his aid. Sir Thomas Roe, ambassador from Great
Britain to Sweden and Poland, was consulted, and interested
himself in the affair ; and having promised to engage the Eng
lish bishops to consider the subject, Mr. Dury left Elbing in
1630 for England. Sir Thomas Roe recommended the busi
ness to the king, who referred it to the Archbishop of Canter
bury and the Bishop of London, requiring them to hear Dury's
proposals. They heard him accordingly, professed to be friends
to his project, and seemed to adopt some of his recommenda
tions. To prepare the way for future treaties, it was proposed
that the magistrates on both sides should'prohibit railing disputes
in the pulpit ; should put down aU party names, as far as they
could, and not suffer any debates about ceremonies or forms of
public worship.
The good man, flattered by these attentions, prosecuted his
enterprise with great vigor. He returned to the Continent,
(c) Life, part i. p. 117.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 169
and addressed the confederated ambassadors of the Protestant
states, assembled at Frankfort, entreating their aid and counte
nance. They promised ilur, but did nothing. He visited Hol
land on his errand of peace; and in 1633 returned to England,
where he found Laud in the place of Abbot, to whom he pre
sented his letters frora foreign churches and divines. Laud did
not appear to oppose, but gave no hearty encourageraent. He
met with more active assistance from Bishops Hall and Daven
ant, and Archbishop Usher. Again, he went to Germany, and
met the Protestant ambassadors at Frankfort in 1 634, by whom
his object seemed to be patronized. He returned to England
the following year, and was graciously received by the king ;
after which, he went back to Holland, and visited the different
synods ; and proceeded thence to Sweden, in which he labored
and traveUed a great deal. Having again visited Germany, he
went to Denmark ; and after many other sojournings, returned
to England once more in 1641. He was one of the extra nuraber
added to the Westminster Asserably, whose labors he assisted,
being rather incUned to the side of the Independents. He lived
till after the Restoration, but failed in the accoraplishraent qf
the grand object so dear to his heart; though he seeras to have
been useful in softening prejudices which he could not altogeth
er subdue. In some respects, he appears to have resembled
Baxter himself. He was a powerful advocate for ecclesiastical
peace — a man of scheraes and projects — of pure intentions,
but of raore zeal than judgraent — who thought he could ac
complish a great deal by meetings of ecclesiastics, and deter
minations of governments in matters of religion. As the friend
of Baxter and Boyle, Usher and HaU, and many other good
men, he deserved sorae notice in this place. He published a
variety of sraaU treatises, most of which related to his main
undertaking. ^
The order of tirae requires that I should notice the next small
treatise of Baxter, in this place. His ' Universal Concord,'
which was pubUshed in 12rao, in 1658. " Having been de
sired," he says, " in the tirae of our associations, to draw up
those terms which all Christian churches may hold communion
upon, I pubUshed thera, though too late for any such use (tiU
God gave men better minds), that the world might see what
our religion and our terms of communion were ; and that, if
after-ages prove more peaceable, they may have sorae light from
those that went before them^ It consisteth of three parts.
(d) The principal part of the above account of Dury is taken from a scarce
tract published by Hartiib, the friend of Milton, entitled ' A Briefe Relation of
that which hath been lately attempted to procure Ecclesiastical Peace among
Protestants.' London, 1641. 4to. At the end of it is a copy of the petition pre
sented to Gustavus Adolphus by Dury.— See also Broolies's Lives of the Pun-
tans, vol. iii. p. 369.
VOL. II. 22

170 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
" The first containeth the Christian religion, which all are
positively to profess ; that is, either to subscribe the Scriptures
in general, and the ancient creeds in particular, or, at most, the
confession or articles annexed : e. g., I do beUeve aUthe sacred,
canonical Scripture, which all Christian churches do receive ;
and, particularly, I believe in God the Father Almighty, &;c.
The second part, instead of books of unnecessary canons, con
taineth seven or eight points of practice for church order, which,
%o it be practised, it is no great matter whether it be subscribed
or not. And here it must be understood, that these are written
for tiraes of liberty, in which agreeraent, rather than force, doth
procure unity and comraunion. The third part containeth the
larger description of the office ofthe rainistry, and, consequently,
of aU the ordinances of worship, which need not be subscribed,
but none should preach against it, nor omit the practice, except
peace require that the point of infant baptism be left free.
" This sraall book is called by the name of Universal Con
cord, which, when I wrote, I thought to have published a second
part, viz., a large volume, containing the particular terms of
concord between all parties capable of concord ; but the change
of the tiraes hath necessarUy changed that purpose." "
Though Baxter did not publish forraaUy a second part of
this work, every thing he had to coramunicate on the subject,
must have been presented in one or other of the numerous books
which he subsequently published on the subject of comraunion,
or of nonconformity. It is really not matter of regret that
he did not publish more, but that he published so much on these
topics, as the very quantity which he wrote may be said to have
buried his sentiments, and raaterially contributed to defeat his
own purpose and anxious desire. Any one of his principal
treatises might have exhausted the subject, had it been judi
ciously managed ; but it is now vain to express our regrets.
' The works we have noticed, include all that Baxter pub
hshed on the subject of catholic comraunion, previously to the
Restoration. In his own Life, a variety of papers and letters
are inserted, relating to the topic. They contain his propo
sals to several parties, or to erainent individuals among them,
adapted to the peculiar sentiments and circumstances of each.
He did not always succeed, but was always heard respect
fully, and seldora faUed to make some impression in favor of
peace. From the progress made by his system in various quar
ters, it is hard to say what might have been the final result, had
the poUtical state of the country not undergone a complete
change by the overthrow of the dynasty of the CromweUs, and
the return of Charies. On the diocesan Episcopalians, Baxter
(e) Life, part i. pp. 119, 120.

UF RICHARD BAXTER. 171
had found the greatest difficulty in making a favorable impres
sion, even whUe the fortunes of their church were in the lowest
state. Their principles seeraed not to adrait of union and co
operation with others. Many of the Baptists and Independents
he found it difficult to convince that his way was preferable to
theirs; but stiU his success among them was enough to encou
rage him to (;o on. The church party, however, offered him
little hope before, and, after the Restoration, none at all.
That event did not terminate the labors of Baxter to proraote
unity, but for a while they were necessarily diverted into a new
channel. The comprehension of the Nonconformists in the
church, by the modification of its terms, becarae the ;ireat object
of his zealous endeavors for many years. What he did to
accompUsh it, and to prevent an entire and permanent seces
sion from the church, with the causes of his failure, we have
elsewhere recorded. If Baxter had not had to struggle with
secular power and interests, but only to maintain the conflict
with, those who had as littie civil connexion with the state
as hiraself, the probabilty is that some such systera as he
himself acted upon in Kidderminster, would have been very
generally adopted over England. Without professing to approve
of aU its parts, its substance is so radically Christian, and its
effects were so excellent, that the individual who could not have
lived in such a communion, must have had a very obtuse under
standing, or an unenviable state of raoral feeling. The prevalence
of such a system, would have converted England into a spiritual
paradise, and caused its most barren deserts to flourish as the
garden of the Lord.
The mortification which such a man as Baxter must have
experienced from the faUure and ruin of all his labors and
hopes, may be better conceived than expressed. Though not
easily or soon discouraged, he found, after the Restoration, and
especiaUy after the Bartholoraew ejection, that he was left to
contend with men of a totally different spirit frora himself, men
of secular views and feelings, who regarded the church but as a
theatre of ambition, or in subservience to their earthly interests.
He became one of a small but noble band of sufferers, who
always appear to advantage, except when they atterapt to iden
tify themselves with a body so entirely worldly as was the
church of England while Charles II. was its head, and Sheldon
the chief minister of its spiritual affairs.
About the time of the Restoration, Baxter brought out two
small practical works on his favorite subject. The tities raight
lead us to suppose that he had a special reference to Popery in
them ; but this is not the case any further than he regarded it as
one of the sects, and that the most dangerous and dograatical,
which divided the church. The first of these is, ' The true Catho-

172 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Uc, and Catholic Church described ; and the vanity ofthe Papists,
and all Schismatics that confine the Catholic Church to their sect,
discovered and shamed.' 1660. 12mo. — The second is, ' Catlio-
lic Unity, or the only way to bring us all to be of one religion.'
1660. i2rao.*' These are plain practical discourses, the sub
stance of which had been preached in London and Worcester,
containing much tiiat is calculated to be useful to Christians
of aU professions. He tells us that their subject is,
" For Catholicism against all sects, to show the sin, and folly,
and mischief, of all sects that would appropriate the church to
themselves, and trouble the world with the question, Which of
all these parties is the church ? as if they knew not that the
catholic church is that whole which containeth all the parts,
though sorae are raore pure, and sorae less. Especially, it is
suited against the Roraish claira, which damneth all Christians
besides themselves, and it detecteth and confuteUi dividing prin
ciples. For I apprehend it is a matter of great necessity to
imprint true Catholicism on the minds of Christians ; it being a
most laraentable thing to observe how few Christians in the
world there be, that fall not into one sect or other, and wrong
not the coraraon interest of Christianity for the promoting of
the interest of their sect. How lamentably love is thereby
destroyed, so that raost men think not that they are bound to
love those as the merabers of Christ, who are against their
party. The leaders of most sects do not stick to persecute
those that differ from them, and think the blood of those who
hinder their -opinions, and parties, tobe an acceptable sacrifice
unto God. And if they can but get to be of a sect which they
think the holiest, (as the Anabaptists and Separatists,) or which
is the largest, (as the Greeks and Papists,) they think, then,
that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's
church, or at least to deny thera Christian love and communion.
" To this smaU book I annexed a postscript against a ridiculous
pamphlet of one Malpas, an old scandalous neighbor rainister,
who was permitted to stay in by the ParUament, (so far were
they from being over-strict in their reformation of the clergy,)
and now is a considerable raan araong them." s
A long interval elapsed before any thing further on this
subject proceeded frora Baxter's prolific pen. At length, in 1 669,
he pubUshed in octavo, his ' Cure for Church divisions.' " I first
pubUshed," he says, " sorae old notes, written eleven or twelve
years ago, called ' Directions for Weak Christians,' and annexed
to them ' The Character of a Sound Christian.' For both which
I wrote what was as like to have exasperated the irapatient as
this book is, and yet I heard of no complaints. Afterwards I
(f) Works, vol. xvi. (g) Life, part i. p. 112,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 17,3
wrote this, and sent it to the licenser, who, upon perusal, refused
to license it, and so U lay by, and I puiposed to meddle with it
no more. But leaving it in the bookseller's hands, who had
offered it to be licensed, after a long tirae he got it done, and
thus unexpectedly it revived.
" The reasons ofmy wrhing it were no fewer tiian all these fol
lowing, which I now subrait to the judgraent of all raen truly
peaceable and irapartial, who value the interests of Christianity,
and of the universal cburch, above their own. To make my
foregoing ' Directions to Weak Christians ' more coraplete,
having directed them about the private matters of their souls, I
intended this as another part to direct thera, in order to the
church's peace. Many good people of tender consciences and
weak judgments, de;iring my advice about comraunion in the
public assemblies, 1 found it meetest to publish this general
advice for aU, to save me tbe labor of speaking to particular
persons, and to serve those that hved farther off. I saw those
principles growing up apace in this time of provocation, which
will certainly increase or continue our divisions, if they continue
and increase. I ara sure that our wouuds are made by wound
ing principles of doctrine, and it must be heahng doctrines that
must heal us ; and I know that we cannot be healed tiU doc
trinal principles be healed. To give way to the prevalency
of dividing opinions, is to give up our hopes of future unity and
peace ; and to give up our hopes of unity and peace, is to de
spair of aUtrue reformation and happiness of the church on earth.
If ever the church be reduced to that concord, strength, and
beauty, which aU true Christians do desire, I am past doubt that
it must be by such principles as 1 have laid down.
" But my grand reason was, that I might serve the church of
Christ in the reviving and preservation of Christian love. As
it was an extraordinary raeasure of the Spirit which Christ raade
his witness in the gospel church, so it is as extraordinary a
measure of love which he maketh the new commandment and
the mark of aU true disciples. Whether afflicting on one
side and unmerciful and unjust censures on the other side, one
driving away, and the other flying away, be either a sign or
means of love ; and whether taking others to be intolerable in
the church, and unworthy of our communion, and separating
from or avoiding the worship where they are present, be likely
to kindle love or kill it, let any man judge that hath himself the
exercise of reason and unfeigned love.
" Another reason why I set upon this work was, because I saw
few others would do it. If it must be done, and others wiU not,
then I must take it for my duty. And, indeed, I knew but few
whom I was wiUing to thrust upon it so forwardly as myself, for
fear of being the author of their sufferings. Many may be abler.

174 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
who are not in other respects so fit. Some ministers are young
raen, and likely to live longer to serve God in his church, and
their reputation is needful to their success ; if they be vilified, it
may hinder their labor. And experience teUeth us, that the di
viding spirit is very powerful and victorious in censorious vUify-
ing of dissenters. But I ara alraost miles emeritus, at the end of
my work, and can reasonably expect to do but little more in the
world, and therefore have not their impediment ; and for popu
lar a[)plause, I have tried its vanity ; I have had so much of it,
tiU I ara brought to a contempt if not a loathing of it.
" Some of ray brethren have great congregations to teach,
which are so inclined to this dividing way, that they cannot bear
their information. And I wiU add one reason more of the pub
lishing, though not of the writing, of ray book. When it had
been long cast by, I found in the ' Debater,' and ' Ecclesiastical
PoUtician,' that the Nonconformists are made ridiculous and
odious, as men of erroneous, uncharitable, and ungovernable
principles and spirits, though they subscribe to all the doctrine of
the church of England. And I thought that the publication of
this book, would leave a testimony to the generations to come,
by which they might know whether we were truly accused, and
whether our principles were not as rauch for love and peace as
theirs, and as consistent with order and governraent." ''
Such are the chief of twenty-seven reasons, which Baxter
assigns for writing his Cure. That Cure prescribes sixty direc
tions to the people, and twenty-two additional ones to their
pastors. It is fuU of exceUent advice and admonition ; but is
both too general and too minute. It offended both parties, as
the author anticipated ; for he speaks too much as a dissenter
for churchmen, and too rauch as a churchraan for dissenters.
He had an extensive knowledge of the evils and errors of all
parties, on which he dwelt too largely ; and while he failed in
adapting his reraedies to the disease of which he so bitterly com
plains. '
Baxter met with an opponent of this work in a person whom
he littie expected to encounter. His former friend, Edward
Bagshaw, pubUshed a reply to it, with the following title : ' An
Antidote against Mr. Baxter's palliated cure of church divisions ;
or an account of several weighty and just exceptions against
that book.' 1670. 4to. Bagshaw was the son of an attorney
at Broughton, and educated for the ministry, at Christ-church,

t

Ih) ' Defence of the Principles of Love,' pp. 42 — fil.
(i) Among other attacks made on this work, was the following; — "A Pair of
Spectacles, very usefuU and needfall for all those that read Mr. Baxter's Catho-
lick Charity, in his book called ' The Cure of Church Divisions,' that so they
may see and understand the better what they read, and not be led away with er
ror instead of truth. Written by a Lover of Truth and Peace, and of all the
People of Peace." 1670. 4to.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 175
Oxford. His fine talents, and extensive learning, qualified
him to become second master of Westminster school, when
Dr. Busby was head master. He occupied the parish of
Ambrosden, in Oxfordshire, till the Bartholomew Act turned
him out of the church, and left hira to find a sphere of usefulness
with the means of living araong the Nonconformists. Bagshaw
appears to have been an Independent in his principles ; and was
a man of great mental ardor and decision of character, which
occasioned his being represented as hot-headed, turbulent, and
fanatical. He suffered greatly for his principles, but nobly
refused to sacrifice thera to his interests or ambition.
He considered Baxter's ' Cure' as reflecting deeply on the
dissenters ; as calculated to aggravate their sufferings, and to
justify their enemies in the severity they were inflicting on
thera. Though nothing was farther from Baxter's thoughts
than this, Bagshaw had too much ground for alleging the in
jurious tendency of the book, on which he animadverted. He
uses great freedom and plainness of speech with Baxter, and
endeavors to show that his hard words and biting censures had
exasperated the evU, instead of curing it.
Baxter lost no tirae in replying, which he did in his ' Defence
of the Principles of Love, which are necessary to the unity
and concord of Christians, and are delivered in a book caUed
The Cure of Church Divisions. By Richard Baxter, one of
the Mourners for a Self-dividing and Self-afflicting Land.'
1671. Svo.
This volume is divided into two parts. After a long preface,
comes " The general part, or Introduction to the Defence of
the Cure of Church Divisions : being a narrative of those late
actions which have occasioned the offence of raen on both ex
treraes ; with the true reasons of thera, and of these writings,
which some count unseasonable ; with the true stating of the
case of that separation, which the opposed treatise med dieth
with ; and an answer to several great objections." Then
comes the second part, or his ' Answer to the untrue and un
just exceptions of the Antidote.'
Bagshaw had taken forty-one exceptions to Baxter's ' Cure ;'
who accordingly replies to them seriatim. He addresses Bag
shaw as his dear brother; but makes it his business to convict
him " not of mistakes," lest the reader should not understand
" whether it be mistakes of reason ox fact;" nor wiU "he caU
them lies, because it is a provoking word ; therefore untruths
must be the middle term." He endeavors to show that, in what
he himself had written, he had been solely influenced by his
desire of peace, and his utter aversion to all needless separa
tions ; and that Bagshaw had done injustice both to his princi-

176 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
pies and his dispositions, as weU as to his writings. Speaking
of his 'Cure,' and of Bagshaw's answer to h, he says,
" When my ' Cure of Church Divisions ' carae out, the sober
party of ministers were reconciled, to it, especially the ancienter
sort, and those that had seen the evUs of separation ; but some
of tbe London ministers, who had kept up public assembUes,
thought it should have been less sharp; and some tli.inzhl, be
cause they were under the bishops' seveiUies, that it was un
seasonable : for the truth is, most men judge by sense, and
take that to be good or bad which they feel to do them good or
hurt at the present. And because tiie people's alienation frora
the prelates, liturgy, and parish churches, did seem to make
against the prelates, and to make for the Nonconformists' inte
rest, they thought it not prudent to gratify the prelates so far as
to gainsay it. So they considered not from whence dividing
principles corae, to what they tend, what a disgrace they are to
our cause ; how one of our own errors will hurt and disparage
us raore than all the cruelty of our adversaries, or that sinful
means is seldom blessed to do good.
" When the book carae out, the separating party, who had
received before an odious character of it, did, part of them, read
and interpret it by the spectacles and comraentary of their pas
sions and fore-conceits : and the most of them would not read
it at all ; but took all that they heard for .granted. The hottest
that was against it, was, Mr. Edward Bagshaw, a young man who
had written formerly against monarchy, and afterwards written
for me against Bishop Morley ; and being of a resolute Roman
spirit, was sent first to the Tower, and then laid in a horrid
dungeon. He wrote against me a pamphlet so full of untruths
and spleen, and so little pertinent to the cause, that I never
met with a man who caUed for an answer to it ; but yet the ill
principles of it made rae think it needed an answer, whicli I
wrote. But I found that party grown so tender, expecting
little but to be applauded for their godliness, and to be flattered,
while they expected that others should be most sharply dealt
with ; and, indeed, to be so utterly impatient of that language in
a confutation whicli had any suitableness to the desert of their
wrUings, that I purposed to give over all controversial writings
whh thera, or any other, without great necessity ; and the rather,
because my own style is apt to be guiUy of too much freedom
and sharpness in disputings." ^
In answer to Baxter's ' Defence of the Principles of Love,'
Bagshaw pubUshed ' A Defence of the Antidote.' 1671. 4to.
This pamphlet I have not been able to procure ; but the object
of it seems to have been to retaliate on Baxter, to expose some
(k) Life, part iii. pp, 72, 73,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 177
of his inconsistencies, and to show that he who would prevent
sin in others, must beware of casting stumbling-blocks before
them. This produced from Baxter ' A second Adraonition to Mr.
Bagshaw, written to caU him to repentance for raany false doc
trines, criraes, and especially fourscore palpable untruths in mat
ters of fact, published by him in two smaU Ubels.' 1671. 4to.
The controversy was now become warra and personal. Baxter
says, " Mr. Bagshaw wrote a second book against ray Defence,
full of untruths, which tiie furious teraerarious man did utter,
out of the rashness of his mind, which raade him so littie heed
what he had read, and answered, as that one would scarce think
he had ever read my book. I replied to him in an Adraonition,
teUing him of his mistakes." '
Bagshaw met the second admonition by ' A Review ; or all
Mr. Baxter's Calumnies confuted ; ' to which Baxter finally re
joined in ' The Church, told of Mr. Edward Bagshaw's Scandal,
and warned of the dangerous snares of Satan now laid for them
in his love-kUling principles.' 1672. Unfortunately, both the
church and the world had been told too much of this contro
versy already. Hard names and harsh censures are freely used
by both parties, ui a way which reflects no credit on either of
them. In referring to his last publication on this controversy,
Baxter mentions the death of his opponent, and expresses the
pain which he then felt. " Mr. Bagshaw, in his rash and ignorant
zeal, thinking it a sin to hear a Conformist, and that the way to
deal with the persecutors, was, to draw all the people as far frora
them as he could, and not to hold any comraunion with any
that did conforra, having printed his third revUing libel against
me, called for my third reply. But being printed wUhout
hcense, L'Estrange, the searcher, surprised part of it in the press,
there being lately greater penalities laid on them that print with
out hcense than ever before. And about the day that it came
out, Mr. Bagshaw died, a prisoner, though not in prison, which
made it grievous to rae to think that I must seera to write
against the dead. While we wrangle here in the dark, we
are dying and passing to the world that will decide all our
controversies. And the safest passage thither is by peace
able holiness." ""
I cannot take leave of Bagshaw, notwithstanding this un
lovely debate with Baxter, whhout giving from Baxter himself
a little raore of his history. " After his ejection by the Act of
Uniformity, he went over into Ireland with the Earl of Anglesey,
whose household chaplain he was, and having preached there
some time, and returning back, was apprehended and sent pri-
(1) Life, part iii. p. 85. (m) Ibid. p. 89.
VOL. II. 23

178 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
soner to the Tower ; where he continued long, till his means were
all spent ; and how he afterwards procured bread, I know not.
When he had been prisoner about a year, it seems he became
acquainted with Mr. Davis, who was also a prisoner in the Tower.
This Mr. Davis having been very serviceable in the restoration
of the king, and having laid out much of his estate for his ser
vice, thought he might be the bolder with his tongue and pen ;
and being of a spirit which some call undaunted, but others
furious or indiscreet at best, did give an unraannerly liberty to
his tongue, to accuse the court of' such crimes, with such ag
gravations, as being a subject I think it not meet to narae. At
last, he talked so freely in the Tower also, that he was shipped
away prisoner to Tangier in Africa. Mr. Bagshaw, being sur
prised by L'Estrange, and his charaber searched, there was
found with hira a paper, called Mr. Davis's case. Whereupon
he was brought out to speak to the king, who examined him of
whom he had that paper ; but he refused to confess, and spake
so boldly to the king, as much offended him : whereupon he was
sent back to the Tower, and laid in a deep, dark, dreadful dun
geon. When he had lain there three or four days and nights,
without candle, fire, bed, or straw, he fell into a terrible fit,
which the physicians thought did save his Ufe ; for the pain was
so vehement, that it kept him in a sweat, which cast out the in
fection of tbe damp. At last, by the soUcitation of his brother,
who was a Conformist, and dearly loved him, he was taken up,
and after that was sent away to Southsea Castle, an unwhole
some place in the sea by Portsmouth ; where, if he be alive,
he remaineth close prisoner to this day, with Vavasour Powel,
a preacher in North Wales, and others ; speeding worse than
Mr. Crofton, who was at last released." °
The sufferings of Bagshaw did not terminate here. He
was released frora this imprisonment, which appears to have
been very long ; but after returning to London, according to
Wood, " he feU to his old trade of conventicling and raising
sedUion, for which, being ever and anon troubled, he had at
length the oaths of aUegiance and supremacy tendered to him ;
but he, boggUng at them at first, and afterwards denyuig to take
them, was comraitted prisoner to Newgate, where he continued
twenty-two weeks before his death." ° This event took place
on the 28th of Deceraber, 1671. He was buried in Bunhill-
fields ; and, as a proof of the estimation in which he was held, his
funeral was attended by nearly a thousand Protestant dissent
ers. The inscription on his monument, written by Dr. Owen,
expresses the high opinion which he entertained of his faith,
courage, and patience ; and the unmerited sufferings which he
(n) Life, part ii. pp. 378,379. (o) Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 944,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 179
had endured from ' the reproaches of pretended friends,' as well
as the persecutions of professed adversaries, p I have thought it
right to be thus pai-ticular respecting a man who possessed no
ordinary merit as a scholar, who was a great sufferer for con
science' sake, and vvho ought to be known in a more advan
tageous chai-acter thau as the controversial opponent of Richard
Baxter, i
From this unpleasant personal controversy with Bagshaw, we
(p) Noncon. Mem. vol, iii. p. 113.
(q) In that singular book, Walter Pope's ' Life of Bishop Ward,' there are
some curious anecdotes of Bagshaw. When Pope was proctor of the Universi
ty of Oxford, "The godly party," as he calls them, "resolved to abolish the
statute, enjoining tlie wearing of caps and hoods, crying out against them as re
lics of Popery, and rags ofthe scarlet whore. To efi'ect this their design, they
sent an envoy to me, to engage me to comply with them, well knowing, that
without my concurrence, their design would prove abortive. The person whom
they employed, was a school-fellow and intimate friend of mine, who, although
the son of a royalist, upon some disappointment, especially a great one that hap
pened to him at Westminster, by the means of Mr. Busby, of which perhaps more
hereafter. I say, upon this and other misfortunes, he became a Presbyterian and
Commonwealth's man 3 if this addition be not superfluous, he was aman of learn
ing, and knew it, and very hot and zealous in his way. He, I say, came to my
chamber, and told me his message, -Well,' said I to him, 'what have you to
say against caps and hoods ?' He made a long discourse, which I heard with pa?
tience ; and when I perceived he was silent, 'Ned,' said I to him, 'prithee go
back to thy chamber, and put in writing all that thou hast said, and bring it to me.'
' And what will you do with it then ?' said he ; ' I will,' I replied, ' blot out the
words, caps and hoods, and in their places insert gowns ; will not your argu
ments be every whit as strong against them as against formalities ?' ' I confess
they will,' he answered, 'butwe are not come thither yet.' I replied, ' I'd make-
it my endeavor to keep you where you are, and so we parted.'
Pope gives a humorous account of the quarrel between Busby and Bagshaw,
which seems to have been as hot as that with Baxter. After the rupture, he
says, " He turns with a vengeance, goes over to the Gentiles, and that he might
be revenged upon Mr, Busby, sacrifices to Moloch, worships and adores the
worst of men, even the judges of King Charles the First. But Mr. Busby, who
ploughed with the same heifers, had too much compliance, cunning, and money,
to be hurt by him. Upon this, he returns to his student's place at Christ-church,
makes me a visit, and rails so bitterly' against Mr. Busby, that even I was forced
to take his part. He remained at Oxford, propagating his commonwealth princi
ples ; and when he was censor, which office in other colleges is called the dean,
whose business it is to moderate at disputations, and give the scholars questions,
he gave some in politics, and ordered the respondents to maintain them against
monarchy and episcopacy. There he continued till the king was restored ; then
some considerable friends of his, whom I knew, advised him to go into the coun-
trv, and there to liye peaceably and conformably for the space of one year, at the
end of which, they assured him they would procure him some considerable pre
ferment in the church. Accordingly, he went and tried, but not being able to
hold out so long, in a short time he repaired to London, seven times more em
bittered against ecclesiastical and kingly government than when he went into the
country. And now he sides tooth and nail with the fanatics, and makes a great figure
amongst them, exceeding most, if not all of them, in natural and acquired parts.
King Charles sent for him, designing to work some good upon him, and do him a
kindness ; but he found him so obstinate and refractory, that he was forced to leave
him to his own imaginations. He afterwards married a blind woman, who fell in
love with him for his preaching ; after which, I met him in Covent Garden, and
accosted him freely. After the usual compliments passed, ' JNfed,' said I to him
jocularly, ' I hear thou hast married a blind woman, dost thou intend to beg with
her V Upon this I perceived his countenance change, and he returned me this
answer ; ' What's that 10 you ; may I not marry whom I please V ' Nay,' said I,
' if you are pleased, I have no reason to be ofl-ended,' and so we parted, and I
never saw him after; but I understood since, that he died a prisoner in a house
near Newgate, whither he was committed for his violent opposition to the gov
ernment."— ii^c of Seth Ward, pp. 38—40.

180 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
proceed to notice Baxter's next pubhcation, ' The True and
Only Way of Concord of aU Christian churches ; the Desira
bleness of it, and the Detection of false, dividing Terms.'
1 680. Svo. To this volurae is prefixed a prefatory letter to
Dr. Morley, bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Gunning, bishop
of Ely, the only Episcopal survivors whh whom he had main
tained the chief debates at the Savoy conference. The object
of this preface, and, indeed, of the work, which was called
forth by his controversy with Dodwell, is to state and defend
the moderate proposals for peace and union which were then
made. The volurae is divided into three parts. In the first, he
assigns reasons for the desirableness and necessity of unity ; in
the second, he discusses the terras of concord ; and, in the
third, he treats of schism.
There are many very exceUent things, in the form both of
principle and advice, scattered over this treatise ; but there is
a vast deal of extraneous matter, which so clouds and oppresses
the argument, that much of its strength is destroyed. He
defines schisra to be " an unlawful separation from one or
many churches ; or making parties and divisions in thera." He
represents it as " usually caused by unskilful, proud, church
tyrants and dograatists ; or by erroneous, proud, self-conceited
persons." The necessary raeans of unity and church concord
he represents as these ; " That every catechised, understanding
person, professing repentance, belief, and consent to the bap
tismal covenant, and the chUdren of such dedicated by thera to
Christ, be baptized. And the baptized, accounted Christians,
have right to Christian communion till their profession be
vaUdly disproved by an inconsistent profession or conversation ;
that is, by sorae doctrine against the essence of Christianity, or
some scandalous, wUful sin, with impenitence, after sufficient
admonition. That no man be excommunicated that is not
proved thus far to excommunicate himself : and that the cate
chised or examined person be put upon no other profession of
belief, consent, and practice, as interpreting the sacraraental
covenant, but of the articles of the Creed, the .Lord's Prayer,
and decalogue understood ; and the general belief of, consent
to, and practice of, aU that he discerneth to be the Word of
God." ' He recommends that " the magistrate have the only
pubUc judgment whom he shall countenance and maintain, or
tolerate, and whom he shall punish, or not tolerate or maintain ;
and that he never be the executioner of the clergy's sentence,
without or against his own conscience and judgment." ' In
connexion with this, he recommends " the Christian magistrate
to make three sorts of laws; one forthe approved and main-
(r) Baxter's 'Concord,' pp. 139, 140, (s) Part iii. p, 140.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 181
tained churches and pastors ; another for the tolerated ; and a
third for the intolerable." ' On the subject of subscription, his
recommendation is as foUows : " That the approved and raain
tained ministers be put to subscribe tiieir belief of, consent to,
and resolved practice or obedience of, aU the sacred canonical
Scriptures, so far as by diligent study they are able to under
stand them ; and, more particularly, of the Christian reUgion
summarily contained in the sacraraental covenant, and in the
ancient creeds received by the universal church, the Lord's
Prayer and the Decalogue, as it is the law of Christ, and ex
pounded by him in the Holy Scriptures ; and that they wiU be
faithful to the king and kingdom, and, as ministers, wiU faith
fully guide the flocks in holy doctrine, worship, discipline, and
example of hfe, laboring to promote truth, holiness, love,
peace, and justice, for the salvation of men's souls, the edifica
tion of the church, and the glorifying and pleasing of God our
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. And that the said main
tained rainisters be tried by the regulating laws which deter
mine only such circumstance as in genere are necessary to be
agreed on for uniformity and common harmony : as of tirae,
place, parish bounds, what translation of Scripture to use, what
version of Psalras, what decent habit, &;c., not put to profess
approbation of all these ; but required to use them, and censur
ed if they do not." "
Such is the substance of Baxter's views on the principal
points. Considering what his sentiments were respecting
church and state, they must be regarded as, on the whole, en
lightened and liberal. His ideas of subscription and conformi
ty were by no means rigid : and had only such a degree of Ub
erty been aUowed by the church of England, a substantial uni
formity would have been secured, and the best part of her cler
gy prevented from separating from her coraraunion. Such a
degree of laxity sorae would consider very dangerous to the
church ; but they should remember that the uniformity required
and enforced has only produced outward or nominal agreement,
leaving the paities still widely different from each other, and in
regard to the principles subscribed, as wide as the utmost lati
tude of freedom could have produced.
The next work of Baxter's is connected vrith a long controversy
on the subject of this chapter, in which Dr. Owen and some of
his brethren were implicated. It appeared in several separate
pamphlets, pubUshed under various titles, and at last with the
foUovring general title : ' CathoUc Communion defended against
both extremes ; and unnecessary Division confuted by Reasons
against both the active and passive ways of Separation.' 4to. 1684.
(t) Ibid. (u) Baxter's ' Concord,' pp. 141, 142.

182 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
This work is divided into five parts, consisting of ' The dan
gerous Schisraatic clearly detected and fully confuted ;' in which
Dr. Owen and Independency are the chief objects of animad
version. The second part is ' Against schisra, and a book re
ported to be Mr. Raphson's,' in which the lawfulness of holding
coramunion with the parish churches, is advocated by Baxter.
The third is a ' Survey of the unreasonable defence of Dr. Stil
lingfleet for separation, pretending to oppose it ; ' in which Bax
ter defends himself and Mr. Humphreys against the charge of
inconsistency, preferred by Dr. Sherlock and his party. They
maintained that according to Baxter's principles, " if it be lawful
to hear and comraunicate with the church once, it is lawful to
do it constantly ; and that if it be lawful to communicate with
the church of England, it is unlawful to communicate with the
Nonconformists." The fourth and fifth parts include his ' Ca
thoUc Comraunion defended and doubly defended, as they had
before been published, or ' Reasons of the Author's censured
Communion with the Parish Churches ; and Reasons why Dr.
John Owen's Twelve Arguments change not Richard Baxter's
judgment.' Another part of the same discussion he also pub
lished in 1684: 'Catholic communion once more defended ;
or whether Parish Churches be true Christian Churches."
His own account of this controversy is as follows : " Seeing
so raany in prison for this error, to the dishonor of God, and
so raany more likely to be ruined by it, and the separating par
ty, by the temptation of suffering, had so far prevailed with the
most strict and zealous Christians, that a great number were of
their raind ; and the nonconforraable rainisters, whose judgment
was against this separation, durst not publish their dislike of it,
partly because of sharp and bitter censures of the Separatists,
and partly for fear of losing all opportunity of teaching them ;
and some that had no hope of any other friends or maintenance,
or auditors, thought they might be sUent. On all these accounts,
I that had no gathered church, nor Uved on the contribution of
any such, and was going out of the world in pain and languor,
did think that I was fittest to bear men's censures, and to take
that reproach on myself, which my brethren were less fit to bear,
who might live for further service. So at the iraportunity of
the bookseUer, I consented to publish the reasons of my com
municating in the parish churches, and against separation.
Which, when it was coming out, a manuscript of Dr. Owen's, "
who was lately dead, containing twelve arguments against such
joining with the liturgy and public churches, was sent me, as
(x) The title of Owen's tract, here referred to, is 'An Answer to Two Ques
tions, with 'Twelve Arguments against any Conformity to Worship, not of Divine
Institution.' It appears to have been written by Owen for the use of some friend,
and by him to have been printed. .

OP RICHARD BAXTER. 183
that which had satisfied multitudes : I thought, that if this were
unanswered, my labor would be much lost, because that party
would StUl say, Dr. Owen's twelve arguments confuted aU :
whereupon, I hastily answered them, but found after, that it had
been more prudent to have omitted his narae. For, on that
account, a swarra of revUers in the city poured out their keenest
censures, and three or four wrote against me, whom I answered.
I wUl not name the men tiiat are knovvn, and two of them are
yet unknown ; but they went on several principles, some charged
all comraunion with the liturgy, whh idolatry, anti-Christianity,
perjury, and backsUding. One concealed his judgment, and
quarrelled at my words. Another turned my treatise of Episco
pacy against me, and said it fully proved the duty of separation.
1 was glad that I was hereby called to explain that treatise,
lest it should do hurt to mistakers when I am dead ; and that
as in it I had said much against one extreme, I might leave
my testimony against the other. I caUed aU these writings to
gether, ' A Defence of Cathohc Communion.' And that I might
be impartial, I adjoined two pieces against Dr. Sherlock, who ran
quite into the contrary extremes, unchurching all Christians as
schismatics. I confess I wtote so sharply against him, as must
needs be liable to blame, with those that know not the raan, and
his former and latter virulent and ignorant writings." '^
This is the most entangled of all the controversies in which
Baxter engaged ; as the titles of the same pamphlets vary in a
way that makes it difficult to represent tliera correctly. To
foUow out the discussion, or to give a succinct account of it,
would be useless and impracticable. The fact is simply this :
Baxter was completely entangled between the church and the
Independents, and the consistency of his principles and con
duct was attacked by both parties. This he had hiraself pro
voked by various of his pubhcations. He had, therefore, to de
fend his defences of. the church, and his own separation from
it ; and to vindicate his defences of nonconforraity, with the fact
of his personal and stated conformity. His arguraents often
proved too much, if they proved any thing, and hence he be
came involved in difficulties from which, with all his acuteness
and subtlety, it was impossible to extricate himself. It was
thus, to adopt his own expressive language, " he raade a wedge
of his bare hand, by putting it into the cleft, and both sides clos
ing upon it to his pain." " I have turned both parties," he says,
" which I endeavored to part in the fray, against rayself. When
each side had but one adversary, I had two." ^
While this unprofitable controversy went on, Dr. Owen, who
had some share in it, or rather had been dragged into it, took
(y) Life, part iii. pp. 198, 199. (z) Cure of Church Div. p. 144,

184 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
his departure for a better world, where aU is love and unity.
In an appendix to his ' Reasons why Owen's Twelve Arguments '
do not satisfy hira, Baxter speaks of his character and talents in
the most honorable terms, and supposes that if Owen had been
perraitted to address the disputers frora his heavenly rest, it
would be to this purpose : —
" Though all believers must be holy, and avoid aU known
wilful sin, they must not avoid one another, or their communion
in good, because of adherent faults and imperfections ; for Christ,
who is most holy, receiveth persons and worship that are faulty,
else none of us should be received. There is greatest goodness
where there is greatest love and unity of spirit, maintained in
the bond of peace. O caU not to God to deny you mercy, by
being unmerciful ; nor to cast you all out, by casting off one
another. O separate not aU from Christ's church on earth, lest
you separate from him, or displease him. God hath bid you
pray, but not told you whether it shall be oft in the sarae words,
or in other ; with a book or without a book. Make not super
stitiously a religion by pretending that God hath determined
such circurastances. O do not preach and write down love and
communion of saints, on pretence that your littie modes and
ways only are good, and theirs idolatrous or intolerable ; and do
not slander and excoraraunicate aU, or almost all, Christ's body,
and then wrong God by fathering this upon him. You pray,
' Thy vrill be done on earth as it is done in heaven ; ' why,
here is no strife, division, disunion, animosity, sects, or factions,
nor separating from, or excomraunicating, one another. Learn
of Christ, and separate from none further than tbey separate
from him, and receive all that he receiveth. WhUe you blame
canonical dividers and unjust excoramunicators, do not you
renounce comraunion with tenfold raore than they. I was, in
this, of too narrow, mistaken principles ; and, in the tirae of
temptation I did not foresee to what church confusion and
desolation, hatred and ruin, the dividing practices of sorae
did tend ; but the glorious unity, in heavenly perfection of love
to God and one another, bids me beseech you to avoid all that
is against it, and to make use of no mistakes of mine to cherish
any such offences, or to oppose the motions of love, unity, and
peace." Owen's ' Twelve Arguments,' which Baxter took up so warmly,
even after his death, do not appear to have been intended for
the press by him. They were handed about in raanuscript, and
printed by some one when Owen was no longer capable of ex
plaining or defending himself. The defence of the doctor was
taken up very warmly by some of his friends. One writer, in
the character of a vindicator, brought out two pamphlets : the
former entitied ' A Vindication of the late Dr. Owen,' to which

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 185
Baxter replies in his ' Catholic Coramunion Doubly Defended.'
To this the writer rejoined in his ' Vindicise Revindicatse ;
being an answer to Mr. Baxter's Book ; and Mr. Baxter's no
tions of the Saint's Repentance and Displeasure in Heaven
considered.' 1684. 4to. The tities of several other of the
pamphlets wrhten in defence of Owen, I have given in the note
below. *
About this same time, and evidentiy to aid him in the same
cause, Baxter published, ' The Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale :
ofthe Nature of true Religion, the Causes of its Corruption,
and the Church's Calamity, by Men's Additions and Violence,
with the Desired Cure.' 1684. 4to. The manuscript of the
three discourses contained in this publication, had been given by
Judge Hale to Baxter, who, after entertaining sorae doubts as
to the propriety of publishing them, was at last, by the advice of
his friends, induced to bring them out. They are not long, and
hence do not enter very deeply into the important subjects of
which they treat ; but they afford a fine Ulustration of the wis
dom and moderation of their author, and show that, were all
reUgious men like Sir Matthew Hale, there would be no oppres
sion on the one part, or unnecessary quarrels on the other ; so
that peace and love would prevaU.
Baxter's ' sense of the subscribed articles of the church of
England,' has already, in the last chapter of the first part of
this work, been fully brought before the reader. I have also
adverted to the union or agreement formed between the Pres
byterians and Independents in 1691 ; and to the satisfaction
which it appears to have afforded Baxter. Though then in
the last stage of his mortal career, he pubUshed, with reference
to it, ' Church Concord : containing a dissuasive frora unne
cessary divisions and separations ; the real concord of the mo
derate Independents with the Presbyterians instanced in ten
seeming differences ; with the terms necessary for concord
araong all true churches and Christians.' 1691. 4to.
Among the last of Baxter's writings, there yet remains afl-
other treatise which belongs to the subject of this chapter.
(a) ' A Theological Dialogue, containing the Defence and Justification of Dr.
J. Owen from Forty-two Errors, charged upon him by Mr. Richard Baxter, in a
certain MS. about Communion in Liturgical Worship.' 1684. 4to. — ' The Second
Part of the Theological Dialogue ; being a Reply to Mr. Richard Baxter,' 1684,
4to. Both the above are ascribed to John Faldo. — ' Bellarminus Junior Enerva-
tus ; or, the Insufficiency of Mr. Richard Baxter's Answer to Dr. Owen's Twelve
Arguments about Divine Worship detected,' &c. 1684. 4to. This is inscribed to
Mr. Stephen Lobb, ' The Winding-Sheet for Mr. Baxter's Dead, &;c, ; with
Twelve Queries concerning Separation, wherein the Reverend and Learned Dr,
Owen is further vindicated,' "This is ascribed to Mr. Morgan Lloyd, of Wrex
ham.—' Vindication of Dr. Owen, by a Friendly Scrutiny into the manner of Mr.
Baxter's Opposition to Twelve Arguments concerning Worship by the Liturgy.'
Ife84. 4to. ' Insufficiency of Mr. Baxter's Answer to Dr. Owen's Twelve Argu
ments,' &c. 1684. 4to.
VOL. II. 24

186 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
' Of National Churches ; their description, institution, use, pre
servation, danger, maladies, and cure.' 1691. 4to. In this
pamphlet he endeavors to prove that national churches are
of Christ's institution; but when he comes to explain him
self, the national church which he approves, is such as the
world has never yet seen, nor is likely soon to see, unless more
extraordinary changes take place than have yet occurred in the
history of our planet. What wiU be the duty of Christians,
when kings and rulers, with their subjects, shall in general be
influenced by Christian principles, and under the direction of
scriptural laws, it wiU be time enough to discuss when these
things shall take place.
Baxter continued to look forward to some such mighty and
glorious change : which induces me to place here, though not
in the order in which the book occurred, his ' Moral Prognosti
cation : First, What shall befall the Churches on Earth, tiU their
Concord, by the Restitution of their Primitive Purity, Simplicity,
and Charity. Secondly, How that Restitution is Ukely to be
made, if ever, and what shall befall them thenceforth unto the
end, in that golden .age of love.""
This tract was written in 1661, but not published tiU 1680.
Had it been produced immediately before his death, it might
have been regarded as insinuating something of a claim to pro
phetic foresight. Baxter, however, professed to be no prophet ;
but reasoning on certain principles, he considered himself justi
fied in anticipating specific results. He professes great confi
dence, that God would in due tirae raise up some wise and
spiritual king, who should discern the best method of promoting
peace and union araong all parties, and who should be eminently
instrumental in advancing the interests of religion among men.
It is not for us to say what wUl be ; but judging from the past
course of the divine proceedings, and the genius of Christianity,
it is not likely that the kings of the earth are ever destined to be
the great means of promoting and estabhshing the spiritual glo
ry of the kingdom of Christ.
Having concluded the historical account of the numerous
wrhings of our author, on the subject of catholic comraunion, it
may now be necessary to state in a few words, what his senti
ments on church government and coraraunion, divested of all
controversy, really were. As nearly as I can ascertain, I should
judge they were as foUows :
He held the necessity of maintaining social and church feUow
ship with aU, who, in the judgment of charity, ought to be re
garded as real Christians; but disapproved of holding com
munion with those who ought not be so considered. He^ap-
(b) Worke, vol. xv.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 187
proved of a civil establishment of Christianity, and of the mainte
nance of the mmisters by national funds ; but it was only such
an establishment as should leave the rainisters unfettered and
unembarrassed in their work ; and which should neither too
severely enforce the payment of tithes, nor much restrain any
who dissented from it. He was opposed to tests and covenants
of human framing, unless of the most general nature. He did
not object to a moderate kind of episcopacy, which amounted,
in fact, rather to a volimtary subraission of the ministers
of a district, to a constant but Umited presidency, on the
part of some one individual, on account of his age or sorae
superior qualifications. While he contended for rainisterial
authority, he recognised the rights of a Christian congrega
tion to choose its own pastor, and also to a certain share in the
discipline of the chm-ch. He did not object to a liturgy, but to
many parts of that used in the church. He also objected to
the enforcement of it on any, and to strict adherence to it on
all occasions. In short, he considered a Christian church to be
an association of spiritual persons for thefr own good and the
good of others ; which ought to be aided and countenanced by
the civU magistracy professing Christianity ; but which should
not be deprived of its own inherent and independent right to
manage its own affairs, and to adapt its proceedings to its pecu
liar case and circurastances. Various other things were either
contended for or objected to by him ; but these positions raay
be considered as embracing the substance of the sentiments he
advocated in his numerous writings for peace and love.
It is not my business to point out the defects or inconsis
tencies of his system or his practice, but to caU the attention
of the reader to what it really was. He Uved during a period
when much warmth and keenness were manifested on aU the
points which we have brought under review. He had to feel,
or rather to fight his way on every point. There were few
to assist hun in the peculiar course he had marked out for him
self, and, therefore, all due allowance must be made for the
mistakes into which he feU.
With aU his faults and imperfections, he was a man of a truly
catholic spirit, who labored hard to heal the wounds that had
been inflicted on the church by various means, and for which
there seeraed to be no cure. He acted as a pioneer, prepar
ing the way for clearer statements than his own, and for a more
correct system than has yet been generally adopted. His cath
ohc principle of feUowship with aU genuine Christians, is better
understood than it was; though even yet, alas! but partially
adopted as a principle, and still more imperfectly exemplified
in practice. It implies not indifference to truth, but devoted
attachment to it. It involves union without compromise, and

188 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
co-operation without sacrifice of consistency. It recognises the
exclusive claims of divine authority in religion, and the unques
tionable rights of conscience ; securing for each individual the
power of acting according to his own convictions, whUe it re
quires him to concede no less to others. It wiU ultimately ef
fect what acts of uniformity have hitherto failed to produce, and
which wUl never be brought about either by compulsory mea
sures of state, or stormy controversies in the church. A great
er portion of the spirit of Christ, and a brighter manifestation of
his holy image, will do more to unite aU his disciples, than the
most perfect theory of church government that has yet been
recommended, or forced on the world. When this blessed peri
od of love and union shaU arrive, the services of Baxter as the
indefatigable advocate of catholic coramunion wiU not be for
gotten.

CHAPTER VII.

WORKS ON NONCONFORMITY,
Introductory Observations on the History of Nonconforlmty-r-' The Nonconformist Papers ' —
Never answered — * Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry ' — ' The Judgment of Nonconform
ists of the Office of Reason in Matters of Religion ' — ' Of the Diiference between Grace and
Morality ' — ' About Things Indifferent ' — ' About things Sinful ' — ' What Mere Nonconfor
mity is not ' — * Nonconformist's Plea for Peace ' — Second Part of Ditto — ^Defence of Ditto —
Correspondence with Tillotson — ' Answer to Dr, Stillingfleet ' — ' Second Defence of the Mere
Nonconformiat ' — * Search for the English Schismatic * — ' Treatise of Episcopacy ' — ' Third
Defence of the Cause of Peace '— ' Apology for the Nonconformists' Ministry '— ' English
Nonconformity * — Conclusion.
The distinction which I have made between the works of Bax
ter on CathoUc Communion and Church Government, and those
on the Nonconformist controversy, may appear to some merely
a refinement, and that the pubhcations thus distinguished, belong
all to one class. Attention to the nature of many of these works,
however, wiU show that this is not correct. The subjects, it is
true, do frequently shade into each other ; but they are sub
stantially distinct. Many of the pubhcations on church govem
ment might have been written, though the question of noncon
formity had never been agitated ; whUe that question, on the
other hand, involved many points, which are altogether inde
pendent of pai-ticular views of church polity., The distinction
ivill, at all events, be convenient, as it enables us to separate the

&

OF RICHAUD BAXTER. 189
voluminous writings of our author on subjects very closely con
nected, but which, if treated under one head, would have been
tiresome both to the writer and to the reader.
Nonconformity is a relative term. It supposes some pre
viously existing system of observances, established ehher by
political authority, or general consent ; and denotes a practical
secession on grounds conceived by the parties to require and
justify it. Like the term Protestantism, it is general and com
prehensive. It applies to various grounds of secession from the
national religion, and includes different systems of ecclesiastical
polity. No wise man would choose to differ frora those around
him, in reference to matters either civil or religious, unless in
his own estimation he had good reasons for that difference ;
and in such cases it is the obvious dictate of duty to investigate
the questions at issue, with calmness and deliberation; that
conviction and not caprice, principle and not passion, may
regulate the inquiry, and form the decision. "
The Nonconformist controversy is a very unattractive subject
to many persons. They regard it as a debate about words, and
names, and questions, whicli gender strife, rather than godly
edifying. Assuming either that there is no authority or stand
ard in such matters, or that the authority of certain ecclesias
tical superiors ought to be submitted to whhout murmuring or
disputing, they pronounce thefr disapprobation on aU discussions
of such subjects, and on the parties who engage in them. High
churchmen are ofended that the doctrine of conformity should
be called in question at all. Those who profess high spir
ituality, look on the subject as unworthy of their regard, and
as only fit for such as mind the carnal things of the kingdom
of God. Dissenters, as weU as others, frequently talk of it as
being among nonessential matters, and scarcely deserving of pro
found consideration, and whUe they luxuriate in the privUeges
which their forefathers purchased for thera at so dear a rate,
almost pity and conderan the measures which procured them.
Without professing that the highest consideration attaches to
the Nonconformist controversy, or approving of all the views
or conduct of the early Nonconformists, I can by no means
regard the subject as one of smaU iraportance. In a life of
Baxter, it is necessarily a prominent subject, and no apology
can be requisite for treating it fully in an account of one who
was the most moderate of aU the Nonconformists, while he
wrote in defence of his brethren and their cause, more than they
aU. But, independently of its connexion with Baxter, the sub
ject has strong claims to dispassionate and careful examination.
It is impossible for any one to forra a correct view of English
(o) See a very able Sermon on Nonconformity, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher,

190 THE ^IFE AND WRITINGS
history for nearly three hundred years, whhout an acquaintance
with this controversy, and with the characters and principles of
the raen who engaged in U. It is alraost co-eval with the
English Reformation ; and the great questions then started
cannot be considered as yet finally determined. The Puritans
under the Tudors, became Nonconformists under the Stuarts,
and Dissenters under the family of Hanover. They have been
men of the same principles substantially throughout. In main
taining the rights of conscience, they have contributed raore
than any other class of persons to set liraits to the power of the
crown, to define the rights of subjects, and to secure the liberties
of Britain. They have wrested a rod of iron from the hand of
despotism, and substituted in its place a sceptre of righteousness
and mercy. They have converted the divine right of kings
into the principles of a constitutional governraent, in which
the privileges of the subject are secured by the same charter
which guards the throne. The history of the principles of such
a body ought not, therefore, to be regarded as unimportant by
any friends of British freedora.
The Nonconforraist controversy contributed greatly to as
certain the distinct provinces of divine and human legislation ;
to estabUsh the paramount and exclusive authority of God, and
of the revelation of his wiU, over the conscience of man ; and
lo define the undoubted claims of civil government to the
obedience of its subjects in all matters purely civil. It is
not alleged that all, or even the majority of the Noncon
formist, clearly understood the doctrine of religious liberty.
But they, and the Puritans who preceded them, were men of
conscience themselves, who could not subrait to human dictation
when it interfered whh what they believed God required ; so
that, though they did not perceive the fuU bearings of their
own principles and sometiraes acted and wrote inconsistently
with them, they remonstrated, resisted, and suffered, when
kings and bishops coraraanded thera to faU down and worship
the idols which they had set up. From this contest and
struggle truth derived great advantage. The untenable and
unrighteous exactions of authority were exposed, the supreme
authority of the Scriptures maintained, and the rights of con
science at last established. The mist and darkness which had
so long covered one of the first and greatest principles of
legislation, were gradually cleared away, and in due time that
principle stood forth before the world, as no longer to be dis-
puted—- that man is accountable to God only, for aU that he
believes as truth, for all that he offers as worship, and for all
that he practises as religion. This is the doctrine of the Bible,
the dictate of enlightened reason ; and lies at,the foundation of
all correct and acceptable obedience to God.

OF KICIIMID BAXTER. 191
To the samo controversy we are indoblcd for the origin of
tlH' cori-ocl and si-ripturul seniimcnts which arc now oxteiisivoly
cnteitaiiuHl n'speeting tho unsocuhu- luUuro of tho kingdom of
Christ. The iniermixturo of hoavonly and earthly things does
iiulood still prevail, and its pi-ruioioustcndonoy is vol iniporlbct-
ly ostiiuiUod hy iiiany ; but oonsidorublc progress luis boon made
towards the hill disoovory of tho onliro spirituality of Messiah's
kingdora. Its iiulopoudonco of sooular support and dolonoo,
its rosourcos both of propaguiiou aud maiutonanoo, its uncongoni-
ality with tlio priiuijilos, spirit, and practioos of oarth-born men,
aro now rauoli moio goiionilly udmillcd tlinn llioy once were.
In laot, tho ahlosl tlofondors of ooclosiastioo-oivil ostiiblishments,
havo now ontiroly abaiulonod tho doctrine of divine right, and
boldly avow tlmt thoy aro no part of Christianity, but only a hu-
num I'xpediont for its pi-op;ip;aiiou. Many of the Nonconform
ists, and Haxtor in partioukir, wore stioklors for an cstabUsh-
mcnt. Thoy did not oloarly understand what was involved in
thoir owu principles ; but iu maintaining a warfare against the
iiitroduotion of unp;odly meu into the ministry, and the neglect
of ooolosiasiical discipline ; and in contending for the rights of
the churoli, indopondonlly of llio will of tho civil iiiagistrato,
thoy proparod tlio way for bottor and clearer views than diose
wliich tiicy tiiemsolvos maintainod.
With this routrovorsy loo, there was often incorporated the
dofenoo or the assertion of some of tiie most important doctrines
of tiie (losjiol. These the advorsarios of tiie Nonconformists
iu gouoral voiy imporfoctly understood. Indeed, onmity to sal
vation by grnco, to justification by riiiili, election, perseverance,
with their coUatcrartrullis, was oiton at the root of the opposi
tion and porsocution whioh had to be oiuiured. There were
doctrinal Puritans and Nonconformists, who would not have
scrupled at most of the forms of the church, but who regarded
its leaders as among tiio most deadly onomies to those great es
sential truths which" intiiuatoly belong tothe salvntion of raon.
Thoro have boon High Ciiurch and Eow Church, which are
only different expressions for Puritau aud Anti-Puritmi, Con
formist and Nouconformisi, ever since the Reformation. In the
roign of Edward, Crannior and Ridley lioadod the one class,
Ho-ors and Hooper tho otiier. Though all four died at tiie
stake for the common faith, tiie two last had suUcrcd sovoroly
from tho two former, on account of tiieir opposition to oorlain
imposed ritos and ceremonies. In tho days of Mary, botii par
ties tlod into loroieu countries for security. Bui, ovon when
in exile, tho former siitUy adhered to tho corouionies wluch thoy
had endeavored to impose when at home, while the latter,
avaUing themselves of tiio privilege of strangers, as resolutely
refused to submit to thom. This created no small dissension

192 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
between the parties whUe abroad. On their return, after the
advancement of Elizabeth to the throne, each hoped to carry
their point. Those who were zealous for rites and usages,
however, gained the queen's favor ; their views being more in
unison whh her arbitrary disposition, and her love of pomp, in
reUgious as weU as in civil matters. But although the other par
ty were disappointed, they were not entirely thrown out. As
there was a great deficiency of properly qualified persons to oc
cupy the pulpits and principal places in tbe establishment, many
of those who were known to be opposed to sorae of its ritual,
were allowed to officiate in the churches, and their noncompli
ance, with parts of the rubric, was connived at. Some of them
were also raised to dignified offices. In the course of her
reign, however, the bonds were gradually drawn tighter and
tighter, and very severe sufferings came to be inflicted on a
body of exceUent and conscientious men.
What is said of the Israelites in Egypt, may be said with jus
tice of the Puritans, — the raore they were afflicted, the more
they multiplied and grew. The severities they experienced
only increased tiieir resolution to subrait to no human imposi
tions in religion, to resist encroachments on conscience, and
added to their influence araong those who respected men suf
fering for conscience' sake. Nothing but the energy and vigi
lance of Elizabeth's government prevented very serious distm-b-
ances in the country from tiiese causes. ParUament would
more than once have given relief, but was prevented from do
ing so, by the archbishop, and his influence over the queen. In
her last days, when the nation was beginning to worship the
rising sun, some abatement took place ; but still the conflict
went on.
A vigorous atterapt was made by the Puritans, at the begin
ning of James's reign, to accoraplish a further reformation of
the church, and to secure liberty for those who conscientiously
scrupled to observe some of its rites, though they wished stiU to
reraain within its pale. James's hatred of Presbyterianism,
which he transported across the Tweed, defeated this project.
The canons fdrmed by the convocation, under his direction,
increased instead of mitigating the evUs under which the Puri
tans groaned ; and during the whole of his reign, and that of
his unfortunate son and successor, matters gradually grew worse
and worse, tUl they finally carae to a grand crisis.
The pontificate of Laud was a great means of accelerating
that conflict, in which he lost his head. The conforming Pu
ritans were in his tirae severely dealt with. If they did not
bow to the altar, would not read the book of sports, or were
guilty of the crime of holding lectures, or of preaching tvrice on
the Lord's-day, it was enough to bring them before the high-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 193
commission court, and subject them to aU its oppressive and
iniquitous censures. The consequences were, that multitudes
of the ablest ministers, and of the best of the people, left their
native country, and fled for an asylum to the wilds and deserts
of Araerica. At last, oppression brought the country to despe
ration, and in the struggle which ensued, both the church and
the monarchy were wrecked.
There was rehgious peace, but not general satisfaction, dur
ing the Protectorate. The friends of the faUen church were
stiU nuraerous ; the lovers of form and ceremony in reUgion
were not few, though they were silent and suUen. The oppo
nents of the hierarchy were divided among theraselves ; the
largest fragment, the Presbyterian, opposed themselves to all the
sectaries, were enamored with an established church, and not
as a body inimical to a certain species of episcopal govemment.
When Charles II. was restored, the episcopal establishment,
as a matter of course, was reinstated in all its rights and privi
leges ; and the body of the ministers who were attached to a
simpler, and what they regarded a raore scriptural form of re
Ugion, were driven away. The vast majority of these persons
did not decidedly object to a modified episcopacy — to a litur
gical form of worship, and to the use of various rites, provided
they were not absolutely imposed on their consciences as mat
ters of faith and scriptural practice. They were mostly behev
ers in the lawfulness of a civil establishment of Christianity, and
consequently were not dissenters from the church ; they only
objected to certain things belonging to, or imposed by it.
These observations, with the history of the events of Baxter's
hfe, in the former part of this work, will enable the reader to
understand the nature of his writings on the subject of Non
conformity. Their great objects were, to state the evUs of
which he and his friends coraplained, as belonging to the epis
copal system estabUshed in this country ; to assign the grounds
of thefr conscientious objections to that system ; to explain what
alterations would satisfy them, and the reasonableness of de
manding those alterations ; and to defend hiraself and brethren
from many charges falsely or ignorantiy preferred against them.
It would be an almost endless, and certainly a useless task, to
analyse all these works, or minutely to enter into their diversified
contents ; but I shall endeavor to convey to the reader sorae
idea of their nature, and of the controversies which they involv
ed, or of which they formed a part.
The first of these works, which deserves our attention, though
not entfrely Baxter's production, nor bearing his name, is the
coUection of papers which passed between the commissioners
at the Savoy, in 1661. Of that debate, a fuU account has been
VOL. II. 2-5

194 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
given in the forraer part of this work. We have now to do only
with the publication, and witii the part which Baxter had in it.
It appeared in 1661, with the following titie: 'An account
of aU the proceedings of the coramissioners of both persuasions,
appointed by his sacred raajesty, accordmg to letters patent for
the review of the Book of Comraon Prayer,' &ic. 4to.
On the first appearance of this volume, which had no narae
attached to it, it was at once iraputed to Baxter, though he was
then a hundred raUes off, and knew nothing at all about it. It
contained only sorae of the docuraents, and these very inac
curately printed. The rest followed afterwards. Baxter sup
posed they were published by a poor man, whom he paid for
writing a copy ofthe papers. The coraplete collection consists
of the following documents : 1. Two papers of proposals con
cerning the discipline and ceremonies of the church of England,
presented to King Charles II. by the Presbyterian ministers.
2. Their petition for peace to die bishops. 3. Their reforma
tion of the liturgy. 4. An account of the proceedings of the
coramissioners on both sides for reviewing the Book of Coraraon
Prayer ; witii the king's commission prefixed. 5. The excep
tions of the Presbyterians against the liturgy. 6. The papers
which passed between the commissioners, in which the raatter
is argued pro and con. 7. A true copy of the disputation at
the Savoy, as raanaged by the episcopal divines, to prove that
there is nothing sinful in the liturgy. 8. An account of the
debate and petition to the king, by the Presbyterian rainisters
who were appointed commissioners. 9. Archbishop Usher's
reduction of episcopacy to the form of synodical government,
and another paper.'' Of these docuraents, Baxter was the
exclusive author, of Nos. 2 and 3, besides having a principal
hand in most ofthe others. In his own Life, the greater num
ber of these documents are published, with a very full account
of all that took place at the conference. Those who would be
masters of the Nonconforraist controversy, must study these
papers, especially keeping in eye Usher's model, to which the
moderate Presbyterians constantly referred, as thatwhich would
satisfy thera.
" Their pubhcation," says Baxter, " had various effects ; it
increased the burning indignation which before was kindled
against rae on one side, and it somewhat mitigated the censures
that were taken up against me on the other side. For the
chief of the Congregational or Independent party took it ill
that we took not them with us in our treaty, and so did a few
of the Presbyterian divines, aU whom we so far passed by as
not to invite them to our councils ; partiy because we knew that
(d) These documents were all printed together in an Svo. volume, in 1704.
The title is — ' The History of Nonconformity, aa it was argued and stated by
Commissioners on both sides, in 1661.'

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 195
it would be but a hinderance to us ; partiy because their per
sons were unacceptable ; and partly because it might have de
layed the work. Most ofthe Independents, and sorae few Pres
byterians, raised it as a common censure against us, that if we
had not been so forward to meet the bishops with the offers of so
much at first, and to enter into a tteaty with them without just
cause, we had aU had better terms, and that standing off would
have done more good : so that though my person and intentions
had a more favorable censure from them than some others, yet
for the action, I was commonly censured by them, as one tiiat
had granted them too much, and wronged my brethren by
entering into this treaty, out of too earnest a desire of concord
with them. Thus were men on both extremes offended with
me ; and I found what enmity-, charity, and peace, are hkely to
meet with in the world. But when these papers were printed,
the Independents confessed that we had dealt faithfuUy and sa
tisfactorUy : and indifferent men said that reason had over
whelmed the cause of the diocesans, and that we had oflered
them so much as left thera utterly without excuse. The
raoderate episcopal men said the sarae ; but the engaged Pre
latists were vehementiy displeased, that these papers should
thus come abroad."^
The Episcopahans threatened, on the appearance of the
papers, to answer them ; but no regular or formal answer ever
appeared. Roger L'Estrange often sneered at them. An ano
nymous writer, supposed to be Bishop Womack, referred to
one of the papers ; and Sir Henry Yelverton, in another anony
mous pamphlet, written in defence of Bishop Morley, alluded
to them. These, however, deserve not to be regarded as an
swers. If the church had been in a state of suffering after the
Savoy conference, replies would have been produced in abun
dance ; but as she was in fuU possesion of power, it was thought
the wisest course to reply to the Nonconformists in acts of
parliament, rather than in pamphlets.
The times did not admit of Baxter pubUshing anything after
the Savoy conference, on the subject of Nonconforraity, tUl
1672, when he brought out a sraaU ]2mo volume, entitied ' Sa
crilegious Desertion of the Holy Ministry Rebuked, and To
lerated Preaching of the Gospel Vindicated.' This work ap
peared anonymously, and was intended as an answer to a book
entided ' Toleration not to be Abused,' wbich also was without
a name, but is ascribed by Baxter to Dr. FuUwood ; who appears
to have grudged the temporary liberty which his brethren then
(e) Life, part ii. pp. 378, 380. The most complete collection of the papers is
to be found in Baxter's own Life, as none had copies of several of them there
published but himself. As documents, they afford important illustration of the
principles and temper of both parties.

196 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
enjoyed, or to have been greatiy afraid of the abuse of liberty.
Baxter argues very justly, that as the Nonconformists had been
ordained to the ministry, if they could not obtain a legal right
or estabhshment, it was their duty to preach when they were
merely tolerated, and that desertion of the work would be both
pusiUanimous and sinful. " Dr. FuUwood," he teUs us, " wrote
a jocular, deriding answer to this treatise ; and also printed an
assize sermon against separating from the parish ministers.
Divers called on me to reply to the first ; but I told them I had
better work to do than to answer every script against me ; and
while I demurred, Dr. FuUwood sent me an extraordinary kind
letter, offering to do his best to the ParUament for our union
and restoration, which ended ray thoughts of that ; but I knew
not anything to the purpose done." ^
At the end of this little work there is a chapter containing an
humble petition to the Conformists, in which Baxter expostulates
with them in the raost affectionate and solemn manner ; implor
ing them not to take offence, because their brethren who se
ceded from the church, could not entirely agree with them ;
disclaiming all hostility, and only entreating for himself and
others, liberty to act according to their consciences, in doing
what they regarded as the will of God.
An answer was published to this book, soraewhat correspond
ing to the character given of FuUwood's perforraance, entitied
' Speculum Baxterianum, or Baxter against Baxter ; being
Reflections on a Treatise,' Sic. ; but as it did not appear tiU
1680, I suppose it is not the pamphlet to which Baxter here
refers. It consists chiefly of quotations from the nuraerous
publications of Baxter, in which he appears, or is made, to con
tradict himself. Nothing could be easier than this. " Who
the author of the ' Speculum' is," says Baxter, " I know not,
the subject calleth rae to no particular answer. He raistook
the question, as if it had been what the world should think of
me. In which I leave them to their liberty without much con
tradiction." e
In 1 676, he printed a pamphlet on the ' Judgment of Non
conformists, concerning the part or office of reason in religion,'
which, he says, had good acceptance, having been published
with the consent of many rainisters. Encouraged by this, in
the same year, he printed together four treatises, ' The Judg
ment of the Nonconformists about the difference between grace
and morality;' 'Their Judgraent of things indifferent com
manded by authority ;' ' Their Judgraent of things sinful by ac
cident ;' and ' What Mere Nonconforraity is not.' Some of
these treatises were written in 1668, and some of them shortly
(f) Life, part iii. p. 102. (g) Preface to the ' Third Defence of Peace. '

OF RICHARD BWTKIl. ] 97
after ; but his prudent friends porsiiadod him to lay thom aside,
as unsuitable to tho state and temper of the timos. The first
ol thom is intended lo obviali> some objootious raised against
the Nom-onformists, as if thoy iliHorcd from otiiers, not ineioly
on tho suhjooi of Conformity, but on lliiit of religion goiierally,
aud hold some straiii^o notions about gruoo ami moralily. Tiio
second relates to tlio (lo.oslion which was started al the Savoy
confoionoo, and which Iod to so much debating afterwards;
' AVIiollier things antocodently lawful, do therefore become un
lawful, because conimaiulod by lawful authority.' This it
was maintained the Nonconformists adirmed, but vvhich Baxter
doilies. It is easy to porooive, tiuit it is a very ensnaring ques
tion viewed abstraoily, and that mui-li must depend on the
use whicli tho parties would bo disposed to niako of the answer,
whotlier in the afiirmaiivo or the nogativo. The tiiird ti-eatise,
' Of things sinfiil by accident,' arose out of the same confor-
enco ; and is dosigaod to show, that things in thomsolves
lawfid, may become siufid by tho aocidontal circumstanoos to
whicli they liappon sometimes to be related. For exaraple,
there may be notiiing sinful in the Book of Common Prayer ;
but if men arc required to use it as an act of submission
to human autiiority, and for improper reasons assigned by
it ; and if the uso of it is understood to be an acknow-
ledgmont of tbat authority, or of tiio justice of the reasons
which it assigns, it becomes then absolutely unlawful to every
man, who conscientiously objects to the authority enjoining it.
Much of the Nonconformist controversy hangs on this question;
which would not seem to be of very difficuk solution.
The last treatise on what ' Mere Nonconformity is not,' was
designed to strip tiie question of many of those adjuncts which
were regarded as more or less inseparable from it. It is not
difficult to define mere Nonconformity ; but very difficult to say
who wore the mere Nonconformists for whom Baxter wrote.
Thoso who left the church of England, or who were driven from
it, were influenced in tiioir conduct by a vast variety of con
siderations. Baxter could not always satisfy others by the
exposition of his own sentiments, still less would he be likely to
satisfy thom in bis account of the sentiments of his brothren.
Sorae objected that ho went too far ; otiiers, that he did not go
fai- enough ; so that what mere Nonconformity is, must bo as
certained by otiior means tiian this pamphlot.
When these treatises were printed, some of his political
friends in parUaniont and elsewhere, were against their publica
tion ; conceiving they would increase, rather tiian mitigate the
sufierings of tiie Nonconformists, by exasporaling the church,
and offending the other sects ; he tiierefore suppressed tiiem,

198 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
after they had cost him twenty-three pounds. ¦¦ They afterwards
appeared along with the second part of his ' Nonconformists'
Plea for Peace.'
In 1679, he published ' The Nonconforraists' Plea for Peace ;
or, an Account of their Judgraent, in certain things in which
they are misunderstood.' Svo. The act restraining the press
being expired, he says, " I pubUshed a book that lay by me, to
open the case of Nonconforraity, which greatly offended raany
Cenforraists ; though I ventured no further, but to narae the
things that we durst not conforra to. Even the same men that
had long called out to us, to tell thera what we desired ; and
who said we had nothing to say, could not bear it. The bishop
of Ely, Dr. Gunning, told rae, he would petition authority to
coramand us to give the reasons of our nonconformity, and not
thus keep up schism, and give no reason for it. The bishop of
London, Dr. Crompton, told rae, that the king took us to be not
sincere for not giving the reasons of our dissent. I told thera
both, it was a strange expectation frora raen that had so fully
given their reasons against the old conforraity in their reply, and
could get no answer ; and when their own laws would excom
municate, imprison, and ruin us for doing any such thing as they
demanded. But 1 would beg it on my knees, and retum them
raost hearty thanks, if tbey would but procure us leave to do it.
Yet when it was but half done, it greatly provoked them ; and
they wrote and said, that without the least provocation I had
assaulted thera ; whereas, I only naraed what we stuck at, pro
fessing to accuse none of thera ; and they thought seventeen
years' silencing, persecuting, iraprisoning, accusations of parlia
ment-men, prelates, priests, and people, and all their calls,
(what would you have ? why do you not tell us what you
stick at ? ) to be no provocation. Yea, bishops and doctors
had long told great men, that I myself had said it was only
things inconvenient, and not things sinful, which I refused to
conform to ; whereas, I had given thera in the description of
eight particular things in the old conformity which I undertook
to prove sinful. At the Savoy we began with one of them, and
in the petition for peace, we offered our oaths, that we would re
fuse conforraity to nothing but what we took to be sin. And
now when I told them what the sins were, O ! what a coramon
storm did it raise among thera ; when heathens would have fit
men speak for theraselves before they are condemned, it is
criminal in us to do it seventeen years after."'
Before the publication of this volume, the Nonconformists
had been assailed, reproached, and chaUenged, in a multitude
of books. Baxter tells us that he had read the publications of
(h) Life, part iii. p, 86. (i) Ibid, part iii. p, 187.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 199
" Bishop Moriey, Messrs. Stileman, FuUwood, Durel, FowUs,
Falkener, Nanfen, Boreman, Parker, Tompkins, Ashton, Hol-
lingworth. Good, Hinkley, L'Estrange, Long, the 'Friendly
Debate,' the ' Counterminer,' and many raore." In these per
formances they were accused of being adversaries of peace,
lovers of contentions, guilty of schism, sedhion, and aU unchari
tableness. The ' Plea for Peace ' was intended to meet aU these
charges, and to lay the true grounds of Nonconformity before
the world. It is therefore both a defensive and an offensive
work. He argues sti-enuously against conformity on the ground
of the raatters imposed, particularly on tbe ministers ; the as
sent, consent, approbation, and canonical subscription required
from them. Re-ordination, the oath requiring thera never to seek
any alteration of church governraent, and raany other things,
furnish hira with arguments in support of his Nonconformity,
which no Conformist had ever satisfactorily met ; and which
most dissenters believe have never yet been answered. There is
much historical raatter mixed up with the arguraent of this
book, tracing the progress of Nonconformity frora the beginning
to the period to which it was vyritten.
It seems from his own account, however, as if he had been
obliged to write this book, in consequence of the conduct of
mistaken friends, as much as the provocation of avowed
enemies. " Two old friends," he says, " whora I had a hand
in turning from anabaptistry and separation, Mr. Thomas
Lamb and Mr. WiUiam AUen, who had followed John Goodwin,
and became pastors of an Anabaptist church ; though but
tradesmen, feU on writing against separation, more strongly than
any of the conformable clergy. In consequence of their old
error, they now ran into the other extreme, especially Mr. Lamb.
They vvrote against our gathering assemblies, and preaching
when we were sUenced ; against whose mistakes I wrote ' The
Nonconformists, Plea for Peace.' "^
It is somewhat amusing to find Baxter employing hiraself with
aU his energy, to make separatists churchmen, and churchmen
separatists ; and then finding that he could not manage them
upon his own principles. Allen and Larab, and his wife Barbara,
appear to have been araong the raost troublesorae and volumi
nous of his correspondents. Sylvester has sweUed out his folio
volume by printing some of the letters that passed between
them. He might have added many more of the same descrip
tion. It is wonderful Baxter, great as his patience was, should
have been capable of reading and answering the letters with
which they plagued hira. It is probable that he at last wrote this
book, if possible, to get rid of thera. '
(k) Life, part iii. p. 180.
1) Life, App. No. iii. Baxter MSS. These persons, after having been Bap-

200 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
A reply to this work was published by a clergyraan of the
narae of Cheney, under the affected and ridiculous titie of ' The
Conforming-Nonconformist, and the Nonconforming-Conform-
ist.' Whether this was intended to describe one person or two,
seems doubtful ; but the ambiguity of the titie is reraoved by the
work, which is a weak attempt to show how men may subscribe
and swear without beheving anything in the sense of the im
posers ; like the device of the Roman slave, " Jurari Unguft,
mente jurari nihil." Cheney " was afraid some one would write
against Baxter, and neither convince the Nonconformists, nor
do justice to Conformity ;" and therefore he wrote a book which
did neither. Cheney and Baxter were acquainted. Baxter con
sidered him an honest, weak man, who had attempted what
was beyond his powers ; but seemed intended only as a precursor
of sorae raightier wight who was to follow.
The second part of ' The Nonconforraists' Plea for Peace,'
appeared in a 4to volume early in 1680. It contains, beside the
four treatises formerly raentioned as printed in 1676, an account
of the principles of the Nonconformists, in regard to civil and
ecclesiastical authority and obedience ; and a vindication of
them frora the charges of rebellion, kiUing the king, and creat
ing anarchy in the nation, and schism in the church. It is
rather a strange but tedious melange of politics and theology ;
the former not always very consistent with just views of British
constitutional liberty. Though Baxter should have held what may
be called the popular view of the constitution, to justify his own
conduct, this was not altogether the case ; and yet he expresses
himself in this perforraance in a way that could not be accepta
ble to the friends of arbitrary power. In this, as in some other
things, he endeavored to steer a middle course, in consequence of
which, he gave offence to both parties, without succeeding in
accomplishing his own object. In avoiding ScyUa, he feU into
Charybdis, the invariable fate of those who engage in party dis
cussions, and vainly imagine that a selection of some things,
which are held by both sides, and the rejection of others, is the
golden raedium of truth and peace.
To prevent Cheney's book from doing mischief, though it
was not deserving of attention on account of its own merits,
Baxter published ' The Defence of the Nonconformists' Plea for
Peace.' 8vo. 1680. No employment can weU be more dull and
uninteresting than that of answering a man who is incapable,
frora want of sense or want of honesty, of stating correctly the
matter in dispute. Cheney may have been very honest in his
tists, and members, for many years, of John Goodwin's church, afterwards be
came high Conformists. Allen appears to have been aman of talents; he wrote
several pieces on doctrinal and practical theology, which were collected in a fo
lio volume, published in 1707, with a preface by the Bishop of Chichester, and a
sermon on the death of the author, by Bishop Kidder,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 201
intentions ; but he must have been prodigiously stupid, as a great
part of Baxter's employment in answering him consists in cor
recting his mis-statements of raatter of fact, or palpable misre
presentations of the whole question at issue between the Church
and the Nonconforraists.
An adversary of a higher order, botii in talents and in the
church, shortly afterwards appeared in the person of Dr. StUling-
fleet, then dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards bishop of Wor
cester. He had formerly written an Irenicum, to reconcile the
contending parties, by an attempt to show that no form of
church governraent is to be found in the New Testaraent. ™ On
the second of May, 1680, he preached a sermon before the lord
mayor, which he afterwards published by request, with the titie
of the ' Mischief of Separation.' This discourse was Uke the
firing of a signal gun at the comraenceraent of a general
engageraent. Both parties had been preparing for battle for
some time. The Church was becoraing increasingly indignant
that neither time nor perescution had destroyed the seceders
from her pale ; while the Nonconformists, worn out with long-
continued suffering, and wearied with restraining, were glad of
an opportunity to give vent to their feelings in the vindication of
thefr cause.
StilUngfleet's serraon imputes most unjustiy to the Noncon
formists all the blame of separation frora the church, and the
raischiefs which had arisen from it. He makes no proper al
lowance for their conscientious objections to the exercise of an
iraposing power, and to the unscriptural nature of the things
imposed ; for the harshness and severity of the treatment which
they had experienced ; or for the exasperating effects of thefr
unmerited sufferings. He was no longer " Rector of Sutton,"
but the " De-an of St. Paul's ;" and had now laid aside his
" weapon salve for the church's wounds," to employ another
weapon to irritate and increase them. It is too generally for
gotten on the side of the church, that the sin of separation
may belong to those who are in, as rauch as to those who are
out ; by the former imposing a yoke which neither free raen nor
Christians ought to be caUed to wear ; and, therefore, the mis
chiefs, how many, or how great soever they may be, belong not
all to one side.
Of the Stillingfleet controversy I have given a particular ac
count, in the ' Memoirs of Dr. Owen ;' to which I must refer
(m) The ' Irenicum ' was first published in 1669, when the church was in a
state of depression and' suffering, aad her wounds required to be healed by the
salve of concession and moderation. Stillingfleet afterwards repented of writing
this book. " There are many things in it," he says, " which, if he were to write
again, he would not say; some which sh(>w his youth, and want of due consider
ation ; others, which he yielded too far, in hopes of gaining the dissenting par
ties to the church of England."
VOL. II. 26

202 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
the reader who wishes for information respecting the several
parties who engaged in it. I shall now confine myself, in a great
measure, to the publications of Baxter, who labored more
abundantly than all the others.
The Dean's sermon appears to have produced a strong im
pression on Baxter's mind. Dr. Hicks mentions that a friend
of his calling shortly after its publication on Dr. Cox, " there
found Mr. Baxter vehemently inveighing against it ; which led
the gentieman to ask hira, why he was so severe upon that sermon
and its author, and took no notice of another, then newly come
out, which had given the raen of his party as rauch offence.
What sermon is that ? said Baxter. Dr. Tillotson's (the dean
of Canterbury's) court serraon; in which he teUs you "that
you must not affront the established reUgion, nor openly draw
men off from the profession of h." " Oh," replied Mr. Baxter,
"he gave us great offence indeed ; but he hath cried peccavi, and
made us satisfaction. But your other dean, is a proud, haughty
man, and wiU retract nothing."
Dr. Birch doubts the fact of TiUotson's crying peccavi to the
dissenters. It is very clear, however, from Calamy's Life of
Howe, that he was exceedingly sorry for having preached and
published that sermon ; the main argument of which is sub
versive of Protestantism, and indeed of Christianity itself. On
its publication, Baxter drew up a treatise on the subject, and
sent it in manuscript to the dean. It produced the following
letter from hira in answer ; which illustrates the amiable cha
racter of TiUotson ; shows the esteem in which he held Baxter,
and saved the latter from a pubhc controversy with him. It
shows, also, the probable ground on which Baxter spoke of Til
lotson's confession.
" Reverend Sir, June 2nd, 1680.
" I received your letter, and the papers inclosed, which
having perused, I do now return. I cannot thmk myself to
be really much concerned in them, because they grant all along
that the obligation of duty ceaseth, where there is no probabUity
of success : and this principle is the true ground and bottom of
my assertion. So that unless upon the same principle oppo-
«te conclusions can be bulk, there must be sorae mistake in the
reasoning of one side. But whether I be really concerned in it
or not, I have great reason to think that it wiU generally be be
lieved that this discourse is particularly designed against me,
and that the same malice, which raised so groundless a clamor
(n) Dr, Cox was the husband of Mrs. Mary Cox, for whom Baxter preached a
funeral sermon. — See Works, vol. xvii. p. 91. He was the particular friend of
Baxter, as appears from his interferences on his behalf on various occasions. He
rose to the head of his profession, being president of the College of Physicians
till 1683, when he was deprived of the office for being whiggishly inclined.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 203
against my late sermon, will be very glad to find me struck at
in the odious conipany of Spinosa and Mr. Hobbes, as of
the same atheistical principles with tiiem ; a blow which I least
expected, and for that reason should be very much surprised to
receive from your hand. I would be glad to meet with that kind
ness and candor which I have ever used towards others ; but
if that may not be, I must content myself with the conscience
of having endeavored to deserve well of aU raen, and of the
truth itself. I am. Sir, with great sincerity, as I have always
been, "Your affectionate Friend and Servant,
John Tillotson.""
The first thing Baxter published in this controversy was,
his ' Answer to Dr. Edward StiUingfleet's Charge of Separa
tion.' 1680. 4to. In this pamphlet he publishes a correspond
ence which took place between StUUngfleet and himself, occa
sioned by the dean's sermon. He inserts some queries which
he proposed to the dean, to elicit a more explicit account of the
accusation ; a reply to the letter which Stillingfleet wrote him,
declming to answer these queries, and an answer to the printed
sermon. There is one passage in tins reply to StiUingfleet, in
which Baxter poses hira with tbe doctrine of his forraer work
in a way that he must have found very unpalatable. It is an
unanswerable reply to all who give up the jus divinum, and yet
found a charge of schism or separation on those who dissent
from them.
" 1 remember, your Irenicum learnedly maintaineth, that
God hath instituted no one form of church government as ne
cessary. And if so, then not a national church form. And
is it not a complete church if it be without a form, which not
God, but man, is the author of? Then God raade or insti
tuted no such thing as a complete church. Then is it a human
creation ? Then why may not man make yet many forms, and
multiply, and make, and unmake, as he seeth cause ; and
several countries have several forras ^. And forma dat nomen et
esse. And if God raade not any coraplete church, we should
be acquainted who they be that had power to make a first
church form ; and who hatii the power ever since ; and how
it is proved, and how it cometh to be any great matter to sepa
rate from a church form which God never made ; and whether
human church forms be not essential and constitutive causes of
the churches. Whether every commanded oath, subscription,
declaration, office, or ceremony, be an essential part of this
church form. Whether there be as many church forms and
(o) Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 419.

204 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
species, as there be orders, liturgies, and cereraonies. And
whether aU these differences in the same kingdom, constitute so
many schisras and separations."
Stillingfleet took up Baxter and his other antagonists in his
' Unreasonableness of Separation ; ' a large quarto volurae pub
lished in ] 681. In this work, he professes to give an historical
account of the separation frora the church of England, and of
the various pleas advanced in support of that separation by the
several parties, with such answers as he considered satisfactory,
or which exposed, as he conceived, the inconsistency of his
leading opponents. StiUingfleet was a man of profound learn
ing, and distinguished abilities. He spared no pains in this
discussion to establish his main position, — that the dissenters
had very unreasonably separated from the church of England.
He succeeds chiefly in exposing the inconsistency of some of
their arguments with their other principles and sorae parts of
their conduct. But, in tbis, he had no particular reason to
triuraph, as his own consistency was very far from perfect.
The rector of Sutton, who wrote the Irenicum when the church
of England was but a sect among other sects, was a very dif
ferent person frora the dean of St. Paul's, exposing the unrea
sonableness of separation frora an apostolic church in all its
glory. The one publication breathes a spirit of moderation,
and uses the language of entreaty ; the other is stern, severe,
and uncompromising.
While Baxter was preparing to meet StiUingfleet, he was
assailed by several other adversaries, in reply to whom he pro
duced, ' A Third Defence of the Cause of Peace, proving the
Need of Concord and the ImpossibUity of it on the Terms of the
Present Impositions.' 8vo. 1681. This volurae contains, first :
a reply to John Hinckley, D. D., rector of Northfield, Worces
tershire, and prebendary of Wolverhampton. He had pubUshed,
in 1680, 'Fasciculus L/iterarium ; or. Letters on several occa
sions, betwixt Mr. Baxter and the Author of the Persuasive to
Conformity.' This volume contains four letters of Hinckley's,
and four from Baxter in reply, on the subject of Nonconformity,
which had been written several years before. It is to the last
of Hinckley's letters in this book, that Baxter replies in his ' De
fence.' The controversy between them is a very sharp one ;
there is a large portion of history in Baxter's answer.
The second thing in the ' Defence,' is an answer to another
silly production of Cheney's, 'A Fardel of Dotage and shame
less Lies-;' which was not therefore deserving of the attention
Baxter bestowed on it.
The third thing in the ' Defence,' is ' Truth Pleading for
Peace, against the many Falsehoods of an unnamed Irapleader,
who pretendeth to answer several writings of Richard Baxter.'

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 205
This nameless irapleader was Long, of Exeter, the sworn foe of
Baxter. ' The Nonconformists' Plea for Peace impleaded, is
in tbe character of aU his other publication against Bax
ter and his brethren, and was accordingly treated by him as
it deserved. There is also a short note on a book against the
dissenters, by a person by the name of Varney ; and a few re
marks on the ' Speculum,' and the ' Casuist Uncased,' of Roger
L' Estrange. " Mr. L' Estrange," he says, " quite mistakes the
Nonconformist question, as the Reflector does ; as if hissing
and stinging were disputing. He seemeth to make the question
to be, Whether I be not a giddy, rautable fool and knave. Let
hira in that believe what pleases hiraself. Our question is,
whether silencing, fining, iraprisoning the Nonconforraists, be
the way of peace, and of the desired concord of Protestants .''
Yea, whether concord be possible on those terras, and whether
they will ever end our divisions ? "
In reply to the elaborate perforraance of StiUingfleet, Baxter
published ' A Second True Defence of the Mere Nonconform
ists, against the untrue accusations, reasonings, and history of
Dr. Edward StiUingfleet.' 1681. 4to. In this volume, he en
deavors to prove that it is " not a sin but a duty not wilfully
to corarait the many sins of conformity ; not sacrilegiously to
abandon the preaching of the Gospel, or the public worship of
God, though raen forbid it, and caU it schisra." He shows suc
cessfully that StiUingfleet, in his controversy with the Roman
CathoUcs, had maintained the sarae principles which he now
impugned in the Nonconformists, and that he does great injus
tice to the latter in raany of his historical stateraents. One
passage, in reference to himself, deserves to be extracted :
" I perceive Dr. StiUingfleet raarvelleth, that ray own ex
pectations of approaching death do not hinder me from writing
what I do for the Nonconforraists ; whereas, the truth is, had not
pain and weakness kept me from ray youth as in the continual
prospect of the grave and the next Ufe, I had never been like to
have been so rauch against conforraity, and the present disci
pUne of this church (that is, its want of disciphne,) as I have
been. For the world raight have raore flattered rae, and bi
assed my judgraent, and my conscience might have been bolder
and less fearful of sin. And though I love not to displease, I
must say this great truth, that I had never been like to have
lived in so convincing, sensible experience of the great differ
ence of the main body of the Conformists, frora most of the
Nonconforraists, as to the seriousness of their Christian faith,
and hope, and practice, their victory over the flesh and the
world ; I mean both of the clergy and laity of mine ac
quaintance. Oj how great a difference have I found frora ray
youth to this day. Though I doubt not but very many of the

206 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
passive conforraable rainisters (to say nothing of the imposers)
have been and are worthy pious men, and such as would not
persuade their hearers that the Jesuits first brought in spiritual
prayer. And I had the great blessing of my education near
four such, in three or four neighbor parishes."
The candor of this confession greatly prepossesses us in
favor of the writer, and is almost a pledge of the correctness of
his other statements. Stillingfleet had made many personal re
flections on Baxter in his book, from v/hich he vindicates himself
very successfully. He had referred to the case of Kiddermin
ster, which leads Baxter to give an interesting account of his
conduct while there towards the episcopal Conformists, who were
not then legally tolerated ; he not only did not interfere with them,
or solicit the interference of the magistrates, but gave them all
the countenance in his power. The attempts which have
frequently been made to show that the Episcopahans were
persecuted during the Comraonwealth, have uniformly failed.
It was not the 7-eligious, but the political Episcopalians who
were the objects of Cromwell's jealousy ; and their opposition to
his government was the sole cause of any interference which
they ever experienced.
StiUingfleet himself did not answer Baxter's second Defence,
but it was taken up by sorae others who were exceedingly zea
lous in his cause, and in that ofthe church; though not very ju
dicious in the measures which they adopted. Dr. Sherlock
published anonymously, first a thick 8vo volume, entitled, ' A
Discourse about Church Unity ; being a Defence of Dr. Stil
Ungfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation, in answer to several
late Pamphlets, but principaUy to Dr. Owen and Mr. Baxter.'
1681. And in the following year, in another volume, ' A Con
tinuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet,
in answer to Mr. Baxter, Mr. Lob, and others.' He boldly
affirms that " Whoever separates hiraself from the church of
England cuts hiraself off from the CathoUc church, and puts him
self out of a state of salvation. Separation from the church of
England is a schisra, and a schism is as damning a sin as idolatry,
drunkenness, or adultery." p This is being very plain, but it is
a pitiful brutum fulmen.
Mr. Long also appeared as the second of Dr. StiUingfleet, in
' The Unreasonableness of Separation, the Second Part ; or, a
further Impartial Account of the History, Nature, and Pleas,
of the present Separation from the church of England : with
Special Remarks on the Life and Actions of Richard Baxter.'
1682. Svo. This is, perhaps, the vUest and most malicious of
all the attacks made upon Baxter. In reference to it, he says,
(p) Continuation, p. 389.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 207
" Long, of Exeter, wrote so fierce a book to prove me, out of
my own wrhings, one of the worst raen living on earth, that
I never saw anything like it. And being overwhelmed with
work, and weakness, and pains ; and having least zeal to de
fend a person so bad as I know myself to be, I never answered
him, it being none of the raatters in controversy, whether I be
good or bad. God be merciful to me a sinner l"")
A third writer who appeared with his name in this con
troversy, was Richard Hooke, D. D., vicar of Halifax. He
published the ' Nonconformist Charapion ; his Challenge Ac
cepted ; or, an answer to Mr. Baxter's Petition for Peace :
with remarks on his Holy Commonwealth, his Sermon to the
House of Commons, his Nonconformists' Plea, and his Answer
to Dr. StiUingfleet.' 1682. 8vo. There is a vast deal of vaunt
ing and vaporing in this littie book; but it is one thing to
accept of a challenge, and another to come off with the vic
tory. Baxter did not take up Dr. Hooke's glove, which probably
mortified him in no small degree. The raost curious of the
pubhcations that appeared about this time against Baxter, and
certainly the wittiest of all L'Estrange's productions, was ' The
Casuist Uncased, in a dialogue betwixt Richard and Baxter,
with a Moderator between thera for quietness' sake.' 4to. It is a
witty paraphlet, but wickedly intended : yet the writings of
Baxter furnished ample raeans for such a production, and it
cannot be denied that Sir Roger raakes a very dexterous use
of them. The dialogue is often very humorous ; so that it is
impossible not to smUe at the joke, whUe we regret the object
for which it is furnished. Baxter took it all very coolly. " I
have never had the schooling of L'Estrange," he says, " and so
never taught him to understand my writings, and therefore un
dertake not, that things congruous shall not seem contradic
tions to him." '
In connexion with this sarae controversy, Baxter published
' A Search for the Enghsh Schisraatic ; by the case and cha
racter, 1. Ofthe Diocesan Canoneers ; 2. Ofthe present Mere
Nonconformists. Not as an accusation of the former, but a
necessary defence of the latter, so far as they are wrongfully
accused and persecuted by them.' 4to. 1681. Ofthe origin
and design of this performance, he gives the following account :
" Because the accusation of schisra is it that raaketh aU the
noise against the Nonconformists, in the mouths of their per
secutors, I wrote a few sheets, caUed, ' A Search for the English
Schismatic,' comparing the principles and practices of both
parties, and leaving it to the reader to judge who is the schis
matic ; showing that the Prelatists have, in their canons, ipso
(q) Life, paitiii. p. 188. (r) Third Defence, part ii. p. 151.

208 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
facto excommunicated aU the nobility, gentry, clergy, and
people, who do but affirm, that there is anything sinful in their
liturgy, ceremonies, or church-governraent, even the lowest
officer. Their laws cast us out of the rainistry into gaols,
and then they caU us schismatics, for not coming to tiieir
churches ; yea, though we come to them constantly, as I have
done, if we wiU not give over preaching ourselves, when the
parishes I Uved in had, one fifty thousand, the other twenty thou
sand souls in it, raore than could corae within the church-
doors. This book also, and my ' Prognostication,' and, what I
valued most, my ' True and Only Way of Universal Concord,'
were railed at, but never answered that I know of."^
Having finished our account of the Stillingfleet controversy,
we raust now advert to some other publications of Baxter on
Nonconformity about this tirae. The raost important is his
' Treatise of Episcopacy ; confuting by Scripture, reason, and
the church's testimony, that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy,
and government," which casteth out the primitive church species,
episcopacy, ministry, and discipline ; and confoundeth the Chris
tian world by corruption, usurpation, schisra, and persecution.'
1681. 4to. His own account of this volume presents a very ac
curate view of its nature and object. " Upon Mr. Henry Dodwell's
provocation, I published a treatise of episcopacy' that had lain
long by rae ; which fully openeth our judgment upon the dif
ference between the old episcopacy and our new diocesans, and
answereth alraost all the chief writers which have written for
such prelacy, especially Bishop Downarae, Dr. Hararaond,
Saravia, Spalatensis, Sic. I think I may freely say it is elabo
rate ; and had it not done somewhat effectually in the un
dertaken cause, sorae one or other would have answered it ere
now. It raakes me adraire that my ' Catholic Theology,' our
' Reformed Liturgy,' my ' Second Plea for Peace,' (that I say
not the first also,) and this ' Treatise of Episcopacy,' could nev
er procure an answer frora any of these fierce accusing men ;
whereas the subjects of these four books are the controversies
of the age, and which are by these men so much insisted on.
But I have since found some explication about the English di
ocesans necessary ; which the Separatists forced rae to publish
by raisunderstanding rae." '
This is one of the most elaborate and valuable of Baxter's
works on the Nonconformist controversy, and shows how very
fully he entered into the whole subject. It is divided into
two parts, in which, in a succession of chapters, he treats at
great length of the primitive episcopacy, ministry, and disci
pline, of the early churches ; the origin and progress of dio-
(s) Life, part iii. pp, 188, 189, (t) Ibid, p, 188.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 209
cesan churches and episcopacy, and tiie corruption that crept
into them, whh the various consequences which have arisen
from these changes. There is a large portion of sound learning
and accurate reasoning in the work, so that it is not surprising
Baxter felt disappointed at no atterapt being made to answer
it. He successfully shows that " the episcopal churches of
the Holy Ghost's institution, in the New Testament, were but
single congregations, consisting of volunteers : " and that the
bishops recognised by the apostles, were persons who had mere
ly the spiritual oversight of such congregations. Hence he con
tends, that nothing but a return to this state of things, wiU ever
effectually cure tiie evils of the church. Whether this work is
considered as a piece of ecclesiastical history, or in connexion
with the controversy respecting church governraent, it deserves
to be consulted, and will contribute raore to saisfy the mind than
all the otiier books of Baxter together.
His next pubhcation was, ' An Apology for the Nonconfor
mists' Ministry ; containing the Reasons oftheir Preaching,' &;c.
4to. 1681. The greater part of this book was wrhten in 1668
and 1669, and at last published as an addition to the Defence
of the Nonconformists, against Dr. StiUingfleet. He dedicates
it to Compton, bishop of London, Barlow, bishop of Lincoln,
Crofts, bishop of Hereford, Rainbow, bishop of Carlisle,
Thomas, bishop of St. David's and Lloyd, bishop of Peter
borough, of whom he speaks as good men, and lovers of mode
ration. In the work itself, he raeets the stateraents and rais-
representations of Bishop Morley, Dr. SayweU, Mr. Durel, a
naraeless Ecclesiastical Politician and Debate Maker, the
Counterrainer, Fowlis, Good, and raany others. There are some
very touching and eloquent passages in this work. The con
cluding address to tbe bishops is very powerful. He tells thera
plainly, that the blame of raost of the sufferings which were en
dured by himself and his brethren, properly belonged to them.
They either caused or occasioned the severe enactments whicli
were made against the Nonconformists, or by their influence
might have prevented them. He beseeches them to consider
the awful responsibility of preventing the preaching of the Gos
pel by so many faithful men, whose places were so inadequately
supplied, and warns them ofthe guik which they thus contracted.
" I am not so foolish," he says, " as not to know that aU this
talk is grievous to you, and not the way to my ease, or honor
with you, nor to procure favor in your eyes. But if in such a
day, and in such a case, we should all be silent, and none so
much as caU you to repentance, nor plead the cause of an in
jured Saviour and deserted souls, we should partake ofthe crimes
which we are lamenting; and not only Gildas and Salvianus, and
such-like, but aU the prophets aud apostles would condemn us.
VOL. II. 27

210 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
" And if aU that is here said have no other effect than to
increase your indignation and our sufferings ; judge, O posterity !
judge aU disinterested impartial men, between these reverend
lords and us ; whether the petitions here presented to them, be
selfish, or unreasonable, or such as should be rejected at so dear
a rate as our lamentable divisions and church distractions come
to ! Yea, Christ, whose cause and interest we plead, wUl cer
tainly and shortly judge ; before whom their woridly grandeur
and dignities wUl be insignificant ; wrathful reproaches will not
prove the innocent criminal, nor justify them that conderan
the just, or that wiU not understand the wiU and interest of their
Lord. Even so, corae Lord Jesus, corae quickly ! Amen." "
The last publication in this department which remains to be
noticed, is ' Tbe English Nonconformity, as under King Charles
II. and King James II. ; truly staled and argued.' 4to. This
is a considerable volurae, containing sixty-two chapters, in
which the whole Nonconformist controversy is argued in a series
of dialogues between a minister and a lawyer. As it was pub
lished not long before the death of Baxter, it raay fairly be
considered as containing his last sentiraents on those points
which had for so many years occupied a great portion of his
attention. It was all written a considerable time before the
Revolution, though published shortly after it, and while the final
settlement of the governraent was stUl future. No one of the
nuraerous works of Baxter furnishes so fuU, clear, and satisfac
tory a view of nonconforraity as this volume. It contains less
of personal reference and debate, and is more restricted to prin
ciples, than any of the others ; so that those who wish to ascer
tain with the least trouble the sentiments of Baxter, wiU consult
this work to advantage. "
Having brought our account of Baxter's works on Noncon
forraity to a terraination, it may be proper to offer a few con
cluding observations. To raany it will appear strange and
iraproper that he should have eraployed so much tirae on tbis
subject. They wUl be ready to ask with surprise and indigna
tion. To what purpose was this waste? Such persons overlook
the state of the times, and the peculiar situation of Baxter. The
spirit of oppression and persecution then raged in the raost vio
lent manner. Many of the persecutors were men respectable in
point of moral character, and a large portion professed a great
regard for the interests of religion. Baxter suffered consider
ably himself, but he felt more for the sufferings of his brethren,
(u) Life, part iii. pp. 235, 236, It was about this time, though I do not know
that it was in answer to this book, that a pamphlet, with the following title, ap
peared, ' Kidderminster-Stuff; or, a Remnant of Mr, Baxter's Fraudes unravel
led.' 4to. 1681. I have not seen it.
(x) A kind of answer was published to this work in a pamphlet, entitled, 'Re
flections on Mr. Baxter's Last Book, called English Nonconformity,' &c. 4to, 1689,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 211
than on his own account. Many of them had been driven from
situations of important usefulness, separated from their families,
conderaned to exile and iraprisonment, and suffered the loss of
all things. It would have been unchristian and unmanly to
remain sUent while these things went on, if, by expostulation,
apology, or vindication, any impression could be made.
Baxter might be considered as at the head of a large
portion at least of his suffering brethren; aU of whom re
spected his character, and admired his intrepidity. He was
more independent in his circumstances than most of them. He
was well known at court, and had considerable influence with
some of the nobUity. His disinterestedness was beyond sus
picion, and he was utteriy regardless of all personal consequences
to himself. On every emergency he was looked up to for
advice ; and in time of danger, his wisdom and prowess were
trusted to lead on the attack, or to cover a retreat.
If he erred in appearing too often, and sometimes on occa
sions which scarcely required him to expose himself or his cause,
it was an error of judgment only. It was the excess of zeal for
the good of others, not the gratification of any selfish or sordid
passion. He was often singled out as an object of attack by
petty scribblers, whose motive was to excite attention to thera
selves, rather than a desire to do good, or the^ hope that they
would make an irapression on the champion of Nonconforraity.
The silent disregard of such a raan was more provoking than
his severest animadversion. To the notice which he took of
many of them, their names are now indebted for existence ;
they are known, not as the writers of any thing which any body
reads, but as the adversaries of Richard Baxter.
In the state of the country from the time of the Restoration
tiU.the Revolution, it was of great iraportance that the Noncon
formist controversy should be kept aUve. It tended to support
the spirits of the sufferers, to preserve the flarae of liberty frorn
being altogether smothered, to keep in check those arbitrary
and oppressive raeasures which would have proved as ruinous to
the constitution of the country, as to the liberties of the Non
conforraists. Nothing but a great deal of wrhing, and writing
with force and severity, could have answered the purpose. It
was necessary to speak of persecution and oppression by their
proper names, and to expose them in their own colors. As
there was no raoderation in the measures by which the con
sciences of raen were invaded, and their dearest rights infringed,
it would be absurd to expect nothing but calmness and modera
tion in the writings of those who suffered and resisted ; yet in
general the Nonconformists wrote like Christians ; and in meek
ness acquitted themselves.

212 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER VIII.

WOKKS ON POPERY.
Introductory Observations—' The Safe Religion '— ' Winding-Sheet for Popery '—Grotian Re
ligion ' — Controversy with Peirce, Womack, Heylin, and Bramhall — ' Key for Catholics '—
'Successive Visibility of tho Church ' — Controversy with Johnson— ' Fair Warning ' — 'Dif
ference hetween tlie fewer of Church Pastors and the Roman Kingdom ' — 'Certainty of Chris
tianity without Popery '— ' Full and Easy Satisfaction, which is the True Religion '—Dedica
ted to Lauderdale — ' Christ, not the Pope, tlie Head of tlie Church '— ' Roman Tradition Ex
amined ' — ' Naked Popery ' — Controversy with Hutchinson — ' Which is the True Church ' —
'Answer to Dodwell '—' Dissent from Sherlock '—' Answer to Dodwell's Letter calling for
more Answers '— ' Against Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction ' — ' Protestant Religion truly
stated '—Conclusion,
The doctrines and the friends of Popery had loo much in
fluence in England during the life of Baxter, not to engage his
attention on a subject which had employed the pens of the ablest
men frorn the period ofthe reforraation. In point of argument,
everything necessary to expose the absurd and wicked pretensions
of the see of Rorae, had been said long before the time of
Baxter. But the interests involved in the Popish controversy
were too great, and the parties engaged in supporting them too
subtie, to allow the subject to sleep, or even to sluraber. The
well-known leanings of the Stuart family to a system raore fa
vorable than any other to their besetting sin, — the love of
arbitrary power ; their faraily alliances with its sworn defenders,
their patronage of those who were considered favorable to the
principles or the spirit of Popery, with many other circum
stances, — ^kept alive the hopes of the Roman Catholics that Eng
land, one of the fairest gems in the tiara, would yet be brought
back to hs allegiance, and be numbered among the jewels of
the Papal See.
Even the civU wars and their results did not altogether extin
guish these hopes. The emissaries of Rome were active through
out their entire duration, and were considered as soraetiraes
having a hand in the events which took place. Though Baxter
certainly was credulous, we can scarcely conceive that he had no
authority for asserting what he often did — that Roraish priests
assuraed the guise of sectaries, appeared zealous in sowing dissen
sions, and propagating wUd and extravagant opinions. His notions
of the extent to whicli this prevaUed, were probably exaggerated ;
but it was quite to the purpose of the CathoUcs to act in this
manner : as the mol-e furious the fanaticism of Protestants, the

OF RICHAUD BAXTER. 213
more would the necessity for an infaUible head appear, and the
sooner would the country be hkely to become tired of its apos
tacy. " However this may have been, Baxter felt it to be his
duty, both as a Christian and a Protestant, to oppose stre
nuously a system which he regarded as most ungodly in its
pretensions, and most injurious in its influence to the interests
of liberty, of sound moraUty, and of religion. To take this
ground, and to appear in the front rank of the advocates of
Protestantism, and ofthe adversaries ofthe Romish fahh, were
with Baxter one act.
He accordingly published, in 1657, 'The Safe Religion, or
Three Disputations for the Reformed Catholic Religion against
Popery;' in which he endeavors to prove that Popery is
against the Holy Scriptures, against the unity of the catholic
church, the consent of the ancient doctors, the plainest reason,
and the comraon judgment of sense itself. The object of tbe
first dissertation is, to prove that the religion of Protestants is
safe ; of the second, that Popery is unsafe ; and of the third,
that the manner in which Popery is sustained in arguraent by a
claim to infalUbility, is subversive of the faith. It is dedicated
to the " Literate Romanists," and is on the whole an able ex
posure and refutation of the system of Popery, to which I am
not aware that any answer was ever made.
As that was a considerable volume, and better adapted to the
learned than to the unlearned, he published in the same year,
' A Winding-sheet for Popery,' comprising, within a few pages,
the raost appropriate arguments against the whole systera. This
was weU fitted for popular reading and general circulation ;
which also reraained unanswered.
His next work, though smaU, and but Uttie of it on the subject
of Popery, forras part of a very angry controversy, in which he
became involved, with several persons of considerable note. In
his work on ' Universal Concord,' pubUshed in the early part of
(a) The opinion that Catholic Priests were employed as disguised Puritans, or
sowers of division, is not peculiar to Baxter. Sir W. Boswell, in a letter to Arch
bishop Laud, dated from the Hague, in the year 1640, informs him that above six
ty Romish Clergymen had gone, within two years, from France, to preach the
Scotch covenant and the rules of that kirk, and to spread the same about the
northern coasts of England ; and that their great object was to effect the ruin of
English Episcopacy.— l/sAcr's Life, Appendix, p. 27. Bramhall, bishop of Derry,
in 1654, assures Archbishop Usher that, in the year 1646, by order from Rome,
above a hundred of the Romish clergy were sent into England, consisting of En
glish, Scotch, and Irish, who had been educated in France, Italy, Germany.and
Spain. These, he says, were mostly soldiers in the army of the Parliament. Even
in 1654, he affirms that there were many priests at Paris preparing to be sent over,
who held meetings twice a week, in which they opposed one another, sorae pre
tending to be for Presbytery, others for Independency, and others for Anabaptisni.
That their qualifications for the woik in which they were to engage, were judged
of by the leamed superiors of some of the convents ; thatthe parties were enter
ed in the registers of their respective orders, but with different names, which
they were to use and change as circumstances might require ; and that they kept
up a regular correspondence with their fraternities abroad, — Usher, p. 611,

214 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
1658, he had thought it his duty to warn sorae who appeared to
be prosecuting the design of Grotius and Cassander, to re
concile the Protestant churches to the see of Rorae, on certain
abateraents being made by that see to the principles or preju
dices of Protestants. The insinuation that Grotius was a con
cealed Papist, and that others were engaged in a similar plan,
excited very strong eraotions in the breast of Dr. Sanderson
and Dr. Thoraas Peirce. The latter, in a work entitied ' The
Self-revenger exeraplified,' directed against Mr. Barlee, deraand
ed from Baxter a plainer acconnt of Grotius, and his followers.
This Baxter was not unwiUing to give hira. But we raust hear
his own account of this controversy.
" Peirce's principal business," he says, " was to defend
Grotius. In answer to which I wrote a little treatise, caUed
' The Grotian Religion discovered,' in which I cited his own
words, especiaUy out of his ' Discussio Apologetici Rivetiani,'
where he openeth his terras of reconcUiation with Rorae, viz.,
that U be acknowledged the mistress church, and the Pope have
his supreme government ; not arbitrary, but only according to
the canons. To which end he defendeth the Council of Trent
itself, Pope Pius's oath, and all the councils ; which is no other
than the French sort of Popery. I had not then beard of the
book written in France called ' Grotius Papizans,' nor of ' Sar-
ravius's Epistles,' in which he witnesseth it from his own mouth.
But the very words whicli I cited, contain an open profession of
Popery. " In a preface before this book, T vindicated the Synod of
Dort from the abusive, virulent accusations of one that called
himself Tilenus, junior. Thereupon, Peirce wrote a ranch raore
raUing, malicious volume than the forraer; the liveliest irapress
of Satan's iraage, raaUgnity, bloody malice, and falsehood, co
vered in handsome, raUing rhetoric, that ever I have seen frora
any that called himself a Protestant. The preface was an
swered just in the same raanner, by one who styled himself
Philo-Tilenus. Three such raen as this TUenus, junior, Peirce,
and Gunning, I have not heard of besides in England : of the
Jesuits' opinion in doctrinals, and of the old Dorainican com
plexity, yet the ablest men that their party hath in all the land ;
of great diUgence in study and reading ; of exceUent oratory,
especially Tilenus, junior, and Peirce ; and of temperate lives.
But all their parts are so sharpened with a furious, persecuting
zeal against those that dislike Arminianism, high prelacy, or fuU
conformity, that they are alike the briers and thorns, which are
not to be touched, but by a fenced band. They breathe out
threatenings against God's servants, better thau theraselves,
and seem unsatisfied with blood and ruin, but stiU cry, « Give,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 215
give ; bidding as loud defiance to Christian charity, as ever
Arius, or any heretic, did to faith.
" This book of mine, of the Grotian religion, greatly offended
raany others, but none of them could speak any sense against
it ; the citations, for matter of fact, being unanswerable. And
it was only tbe matter of fact which I undertook to prove, viz.,
that Grotius professed himself a raoderate Papist ; but for his
fault in so doing, 1 little meddled with it." '¦
Such is Baxter's own account of this controversy, which
related as much in its progress to Ai-minianism, as to Grotius
and Popery. The religion of Grotius raust have been of a
very equivocal kind, for as raany sects seem to have contended
for him, as cities about the birth of Homer. The fact is, he
mixed too much in the political world not to be seriously
injured by it. He speculated about union, and falsely imagined
that it might be practicable to effect some agreement between
the Catholics and Protestants, on principles in which neither
party would agree. He was not a Papist in the technical sense
of the term, but he endeavored to give an orthodox interpre
tation to some of the doctrines of Popery, and objected to sorae
of the charges preferred by Protestants against the church of
Rorae ; which, with his disposition to corapromise, led the Pro
testants to look at him with great jealousy. °
Baxter's opinion of Grotius, notwithstanding these views of
his sentiraents, which were probably raore influenced by political
than religious considerations, stood very high. He was in every
respect a distinguished raan — his learning, his talents, his love
of liberty, his araiable dispositions, must make his raemory dear
to all who are capable of estimating his virtue and acquirements.
TUenus, junior, was a fictitious narae, assumed by Bishop
Womack, in his attacks upon Calvinism and the Puritans. ''
' The Exaraination of TUenus before the Triers,, in order to his

1^1

b) Life, part i. p. 113.
(c) Lord Lauderdale says, in one of his letters to Baxter, '' I have read your
reply to Peirce, in which you fully satisfy me that Grotius was a Papist. I was
acquainted with Grotius at Paris. He was then ambassador for Sweden, in the
year 1637 ; and though I was then very young, some visits passed between us.
My discourse with him was only on humanity j but I remember well he was then
esteemed such a Papist as you call a Cassandrian, and so  did esteera him,
who was a priest — the owner of that great library now printed in his name. With
him I was also acquainted. He was a great admirer of Grotius, and esteemed
among his principal friends.'' — Baxter MSS.
(d) Daniel Tilenus was professor of divinity at Sedan, and, in the early part of
his life, a Calvinist He afterwards adopted the sentiments of the Remonstrants,
and took part, both in their opposition to Calvinism, and in their sufferings on ac
count of it. Among other things, he wrote ' Canones Synodi DordracenEe, cum
notis et animadversionibus,' &c. A tract of his appeared in English, under the
title of ' The Doctrine of the Synods of Dort and Alez brought to the Proof of
Practice,' &c. 1629. On thisfoundation Womack appears to have adopted his de
signation of Tilenus, junior, and to have constructed his pamphlet, ' The Exami
nation of Tilenus.' Womack was a very decided Arminian, and thoroughly ac
quainted with the writers of the Dutch school. He died bishop of St. David's,
in 1683.

216 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
intended settiement in tbe ofiice of a public Preacher in the Com-
raonweakh of Utopia,' is a keen sarcastic paraphlet which ap
peared in 1658, » intended to expose the conduct ofthe Triers,
and the sentiments which they held. It describes a trial ofthis
said Tilenus, before a jury consisting of Messrs. Absolute, Fa
tality, Preterition, Fryable, Dararaan, Narrow-Grace, alias
Stint-Grace, Efficax, Indefectible, Confidence, Dubious, Mean-
well, Simulans, Take-o-trust, Know-littie, and Impertinent.
The leading characters of tbe day are said to have been intro
duced under these fictitious naraes ; Narrow-Grace being sup
posed to be designed for Philip Nye, and Dr. Dubious for Rich
ard Baxter. I'here is a good deal of severe huraor, as might
be expected, in the book, besides a vast portion of misrepresen
tation and caricature.
' The Grotian Religion' brought forward Womack a second
time in his ' Arcana Dogmatum Anti-reraonstrantiura ; or, the
Calvinist's Cabinet unlocked, in an apology for Tilenus, against
a pretended vindication of the Synod of Dort, at the provocation
of Mr. Richard Baxter, held forth in the Preface to his Grotian
Religion.' 1659. 8yo. This is a grand attack on the doctrines
of the synod of Dort, and on Baxter, as holding substantially
those doctrines, from which it is very evident that the author
never supposed Baxter would be suspected of Arminianisra. TUe
nus is one of the stoutest and acutest adversaries with whom
Baxter had to contend. He was well acquainted with the whole
range of the Arminian controversy, and had exarained every
syUable of Baxter's wiitings; frora which he did not faU to ex
tract passages, the explaining or reconciUng of which must have
tried even the metaphysical acuteness of Baxter. It does not ap
pear from any thing which Baxter wrote, that he knew Bishop
Womack to be the author of these performances.
Peirce's reply, of which Baxter speaks so severely, was 'The
New Discoverer discovered ; by way of Answer to Baxter's
pretended Discovery of the Grotian Religion, with the several
subjects contained therein.' 1658. 4to. The quarrel between
them was kept up to a very distant period ; and the personal
feelings of Peirce were discovered in a manner not the most cre
ditable to himself. Indeed, the high-church Arrainian clergy
generally appear to have been greatly annoyed by this trifling
tract of Baxter's. An expression in the preface where he refers
to Peter Heylin's raode of describing the Puritans, led to a
lengthened correspondence with that bigoted and interaperate
polemic. This correspondence HeyUn published with a very
characteristic title : ' The Letter Combat managed by Peter
Heylin, D. D., with Mr. Baxter of Kidderminster, Dr. Bernard
(e) This pamphlet is republished by Mr. Nichols in his 'Calvinism and Armi
nianism Compared.'

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 217
of Gray's Inn, Mr. Hickman of Mag. CoL Ox. &c.' 1659. Svo.
That the party to which Baxter was' opposed, were justiy re
garded by him as leaning to Popery, is evident from a single
sentence in Heylin's last letter : " So far, I assure you, I am
of tiie reUgion of Hugh Grotius, that I wish as heartily as he
did, that the breaches in the walls of Jerusalem were well
closed up ; that the Puritans, subraitting to the church of
England, and the church of England being reconcUed with the
church of Rome, we might unite and centre in those sacred
truths, those undeniable principles and established doctrines,
which have been universally received in the church of Christ,
and in which all parties do agree." This is only one araong
many proofs of the strong feeUng which prevaUed among the
high-church clergy towards the church of Rome. ^
Many years afterwards, a posthuraous work was published,
entitied, 'Bishop Bramhall's Vindication of himself and the
Episcopal Clergy from the Presbyterian charge of Popery, as it
is managed by Mr. Baxter in his ' Treatise of the Grotian Reli
gion.' 1672. 12mo. Brarahall and his coadjutors had so much
ofthe Popery of Protestantism about them, as tobe justly liable
to the charge which Baxter and others preferred against them.
Of this book, Baxter says :
" He passeth over the express words of Grotius, which I had
cited, which undoubtedly prove what I said : yea, though I had
since largely Englished thera, and recited them in the second
part of my ' Key for Catholics,' wuh a fuU confirmation of my
proofs. And he feigneth me to make hira a Grotian, and con
federate in his design ; whereas I not only had no such word,
but had expressly excepted him by name, as imputing no
such thing to him. Before the book was a long preface of Mr.
Parker's, most vehement against Dr. Owen, and somewhat
against myself. To which Andrew Marvel, a parliament man,
burgess for Hull, did publish an answer so exceeding jocu
lar, as thereby procured abundance of readers, and pardon to
the author. Because I perceived that the design of Bishop
Bramhall's book was for the uniting of Christendom under the
old patriarchs of the Roman imperial church, and so under the
Pope, as the Westem Patriarch, and Principium Unitatis, I
had thought the design, and this publication, looked danger
ously, and therefore began to write an answer to it. But Mr.
Simraons, my bookseller, carae to me, and told rae, that Roger
L'Estrange, the overseer of the printers, had sent for him, and told
(f) ' A Review of the Certamen Epistolare betwixt Dr. Heylin and IVIr. Hick-
maii ' was published in a small volume in 1659, under the fictitious name of The
ophilus Churchman. It is called by the writer himself a Joco-seria review ofthe
counter-scuffle 5 the object of which is chiefly to vindicate the English reform
ers from being Arminians, which Heylin had wished to make them. It is clevei-
ly written, and gives some hard blows to Dr. Heylin.
VOL. II. 28

218 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
him, that he heard I was answering Bishop BramhaU, and swore
to him most vehementiy, that if I did it, he would ruin him and
me, and perhaps my life should be brought in question. I per
ceived the bookseller durst not print it ; and so I was fain to
cast it by, which I the easier did, because the main scope of aU
the book was fully answered long before, in the foresaid second
part of my ' Key for CathoUcs.' " ^
We must now return from this Grotian digression to the con
troversy. Baxter's next work in this department, is the ' Key
for CathoUcs.' 1659. 4to. The object of this work was to ex
pose the jugghng of the Jesuits ; to satisfy those who were
willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or the
Reforraed churches is of God : and to leave the reader utterly
inexcusable who should afterwards continue a Papist. The
first part of it contains an exposure of forty frauds or deceptions
practised by the Popish party ; the second part is an attempt
to show that the Catholic church is not a political body, headed
by an earthly sovereign ; and that such a unity as this would
imply, is not to be desired. Here he again encounters Grotius
and Peirce, on both of whora he makes sorae sharp remarks.
The following is his account of this work and its reception :
" In this treatise, proving that the blood of the king is not
by Papists to be charged upon Protestants, I plainly hazarded
my life against the powers that then were, and grievously in
censed Sir H. Vane. Yet Mr. J.' N. was so tender of the Papists'
intetest, that having before been offended with me for a petition
against Popery, he spake against it on the bench : and his displea
sure being increased by this book, he took occasion, after the king
came in, to write against me for those very passages which con
demned the king-killers. Because, comparing the case with the
doctrine and practice of the Papists, I showed that the Sectarians
and CromweUians had of the two a more plausible pretence, he
confuted these pretences of theirs, as if they had been my own ;
thereby making the world beUeve that I wrote for the king's
death, in the very pages where, to the hazard of my Ufe, I wrote
against it ; while he himself took the engagement against the
kmg and the House of Lords, was a justice under Oliver, and
more than this, signed orders for the sequestering of others of
the king's party. But the great indignation against this book and
the former, is, that they were, by epistles, directed to Richard
CroraweU, as lord protector, which I did only to provoke him
that had power, to use fr well, when the ParUament had sworn
fidelity to him ; and that without any word of approbation of his
title." •>
(g) Life, part iii. p. 102.
(h) Life, parti, p. 118. Baxter omitted the dedication to Richard Cromwell,
in his second edition of the ' Key,' and substituted in its place one to the Duke

OF RICHARD BiVXTER. 219
The next work by Baxter on this controversy, the ' Succes
sive Visibility ofthe Church,' 1660, 12mo, canie out under very
peculiar circurastances ; for an account of which I again avaU
myself of his own statement : " When I was at Kidderminster,
in 1659, one Mr. Langhorn, a furrier in Walbrook, sent me a
sheet of paper, subscribed by WUUam Johnson, containing an
argument against our church, for want of perpetual visibility ;
or, that none but the church of Rome, and those in communion
with it, had been successively visible ; casting all on his op
ponent, to prove our church's constant visibility. He that sent
this paper desired me to answer it, as for some friends of his
who were unsatisfied. I sent him an answer the next day after
I received it. To this, some weeks after, I received a reply.
This reply cited many fathers and councUs, and, as the custom
is, brought the controversy into tiie wood of church history.
To this I drew up a large rejoinder, and sent it by the carrier.
Though I was not rich enough to keep an amanuensis, and had
not leisure myself to transcribe it ; yet, as it well happened, I
had got a friend to write me a copy of my rejoinder : for it fell
out that the carrier lost the copy which 1 gave him to carry to
London, and professed that he never knew what became of it.
And no wonder, when I after learned that my antagonist lived
within five or six mUes of me, whom I supposed to have lived
one hundred and fifty mUes off. When I expected an answer,
I received, a month after, an insulting challenge of a speedy
answer, and this seconded with another ; all calling for haste.
I suppose he thought I had kept no copy ; but as soon as I
could get it transcribed I sent it him : and I heard no more of
Mr. Johnson for a twelvemonth. When I was in London, I
went to Mr. Langhorn, and desired him to procure me an
answer to my papers from Mr. Johnson, or that I might know
that I should have none. At last, he told rae that Mr. Johnson
would come and speak with me himself, which he did, and
would have put off aU the business with a few words, but
would promise rae no answer. At last, by Mr. Tillotson, I
was informed that his true name was Terret ; that he lived m
the house of a certain nobleman, near our parts ; that, being
much in London, he was there the chief hector, or great dis
puter, for the Papists ; and that he was the chief of the two
men who had held and printed the dispute with Dr. Pearson
and Dr. Gunning. When I saw what advantage he had got
by printing that dispute, I resolved that he should not do so by
of Lauderdale ; not perhaps the happiest choice which he might have made of a
patron. He declares, in the dedication to Lauderdale, that he never saw the
face of Richard, nor ever had a word from him ; and that his sole motive in ad
dressing him was to stir him up to do good.
(i) Afterwards Archbishop Tillotson.

220 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
me, and so I printed all our papers. But before I printed them,
I urged hira to sorae further conference ; and at our next meet
ing I told him how necessary it was that we should agree
first on tba meaning of our terms. So I wrote dovm some
kw, as church, pope, council, bishop, heresy, schism, which
I desired him to explain to me under his hand, proraising him
the like whenever he desired it ; which, when I had got from
him, I gave him some animadversions on it, showing their im
plications ; to which he answered, and to that I replied. When
he came no more to me, nor gave me any answer, I printed all
together ; which made him think it necessary, at last, to write a
confutation ; whereto I have since pubUshed a full rejoinder, to
which I can procure no answer." *
The volume accordingly contains the first papers which
passed between Johnson and Baxter ; an appendix, in which he
gives an account to Johnson, how far heretics are, or are not, in
the church ; Johnson's explanation of the most usual terms in
the controversy, with Baxter's aniraadversions ; a paper on suc
cessive ordination ; and some letters which passed between Bax
ter and Thomas Sraith, a Papist, with a narrative of the success.
This Johnson appears to have perverted frora the truth Lady
Anne Lindsey, daughter of the countess of Balcarras, who era
ployed Baxter to endeavor to reclaim her. He tried it accor
dingly, but without effect. She made her escape from her
mother, and went to France, where she died in a nunnery, a
few years afterwards. '
In 1663, a pamphlet appeared with Baxter's name, called
' Fair Warning : or Twenty-five Reasons against Toleration and
Indulgence of Popery.' For my knowledge of this tract I am
indebted to the invaluable work of Hallam on the British
Constitution, never having seen any copy of it myself. He
says, it is a pleasant specimen of the argumentum ab inferno.
" Seeing there is but one safe way to salvation, do you think
that the Protestant way is that way, or is it not ? If it be not,
why do you live in it ? If it be, how can you find in your heart
to give your subjects Uberty to go another way ? Can you, in
your conscience, give them leave to go on in that course, in which
in your conscience you think you could not be saved ?" Hallam
adds, after making this quotation, '* Baxter does not mention
this Uttle book in his Life ; nor does he there speak violently
about the toleration of Romanists." "
His next work in this controversy is, ' The Difference between
the Power of Magistrates and Church Pastors, and the Roman
Kingdom and Magistracy, under the name of a Church and
Church Governraent usurped by the Pope,' or liberaUy given him
(k) Life, part ii. pp. 218, 219. (1) Ibid. pp. 219—228.
(m) Hallam'a Constitutional Hist., vol. ii. p. 476.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 221
by Popish Princes.' 1671. 4to. This pamphlet consists of two
letters addressed to Lewis Molinajus, M. D., the author of several
books on the Romish conti-oversy : and which had drawn Baxter's
attention to the subject. His account of this book is curious.
" Ludovicus Molineus was vehementiy set upon the crying
down of tiie papal and prelatical government, that he thought
it was the work he was sent into the world for, to convince
princes that aU government was in theraselves, and that no proper
governraent, but only persuasion, belonged to the churches. To
this end he wrote his ' Paraenesis contra .S^dificatiores ImperU
in Imperio,' his ' Papa Ultrajectinus,' and other tractates ;
which he thrust on me, to make me of his mind. At last he
wrote his ' JugiUum Causae,' with no less than seventy episties
before it, directed to princes, and men of interest, araong whom
he was pleased to put one to me. The good man meant rightly
in the main, but had not a head sufiiciently accurate for such a
controversy, and so could not perceive that any thing could be
caUed properly government, that was no way coactive by cor
poral penalties. To turn him from the Erastian extreme, and
end that controversy by a reconcihation, I published an hun
dred propositions concUiatory, and of the difference between the
magistrate's power and the pastor's." "
He pubUshed, in 1672, 'The Certainty of Christianity with
out Popery ; or, whether the Catholic-Protestant or the Papist
have the surer faith.' Svo. This pamphlet, he tells us, was
designed to meet the repeated challenges of the Papists, and
to direct the unskilful how to defend their faith against them
and against infidels also. To both descriptions of persons, he
informs us in his Life, the work proved useful. The connexion
between Popery and infidelity, or the tendency ofthe former to
produce the latter, is closer than many persons suppose. To be
lieve too much, may prove as dangerous as to beUeve too little.
Faith without evidence, is credulity ; a state of mind not more
congenial to the influence of genuine religion, than unbeUef itself.
A system which wages war with the established principles of moral
evidence, by requiring man to prostrate his understanding to the
dictation of uninspired authority, and to act in opposition to the
conviction of his senses, prepares him for believing any thing,
however monstrous, and for rejecting any thing, however evident
and true. In this way, Popery lays the foundation of infidelity ;
and enables us to account for the extraordinary fact, that in
the countries where it has been longest and most firmly es
tablished, the greatest numbers of unbelievers have been found.
The abetters of the system have been fond of maintaining that
the overthrow of Popery must be the ruin of Christianity ; which
(n) Life, part iii. p, 85.

222 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
is all one with holding, that the subversion of a system of lying
and imposition, must necessarily prove the ruin of truth and
moral honesty.
' Full and Easy Satisfaction, which is the True and Safe Re
ligion,' appeared in 1674, 8vo, along with the second edition of
his ' Key for Catholics.' It is a dialogue between a doubter, a
Papist, and a reformed Catholic Christian ; and consists of four
parts, in which he treats of the nature of the difference between
the parties, justifies the Protestant, enuraerates charges against
the Roraan Catholic, and insists particularly on the wickedness
and absurdity of the doctrine of transubstantiation. It is de
dicated to his grace the Duke of Lauderdale, his raajesty's
coraraissioner, and principal secretary for the kingdom of Scot
land. Of this circumstance, and of the duke himself, he fur
nishes us with the following account.
"In the preface to the first impression, I had mentioned vdth
praise the Earl of Lauderdale, as then prisoner by CroraweU in
Windsor Castie, from whom I had many pious and learned
letters, and who had so much read over all my books, that
he remembered them better, as I thought, than I did myself.
Had I now left out that mention of him, it would have seemed
an injurious recantation of my kindness ; and to mention him
now a duke, as then a prisoner, was unmeet. The king used
him as his special counsellor and favorite. The parliament
had set themselves against him. He still professed great kind
ness to rae, and I had reason to believe it was without dis-
sembluig. Because he was accounted by all to be rather a too
rough adversary, than a flatterer of one so low as I ; and be
cause he spake the same for rae behind ray back, that he did to
my face. I had then a new piece against transubstantiation
to add to my book, and, being desirous it should be read, I
thought best to join it with the other, and prefix before both an
epistle to the duke ; in which I said not a word of him but the
truth : and I did it the rather, that his name raight cause some
great ones to read, at least that epistie, if not the short additional
tractate, in which I thought I said enough to open the shame
of Popery. But the indignation men had against the duke,
made sorae blame me, as keeping up the reputation of one whom
multitudes thought very iU of; whereas I named none of his
faults, and did nothing 1 could weU avoid, for the aforesaid rea
sons. Long after this, he professed his kindness to me, and told
me I should never want while he was able, and humbly en
treated me to accept twenty guineas from him, which I did." °
(o] Life, part iii. p. 180. Baxter, in his dedication, speaks of the duke's ex
tensive acquaintance with his writings, and of the reliance which he placed on
his judgment. He was not the only man of learning who treated Lauderdale in
this manner. Spanheim dedicates to him and Usher the third part of his ' Du-
bia Evangelica,' and speaks, though Lauderdale was then very young, of his
"judicium supra aetatem maturum, verum omnium cognitione subactum pectus."

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 223 ,
The correspondence with Lauderdale, to which Baxter here
refers, still exists, and is certainly very honorable to the cha
racter and talents of Lauderdale. His attachment, which he
expresses in the warmest terms, to Baxter, appears to have been
very sincere, as he not only translated passages from books for
the use of Baxter, while he was a prisoner, and otherwise evinc
ed his friendship for hira, but when his fortunes afterwards
changed, and he rose to erainence in the state, he continued to
remember and befriend him. Yet it is irapossible to think of
the character of Lauderdale with respect. Like many other
men, he shone in adversity, but was corrupted by prosperity.
In the ' Morning Exercises against Popery,' preached by the
leading Nonconformist ministers about London, in the year
1675 ; Baxter dehvered a discourse on ' Christ, not the Pope,
the Universal Head of the Church.' These sermons were deli
vered in Southwark ; and when it is mentioned that araong the
preachers were such raen as Poole, Jenkyns, Vincent, Clarkson,
Annesley, and Baxter, the abiUty with which the various subjects
is discussed wiU at once be understood. The volume, contain
ing the ' Discourses against Popery,' embraces the leading points
in controversy between Catholics and Protestants, and abounds
with learning and information. Considering the character of
these discourses, and the state of the tiraes when they were
delivered, they afford strong proof of the decision and boldness
by which the preachers were distinguished.
In the sarae year, 1675, he published ' Select Arguraents
against Popery,' which I have not seen, and cannot therefore
judge whether they are original, or only a selection, in the form
of a tract, of some of his reasonings in his other publications.
I suspect they are the latter.
The appearance of a book, caUed, ' A Rational Discourse of
Transubstantiation, in a Letter to a Person of Honor from a
Master of Arts of the University of Cambridge,' led him to
produce, in 1676, ' Roman Tradition examined, in the point of
Transubstantiation.' 4to. The author of the work, to which
this is an answer, was understood to be Mr. W. Hutchinson, of
Lincolnshire, who wrote also ' Catholic Naked Truth, or the
Puritan Convert to ApostoUcal Christianity;' in answer to
which, Baxter wrote his ' Naked Popery ; or, the Naked False
hood of a book caUed the Catholic Naked Truth ; ' p which
(p) The title of Hutchinson's alias Berry's, book, which led to the corres
ponding title of Baxter's reply, appears to have been suggested by a work of Bish
op Croft's, which was published shortly before that time, and occasioned a con
siderable sensation — ' The Naked Truth ; or, the True State of the Primitive
Church.' 1675. 4to. It is a moderate book, intended to heal the divisions which
then prevailed in the kingdom, and to reconcile the Church and the Noncon
formists to each other. It was acceptable to the latter, but not to the high-church
party. Dr. Turner attacked it in ' Animadversions on Waked Truth,' which led
to a defence of it from the pen of Andrew Marvell, under the title of 'Mr.

224 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
appeared in the same volume witii his Roman Tradition, in
1677. Hutchinson was the son of pious Protestant parents,
but forsook the faith hi which he had been nurtured. In one
of the above works, he defends the reasonableness of U-ansub-
stantiation, the most unreasonable of aU irapositions ; and m the
otiber, his object is to prove, tiiat the Conformists were men of
no conscience or religion ; but that aU smcere reUgion was witii
the Papist and Puritans : tiius endeavoring to flatter the latter,
as if the two parties were equaUy influenced by conscientious
principles. Baxter effectually exposed both his productions;
but though he did this, and afterwards became acquainted with
the author, he never could get him to reply.
In 1679, he pubUshed a treatise, which may be regai-ded as
the continuation of his controversy with Johnson, ' Which is
the True Church, the whole Christian World as headed by
Christ, or the Pope and his subjects?' 4to. This he consi
dered a full answer to hi.) antagonist, who wisely aUowed the
controversy to drop.
Among the high-church party, whom Baxter considered in
clined to Popery, were Mr. Henry Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock.
With the former he had entered into a very long personal cor
respondence ; and from the latter, as has been stated in another
place, he received very shameful ti-eatment. Dodwell was a
learned and araiable man, who held principles so nearly aUied
to Popery about the sacraments, ministry, and several other
points of religion, as to .require very nice discernment to per
ceive any important difference between him and moderate
Roman Catholics. He held that there is no true ministry,
church, sacraments, or covenant right to pardon and salvation,
but through a ministry ordained by bishops, in regular and un
interrupted succession from the aposties. In his large book,
entitied ' Separation of Churches from the Episcopal Govern
ment, as practised by the present Nonconformists, proved
Schismatical,' 1679, 4to, he endeavors to estabhsh these senti
ments, and to fix die guilt of schism, and hence, on his principles,
exclusion from salvation, upon the Nonconformist, and by im-
pUcation on the reformed churches. He was greatiy indignant
Smirke ; or, the Divine in Mode.' ' Lex Talionis ; or, the Author of Naked
Truth stripped Naked,' was the production of Philip Fell, one of the fellows of
Eton College. ' A modest Survey of the most considerable Things in Naked
Truth,' was ascribed to Bishop Burnet. 'A Second Part of Naked Trutii,' was
published in I68I, in folio, by Edmund Hickeringhill. of Colchester, a sort of im
itation of the first. A third and fourth parts were written by otiier pens. These
led to ' The Catholic Naked Truth ' of Hutchinson ; to ' The Naked Popery ' of
Baxter ; and to ' Naked Truth needs no Shift,' by William Penn, the Quaker. So
much for the influence of a title in producing imitation on a subject to which all
parties lay claim, and which it is so easy to accommodate to the purpose of all !
A more modest title, however, might have been found by grave bishops, and less
greedily imitated by solemn Quakers, and stern Presbyterians.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 225
at Baxter's insinuations of his Popish leanings, in the third part
of his book on ' Universal Concord,' where Baxter comments
severely on his views of schism. " There is lately," he says,
" come out of Ireland, a young ordained student of Trinity
College, Dublin, to propagate tiiis and such-like doctrines in
London. To which end he hath lately written a large and
wordy volume, as if it were only against tiie Nonconformists ;
which being new, and the most audacious and confident at
tempt that ever I knew made against tiie reformed churches
by one that saith himself he is no Papist, and being the most
elaborate enforcement of the Papists' grand arguraent, on
which of late they build thefr cause, 1 think it needful not to
pass it by."i
DodweU's offence at being thus classed with Papists, induced
Baxter, at last, to publish a correspondence which had formerly
taken place between them, in ' An Answer to Mr. Dodwell, confut
ing an Universal Human Church Supremacy, Aristocratical and
Monarchical, as Church Tyranny and Popery.' 1681, 4to. With
this he conjoined, ' An Account of bis Dissent from Dr. Sherlock,
his Doctrine, Accusations, and Argumentation.' With this he
also unites his dissent from the French, from Bishop Gunning,
and his chaplain, Dr. SayweU, Mr. Thorndike, Bishop Bram
haU, Bishop Sparrow, Sec.
DodweU repUed to Baxter's Pretended Confutation of his
former work ; with Three Letters formerly vyritten to him, by
Mr. Baxter, in 1673, concerning the PossibUity of DiscipUne
under a Diocesan Government.' 1681. To which Baxter re
joined, in his ' Answer to Mr. DodweU's Letter, caUing for more
Answers.' 16S2. 4to. He calls DodweU's system, " Leviathan ;
or, Absolute Destructive Prelacy, the son of Abaddon, ApoUy-
on, and not of Jesus Christ."
To enter minutely into the subject of these volumes now, would
answer no valuable purpose. It is partly personal, partiy re
lating to the Nonconformist controversy, and partiy to those
popish views which were held by the class of persons referred
to. There is no proper halting place between high-church
principles and those of Rome. A system identifying man's
authority with God's laying clahn to apostoUc authority, and
(q) ' Universal Concord,' part iii. p. 74. Archbishop Tillotson said of Dodwell
and Baxter, '* that they were uuch alike in their tempers and opinions in one re
spect, though they were widely opposed to each other in their tenets ; both of
them loved to abound in their own sense 5 could by no means be brought ofi" their
own apprehensions and thoughts, but would have them to be the rule and stand
ard for all other men."— Birch's Life of TiUotson, p. 401. The Life of Dodwell,
by Brokesby, gives some account of his controversy with Baxter, and affords a
singular illustration of the extent to which a man may possess learning without
judgment, and piety ^dthout discernment. He had the literature of a Scaliger in
the head of a child. He protested, however, against being considered a friend
to Popery. VOL. II. 29

226 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
connecting God's salvation with the ministry of man, modified
in whatever way, is essentially popish and anti-Christian in its
character and claims. The parties holding it may be more or
less entided to respect as men of learning or of piety, but
resistance of their doctrines is binding on aU who value the
principles of our common Protestantism and our common
Christianity. '
Of a similar nature to the works just mentioned, is another
production of our indefatigable author, ' Against RevoU to a
Foreign Jurisdiction, which would be to England its Perjury,
Church ruin, and Slavery.' 1691. Svo. This work, though much
of it had been written long before, was not published, as ap
pears from its date, tiU near the end of his life. He dedicates it
to his ' reverend and desired friend,' Dr. John Tillotson, then
dean of St. Paul's, whom he earnestly entreats to present it to
the next convocation, to induce it, if possible, to make a public
renunciation of a foreign jurisdiction, and to discountenance the
books which were written in its favor. It is not probable that
Tillotson complied with this request. Some of the historical
information contained in the work, of the attempts which had
been raade, at various times, to bring England under the juris
diction of Rome, is curious, and clearly shows that the fears and
jealousies of Baxter and his friends, were not without cause.
It may be considered as Baxter's final answer to Peirce, Heylin,
BramhaU, Haramond, Sparrow, Parker, DodweU, Thorndike,
Sherlock, &c., and furnishes a key to many of the differences,
both civU and religious, which had occurred in the kingdom.
There is one chapter where he gives a suraraary view of the
attempts to introduce, at least, a species of episcopal Popery
and arbitrary government into this country, from the time of
Elizabeth, of the successful resistance it experienced, and of the
final result ; which I should have been glad to quote, had my
limits perpiitted. It begins at page 332.
' The Protestant Religion Truly Stated and Justified,' is a
posthumous publication, which appeared shortly after his death,
with a preface by Dr. WiUiams and Mr. Sylvester, though the
work had been given to the printer by Baxter himself finished,
before they saw it. This may be regarded as Baxter's legacy
on the subject of Popery. It is a small 12mo volume ; but
contains, in fifty-two short sections, a summary of the whole
controversy, in answer to a work which had appeared a short
time before his death, entitled ' The Touchstone of the Re-
(r) Much of the correspondence between DodweU and Baxter was friendly,
and a great deal still remains unpublished. There is one letter from DodweU to
Baxter still preserved among the MSS. of the latter, in twenty closely-written
folio pages, full of the leaming for which Dodwell was distinguished.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 227
formed Gospel.' At the conclusion there is a singular prayer,
which I quote, as probably the last Baxter wrote for the press.
" From tbe serpent's seed, and his deceiving subtle Ues ;
from Cain and his successors, and the malignant, blood-thirsty
enemies of Abel's faithful acceptable worship ; from such a
worldly-and-fleshly sacred generation as take gain for godliness,
raake their worldly carnal interest the standard of their re
ligion, and their proud domination to pass for the kingdom of
Christ; from an usurping vice-Christ, whose ambition is so
boundless, as to extend to the prophetical, priestly, and kingly
headship, over all the earth, even to the antipodes, and to that
which is proper to God himself, and our Redeemer ; from a
leprous sect, which condemneth the far greatest part of all
Christ's church on earth, and separateth from them, calhng
itself the whole and only church ; from that church which
decreeth destruction, to aU that renounce not all human sense,
by beUeving that bread is not bread, nor that wine is not wine,
but Christ's very flesh and blood, who now hath properly no
flesh and blood, but a spiritual body — that decreeth the excom-
mtmication, deposition, and damnation, of all princes who will
not exterminate all such, and absolveth their subjects from their
oath of allegiance; from that beast whose mark is per, joerjury,
perfidiousness, and persecution, and that thinketh it doeth God
acceptable service, by killing his servants, or torraenting them ;
from tbat reUgion which feedeth on Christ's flesh, by sacrific
ing those that he calleth his flesh and bones ; frora the infernal
dragon, the father of lies, raalice, and murder, and all his rain
isters and kingdom of darkness — Good Lord make haste to de
liver thy flock, confirm their faith, hope, patience ; and their
joyful desire of the great, true, final, glorious deliverance. Amen,
Amen, Araen ! "
I have corapressed within as narrow Umits as possible the
account of Baxter's writings on the Popish controversy ; yet the
reader wiU perceive even frora this iraperfect review, how deeply
he entered into the subject. He left no one point in the exten
sive field it embraces untouched ; and has supplied among his
various works a complete library on Popery. Much extraneous
raatter is indeed to be found, and raany topics are labored with
tiresome prolixity ; but this would not be felt at the time they
were written so much as now. The subject was then deeply
interesting ; the fates of religion and of the kingdom trembled on
the success or faUure of the opposition to the Roman faith ; so
that all who felt for the happiness of men, and the liberty of
their country, would read with avidity whatever was written in
their defence.
It required no small measure of courage to occupy a prorai
nent place on the Protestant side of this controversy, especially

228 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
during the latter years of Charles II. and the reign of James.
The principles of the court, and the leanings of the high-church
clergy, were all in favor of Rome ; so that every man who
opposed it, was marked as an eneray, and would certainly have
been selected as a victira on the re-establishraent of papal
authority in England. Such a foe as Baxter, however, was
not to be deterred by the apprehension of future danger. He
had fully counted the cost when he entered the field ; and should
he have fallen in it whUe fighting in his Master's cause, he
would have regarded it as a distinguished honor.
The writings of Baxter alone, show how unjust is the reproach
that has soraetiraes been thrown on Protestant dissenters ;
that when the interests of Protestantisra were exposed to ira-
minent danger, they stood aloof, aUowing the champions of
the church of England to fight aU its batties. The leading
Nonconformists aU took part in this controversy with Rome, as
far as could be expected from raen in their circumstances. But
it would be unreasonable to look for the same efforts from
persons deprived of their means of living, often separated from
books, destitute of the means of procuring them, as from persons
who were in possession of the dignified leisure and profusion of
assistance, afforded by a wealthy establishment. But even under
aU these disadvantages, none of the dignified clergy wrote so,
voluminously, and few of them wrote so well on this subject, as
Richard Baxter.

CHAPTER IX.

WORKS ON ANTINOMIANISM.

The Nature of Antinomianism — Its Appearance at the Reformation — Originated in Popery —
Origin in England — The Sentiments of Crisp — Baxter's early Hostility to it — The chief Sub
ject of his ' Confession of Faith ' — Dr. Fowler — Baxter's ' Holiness, the Design of Christian
ity ' — ' Appeal to the Li^ht ' — * Treatise of Justifyinff Righteousness ' — Publication of Crisp's
Vvorks — Controversy which ensued — Baxter's ' Scripture Gospel Defended '—The Influence of
his Writings and Preaching on Antinomianism — Leading Errors of the System.
An inspired apostle, speaking of the law of God, declares
that " it is holy, just, and good." It is a manifestation of the
moral purity of the divine character, a statement of the relations
which subsist between God and his creatures, with a view of the
equitable claims to homage and obedience which those relations
iraply. WhUe its every requirement breathes the perfect be-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 220
nevolence of its Author, the whole tends to promote the hap
piness of those who obey it.
Antinomianisra is enraity to this law ; hatred of its purity, op
position to its justice, or suspicion of its benevolence. In this
naked form of the matter, it is scarcely probable that there is
under the profession of religion, a single Antinomian in the
world. The sanity of that individual would be justly question
able who should maintain principles so incompatible with the
comraon sense ofraankind, and obviously subversive ofthe moral
order of the universe.
The fact, however, is undoubted, that many persons have
adopted views of the religion of Christ which virtually iraply
a renunciation of regard to the divine law, and tend to the
entire subversion of its authority. If in their own practice
there is not a violation of its precepts, they are careful it should
be understood that their conduct is not indebted to the law for
regulation or purity, and that they deny its clairas to any au
thority over thera. They assert the freedora of behevers in
Christ, from the canon as well as frora the curse of the law ;
and that ifthey do what is required, it is not because it is there
enjoined, or because there is any longer danger of its penalty,
but because grace secures provision for hohness, and raakes the
believer complete in Christ.
These views are aUeged to be essential to the glory of the
Gospel, to exalt the grace of Christ, and to be essentially ne
cessary to Christian peace and comfort. Other sentiments
are proscribed as legal, or anti-evangeUcal, expressive of low
views of the Saviour, indicative of a state of bondage and
servUity of spirit, and mconsistent with Christian confidence
and Uberty. The parties are thus at issue on first prin
ciples. They occupy no comraon ground. The Scriptures
are in vain appealed to, a large portion of them being vir-
tuaUy abrogated, and a system of interpretation adopted set
ting at defiance all rules, and destructive of aU enlightened
deductions. It is worthy of attention that sentiments of the above descrip
tion were associated at an early period with the Protestant
Reforraation. Agricola, one of the friends and coadjutors of
Luther, publicly avowed opinions respecting the law, which
Luther found it necessary to resist and expose. He perceived
the tendency of such views, not only to bring reproach on the
principles of the Reforraation, but to open the flood-gates of
impiety, and subvert the grace of Christ itself; which his vain,
unsteady, and ill-taught associate, pretended greatiy to honor.
The zeal and enlightened efforts of Luther, however, though
they counteracted, could not altogether eradicate the evil prin-

230 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
ciples which were then disseminated, and in some quarters
carried to the utraost excess of riot and profligacy.
To account for this, it is not sufficient to refer to the de
pravity of huraan nature, and a tendency to abuse the- best
things. Reference to the doctrines of the papal church, and to
the prodigious revolution that took place in the minds of men,
on the most iraportant subjects, when the Ught of truth first
burst in upon thera, wUl enable us to solve in a satisfactory
manner an apparentiy difficult problem, and to throw the dis
grace of Antinomianism, — the opprobrium of Protestantism, on
Popery itself.
Under tiiat horrid system of delusion and unrighteousness,
salvation is regarded as alraost exclusively a human transaction,
in which the Deity has a reraote coricern, but which must be, in
a great measure, affected by man for himself, or in co-operation
with his fellow mortals. The doctrines of the merit of good
works, of the efficacy of penance, of the sacrifice of the mass
offered by priestly hands, ofthe intercession of saints, and ofthe
purification of purgatory, aU tended to create the idea that re
demption from sin and frora wrath, with the cure of all the evils
of our nature, belongs to man himself, anti that the Almighty
interferes in it only as he is acted upon by his creatures. On
God's part no room is left for the exercise of grace ; aU is ob
tained as matter of rightful claim, or dxtorted by a system of
barter and iraportunity. On the part of man, while the system
seems to bring salvation within his own power, it really de
prives him of every satisfactory hope of obtaining it. It either
puffs him up with pride and self-conceit, derived from erro
neous notions of his own virtues, or depresses him with despair
of accomplishing his object by his own feeble and unaided
efforts. The law (but the law degraded, obscured, and per
verted) is the only part of religion recognised by Popery.
The German Reformer discovered at an early period of his
career this grand flaw, the origo mali, of the whole S3''stem, or
mystery of iniquity. It had put God out of his own place in
the adrainistration of the world ; had seated a usurper on his
throne, and made man himself that usurper. In the econoray of
redenlptiortVLutlier discovered that God, and not the creature, is
the main worker ; that grace, not equity, is the great principle of
the divine conduct towards *fallen creatures ; that by the deeds
of the law, no flesh can be justified before God : and hence, that
salvation by faith, not by works, is the grand subject of Chris
tianity. The doctrine of gratuitous justification, he, therefore,
contended i for, as the leading truth of the Gospel. As the
ground of hope, he opposed it to every system of self-righteous
ness, to all supposed conforraity to God's own law, and to every
accommodation of that law to human imperfection. He regarded

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 231
salvation as tiiat which could not be purchased by human merit,
or secured as the reward of any service or suffering ofmen.
So much iraportance did Luther attach to this doctrine, that
he not only viewed it as the articulus stantis et cadentis ec-
clesicE ; he hiraself looked at the law witii something like
suspicion of its being unfriendly to the grace of Christ. Jea
lousy for the honor of the main principle of his system, led
hira frequently to employ language about the law, unguarded
and dangerous in its tendency ; and to speak both of Jaraes
and his epistle, as if he considered thera inimical to his senti
ments. Notwithstanding this, the general views of Luther
were too enlightened and scriptural to consist with any ira
portant or practical error. He took care to obviate the in
ferences men might draw from some of his statements, by ex
planations, or caveats, that sufficiently mark the limits within
which they must be understood.
Considering the number who adopted the Protestant doctrine
of justification by faitb, it would have been strange had they all
made a judicious use of it. Unfortunately, some of those who
received it with apparent joy, could see no other doctrine in the
Bible. Convinced of the hopelessness of justification by the
law ; delivered frora hs bondage and terror, as well as from
the bondage of the superinduced yoke of. ceremonies, under
which they had long groaned ; they could think of nothing
but of grace, liberty, and confidence. Frora a systera which
had almost excluded God from any connexion with man's sal
vation, they passed to one which seemed to leave nothing for
man but to contemplate and admire. Beholding a perfect
righteousness by which freedom frora guilt is secured to tbe
believer, entirely independent of hiniself, they forgot that there
is a righteousness of a personal character indispensable to the
enjoyraent of God, which cannot be performed by proxy, or
obtained by substitution. From hearing only the voice of
a task master, who goaded them on by the terror of punish
ment, they contracted a dislike to the very language of pre
cept, and experienced a feeling of horror at the idea of punish
ment, or its threatening. Frora considering salvation as what
must be accomplished entirely by raan and in hira, they adopted
a view of it which divests it of all connexion with his personal
character and feelings. In their rainds, it became the solution
of a moral problem, rather than a raoral cure ; a sentiraent to
deUght the understanding, more than a medicine to reUeve the
heart. Such appears to me to have been the process of the early
Protestant Antinomianisra. In proportion to the strength
of passion, and the weakness of understanding, belonging to
those who received the reformed faith, these imperfect and

232 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
erroneous views were found to prevail ; till, in many cases, the
worst abominations of Popery were grafted on a Protestant
creed. To the operation of causes somewhat similar, the Antinomian
isra of raodern tiraes raay frequently be ascribed. It is often the
revulsion frora a previous state of self-righteousness and formal
ity to such a professed adrairation of grace, as makes the party
either seera to be indifferent to the obligations and clairas of rao
rality, or to teach what tends to their utter subversion. Dr. Crisp,
the founder of EngUsh Antinoraianisra, is an iUustration of this.
He was originally a low Arrainian, who held the merit of good
works, and looked for salvation more from his own doings, than
frora the work and grace of a Redeeraer. Having been led to see
the evil and folly of these sentiments, and being a man of a weak
and confused raind, he not only abandoned the errors ofhis for
raer course, but at once passed to the opposite extreme of that
course, and taught the grossest errors in the very grossest form.
Yet the man was neither licentious himself, nor disposed to
promote licentiousness in others. His professed object was to
exalt the Saviour, even when he employed language most de
grading to his character.
What can be more injurious to all right conceptions of God's
moral administration, and of what is due to the adorable Re
deeraer, than the following representation ? though after all it is
nothing raore than a raistaken raode of representing the doctrine
of iraputation. Crisp confounds a transfer of consequences
with a corarautation of persons, and is thus guilty of the absurd
ity of converting Christ into a sinner. " It is iniquity itself,"
he says, " as well as the punishraent of iniquity, that the Lord
laid upon Christ ; he bare the sins of raen, as well as he was
wounded for their sins. The Lord hath laid this iniquity on
him ; he makes a real transaction ; Christ stands as very a sin
ner in God's eyes as the reprobate, though not as the actor of
these transgressions ; yet as he was the surety, the debt became
as really his as it was the principals' before it became the sure
ty's."^ On the same absurd plan he reasons respecting God's views
of the sins of his people before they beUeve, confounding all
our notions of good and evil. " The Lord hath no more to lay
to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of iniquity,
and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abominations
that can be coraraitted — I say even then, when an elect person
runs such a course, the Lord hath no more to lay to that per
son's charge, than God hath to lay to the charge of a believer ;
(s) Works, vol. ii. pp. 261, 262.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 233
nay, God hath no more to lay to the charge of such a person
than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory. '
By the sarae effectual process he gets rid of aU their sins
after they do believe. " Give me a beUever that hath set his
footing truly in Christ ; and he blasphemes Christ, that dares
serve a writ of damnation upon that person. Suppose a be
Uever overtaken in a gross sin, it is a desperate thing in any
man so much as to serve a writ of damnation upon this believer ;
it is absolutely to frustrate and make void the Mediatorship
and Saviourship of Christ, to say any believer, though he be fall
en by infirmity, is in the estate of daranation. And I say unto
thee thyself, whoever thou art, thou that art ready to charge
damnation upon thyself, when thou art overtaken, thou dost the
greatest injury to the Lord Jesus Christ that can be, for in it
thou dfrectly overthrowest the fulness of the grace of Christ, and
the fulness of the satisfaction of Christ to the Father." "
He raaintains that the law has nothing to do with the trans
gressions of such persons, even of the grossest kind, and thus
prepares an opiate for the utraost profligacy, under the Christian
name. " Suppose a member of Christ, a freeraan of Christ,
should happen to fall, not only by a failing or slip, but also by
a gross failing, a heavy faUing, nay, a scandalous faUing into
sin ; Christ making a person free, doth disannul, frustrate, and
make void, every curse and sentence that is in the law, against
such a transgressor ; that this member of Christ is no more
under the curse when he hath transgressed, than he was before
he transgressed. This I say, Christ hath conveyed hira beyond
the reach of the curse ; it concerns him no more than if he had
not transgressed. Therefore, let rae teU you in a word, if ye be
freemen of Christ, you may esteera all the curses of the law,
as no raore concerning you, than the laws of England do con
cern Spain, or the laws of Turkey an Englishraan, with whom
they have nothing to do. I do not say the law is absolutely
abohshed, but it is abolished in respect of the curse of it; to
every person that is a freeman of Christ. So, tiiough such a
man do sin, the law hath no more to say to him, than if he
had not sinned." ^
In consistency with these principles, he maintains that sanc
tification, though connected with justification, is no part of the
believer's way to heaven ; and that inherent qualifications, or the
state of the character, are doubtful evidences of the Christian's
hope. In short, he confounds the divine eternal purpose of
mercy with its actual application ; compassion for the sins of
men, with coraplacency in the sinner hiraself ; the renunciation
(t) Works, vol. ii. p. 272. (u) Ibid. vol. i. p. 36.
(x) Ibid. p. 243—245.
VOL. II. 30

234 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
of the law as the principle of justification, with its abolition as
an eternal rule of righteousness ; Christ with the believer, and
the beUever with Christ. All this is done with a great show of
piety, and high-sounding pretensions to extraordinary zeal for
the honor of the Saviour.
His writings abound with the ultraism of grace, and a luscious-
ness in speaking about it, which is often ludicrous and disgust
ing. Of which let the following serve as a speciraen : " Christ
is a way, as the ceUars of wine are unto drunkards, that are
never better than when they are at their cups ; and therefore no
place like the cellar, where is fulness of wine, always to be
tippling and drinking : I say, Christ is such a way, and let me
not be offensive to say so, for the church speaks in the same
language (Canticles U. 4, 5,) ' He brought me (sahh she) into
his wine cellar : stay me with flagons, corafort rae with apples,
for I ara sick of love.' Beloved, Christ hath such variety of
delicates served in continually, and such sweetness in this
variety, that the soul is no longer satisfied than it is with Christ.
Here is not staying with cups, much less with half cups, but
staying with whole flagons ; there is a kind of inebriating,
whereby Christ doth, in a spiritual sense, make the believers
that keep him company spiritually drunk ; he overcomes them
with his wine."y
Truly, the whole of this monstrous representation seeras raore
Uke the sportings of a reveUer than the production of Chris
tian intelligence and sobriety. I have entered into this detaU,
to enable the reader to understand the kind of Antinoraianisra
against which Baxter waged determined war. Dr. Crisp died
in 1643. He published nothing during his lifetirae; but shortly
after his death, three voluraes of serraons, from which the
above extracts are taken, were published by some of his ad
mirers. He appears to have had a number of foUowers : seve
ral persons in the ministry also imbibed and taught his senti
raents ; and the excUeraent of the civil wars raatured and ex
panded every forra of heresy and extravagance which hap
pened to faU or to be thrown on the fertUe soil of England.
_"In ray Confession," says Baxter, "I opened the whole doc
trine of Antinomianism which I opposed ; and I brought the
testimonies of abundance of our divines, who gave as much to
other acts, besides faith in justification, as I. I opened the
weakness of Dr. Owen's reasonings for justification before
faith, in his forraer answer to me. To which he wrote an an
swer, annexing fr to his confutation of Biddle and the Craco-
vian catechism, to intimate that I belonged to that party, so
that I thought it unfit to make any reply to it.
{y) VoL i. pp. 103, 104.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 235
" But for all the wrhings and wrath of men which were pro
voked against rae, I must here record my thanks to God for the
success of my controversial writings against the Antinomians.
When I was in the army, it was the predominant infection.
The books of Dr. Crisp, Paul Hobson, Saltmarsh, Cradock,
and abundance such-Uke, were the writings most applauded ;
and he was thought no spiritual Christian, but a legalist, that
savored not of Antinomianisra, which was sugared with the
titie of free grace. Others were thought to preach the law,
and not to preach Christ ; and I confess the darkness of many
preachers, in the raysteries of the Gospel, and our comraon
neglect of studying and preaching grace, and gratitude, and
love, did give occasion to the prevalency of this sect, which
God, no doubt, permitted for our good to renew our apprehen
sion of those evangelical graces and duties which we barely
acknowledged, and in our practice almost overlooked. But this
sect that then so much prevaUed, becarae so suddenly alraost ex
tinct, that now they little appear, and make no noise at aU, nor
have done these many years. In which effect, those ungrateful
controversial writings of ray own have had so rauch band, as
obligeth rae to very rauch thankfulness to God." ^
I have already noticed Baxter's ' Aphorisms,' ' Apology,'
and ' Confession of Faith,' in treating of bis doctrinal writ
ings ; but as they have all, especially the last, connexion with
the Antinomian controversy, it is necessary to advert to some
of them again. In his ' Confession,' he goes most fully into the
subject, and shows that he had studied it raost profoundly. His
reference to Owen, in the passage of his Life just quoted, is
painful, as are all bis references to that erainent raan. Owen
was not always correct in his phraseology on doctrinal subjects ;
but it is quite unnecessary to say he was neither an Antinoraian,
nor a high Calvinist in the raodern sense of that expression.
Baxter was prejudiced at his name, and therefore looked at all
his writings with jealousy and dislike. The other persons to
whom he refers were of different classes. Saltmarsh wasa mys
tic and a fanatic, who sported the wUdest and most incoherent
rhapsodies. ^ Hobson was a mUitary captain, and a Baptist
preacher. Cradock, and Vavasor Powell, whora also Baxter
elsewhere represents as an Antinomian, were both, I beUeve,
(z) Life,part i. p. 3.
(a) Of Saltmarsh, Crandon, who supported his principles, and attacked Baxter,
says, " I have been told by some of his godly acquaintance, that the man had
a natural impotency, or craziness in his brain. And the whirlwind of imarina-
tions wherewith he was carried to a hasty taking up of opinions, and no less hurl
ing away of them again; the much of the top, and the little of the bottom, of
wit ; the flashes of nimbleness, and the want of solidity and depth in his wri
tings; his inconsistency with himself, with others, with the Scriptures; his ex
trerae mutability, and wandering from topic to topic, without settledness any
where, in great measure prove the report to be true." — Crandon against Baxter's
Aphorisms, p. 138.

236 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
very excellent and laborious preachers in Wales, who had noth •
ing beyond a tincture of high Calvinism in their sentiments.
After noticing what he considered the tendency of the opin
ions he opposes, and what he knew of their actual effects,
he presents, in the following adrairable passage, a view of his
own feelings and resolutions, in reference to the controversy.
" These reasons having excited my zeal against this sect,
above many others, I have accordingly judged it my duty to
bend myself against them in all my writings, especially when I
saw how greedily multitudes of poor souls did take the bait,
and how exceedingly the writings and preachings of Saltmarsh
and many of his feUows did take with them. Upon this, I
perceive the men that, in any measure, go that way, are engaged
against me ; and how to appease thera I know not. I would
as wiUingly know the truth as some of them, if I could. Sure
I am I have as much reason. My soul should be as precious to
rae. Christ should be as ranch valued ; grace should be as
much magnified ; self should be as much denied. I am as
deeply beholden to Christ and free grace as most poor sinners
in the world : and should I vilify or wrong the form an opi
nion, or I know not what ! Every man that is drawn from
Christ is drawn by some contrary prevaling interest. What
interest should draw me to think raeanly of my Saviour or his
free grace ? For free reraission alone, without any condition,
or an eternal justification, I do not perceive but that my very
carnal part would fain have it to be true. I have flesh as weU
as they ; and if I am able to discern the pleadings or inclinations
of that flesh, it runs their way, in contradiction to the spirit.
The Lord knows I have as littie reason to extol my own right
eousness, or place my confidence in works and merits, as
other men have. I must truly say, the Lord holdeth my sins
much raore before raine eyes, than ray good works. The one
are raountains to rae, the other I can scarce tell whether I may
own, in propriety, without many cautions and limitations. I
have therefore no carnal interests of my own tbat I can possi
bly discover, to lead rae against the way of these raen, or engage
me to contend against thera. Yet I am not able to forbear.
I confess I ara an irreconcilable eneray to their doctrines, and
so let them take rae. I had as lief tell them so as hide it.
The more I pray God to illuminate me in these things, the
more I ara animated against thera. The raore I search after
the truth in my studies, the more I dislike thera ; the more I
read their own books, the more do I see the vanity of their
conceits : but, above aU, when I do but open the Bible, I can
seldom raeet with a leaf that is not against them." *
(a) Confession, pp. 3, i.

OF UlCHARD BAXTER. 237
The most valuable part of the Confession is the statement in
paraUel columns, of the doctrines of Antinomianisra and of Po
pery, in the two extreraes, with what Baxter regarded as the truth
placed between them. It is drawn up whh great care, and is
only necessary to be perused to satisfy the reader on which side
the truth really lies. Not that I approve of all his own repre
sentations, they are generally too verbose, often too technical,
and sometiraes erroneous. But, on the whole, they contain a
valuable stateraent of iraportant truth, and clearly prove that
Baxter was not only orthodox, but strictly evangelical. He is
chiefly objectionable when he speaks of the interest of repent
ance and good works in our justification, as weU as faith. His
phraseology is unscriptural, and calculated to mislead ; but
when he comes to explain it, it raeans nothing raore than that
men cannot come to the kingdom of heaven without repent
ance and obedience, which are always the accorapaniments of
genuine faith.
The next performance of Baxter, that has reference to this
controversy, is a small tract, which I shall introduce to the
reader by the foUowing extract from his Life.
" Dr. Edward Fowler, a very ingenious, sober Conformist,
wrote two books, one, ' An Apology for the Latitudinarians,' as
they were then caUed ; the other entitled, ' Holiness the Design
of Christianity,' in which he sometiraes put in the word only
which gave offence ; and the book seeraed to some to have a scan
dalous design to obscure the glory of free justification, under pre
tence of extolUng holiness as the only design of raan's redemption.
Tbis occasioned a few sheets of mine on the said book and
question, for reconcUiation, and clearing up of the point ; which,
when Mr. Fowler saw, he wrote to tell me that he was of ray
judgment, only he had delivered that more generally which
I opened more particularly ; and that the word was only hyper-
bolicaUy spoken, as I had said. But he spake feelingly against
those quarrelsome men that are readier to censure than to un
derstand. I returned him some advice, to take heed lest their
weakness and censoriousness should make him too angry and
impatient with religious people, as the prelates are ; and so to
run into greater sin than theirs, by favoring a looser party
because they are less censorious. To which he returned me so
ingenuous and hearty thanks, for as great kindness as ever was
showed him ; which told me that free and friendly counsel to
vdse and good men is not lost.'"'
The treatise of Dr. Fowler, who was afterwards bishop of
Gloucester, is on an iraportant subject, and it is managed, on
the whole, with considerable abUity. The fuU title of fr is, ' The
(b) Life, part iii. p. 35.

238 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Design sf Christianity ; or, a plain demonstration and improye-
ment of this proposition, That the enduing raen with inward,
real righteousness, or true holiness, was the ultiraate end of our
Saviour's coraing into the world, and is the great intendment
ofthe blessed Gospel.' 1671. Svo.
The work of Fowler had no intentional reference to the An
tinoraian controversy, though the subject belongs to the very
essence of it ; and the treatise contains much that could be
turned to profitable account in that discussion. Baxter's tract
was not designed as an answer to, but rather as a corroboration
of Fowler's book, and to point out its bearing in tbis con
troversy. It is entitled, ' How far Holiness is the Design of
Christianity ; where the nature of holiness and raorality is
opened, and the doctrine of justification, imputation of sin, and
righteousness, partly cleared, and vindicated frora abuse. In
certain propositions returned to an unknown person, referring
to Mr. Fowler's treatise on this subject.' 1671. 4to. There is
nothing in the body of tbe pamphlet which requires particular
notice ; but the conclusion of it is worthy of being quoted.
" Undoubtedly, holiness is the hfe and beauty of the soul.
The spirit of holiness is Christ's agent to do his work in us, and
our pledge, and earnest, and first fruit of heaven ; it is Christ's
work, and subordinately comes to cleanse us from aU filthiness
of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Christ,
tbe Spirit, the Word, the ministry, raercies, afilictions, and all
things, are to bring home our hearts to God, and to work to
gether for our good, by making us partakers of his holiness.
Our holiness is our love of God, who is raost holy ; and our
love of God, and reception of his love, are our heaven and ever
lasting happiness ; where, having no raore sin to be forgiven,
but being presented without spot or wrinkle to God, we shall
forever both magnify the Larab that hath redeeraed us and
washed us frora aU our sins in his blood, and made us kings and
priests to God ; and shall also, with all the holy society, sing.
Holy, holy, holy, to the blessed Jehovah, who is, and was, and
is to come, to whora all the heavenly host shall give this special
part of praise forever." ¦=
A sermon preached by Baxter at the Pinner's HaU Tuesday
raorning lecture, contained sorae remarks on the Antinoraians,
or those whora he considered such, which gave great offence.
This was rather frequentiy the case with regard to him whUe
preaching in London. His dislike to the Independents, whom
he was fond of representing as Antinoraians, led hira to use
language that was considered to convey personal reflections
on some of their most approved ministers, which, as might have
(c) 'Holiness, the Design of Christianity,' pp. 21,22.

OF RICHARD B/VXTER. 239
been expected, was resented by their friends. The consequence
ofthis kind of bickering was the separation of the two parlies
in that joint lecture. In tbe following paragraph of his Life,
speaking ofthe transactions ofthe year 1674, he says :
" Having preached at Pinner's HaU for love and jieace, divers
false reports went current among the Separatists, and from them
to other Nonconforraists, that I preached against the iraputation
of Christ's righteousness, and for justification by our own right
eousness, and that the Papists and Protestants differ but in
words, &;c. So that I was constrained to [lublish the truth of
the case in a sheet of paper, caUed ' An Appeal to the Light,'
which, though it evinced the falsehoods of their reports, and no
one raan did ever after justify them that ever I could hear of,
yet did they persevere in their general accusation, and I had
letters from several counties stating tbat the London accusers had
written to them, that I had, both in the sermon and in that paper
caUed ' An Appeal to the Light,' done raore to strengthen
Popery, than ever was done by any Papist. This was the re
ward of all my labors, from the separating Independents.""^
Whether by an Independent or not, I cannot teU, but this
appeal of Baxter's was answered imraediately in a veTy smart
and brief paraphlet : ' Aniraadversions on a sheet of Mr.
Baxter's, entitled, 'An Appeal to the Light ;' for the further
Caution of his Credulous Readers.' Oxford. 1675. 4to. The
author of this tract shows that Baxter had roundly charged
persons with Antinoraianisra, to whom it did not belong ; and
that his own explanations of the subject of justification were by
no means satisfactory. Both these positions, it must be acknow
ledged, are correct. Many of those of whora he spoke, were
decided Calvinists, high rather than moderate ; but who were
grossly misrepresented when classed araong Antinoraians. Such
men as Owen, Tully, Bagshaw, Bunyan, ought not to have been
ranked with Saltmarsh, Hobson, and others of that stamp.
Baxter often injured his own cause by his injudicious raanner of
advocating it. Though soraetiraes he states the doctrine of jus
tification very weU, in general he beclouds it with his distinctions
and definitions ; so that no one who understands it will prefer
his explanations of this doctrine to those of the writers whora he
opposes. In the collection of pieces which Baxter published in 1676,
under the general titie of ' A Treatise of Justifying Right
eousness,' to which reference has already been made in the
chapter on his doctrinal works, Antinomianisra is the chief
object of his attention. The first book, which treats of im
puted righteousness, and the reply to Dr. TuUy's letter, enters
{d) Life, part iii. p. 164.

240 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
very fully into the history and merits of the controversy. To
the discussion with Tully, or the debate in which that writer
had long engaged with BuU, it is unnecessary further to advert
in this place. Those who wish to enter largely into the subject
raust consuh Nelson's ' Life of Bishop Bull,' where it is stated
with great fairness and candor. In Baxter's treatise, the
chief things of iraportance are his historical view of the pro
gress of the Antinoraian controversy, with the account of his
own connexion with it ; and a few passages, in which he very
accurately explains the nature of that connexion which sub
sists between Christ and his people, in virtue of which they
enjoy the benefits of his rederaption. In some of these para
graphs he states the doctrine of imputation in such a way as
raust coraraend itself to every enlightened mind, and so as com
pletely exposes the absurdity of imputed sanctification. With
no less propriety he states the moral or analogical sense, in which
the Scriptures speak of Christ's righteousness as the property of
his people. Had he and others always spoken in the intel
ligible and scriptural manner, on this important subject, which is
done in sorae parts of this volume, how much good might have
been effected, and what a quantity of useless debate and alterca
tion would have been prevented ! The unnatural strain and con
struction which have been put on the language of Scripture,
on several points in this controversy, have created great con
fusion, and have been attended with raany injurious conse
quences. The ignorance and weakness of sorae, occasion
raisconceptions of Scripture phraseology, which the technical
language and wire-drawn distinctions of men of superior minds
often tend to increase rather than to remove.
Almost at the very close of his life, and ^.Aier he judged An
tinomianism in a great measure to have been destroyed, Baxter
was roused to the re-consideration of the subject, in conse
quence of the re-publication of Dr. Crisp's works, by his son,
Samuel Crisp. To this edition was prefixed a document, sub
scribed with twelve names of London dissenting ministers,
among whora were Messrs. Howe, Griffiths, Cockain, Chauncy,
Alsop, and Mather. Considering the nature of Crisp's sen
tiraents, and the outrageous language which he employs in
his serraons, it is deeply to be regretted that such men had any
thing to do with the publication. They do not, however, re
coraraend or approve the sentiments, but declare their belief
that the discourses as pubhshed, with additions, by his son,
really were Dr. Crisp's.
This pubhcation very nearly occasioned a controversy between
Baxter and Howe, who was one of the subscribers ofthe attesta
tion. Baxter was exceedingly displeased that the doctrines of
Crisp should appear, even in the slightest degree, to be counte-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 241
nanced by such persons. He drew up a paper, therefore, with
some warmth, against a practice vvhich he thought had a very
prenicious tendency. Mr. Howe, waiting on him, prevailed
with him to stop it before it was published and dispersed, upon
his promising to prefix a declaration, with reference to the
names before Dr. Crisp's sermons (which declaration, also,
should have several naraes to it,) to a book of Mr. Flavel's,
then going to press, entitied, ' A Blow at the Root ; or, the
Causes and Cure of Mental Errors.' This was accordingly
done; yet raany remained dissatisfied. °
Though this prevented a personal discussion with Howe, it
did not keep Baxter frora engaging in the general controversy.
In the preface by Samuel Crisp, the editor, Baxter considered
hiraself attacked, though he was not named, and therefore felt
that he was called once raore to contend for the fahh delivered
to the saints. He was thus led to publish ' The Scripture Gospel
Defended, and Christ, Grace, and free Justification Vindicated,
against the Libertines.' 1690. 8vo. This work is divided into
two books. The first is, ' A Breviate of Fifty Controversies
about Justification.' The second is, ' A Dialogue between an
Orthodox Zealot and Reconciling Monitor, written on the Re
viving of the Errors, and the Reprinting and Reception, of Dr.
Crisp's Writings,' &;c. In this second book, he describes a
hundred of their errors. He then endeavors to moderate
men's censure of their persons ; and, thirdly, assigns reasons
for not replying to them more at large.
Baxter saw only the commencement of the controversy re
specting Crisp's sentiraents, which agitated and consuraed the
dissenters for more than seven years after he had gone to his
rest. He was succeeded by his friend Dr. AVilliams, who took
the lead in the discussion in support of the doctrines of what
raay be called raoderate Calvinism ; and who, after incredible
exertion, and no smaU portion of suffering, finally succeeded in
clearing the ground of the Antmomians : scarcely any of them
being left among the reputed dissenting ministers of the metro
polis at the beginning of the last century. The best account
of this controversy, both as carried on in the church and
among the dissenters, for it was not confined to one party, is
given by Nelson, in his ' Life of Bishop Bull,' to which I beg to
refer the reader who feels interested in its further details. I
confine myself to a few additional observations on Baxter's
connexion with it.
(e) Calamy's Own Life, vol. i. pp. 322, 323. The paper prefixed to Flavel's
Treatise is subscribed by seven out of the twelve who had prefixed their names
to the former attestation. In this paper they entirely disclaim' any intention to
approve of Crisp's doctrine, and declare they were merely called to attest the
son's integrity as the publisher of his father's manuscripts.
VOL. II. 31

242 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
I do not regard his controversial writings, as having ren
dered any very essential service in this discussion. He has, in
deed, stated hiraself to be of a different opinion ; and it was
natural he should think so, considering how much he wrote on
the subject. But two things which he did in this controversy
greatly impaired his influence. He placed individuals and opi
nions under the charge of Antinomianism that ought not to
have been thus treated. By this means he divided the true
friends of that very cause which he espoused, and created addi
tional labor to hiraself; besides excking those feelings of per
sonal irritation of which he so frequently complains.
In the next place, his own system of doctrine, in which he
spoke so rauch of terras and conditions, and of the interest of
repentance and good works in justification, was not well calcu
lated to soften down the prejudices of the libertines whom he
opposed. Many of them had good views of the freeness of
grace, so far as that one position goes, and were not to be
satisfied with a raode of treating the subject more objection
able than even the stricter Calvinism, to which they objected as
not sufficiently high for them. If they mystified justification
and imputation in one way, Baxter did it in another ; so that
the scriptural scholar wUl probably object to the explanations
of both parties ; though he wUl feel convinced that Baxter's
views, when stripped of the verbiage with which they are
clothed, were much nearer the truth than those of his oppo
nents, and much less calculated to injure the souls of men.
But though his controversial writings effected Uttle, his prac
tical works and preaching effected a great deal in this con
troversy. In these, without directly entering the lists with
Antinomians, and probably without thinking of them, he as
sailed the strong holds of their systera, and deraolished thera to
the ground. A better reraedy for any one attached to their mis
taken views could not, perhaps, be prescribed than a course of
Baxterian reading. If the influence of Baxter's spirit should
be imbibed, the cure would be certain.
One of the great evils of the system consists in grossly in
correct notions ofthe nature of the law of God. From these
arise iraperfect ideas of huraan responsibihty, with which are
necessarily connected inadequate impressions of guUt, and of the
evil nature of sin. On all these subjects Baxter's views were
most enhghtened ; and they were expressed with a power of elo
quence scarcely equaUed in human writings. He always speaks
of the law of God Uke a raan who weU understood its spiritual
character and its unquestionable claims. He pronounces on its
authority, not as a matter sub judice, or which adraitted of dis
pute ; but which had its evidence in itself, and its answer in every
mans's conscience. Sin was, in his view, not a thing of speculation,

OF RICHAUD BAXTER. 243
which men required to be convinced of by argument, but mat
ter of fact, not to be denied or explained away by the sinner.
He arraigns him before the bar of God ; he drags him to Sinai ;
he pours upon his ear the denunciation of offended Heaven :
leaving hira no plea to urge, no ground to stand on, without
repairing to Calvary and the cross.
If the forte of some preachers and writers be the coraforting
of the broken-hearted, and that of others the buUding up of
behevers, the strength of Baxter lay in convincing raen of sin.
Man's responsibUity for the powers and privileges which he
enjoys, is urged by no writer with such fulness and force as
it is by hira. He had the deepest sense of this responsibility
hiraself, and was thus, as weU as by other considerations, in
duced to place it in the raost powerful raanner before others.
High Calvinism, or Antinomianism, absolutely withers and de
stroys the consciousness of responsibUity. It confounds moral
with natural impotency, forgetting that the former is a crirae,
the latter but a misfortune ; and thus treats the man dead in
trespasses and sins, as if he were already in his grave. It pro
phesies smooth things to the sinner going on in his transgres
sions, and soothes to slumber and the repose of death the souls
of such as are at ease in Zion. It assuraes that, because men
can neither believe, repent, nor pray acceptably, unless aided
by the grace of God, it is useless to call upon them to do
so. It maintains that the Gospel is only intended for elect
sinners, and therefore it ought to be preached to none but such.
In defiance, therefore, of the coramand of God, it refuses to
preach the glad tidings of raercy to every sinner. In opposition
to Scripture and to every rational consideration, it contends that
it is not raan's duty to believe the truth of God ; justifying the
obvious inference, that it is not a sin to reject it. In short, its
whole tendency is to produce an impression on the sinner's
mind, that if he is not saved, it is not his fault, but God's ; that
if he is condemned, it is more for the glory of the divine sove
reignty, than as the punishment of his guilt.
1 am not acquainted with any direct process of argument by
which such persons are Ukely to be cured. Their judgments are
commonly as weak, as their understandings are perverted and
obstinate. They reason in a circle, which it is a vain endeavor
to break. They dwell on the figurative language of Scripture,
which they apply in the raost Uteral sense ; refusing to be sub
ject to any laws or canons of interpretation. In such cases, the
best raode of proceeding is, perhaps, that wbich Baxter pursued
in his general preaching — to treat such men as sinners laboring
under the influence of that deceitful depravity, which assumes
this with a thousand other forms, for the destruction of its sub
ject. Baxter contributed greatly to introduce this awakening

244 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
and powerful style of preaching ; and thus did raore to prevent
and counteract Antinomianisra, than by aU his controversial
writings. Another fatal error of this system, respects the great design
ofthe Gospel itself. That this should be mistaken, considering
the clearness of the discovery to us, and the importance of our
understanding that discovery, raay appear surprising; but the
fact is undoubted. The grand object of the Gospel is the re
deraption of sinners. That rederaption necessarily includes aU
that belongs to the condition of the lost and ruined party. It
finds man guilty, and provides for hira pardon : it finds hira de
praved, or raorally diseased, and it provides a cure. It is de
signed to comprehend his body, soul, and spirit, and to secure
their interests forever. The blood of Christ, the great sacri
fice for sin, is raade the basis of the proclaraation of Heaven's
forgiveness to all that believe ; and the application of the same
blood by which the pardon is secured, by the power of the
divine Spirit, is raade to cleanse the soul frora all its irapurity.
The grand loss which raan has sustained by sin, is the moral
image of the Creator. His nature has thus been robbed of its
highest glory, and deprived of its chief enjoyment. Mere for
giveness raight save frora punishraent, but could not render the
sinner like God, or capable of beholding his resplendent face
in righteousness. In order to this, the divine nature must be
again restored ; God must once more breathe into his nostrils
the breath of life, and form him again according to his own
likeness in knowledge and in true holiness.
It may be said, therefore, with the greatest propriety, that
men are forgiven that they may be sanctified ; they are par
doned that they may be renewed. " HoUness," says Baxter,
" doubtiess is that higher blessing which forgiveness tendeth to,
as a raeans to the end : even that God raay have his own again,
which was lost, and man raay again be nearer and liker to God ;
fitter to know, love, and honor hira, and be happy therein."
This conforraity to God, is the end ofthe divine predestination ; ^
the end of the divine election ; ^ the grand end of the death of
Christ ; ^ the object of all the injunctions of the word of God ; >
and the leading design of aU the discipUne of his providence. '^
Antinoraianisra, so far from regarding the moral cure of hu
man nature as the great object and design of the Gospel, does
not take it in at aU, but as it exists in Christ, and becomes our's
by a figure of speech. It regards the grace and the pardon as
every thing, the spiritual design or effect as nothing. Hence its
opposition to progressive, and its zeal for imputed sanctification ;
the former is inteUigible, and tangible, but the latter is a fig-
(f) Rom. viii. 29. (g) Ephes. i. 4. (h) Ibid. v. 25—27.
(i) Heb. xii. 10. (k) I Peter i. 1,5, 16.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 245
ment of the imagination. Hence its delight in expatiating on
the eternity of the divme decrees, which it does not understand,
but which serve to amuse and to deceive ; and its dislike to aU
the sober realities of God's present deaUngs and comraands. It
exults in the contemplation of a Christ who is a kind of con
cretion of aU the raoral attributes of his people, to the over
looking of that Christ who is the Head of all that in heaven
and on earth bear his likeness ; and whUe unconscious of pos
sessing it. It boasts in the doctrine of the perseverance of
the saints, while it believes in no saint but one, that is Jesus,
and neglects to persevere. " The dreamer raust feel that sin is
a substantial ill, in which hiraself is fatally implicated, not a
mere abstraction to be discoursed of; he must learn that the
righteous God deals with mankind on terms perfectly adapted
to the intellectual and raoral conformation of human nature, of
which He is the author ; and he must know that salvation is a
deliverance in which man is an agent, not less than a re
cipient." '
The whole object aud aira of Baxter's preaching and prac
tical writings, were to proraote holiness as the grand end of re
ligion ; and he who proposes another or inferior end of his rai
nistry, aims at something different from the main design of the
Gospel of Christ. Baxter sometimes raistook the raeans of
accomplishing his object, and eraployed measures which not only
failed to convince his opponents, and correct the evils of which
he coraplained, but actually exasperated thera. But we inva
riably perceive, both in his controversial and practical writings,
the subject which was uppermost in his thoughts and desires.
His definitions are sometiraes incorrect, his distinctions are
often injudicious, and his language frequently captious and
provoking; but his own life was blameless and harmless, his
character was formed on the ground of Gospel holiness, and his
great and increasing anxiety was, to produce in others the en
joyment of the sarae salvation which he had himself received,
and the purifying influence of its glorious hope. "
(1) ' Natural History of Enthusiasm,' p. 89.
(m) The late Rev. Andrew Fuller was one of the ablest antagonists of Anti
nomianism in modem times. In ' The Gospel worthy of all Acceptation,' and
the Defence of it, and a posthumous. treatise on Antinomianism published in his
works, beside several other of his pieces, there are some admirable views of the
subject. In his Life, by Dr. Ryland, there is a good deal of interesting informa
tion respecting the state and progress of High Calvinism during the last century.
A very able and important review of Fuller's writings on this, and, indeed, all the
subjects which engaged his pen, is given in Morris's 'Memoirs of Fuller,' which
I recommend to the reader's attention who wishes to examine this topic at length .

246 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

CHAPTER X.

WORKS ON BAPTISM, aUAKERISM, AND MILLENARIANISM.
Introductory Remarks — Controversy with Tombes — 'Plain Proof of Infant Baptism' — An
swered by Tombes — ' More Proofs of Infant Church Membership' — Controversy with Dan
vers — 'Review ofthe State ofChristian Infants' — Controversy with the (^uakers^Early
Behavior of tlie Ciuakcrs — ' Worcestershire Petitior. to Parliament ' — ' Petition Defended ' —
* Q,uaker'B Catechism ' — ' Single Sheets ' relating to the Q.uakers — Controversy with Bever
ly on the Millenium — Account of Beverly — 'The Glorious Kingdora ofChrist described' —
Answered by Beverly — Baxter's ' Reply ' — Conclusion.
Considering the variety of subjects which form strictly, or by
implication, the divine revelation of the sacred Scriptures, and
the diversity which characterises the raodes of thinking and
circurastances of men, by which they are more or less influenced
in forraing their opinions of the wiU of God, it is not surprising
that religious controversies have in every age of the Christian
church been very numerous. Sometimes they relate to matters
of great importance, and then require to be viewed with that
seriousness and care, which are always becoming when such
subjects are discussed. At other times they relate to subjects
of inferior magnitude, respecting which men of equal integrity
and decision of Christian character may differ, without any im
peachment of their principles or sincerity. It has often hap
pened, however, that these inferior points have been discussed
with a warmth and violence altogether unsuitable, and which
have tended to exasperate and to wound, instead of producing
reconcUiation and heahng. Asperity, crimination, and provok
ing language, have been the bane of rehgious controversy, and
have excited the most powerful prejudice against it on the part
of raany who might otherwise have been greatly benefited by a
calra and enlightened discussion of subjects, respecting whicli
they are imperfectly informed. Truth, however, has sometimes
derived advantage, while the disputers about it have been in
jured. Light has been extracted by the friction and coUision of
contending bodies ; and after the noise and the smoke have
passed away, the conflict has appeared to be not altogether in
vain. The period during which Baxter lived, was distinguished for
the intense earnestness with which every reUgious subject, great
and little, was investigated and debated. While the great in
terests of truth and godliness were not neglected, aU that was

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 247
minute was looked at with microscopic attention, and often
magnified beyond its due dimensions and importance. This
raay, perhaps, be thought apphcable to the subjects to which
the present chapter is devoted ; though some of the topics will
be found of considerable interest. They wiU, at least, enable
us to form a raore adequate estiraate of the times of Baxter,
and present us with some of the active and bustiing men of
the period. ,
The controversy respecting the subjects and mode of baptism,
is one of long standing in the church, and is stiU, seemingly, as
far from being settled as ever. It is not my object at present
to enter into the nature of the controversy, or to pronounce on
which side the strengtii of the argument lies, but to give a view
of Baxter's writings and efforts in relation to it. His chief an
tagonist in this debate, was John Tombes, B. D., minister of
Bewdley, a man of considerable learning and talents, and ^one
of the most voluminous writers on baptismal controversy which
that fruitful subject has furnished. Of the origin of the war
between him and Baxter, the latter has left the foUowing ac
count : " Mr. Tombes, who was ray neighbor, within two
mUes, denying infant baptisra, and having wrote a book or two
against it, was not a little desirous of the propagation of his
opinion, and the success of his writings. He thought that I
was the chief hinderer, though I never raeddled with the point.
Whereupon he carae constantly to my weekly lectures, waiting
for an opportunity to fall upon that controversy in his conference
with me ; but I studiously avoided it, so that he knew not how
to begin. He had so high a conceit of his writings, that he
thought them unanswerable, and that none could deal with them
in that way. At last, somehow, he urged rae to give ray judg
ment of thera ; when I let hira know that they did not satisfy
rae to be of his mind, but went no further with him. Upon
this he forebore coming any more to our lecture ; but he un
avoidably contrived to bring me into the controversy, which I
shunned. For there came unto rae five or six of his chief pro
selytes, as if they were yet unresolved, and desired me to give
them in writing the arguments which satisfied me for infant
baptism. I asked them whether they came not by Mr. Tombes'
dfrections ; and they confessed that they did. I asked them
whether they had read the books of Mr. Cobbett, Mr. MarshaU,
Mr. Church, Mr. Blake, for infant baptisra ; and they told rae,
no. I desired them to read what is written already, before they
called for more, and then corae to me, and tell me what they
had to say against them. But this they would by no means do,
they must have my writmgs. I told them, that now they plainly
confessed that they came upon a design to promote their party
by contentious writings, and not in sincere desire to be in-

348 the life and writings
formed, as they pretended. To be short they had no more
modesty than to insist on their deraands, and to teU rae, that if
they turned against infant baptisra, and I denied to give them
my arguraents in writing, they must lay it upon rae. I asked
them, whether they would continue unresolved tiU Mr. Tombes
and I had done our writings, seeing it was some years since Mr.
Blake and he began, and had not ended yet. But no reason
ing served the turn with them, they stiU called for my written
arguments. When I saw their factious design and immodesty,
I bade them teU Mr. Tombes, that he should neither thus com
mand me to lose a year's time in my weakness in quarrelling
with him, nor should have his end in insulting over me, as if I
fled from the light of truth. I therefore offered hira, if we raust
needs contend, that we might do it the shortest and most satis
factory way, by spending one day in a dispute at his own church,
where I should attend him, that his people might not remain
unsatisfied, tiU they saw which of us would have the last word ;
and after that we would consider of writing.
" So Mr. Tombes and I agreed to raeet at his church on the
first day of January, 1649. And in great weakness thither I carae,
and frora nine of the clock in the morning till five at night, in
a crowded congregation, we continued our dispute ; which was
all spent in managing one argument, frora infants' right to
church-nierabership to their right to baptisra ; of which he often
coraplained, as if I assaulted hira in a new way, which he had
not considered of before. But this was not the first tirae that I
had dealt with Anabaptists, few having so rauch to do with them
in the array as I had. In a word, this dispute satisfied all ray own
people, and the country that came in, and Mr. Tombes' own
townsraen, except about twenty whora he had perverted, who
gathered into his church ; which never increased to above
twenty-two, that I could learn." °
So rauch for Baxter's account of this personal rencounter.
Wood, who was no friend to either party, says, " 'Tis verily thought
that Tombes was put upon the project of going to Brewdley
purposely to tame Baxter and his party, who then carried all
the country before thera. They preached against one another's
doctrines, and published books against each other. Torabes
was the Coryphaeus of the Anabaptists, and Baxter of the Pres
byterians. Both had a very great company of auditors, who
came many railes on foot round about to adraire them. Once,
I think oftener, they disputed face to face ; and their followers
were like two armies : and at last it carae to pass, that they feU
together by the ears, whereby hurt was done, and the civU
magistrate had much ado to quiet thera. All scholars, there
(n) Life, part i. p. 96.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 249
and present, who knew the way of disputing and managing
arguments, did conclude that Tombes got the better of Baxter
by far." "
The verbal dispute, as might be expected, soon assumed a
more tangible from, and appeared in print. Baxter, having in
the dedication to the first edition of his ' Saint's Rest,' referred
to his dispute at Bewdley, and to the victory which he con
ceived he had there obtained, Torabes shortly afterwards pub
lished 'An Antidote against the Venora' contained hi this
passage, which occasioned B^i^.ter to publish his principal work
on this subject : ' Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' Church
Merabership and Baptisra ; being the arguments prepared for,
and partly managed in, the public dispute witii Mr. Tombes, at
Bewdley, on the first day of January, 1 649. With a fuU reply
to what he then answered, and what is contained in bis sermon
since preached, in his printed books, his MS. on 1 Cor. vii. 14 :
with a reply to his valedictory oration at Bewdley ; and a Cor
rection for his Antidote.' 1650. 4to.
In the preface to tbis treatise he gives some account of its
" conception and nativity," from which I shall present an extract
or two. The progress of his raind respecting baptisra, which
is remarkably similar to the process through which many in
dividuals have gone in reference to tbe sarae subject, is thus
stated by him : " When I was caUed forth to the sacred mini
sterial work, though my zeal was strong, and I can truly say,
that a fervent desire of winning souls to God was my motive,
yet being young, and of smaU experience, and no great reading,
being then a stranger to alraost all the fathers, and most of the
schoolraen, I was a novice in knowledge, and ray conceptions
were uncertain, shaUow, and crude. In sorae mistakes I was
confident, and in some truths I was very doubtful and suspicious.
Among others, by that tirae I had baptized but two children at
Bridgnorth, I began tc have some doubt of the lawfulness of
infant baptism, whereupon, I silently forbore the practice, and
set myself, as I was able, to the study of the point. One part
of my temptation was the doctrine of sorae divines who ran
too far in the other extrerae. I had read Dr. Burgess, and sorae
years after Mr. Bedford, for baptisraal regeneration ; and heard
it in the coraraon prayer that God would bless baptisra to the
infant's regeneration, which I thought they had raeant of a real
and not a relative change. I soon discerned the error of this
doctrine, when I found in Scripture that repentance and faith
in the aged were ever prerequisite, and that no word of God
did make that the end to infants which was prerequisite in
others; that signs cannot, by moral operation, be the instru-
(o) Athen. Oxon. vol. iii. p. 1063.
VOL. II. 32

250 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
ments of a real change on infants, but only of a relative ; and
that to dream of a physical instrumentality, was worse than
popish, and to do that in baptism which transubstantiation
hath done in the Lord's-supper, even to tie God to the con
stant working of a miracle,
"Upon my first serious study, I presently discerned that
though infants were not capable of what is before expressed,
nor of every benefit by baptism, as are the aged, yet that they
were capable of the principal ends ; that it might be a sign to
enter them church raembers, and solemnize their dedication to
Christ, and engage thera to be his people, and to take hira for
their Lord and Saviour, and so to confer on them reraission of
sins, and what Christ by the covenant promiseth to the baptized.
" Yet did I remain doubtful some time after, by reason the
Scriptures spoke so sparingly of infant baptisra, and because ray
apprehensions of those things, which in themselves were clear
and certain, remained crude and weak tUl time had helped them
to digest and ripen. And the many weak arguments which I
met with in the words and writings of some divines, to which I
forraed most of the same answers as Mr. T. novi^ doth, were not
the least sturabling-block in my way. I resolved, therefore,
sUently to forbear the practice while 1 further studied the point.
And being raore in doubt about the other sacrament than this,
I durst not adventure upon a full, pastoral charge, but to preach
only as a lecturer tiU I were fully resolved. In which state I
continued where I now am, tiU I was removed by the wars, stiU
thinking and speaking very favorably of mere Anabaptists." f
He then proceeds to give an account of the discussions which
took place on this subject whUe he was in Coventry ; of the
full exaraination of it which he was there led to institute ; and of
the progress of his controversy with Tombes, as already stated.
According to his account, he was instrumental in Mr. Tombes'
coming to Bewdley ; and he soleranly avers, that throughout the
whole affair Torabes was the aggressor. He indeed told a dif
ferent tale ; and a good deal of angry correspondence took place
between them. To determine the question^ who was the first
and principal aggressor, is now unnecessary ; and the detail of all
the circumstances which finally led to Baxter's publication, would
be as tedious as it would be unprofitable. The volume itself
contains a considerable portion of valuable matter relative to
the controversy, and also a great deal that is frrelevant. It
abounds with numerous and subtie distinctions, for which most
of Baxter's controversial writings are distinguished. It presents
a great deal that would exceedingly puzzle an adversary to an
swer, and much of which he might take advantage. One of his
(p) Preface, pp. J, 3.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 261
great objects is to settie the right of infants to be church raem
bers, which he considered of more importance than their bap
tism ; but it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory idea of all that
he intended by their membership.
Tombes replied in his ' Precursor ; or, a Forerunner to a large
view of a Dispute concerning Infant Baptism.' 1652. 4to. This
large work he produced at three several times, raaking in all two
very thick, closely-printed quarto voluraes. Its general titie
is, ' Antipaedobaptism ; or, no plain or obscure proof of Infants'
Baptism or Church-Membership,' Sic. In this voluminous pro
duction he repUes to Baxter, Marshall, Geree, Cobbet, Blake,
Church, Stephens, Homes, Feadey, Hararaond, BaiUie, Brinslee,
Sydenhara, FuUer, Drew, Lyfford, Carter, Rutherford, Cragge,
Cotton, Stalham, Hall, and others. It was published be
tween the years 1652 and 1657; and affords no smaU proof
of the industry of its author, as well as ofhis devoted zeal in the
cause which he had espoused.
Baxter's work passed through several editions, a proof of the
interest then taken in the controversy ; in the third of which,
he notices Tombes' ' Precursor,' and several other publications
for and against him. His own account of the work suppUes aU
the additional information respecting it which it is necessary
to introduce. " The book," he says, " God blessed with un
expected success to stop abundance from turning Anabaptists,
and reclairaing raany, both in city and country, and sorae of
the officers of the Irish and English forces, and gave a con
siderable check to their proceedings. Concerning it, I shall
only teU the reader, that there are towards the latter part of it,
many enigmatical reflections upon the Anabaptists, for their horrid
scandals, which the reader that lived not iu those times wUl
hardly understand ; but the cutting off the king, and rebelling
against him and the parliaraent, tbe Ranters and other sects that
sprung out of thera, the invading of Scotland, and the approving
of these, were the criraes there intended ; which were not then
to be raore plainly spoken of, when their strength and fury were
so high. After the writing of that book, I wrote a postscript
against the doctrine of Dr. Burgess and Mr. Thoraas Bedford,
which I supposed to go on the other extreme ; and therein I
answered part of a treatise of Dr. Samuel Ward's, which Mr.
Bedford published ; which proved to be Mr. Thoraas Gataker's,
whora I defended, who is Dr. Ward's censor ; but I knew it not
till Mr. Gataker after told rae.
" But, after these writings, I was greatiy in doubt whether it
be not certain that all the infants of true believers are justified
and saved, ifthey die before actual sin. My reason was, because
it is the sarae justifying, saying covenant of grace which their
parents and they are in, and as real faith and repentance is that

252 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
condition on the parents' part which giveth thera their right to
actual remission and adoption ; so to be the children of such
is all the condition whicli is required in infants, in order to the
same benefits ; and without asserting this, the advantage of the
Anabaptists is greater than every one doth imagine. But I
never thought with Dr. Ward, that all baptized chUdren had
this benefit and qualitative sanctification also ; nor with Dr.
Burgess and Mr. Bedford, that all converted at age had inherent
serainal grace in baptism certainly given thera ; nor with
Bishop Davenant, that all justly baptized had relative grace of
justification and adoption ; but only that aU the infants of true
behevers, who have right to the covenant and baptism in foro
cceli, as well as in foro ecclesice, have also thereby right to
the pardon of original sin, and to adoption, and to heaven,
which right is by baptism sealed and delivered to them. This
I wrote to Mr. Gataker, who returned me a kind and candid
answer, but such as did not remove my scruples ; and this occa
sioned hira to print Bishop Davenant's disputations with his
answer. The opinion, which I most incline to, is the same
which the Synod of Dort expresseth, and that which I conjec
ture Dr. Davenant meant, or I am sure carae next to."i
Tombes, in the third part of his ' Antipaedobaptism,' pub
Ushed in 1659, introduced some private correspondence between
Baxter and himself, which had taken place subsequently to
Baxter's last publication on infant church-membership, and
baptism ; and there repUed at length to some of his senti
ments. Baxter, after a lapse of nineteen years, published
' More Proofs of Infant Church-Membership, and consequently
their Rights to Baptism ; or, a Second Defence of our Infant
Rights and Mercies.' 1675. Svo.
This volume is divided into three parts, which contain, he
tells us, '* The plain proof of God's statute or covenant for
Infants' Church-Membership from the creation, and the conti
nuance of ittiU the institution of baptism ; with the defence of
that proof against the frivolous exceptions of Mr. Torabes. A
confutation of Mr. Tombes' arguments. A confutation of the
strange forgeries of Mr. Danvers against the ambiguity of infant
baptisra, and ofhis many calumnies against rayself and writings.
A catalogue of fifty-six new coramandments and doctrines,
which he and the sectaries who join with him in those calumnies
own. Aniraadversions on Mr. Danvers' reply to Mr. Wells ;"
aU of which he declares to be "extorted by their unquiet
iraportunity." '
(q) Life, part i. p. 109.
(r) The doctrine of the Synod of Dort, on the subject referred to by Baxter, is
as follows : — " Quando quidem, &c.— That is, Seeing that we are to judge ofthe
will of God by his word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy ;
not, indeed, by nature, but by the benefit of the gracious covenant, in which they

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 253
The dispute was now enlarged, including others as well as
Tombes. Danvers was a private gentleman of smaU fortune who
had joined the Baptists in the tirae of the Coraraonwealth.
He was then governor of Stafford, and a justice of the peace.
He was a fifth-raonarchist in some of his principles, though he
did not go the fuU length of the party in regard to practice.
He was apprehended as one of thera, and lodged in the Tower,
where he appears to have remained many years, as he only ob
tained his release in 1671. Having been at sorae private raeet
ings, where measures were concerted in favor of the Duke of
Monmouth, he was obliged to flee to Holland after the faUure of
that attempt, where he died shortly afterwards. '
His work in this controversy, to which Baxter refers, is one of
considerable labor : ' A Treatise on Baptism, wherein that of
Believers, and that of Infants, is exarained by the Scriptures,
with the history of both, out of Antiquity,' fee. As an historical
work, it displays very considerable research. His opponents
accused him of doing injustice to the fathers and ecclesiastical
writers of the priraitive church ; and both parties found in the
ambiguity and uncertainty of these authorities, sufficient em
ployment for thefr time and patience. He was answered by
BUnraan and WUls, as weU as by Baxter, and defended hiraself
in three distinct treatises, published in 1675.
In the sarae year in which Baxter's last work was published,
he produced another sraall performance, to which it had led —
'Richard Baxter's Review of the State of Christian Infants.'
1676. Svo. In this pamphlet, he inquires " whether children
should be entered in covenant with godly baptism, and be visi
ble merabers of his church, and have any covenant right to par
don and salvation ? " This publication was occasioned by Mr.
E. Hutchinson, Mr. Danvers, and Mr. Tombes, all of whom had
assailed hira.'
It is deeply to be regretted that this controversy should have
so long distracted the church of Christ, and that many eminent
men have devoted so large a portion of valuable time and strength
to its discussion. On no one point of Christian practice has so
much been written, and on both sides to so littie purpose, as the
are comprehended along with their parents ; pious parents ought not to doubt of
the election and salvation of their children whom God hath called in infancy out
of this life." — Art. on Predestination, Sect. 17. Davenant was one of the En
glish divines deputed by King James to attend the Synod of Dort. He was then
professor of divinity in the University of Cambridge, and was afterwards made
bishop of Salisbury.
(s) Crosby's Hist, of the Baptists, vol. iii. p. 97.
(t) On the subject of infant salvation, which has been a source of great anxie
ty and distress to many, I beg to refer the reader to the following work, which is
far more satisfactory than any thing else known to me on this deeply interesting
topic — ' An Essay on the Salvation of all Dying in Infancy ; including Hints on
the Adamic and Christian Dispensations,' by the Rev. David Russell, of Dundee.
I2mo. 2d edit. 1828.

254 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
parties seera nearly as far frora agreement as ever. It has
tended greatly to injure the cause of religion among the Dissen
ters, having divided their affections and reduced their strength
in almost every place. Ofthe same raind on every other topic
of importance, it is lamentable that a difference of opinion re
specting one ordinance, and that of a personal nature, affecting
each individual but once in his life, should cause greater strife
and injury than all other subjects of difference together. The
doctrine of free comraunion, however, as far as baptism is con
cerned, proraises fair, in the course of time, to extinguish a con
troversy, which all the books that have been written upon it
have entirely faUed to determine. In this result, had he lived
to witness it, none would have rejoiced more than Baxter ; as
he was more zealous in contending for the coraraunion of all
Christians, than for infant baptism, notwithstanding his warmth
in maintaining it.
The Quakers, as a distinct sect, made their first appearance
in the times of Baxter, and during the agitations of the civU
wars. His controversies with them were much briefer than
those in which he engaged with the Baptists, but were suffi
ciently keen while they lasted. His opinion of them has been
already given in the first part of this work. If that opinion be
regarded as severe, it should be reraembered that the body
referred to has undergone a great change for the better, in its
spirit and raode of acting, since the tirae of Baxter. He com
plains bitterly of the treatment that he experienced from them,
which raust, therefore, be regarded as an apology for his man
ner of treating them in return. Speaking of them many years
after their first appearance, he says :
" The Quakers, in their shops, when I go along London
streets, say, ' Alas ! poor man, thou art yet in darkness.' They
have oft corae into the congregation, when I had liberty to
preach Christ's Gospel, and cried out against me as a deceiver
of the people. They have followed me home, crying out in
the streets, ' The day of the Lord is coming, when thou shalt
perish as a deceiver.' They have stood in the market-place,
and under my window, year after year, crying out to the people,
' Take heed of your priests, they deceive your souls ! ' and if
they saw any wear a lace or neat clothing, they cried out to
me, ' These are the fruit of thy ministry.' If they spake to
me with the greatest ignorance or nonsense, it was with as much
fury and rage as if a bloody heart had appeared in their faces ;
so that though I never hurt, or occasioned the hurt, of one of
thera that I know of, their tremulent countenances told me what
they would have done had I been in their power. This was
from 1656 to 1659." "
(u) Works, vol. xvi. p. 152.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 255
The idea of danger from thera, intimated in this passage, was
doubtless an entfre raistake. Their words and spirit were fre
quently violent and provoking ; but their conduct was inva
riably harmless. Had they been less opposed, and treated in a
more Christian manner, they would have attracted less atten
tion, and been less formidable to those who opposed them.
Considering the abuses of divine ordinances which had so long
and so extensively prevailed, it is not surprising that such a
systera as Quakerism should have arisen ; and it may, perhaps,
have answered a useful purpose in calling the attention of men
professing Christianity to the great design of all its ordinances,
and to which they ought ever to be regarded as subservient —
the promotion of spirituality of mind, and the enjoyment of
communion with God.
To form a correct idea of Baxter's writings on this subject,
it is necessary to advert to his fears of the subversion of the
Christian ministry in the nation by some of the raeasures of
the Rump Parliaraent. Exceedingly alarraed by certain reports
which he had heard, he exerted his influence, which appears
to have been very powerful, in the county of Worcester, to pro
mote an appeal to Parliament. The effect of this appeared in
" The hurable petition of many thousands, gentlemen, free
holders, and others, of the county of Worcester, to the parlia
ment of the Commonwealth of England, in behalf of the able,
faithful, godly ministry of this nation." This petition was
drawn up by Baxter, and presented by Colonel Bridges and Mr.
Thomas Foley, on the 22d of December, 1652. It was after
wards printed, with the answer of the speaker, in the name of
the House, thanking the petitioners for their zeal and good
affections, and promising to take the petition into consideration.
It expresses the fears of the petitioners, founded on various cir
cumstances which are enumerated, that an attempt would be
made to put dovra the ministry in the kingdom. It states the
importance of the ministry both to the temporal and the spi
ritual good of the country ; with the sin and danger of subverting
it. It therefore prays for the preservation and encouragement of
feitbful ministers ; that a suitable provision might be raade for
them ; that attention might be paid to the dark parts of Eng
land and Wales ; for the continued preservation of the univer
sities and schools of leaming ; and lastly, that raeasures raight
be taken to heal the religious divisions which prevailed', and for
tbe establishraent of a better system of church government.
This petition was very offensive to those who viewed with an
unfavorable eye a standing ministry, especially as supported by
the state. The Quakers, in particular, who were then beginning
to attract attention, were exceedingly hostile to the prayer pre
sented to parhament ; and George Fox attacked it in a pam-

256 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
phlet, entitied ' The Threefold Estate of Antichrist.' This
brought Baxter into the field with —
'The Worcestershfre Petition to the Parliament for the
Ministry of England, Defended by a Minister of Christ in that
County, in answer to sixteen queries, printed in a book called,
A Brief Discovery of the Threefold Estate of Antichrist,' fee.
1653. 4to. Baxter defends his petition against the queries con
tained in this performance, and retaliates with his characteristic
acuteness in sorae counter queries at the end.
That the parliaraent then sitting seriously meditated the abo
Ution, either of the ministry or of the tithes, is improbable. But
a petitition had been presented to it by a council of officers held
at Whitehall on the 12th of August, 1652, which, among other
things, prayed " that profane, scandalous, and ignorant minis
ters might be ejected, and raen approved for godliness and gifts
encouraged ; and that a convenient raaintenance might be pro
vided for thera, and the unequal, troublesorae, and contentious
way of tithes be taken away." '^ This petition was referred to
a coraraittee, after the speaker had, in the narae of the House,
thanked the petitioners for their zeal in the public cause. The
report of this committee has been already given in page 1 39 ;
from which it appears, that nothing further was recommended
than some arrangeraents respecting the payraent of tithes. Itwas
probably with a view to counteract this petition, however, that
Baxter drew up the one frora Worcestershire. That there was
just ground of complaint against many of the clergy, is evident
enough from Baxter's own account of thera ; and had the
Rump Parliament enacted some measure for the support of the
clergy, less liable to objection and abuse than the tithe system,
it would have deserved well of the country, and saved its suc
cessors the labor and the honor which yet await them. It is
evident that an atterapt was made, which was both wise and
moderate in itself, and would no doubt have been improved, till
it had finally abolished an extensive and inveterate evU, had the
powers which then were been permanently estabUshed.
Speaking of the petition and the events which followed it, he
says in his own Life, " The sectaries were greatly annoyed, and
one wrote a vehement invective against it ; which; I answered
in a paper caUed ' The Defence of the Worcestershire Petition,'
(which, by an oversight, is maimed by the want of the accuser's
queries,) I knew not what kind of person he was; that I wrote
against, but it proved to be a Quaker ; they being just how rising,
and this being the first of their books, as far as I can remember,
that I had ever seen.
" Presently, upon this, the Quakers began to make a great
(x) Goodwin's Commonwealth, vol. iii. p. 419.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 257
stir araong us, acting the part of men in raptures, speaking in
the manner of men inspired, and every where raihng against
tithes and ministers. They sent many papers of queries to
divers ministers about us ; to one of the chief of which I wrote
an answer, and gave them as many more questions to answer,
entitling it ' The Quaker's Catechism.' These pamphlets being
but one or two days' work, were no great interruption to my
better labors, and as they were of smaU worth, so also of small
cost. The sarae rainisters of our country, that are now sUenced,
are they that the Quakers raost vehemently opposed, meddling
Uttie with the rest. The marveUous concurrence of instruraents
teUeth us, that one principal agent doth act thera aU. I have
oft asked the Quakers lately. Why they chose the same ministers
to revile whom aU the drunkards and sorcerers raU against ?
And why they cried out in our assembUes, Come down, thou
deceiver, thou hireling, thou dog ; and now never meddle with
the pastors or congregations ? They answer, that these men sin in
the open Ught, and need none to discover them ; that the Spirit
hath his times both of severity and of lenity. But the truth is,
ihey knew then they might be bold without any fear of suffering
by it: and now it is time for them to save their skins, they suf
fer enough for thefr own assemblies." ^
The following is the pamphlet to which he refers in the
above paragraph : ' The Quaker's Catechism ;. or, the Quakers
questioned, their questions answered, and both published for
the sake of those of them that have not yet sinned unto death ;
and of these ungrounded novices that are most in danger of
their seduction.' 1657. 4to. In an introductory address to
the reader, he explains the circumstances which originated
his Catechism ; giving an account, in much the sarae terras
that we have already quoted, of the raanner in which the
Quakers assaUed himself and his brethren. He then addreses
the " Separatistsand Anabaptists of England," whom he classes
with the Quakers, accusing them of originating the " wild gen
eration," which is the more immediate object of his attack. Then
follows a long letter to a young friend, who was first incUned
to be a Baptist^ but feU in with the Quakers, and whom be had
endeavored to reclaim. Next comes a paper, or inforraation
taken on oath at Bristol, of one who represents sorae of the
Quakers as disguised Romish priests : then follows the Cate
chisra itself; inwhich the controversy is treated in a very desul
tory raanner. Indeed, the doctrines ofthe Friends had scarce
ly been brought to a consistent form ; it would consequentiy
have been vain to expect that the undisciplined troops,, com
posing their army, should either attack or be attacked in reg-
(y) Life, part i. pp^ 115, 116.
VOL. II. 33

258 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
ular battie. Baxter having been treated very unceremoniously,
is as unceremonious in his addresses and questions to " the
miserable creatures," whom he considered to be laboring un
der dreadful delusion. The following specimen ofhis questions
will give the reader a fair sample of his mode of interrogating
them. The subject is — the sufficiency of the light, which all
men are supposed to enjoy.
" Was it sufficient before Christ preached the Gospel, and
sent his aposties .-* or, is it now sufficient to aU that never heard
the Gospel ? If so, is not the Gospel a vain and needless
thing ? or, are you Christians that dare so affirm } If the world
have sufficient "light, what need they your teaching, or discourse,
or conviction ? If aU have sufficient within tbem, what need
they any convicting grace ? Why did Christ send Paul to open
men's eyes, and to turn thera from darkness to " light, if they
had sufficient Ught before ? I pray you do not disdain to tell
me, when you have rubbed your eyes, if all raen have sufficient
light within them, why you got up into the judgment-seat, and
pronounced me so oft to be in darkness, and to be void of the
Ught, and to have none of the Spirit. If all have it, why may
not I have it?"
In the same year in which he pubUshed his Catechism, he
sent out a series of monthly tracts, which were chiefly intended
to counteract the principles and progress of Quakerism. The
first appeared in August, 1657, and is entitled, ' One Sheet for
the Ministry against Malignants of all sorts.' In September,
he published ' One Sheet against the Quakers ; ' and in the fol
lowing month, ' A Second Sheet for the Ministry, justifying our
Calling against Quakers, Seekers, and Papists, and all that deny
us to be the Ministers of Christ.'
Into these tracts it is unnecessary to enter particularly, as
their titles sufficiently explain their nature and design. They
furnish additional evidence to rauch that has been already ad
duced of the ceaseless vigilance and untiring labor of Baxter.
His eye was every where ; his hand was in every work. AUve
to all the dangers and teraptations then abounding in the coun
try, he employed, with the utmost promptness, all the means
which he could devise to avert the evils, or to warn men against
them. He admonished Cromwell, he addressed the parha
ment, and, at the same time, expostulated with a Seeker, ques
tioned a Quaker, and catechised a chUd. When it was neces
sary, he produced a folio ; when less might answer the purpose,
he published a raonthly tract. Well raight he give the follow
ing answer to the reproaches of idleness thrown out against the
ministry :
" The Quakers say, we are idle drones, that labor not, and
therefore should not eat. The worst I wish you is, that you had

OP RICHARD BAXTER. 259
but my ease instead of your labor. I have reason to take
myself for the least of saints, and yet I fear not to tell the ac
cuser that I take the labor of raost tradesmen in the town to
be a pleasure to the body, in comparison with mine ; though for
the ends and the pleasure of my raind, I would not change it
with the greatest prince. Their labor preserveth health, and
mine consumeth it ; they work in ease, and I in continual pain ;
they have hours and days of recreation, I have scarce time to
eat and drink. Nobody raolesteth them for their labor, but
the more I do, the more hatred and trouble I draw upon rae. If
a Quaker ask me what all tiiis labor is, let him come and see,
or do as I do, and he shall know."
Baxter was, sometime after this, attacked in a huge volume
with a singular title : ' The Rustic's Alarm to the Rabbies ; or,
the Country correcting the Universities and Clergy, and not with
out Cause, Contesting for the Truth against the Nursing Mothers,
and their ChUdren, &ic. By way of Intercourse held in Special
with four of the Clergies' Chieftains, John Owen, Thomas
Danson, John Tombes, and Richard Baxter ; which four Fore
men hold the Sense and Senseless Faith ofthe whole Fry, Ste.
By Samuel Fisher, who sorae time went astray among the raany
Shepherds, but is now returned to the great Shepherd and
Overseer of the SouL' 1660. 4to. pp. 600. To this enorraous
volurae of rant, it does not appear that any of the persons at
tacked, made a reply. Fisher was originaUy in the church,
and chaplain to Sir Arthur Hasefrigg : he afterwards becarae a
Baptist, and wrote the only folio volurae whicli I believe has
ever been written on that side of the question, ' Baby Baptisra,
mere Babyism,' in which he animadverts on Baxter. He soon
after became Quaker, and labored hard to destroy the things
which he had formerly built up. He is said to have been a man
of piety and of learning, but fickle and violent. Nothing but
an inspection of his books can enable any one to form an idea
of the extraordinary style in which he wrote.
At a subsequent period of his Ufe, Baxter engaged in a per
sonal controversy on the principles of Quakerism, with William
Penn, but it led to no publication on the points in debate.
The discussion has been referred to in the former part of this
work. By that time, the number of the Friends had greatly in
creased, their principles and practice had assumed a more
definite form, and their conduct, in regard to the great subject
of reUgious liberty, had entitied them to the approbation and
esteem of all the friends of reUgion and freedora. In Penn and
Barclay they found abler and more successful defenders and
advocates than Fox or Fisher, who required to be met with
different arguments, and in a better style and spirit, than had
been eraployed by Baxter.

260 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
In the last year of his life, Baxter was led to engage in a con
troversy with the Rev. Thomas Beverly, on the subject of the
Millennium, and the second advent ofthe Lord Jesus Christ. This
is one of those subjects which appears, frora tirae to time, to
have agitated the church of Christ, frora the very beginning.
Even in the days ofthe aposties, sorae indulged the expectation
that the coraing of the Lord was at hand, and, under the in
fluence of this feeling, appear to have relaxed in their attention
to the ordinary duties of life. ^ In the subsequent ages, the
doctrine of the Millenniura was a favorite speculation with raany,
though very various and discordant sentiraents were entertained
respecting it. At the Reforraation it had its patrons araong those
whose iraaginations were excited by the extraordinary events of
the period, to expect that the time of the restitution of all things
was near. During the Coramonweahh, the fifth-raonarchy raen
brought this subject again into prorainent notice : but the ex
travagances of sorae of them, and the destruction which they
brought on theraselves, sunk it into contempt. It was held,
however, by some most respectable and learned individuals, both
before and after the tirae of the Coraraonwealth. It is only
necessary to mention, in proof of this, the names of Joseph
Mede and Henry More ; men alike distinguished for learning
and talents, and for their mild and conciliatory disposUions.
Among the raost strenuous and ardent supporters of this
doctrine, was Thoraas Beverly, a raan by no means destitute of
good sense, scriptural inforraation, and ardent zeal. He was
pastor of a dissenting congregation, which asserabled in Cutiers'
HaU, and began his career as a writer on the prophecies, about
the period of the Revolution, of which he was a most devoted
friend and admirer. In awork published in 1688, dedicated to
the Prince of Orange, be endeavors to show that the Papacy
could not last above nine years, and that the Millennium would
comraence in 1697. Frora this tirae to that portentous year,
he continued to send forth his publications on the subject in
great nurabers, chaUenging every body to answer thera. He
Uved to see aU his prophetical calculations fail ; so that on the
year in which they should have coraraenced their fulfilment, he
resigned his pastoral charge, retired into the country, and
shortly after sunk into obscurity. Such was the fate of a raan
whose talents, ardor, and devotedness, had they been better
directed, might have rendered him eminently useful ; but whose
misdirected zeal and erroneous calculations issued only in dis
appointment to himself, sorrow to his friends, aud triumph to
the enemies of religion. ^
Beverly was the friend and correspondent of Baxter. He
Iz) 2 Thess. ii. iii. 6—12.
(a) Wilson's Hist, of Diss. Churches, vol. ii. pp. 64 — 66.

OF R1CH.\RD BAXTER. 2G1
admired his talents, respected his piety, and courted his ac
quaintance. Knowing the candor with which Baxter listened
to every plausible representation on religious subjects, and being
convinced that if he could but engage his attention, he would
openly espouse his cause, or enter tbe lists against him ; either of
which results would answer his purpose by calling attention to
his own publications. He accordingly presented him with thera
as they appeared, and raost perseveringly soUcited his observa
tions upon thera. Having published his ' Catechisra of the King
dora of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Thousand Years ; showing
by Scripture that the great articles of the Redemption, the
Resurrection, the Mystery of the Saints not dying but changed,
the Judgment, the Delivering up of the Kingdom to God, aU in
all, cannot be explained at full dimensions without it ;' he sent it
to Baxter, with an earnest request to be favored with his opi
nion of it. The substance of Beverly's doctrine appears to be :
that Christ's kingdora begins only at the MiUenniura : that
the comraenceraent of the Millennium and the resurrection of
the saints, are parallel events ; that the MUlenniura is the day of
judgment spoken of in scripture ; that during it the saints shall
increase and raultiply upon the earth ; that the wicked shall
also be upon the earth ; and that a grand confiict shall take place
at the battle of Armageddon, when the wicked shall be de
stroyed. With all this is mixed up sorae strange speculations
about the person of Christ.
On receiving the ' Millenary Catechisra,' Baxter addressed a
long and kind letter to the author, proposing a series of ques
tions lo hira. He assures him they were written not in a spirit
of captiousness, but from a real desire of inforraation, which he
considered Beverly well qualified to supply. As these questions
are not uniraportant at the present time, I shall extract a few
of them.
" Doth the Revelation mention one thousand years or two ?
If but one, doth not that begin upon the faU of Babylon ? Why
say you that Christ's kingdora beginneth at the one thousand
years, when so raany things tell us of his kingdora existent long
before ? Hath he not governed by laws, and initial execution,
long before } yea, the kingdora is araong us and within us. Do
not the spirits of the departed just, with the angels, now con
stitute the general asserably above ; and is not that the kingdora
of Christ, and doth he not now reign over aU? ShaU these
blessed souls come down for one thousand years, and dwell either
with devUs, or where devils now dwell, in the air. If they come
thither with Christ at judgment, shall they dweU there so long .-'
and is it no worse a place than where they are .'' Seeing the
heavens that now are must then be burnt, is not the air the lower
part of the heavens, or that at least, and shall Christ and the

262 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
new Jerusalem dwell in the consuming fire ? I cannot possibly
find what time you aUot to the conflagration of heaven ; whe
ther it shaU continue burning all the one thousand years, or be
quickly dispached at first ; nor yet what tirae or measure you
set to the conflagration of the earth. Doth it burn all at once,
or by gradations, as Dr. Cressener thinks, beginning at Rome,
and so going on ? or is it all the one thousand years proceeding
to its dispatch? If so, it is a wonder that this long fire con
sumeth not Gog and Magog ; and if the inhabitants fly from it,
as at Etna, whither do they carry their goods, and where wiU
they find room, both saints and sinners ? Is it the new earth
all the while it is burning ? If it be burnt at all at the begin
ning, where are the surviving saints aU the while ?
" You avoid many difficulties by holding but one resurrection ;
but what then becoraes of the bodies of all the wicked, who die
during the one thousand years? Do soul and body go to hell
unburied, or do only their souls suffer and their bodies never
rise ? Is there one conflagration or two ? The Scriptures speak
but of one ; and then what becomes of your new earth at the
end of the one thousand years ? are not Gog and Magog burnt
at last ? Is your beloved city on earth in one place ? and where ?
or over the whole earth ? Is not the number that cover the
camp, as the sand of the sea, with Gog and Magog, inconsistent
with the description of the new earth, wherein dweUeth right
eousness, and with the tiraes of restitution, when the groaning
creation shall be delivered frora the bondage of corruption into
a paradisiacal state ?" ''
Such is a specimen of the questions which Baxter proposed
to Beverly, on his having transmitted to hira a copy of the work
which he had published. Could I have quoted thera aU, they
would have shown how araply Baxter, even at this advanced
period of his life, entered into the subject, and that no portion
of his natural acuteness had yet failed him. It does not seera
to have produced rauch effect on Beverly ; and therefore, in
the course of the year 1691, appeared a 4to tract, entitled
' The Glorious Kingdora of Christ described and clearly vin
dicated, &;c., by Richard Baxter, whose comfort is only the hope
of that kingdom.'
In this work he enters the lists with the MiUenarians in ge
neral : Vfith those who boldly asserted the future restoration and
reign of the Jews, and the one thousand years' rest before the con
flagration ; with those also who expected a reign of one thousand
years after the conflagration ; and with Beverly in particular, in
answer to his challenges and censures, of which he appears to
have been very liberal. Baxter endeavors to explain the pro-
lb) Letter to Beverlj. —Baxter MSS.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 263
mise of the new heavens and the new earth ; and contends for
the everlasting duration of Christ's kingdom. He undertakes
to prove that the doctrines of Beverly, and the Millenarians, are
chimerical, and without foundation in Scripture ; that the views
comraonly entertained on these subjects are in accordance with
aU correct interpretation of the prophecies of the Bible; that
Christ's kingdom is spiritual in its nature, properly comraenced
at his resurrection, and will continue tiU the final conflagration,
when it will be perfected forever in heaven.
From this work, it appears that Baxter did not believe that the
ten tribes were ever so entirely lost as many suppose, and that part
of them existed in the time of Christ and the Aposties ; conse
quentiy that the recovery of such a body, according to the expec
tations of many, is not to be looked for. Nor does he appear to
have beUeved in any national conversion of the Jewish people
in thefr restoration to their own country, in their instrumentality
for the conversion of the world, or in their future superiority
over the nations. His reasonings on aU these topics, cannot be
given. I do not agree with hira in every point, but I have no
hesitation in saying, that though less known than many of his
works, it is one of the acutest and best written of his numerous
pubhcations. The opinions of Beverly were not new when he
wrote ; they had been frequently started and exploded before.
They have been repeatedly revived since, maintained with no less
confidence, and propagated with equal zeal ; and in future ages
wiU probably continue to experience the same fate. One pas
sage of Baxter's tract, relating to Beverly, I think merits to be
quoted :
" Your writings make it plain, that you are a good man, of
deep thoughts, fallen into a fond esteem of your new, unripe
conceptions, and wrapt up thereby into a diseased conceitedness.
How you will be able to bear it when Providence and experience
have confuted you in 1697, I know not. But I ara the more
bold to foreteU your faUing, by my persuasion, that your expo
sition ofthe Revelation, is a raere mistake from the beginning
almost to the end.
" Wonder not that nobody writeth to confute you. For men
love not to trouble themselves with convincing every single man
of his errors. The reason why I attempt it is, because by the
seduction of some of my friends, and the general inclination of
the Antinomian, Anabaptist, and separating party to this con
ceit of the thousand years' kingdom, I understand that your
opinion, which formerly was tolerable as confined to a few con
ceited good men, is now becoming a great article of their faith
and reUgion, especially since I see that in all your professed ex
traordinary humUity, you brand aU who dissent from you as
semi-Sadducees of the apostacy, and constantly chaUenge all

264 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
pastors and doctors to answer you ; and maintain (though you
conform) that God's word knoweth not a clergy." °
Beverly published a short answer to Baxter, as full of con
fidence as ever. In consequence of which, Baxter brought out
quickly after, another paraphlet in ' Reply to Mr. Thoraas
Beverly's Answer to ray Reasons against his Doctrine of the
Thousand Years' Middle Kingdora, and of the Conversion of
the Jews.' Feb. 20, 1691. 4to. This tract consists of only twen
ty-one pages, and must have been among the last things of a con
troversial nature which Baxter wrote, as appears from the date
on the title-page, where be also speaks of himself " as passing
to that world where we shall see face to face." Beverly had the
last word in ' The One Thousand Years' Kingdom of Christ in
its fuU Scripture State, answering Mr. Baxter's new Treatise in
opposition to it.' 1691. 4to.
Thus ended Baxter's Debate with Beverly on the subject of
the Millenium ; and here raust terrainate our account of the
minor controversies in which he was engaged. Employed in
such affairs during the greater part of his public life, he seems
to have becorae so accustomed to the warfare and language of
religious controversy, that it had comparatively littie influence
on his temper. He could pass without effort from debating
Baptism to meditations on the ' Saint's Rest ;' and from disputes
about the MUlenniura, to the expression ofhis ' Dying Thoughts.'
He opposed firmly what he believed to be error ; but though he
often used the language of sharpness, the law of kindness never
ceased to reign in his breast.

CHAPTER XI.
POLITICAL AND mSTORICAL WORKS,
introductory Observations—' Humble Advice ' — ' Holy Commonwealth ' — Origin and Design of
tho Work — Involved the Author in much trouble — The Political Principles which it avows—
Recalled by Baxter^Motives for doing so — ' Church History of Bishops ' — Attacked by Mor
rice — ' True History of Bishops and Councils Defended ' — ' Breviate of the Life of Mrs. Bax
ter ' — ' Penitent Confession » — Conduct of Long towards Baxter — ' Reliquiae BaxterianiB ' —
Character of this Work — Imperfectly Editedlby Sylvestep— Calamy's Account of it, and its
Reception — His Abridgment of it — Controversy to wliich it led.
It is difficult to define what ought, in particular circumstances,
to be the conduct of a Christian minister respecting poUtical
affairs. Neither the profession of Christianity, nor the office of
the ministry, deprives a raan of his civU privileges, or of a
right to exercise them. At the same time, " all things which
(c) Pp. 45, 46. It is a very curious fact, which appears to have strack Baxter,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 266
are lawful may not be expedient." Every man, and especially
every minister of Christ, is bound to study what may tend most
effectually to promote the grand design of Christianity, and to
abstain as much as possible, both from giving offence to the
weak, and exciting unnecessary prejudices against him on the
part of others. It is easy to act when the affairs of a country
are moving on with regularity and smoothness ; but when " the
foundations are all out of course," and " civil dudgeon" runs
high, the most inoffensive and conscientious persons may fre
quently be exposed to great difficulty. Taking part in their
country's afiairs wiU expose them to the charge of meddling and
sedition ; whUe entire neutrality raay probably bring upon
them the no less injurious insinuation of selfish indifference.
To these difficulties religious people were greatly exposed
during she trying period of England's struggle for civil and re
Ugious freedom.
Baxter was not a man forraed for neutrality. It vvas not in
his nature to avoid taking part with the weak and righteous,
and opposing their oppressors. His mind entered into every
subject which interested his countrymen, and regardless of con
sequences to himself, he fearlessly committed both his actions
and his opmions to the public. In the former part of this work,
we have seen how he joined the army ofthe Coraraonwealth, with
his reasons for so doing. He was a lover of constitutional raon
archy, but an eneray of despotism ; and regarding the govern
ment as determined to crush the reUgion and liberties of his
country, he felt hiraself bound to support those whom he viewed
as its best and only friends, though many of their measures he
saw reason to conderan and oppose.
It raust be confessed, however, that he was not at horae on
political raatters. They were uncongenial to his heavenly mind,
and to aU his habits and pursuits. Compliance with the wishes
of others, the promotion of what he considered the peace and
interests of religion and the commonwealth, or the defence of
himself against gross misrepresentations, were the motives by
which he appears to have been generally actuated in all his
writings of this description. Some of the works which are
now to come before us contain much information respecting the
period they relate to, and are, on this account, stiU important
and interesting.
The first of these which clairas our attention, ' The Wor-
as he refers to it more than once in this pamphlet, that the abettors of the doc
trine of the Millenium, against which he contended, were mostly of two classes,
Conformists and high Calvinists. That this is the case still, is known to all who
are acquainted with the parties who have agitated this question in latter years.
This is not the place to account for this co-incidence, but it is certainly worthy
of some attention. Beverly was a Dissenting Conformist, and attached to the
high side of the Christian controversy in which he took part.
VOL. II. 34

266 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
cestershire Petition,' with Baxter's defence of h, may be re
garded as the earUest of his poUtical performances; but as
sufficient notice of thera has been taken in treating of the
Quaker controversy, with which these paraphlets were closely
connected, it is unnecessary to advert to thera again. His
next work in this department was not pubUshed by hiraself.
' Richard Baxter's Humble Advice ; or, the Heads of those
Things which were offered to raany Honorable Merabers of Par-
Uaraent by Mr. Richard Baxter, at the end of his Serraon, De
ceraber 24, at the Abbey of Westminster : with some Additions,
as they were delivered by hira to a friend, that desired them, who
thought meet to make them pubhc' 1655. 4to. There is no
thing in this tract worthy of particular notice ; it contains some
instructions, which the author thought calculated to promote
reformation and peace.
The work which, of aU others wrhten by Baxter, created the
strongest sensation at the time, and occasioned the greatest
trouble to him afterwards, was his ' Holy Commonwealth ; or.
Political Aphorisms : opening the true principles of Govern
ment ; for the healing of the mistakes, and resolving the doubts,
that most endanger and trouble England at this time; and
directing the desires of sober Christians that long to see the
Kingdoms of this world becorae the Kingdoras of the Lord and
ofhis Christ.' 1659. Svo. The following is his own account
of the origin and object of this work, with the treatment which
it experienced. " The book which hath furnished my enemies with matter of
revUing, which none must dare to answer, is my ' Holy Com
monwealth.' The occasion of it was this : when our pretorian
sectarian bands had cut aU bonds, pulled down aU government,
and after the death of the king had twelve years kept out his
son, few men saw any probability of his restitution, and every
self-conceited fellow was ready to offer his model for a new form
of government. Mr. Hobbes' ' Laviathan' had pleased raany. ^
Mr. Thomas White, the great Papist, had written his PoUtics in
EngUsh, for the interest of the Protector, to prove that subjects
ought to subrait and subject theraselves to such a change. ®
(d) Hobbes produced his ' Leviathan ; or, the Matter, Form, and Power of a
Commonwealth,' in I65I. Few books have occasioned more or fiercer contro
versy than this production of the philosopher of Malmsbury. It is an able, learn
ed, but most paradoxical and irreligious performance. Its principles would
justify all social disorder and all impiety. But the scales of the Leviathan are
very hard to penetrate, and have injured most of the weapons which have been
tried upon it. Lord Clarendon ' surveyed ' it, and Bishop Bramhall endeavored
to ' catch ' it ; but the monster still lived, exercising the ingenuity and courage
of many a successive combatant. The most formidable of his antagonists were
— Cumberland, in his work 'De Legibus JNatur^,' and Cudworth, in the 'Intel
lectual System.'
(e) The book of White to which Baxter here refers is, ' The; Grounds of Obedi
ence and Government,' which appeared in 1655. The author was a Catholic

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 2(37
Mr. James Harrington (they say, by the help of Mr. H.
NevUle ' ) had written a book in folio for a democracy, caUed
Oceana, s seriously describing a form near to the Venetian, and
setting the people upon the desires of a change. After this, Sir
H. Vane and his party were about their sectarian democratical
model, •> which Stubbs defended. ' Rogers, ^ Needham, ' and Mr.
Bagshaw," had also written against monai-chy before. In the
end of an epistie before ray book on ' Crucifying the World,'
I had spoken a few words against this innovation and opposition
to monarchy ; and having especiaUy touched upon ' Oceana' and
' Leviathan,' Mr. Harrington seemed in a Bethlehem rage ; for
priest, possessing considerable talents as a philosopher, and whose writings, both
on theological and phUosophical subjects, were numerous. He disputed some of
the dogmas of his own church, and used to wrangle with Hobbes, with whom he
was intimate. In the book above referred to, he justifies the resistance offered
to Charles I. and supported the govemment of Cromwell. He died in 1676, in
the seventy-fourth year ofhis age.
(f) Henry JSeville, according to Wood, was an ingenious and well-bred gentle
man, and a good but conceited poet. — Athen. Oxon. vol. iii. p. III9. He was an
active member of a political club to which Harrington belonged.
(g) ' The Commonwealth of Oceana,' by Harrington, appeared in 1656, and was
another of those theories of government, which were gendered during tlie Com
monwealth, and with which Baxter appears to have been greatly dissatisfied. It
was written in imitation of the ' Atlantis ' of Plato, and the ' Utopia ' of Sir
Thomas More ; and, like both its celebrated prototypes, deserves to be viewed
only as apolitical romance. It is constructed on the principles of pure republi
canism, and was therefore not more acceptable to Cromwell, than afterwards
to Charles, The author was one ofthe most active, restless spirits of the Com
monwealth, — ^ingenious and visionary, but very harmless. He died in a state of
insanity, having for some time before his death imagined that his perspiration
was turned into flies and bees. The celebrated Tolland collected his works, to
which he prefixed a Life. The ' Oceana ' is worth the reading for its ingenuity
and style.
(h) I suppose Baxter refers here to Vane's ' Healing Question,' in which he en
deavors to adjust the points of govemment on democratical principles, combined
with religion.
(i) Stubbs wrote an 'Essay in Defence ot the Good Old Cause; or, a Dis
course concerning the use and extent of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in
Spiritual Affairs.' 1659. The preface to this work contains a defence of Vane ;
but he also wrote by itself ' A Vindication of that Prudent and Honorable Knight,
Sir Henry Vane, from the Lies and Calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, in a Moni
tory Letter to the said Mr B.' 1659. This is the book to which I suppose Baxter
aUudes. (k) John Rogers, the Fifth-Monarchy man, wrote ' Christian Concertation with
Mr Prynne, Mr Baxter, and Mr Harrington, for the True Cause of the Common
wealth.' 1659. ito. Tliis is intended as an answer ,to Prynne's ' Anatomy of the
Republic,' &c. ; and to Baxter's ' Holy Commonwealth,' and part of his ' Key to
Catholics.' Rogers was not destitute of parts and learning ; but he was one of
the most enthusiastic spirits of the excited age in which he lived.
(1) Marchmont Needham was one of the most celebrated political adventurers
ofthe times. He was author of many of the 'Mercuries,' as they were called,
which then flew about in all directions, and took aU sides of the great political
questions which agitated the country. He is said to havc been 'transcendently
gifted in opprobrious and treasonable droll,' which he did not scruple to employ
on aU occasions. Perhaps the phmphlet to which Baxter refers, as written by
him, is his 'Discourse ofthe Excellency of a Free State above a Kingly Govern
ment' 1660.
(m) The book of Bagshaw's referred to is a Latin treatise ' De Monarchia Ab-
soluta Politica,' &c. 1659. ' The arguments in this discourse,' says Baxter,
' seem to be such poor, injudicious, slender stuff, that it was one occasion of my
writing twenty arguments against Democracy, which Iput into the book which
I have since revoked, ' Tlic Holy Commnnwealth.' — Baxter's Kicond Admoni
tion to Bagshaw.

268

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

by way of scorn he printed half a sheet of foolish jests, in such
words as idiots or drunkards use, raihng at rainisters as a pack
of fools and knaves ; and by his gibberish derision persuading
men that we deserve no other answer than such scorn and non
sense as beseemeth fools. With raost insolent pride he carried
it, as if neither I nor any ministers understood at all what policy
was, but prated against we knew not what, and had presumed
to speak against other men's art, which he was master of, and
his knowledge, to such idiots as we, incomprehensible. " This
made me think it fit, having given that general hint against his
' Oceana,' to give a more particular charge, and withal to give
the world and him an account of my political principles, and
to show what I held as well as what I denied ; which I did
in that book caUed 'Holy Commonwealth,' as contrary to
his heathenish commonwealth. In which I pleaded the
cause of monarchy as better than democracy and aristocracy ;
but as under God the universal monarch. Here Bishop
Morley hath his matter of charge against rae, of which
one part is that I spake against unliraited monarchy, because
God himself hath limited all monarchs. If I had said that
laws limit monarchs, I might, amongst some men, be thought
a traitor and inxecusable ; but to say that God limiteth
monarchs, I thought had never before been chargeable with
treason, or opposed by any that believed that there is a God.
If they are indeed unliraited in respect of God, we have many
Gods or no God. But now it is dangerous to meddle with these
matters, most men say, Let God defend himself.
" In the end of this book is an appendix concerning the cause
of the parUament's first war, which was thus occasioned : Sir
Francis Nethersole, a reUgious knight, who was against the
lawfulness of the war on both sides, sent his man to me with
letters to advise rae to tell CroraweU of his usurpation, and to
counsel him to caU in the king ; of which, when I had given him
satisfaction, he sent him again with more letters and books to
convince me of the unlawfulness of the parUament's war, and
others attempting it at the same time, and the confusion,
which the army had brought upon us, being such as made me
very much disposed to think iU of those beginnings which had
no better an end, I thought it best to publish my detestation
and lamentation for those rebellious proceedings of the army ;
which I did as plainly as could be borne, both in an epistle to
them, and in a meditation at the end. I withal declared the
(n) Baxter could scarcely expect any other treatment than he here describes
from such men as Harrington. Politics was the element in which such men liv
ed and breathed — the field which they considered their own. They regarded
Baxter as leaving his proper business and meddling with theirs, when he wrote
on government, and were therefore disposed to say in banter, " Ne sutor ultra
crepidam," instead of reasoning with him.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 269
very truth, that hereby I was made suspicious and doubtful of
the beginnings or first cause, but yet was not able to answer
the arguments which the lawyers of the Parliament then gave,
and which had formerly inclined me to that side. I confessecl
that if men's miscarriages and ill accidents would warrant me
to condemn the beginnings whicli were for another cause, then
I should have condemned them ; but that not being the way, I
found myself yet unable to answer the first reasons, and there
fore laid thera down together, desiring the help of others to
answer thera, professing my own suspicion, and my daily prayers
to God for just satisfaction. And this paper is it that containeth
aU my crimes." °
Such is Baxter's own account ofthis work many years after its
publication. Beside the preface and conclusion, it contains
three hundred and eighty theses, or aphorisras, each of which is
Ulustrated at more or less length : beginning with, "There are
raen inhabitmg the earth," and ending with " A prudent godly
prince is so rare, that the people who enjoy such, ought greatly
to love, obey, and honor hira." The space between these very
evident points is filled up with a raultitude of discussions, some
more and others less interesting. On many of the subjects which
he discusses, Baxter had enhghtened views. He was the friend
of civU liberty, and an enemy to despotism and arbitrary power.
On both these subjects he occasionally wrote weU. He seems
also to have understood the great end and design of govern
ment to be, the good of the governed ; and describes more accu
rately than might have been expected, the nature of the British
constitution. On the magistrates' power or authority in matters
of reUgion, he was at fault, and writes like a person who imper
fectly understood the subject. He would never have been a
persecutor himself, but he saw no objection that men should be
compelled to subrait, for their own good, in what he regarded
as lesser matters. This, however, is very dangerous ground to
occupy. The most obnoxious part of the book, at the tirae which fol
lowed its publication, is the conclusion, where he defends the
doctrine of resistance to iUegal and oppressive governments, and
justifies the war on the part of the people of England against
the king. The foUowing passages states the principal grounds
of his opinion, in which, whatever reproach he had to endure at
the time, every friend of the British constitution now agrees
with him.
" The laws in England are above the king : because they are
not his acts alone, but the acts of king and parliaraent con-
junctiy, who have the legislative, that is, tiie sovereign power.
(o) Life, part i. pp. 118, 119.

270 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
This is confessed by the king in the answer to the nineteen
propositions. The king was to execute judgment according to
these laws, by his judges in his courts of justice : and his par
hament was his highest court, where his personal will and word
were not sufficient authority to suspend or cross the judgment
of the court, except in sorae particular cases subraitted to him.
The people's rights were evidently invaded : ship-money and
other irapositions were without law, and so without authority.
The new oath imposed by the convocation and the king, the
ejecting and punishing ministers for not reading the Book of
Sports on the Lord's-days, for not bowing towards the altar,
for preaching lectures, and twice on the Lord's-day ; with many
the like, were without law, and so without authority.
" The parhament did remonstrate to the kingdom, the danger
of the subversion of its reUgion and liberties, and of the coraraon
good and interest of the people, whose trustees they were : and
we were obliged to believe them both as the most competent
witnesses and judges, and the chosen trustees of our Uberties.
We are ourselves incapable of a fuU discovery of such dangers
tiU it be too late to reraedy them : and therefore the constitu
tion of the governraent having made the parliament the trustees
of our liberties, hath made thera our eyes by which we must
discern our dangers, or else they had been useless to us. The
forraer proceedings afforded us so rauch experience as made the
parliament's remonstrance credible. We saw the king raise forces
against the parliament ; having forsaken it, and first sought to
seize upon its merabers in a way which he confessed a breach
of its privilege. AU the king's counsellors and soldiers were
subjects, and legally under the power of the parliament. It
had power to try any subject, and adjudge thera to punishment
for their crimes. The offenders whom it would have judged,
fled from justice to the king and there defended themselves by
force. " When the parhament commanded us to obey thera, and
not resist thera, I knew not how to resist and disobey them,
without violation of the command of God, " Let every soul
be subject to the higher power," &,c. ; and without incurring
the danger of the condemnation there threatened to resisters.
I think none doubts but that coraraand obliged Christians
to obey the senate as well as the eraperor. When it was
confessed by the king that the legislative power was in the
three estates conjunct, and the estate was mixed, and conse
quently that the parliament had a part in the sovereignty, I
thought it treason to resist them, as the enemy did, apparentiy,
in order to their subversion ; and unlawful to disobey their just
commands, such as I thought these were.
" I had great reason to believe that if the king had con-

Uf RICHARO BAXTKk. 27 i
quered the parliament, the nation had lost all security of theii*
liberties, and been at his mercy, and not merely under his go
vernment ; and that if he had conquered them by such persons
as he then eraployed, it had not been in his power to have
preserved the commonwealth if he would. His impious and
popish armies would have ruled him, and used him as other
armies have done those that trusted them.
" I knew that the parhament was the representative body of
the people of the comraonwealth, who are the subject of the
coraraon good ; that the coramon good is the essential end
of govemment, and therefore that it cannot be a just war that,
by their king, is made against them, except in certain ex
cepted cases : and that the end being more exceUent than the
means, is to be preserved by us, and by no raeans to stand in
corapetition with the end. And, therefore, if I had known that
the parliament had been the beginners, and most in fault, yet
the ruin of our trustees and representatives, and so of all the
security of the nation, is a punishment greater than any fault
of theirs against a king can deserve ; and that their faults
cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth. I
owned not all that ever they did ; but I took it to be my duty
to look to the raain end. I knew that the king had aU his
power for the common good, and therefore that no cause can
warrant hira to make the commonwealth the party which he
shall exercise hostUity against. War against the parhament,
especiaUy by such an array, in such a cause, is hostUity
against them, and so against the commonwealth. All this
seemed plain to me : and especially when I knew how things
went before, and who were the agents, and how they were
minded, and what were their purposes against the people. "p
I doubt greatly whether, by any man of his own or of the
present age, a clearer exposition could be given of the Justify
ing causes ofthe civil war than these extracts furnish. They
afford an admirable specimen of the clear view which Baxter
had of the great question which so long distracted the country,
and sufficiently account for his own conduct and that of raany
others in these painful transactions. While many circumstances
compeUed him to review the past, his mind never underwent
any material change on those points. In the foUowing passage,
after having noticed the faults which had been comraitted on
both sides, and sorae reasons of regret pecuUar to hiraself, he
avows his deliberate conviction of the righteousness of the
cause, and declares what would be his future conduct under
simUar circumstances.
" I shaU continue with self-suspicion to search, and be glad
(p) Holy Commonwealth, pp. 470, 472, 474, 477, 478, 480, 4S1.

272

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

of any information that may convince rae if I have been mis
taken ; and make it my daily earnest prayer to God that he
will not suffer me to live or die irapenitently, or without the dis
covery of my sin, if I have sinned in this raatter. Could I be
convinced of it, I would as gladly raake a pubUc recantation
as I would eat or drink ; and I think I can say that I ara truly
wiUing to know the truth. But yet I cannot see that I was
mistaken in the raain cause, or dare repent of it, nor forbear
the same, if it were to do again in the same state of things. I
should do all I could to prevent such a war : but if it could not
be prevented, I must take the same side as then I did. And
my judgment teUs me that if I should do otherwise, I should be
guilty of treason or disloyalty against the sovereign power of the
land, of perfidiousness to the commonwealtii, of perferring of
fending subjects before the laws and justice, the wiU ofthe king
above the safety of the coramonwealth, and consequently
above his own welfare; and that I should be guilty of giv
ing up the land to blood, or to rauch worse, under pretence
of avoiding blood in a necessary defence of aU that is dear
to us." 1
' The Holy Comraonweahh ' was pubUshed at a very critical
time, just as Richard CroraweU was faUing, and before it ap
peared whether a repubhc or the old monarchy was to occupy
his place. " It was written," the author teUs us, " whUe the Lord
Protector, prudently, piously, faithfully, to his immortal honor,
did exercise the government." Unfortunately, with Richard fell
the liberties of England for many a year ; and the powers that
came to be, took care to reraeraber the aUeged sins of Baxter
committed in this work. It was often quoted against him, and
its sentiments greatly misrepresented. Araong others, it was
attacked by Thoraas Tomkins, a high-church clergyman, aud
a decided opposer of toleration and the privileges of the dissent
ers after the Restoration, in his ' Rebel's Plea exarained ; or,
Mr. Baxter's Judgment concerning the late War.' 1660. 4to.
Tomkins was the nephew of an old accquaintance of Baxter, a
prebendary at Worcester, where he was a schoolboy when Bax
ter lived in the country. After writing this book he was created
a doctor, and made chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury
Baxter says, his ' Rebel's Plea' " was a confutation of such
passages iu his ' Holy Commonwealth,' as he least understood,
and could raake raost odious." ' This is not the only book
which Torakins wrote against the Nonconforraists. fie was
author of ' The Inconveniences of Toleration ; or the Modern
Pleas of Toleration considered ;' a book on which Baxter
bestows some animadversions in his ' Apology for the Noncon-
(q) Holy Commonwealth, pp. 486, 487. (r) Life, part ii. p. 374.

OF RICHAUD BAXTER. 273
formists. Ministry.' The author was in high esteem with Shel
don who made him rector of Larabeth, and conferred on him
other preferments. '¦
Beside this direct attack, all the political adversaries of Bax
ter, such as Morley, ' L'Estrange, Long, and others, took occa
sion to reproach him for the sentiments of this book. At last,
in company with some of the writings of Owen, Locke, and
other friends of British freedom, it was consigned to the fire by
a decree of the University of Oxford. This reflected honor
rather than disgrace on Baxter ; and was in due time, as has
been mentioned elsewhere, araply avenged on the tirae-serving
body which thus dishonored itself.
Long before that tirae, however in consequence of the
incessant attacks made upon him, " on account of this work,
he pubUshed at the end of the preface to his ' Life of Faith,'
printed in 1670, his regret for having pubUshed the book,
and recaUs it. The document is very curious, and faUed to
answer its purpose. The scripta manet was too powerful
for Baxter's declaration of non scriptum. " Let the reader
(s) Athen. Oxon. vol. iii. p. 1047.
(t) Bishop Morley declares that it was on account of the sentiments avowed in
the ' Holy Commonwealth ' he refused to allow Baxter to preach in his diocese ;
and that he told him so when he waited on him to obtain permission to resume his
labors at Kidderminster : which he alleges Baxter concealed. This does no cred
it to the bishop ; and only shows how dangerous it then was for a man to preach
the Gospel, or be a friend to the liberties of his country. — See the Bishop of
Winchester's Vindication.
(u) One of the most furious attacks made on Baxter, in which the ' Holy Com
monwealth ' is referred to, was by a person of the name of Edward Pettit, M. A.,
in a work entitled ' Visions of Government,' published in 1684. After misrepre
senting the principles, and calumniating the character, of Baxter, he puts into tho
mouth of Bradshaw, — whom he infamously represents as president of hell, be
stowing the crown on Baxter, in a contest between him, Hobbes, and Neville, for
pre-eminence, — the following invective : " If he, whose faith is faction, whose
religion is rebellion, whose prayers are spells, whose piety is magic, whose puri
ty is the gall of bitterness, who can cant and recant and cant again, who can trans
form himself into as many shapes as Lucifer, (who is never more a devil than
when an angel of light, and like him, who, proud of liis perfections, first rebelled
in heaven.) proud of his imaginary graces, pretends to rule and govern, and con
sequently rebel on earth, be the greatest politician, then make room for Mr. Bax
ter. Let him come in and be crowned with wreaths of serpents, and chaplets of
adders 3 let his triumphant chariot be a pulpit, drawn on the wheels of cannon by
a brace of wolves in sheep's clothing ; let the ancient fathers of the church,
whom, out of ignorance, he has vilified j the reverend and learned prelates,
whom, out of pride and malice, he has abused, belied, and persecuted 5 the most
righteous king, whose murder, (I speak my own and his sense,) contrary to the
light of all religion, laws, reason, and conscience, he has justified, then denied,
then again and again and again justified j let thera ali be bound in chains to at
tend his infernal triumph to his ' Saint's Everlasting Eest ;' then make room,
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, Atheists, and politicians, for the greatest rebel
on earth, and next to him that fell from heaven." — Of the author of this malignant
production I can give no account. Beside his 'Visions of Government,' from
which this extract is given, I have two other books of his, ' The Vision of Pur
gatory,' 1680, and ' 'The Visions of the Reformation,' 1683. They all discover
marks of genius, though they leave itdifficult to divine the true character oftheir
author. In an engraved title to the ' Visions of Government,' Charles II. is rep
resented trampling on a monster with three heads — the Grand Turk, the Pope,
and a Presbyterian. The head of the Presbyterian is evidently intended for Rich
ard Baxter! VOL. II. 35

274 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
know," he says, " that whereas the bookseller hath in tiie
catalogue of my books, named my ' Holy Commonwealth, or
Political Aphorisms,' I do hereby recall the said book and pro
fess my repentance that ever I published it, and that not only
for sorae bye-passages, but in respect ofthe secondary part of the
very scope ; though the first part of it, which is the defence of
God and reason, I recant not. But this revocation I make with
these provisoes : that I reverse not all the raatter of the book,
nor all tbat raore than one have accused, as e. g. the assertion
that all huraan powers are liraited by God ; and if I raay not
be pardoned for not defying Detiy and humanity, I shaU prefer
that ignominy before their present triumph and fastus, who
defy them : " that 1 make not this recantation to the mUitary
fury and rebellious pride and turault against which I wrote it,
nor would have thera hence take any encourageraent for irapen
itence : that though I disUke the Roraan clergy's writing so
much of poUtics, and detest ministers raeddling in state matters,
without necessity or a certain call ; yet I bold it not simply un
beseeming a divine, to expound the fifth commandraent, nor to
show the dependence of human powers on the divine, nor to
instruct subjects to obey with judgraent and for conscience' sake :
that I protest against the judgment of posterity, and aU others
that were not of the same time and place, as to the raental cen
sure either of the book or revocation, as being ignorant of the
true reasons of thera both. Which things provided, I hereby
under my hand, as much as in me lieth, reverse the book, and
desire the world to take it as non scriptum." ^
The reasons which influenced him to take this singular step,
he assigns very openly and candidly in the following passage of
his Life : " Ever since the king came in, that book of mine was
preached against before the king, spoken against in the par
liament, and wrote against by such as desired my ruin. Morley,
bishop of Worcester, and many after him, branded it with trea
son, and the king was still told that I would not retract it, but
was stiU of the sarae raind, ready to raise another war : and
a person not to be endured. New books every year carae out
against it ; and even men that had been taken for sober and
religious, when they had a mind for preferraent, and to be taken
notice of at court and by the prelates, did faU on preaching or
(x) In this passage Baxter alludes particularly to Bishop Morley, who vindica
ted himself from the charge of being " a defier of Deity and humanity." Had
the bishop's notions of the divine character been more correct, and his political
theolog}' more accordant with the Bible, he would have been less known at
court, and would not have gloried in depriving Richard Baxter of a license to
preach the Gospel.
(y) Bishop Morley makes some very severe strictures on this recantation, a^
well as on the ' Holy Commonwealth ' itself. He considers, with some justice,
that the recantation is very equivocal, and affords little evidence that Baxter had
changed his mind. To a man of his high-church principles it necessarily appear
ed very unsatisfactory. — See the Conclusion of his 'Vindication, pp. I — 15.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 275
writing against rae, and especially against this book, as the
most probable means to accomplish their ends. When I had
endured this ten years, and found no stop, but that still they
proceeded to make me odious to the king and kingdom, and
seeking my utter ruin this way, I thought it my duty to remove
this stumbling-block out of their way, and wUhoiit recanting any
particular doctrine in it, to revoke the book and disown it, de-
sirmg the reader to take it as non scriptum, and teUing him
that I repented of the writing of it. And so I did, yet telling
him that I retracted none of the doctrine of the first part, which
was to prove the raonarchy of God : but for the sake of the
whole second part, I repented that I wrote it ; for I was re
solved, at least, to have this much to say against all that after
wrote, and preached, and talked against it, that I had revoked
that book, and therefore should not defend it. The incessant
bloody raalice of the reproachers made me heartily wish, on
two or three accounts, that I had never written it ; because it
was done just at the fall of the governraent, and was buried in
our ruins, and never that I know of did any great good ; be
cause I fiind it best for ministers to meddle, as Uttie as may be,
with matters of polity, how great soever their provocations may
be ; and therefore I wish that I had never written on any such
subject. I repented also that I meddled against Vane and Har
rington, which was the second part in defence of monarchy,
seeing that the consequents had been no better, and that my
reward had been to be silenced, imprisoned, turned out of all,
and reproached implacably and incessantiy as criminal, and nev
er Uke to see an end of it. He that had wrote for so little, and
so great displeasure, raight be tempted, as well as I, to wish that
he had sat still, and let God and raan alone, with raatters of
civU polity. Though I was not convinced of many errors in
that book, so called by some accusers, yet I repented the writing
of it as an infelicity, and as thatwhich did no good, but hurt." ^
Various opinions wiU be entertained of this singular mode of
recaUing a printed work ; and it raay seem improper, in the face
of Baxter's own protest against the judgraent of posterity, re
specting both the book and its revocation, to pronounce any
opinion on the matter. But all such protests are vain ; what is
pubUshed is public property, and no man has a right, after pub
lishing a book, to protest against others forraing or expressing an
opinion of it. It does not appear that Baxter ever changed his
mind respecting the substance of the sentiments of his ' Holy
Coraraonwealth,' but he regretted their publication, as he
became thereby involved in disputes which were foreign frora
the nature of his principal occupation, and exposed himself to
(z) Life, part iii. pp. 71,72.

276 THE LIFE AND tVRITINGS
reproach, which, as a rainister of Christ, he would rather have
avoided. It raight, perhaps, have been better had the book not
been published, but that being done, it is to be regretted he
should have thus recalled it. It contains nothing of which he
had any reason to be asharaed. The passages of it raost
objected to, are the parts which of aU others are raost creditable
to the judgment and feelings of Baxter; and respecting which
there is now scarcely any difference of opinion in this enlightened
country. I wiU not, however, defend the poUtical consistency
of Baxter. In these passages, he avows principles and approves
of conduct not reconcUable with his opposition to the doctrines
of Hooker, on which I have remarked in another chapter. And,
indeed, in the ' Holy Coraraonwealth ' itself, there are posi
tions that it would be impracticable to harraonize. Considering
also what part he acted in connexion with the army of the
commonwealth, and the defence which he makes of his own
conduct, he ought to have been more sparing in his censures
of others who, in these affairs, do not appear to have acted
differently from hiraself, or to have been influenced in their
conduct by raotives less pure or patriotic. '^
In 1680, Baxter published his ' Church History of the Go-
verraent of Bishops, and their CouncUs Abbreviated.' This is
a quarto volume of raore than 500 pages, and, though chiefly a
corapilation, must have cost the author very considerable labor.
It contains an account of the leading transactions of Christian
princes and popes, and of the principal heresies and contro
versies tiU the Reformation. Its object is to inform the ignorant
of the state of the ancient churches, and to correct many mis
takes and misconceptions that prevail respecting the heresies of
former times, and the raeans employed to destroy or promote
thera. Ecclesiastical history is a very iraportant branch of study,
but one which is attended with many difficulties. The widely-
spread and diversified circurastances of the Christian church,
even frora the earUest period, render it difficult to arrive at
(a) Baxter tells a curious anecdote respecting Dr. South in connexion with his
' Holy Commonwealth.' " Bishop Morley having preferred a young man named
Mr. S — , orator of the University of Oxford, a fluent, witty, satirist, and one that
was some time mentioned to me to be my curate at Kidderminster ; this man,
being household chaplain to the lord chancellor, was appointed to preach before
the king, where the crowd had high expectations of some vehement satire. But
when he had preached a quarter of an hour he was utterly at a loss, and so unable
to recollect himself, that he could go no further, but cried ' The Lord be merci
ful to our infirmities,' and so came down. About a month after, they were resolv
ed yet that Mr. S — should preach the same sermon before the king, and not lose
his expected applause ; and preach it he did, little more than half au hour, with
no admiration at all of the hearers ; and, for his encouragement the sermon was
printed. When it was printed, many desired to see what words they were that he
was stopped at the first time, and they found in the printed copy all that he had
said first, and one of the next passages, which he was to have delivered, was
against me for my ' Holy Commonwealth.' — Life, part ii. p. 380.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 277
satisfactory views of many events in which it was concerned.
Those events were seldom recorded at the time, or by the per
sons who hved on the spot. Tlie early writers who undertook
to give Uie history of the church, were not well skilled in the
laws of historic truth and evidence, nor always well fitted to
apply those laws. Opinions and statements scattered over
the pages of the fathers and their successors, are often vague,
discordant, and unsatisfactory, presenting alraost endless per
plexity or matter of debate. While these and other causes
contribute to render ecclesiastical history very difficult, they
who have devoted themselves to it in modern times, look at the
subjects of their investigation through mediums which tend to
color or distort most of the facts passing under their review.
Their associations and habhs of thinking lead them unconscious
ly to attach modern ideas to ancient terras and usages. The
word church, for instance, alraost invariably suggests the idea
of a body allied to the state, and holding the orthodox creed.
The heretics of church history are generally regarded as men of
erroneous principles and immoral lives. CouncUs are bodies
representative, and clothed with soraething approaching to in-
falliable authority. Bishops are not regarded as pastors of par
ticular congregations, but ecclesiastical rulers of provinces.
All these things tend greatly to bewilder and perplex an in
quirer into the true state of the profession of Christianity during
a long succession of ages ; and from their distracting influence,
even the strongest minds can scarcely be protected. Imparti
ality is commonly professed, and, in most instances, honestly in
tended, but very rarely exercised.
That Baxter should be altogether free frora prejudice is not
to be supposed. But as he held with none of the great leading
parties of his own day on the subject of church government, he
was as hkely as raost men to ascertain the truth ; while total
regardlessness of the influence which his discoveries or their
promulgation raight have upon his own circurastances, raust
have operated powerfully in securing an honest declaration
of truth.'
His representation of the reason for undertaking this pub
lication, and especially the testiraony he bears respecting the
chief causes of the evils and contentions which have afflicted the
Christian church, are exceedingly iraportant.
" I found by the people of London, that raany, influenced
by the late confusions in this land, had got an apprehension that
all schisra and disorder carae frora ministers and people re
li) In the introduction Baxter alludes to Dr. Heylin's unjust aspersions on the
Presbyterians, and his seeming unconcern about the shedding of blood ; which
br ought upon him i fierce rejoinder from Vemon, in his preface to Heylin's Life,
with the repetition of the story of Baxter's killing a man, as the evidence of hie
bloody disposition ; and some remarks on the church history.

278 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
sisting the bishops, and that prelacy is the means to cure schism ;
so that seeing what church tyranny hatii done in the world,
they fly to it for refuge against that mischief which it doth prin
cipally introduce. Wherefore I wrote the history of prelacy,
or a contraction of aU the history of the church, especially Bin
nius and Baronius, and others, of councils; to show by the
testimony of their greatest flatterers what the councils and con
tentions of prelates have done. But the history, even as deU
vered by Binnius himself, was so ugly and frightful to me as the
perusing, that I was afraid lest it should prove, when opened by
me, a temptation to sorae to contemn Christianity itself for the
sake and crimes of such a clergy. As an antidote, therefore, I
prefixed the due commendation of the better, humble sort of
pastors. But I raust profess that the history of prelacy and coun
cils, doth assure rae that all tiie schisms and confusions that
have been caused by Anabaptists, Separatists, or any of the
popular, unruly sectaries, have been but as flea-bitings to the
church in comparison of tiie wounds that prelatical usurpation,
contention, and heresies, have caused. I am so far from won
dering that aU Baronius's industry was tiiought necessary to
put the best visor on such actions, that I wonder tiie Papists
have not rather employed all their wit, care, and power, to
get the histories of councils burnt and forgotten in the world ;
that they might have only their own oral, flexible tradition
to deliver to mankind ; what their interest, pro re nata, shall
require."" The first part of the work, in which he gives an account of
the primitive churches, showing most satisfactorily that they
were single congregations under the government of their respec
tive pastors or bishops ; witii the rise of diocesan episcopacy, and
the progress of corruption, tUl Christianity became amalgamated
with secular things and placed under the power of civU govem
ment, is tiie most important.
The views and reasonings contained in this portion of the
work, are fully supported by the best authorities. I regret that
ray Umits render it impracticable to make quotations : and to
follow him through his account of popes and councils, would be
unprofitable. As far as they are concerned, church history is little
better than a record of human depravity and impiety under the
name of religion. It is an alraost unbroken exhibition of tiie
lust and abuse of power — of irreligious arrogance and domina
tion — of the worst passions of human nature, seeking their
gratification, and displaying their raost malignant qualities, in
corabination with a pretended regard to the interests of the
pure and holy religion of Jesus.
(c) I.il'c'.pnrt iii. pp. mi, 182.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 279
This work of our indefatigable author did not pass whh
out aniraadveision. It was attacked by a clergyman named
Morrice or Maurice, chaplain to Archbishop Sancroft, in an
anonymous work, entitled ' A Vindication of the Primitive
Church Diocesan Episcopacy : in answer to Mr. Baxter's Church
History, as also to sorae parts of his Treatise of Episcopacy.'
1682. Svo. The great object ofthis work is to shake the autho
rity of Baxter's statements, and to vindicate the bishops from
what is laid to their charge. This led Baxter to write aud pub
lish his 'True History ofCouncils Enlarged and Defended.' 1682.
4to. This work is written with very considerable vigor and
spirit, and is in some respects more interesting than the former.
Baxter was stung and roused by some of the reproaches and
misrepresentations of his adversary, and defends himself ex
ceedingly weU. He was accused of want of learning, and of
want of accuracy ; of misquoting and mistranslating his authori
ties. The following extract contains a piece of his own history,
as well as a view of the extent of his reading, and of the au
thorities which he used ; it is therefore curious :
" Seeing these things are thought just matter for our accuser's
turn, I wiU crave the reader's patience whUe I tell hira the
truth. It is now about twenty-five years since I read the Ger
man history in the coUections of Freherus, Reuberus, and Pis-
torius, and about thirty years since I read the collections of
Goldastus. The Magdeburgers, Osiander, Sleidan, or any such
Protestants, I thought vain to allege to Papists. About seven
or eight years ago, I was accused for preaching, and fined by
Sir Thomas Davis ; and the warrant was sent by him to Sir
Edmund Bury Godfrey, to levy it on me by distress. I had no
way to avoid it, but bond fide to make away aU that I had.
Among the rest, I made away my library ; only borrowing part
of it for my use. I purposed to have given it almost aU to Cam
bridge, in New England ; but Mr. Thoraas Knowles, who knew
their Ubrary, told me that Sir Kenelme Digby had already given
tbem the Fathers, Councils, and Schoolmen, and that it was
history and comraentators which they wanted. Whereupon I
sent thera some of my coraraantators, and some historians, among
which were, Freherus', Reuberus', and Pistorius' collections ;
and Nauclerus, SabeUicus, Thuanus, Jos. ScaUger, ho. Gol
dastus I kept by rae, (as borrowed,) and raany more which
I could not spare ; the fathers, councUs, and schoolmen, I was
stopped from sending. Now, whetiier I was unacquainted
with those that partly stand yet at my elbow, and which I had
read so long ago, must depend on the credit of my memory ;
which, I confess, of late has grown weak : but not so weak as
to think that Marquardus Freherus was not one man, and a Pa
latinate CouncUlor, though it be names that I most forget. Why

280 THK LIFE AND WRITINGS
I gave not tiie christian names of Reuberus and Pistorius, whe
ther because I forgot them, or because I minded not so sraall a
thing, not dreaming what would be inferred iiom it, I remember
not. But when I wrote that abridgment, I made use of none
that I thought the Papists would except against. For the first
ages, I gathered what I renieiiibered out of the Fathers, and out
of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Evagrius, Theodoret, the Tri
partite, Nicephorus, Liberatus, Brev. Victor Vtic, Bede, and
such others as are by them received. Beside which, I prin
cipally foUowed and epitomized Binnius and Crab, and partiy
Baronius, with Platina, Onuphrius, Panunius, SteUa, Petavius,
and others of their own. I resolved I would not so much as
open Goldastus, or any Protestant collector, that they might
not except against their credit, and reject them as raalicious,
cursed heretics. Therefore, even those histories whicli be in
Goldastus, I would not take as out of hiin, but sorae of them
from the books published by others, and sorae as cited by Binnius,
Petavius, or other such : and tiiis is now the proof of my vanity.
" He accuseth me for not using Valesius' edition of Euse
bius, and those etiitions of the councils which he accounteth
the best. To which I say, I am not rich enough to buy them,
nor can keep them if I had them. Must none write but rich
raen ? The French councils would cost raore than many of us
are worth. We have had no ecclesiastical maintenance these
nineteen years, and we cannot keep the books we h-ave.
" As for ray using Hanraer's translation of Eusebius and
Socrates, ray case was as before described. Valesius I had not ;
Gryneeus I raade use of heretofore. But since I was, by con-
sti-aint, deprived both of my books and raoney to buy more,
when I wrote that abridgment, I had only Hanraer's transla
tion left rae : and if tbat sort of raen who forced rae to give
away ray books, to keep thera from being distrained on, will
make use, of this to prove me ignorant of them, the raatter is
very sraall to me.
" If you say I should not then have written, I answer, Could
tiiey so have sUenced us in the pulpit, they had more answered
their own judgment than mine. I had no use for critics,
nor for any thing in Eusebius and Socrates that depends on the
credit of the translator."
There is soraething very stinging in this and sorae other pas
sages of the present work, as appUed to the party by whom
Baxter was chiefly opposed. His defence of himself against
the other misrepresentations of this author, whicli refer both to
his work and to himself, are, in general, very satisfactory, but
do not require to be gone into.
(d) ' True History of Councils Defended,' pp. 56 — 59.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 2t>l
In die preface to this work, he gives some account of Job
Ludolph's • History of Ediiopia.' He then, in reply to L'Estrange,
gives a specimen of the readiest method of confuting Mr.
Baxter, by noticing the story of his kiUing a man, adding
the true account of that a^r, which has been ziven in the
first part of these memoirs. Annexed to the work is an admir
able anonjTnous pamphlet, by ilr. David Clarkson, ' Diocesan
Churches not yet Discovered in Primitive Tiraes ; or, a Defence
of the Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet.' Clarkson is well known as
the colleague and successor of Dr. Owen. On this occasion,
Baxter and he, though an Independent, wrote in conjunction.
They were agreed on the main points in dispute, viz., that dio
cesan episcopacy was not the primitive form of cburch govern
ment, but a departure from it. Clarkson was a man of great
piety and moderation, and of more accurate leaming than
Baxter, though far from equal to him in acuteness and contro
versial talents. *
Baxter also speaks, on his tide-page, of a detection of tiie
false history of Edward, Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross, in
Ireland. He refers to a pubhcation of Bishop ^^ etenhaU's,
entided, ' The Protestant Peace-!Maker,' published in 1682 ; in
a postscript to wbich are some notes on several of Baxter's
writings for peace. His lordship evidendy did not understand
tbe subject on which he wrote. His strictures are feeble, and
undeserving of the attention which Baxter bestowed on them.
The two works on church historv', which we have now noticed,
with the treatise on episcopacy, are among the best of Baxter's
writings, which have not been re-published, and weU deserve
tbe attention of inquirers into tbe a&irs of the church. ^
The ' Breviat of the Life of Mrs. Margaret Baxter, with
some account of her mother, Mrs. Hanmer,' was published
shortly after Mrs. Baxter's death, in i 661. Of this little work
considerable use has already been made, in noticing Baxter's
marriage, and his wife's death. Of Mrs. Baxter it is un
necessary again to speak; she possessed great piety, energy,

(e) Wood (Athen. Oxon. voL iv. p. 328) says Clarkson allerwards disowned
this book, liioD^ oo what antfaori^ ne does not Bay. He afterwards publlsbed
a Tezy admirable tract, ' PriioitiTe Episcopacy stated and cleared &om the Holy
ScTiptnres and Ancient Records.' 1688. 8to. To this work Manrice, then a Dr.,
published an answer, in a 'Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy.' I69I. Svo, Dr.
pSaxnice vas a person ^ reiy considerable leazning^ of i!?)uch he seeins si^-
cientlysensible in his controversy with Baxter.
(f) lliere is one fact mentioned in his 'True Historj- of Conncik Defended,'
which ought to be mentioned. It throws some light on the charge of persecoliflg
the Episcopalians, preferred against Cromwell and his party. "In the days of
the Dsnrpers I moved for a petition, that, when they granted liberty of conscience
to so many others, they would grant liberty' for the full exercise of the £piac(q>al
government to all that deserved it But tfi t Episcopal party that I spake to vsmdd
not endure it, as knmcin^ what bare Uberty would be to their cause, vtiUtt they
could have the sword to suppress those tbat yield not to their reasons.' p. 131,
TOL. U. 36

282 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
and benevolence, and was peculiarly fitted to be the wife of
such a raan. His account of her is full of affection, very mi
nute, and very faithful ; as it records sorae of her failings, as
well as her virtues. It is strikingly characteristic of the author.
He mentions in the preface, that in his wife's will he was par
ticularly requested to re-print five hundred copies of the funeral
sermon for her mother, written iu 1661, which leads him to
give some account of his writing the biographical sketch of his
wife and of some other individuals of his family.
" Being thus obliged, by her request, mine own afiections
urged me to premise this Breviat of her own Life ; written, I
confess, under the power of melting grief, and therefore perhaps
with the less prudent judgment ; but not with the less, but the
more truth, for passionate weakness poureth out all, which
greater prudence raay conceal. Conscionable raen's histories
are true, but if they be also wise, they teU us but sorae part of
truth ; concealing that which would do harm, and which the
depraved world cannot bear without abusing it. But we that
are less wise tell all the truth, too little regarding how men will
receive it.
" And hence comes all history, which hath not evidence equal
to natural, to be of less credit than most men think ; whUe bad
men lie, and good men leave out so much of the truth, as makes
the rest to be as another thing than altogether it would appear.
" And having purposed to write this breviat concerning my
dear wife, God having, the sarae year, taken away two raore of
my ancient faraily, I wrote a breviat of their lives also. One
was ray exceUent, holy raother-in-law, Mary the daughter of
Sir Thoraas Hunks, widow to my dear father. She was one of
the most humble, raortified, holy persons that ever I knew; and
Uved in longing to be with Christ, till she was a hundred years
old, wanting three or four, in full understanding, and at last re
joicing in the triuraphant, frequent hearing, and repeating the
ninety-first Psalra.
" The other was my old friend and housekeeper, Jane Mat
thews, who lived in pious, humble virginity, with eminent worth
to about seventy-six or seven-seven years, and died of mere
decay, without considerable pain or sickness, about a month or
six weeks before my wife.
" To these I add a fourth, a breviat ofthe life and death of
the worthy mother of ray wife, as to the time that I knew her.
But I have cast by these latter three, and much of the first,
by the counsel of wise friends, as things which they think that
strangers wiU not make so great a matter of, as love and near
ness made me do.
"As to these little private histories of mine own family
forementioned, I was loth to cast by my own mother-in-law's

or RICHARD BAXTKII.

life, she being a person of extraordinary holiness, Uving long
with Sir Robert Harley, whose lady was her cousin-german ;
afterwards at Shrewsbury, and after with my father and me,
he., in so great communion with God, contempt of the
world, and aU its pomp and vanity ; so great victory over the
flesh, and so strong desires to die ; and especially in such con
stant, fervent, successful prayer, that had marveUous answers,
as very few Christians attain.
" She is gone after many of my choicest friends, who within
one year are gone to Christ, and I am following even at the
door. Had I been to enjoy them only here, it would have been
but a short comfort mixed with the many troubles which aU our
£aUings and sins, and some degree of unsuitableness between tbe
nearest and dearest, cause. But I am going after them to that
blessed society, where life, light, and love, and therefore har
mony, concord, and joy, are perfect and everlasting."
To tbe Memoir of Mrs. Baxter itself, after the extracts
already given, I shall not any further advert. It as an interest
ing testimony to the character of a beloved and excellent
woman, who enjoyed the highest confidenee of this man of
God, and who devoted herself to promote his comfort and
usefulness to tbe end of life. He had intended to make his
account of her, and of all the circumstances connected with
their marriage, much more extended ; but was diverted from his
purpose by the advice of some judicious friends. His papers
on this subject have I supjiose been destroyed, which I do not
much regret ; though they would have gratified curiosity, they
might not answer any useful purpose.
Among tbe historical and biographical writings of Baxter,
may be properly classed his ' Penitent Confes.sion, and necessary
Vindication.' 1691. 4to. This must have been among the
latest of his productions, as a letter prefixed to it, addressed
to Bishop Stillingfleet, is dated June 13, 1691. Few men have
been subjected to greater or more calumnious misrepresentations
than Baxter. To these he was particularly exposed, not only
from the public part which he acted, and from his sentiraents as
a Nonconforraist, during a period of great difficulty, but from
the promptitude and honesty with which he always avowed and
published his convictions, respecting both himself and others.
He was a great lover of peace and of his friends ; yet he had a
StUl stronger love for truth and the interests of religion. The
man who could fearlessly sacrifice hiraself to what be believed
the cause of righteousness required, was not Ukely to be fasti
diously cautious in speaking of the conduct of others, whether
friends or foes.
Among his bitterest and moi* persevering enemies, was one
Long, a clergyman of Exeter, who appears to have considered

284 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
it his duty to hunt down the Nonconforraists in general, and
Baxter above aU others. According to Wood — " He was a
person weU read in the fathers', in Jewish, and other ancient
writings ; and rauch conversant with the works of the more
modern authors, as having been weU skiUed in the writings of
the several sorts of English separatists, especially of the Presby
terians. The great danger and destructiveness oftheir rebellious
principles and practices (reducing them into faithful historical
narratives from their first origin and source quite down to these
tiaies) kw, if any, have fully and truly represented in their
proper colors, fairly exarained, or raore clearly refuted and set
out. He hath also undergone that very toilsome drudgery of
reading many or most of Mr. Richard Baxter's books, and
hath published reflections and animadversions on several of
them." s
This violent individual, after attacking several of Baxter's
controversial pieces, to which reference is elsewhere made,
vented his full malignity in an anonymous volume, iraputed
to him by Baxter, and which he afterwards acknowledged.
' The Unreasonableness of Separation, the second part ; or, a
further impartial Account of the History, Nature, and Pleas of
the present Separation from the Church of England, with special
Remarks on the Life and Actions of Mr. Richard Baxter.' 1681 .
Svo. The zeal and labor employed in getting up this book are
quite extraordinary, in order to show tbat Baxter was a bad man,
and a great heretic. His life and writings must have been ran
sacked in the most assiduous manner, to furnish the mis-state^
ments and mis-representations with which the book abounds.
To investigate their nature, and expose their injustice, would fill
up a volume. Happily, it is not necessary to the just and fair re
putation of Baxter ; that has outlived the abuse and the very
memory of Long ; who is now known only to the curious in the
history of those times as the calumniator of Owen and Baxter,
the defender of High-Church principles in religion, and of pas
sive obedience in poUtics. That he was a man not altogether
destitute of talents, evident even from his mischievous books ;
but talents, however great, when prostituted to evil purposes, and
employed in opposing or vUifying raen of principle and integrity,
ultimately bring upon their possessor the displeasure of God,
and the indignation of men. ^
(g) Athen. Oxon. vol. iv. p. 485.
(h) The only part of Long's book which it is worth while to quote, is the
coMclasion, which he Calls a characteristic epitaph of Saxter. It will illustrate,
better than any thing I could say. Long's vituperative character ; —
Hic jacet Richardus Baxter,
Theologus Armatus,
Loiolita Keformatus,
Heeresiarcha jErianus,
Schismaticorum Antisighanus :

OF RICHARD BAXTKR. 28.'»
Baxter wrote an answer to this scurrUous production at the
time; but delayed its publication tUl he received in 1691 an
anonymous letter, signed " Cantianut De Minimis," calling
him to repent and to pubUsh his Confessions like Augustine.
Baxter printed this letter at the end of one prefixed to his
Confession, addressed to Stillingfleet, and thanks the writer,
though unknown to him, for giving him the opportunity of pro
fessing his repentance. The greater part of the letter would
demand to be quoted, did tbe limits ofthis work adrait of it, as
iUustrative of the spirit of Baxter, and explanatory of his designs
in writmg his Confession.
After this excellent prefatory letter, he proceeds to give
some account of the necessity of repentance, and of the things
for wbich others blamed him, but for which he did not blarae
himself. He then reviews many particulars in his Ufe and
writings, defending, extenuating, explaining, or retracting, as
matters seemed to require. As the statements, in connexion
with his own life, have been often used in this work, this pam
phlet requires no further notice. It is a singular evidence of
the integrity, tendemess of conscience, and regardlessness of
the applause or censure of men, for which Baxter was so
remarkable. Cujus pruntUB disputandi peperit,
Scriptitaudi cacoethes nutrivit,
Predicandi zelus intemperatus maturavit,
ECCL£SI.£ SCABIEH :
Qui dissentit ab iis quibuscum consentit maximi ',
Tum sibi cum aliis Nonconformis,
Praeteritis, praisentibus, et futuris ;
Regum et Episcoporum Juratus hostis,
Ipsumq ; Rebellium solenne fcedus ;
Qui natus erat, per septuaginta Annos
Et Octoginta Libros,
Ad perturbandas Regni Hespublicaa,
Et ad bis perdendam Ecclesiam Anglicanam ;
Magnis tamen excidit ausis :
Deo Gratias.
The following is a translation of this effusion of malice and wickedness ; —
Here lies Richard Baxter, a militant divine, a reformed Jesuit, a brasen heresi-
arcb, and chief ofthe schismatics: whose itch of disputing begat, whose humor
of writing nourished, and whose intemperate zeal in preaching brought to its ut
most height, the leprosy of the churcn ; who dissented from those with whom
he most agreed, from himself as well as from all other Nonconformists, past,
present, and to come; the sworn enemy of kings and bishops, and in himself the
very bond of rebels ; who was born, through seventy years and eighty books, to
distnrb the peace of the kingdom, and twice to attempt the ruin of the Church
of England ; in the endeavor of which mighty mischiefs he fell short. Thanks be
to God.
It was the fashion to write epitaphs for Baxter : another scurrilous enemy pro
posed to write over his tomb the two lines which are mangled in the last part of
the above^ 'Hic situs est Baxter, currus aurigapatemi,
Quem ei non tenuit, magnis tamen excidit ausis.'
— Young's Anti-Baxteriarue.
The above quotations justif the remark of Granger, ' Baxter's enemies have
placed him in hell ;' that candid and spirited writer, however, juitly adds, ' but
every man that has not ten times the bigotn' that Baxter himself had, must con-
/^lude that ho is in a better place.' — Biog. Hist. vol. v. p. 81.

286 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
The last work in this department remaining to be noticed
is the largest, and, at the same time, the raost important of aU.
' ReUquise Baxterianae : Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the
most memorable passages of his Life and Times, faithfully pub
lished from his own original manuscript, by the Rev. Matthew
Sylvester.' foi. 1686. Of a work, tbe most valuable parts of
which have been incorporated in this volume, the reader wiU
not expect to be furnished with a detaUed description in this
place. A few particulars, however, are necessary to he stated.
It contains an account of Baxter, from his birth, in 1615, to
the year 1684; including his personal transactions, or private
life, his ministerial life, and his views of the great public affairs
of his times. It is divided into three parts : the first extending
from his birth to the time of the Comraonwealth ; and including
some occurrences which happened afterwards. The second
goes back to the Westminster Assembly, and to the civil wars,
and concludes with the year 1665, at the time of the plague
in London. The thu-d, which he began to write in 1670,
takes up the narrative where it had broken off", and brings it
down to about 1684. There is also a large appendix of pa
pers and letters of various degrees of interest.
Considered as an account of Baxter and his times, it is an
invaluable document ; but it is exceedingly to be regretted that
it fell into the hands of so incompetent an editor as Sylvester.
He was a very good raan, but utterly unfit for the task which was
devolved upon him. Instead of digesting the materials which
Baxter had left in the roughest state, he appears to have printed
them with all their imperfections, and with scarcely any regard
to arrangement. The consequence is, the book is almost un
readable, except for the purpose of consultation ; and even that
is attended with much difficulty from its disorderly disposition.
It is also printed with reraarkable inaccuracy, either from the
editor or the printer, in numberless places, grossly mistaking the
author's meaning, or leaving it uniteUigible. The following par
agraph from Sylvester's preface, sufficiently justifies what I have
now stated.
" As to the author's ordering and digesting ofhis own memoirs
a rhapsody it now appears ; and as to method and equaUty of
style, somewhat below what curious readers might expect : yea,
and from what it had been, had it but passed the author's stricter
thoughts and view. Yet we shaU find the history greatly use
ful, though not exactly uniform ; nor is it so confused as to be
incapable of easy references, and reductions to such proper or
der as may best please the reader, if the design be clear and
worthy, viz., to set in open Ught the degenerate age he lived in ;
the magnalia of grace and providence as to himself; his self-
eensurings on all occasions ; caution and conduct unto others ;

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 2S7
and tracing aU events to their genuine sources and originals.
The judicious reader will improve such things. There were
several papers loosely laid, which could not easily be found when
needed. And the defectiveness of my very much declining
memory made me forget, and the more because of haste and
business, where I had laid them after 1 had found them. Some
few papers mentioned, aud important here, are not yet found,
though searched after, wbich yet, hereafter, may be brought to
¦ light amongst some others intended for the pubhc view, if God
perrait. The reverend author wrote thera at several tiraes, as
his other work and studies and frequent infirrahies would admit
of. He was more intent upon the matter than the method ; and
finding bis evening shadows growing long, as the presage of his
own approaching and expected change, he was wiUing, through
the importunity had, rather that the work was done soraewhat
imperfectly, than not at aU. It is true, indeed, tbat he hath left
us nothing of the last seven years of his Ufe, save his apology
for his accused ' Paraphrase and Notes on the New Testament ;'
for which he was so fiercely prosecuted, imprisoned, traduced,
and fined. And though some pressed me to draw up the sup
plemental history of his life, yet the wisest that I could consult
advised me to the contrary ; and I did take their counsel to be
right and good."
The chief value of this work consists in the faithful portrait
which it presents of the excellent and venerable author. It
exhibits him at full length, displaying all his greatness, his
weaknesses, and his peculiarities. It enables us to live whh Bax
ter, and in Baxter's tiraes. It opens his heart, and enables us
to read, without disguise, what was passing there. It opens his
chamber door, and discloses the retirement and the privacies
of the man of God — ^holding fellowship with his Maker and
Redeemer — mourning over his deficiencies and sins — wrestling
in prayer, and rejoicing in hope. It conducts us to his pulpit,
and places us almost within reach of the lightning of his eye,
and the music of his voice — arresting attention, flashing con
viction, penetrating with sorrow, or filling with peace and joy.
It inti-oduces us to his flock, and makes us familiar with his
pastoral visits, his catechetical labors, his faithful discipUne.
It places him before us as the centre of an extended circle of
correspondents, who looked to him for counsel to guide, for
encouragement to act, for comfort to suffer — vigilant, tender,
and conscientious. It exhibits him as the patriot, alive to aU
the wrongs of his country, and endeavoring to redress or miti
gate them ; ambitious, not of ease, honor, or preferment ; and
regardless of all personal interests, if he might but promote
the public good. It depicts him as the steady and devoted
witness and confessor of Christ; enduring wrongfuUy for his

288 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
blaster's sake, with aU patience and long-suffering with joyful
ness. It is such a book as cannot be read without the deepest
interest by all who have any respect for Baxter, for the class of
persons to which he belonged, or for tbe period in wbich he
Uved. Baxter's account of public occurrences, in some of the most
important of which he was not merely personally but deeply
engaged, raust be received with aUowance for those mis
takes to which the most candid and upright men are Uable ;
and for those prejudices of party and of system, from which it
is obvious Baxter was not exempted. Wherever he records
what he said or did, or what occurred under his own eye, the
fuUest dependence raay be placed upon his statements. His
reasonings on facts may frequentiy be liable to objection ; and
when he speaks of the conduct and principles of others, on
the ground of what he heard, we must examine what he
says by the established laws of evidence. The period of
which he treats did not belong to the ordinary course of the
world. There was nothing common-place in its features.
Politics, reUgion, law, government, all assuraed new aud strange
characters. AU classes of raen were thrown out of their ac
customed circumstances and relations, and assumed forms and
habits, novel and strange. It was impossible to think, speak, or
write, but as partizans. Hence, the difficulty in arriving at true
and accurate views of many of the individuals and affairs of
those times. Baxter affords iraportant aid ; but impUcit confi
dence must not always be placed in his judgment, or in the re
ports which he received from others. I have introduced every
thing important in his narrative, in bis own language, making
the required verbal and grammatical corrections ; but I have
frequentiy corrected his statements and disputed his reasonings
in the notes. Justice to Baxter required that I shoidd faith
fuUy record his views ; justice to truth, and to the light with
which we are now furnished, requured that I should not sup
press my own-
Dr. Calamy has left us, in ' His Own Life,' the foUowing ac
count of this pubhcation, which shows, that had it been under
his care, it would have appeared in a more improved form.
" This work," he says, " was much expected, and had been
long eamesdy desired, ilr. Baxter left it, with his other MSS.,
to the care of his beloved friraid, Mr. Sylvester, who was chary
of it to the last degree, and not very forward to let it be seen ;
yet bad not leisure enough to peruse and publish it. After some
time, I obtained the favor of the MS., and read it over and
discoursed with him about the contents with all imaginable
freedom. I found the good man coimted it a sort of sacred
thing to hare any hand in making alterations of any sort, in

Ol' lllCIIAItl) UAXTK.n. 289
which I could not but apprehend he went too far, and was
cramped by a sort of superstition.
" Of this I was the raore fully convinced upon my seeing se
veral passages in tiie MS. that I could perceive likely to do
more hurt than good ; and being informed, upon inquiry made,
that he had a discretionary power left hirn by his deceased
friend, I freely told bim some things must be left out, or he
would be charged with great weakness. He asked for instances ;
and I began with Mr. Sylvester's own character, and told him 1
could not see how he could, with decency, let that stand, tiiough
itwas an instance ofthe author's kindness to him, when he
himself was to be the publisher. He seeraed surprised and
struck, and upon my turning to it and reading it to him, owned
that that should be altered, and empowered rae to do it. I fur
ther mentioned to hira sorae few rteflections on persons and
farailies of distinction, which would be offensive, though the
matters related were true enough. These, also, he suffered
me to blot out. I then fastened on some other things relating
to Mr. Baxter hiraself, about a dreara of his, and his bodily
disorders and physical raanageraent of hiraself, and sorae
other things that were too mean, the publishing of which
I told him to censure. After a great deal of discourse, he
suffered these also to be expunged. The contents prefixed to
Mr. Baxter's narrative, and the index at the end, were of my
drawing up. For my pains, I had from the booksellers the
present of a copy." '
Notwithstanding the remarks of Dr. Calamy, Sylvester brought
out the Life in a most unfinished state ; and fuU of the sort
of gossip, and tiresorae digressions, which he had been en
treated to orait. Even the index drawn up by Calamy, reflects
little credit on his skUl or industry ; being not more correct
or coraplete than tbe work itself.
Of this work, Calaray justly observes, " It raet whh the same
treatraent, as Baxter in his lifetirae was rauch used to, botli as to
his person and his writings. It has been valued by sorae, and
as rauch sUghted by others. But where it has been most freely
censured, it has been generally acknowledged to contain a col
lection of many valuable things of divers kinds." '' It was first
attacked by Baxter's indefatigable adversary. Long ; who
published, in 1697, 'A Review of Mr. Richard Baxter's Life;
wherein many mistakes are rectified, some false relations
detected, sorae oraissions supplied, out of his other books ; with
remarks on several raaterial passages.' 8vo. This volume is in
fact only a repetition of the ' Second Part of the Unreasonable
ness of Separation,' published by Long, in 1682, with additions
(i) Calamy, vol. i. pp. 376—380. (k) Pref. to Calamy's Abridg.
VOL. II. 37

290 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
ofthe same malignant nature. Of this man of violence and
war, enough has already been said. Baxter's account of his
former attack upon him is justly apphcable to the present.
His object is not to correct the mistakes or errors of Baxter,
but to prove him to have been a Uar, and a viUain, and that the
men of his party were generally no better. It is unnecessary to
vindicate Richard Baxter from such charges ofthe Rev. Thoraas
Long, prebendary of Exeter.
The work was attacked with no less virulence and ma
hgnity by a person named Young, who, Calamy says, came
from Plyraouth. He entities his smaU Grub-street Ubel,
' Anti-Baxterianae : or Animadversions on a book entitled Re-
Uquiae Baxterianae.' 1696. 12mo. It is difficult to divine the
motive or object of this worthless performance ; the author of
which seems to have been crazed as well as wicked. He talks
all sorts of nonsense and ribaldry ; speaking soraetiraes as a
churchman, and sometiraes as a dissenter : so that no correct
opinion can be formed, either of his sentiments or designs, from
this publication.
Dr. Calamy pubUshed in 1705, 'An Abridgment of Mr.
Baxter's History of his Life and Times. This work appeared
at first in one volume, Svo; but in 1713, the author re-pub
lished it in two voluraes, with a continuance of the history of
the Dissenters tiU 171 T, and an account of the ejected minis
ters. In 1727, he published 'A Continuation of the Account
of the ejected Minister ; ' so that the complete work raakes four
considerable voluraes. As an abridgeraent of Baxter it is very
faithful, but duU ; because it is a continued translation of Baxter's
own narrative frora the first to the third person : thus destroying
the charra of the finest of Baxter's personal descriptions, and
necessarUy fettering the style of Calamy throughout. The
entire work, however, is replete with valuable, and in general,
accurate information respecting the character, principles, and
sufferings, of the Nonconformists.
" This work," the author says, " cost me no littie pains, and
was more taken notice of in the world, and got me more friends
and eneraies too, than I could have expected or iraagined. I had
the thanks of several in the estabUshed church, as weU as of a
great number out of it. Many also were displeased, and some
went so far as to threaten my abridgement with the public censure
of the convocation. A dignified clergyman discoursing to that
purpose with one of my booksellers, that had a concern in the
work, and teUing him what he had heard from several, that
there was a design of that nature on foot, the bookseller re
quested him to be so kind as to tell any members of tbe convo
cation, that if they would pursue that design, and bring it to
bear, he would wiUingly present such as were active in it with

OF RICHAUD BAXTRR. 291
a purse of guineas, and did not doubt but the consequence would
turn to good account to him in the way of business. This being
reported, there was no raore talk heard of that nature.
" Araong other censures. Dr. Williara Nichols, some time
after publishing a Latin defence of the doctrine and discipUne
of the Church of England, charges me in his historical Ap
paratus, ' with hard and severe reflections running through my
work."" As a counterpart and counteraction to Baxter and Calamy,
John Walker, a clergyman of Exeter, published in a folio
volurae, ' An Atterapt towards recovering an Account of the
Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy ofthe Church ofEngland,
Heads of CoUeges, Fellows, Scholars, fee, who were seques
tered, harassed, Sic, in the late time of the grand Rebellion ;
occasioned by the ninth chapter, now the second volurae, of Dr.
Calamy's Abridgraent,' &;c. 1714.
It is impossible to deny that many of tbe clergy suffered
severely during the civil wars, which no doubt involved raany
worthy individuals and famUies in undeserved as well as severe
distress. Walker, it is evident, bestowed great pains to repre
sent their hardships. But his attempt falls far short of the book
to which it was intended as a reply. It is exceedingly incorrect
in the statement of numbers, in tbe representation of rnany
occurrences, and in general is deficient in historic fidelity. It
cannot be referred to as a book of authority.
" My work," says Calamy, " was also warmly reflected on in
a pamphlet, entitied, ' A Case of present Concern in a Letter
to a Member ofthe House of Commons, in Mr. Wesley's defence
of his letter concerning the education of Dissenters in their pri
vate academies ; in a sermon of Mr. Stubbs, entitled, ' For God or
for Baal, or no Neutrality in Religion ; ' and in alraost all the warra
and angry pamphlets which at that time swarraed frora the press
in great plenty. ' Aniraadversions ' were published upon rae
in a dialogue ; my Abridgeraent was said to ' deserve to be
conderaned by public authority, and to undergo the fiery trial ;
and there carae out a rebuke to Mr. Edmund Calamy, author
ofthe Abridgement of Mr. Baxter's Life by Thomas Long, B. D.
But he was a man of such a temper, and the spirit that ran
through his writings was so bitter, and had such a mixture of
weakness with fury, that it seeraed to little purpose to offer at
pursuing the arguraent, and therefore I forbore." "
In the tenth chapter of his Abridgement, Calaray reduces to
(1) Dr. Nichols' work was replied to by Mr. Peirce of Exeter, in his ' Vindica
tion of the Dissenters.' Both Nichols and Peirce published first in Latin ; but
their works afterwards appeared in English. Those who are disinclined to read
larger publications, will find in these two volumes the substance of the contro
versy between the Church and the Nonconformists.
(m) Calamy's own Life, vol. i. pp. 446 — 449.

292 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
distinct heads the reasons of the Nonconformists for separating
from the church of England. This part of the work is written
with great care and judgment, and was considered at the tirae
one of the ablest defences of the Nonconforraists which had ap
peared. It was therefore attacked by the Rev. Thoraas Ollyffe,
rector of Durton and Hedgerly, in his ' Defence of Ministerial
Conforraity,' which came out in tbree parts in the years 1703,
1705, and 1706. The celebrated Dr. Hoadly, afterwards
bishop of Bangor, also entered the lists with Calamy in ' The
Reasonableness of Conforraity to the Church of England ;' which
appeared in two parts, and went through several editions. In
reply to both these antagonists, Calamy published in three suc
cessive parts, occupying as many voluraes, his ' Defence of
Moderate Nonconforraity.' 1703-4-5. The controversy was
managed with great abUity on both sides, and affords by far the
fuUest view of the points in debate between the Church and the
Nonconformists to be found in our language. °

CHAPTER xn.
DE-yOTIOXAL WORKS.
Ihtroductory Observations — * The Saint's Everlasting Rcf't' — Written fbr hia own use in the
time of Sickness — Comp[>3ed in Six Months— Notices of Brook, Pyro, and Hampden, whose
names are oraitted in the latter Editions — DeBCripticm, Character, and Usefulness of the
Work — Attackftd by Firmin — Baxter's * Answer to his Exceptions ' — * The Divine Life * — Oc
casioned by a request of the Countess of Balearra-s — Its Object and Excellence — * Funeral
Sermona * for various Persons — ' Treatise of D'iath '^' Uying Thoughts ' — ' Reformed Lit
urgy ' — * Paraphrase on the Xew 'fc-^tament ' — ' .Monthly Preparations for the Communion '
' Poetical Fragments ' — ' Additions ' to the Fragments — ' Paraphrase of the Psalms * — Gene
ral Review of his Poetry — Conclusion.
The talents of Baxter as a writer appear in great advantage
in every department in which they were employed. As a con
troversialist, he had not only no superior, but no equal in his day.
In the field of theological warfare he was a giant, and few indi
viduals who attempted to grapple with hira, had reason to be
proud of their success. In the practical instruction of religion
he was not less distinguished. His knowledge of the word of
God, and of the corrupt workings of the human heart, was
profound ; whUe his power over the minds and the affections of
(n) It called forth the commendation of John Locke, who declared that while
the author " stood to the principles there laid down, he had no occasion to be
afraid of any antagonist." — Calamy's Oton Life, vol. ij. p. 31.

OF RICHARD U VXTER. J'.)3
Others, has been evinced by the numbers who have derived the
highest benefit from his preaching and his writings. It is an
extraordinary circumstance that, amidst the multiplicity of his
labors, and the variety of his controversial discussions, he was
enabled to preserve uninjured, during a long period of years, a
more elevated tone of devotional feeling than has usually been
enjoyed by Christians, even in the most favored walks of life.
This wUl appear in tbe foUowing review, which comraences with
the first and raost popular of his works, and closes with alraost
the last production of his pen.
' The Saint's Everlasting Rest,'" though the second book
which Baxter published, was the first he wrote ; and had he never
written another, it alone would have endeared his raeraory for
ever, to aU who cherish the sublime hopes of the Gospel., " It
was written by the author for his own use during the time of his
languishing, when God took him off" frora all public employ
ment;" and furnishes an admirable iUustration of the richness
and vigor of his mind, as well as of the great sources of its
consolation. " WhUe I was in health," he says, " I had not
the least thought of writing books, or of serving God in any
more pubhc way than preaching ; but when I was weakened with
great bleeding, and left solitary in my chamber at Sir John
Cook's in Derbyshire, witbout any acquaintance but my servant
about me, and was sentenced to death by the physicians, I
began to conteraplate more seriously on the everlasting rest, which
I apprehended myself to be just on the borders of. That my
thoughts might not too much scatter in my meditation, I began
to write something on that subject, intending but the quantity
of a sermon or two ; but being continued long in weakness,
where I had no books and no better eraployment, I followed it
on, till it was enlarged to the bulk in which it is published. The
first three weeks I spent on it was at Mr. Newel's house, at
Kirkby MaUory, iri Leicestershire ; a quarter of a year more,
at the seasons wbich so great weakness would allow, I bestowed
on it at Sir Thomas Rous's in Worcestershfre ; and I firushed it
shortly after at Kidderminster." p
Thus, in less than six months, and those months of pain and
sickness, he produced a quarto volume of more than eight hun
dred pages, rich in Christian sentiment, wonderfully correct
and pomted in style, and fertUe in most beautiful illustrations.
" The marginal citations," he teUs us, " I put in after I came
horae to my books, but almost all tbe book itself was written
when I had no book but a Bible and a Concordance ; and I found
that the transcript of the heart hath the greatest force on the
hearts of others."
(o) Works, vols. xxii. xxiii. (p) Life, p. 108.

294 THE LIFF. AND WRITINGS
The success and approbation which this work experienced,
were very great. This first edition was published in 1649; the
ninth edhion, now before me, appeared in 1662, and it passed
through several other editions in 4to. in the course of the few
foUowing years.
To each of the four parts into whichthe work is divided, de
dications are prefixed. The whole is dedicated to the people
of Kidderminster ; the first part to Sir Thomas and Lady Jane
Rous ; and the three following to the people of Bridgnorth,
Coventry, and Shrewsbury. The first tbree are addressed to
those who had enjoyed his stated or occasional labors ; the
last is " a testimony of his love to his native soU, and to his
raany godly and faithful friends tbere Uving." AU these ad
dresses contain raany faithful admonitions and warnings, rauch
calculated to irapress the rainds of those with whora he had as
sociated, 'i
Considerable alterations were raade in the latter editions ofthe
Rest. The most singular of these, is his omitting the names of
Brook, Harapden, and Pyra, as araong those whora he rejoiced
to have the prospect of raeeting in heaven ! It certainly would
have been better either not to have introduced them at aU, or to
have allowed their names to reraain. It looks like blotting them
out of the book of life. The expectation that this would please
the enemies of Puritanism, failed to be reaUzed ; whUe the
author, at tbe same time, did violence to his own feelings, as his
judgment of the individuals whose names he erased remained the
sarae. " The need," he says, " which I perceived of taking away
frora before such raen as Dr. Jane, any thing which they raight
sturable at, made me blot out the naraes of Lord Brook, Pym,
and Hampden, in all the impressions of the book that were made
since 1659 : yet this did not satisfy. But I must tell the reader,
that I did it not as changing my judgraent of the persons, weU
known to the world : of whora Mr. John Harapden was one,
whora friends and eneraies acknowledge to be raost erainent for
prudence, piety, and peaceable counsels ; having the most uni
versal praise of any gentieman that I remember of that age." "¦
This testimony to the Christian character of Hampden is parti
cularly important, as Baxter appears to have been very intimate
with him. His patriotisra wiU not be reckoned the less worthy
of estiraation, when it is ascertained to have been of Christian
origin and growth.
Though Baxter says nothing particular of Brook and Pym, it
may not be unacceptable to the reader to be furnished with their
(q) These dedications, with the exception of the first to the people of Kidder
minster, and that to Sir "Thomas and Lady Rous, do not exist in the first edition.
They appear to have been added afterwards.
(r) Life, part iu. 1T7.

OF RICH.SUD IJA.\TER. 295
character. Robert GreviUe, Lord Brook, was distinguished
for his patriotisra, his love of liberty, and his ardent piety.
He and Lord Say had fully determined to go to America, on
account of the civil and religious oppressions of Charles 1. ; and
though he never left England, one of the early settieraents was
named Saybrook, after tbe two noblemen. He was a leading
man in the Long Parliaraent, one of the coraraanders in its
army ; and was killed by a musket shot in the eye, at the storra-
ing ofa close in Lichfield, in 1643. ^
Lord Brook was an author as well as a soldier, and signalized
himself in ' A Discourse, opening the Nature of that Episcopacy
which is exercised in England.' 1641. 4to. This tract dis
covers a considerable portion of acuteness, and a respectable
degree of acquaintance with the argument both from Scripture
and antiquity. The piety and liberality of the writer are also
very strongly marked. The conclusion of it is worth quoting.
" To this end, God assistini; me, my desire, prayer, endeavor,
shaU still be to follow peace and holiness. And though there
may haply be sorae littie dissent between my poor judgment
and weak conscience, and other good men who are most clear
and strong ; yet ray prayer shall stiU be to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. And as many as walk after
this rule, peace, I hope, shall still be on them, and the whole
Israel of God." * Yet Brook was a sectary and fanatic ! He
wrote another book, ' The Union of the Soul and Truth,' which
I have not seen.
For the character of John Pyra, who died about the same
tirae with Lord Brook, it is enough to refer to Neal. " He was
an adrairable speaker, a raan of profound knowledge and expe
rience in business, and no less respected for his private worth
and piety than for his public talents. He was carried frora his
own house to Westminster on the shoulders of the chief men of
the House of Commons, the whole House going in procession
before him, preceded by the assembly of divines. Marshall
delivered a most eloquent and pertinent funeral serraon on
the occasion. ParUament ordered his debts to be paid, and
a stately monuraent to be built for him in the chapel of
Henry VII. "
Such were the raen whose names Baxter was induced, from
the clamor raised against thera, to erase frora the book in
which they had been honorably mentioned, as araong the ex
ceUent of the earth, who had gone to that rest, in which he
hoped shortly to join their glorified spirits. The claraor which
required the naraes of such raen to be blotted out, is disgraceful
(s) Whitelocke's Mem. p. 66. (t) Pp. 123, 124.
(u) Vol. iu. p. 82. (x) BaiUie's Letters, vol. i. p. 409.

29G -rU-d LUE AND (SKlTl.VGb
only to those who manifested it. No act of man, or lapse of
time, can erase from the roU of England's Christian patriots, the
names of Brook, Pym, and Hampden ; or deprive them of the
glory which justiy belongs to their illustrious deeds.
The fiist and last parts of the Saint's Rest, were aU that the
author originaUy designed ; the one containing the explanation
ofthe nature of tbe rest, the other ' a directory for getting and
keeping the heart in heaven, by heavenly meditation.' The last,
indeed, he teUs us, was the main thing intended m the writing
of the book, and to which aU the rest is subservient. The
second part treats of the certainty of the future rest, where
he enters much further, than is necessary in such a book, into
the evidences of Revelation, mixed up with discussions and sto
ries about apparitions, witches, and compacts with the devU;
which are blemishes on the fan: face of this beautiful production.
The third is on the use which ought to be made of the doc
trine and prospect of the everlasting rest. The first four
chapters of it being intended for secure and sensual sinners who
might happen to read the book ; and the three last for Chris
tians, to direct and corafort them in the time of affliction, and to
stir them up to seek the salvation of their brethren.
Comparing the first edition of this work, which is very rare,
with the subsequent ones, which the author considerably al
tered, I am disposed to give it the preference. It contains
chiefly his own thoughts, as they arose in his mind, and were
freely expressed during a period of severe affUcrion, when he
was far reraoved frora books, and had eteraity constantiy before
him. There are very few of those marginal notes and digres
sions which were suppUed at a future period, and that tend
much raore to distract than to interest the reader.
The very titie ofthis book operates Uke a charm on the mind
of a Christian, and leads him to associate with it the most
deUghtful idea. Everlasting Rest presents to the wearied,
harassed, suffering spirit, a prospect fuU of glory and repose.
As the cessation of labor, the termination of suffering, and
the end of aU evil ; in connexion with the etemal enjoyment of
God, it is the sum of Christian blessedness : comprehending in
it all that is calculated to reconcUe to tbe trials of Ufe, and to
sustain under its labors and sorrows. It is a rest which consists
not in indisposition or mcapacity for action, or inthe indulgence
of indolence and sloth ; but which impUes activity without weari
ness, and exertion without fatigue; the constant employment
of our best faculties on the worthiest objects and employments
securing that fehcity which is to be found only in doing the wUl
of God, without involving exhaustion of spirits, or diminution of
strength. What more can man desire to render him supremely
happy ?

OF RIOHARD RAXTF.R. 297
To such a person as Baxter, a martyr to disease and pain,
possessed of a spirit characterised by restless activity, which Was
constantly repressed and counteracied by a body iU adapted to
be the instrument of its boundless desires ; but who, notwith
standing this counteraction, continually struggled to do the work
oi Grod, the hope of rest raust have been exquisitely delightful.
Surrounded as he was at the same time with all that grieved his
sphit, and resisted his effort, it is not wonderful that he fled to
the promise of rest as his refuge and his anchor. While he did
this, however, he did not surrender himself to the mere contem
plation of the joy set before him ; it roused and excited hira to
stUl greater exertions; or induced that patience with joyfulness,
of which the aposdes speaks, and which is the pecuUar effect of
the Christian hope.
" It is sweet to look forward to die restitution of aU things ;
to thuik of a world where God is entirely glorified, and entirely
loved, and entirely obeyed ; where sin and sorrow are no raore ;
where severed friends shaU meet, never again to part ; where
the body shaU not weigh down the spirit, but shall be its fit
medium of communication with all the glorious inhabitants and
scenery of heaven ; where no discordant tones or jarring feelings
shaU interrupt or mar the harmony of that universal song which
shaU burst from every heart and every tongue, to him who
sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And it is not only
sweet, but most profitable to meditate on these prospects. It is
a raost healthful exercise. It brings the soul into contact with
that society to which it properly belongs, and for which it was
created. " The world think that these heavenly musings unqualify
the mind for present exertion. But this is a mistake, arising
from an ignorance of the nature of heaven. The happiness of
heaven is the perfection of those principles which lead to the
discharge of dut}'', and therefore the conteraplation of it must
increase our sense of the iraportance of duty. That happiness
is not entirely a future thing, but rather the completion of a
present process, in which every duty bears an important pai-t.
The character and the happiness of heaven, like the Ught and
heat of the sun-bearas, are so connected, that it is impossible to
separate them, and the natural and instinctive desire of the one
is thus necessai-ily linked to the desire of the other. Full of
peace, as the prospect of heaven is, there is no indolent relin
quishment of duty connected with the contemplation of it : for
heaven is fuU of action. Its repose is like the repose of nature;
the repose of planets in tbeir orbits. It is a rest from aU con
troversy with God ; frora all opposition to his will. His servants
serve Hira. Farewell, vain world ! No rest hast thou to offer
VOL. II. 3S

298 THE LIFE AND WHITINGS
which can compare with this. The night is far spent ; soon will
that day dawn, and the shadows flee away."y
' The Saint's Rest ' has been one of the most useful of Bax
ter's works ; the most useful to Christians, for whom it was chiefly
intended. It appears to have been the means of irapressing Mr.
Thomas Doolittie, and Mr. John Janeway, two excellent Non
conforraist ministers. Sir Henry Ashurst ascribed his conversion
to it. Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, Robert Warburton, of Grange,
both persons of great eminence in piety, devoted rauch of the
evenings of their Uves to the reading of this book, and derived
great enjoyment from it. But these I apprehend, are far from
solitary instances ; it has gone through many editions, and fully
justifies the remark raade on it by Dr. Bates, " It is a book for
wbich raukitudes wiU have cause to bless God forever."
The late Mr. Fawcett, of Kidderminster, published an excel
lent abridgement of it in 1758. It makes no alteration on the
sense or even language ofthe author, but diminishes the bulk of
the work by oraitting raany digressions, controversial discussions,
together with the preface, dedications, and other things of a
temporary and local nature. From that time, the circulation of
the original work has been greatly diminished, but I have no
doubt the design of the author has been fully accompUshed ; as
a much greater circulation has been given to his sentiments in a
raoderate 12rao than could have been obtained for the bulky
4to. Those, however, whd wish to do full justice to Baxter and
his treatise, wUl not be satisfied with anything but the original.
Giles Firmin, a Presbyterian minister, who appears to have
thought Baxter carried his views of medUatiou on the ' Saint's
Rest' too far, pubUshed in 1671, what Baxter calls " a gentle
reproof for tying men too strictly to raeditation." This Baxter
answered immediately in a small pamphlet entitled, ' The Duty
of Heavenly Meditation Reviewed against the Exceptions of Mr.
Giles Firmin.' 4to. In general, there is litde danger of men
erring in the extreme of dweUing too much on heavenly and eter
nal things. The number of persons addicted to mystical devo
tion, or exclusively engrossed by spiritual exercises, has been
small, compared with the multitude even of serious Christians,
whose minds have been too littie occupied in this manner. The
attractions of earth are §o powerful, and the affinities of our na
ture so strong to material objects, that we requfre every possible
excitement and encouragement to look off from the things that
are seen and temporal, to those which are unseen and eternal.
And as we cannot be influenced by that which we do not know
or love, or with which we are not conversant, the more that the
unseen world and its permanent glories are the objects of con-
(y) Erskine's Introductory Essay to the Saint's Rest, pp. 3—35.

OP Rii^HARD BAXTER. 299
templation, the more powerfully must we be attracted by them,
tiU meditation on heaven is swallowed up in its full and everlast
ing enjoyment.
The work on bhe 'Divine Life,"* published in 1664, next
demands our attention. The occasion of it, he teUs us, was
this : " The Countess of Balcarras, " before going into Scotland
after her abode in England, being deeply sensible of the loss of
the company of those friends which she left behind her, desired
me to preach the last sermon which she was to hear from me,
on these words of Christ : ' Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now
corae, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall
leave me alone ; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is
with rae.' At her request I preached on this text, and being
afterwards desired by her to give it her in writing, and the pub
lication being ber design, I prefixed the two other treatises, to
make it more considerable, and published them together. The
treatise is upon the most exceUent subject, but not elaborate at
aU ; being but popular serraons preached in the midst of divert
ing businesses, accusations, and raalicious claraors.
" When I offered it to the press, I was fain to leave out the
quantity of one sermon in the end of the second treatise, (that
God took Enoch,) wherein I showed what a mercy it is to one
that walked with God, to be taken to him from this world ;
because it is a dark, wicked, malicious, incapable, treacherous,
deceitful world, Ste. AU which the bishop's chaplain must
have expunged, because men would think it was all spoken of
them. And so the world hath got a protection against the force
of our baptismal vow."
This admirable treatise may be placed either under the head
of the experimental or the devotional works of our author. I
have placed it in the latter class, chiefly for my own convenience
in the arrangement of this work. It is divided into three parts
— The Knowledge of God — ^Walking with God — and Converse
witii God in sohtude. This division obviously embraces all the
great points of Christian practice and experience. Without the
knowledge of God, man can have no objective religion. He is
the glorious object of love, veneration, and hope ; the source
of aU pure and spiritual enjoyment ; and the spring of all right
conduct. He who knows God aright, will, at the sarae time,
walk with God, or in the course of obedience to hira ; and with
(z ) Works, vol. xiii.
(a) Since the remark on the Countess of Balcarras was printed off, I have
ascertained that she was married a second time to the unfortunate Karl of
Argyle, there referred to. 1 have seen also a curious letter from her to the Duke
of Lauderdale, accompanying the stone taken from the heart of her s(m, of which
Baxter speaks. — Letters from Lady Margaret Kennedy, afterwards wife lo Bishop
Burnet. (b) Life, parti, p. 120.

300 THE LIFF. AND WltolNGS
this course will be invariably comiecteii, that spiritual feUow
ship whh him which is at once the enjoyitjent of religion, and
the best proof of its reality.
None of the works of Baxter is written witW greater sweetness
than this. The manner of it is in good keeping with the sub
ject : s.pft, tender, and full of spirituality. He lays open to
the reader, as it were, the very recesses of his own heart ; and
describes his own character and procedure in delineating the es
sential features of the Christian character and profession. In
himself were combined, in an extraordinary degree, the con
templative and the active in reUgion. In the former he de
lighted no less than in the latter. To him the Gospel of Christ
was a continual feast. It presented to him a boundless and
exhaustiess subject ; combining all that was holy, excellent, and
sublime ; aU that was most worthy in itself with every thing
calculated to inspire the love of gopdness, and promote the
most joyful compliance with the divine wiU. In meditation he
found relief from the severity of bodily pain, from the anguish
of disappointment, and the sorrow of unraerited suffering ; frora
the pains and griefs occasioned by his own sins, or the sins of
pthers. While aU around was darkness and terapest, here he
found repose to his spirit, and a quiet refuge. When languid, it
recruited his strengtii ; when discouraged, it re-invigorated his
hope ; when exposed tp perUs, or called to the discharge of
arduous duties, it gave fresh energy and animation tP his soul.
God, as reyealed in the economy of redemption, was the grand
centre of all the principles, feelings, and exercises of Baxter.
It was to hira at once an attractive as well as a repeUing power ;
drawing him to holiness and happiness, and repeUing every
thing that was raean and unworthy from his character, as weU
as what was mere directly evil.
Tp the extraordinary degree in which the mind of Baxter was
imbued with the spiritual knowledge of God, arising frora the
intimacy of his comraunion with him, arose no sraall pprtion of
that energy of cha,racter for which he was so distinguished. The
proper value of the conteraplative life in hira was thus strikingly
illustrated. In many raen, contemplation operates as a princi
ple of seclusion : it renders society disagreeable ; the bustle
and business of it intolerable. They can be happy only in
retirernent, and in abstraction from the duties of social obli
gation. Such persons becorae a kind of spiritual epicures :
who can enjoy only what is exquisite, and adapted to the raost
delicate palate. The coraraon food of Christianity is unsuited
to them. Their religion assuraes all the character of a refined,
spiritual selfism ; concerned only about one thing, and that
thing corafort : it partakes not of the active principles or sym
pathies of apostoUc Christianity.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. ,jO I
In Others, activity is too much separated from meditation.
The leaves and the fruit are cuhivated without due attention to
the root of the tree. Enjoyment is found only, or chiefly in
the crowd, or on the stage of public life. Effect is studied
rather than principle ; and all is supposed to be well if others
are but persuaded that it is so. There is little that is perma
nent and influential in this class of persons. What is thus
produced is easily blasted and overthrown. There is a want of
sufficient breadth and depth in the foundation, for the super
structure which they endeavor to rear, and hence it often tum
bles into ruin. Professed concern for the good of others, when
connected with indifference to our own, cannot be sincere in its
nature or lasting in its duration. Baxter is a happy Ulustration
ofthe two great constituent principles ofthe Christian character
now adverted to, and which constitute the subject of the work
under consideration.
The chief fault that presents itself to me in this work is, the
extent to which he dweUs on the natural attributes of God, such
as his eternity, simplicity, omnipotence. Sic, as comprehended
in tbat knowledge which is eternal life. Not that I would ex
clude these things ; but he has dwelt upon them in undue pro
portion, and to the exclusion of more extended views of the
raoral attributes of God, which constitute the grand subject of
Revelation, and the great objects of Christian faith and enjoy
ment. In the natural perfections of God, however, Baxter was
furnished with dehghtful subjects for the exercise of his meta
physical powers. The uses of God's " siraple and uncompounded
essence ofhis incorporeality and invisibility," were quite to his
taste ; though Ukely to be regarded by the reader as more inge
nious than profitable. He has also some disquisitions about
sin, as whether " God decrees not, or wiUs not, ut evenit pecca
tum ; and whether he wUls de eventu, that sin shaH not corae to
pass, when it doth.'"' in which little light is thrown on these
mysterious questions.
These, however, are but trifling bleraishes in this valuable
work, which abounds with passages of great beauty, illustrative
not only of the fine genius, but the intense ardor of Baxter's
spirit and feeUngs. I have just fixed ray eye on a page, which
I cannot deny myself the pleasure of extracting, though it is
but one of many I have been terapted to introduce.
" To walk with God," he says, " is a word so high, that I
should have feared the guilt of arrogance in using it, if I had
not found it in the Holy Scriptures. It is a word that ira-
porteth so high and holy a frame of soul, and expresseth such
high and holy actions, that the naming of it striketh my heart
with reverence, as if I had heard the voice to Moses ' Put
off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou

302 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
standest is holy ground.' Methinks he that shall say to
me, Come see a iijian that walks whh God, doth caU me to
see one that is next unto an angel or glorified soul. It is a far
more reverend object in raine eye than ten thousand lords or
princes, considered only in their fleshly glory. It is a wiser
action for people to run and crowd together to see a raan that
walks with God, than to see the porapous train of princes, their
entertainments, or their triuraph. Oh ! happy raan that walks
with God, though neglected and contemned by all about him !
What blessed sights doth he daily see ! What ravishing tidings,
what pleasant melody doth he daily hear, unless it be in his
swoons or sickness ! What delectable food doth he daily
taste ! He seeth, by faith, the God, the glory which the blessed
spirits see at hand by nearest intuition ! He seeth that in a
glass, and darkly, which they behold with open face ! He
seeth the glorious Majesty of his Creator, the eternal King,
the Cause of causes, the Composer, Upholder, Preserver, and
Governor of aU worlds! He beholdeth the wonderful me
thods of his providence ; and what he cannot reach to see, he
adraireth, and waiteth for the tirae when that also shall he open
to his view ! He seeth by faith the world of spirits, the hosts
that attend the throne of God ; their perfect righteousness, their
fuU devotedness to God ; their ardent love, their flaming zeal,
their ready and cheerful obedience, their dignity and shining
glory, in which the lowest of them exceed that which the
disciples saw on Moses and Elias, when they ap.peared on the
holy mount and talked with Christ ! He hears by faith the
heavenly concert, the high and harmonious songs of praise, the
joyful triumphs of crowned saints, the sweet comraeraorations of
the things that were done and suffered on earth, with the praises
of Him that redeeraed thera by his blood and raade them kings
and priests unto God. Herein he hath sometimes a sweet fore
taste of the everlasting pleasures which, though it be but Uttle,
as Jonathan's honey on the end of his rod, or as the clusters of
grapes which were brought frora Canaan into the wilderness ;
yet they are raore exceUent than all the deUghts of sinners." "
Under the general head of his devotional writings it is ne
cessary that I should include the following funeral serraons,
from several of which I have already made extracts in the first
part of this work ; and two treatises on the subject of death. I
class them togetiier as they relate chiefly to one topic, and do
not caU for distinct notice. Their tities, which I give fully, suf
ficientiy explain their nature.
' The last work of a Believer, his passing prayer, recommend
ing his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him, prepared
(c) Works, vol. xiii. pp. 242, 243.

OF RICIIAIU) BAXTER. 303
for the funeral of Mary, the widow first of Francis^- Charlton,
Esq., and after of Thoraas Hanmer, Esq.' 1660. 4to. ''
' A Sermon preached at the funeral of that holy, painful, and
fruitful minister of Christ, Mr. Henry Stubbs, about fifty years a
successful preacher at Bristol, WeUs, Chew, Dursley, London,
and divers other places.' 1678. 4to.°
' A true Believer's choice and pleasure instanced in the exem
plary life of IVlrs. Mary Coxe, the late wife of Dr. Thomas
Coxe.' 1680. 4to.f
' FaithfiU Souls shall be with Christ, the certainty proved, and
their Christianity described and exeraplified in the truly Chris
tian life and death of that excellent amiable saint, Henry Ashurst,
Esq., citizen of London, briefly and truly pubUshed for the
conviction of hypocrites and tbe malignant, the strengthening
of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of
famUies in London. Go, and do thou likewise.' 1681. 4to. ^
' A Sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. John Corbet, that
faithful minister of Christ, with his true and exemplary cha
racter.' ] 682. 4to. ^
' A treatise of death, the last enemy to be destroyed. ' Show
ing wherem its enraity consisteth, and how it is destroyed. Part
of it was preached at the funeral of Elizabeth, the late wife of
Mr. Joseph Baker, pastor of the cburch at St. Andrew's, in
Worcester. With sorae few passages of the Ufe of the said
Mrs. Baker, observed.' 1659. 8vo. ''
' Mr. Baxter's Dying Thoughts upon PhUippians i. 23. '
Written for his own use on the latter times of his corporal
pains and weakness.' 1683. 4to. "
All these discourses and treatises show how famihar the mind
of Baxter was with the subject of death, and iUustrate the ad
mirable use which he made of it, in promoting the good of
others. It was a favorite topic of bis ministiy from the very
beginning, arising out of the feeble state of his health, and from
the apprehension which he entertained that his career was like
ly to be a very short one. Though in this he was mistaken,
he never lost the impression that he must soon die, and there
fore constantly preached and wrote under that impression.
His ' Dying Thoughts' abound in admirable sentiraents, ex
pressed in appropriate and beautiful language, worthy ofa believ
er in the near prospect of eternity. They were written for his own

(d) Works, vol. xiii. p. II. (e) Ibid. vol. xiii. p. 61. (f) Ibid. p. 91.
(g) Ibid. p. 124. (h) Ibid. p. 163.
(i) Among the Baxter MSS. is a letter from a clergyman of the name of Tay
lor, at Standford, acknowledging that the ' Treatise on Death ' had been the means
of his conversion ; and requesting Baxter's advice respecting some difficulties
which he felt on the subject of subscription.
(k) Works, vol. xiu. p. 527. (I) Ibid. vol. i. p. 23.
(ni) Ibid. vol. xxvii.

304 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
use, and ofiginally intended to be left to his executors for publica
tion, but were finally brought out by himself. Calamy puts them
under the date of 1685, and represents thera as having furnished
great consolation to Lord WiUiam RusseU before his execution.
But, as he speaks of hiraself as in the seventy-sixth year of his
age, and the fifty-third of his rainistry," which was the year of
his death, he must have altered and iraproved the work shortiy
before he died."
In these Thoughts, as there are few raptures, so there are no
depressions or|despondencies. They discover throughout a
soleran, calra, undisturbed serenity; the steady conteraplation
of dissolution and all its consequences, without alarra or terror.
He knew in whom he had believed ; to hira, therefore, death had
no sting. Its poison had been extracted, and the grira tyrant
deprived ofhis power to injure. In Christ, his soul had found
rest ; his life was made sure by the covenant of redemption : so
that he could lay down his head and die in the sure and certain
hope of a resurrection to glory. Unenviable must be the state
of that man's feelings, who can read these reflections as the
honest and sincere expressions of a soul ready to take its flight
into eternity, without exclairaing, "Let me die the death of
this righteous man, and let ray latter end be like his."
Araong the devotional works of Baxter must be classed ' The
Reformed Liturgy,' which he drew up by the request of his
brethren, at the time of the Savoy conference. Part of it was
published among the other papers relating to that affair, and in
his Own Life, by Sylvester ; the whole appears among the docu
raents of the Savoy conference ; at the end of the first volume of
Calaray's Abridgeraent ; in the folio edition of his works ; and in
the fifteenth volurae of the present edition. The circurastances
which led to his corapiling this work have been sufficiently de
tailed in the account of the Savoy raeeting and debates. Bax
ter produced an entirely new liturgical service, not because he
objected to the whole, or greater part of the forraer, but as the
shortest and easiest raethod of reraoving what he considered
its defects, its inaccuracies, and repetitions. It was not de
signed by him to be enforced by legal enactments, in the room
of the other ; but rather as a speciraen, or directory, for con
ducting the pubhc service of the church. He was occupied on
this work not raore than a fortnight ; a period which he ac
knowledges to have been " too short for doing it with the ac
curateness which a business of that nature required ; or for the
(n) Works, vol. xvii. p. 331.
(o) His ' Dying Thoughts' were abridged by Fawcett, a work by no means so
necessary as the abridgement of the ' Saint's Rest.' Sir James Stonehouse was
so delighted with them, that he says, " I have almost learnt them by heart; I am
continually quoting them in my letters." — See Letters from Job Orton, iS-c. vol.
ii. p. 209.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 305
consulting with men or authors. He could make no use of any
book, except a Bible and a Concordance ; but he compared it
aU with the Assembly's Directory, the Book of Common-prayer,
Hammond and L'Estrange." p
Without pronouncing on the comparative excellencies of this
liturgical work, or intimating that it is every thing such a
work should be, it is not too much to say, that it is reraarkable
for siraplicity, appropriateness, and fulness. The forms of
prayer contain variety without repetition, and are so scriptural
that they are made up almost entirely of scriptural language ;
references to which he has thrown into the margin. Few better
liturgies probably exist ; and had it, or something of the same
improved description, been adopted by the church, at the period
when the subject was under discussion, some of tbe chief dif
ficulties experienced by the early Nonconformists to the Book
of Common-prayer would have been removed. There was no
disposition then, however, to Usten to the voice of candid and
conscientious objection ; and though the subject has frequentiy
been agitated since, the imperfections of the Anglican Liturgy
seem to be increasingly sanctified by time, and every day dimi
nishes the probability of any improvement taking place upon it.
The motive for alteration, so far as the Nonconformists are con
cerned, may be said to be extinguished ; as no charge on the
Uturgical forms of the Church would reconcile the great body
of the Dissenters to it. Their objections are now chiefly to tbe
constitution of the church as aUied to the state, and to the
whole system of episcopal governraent ; objections which no
modification of forms and ceremonies would either remove or
raaterially alter.
In this class of writing, I feel justified in placing the only
work of an expository nature published by Baxter : his ' Pa-
rapbase on the New Testaraent, with notes, Doctrinal and
Practical,' &;c. 1685. 4to."i Of the trouble into which he was
brought by this work, a fuU account has already been given, in
the history of his trial before the infaraous Jefferies. It now
only reraains to say soraething of tbe book itself. Its origin
and object are well stated by himself in the following passage
in the preface.
"A friend long urging me to wrhe a paraphrase on the
Episde to the Romans, as being hard to be understood ; when I
(p) Life, part ii. p. 306.
(q) Walch, in his ' Bibliotheca Theologica,' mentions ' Meditations on the Sev
en Penitential Psalms,' by Baxter. He says they were published in English, and
translated into German, in which language they appeared in two editions, 1684
and 1687. He says they are not properly exegetical, but moral, in their nature,
and ought to be ranked in that class of books. I cannot positively affirm that
Walch is mistaken, but 1 have never seen any such work of Baxter's ; nor does it
appear in any catalogue of his books published in England, either by himself or
others. VOL. II. 39

306 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
had done it, I found so much profit by the attempt, that it
drew me to go on till I had finished what I offer you. It was
like alraost all ray other pubhc works, done by the unexpected
conduct of God's urgent providence, not only without, but con
trary to my former purposes. God hath blessed his church
with many men's excellent coraraentaries on the Scriptures,
and I never thought myself fit to do it better than they have
done ; but that is best for some persons' use which is not best
to others. I long wished that some abler man would furnish
vulgar farailies whh such a brief exposition as might be fitted
to the use of their daily course in reading the Scriptures, and
instructing their households. I found that many who have done
it better than I can do, are too large and costly for this use ;
some, like Diodati, are very sound but unsatisfactorily brief;
some have parcelled their annotations into so numerous shreds,
that readers, especially in a family course, will not stay to
search and set thera together to raake up the sense. I hke Dr.
Hararaond's order best, but I differ from him in so much of the
matter, — take his style to be too lax, his criticisms not useful
to the vulgar, and his volume too big and costly ; I therefore
chose more plainly, and yet raore briefly and practically, by the
way of paraphrase, to suit it to ray intended end.
" But I raust give the reader notice, that where I seera but in
few words to vary frora the text, those words answer the large
criticisms of divers expositors, as the learned may find by search
ing them and the Greek text ; though I must not stay to give
the reasons of thera as I go on. That though I have studied
plainness, yet brevity is unavoidably obscure to unexercised per
sons, who, as learners, cannot understand things without raany
words. That where the Evangelists oft repeat the sarae things
to avoid tediousness, 1 repeat not the whple exppsition ; and yet
thought it not meet wholly to pass it by. That where the text is
plain of itself, instead of an exposition, I fill up the space by
doctrinal, or practical observations, seeing practice is the end of
all, and to learners this part is of great necessity. That where
great doctrinal controversies depend on the exposition of any
text, I have handled those more largely than the rest, and I hope
with pacificatory and satisfactory evidence." '
Though this work is not critical, and was intended by the
author chiefly for the unlearned, it bears marks of considerable
labor when attentively exarained. Baxter had long and pro
foundly studied the Scriptures ; possessing a large portipn pf
acuteness, and being very independent in his raanner pf think
ing, he pften threws cpusiderable Ught pn difficult passages.
He dues net give the precess, but the results ; withput the
(r) Preface to ' Paraphrase on the New Testament.'

or RICHARD BAXTER. 307
parade of criticism and learning, he frequentiy furnishes us with
their best fruits. So that without toil or labor, we are at once
put in possession of what he conceived to be the raeaning of the
word ofGod. I feel bound to say, that I have seldora consulted
Baxter's Paraphrase, which I have done occasionaUy for many
years, without deriving instruction from it ; and finding that it
either threw sorae light on what was dark, or suggested what
tended to remove a difficulty.
The reasons which he assigns for not attempting an exposition
ofthe book of Revelation, are worthy of quotation. Among
other things, he says,
" I am far below Dionysius, Alexandrinus, and raost of the
ancient Fathers, even Augustine hiraself, who professed that they
understood it not. Yea, the incoraparable Calvin professeth
that he understood not the thousandth part of it ; and his part
ner, Beza, would give us littie of it, next to none : both refusing
to write a corament on it. I honor them that know raore
than I, and contradict them not ; I had rather say too littie,
where other raen have said enough, than say raore than I know.
It is not through raere sloth that I am ignorant. Women and
boys, who have studied it less than I, think they know herein
what I do not : but I confess that despair is much of the cause.
Forty-four years ago, when I was but young, I studied it, I doubt
too soon, and read Brightraan, Napier, Pareus, Ste, and after
that Mede, Potter, and raany raore ; beside such treatises as
Downarae de Antichristo Broughton, and other such ; with
the answers of BeUarmine, he. I met whh many divines and
laymen who had chosen it out for the chief study of their lives,
and I found so great diversity of opinions, five of the most con
fident going four ways, and so littie proof of what they most
confidently asserted, that I despaired of being so much wiser
than they as to come to satisfaction, if I should lay by raore
necessary studies, and raake tbis the business of the rest of my
life, which yet I durst not do. Afterwards I conversed with
my feUow laborer, Mr. Nathaniel Stephens, who hath written
of it, and was much upon it in his discourse, but I durst not be
drawn to a deep study of it. When since I read Mr. Durhara,
Dr. More, &;c., and Grotius, and Dr. Hammond, and raany
annotators, I confess despair, and more needful business, raade
rae do it but superficially. And when I had for my own use
written the rest of this Paraphrase on the New Testament, I
proposed to have said nothing of any more of the Revelations
than of the three first chapters, professing that I understood it
not ; but after, being loth to omit wholly any part of the New
Testament, and thinking that the renewed study of that which
speaketh so much of the New Jerusalem raight be suitable to a
pained dying raan, I thought of it more searchingly than 1 had

308 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
heretofore ; but have not now eitiier the strength of wit, or
length of time, that are necessary to so hard a work, and there
fore presume not to oppose others, but refer the readers to
them that have more thoroughly studied and expounded it than
I can do. But yet I thought that those generals which I under
stood might be useful to unlearned readers, thpugh they made
tbem no wiser than I am myself, while those that are above me
have enough higher to read." '
The sentiments expressed in this passage are illustrative of
the modesty of Baxter, and of his distrust of his own under
standing on the difficult subjects of the apocalyptic visions.
Without subscribing to the propriety of regarding these visions
as unintelligible, considering the little success which has at
tended the speculations of many respecting their design, diffi
dence on such subjects is rauch more a Christian virtue than
confidence. It is not difficult to frame a prophetic hypothesis,
and to adjust its parts with considerable skiU and ingenuity ; but
to prove that it is the very thing intended by the angel of the
apocalypse, requires a portion of wisdom from Him who alone
can open its seals, which does not yet appear to have been af
forded to any of the sons of men. But while there is much that
is obscure in the book, it is delightful to find so rauch that is
inteUigible ; and that though many of the symbols and hiero
glyphics yet reraain to be deciphered, the suffering and glory
of the Redeeraer, the final triumphs of his kingdom and its
everlasting duration, are revealed with a cleamess not inferior
even to that of the Gospel itself.
A posthumous work of a devotional nature by Baxter, ap
peared after his death, with the following titie : ' Monthly Pre
parations for the Holy Comraunion, by R. B. To which is
added suitable Meditations, before, in, and after recovery ; with
Divine Hymns in comraon tunes, fitted for Public Congregations
or Private Families.' 1696. 12mo.
This little work has a preface by Sylvester, in which it is very
angular that he makes no raention whatever of the raeditations
as the productions of Baxter. There can be no doubt, how
ever, that they were published frora some of Baxter's manu
scripts, left in possession of the editor, or that they were fur
nished by some one who took notes while Baxter delivered
them. I ara incUned to think the latter must have been their
origin ; as some of the language is like Baxter's, but other parts
of it not. Of the hymns I am unable to form any opinion,
whether they were composed by Baxter, or some one else.
Their devotion is more woithy of adrairation than their poetry.
I must now introduce a class of Baxter's writings, with which
(s) Advertisement to ' Paraphrase on the New Testament.'

OF RICHARD BAXTF.R. 309
few of the readers of his works are familiar. I refer to his
poetry, of which I should have been afraid to speak with much
confidence in my own judgment, bad not Montgomery given
him a place among the Christian poets of England, and spoken
of him in the following terms :
" This eminent minister of the Gospel, though autiior of some
of the most popular treatises on sacred subjects, is scarcely
known by one in a hundred ofhis admirers, as a writer in verse ;
yet there is a little volume of ' Poetical Fragments' by hira, in
estimable for its piety, and far above mediocrity in many pas
sages of its poetry. The longest piece, entided, ' Love breath
ing thanks and praise,' contains his spiritual auto-biography,
from the earUest impressions made upon his conscience by
divine truth, to the breaking out of the civU war between Cbai-les
I. and the parliaraent. In this, and indeed in all the other
minor pieces, he speaks the language of a minute self-observer,
and teUs the experience of his own heart in strains which
never lack fervency, nor indeed eloquence, however unapt in the
art of turning tuneful periods in rhyme the author may occa
sionaUy be found. A great portion of tbis volume well merits
re-pubUcation, as the annexed examples wiU prove. He that is
not powerfuUy affected by some of these, whatever be his taste
in poUte Uterature, may fear that he has neither part nor lot in
a matter of infinitely surpassing interest even to himself."^
The volume, of which ]\lr Montgomery thus speaks, and from
which he inserts some striking extracts, was first published in
1681, in smalll2mo, with the foUowing singular tide : ' Poetical
Fragments : Heart Employment with Gk)d and itself. The con
cordant discord of a broken healed beart : sorrowing, rejoicing,
fearing, hoping, Uving, dying.'
" These poetical firagnaents," he says, " except three heretofore
printed, were so far from being intended for the press, that they
were not aUowed the sight of many private friends, nor thought
worthy of it ; only, had I had time and heart to have finished the
first, which itself, according to the nature and designed method,
would have made a volume far bigger than aU this, being intend
ed as a thankful historical commemoration of all the notable
passages of my life, 1 should have pubhshed it as tbe most self-
pleasing part of my writing. But, as they were mostiy written
in varipus passipns, sp passipn hath now thrust them out into
the world. God, having taken away the dear corapanipn pf the
last nineteen years of my Ufe, as her sorrows and suferings long
ago gave being to some of these poeras, for reasons which the
world is not concerned to know ; so my grief for her remoral,
and the revived sense of former things, have prevaUed with me
to be passionate in the open sight of aJl.'"
(s) Montgomery s Christian Poet, p. 320. (t) Epistle, p. I.

310 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
He afterwards published ' Additions to the poetical Frag
ments, written for himself, and communicated to such as are
raore for serious verse than smooth.' 1683. He left also, fully
prepared for the press, an entire poetical version, or ' Para
phrase ofthe Psalms of David, with other Hymns.' which were
pubhshed after his death in 1692, by his friend, Matthew Syl
vester. Putting all his pieces together, therefore, we have suf
ficient raeans of deterraining Baxter's clairas to the character
of a poet.
He himself was not ignorant of the qualities which are ne
cessary tP cpnstitute excellence in this departraent of literature,
and puts in his own claims very raodestly. " I wiU do," he
says, " ray wise friends, whose counsel I have much followed,
that right, as to acquit thera frora aU the guilt of the publication
of these fragraents. Some of thera say, that such work is
below rae ; and those that I think speak raore wisely, say, I am
below such work. These I unfeignedly beUeve. I have long
thought that a painter, a rausician, and a poet, are conterapti
ble if they be not exceUent ; and that I ara not exceUent, I ara
satisfied ; but I am more patient of contempt than many are.
Coraraon painters serve for poor men's works, and a fiddler may
serve at a country wedding. Such cannpt aspire tp the attain
ments ef the higher sort and the vulgar are the greater number.
Dr. StiUingfleet saith, ' I seldora foUow ray friends' advice ;' in
this I justify him, though in other things ray advisers contradict
hira. I know that natural teraper raakes poetry savor to se
veral wise and learned men, as differently as meats dp to various
appetites. I know such learned discreet men, that know not
what a tune is, nor can difference one from another. I wonder
at them ; and oft doubt whether it be an accident, or an integral
of humanity which they want. Annatus, the Jesuit, in his
answer to Dr. Twisse De Scientia Media, commends his poetry,
(for a poem added in the end,) in scorn, as if it were a disgrace
to a school divine. I take one sign of an acumen of wit to make
it Ukely that the raan hath the sarae wit for other work.
" For rayself, I confess that harraony and raelody are the plear
sure and elevation of ray soul. I have raade a psalm of praise
in the holy assembly the chief delightful exercise of my religion
and my life, and have helped to bear down all the objections
which I have heard against church music, and against the 149th
and 150th Psalms. It was not the least corafort that I had in the
converse of my late dear wife, that our first in the morning, and
last in bed at night, was a psalm of praise, till the hearing of
Pthers interrupted it. Let thpse that saver npt melpdy, leave
Pthers te their different appetites, and be content to be so far
strangers to their deUghts." "
(v) Epistle, pp. 2, 3.

OF RICHARD BAXTKR. 311
In as far as genius and iraagination are essential to the cha
racter of a poet, it is impossible to doubt that Baxter possessed
high claims to that distinction. His prose wrhings are full of
poetry. His genius every now and then bursts forth where we
least expect its appearance ; and in no writer of the age are
there so many passages exquisite for their pathos and tender
ness, or dazzUng with splendor. His language is often re
markable for its chasteness, and for its rhythm ; so that it would
only require a Uttie skill in the mechanical construction of verse,
to convert raany of his pages into the sweetest poetry.
That he was not skiUed in versification, is, at the same time,
very obvious. He had the ideas of poetry, and often the expres
sions also, but could not frame them skilfully, according to the
laws of verse. This kind of employment required raore patience
and labor than he was capable of bestowing. He could not waste
tirae on the collocation of words and syUables ; and hence he
often becoraes tarae and prosaic, in iramediate connexion with
the utterance of the finest and loftiest conceptions.
He lived during what Johnson caUs " the age of the meta
physical poets ; " whom he describes as learned raen, who raade
it their whole endeavor to show their learning. They yoked
the most heterogeneous ideas together by violence ; ransacked
nature and art for Ulustrations, comparisons, and aUusions.
They were fond of conceits, both of idea and phraseology ; they
broke every image into fragments, and mixed the sublime and
ridiculous, the lofty and the low, in the raost extraordinary
raanner. Such were Donne and Denraan, Waller and Cowley,
according to Johnson ; and such he would have reckoned Bax
ter, had he raet with any of his poetical effusions.
The longest of Baxter's poetical pieces, as Montgoraery has
reraarked, is a fragraent of his own life and experience in verse.
It is entitied ' Love breathing Thanks and Praise,' and is full of
the raost glowing gratitude. Frora this poera an extract or two
has already been given in the first part of this work. The open
ing lines run, with a slight exception, very sraoothly. They
discover the school to which the author belonged, in the
manner in which he pursues the leading figure of a worm
praising God. Yet there is nothing offensive in the thought or
the language. " Eternal God ! this worm lifts up the head.
And looks to Thee, by Thee encouraged ;
Cheer'd by thy bounty, it would speak thy praise,
Whose wondrous love hath measur'd all my days.
If thou vouchsafe to make a worm rejoice,
Give him a thankful praising heart and voice.
Thy shining glory blessed angels see :
Angels must sing thy highest praise, not we.
But if thy warming beams cause worms to speak.
Their baser part will not the concert break.

312 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
When time was yet no measure, when tbe sun
Its rapid motion had not yet begun.
When heav'n, and earth, and sea. were yet nnfram'd
Angels and men, and all things else un-nam'd ;
When there did nothing else exist but thee,
Thou wast the same, and still the same wilt be.
When there was none to know or praise thy name.
Thou wast in perfect blessedness tne same." x
In the fpllpwing passage a most original and poetical image
is employed with great felicity, to illustrate the re-fotming of
man in God's own image. The idea of the Deity taking the
signet from his pwn right hand, to form the stamp by which his
cwn offending creature is to be restored to holiness and bliss, is
exquisite in itself, and uncomraonly weU sustained.
" When man from holy love tum'd to a lie.
Thy image lost, became thine enemy }
O what a seal did love and wisdom find
To re-imprint thine image on man's mind I
Thou sent'st the signet from thine own right hand ;
Made man for them that had themselves unman'd.
The Etemal Son, who in thy bosom dwelt.
Essential burning love, men's hearts to melt j
Thy lively image ; he that knew thy mind,
Fit to illuminate and heal the blind.
With love's great office thou dist him adom.
Redeemer of the helpless and forlom.
On love's chief work and message he was sent :
Our flesh he took, our pain he underwent.
Thy pardoning, saving love to man did preach :
The KeconcUer stood up in the breach.
The uncreated image of thy love.
By his assumption and the Holy Dove,
On his own flesh thine image first imprest ;
And by that stamp renews it on the rest." j
The account pfhis early experience, and of the steps by
which he was first led to choose God for his portion, and then
his work as his great employment, is very admirably given. In
the foUowing passage he describes bow God takes advantage of
the natural love of self which belongs to man, and implants his
own fear, as a seedUng which gradually ripens into the love of
God and of goodness, and brings forth frait to his glory.
"Fear is the soil tbat cherisheth the seed,
The nursery in which heav'n's plants do breed.
God first in natnre finds self-love, aad there
He takes advantage to implant his fear.
With some, the time is long before the earth
Disclose her young one by a springy birth.
When heav'n doth make our winter sharp and long,
The seed of love lies hid, or seems bnt young.
But when God makes it spring-time, his approach
Takes from the barren soil its great reproach ;
AVhen heav'n's reviving smiles and rays appear.
Then love begins to spring np above fear ;

(x) Poetical Frasments. p. I. (yi Ibid, pp 6,7.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 313
And if sin hinder not by cursed shade,
It quickly shoots up to a youtliful blade.
And when heav'n's warmer beams and dews succeed,
I'hat's ripen'd fruit which e'en now was but seed.
Yet dotli not flow'ring, fruitful, love forget
Her nursing fear, tliere stiU her root is'set;
In humble self-denial undertrod,
WhUe flower and fruit are growing up to God." z
There is a short poera, entitied ' The Resolution,' which was
coraposed when he was silenced and cast out of the church.
It conveys his reflections on that sorrowful event, and expresses
his high determination to suffer the loss of all things for Christ's
sake. The foUowing lines, referring to the dispersion of friends,
the storms of Ufe, and the final assembUng, are very beautiful,
though the figure is not uneomraon.
" As for my friends, they are not lost :
The several vessels of thy fleet,
Though parted now by tempests tost.
Shall safely in the haven meet.
Still we are centred all in Thee ;
Members, tho' distant of one head.
In the same family we be.
By the same faith and Spirit led.
Before thy throne we daily meet,
As joint petitioners to Thee ;
In spirit we each other greet.
And shall again each other see.
The heavenly hosts, world without end.
Shall be my company above ;
And thou, my best, my surest Friend,
Who shall divide me from thy love 1" a
From the dialogue between Flesh and Spirit, I have already
given a very beautiful extract, in noticing the work on self-de
nial, to which it was first attached. The dialogue between
Death and a Believer is very gravely intended, and contains
some very good passages, but is occasionally ludicrous. The
same reraark applies to the poeras on grace, wisdora, madness,
hypocrisy, and man. They abound with the faults of the meta
physical poets, interspersed with flashes of real poetical genius.
His Psalms are far from contemptible ; for, although few
of theiii are without rugged and prosaic lines, they frequentiy
contain verj'' good stanzas. He had evidently bestowed con
siderable pains on his version. There is a pecuUarity in the
structure of the verse, which often discovers mechanical in
genuity, though it cpntributes frequently to destroy the poetry.
By putting certain words in a different character within brackets,
he contrives to raake the verse long or short, as these words are
used or oraitted. He did this, he tells us, because "nature
weary of saraeness, is re-created with a variety of tunes." I
shaU give as a specimen the first stanzas pf the twenty-third
(i) Poetical Fragments, p. 16. (a) Ibid. p. 41.
VOL. II. 40

314 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Psalm, printed after this plan, which may be considered a fair
average sample of the whole.
" The Lord himself my shepherd is,
Who doth me feed and [safely] keep ;
What can I want that's truly good,
While I am [one of] his own sheep ?
He makes me to lie down and rest
In [pleasant] pastures, tender grass ;
He keeps and gently leadeth me
Near [the sweet] streams of quietness.
My faiUng soul he doth restore.
And lead in [safe and] righteous ways j
And aU thia freely, that his grace.
And [holy] name may have the praise."
It is pleasant to remark the deUght and enjoyment which
this holy man felt in sacred poetry and music ; a delight
which he seems to have cherished to the very last. Sylvester
teUs us in his preface to his Psalms, that " when his sleep
was mterraitted or removed in the night, he then sang much ;
and on the Lord's-days, he thought the service very defective,
without some considerable time were spent in singing ; nay, he
beUevingly expected that his angelical convoy would conduct
hira through all the interraediate regions, to his appointed man
sion in his heavenly Father's house, with raost melodious hal
lelujahs, or with somethmg equally delightful." In this frame
of raind, he probably was when he composed his ' Exit,' and his
' Valediction.' In both he takes his leave of the world, satisfied
tobe gone, and longing for the enjoyraent ofhis Lord. I quote
a few stanzas from the former, as a vale to the poetry of Baxter.
" My soul, go boldly forth,
Forsake this sinful earth ;
What hath it been to thee
But pain and sorrow ?
And thinkest thou 'twill be
Better to-morrow?
Look up towards heav'n and sec
How vast those regions be,
Where blessed spirits dwell.
How pure and lightful !
Bnt earth is near to hell.
How dark and frightful !
Jemsalem above.
Glorious in light and love.
Is mother of us aU.
Who shall enjoy them 1
The wicked hell-ward faU,
Sin wiU destroy them.
God is essential love ;
And all the saints above
Are like unto him made,
Each in his measure.
Love is their life and trade,
Their constant pleasure.

OP RIOHARD BAXTER. 316
What joy must there needs bo,
Where all God's glory see !
Feeling God's vital love,
Which still is burning :
And flaming God- ward move,
Full love returning.
Lord Jesus, take my spirit :
I trust thy love and merit ;
Take home this wand'ring sheep.
For thou hast sought it ;
This soul in safety keep,
For thou hast bought it." b
I have dwelt longer Pn Baxter's ppetical pieces than, tP
spme, their impprtance may seem tp justify. I have been the
mpre particular, hpwever, because they are less kiipwn than
most of his writings, and because they form a very appropriate
conclusion to his devotional works. They show what every
thing which Baxter wrote confirms, that his reUgion was a reli
gion of enjoyment. It is the more necessary to remark this,
because a superficial observer may be induced to suppose that
the contrary was the case. His writings, it will be remarked,
speak much of mortification, and self-denial, and crucifixion.
They do ; and Baxter felt himself impelled to dweU on these
subjects, because he regarded the evils which render them
necessary as the true banes of man's happiness. He was
persuaded that, tiU the habit of resisting and conquering the
flesh and the world be formed, and unless it be kept in con
stant exercise, no real enjoyment can be found. The self-
denial which he, therefore, inculcated, arose out ofthe state of
human nature, and was directed to the highest good of man —
the enjoyment of the divine complacency.
Baxter was probably regai-ded by the men of the world of
his own age, as one of the most demure, joyless, mortified
persons on earth ; and such, on their principles, he certainly
was. Yet Baxter was a singularly happy raan. He tells us
that he knew nothing of low spirits or nervous depression, not
withstanding all his bodily sufferings. His hopes of heaven
and its blessedness were rarely clouded from the beginning to
the end of his Christian course. His hands were constantly
fuU of his Master's work, and his heart ardentiy set upon the
accoraplishraent of it. The pulse of the Christian life ever
beat most vigorously in his veins ; the Christian walk he steadily
pursued ; and its close was as peaceful and serene as its pro
gress had been honorable.
It is pleasing to read of the melody of his feelings, of the
tenderness or "passion" ofhis heart, ofhis songs in the night,
and his deUght in sacred poetry and music. They are evidences
(b) Poetical Fragments, pp. 14-8 — 153.

316 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
of the rest which his soul had found in God. There was a close
and holy union between the fountain of living joy and his reno
vated spirit. " Being justified by faith, he had peace with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ, and rejoiced in hope of the glory
of God." Devotion was his element, and its exercises were his
dehght. By this means he renewed his impaired strength,
restored his lost tranquiUity, and replenished his exhausted
comfort. It was the master-principle of his raind and cha
racter ; that which harraonized and adjusted all their raove
raents, and guided aU their aims. I may, with the greatest
propriety, accoraraodate to hiraself the beautiful description
which he gives of a Christian's devout meditations in the con
clusion of his ' Saint's Rest.'
" As Moses, before he died, went up into Mount Nebo, to
take a survey of the land of Canaan, so he ascended the mount
of conteraplation, and by faith surveyed his heavenly" rest. He
looked on the delectable mansions, and said, ' Glorious things
are deservedly spoken of thee, thou city of God.' He heard,
as it were, the melody of the heavenly choir, and said, ' Happy
the people that are in such a case ; yea, happy is that people
whose God is the Lord.' He looked upon the glorious inha
bitants, and exclaimed, ' Happy art thou, O, Israel ! ' Who is
hke unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord ! ' He looked on
the Lord himself, who is iheir glory, and was ready, with the
rest, to faU down and worship Him that liveth forever and ever.
He looked on the glorified Saviour, and was ready to say
' Amen,' to that new song, ' Blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto
the Lamb.' He looked back on the wUderness of this world,
and blessed the beUeving, patient, despised saints ; he pitied
the ignorant, obstinate, miserable world. For himself, when
thus employed, he said, with Peter, ' It is good to be here,' or,
with Asaph, ' It is good for rae to draw near to God.' Like
Daniel, in his captivity, he daily opened his window, looking
towards the Jerusalem that is above, though far out of sight.
Like Paul's affections towards his brethren, though absent in the
flesh frora the glorified saints, he was yet with them in spirit,
joying and beholding their heavenly order." "
Engaging so deeply in these delightful exercises of holy con
teraplation, he was thus eminently quahfied to explain and re
comraend them to others. They constitute the hfe of the soul,
the beauty of religion, the glory of the Christian. " As the
lark sings sweetly while she soars on high, but is suddenly
silenced when she faUs to the earth ; so is the frame of the
soul most delightful and divine, while it keepeth God in view by
(c) ' Saint's Rest,' 4to. p. 814.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 317
contemplation. But, alas ! we make there too short a stay,
and lay by our music." "^
Will the reader now join with rae in closing this chapter with
the beautiful prayer which concludes the ' Rest?' " O Thou,
the merciful Fatlier of spirits, the attractive of love, and ocean
of deUght ! draw up these drossy hearts unto thyself, and keep
them there tiU they are spiritualized and refined ! Second thy
servant's weak endeavors, and persuade those that read these
lines to the practice of this delightful, heavenly work ! Oh !
suffer not the soul of thy most unworthy servant to be a stran
ger to those joys which he describes to others; but keep me
whUe I remain on earth in daily breathing after thee, and in a
believing, affectionate walking with thee. And when thou
comest, let me be found so doing : not serving my flesh, nor
asleep with my lamp unfurnished, but waiting and longing for
my Lord's return. Let those who shall read these pages, not
merely read the fruit of ray studies, but the breathing of ray
active hope and love ; that if ray heart were open to their view,
they raight there read thy love most deeply engraven with a
beam from the face of the Son of God ; and not find vanity, or
lust, or pride within, where the words of life appear without ;
that so these lines may not witness against rae ; but, proceeding
from the heart of the writer, raay be effectual, through thy grace,
upon the heart of the reader, and so be the savour of life to
botii." «

CHAPTER XIII.
GENERAL CONCLUSION.
Baxter, the author of Prefaces to many Books by others — Leaves various Treatises in Manu
script — His extensive Correspondence still preserved — Letter to Increase Mather — Account of
Transactionswith his Booksellers — Concurrence of Opinions respecting him as a Writer —
Barrow — Boyle — Wilkins — Usher — Manton — Bates — Doddridge — Kippis — Orton — Addison —
Johnson — Grainger — Wilberforce — His own Review of his Writings — Its characteristic can
dor aud fidelily — The magnitude of his Labors as a Writer — The number and variety of his
Works — His Readiness — His Style — Sometimes injudicious both in his Writings and his Con
duct — Deficient in the full statement of Evangehcal Doctrine — Causes of this Deficiency —
Conclusion.
Having laid before the reader some account of every book
published by Baxter, as far as can be ascertained, with those
observations which have been suggested by their nature and
design, it only remains that I should collect together some
miscellaneous circurastances, which could not properly be
noticed under_ any of the preceding heads, and offer sorae con
cluding remarks on the character of Baxter as a writer.
(d) ' Saint's Rest,' p. 815. (e) Ibid. 4to. p. 81S.

318 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Besides the books he wrote himself, he prefixed generaUy at
the desire of their respective authors, prefaces or commendatory
episties to a great nuraber of pubhcations. Of these, Calamy
has given the following enumeration, which I have no doubt
could be greatly increased, were it of sufficient importance to
devote the tirae which such a research would require ;
" We have a preface of his before Mr. Swinnock's book of
' Regeneration ; ' another before a book of Mr. Eede's ; another
before Mr. Jonathan Hanraer's ' Exercitation of Confirmation ; '
another before Mr. Lawrence's, of ' Sickness ; ' two before two
of Mr. Tombes's books ; another before a discourse of Mr.
WiUiam BeU's, of ' Patience ; ' an introduction to Mr. Jos.
Allein's ' Life ; ' a preface to his ' Alarm to the Unconverted ; '
another to Howe's ' Blessedness of the Righteous ; ' another to
Mr. Clark's ' Annotations on the New Testament ; ' another to
Mr. Abraham Clifford's ' Discourse on the Two Covenants ; '
another to one edition of Mr. Rawlet's book of the ' Sacra
ment : ' another to the eleventh of Scuder's ' Daily Walk ; '
another to Mr. WiUiam Allen, of the ' Covenants ; ' another to
a book of Dr. Bryan's, of ' DwelUng with God ; ' another to
Mr. Hotchkis's ' Forgiveness of Sin ; ' another to Mr. Gouge's
' Surest and Safest Way of Thriving ; ' another to Mr. Obed.
WiUs, of ' Infant Baptism,' against Mr. Danvers's ; and one to
Mr. Corbet's ' Remains ; ' with many others." '
Baxter left several treatises in a more or less prepared state
for publication, besides aU that he pubUshed himself. Some of
these saw the Ught afterwards, others remain, or have been de
stroyed. His work on ' Universal Redemption,' ' The Protes
tant Religion Justified,' his ' Poetical Paraphrase of the Psalras,'
the ' Narrative of his own Life,' his ' Mother's Catechism,'
' Monthly Preparation for the Ceraraunipn,' have all been np-
ticed already araeng his ppsthurapus publicatipns.
Intp the subject of what he caUs ' Physical Predeterraina
tion,' he appears to have entered very largely ; and there yet
reraains ameng his manuscripts what wpuld make a cpusiderable
vplume en it. It seems tp be in reference to this manuscript,
that he says in his Own Life :
" When I had written my book against Mr. Gale's ' Treatise
for Predeterraination,' and was intending to print it, the good
man feU sick of a consuraption, and I thought it raeet to sus
pend the publication, lest I should grieve hira, and increase his
sickness, of which he died. And that I raight not obscure
God's providence about sin, I wrote and preached two sermons
to show what great and excellent things God doth in the world
by the occasion of man's sin ; and, verily, it is wonderful to
(f) Abridgement, vol. i. pp. 241, 242.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 319
observe tiiat in England all parties, prelatical first, Indepen
dents, Anabaptists, especially Papists, have been brought down
by themselves, and not by the wit and sti-ength oftheir eneraies ;
and we can hardly discern any footsteps of any of our own
endeavors, wit, or power, in any of our late deliverances, but
our enemies ' wickedness and bloody designs have been the occa
sion of ahnost aU : yea, the Presbyterians themselves have suf
fered more by the dividuig effect of their own covenant, and
their unskUfulness in healing the divisions between them and
the Independents and Anabaptists and the Episcopalians, than
by any strength that brought them down ; though smce men's
wrath hath trodden them as in the dirt." s
On the subject of predestination, Baxter says a great deal in
the second book of his Catholic Theology, in which he endea
vors to reconcUe " die Synodists and Arminians, the Calvinists
and Lutherans, the Dommicans and Jesuits." Judging from
what he says on the subject in that work, I should not suppose
that his separate treatise throws much Ught on it, or that the
world sustains a great loss from its suppression. Theophilus
Gale, for whom this intended treatise was designed, was one of
the profoundest scholars and theologians of his time. His
leaming was raore extensive and accurate than Baxter's, and
his judgment, both in metaphysics and theology, raore correct.
His ' Court of the Gentiles,' in which, araong other subjects, he
discusses predestination, and free-will, and their consistency with
each other, is vnthout exception, the profoundest book of the
age. It contains greater stores of pagan and sacred learning,
on every thing relating to the whole range of phUosophy and
reUgion, than any book which had previously appeared.
Baxter left also ' Divers Disputations on sufficient Grace ; seve
ral Miscellaneous Disputations on various Questions in Divinity,
briefly managed at the Monthly Meeting of Ministers held whUe
he was at Kidderminster. 'Two Replies to Mr. Lawson's
Animadversions on his Aphorisms ;' ' A Reply to Warren's
Animadversions ' on the same book ; and the comraenceraent of
' A Reply to Dr. WaUis's Aniraadversions :' beside many other
pieces in a more or less prepared state for publication. Most
of these treatises stiU remain among the Baxter MSS. depo
sited in the Redcross-street library. None of thera appear to
me to be deserving of publication ; as among the printed works
of Baxter sufficient is to be found already on all the subjects of
which they treat.
The most interesting portion of these manuscript collections
is the correspondence. There are many hundred letters between
(g) Life, part iii. p. 185. There is another passage in Baxter's Life in which
he speaks disrespectfully of Gale and his work ; this he was too apt to do, where
he differed from a brother author. — Fart iii. p. 183.

320 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
Baxter and his friends on a great variety of subjects ; extending
from an early period of his pubUc life till near the time of his
death. Sylvester appears to have intended the publication of a
volume of these letters ; '' but, for reasons which do not appear,
abandoned the design. All Baxter's raanuscripts in his pos
session were at last deposited in the bands of Dr. Williams's
trustees, by whom they have been carefully preserved.
Thpugh I did npt find pn examining these letters much addi
tional matter that coiUd be used in this Life of Baxter, he having
published every thing of importance respecting hiraself, I feel
satisfied that a volume or two of very interesting letters raight
be furnished frora them. An editor of competent abihties and
leisure could produce a very valuable selection. Araong
Baxter's correspondents were sorae of the most distinguished
men of his times. Lord Chief-Justice Hale, the Duke pf Lau
derdale, Lprd Clarendpu, the Earl pf Orrery, Archbishop TUlot-
son, Bishop Brownrigge, Henry More, GlanviUe, Robert Boyle,
Greaves, Henry Dodwell, Heylin, Bruno Ryves, Gataker, Vines,
Owen, Howe, Bates, Peter Du Moulin, Dr. Hill, Arrowsmith,
Burgess, Williara Penn, EUot, Mather of New England,
and a multUude of others. Many of Baxter's letters to his
friends are very leng ; and as he appears tP have been in the
practice pf keeping cppies pf thpse which he regarded as irappr-
tant, all pf which are in hispwn hand, his cprrespondence alone
raust have created to hira vast labor. In nuraerous instances
he appears to have been treated by troublesome persons, who
applied to him to solve their doubts and perplexities, and exer
cised his ingenuity by their cases of conscience. Where he
considered the laity in earnest, he seems never to have been
unwiUing, though at the expense of great labor to himself, to
attempt affording them satisfaction.
A short letter that he wrote to Increase Mather, which Palmer
thinks raay have been araong the last he ever wrote, is so excel
lent and characteristic of thu vmter, that it will not be considered
out of its place here. It roters to Cotton Mather's Life of
Eliot, the apostie of the Indians, and the valued correspondent
of Baxter.
" Dear Brother,
" I thought I had been near dying at twelve o'clock in bed :
but your book revived rae ; I lay reading it until between one
and two. I knew rauch of Mr. Eliot's opinions by raany letters
which I had from him. There was no man on earth whom I
honored above him. It is his evangelical work that is the
apostolical succession which I plead for. I am now dying I
(h) Preface to Baxter's MSS.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 321
hope as he did. It pleased rae to read frora hira my case. ' My
understanding faileth, my memory faUeth, and ray hand and pen
faU, but ray charity faileth not.' That word much comforted
me. I ara as zealous a lover of the New England Churches as
any raan, according to Mr. Noyes', Mr. Norton's and Mr. Mitch-
ael's, and the Synod's raodel. I love your father upon the let
ters I received from him. I love you better for your learning,
labors, and peaceable moderation. I love your son better than
either ofyou, for the exceUent temper that appeareth in his writ
ings. O that godUness aud wisdora raay thus increase in all
faraiUes. He hath honored hiraself half as rauch as Mr. EUot ;
I say half as rauch, for deeds excel words. God preserve you
and New England. Pray for your fainting languishing friend,
"Aug. 3, 1691. Ri. Baxter." '
A person who had so rauch to do with the press as Baxter,
must have been connected with the principal religious booksel
lers of the period, and a knowledge of his transactions with
them raust throw some Ught on the extent to which religious
works were circulated at this time. Frora the raultitude of
books published by Baxter, raany of which appear to us unin
teresting, it appears surprising that the author should have
found encourageraent to print them. It appears, however, that
he could not only publish without risk, but that they were the
source of a considerable revenue, which he generally applied to
sorae benevolent purpose. In the following docuraent, written
as a vindication of hiraself frora a charge of ruining his book
sellers, he gives a very interesting account of the raanner in
which he transacted business with them. It affords us also
some additional illustration of the circurastances and the disin
terestedness of Baxter. After adverting to several of the false
charges which had been circulated against him, he thus pro
ceeds :
" But now comes a new trial : my sufferings are my crimes.
My bookseller, NevU Syraraonds, is broken, and it is reported
that I ara the cause, by the excessive rates that I took for ray
books of hira ; and a great dean, whora I much value, foretold
that I would undo him. Of all the crimes in the world, I
least expected to be accused of covetousness. Satan being
the raaster of this design to hinder the success of ray writings
when I ara dead, it is part of my warfare, under Christ, to re
sist hira. I tell you, therefore, truly all my covenants and
dealings with booksellers to this day.
" When I first ventured upon the publication of my thoughts,
I knew nothing of the art of booksellers. I did, as an act of
(i) Palmer's JNoncon. Mem. vol, in. p. 406.
VOL. II. 41

322 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
mere kindness, offer my book called ' The Saint's Rest,' to
Thomas Underbill and Francis Tyton, to print, leaving the
matter of profit, without any covenants, to their ingeniuty.
They gave me ten pounds for the first impression, and ten
pounds a piece, that is twenty pounds for every after irapres
sion, tUl 1665. I had, in the mean time, altered the book, by
the addition of divers sheets. Mr. UnderhiU died ; his wife
becarae poor. Mr. Tyton had losses by the fire in 1 666. They
never gave, nor offered rae a farthing for any irapression after
that, nor so rauch as one of the books ; but I was fain out of
my own purse to buy all that I gave to any friends or poor per
son that asked it.
" This loosening me from ]\Ir. Tyton, Mr. Syraraonds stepped
in, and told rae that Mr. Tyton said he never got three-pence
by me, and brought witness. Hereupon I used Mr. Syraraonds
only. When I lived at Kidderminster, some had defamed me
of a covetous getting of many hundred pounds by the book
seUers. I had, fiU then, taken of Mr. UnderhiU, Mr. Tyton, and
Mr. Syraraonds, for aU, save the ' Saint's Rest,' the fifteenth
book, which usually I gave away : but if any thing for second
impressions were due, 1 had little in money from them, but in
such books I wanted at their rates. But when this report of
ray great gain carae abroad, 1 took notice of it in print, and told
them I intended to take more hereafter : and ever since I took
the fifteenth book for myself and friends, and eighteen- pence
raore for every ream of the other fourteen which I destinated
to the poor. With this, while I was at Kidderminster, I bought
Bibles, to give to all the poor faraUies ; and I got three hundred
or four hundred pounds, which I destined all to charitable uses.
At last, at London, it increased to eight hundred and thirty
pounds, which, delivering to a worthy friend, he put it into the
hands of Sir Robert Viner, with a hundred pounds of my
wife's, where it lieth, settled on a charitable use after my death,
as from the first I resolved. If it faUs, I cannot help it. I never
received more of any bookseUer than the fifteenth book, and
this eighteen-pence a reara. And if, for after impressions, I
had more of those fifteenths than I gave away, I took about two
third parts of the comraon price of the bookseUer, or littie
more, and oft less ; and sometimes I paid myself for the print
ing many hundreds to give away ; and soraetiraes I bought them
of the bookseUer above my number, and sometiraes the gain
was my own necessary raaintenance ; but I resolved never to lay
up a groat of it for any but the popr.
" Now, sir, my own condition is this : Of my patrimony or
small inheritance I never took a penny to myself, my poor kin
dred needing much more. I am fifteen or sixteen years divested
of aU ecclesiastical maintenance. I never had any church or

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 323
lecture that I received wages from, but, within these three pr four
years much against ray disposition, I am put to take money of
the bounty of special particular friends ; my wife's estate being
never my prpperty, npr much mpre than half our yearly expense.
If, then, it be any way unfit for me to receive such a proportion
as aforesaid, as the fruit of my own long and hard labor for
my necessary and charitable uses ; and if they that never took
pains for it have more right than I, when every laborer is
master of his own, or if I may not take some part with them, I
know not the reason of any of this. Men grudge not a cobbler,
or a tailor, or any day laborer, for living on his labors ; and
why an ejected Minister of Christ, giving freely five parts to a
bookseller, may not take the sixth to himself, or to the poor, I
know not. But what is tiie thought or word of man }
" Dr. Bates now teUs me, tbat for his book, called the ' Divine
Harmony,' he had above a hundred pounds, yet reserving the
power for the future to himself; for divers impressions ofthe
Saint's Rest, almost twice as big, I have not had a farthing :
for no book have I had raore than the fifteenth book to rayself
and friends, and the eighteen-pence a reara for the poor and
works of charity, which the devil so hateth, tiiat I find it a mat
ter past ray power, to give ray own to any good use ; he so robs
me of it, or maketh men call it a scandalous thing. Verily,
since I devoted -dU to God, I have found it harder to give it when
I do my best, than to get it : though I subrait of late to hira
partly upon charity, and am so far from laying up a groat, that
(though I hate debt) I am long in debt," he. &!;c. fee.''
This letter was written in 1678. In his Life, Baxter declares,
that Syranions raust have received in raere charity from hira,
that is, I suppose, more than he was strictly entitled to demand,
a sum not less than five hundred pounds, if not nearly a thou
sand. The money which Baxter appropriated frora his profits
to a charitable purpose, he unfortunately lost by the shutting
up of the exchequer ; so that the hard-earned gains of many
years were lost in one day. From Baxter's statement of the
agreement with the hooksellers, it is very evident that the cir
culation of his works must have been extensive, to enable thern
to afford the sums which he expended. Comparing these
with the compensation received for Paradise Lost, it is clear
that the publishers and the public then were better judges of
poetry than of theology. A singular reverse has taken place
since that period.
There is a reraarkable concurrence of opinions respecting the
character and talents of Baxter, even araong those who raust
be regarded as unfavorable to raany of the sentiments for
(k) Appendix to Baxter's Own Life, No. xii.

324 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
which he contended. This agreement can be accounted for only
on the ground, that the high integrity of his character and the
superiority of his talents were beyond dispute ; and that the
evident tendency of all his writings is to promote the best inter
ests of men. His contemporaries in the church, as weU as
his brethren out of it, unite in their testimony tP his wprth and
greatness, and the value pfhis writings.
Dr. Barrpw said, his practical writings were never mended,
and his cpntrpversial ones seldom confuted. With a view to
his casuistical writings, the honorable Robert Boyle, declared,
" He was the fittest man of the age for a casuist, because he
feared no raan's displeasure, nor hoped for any man's prefer
ment." Bishop WUkins observed of hira, that he had cultivated
every subject he had handled ; that if he had lived in the pri
mitive times, he would have been one of the fathers of the
church ; and that it was enough for one age to produce such a
person as Mr. Baxter. Archbishop Usher's high thoughts of
hira, appeared in his earnest importunity to induce him to write
on the subject of conversion. Dr. Manton thought Mr. Baxter
came nearer the apostoUcal writings than any man in the age.
Dr. Bates' opinion ofhis eloquence has been given already. " His
books," he says, " for their number and variety of matter, raake
a library. They contain a treasure of controversial, casuistical,
and practical divinity. His books of practical divinity have
been effectual for raore nuraerous conversions of sinners to God,
than any printed in our tirae ; and while the church reraains on
earth, will be of continual efficacy to recover lost souls. There
is a vigorous pulse in them that keeps the reader awake and
attentive.'" Few men were capable of forming a better pr mpre candid
cpinion of Baxter than Dr. Doddridge. He was well acquainted
with his writings, very similar to him in his sentiments, and par
took largely of his desire to be useful to all men. He thus
expresses his opinion of his character as a writer :
" His style is inaccurate, because he had no regular educa
tion ; and because he wrote continually in the views of eternity :
but judicious, nervous, spiritual, and reraarkably evangelical : a
manly eloquence, and the most evident proof of an amazing
genius : with respect tp which he may net imprpperly be
called the English Derapsthenes : exceeding prpper for convic
tion : see his ' Saint's Rest,' aU his treatises on conversion, and
especially his ' Call to the Unconverted,' ' Divine Life, and Coun
sels to Young Men :' few were ever more instrumental for awaken
ing and converting more spuls. His bpok of converse with God
in solitude, is a raost sublime piece of devotion : his Gildas Sal-
(1) These testimonies are collected by Fawcett in the Preface to his ' Abridge
ment of the Saint's Rest.'

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 335
vianus is a most extraordinary piece, and should be read by
every young minister before he takes a people under his stated
care ; and I think the practical part of it deserves to be read
every two or three years : for nothing has a greater tendency to
awaken the spirit of a minister to that zeal in his work, for want
of which raany good raen are but shadows of what by the bless
ing of God they raight be, if the maxims and treasures laid down
in that incoraparable treatise were strenuously pursued." "¦
In a letter to a friend, giving him some account of his studies,
Doddridge says, " Baxter is my particular favorite. It is ira
possible to tell you how much 1 ara charmed with the devotion,
good sense, and pathos, which is every where to be found in hira.
I cannot forbear looking upon hira as one pf the greatest orators,
both with regard to copiousness, acuteness, and energy, that our
nation hath produced ; and if he hath described, as I believe, the
teraper of his ovvn heart, he appears to have been so far superior
to the generality of those whora we charitably hope to be good
men, that one would imagine that God raised him up to disgrace
and condemn his brethren ; to show what a Christian is, and
how few in the world deserve the character. I have lately been
reading his Gildas Salvianus, which hath cut me out much work
araong ray people. This wiU take me off frora so close an ap
plication to ray private studies, as I could otherwise covet, but
raay answer sorae valuable ends with regard to others and
myself." But these commendatory opinions of Baxter have not been
confined to evangehcal Churchraen and Dissenters ; the literary
men of the nation have not been backward to express their ap
probation of Baxter's talents and piety. Dr. Kippis, under the
article ' Doddridge' in the 'Biographia Britannica,' institutes a
comparison between him and Job Orton, the author of ' Dod
dridge's Memoirs.' — " It has occurred," he says " to us, that
Mr. Orton, who so long resided at Kidderminster, the principal
seat of Mr. Baxter's ministerial usefulness, had a considerable
resemblance in certain respects to that famous divine. In
extent of abilities, Baxter was greatly superior to Mr. Orton, and
he prodigiously exceeded hira in the raultipliclty of his writings ;
but with regard to the nature of their practical works and the
strictness, we had almost said the rigidness, of their personal
piety, there was no small degree of similarity. Both of thera
display in their productions the same ardent zeal to excite the
attention of men to their eternal concerns, and urge these con
cerns with peculiar energy and pathos. Both of thera were ani
mated with a seriousness of spirit which seeras never to have
forsaken thera in the raost ordinary occurrences of Ufe ; nor
(m) Orton's 'Letters to Dissenting Ministers,' vol. i. pp. 186, 186.

326 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
could either of them bear to be much interrupted in their sacred
employments. When sorae visitors to Mr. Baxter, after having
sitten awhile with hira, said, ' We are afraid, sir, that we break
in upon your tirae ? ' His answer was, ' To be sure you do.' " "
While this passage shows the high idea which Kippis enter
tained of Baxter's character, I conceive that the points of re
semblance between hira and Orton were very few. Orton was
stiff, formal, and cautious to a fault, not to mention other par
ticulars ; qualities the very opposite of those which distinguished
Baxter, whose warmth and energy often involved him in difficul
ties, which the timid prudence of the other was sure to pre
vent. The souls of the two raen were cast in totally different
raoulds. Baxter would have set the world on fire, while Orton
was Ughting a raatch.
Orton himself held Baxter in the highest veneration. In one
of his letters to the Rev. Mr. Hughes, he says, " I would
recoramend you to read sorae practical divinity every day ;
especially the works of Howe, Henry, Watts, Doddridge, and
writers of that strain and spirit, whora God eminently honored
as instruments of great usefulness in his church. Above aU,
Baxter, who was, with regard to the success of his labors and
writings, superior to thera all." °
" Addison says, ' I once raet with a page of Mr. Baxter ; upon
the perusal of it, I conceived so good an idea of the author's
piety, that I bought the whole book.' Dr. Sarauel Johnson,
in his ' Rambler,' has quoted Baxter twice, (No. 71 and 196)
in such a manner as to show that he considered his narae to be
worthy pf a place arapngst the highest authuriries. He is alsp
frequentiy raentioned in Johnson's conversations whh Boswell :
and once, when Boswell asked hira what works of Richard
Baxter he should read ? ' Read any of them,' said the sage,
' for they are aU good.' " f
But no writer has more accurately or candidly sketched the
character of Baxter than Grainger, whose invaluable Biogra
phical History supplies information about nuraerous individuals,
of whom no account is any where else to be found ; and who
rarely distorts his portraits under the influence of personal pr
prpfessipnal prejudice.
" Richard Baxter," he says, " was a man fampus for weak
ness of body and strength of mind ; for having the strongest
sense of reUgion himself, and exciting a sense of it in the
thoughtless and the profligate ; for preaching more sermons,
engaging in raore controversies, and writing more books, than
any other Nonconformist of his age. He spoke, disputed, and
(n) Biographia Britannica, vol. v. p. 314.
(o) Orton's ' Letters to Dissenting Ministers,' vol. i. p. 103.
(p) Ibid. pp. 315, 316.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 327
wrote with ease ; and discovered the sarae intrepidity when he
reproved Cromwell and expostulated witii Charles II. as when
he preached to a congregation of mechanics. His zeal for
reUgion was extraordinary ; but it seems never to have prompted
him to faction, or carried hira to enthusiasra. This charapion
of the Presbyterians was the common butt of men of every
other religion, and of those who were of no religion at aU.
But tbis had very little effect upon hira : his presence and his
firmness of raind on no occasion forsook hira. He was just
the same man before he went into a prison, while he was in it,
and when he came out of it ; and he maintained a uniformity
of character to the last gasp of his Ufe. His enemies have
placed bim in heU ; but every man who has not ten times the
bigotry that Mr. Baxter himself had, must conclude that he is
in a better place. This is a very faint and imperfect sketch of
Mr. Baxter's character. Men of bis size are not to be drawn
in miniature. His portrait, in fuU proportion, is in his ' Nar
rative of his own Life and Times,' which though a rhapsody,
coraposed in the maimer of a diary, contains a great varietj- of
memorable things, and is, iu itself, as far as it goes, a history of
Nonconformity." i
I cannot close this coUection of testimonies to the merits of
Baxter, without adding tbat of Mr. WUberforce, a name which
wiU ever be dear to every friend of religion and humanity. I
cannot help saying, however, he ought not to have considered
Baxter as exclusively tbe property ot the Church of England.
Baxter, though not properly a Dissenter, was, in the strictest
sense of the term, a Nonconformist. " I must beg," says Mr.
WUberforce, " to class among the brightest ornaments of the
Church of England, this great man, who, with his brethren, was
so sharaefuUy ejected from the church in 1662, in violation of
the royal word, as well as of the dear principles of justice.
With his controversial pieces I am littie acquainted ; but his
practical writings, in four massy folios, are a treasury of Chris
tian wisdom. It would be a most valuable service to raankind
to revise them, and, perhaps, to abridge them, to render them
raore suited to the taste of modern readers. This has been
already done in the case of his ' Dying Thoughts,' a beautiful
littie piece, and of his ' Saint's Rest.' His ' Life,' also, written
by himself, and in a separate volurae, contains rauch useful raat
ter, and many valuable particulars of the history of the tiraes of
Charles I., Cromwell," Sic. '
Having presented to the reader a selection of the opinions
which have been expressed of Baxter, as a writer, by men of
the first eminence, both in his own times and since, I have re-
(q) Biog. Hist. vol. V. pp. 81, 82. (r) Wilberforce's Practical Piety, p. 24.

328 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
served his own opinion, or review for the last. As no man was
so fully acquainted with his writings as himself, so no one could
express a more enlightened or candid opinion of them than he
has done. It leans to the side of severity rather than of leni
ency, and presents so amiable a view of the author's character
that it cannot faU to excite esteera and admiration. Corabined
with his review of his Christian character and experience, it
presents what Grainger justly calls a full-length portrait of the
man. He judged hiraself that he raight not be judged, and
was evidently far raore sensible of his own imperfections, and
raore ready to censure thera than any, even of his bitterest
opposers. He constantly defended the integrity of his character
and the purity of his raotives, but was raost wUling to acknow
ledge that none of his works were without spot or bleraish
before God.
" Concerning almost all my writings, I must confess, that my
own judgment is, that fewer weU studied and polished had been
better ; but the reader who can safely censure the books, is not
fit to censure the author, unless he had been upon the place, and
acquainted with all the occasions and circurastances. Indeed,
for the ' Saint's Rest,' I had four raonths' vacancy to write it,
but in the midst of continual languishing and medicine : but,
for the rest, I wrote them in the crowd ofali my other employ
ments, which would aUow me no great leisure for pplishing and
exactness, pr any prnament ; sp that I scarce ever wrpte one
sheet twice over, nor stayed tp raake any blpts pr interlinings,
but was fain tp let it go as it was first conceived ; and when ray
own desire was rather to stay upon one thing long than run
over raany, sorae sudden occasions or other extorted alraost all
ray writings from rae ; and the apprehensions of present useful
ness or necessity prevaUed against all other raotives : so that
the divines which were at hand with rae stiU put me on, and
approved of what I did, because they were raoved by present
necessities, as weU as I : but those that were far off, and felt not
those nearer raotives, did rather wish that I had taken the other
way, and published a few elaborate writings ; and I ara ready
rayself to be of their raind, when I forgot the case that I then
stood in, and have lost the sense of forraer raotives. The op
posing of the Anabaptists, Separatists, Quakers, Antinoraians,
Seekers, Sic, were works which then seemed necessary ; and
so did the debates about church-government and coraraunion,
which touched our present practice : but now, all those reasons
are past and gone, I could wish I had rather been doing sorae
work of raore durable usefulness. But, even to a foreseeing
raan, who knoweth what wiU be of longest use, it is hard to
discern how far that which is presently needful may be omitted,
for the sake of a greater, future gppd. There are sorae other

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 329
works wherein my heart hath more been set than any of those
forementioned, in which I have met witii great obstructions : for
I must declare, tiiat in this, as in many other matters, we are
not the choosers of our own employments, any more than of
our own successes.
" And yet, that I may not say worse than it deserveth of ray
former measure of understanding, I shall truly tell you what
change I find now in the perusal of my own writings. Those
points which then 1 thoroughly studied, ray judgment is the
same of now as it was then, and therefore in the substance of
my reUgion, and in those controversies which I then searched
into with some exti-aordinary diUgence, I find not ray mind dis
posed to a change : but in divers points that I studied sUghtly,
and by the halves, and in many things which I took upon trust
from others, I have found since that ray apprehensions were
either erroneous or very lame. And those things which I was
orthodox in, I had either insufficient reasons for, or a mixture
of some sound and some insufficient ones, or else an insufficient
apprehension of those reasons ; so that I scarcely knew what I
seemed to know : and though in my writings I found little in
substance which my present judgraent differeth frora, yet in my
' Aphorisms ' and ' Saint's Rest,' which were my first writings, I
find some few unmeet expressions, and one coramon infirraity.
I perceive that I put off raatters with sorae kind of confidence,
as if I had done soraething new or raore than ordinary in thera,
when, upon ray raore mature reviews, I find that I said not half
that which the subject did require. As, e. g., in the doctrine of
the covenants aud of justification, but especially about the
divine authurity of the Scripture in the second part of the
' Saint's Rest,' where I have not said half that should have been
said ; and the reason was, because that I had not read any of
the fuller sort of books that are written on those subjects, nor
conversed with those that knew more than myself, and so aU
those things were either new or great to me which were coraraon
and sraaU, perhaps, to others ; and because they all came in by
the way of ray own study of the naked raatter, and not from
books, they were apt to affect ray mind the raore, and to seem
greater than they were. And this token of my weakness so
accompanied those my younger studies, that I was very apt to
start up controversies in the way of ray practical writings, and
also raore desirous to acquaint the world with all that I took to
be the truth, and to assault those books by name whicli I
thought did tend to deceive thera, and did contain unsound and
dangerous doctrine ; and the reason of aU this was, that I was
then in the vigor of my youthful apprehensions, and the new
appearance of any sacred truth, it was more apt to affect me
and be more highly valued than afterwards, when coramonness
VOL. II. 42

330 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
had duUed my delight ; and I did not sufficiently discern then
how much, in most of our controversies, is verbal, and upon
mutual mistakes. And, withal, I knew not how impatient
divines were of being contradicted, nor how it would stir up all
their powers to defend what they have once said, and to rise up
against the truth which is thus thrust upon them as the mortal
enemy of their honor : and I knew not how hardly men's
minds are changed frora their forraer apprehensions, be the evi
dence never so plain. And I have perceived that nothing so
much hinders the reception of the truth as urging it on men
with too harsh iraportunity, and faUing too heavily on their
errors : for hereby you engage their honor in the business, and
they defend their errors as themselves, and stir up all their wit
and ability to oppose you. In controversies, it is fierce opposi
tion which is the bellows to kindle a resisting zeal ; when, if they
be neglected, and their opinions lie awhUe despised, they usuaUy
cool and come again to themselves. Men are so loth to be drenched
vrith the truth, that I ara no raore for going that way to work :
and, to confess the truth, I ara lately much prone to the con
trary extrerae, to be too indifferent what men hold, and to keep
my judgment to myself, and never to raention any thing wherein
I differ frora another on any thing which I think I know raore
than he ; or, at least, if he receive it not presently, to silence it,
and leave him to his own opinion ; and I find this effect is mixed
according to its causes, which are some good and some bad.
The bad causes are, 1. An impatience of men's weakness, and
mistaking forwardness, and self-conceitedness. 2. An abate
ment of my sensible esteera of truth, through the long abode
of them on my mind. Though my judgraent value them, yet it
is hard to be equally affected with old and coraraon things, as
with new and rare ones. The better causes are, 1. That I ara
much more sensible than ever of the necessity of living upon
the principles of reUgion which we are all agreed in, and unking
in these ; and how much mischief men that overvalue their own
opinions, have done by their controversies in the church ; how
some have destroyed charity, and sorae caused schisras by them,
and most have hindered godUness in themselves and others, and
used them to divert men frora the serious prosecuting of a holy
Ufe ; and, as Sir Francis Bacon saith in his Essay of Peace,
' that it is one great benefit of church peace and concord,
that wrhing controversies is turned into books of practical de
votion for increase of piety and virtue.' 2. And I find that it is
rauch raore for most men's good and edification, to converse
with them only in that way of godUness which all are agreed in,
and not by touching upon differences to stir up their corrup
tions, and to teU them of little more of your knowledge than
what you find them wiUing to receive from you as raere learners ;

OP RICHARD BAXTER. 331
and .therefore to stay till they crave infcrmatipn pf ypu. We
mistake men's diseases when we think there needeth nothing to
cure their errors, but only to bring them the evidence of truth.
Alas ! there are many distempers of mind to be reraoved, before
men are apt to receive that evidence. And, therefore, that,
church is happy where order is kept up, and the abUities of the
ministers cpramand a reverend subraissiun frpm the hearers, and
where all are in Christ's school in the distinct ranks of teachers
and learners ; fpr in a learning way men are ready to receive the
truth, but in a disputing way, they come armed against it with
prejudice and animosity.
" And I must say, further, that what I last mentioned on the
by, is one ofthe notablest changes ofmy mind. In ray youth, I
was quickly past my fundamentals, and was running up into a
multitude of controversies, and greatiy delighted with metaphy
sical and scholastic writings, (though, I must needs say, ray
preaching was stUl on the necessary points,) but the older I
grew, the sraaller stress I laid upon these controversies and
curiosities, though still ray inteUect abhorreth confusion, as
finding far greater uncertainties in thera than 1 at first discerned,
and finding less usefulness coraparatively, even where there is
the greatest certainty. And now it is the fundamental doctrines
of the Catechism which I most highly value, and daily think of,
and find raost useful to rayself aud others. The Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Coramandraents, do find rae now
the most acceptable and plentiful raatter for all my meditations.
They are to me as my daily bread and drink ; and, as I can speak
and write of thera over and over again, so I had rather read or
hear of thera, than of any of the school niceties, which once so
much pleased rae. And thus I observed it was with old Bishop
Usher, and with many other men. And I conjecture that this
eflect also is raixed of good and bad, according to its causes.
The bad cause may, perhaps, be some natural infirraity and
decay. And, as trees in the spring shoot up into branches,
leaves, and blossoras, but in the autumn the life drains down
into the root ; so possibly, my nature, conscious of its infirmity
and decay, may find itself insufficient to the attempting of dif
ficult things, and so my mind may retire to the root of christian
principles, and also, I have often been afraid, lest ill rooting at
first, and many teraptations afterwards, have made it more ne
cessary for me than many others, to retire to the root and secure
my fundamentals. But, upon much observation, I am afraid
lest raost others are in no better a case.
" The better causes are these : I value all things according to
their use and ends, and I find in the daily practice and expe
rience of my soul, tiiat the knowledge of God and Christ, and
the Holy Spirit, and the truth of Scripture, and the Ufe to come.

332 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
and of a holy Ufe, is of more use to me than all the most curious
speculations. I know that every raan raust grow as trees do,
downwards and upwards both at once ; and that the roots in
crease as the bulk and branches do. Being nearer death and
another world, I am the mere regardful of those things which
my everlasting life or death depend on. Having most to do
with ignorant, miserable people, I am commanded by my charity
and reason to treat with them of that which their salvation lieth
on ; and not to dispute with them of formalities and niceties,
when the question is presently to be determined, whether they
shaU dweU forever in heaven or in hell. In a word, my medi
tations must be most upon the matters df my practice and my
interest ; and as the love of God, and the seeking of everlasting
life, is the matter of my practice and my interest, so must it be
of my raeditation. That is the best doctrine and study which
raaketh men better, and tendeth to make thera happy. I abhor
the folly of those unlearned persons, who revile or despise leam
ing, because they know not what it is : and I take not any piece
of true learning to be useless ; and yet ray soul approveth of the
resolution of holy Paul, who determined to know nothing among
his hearers, that is, comparatively to value and make ostentation
of no other wisdora, but the knowledge of a crucified Christ ;
to know God in Christ is life eternal. As the stock of the tree
affordeth tiraber to build bouses and cities, when the sraall
though higher raultifarious branches are but to raake a crow's
nest or a blaze, so the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, of
heaven and holiness, doth build up the soul to endless blessed
ness, and affordeth it sohd peace and comfort ; when a multitude
of school niceties serve but for vain jangUngs and hurtful diver
sions and contentions, and yet I would not dissuade my reader
from the perusal of Aquinas, Scotus, Ockhara, Arrainiensis,
Durandus, or any such writer ; for much good may be gotten
from thera : but I would persuade hira to study and live upon
the essential doctrines of Christianity and godliness, incorapara
bly above them aU. And that he may know that my testimony
is somewhat regardable, I presurae to say that in this, and as much
gainsay my natural inclination to subtilty and accurateness in
knowing, as he is like to do by his if he obey my counsel : and
I think, if he lived araong infidels and enemies of Christ, he
would find, that to make good the doctrine of faith and Ufe
etemal were not only bis noblest and most useful study, but
also that which would require the height of all his parts, and the
utmost of his dihgence, to manage it skUfuUy to the satisfaction
of hiraself and others.
" I add, therefore, tbat this is another thing which I am chang
ed in, that whereas in my younger days I never was tempted to
doubt of the truth of Scripture or Christianity, but all ray doubts

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 333
and fears were exercised at home, about my own sincerity and
interest in Christ, and this was it which I caUed unbelief; since
then my sorest assauUs have been on the other side, and such
they were, that had I been void of internal experience and the
adhesion of love, and the special help of God, and had not dis
cerned more reason for my religion than I did when I was
younger, I had certainly apostatized to infidelity. I am now,
therefore, rauch more apprehensive than heretofore ofthe neces
sity of well grounding men in their religion, especially of the
witness of the indweUing Spirit ; for I more sensibly perceive,
that the Spirit is tiie great witness of Christ and Christianity to
the world. And though the folly of fanatics terapted rae long
to overlook the strength of this testiraony of the Spirit, while
they placed it in a certain internal assertion, or enthusiastic
inspiration ; yet now I see that the Holy Ghost, in another man
ner, is the witness of Christ, and his agent in the world. The
Spirit in the prophets was his first witness, and the Spirit by
renovation, sanctification, Ulumination, and consolation, assimi
lating the soul to Christ and heaven, is the continued witness to
all true believers : and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
the same is none of his. (Rom. viii. 9.) Even as the rational
soul in the child is the inherent witness or evidence that he is the
chUd of rational parents. And, therefore, ungodly persons have
a great disadvantage in their resisting temptations to unbeUef,
and it is no wonder if Christ be a sturabUng-block to the Jews,
and to the GentUes foolishness. There is raany a one that hideth
his teraptations to infidelity, because he thinketh it a sharae to
open them, and because it may generate doubts in others ; but I
doubt, the imperfection of raost raen's care of their salvation,
and of their diUgence and resolution in a holy Ufe, doth come
frora the iraperfection of their belief of Christianity and the life
to corae. For ray part, I must profess, that when my behef of
things eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firra, all
goeth accordingly in my soul, and all teraptations to sinful cora-
pUances, worldUness, or flesh-pleasing, do signify worse to rae
than an invitation to the stocks or Bedlam. And no petition
seemeth raore necessary to rae than, — I believe, help thou my
unbelief. Lord, increase our faith.
"Accordingly, I had then a far higher opinion of learned per
sons and books than I have now ; for what I wanted rayself, I
thought every reverend divine had attained, and was faraUiarly
acquainted with. And what books I understood not, by reason
of the strangeness of the terras or matter, Ithe raore admired,
and thought that others understood their worth. But nPw ex
perience hath cpnstrained me against my wUl tP knpw, that
reverend learned raen are imperfect, and knpw but little as well
as I, especially those that think theraselves the wisest : and the

334 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
better I am acquainted with them, the more I perceive that we
are aU yet in the dark. And the raore I am acquainted with holy
men, that are all fpr heaven, and pretend net much to subtleties,
the raore I value and honor thera. And when I have studied
hard to understand some abstruse admhed book, (as De Scientia
Dei, De Providentia circa Malum, De Decretis, De Pradeter-
minatione, De Libertate Creatum, 8ic.) I have but attained the
knowledge of human imperfection, and to see that the author is
but a man as well I.
" And at first I took more upon my author's credU than now
I can do : and when an author was highly coraraended to rae by
others, or pleased rae in some part, I w.s ready to entertain the
whole ; whereas now I take and leave inthe same author,^d dis
sent in some things from hira that I like best, as weU as from others.
" At first, I was greatly inclined to go with the highest in con
troversies on one side pr Pther ; as with Dr. Twisse and Mr.
Rutherfprd, and Spanheraius de Previdentia et Gratia, Ste. But
npw I can so easily see what to say against both extreraes, that
I ara rauch raore inclinable to recpnciling principles. And
whereas then I thpught that conciliators were but ignorant men,
that were wiUing to please aU, and would pretend to reconcUe
the world by principles which they did not understand them
selves, I have since perceived, that if the amiableness of peace
and concord had no hand in the business, yet greater light and
stronger judgment usuaUy is with the reconcUers, than with either
of the contending parties, as with Davenant, HaU, Usher, Lud,
Crocius, Bergius, Strangius, Camero, &tc. But on both accounts
their writings are most acceptable ; though I know that mode
ration may be a pretext of errors.
" At first, the style of authors took as rauch with me as the ar
guraent, and raade the arguraents seera more forcible, but now
I judge not of truth at all by any such ornaments or accidents,
but by its naked evidence.
" I ara much more cautelous in my behef of history than here
tofore. Not that I run into their extreme, that will beUeve
nothmg, because they cannot beUeve all things. But I am
abundantly satisfied by the experience of this age, that there is
no beUeving two sorts of raen, ungodly men, and partial men,
though an honest heathen of no reUgion may be beUeved, where
enraity against religion biasseth hira not ; yet a debauched
Christian, besides his enmity to the power and practice of his
own reUgion, is seldom vrithout some further bias of interest and
faction, especially when these concur ; and a man both ungodly
and ambitious, espousing an interest contrary to a holy, heavenly
life, and also factions, erabodying hiraself with a sect or party
suited to his spfrit and designs, there is no believing his word
or oath. If you read any man partiaUy bitter against others, or

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 3S5
differing from him in opinion, or as cross to his greatness, inte
rest, or designs, take heed how you believe auy more than the
historical evidence distinct from his WPrd compeUeth you to
beheve. The prodigious lies which have been pubUshed in this
age in matters of fact with unblushing confidence, even where
thousands or multitudes of eye and ear witnesses knew aU to be
false, do caU men to take heed what history they believe,
especiaUy where power and violence afford tiiat privilege to
the reporter, that no man dare answer him, or detect his fraud,
or ifthey do, their writings are aU suppressed. As long as men
have liberty to examine and contradict one another, one may
partly conjecture by coraparing their words, on which side the
truth is like to lie. But when great raen write history, or flat
terers by their appointraent, which no man dare contradict,
believe it but as you are constrained.
" So in this age there have been such things written against
parties and persons whora the writers design to raake odious,
so notoriously false, as you would think that the sense of their
honor, at least, should have made it irapossible for such raen to
write. My own eyes have read such words and actions asserted
with raost veheraent, iterated, unblushing confidence, whicli
abundance of ear-witnesses, even oftheir own parties, must needs
know to have been altogether false ; and therefore, having myself
now written this history of myself, notwithstanding my protesta
tion, that I have not in any thing wilfully gone against the truth,
I expect no raore credit from the reader, than the self-condensing
light of the raatter, with concurrent rational advantages, from
persons, and things, and other witnesses, shall constrain him to.
If he be a person that is unacquainted with the author himself,
and the other evidences of his veracity and credibility, and I
have purposely omitted almost all the descriptions of any per
sons liat ever opposed me, or that ever I or ray brethren suffered
by, because I know that the appearance of interest and partiality
might give a fair excuse to the reader's incredulity ; except
only when I speak of the CromweUians and Sectaries, where I
am the more free, because none suspecteth my interest to have
engaged rae against thera, but with the rest ef my brethren I
have ppppsed them in the pbedience of ray conscience, when
by pleasing thera I could have had almost any thing that they
could have given rae ; and when beforehand I expected that
the present governors should sUence me, and deprive me of
maintenance, hpuse, and hprae, as they have dpne tP rae and
many hundreds mere ; therefore, I supposed that ray descrip
tion and censures of those persons who would have enriched
and honored rae, and of their actions against that party which
hath silenced, impoverished, and accused rae, and which before
hand I expected should do so, are beyond the suspicions of

336 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
envy, self-interest, or partiality : if not, I there also am content
that the reader exercise his liberty, and believe no worse even
of these raen, than the evidence of fact constraineth thera.
" And though I before told the change of ray judgraent against
provoking writings, I have had raore will than skill since to
avoid such. I must mention it by way of penitent confession,
tbat I am too much inclined to such words in controversial
writings, which are too keen and apt to provoke the person
whom I write against. Soraetiraes I suspect that age soureth
my spirits, and sometiraes I am apt to think that it is out of a
hatred of a flattering huraor, which now prevaUeth so in tbe
world, that few persons are able to bear the truth ; and I ara
sure that I cannot only bear myself such language as I use to
others, but that I expect it. I think all these are partly causes;
but I ara sure the principal cause is a long custom of studying
how to speak and write in the keenest manner to the coraraon,
ignorant, and ungodly people ; without which keenness to thera
no serraon or book does rauch good ; which hath so habituated
rae to it, that I ara still falling into the sarae with others ; for
getting that many ministers and professors of strictness do
deshe the greatest sharpness to the vulgar and to their adver
saries, and the greatest lenity, and smoothness and corafort, if
not honor, to theraselves. I have a strong natural inclination
to speak of every subject just as itis, and to call a spade a spade,
and verba rebus apiare ; so as that the thing spoken of may be
fuUest known by the words ; which methinks is part of our
speaking truly. But I unfeignedly confess that it is faulty, be
cause iraprudent ; for that is not a good means which doth
harm, because it is not fitted to the end ; and because, whilst the
readers think me angry, though I feel no passipn at such times
in myself, it is scandaleus and a hinderance tp the usefulness pf
what I write : and especially, because thpugh I feel np anger,
yet which is wprse, I know that there is some want of honor
and love, or tenderness to ethers ; or else I should not be apt to
use such words as open their weakness and offend them ; and
therefore I repent of it, and wish aU over sharp passages were
expunged from my writings, and desire forgiveness of God and
man. And yet I must say, that I am oft afraid of the contrary
extreme, lest, when I speak against great and dangerous errors
and sms, though of persons otherwise honest, I should encou
rage men to them, by speaking too easily of them, as Eli did to
his sons ; and lest I shotUd so favor the person as may befriend
the sin and wrong the church. And I must say as the New
England synodists : ' We heartUy desire, that as much as may
be, aU expressions and reflections may be forborne that tend to
break the bond of love. Indeed, such is our infirraity, that the
naked discovery of the fallacy or invalidity of another's allega-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 327
tions or arguings is apt to provoke. This in disputes is una
voidable.' " And, therefore, I am less for a disputing way than ever, be
lieving that it tempteth men to bend their wits to defend their
errors, and oppose tiie truth, and hindereth usually their infor
mation ; and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be
gentie to aU men, Sic. Therefore, I ara raost in judgraent for
a learning or teaching way of converse : in aU corapanies, I wiU
be glad either to hear those speak that can teach me, or to be
heard of those that have need to learn." ^
The life and writings pf Baxter are new fully and impartially
befpre the reader. The views entertained of thera by others,
and his own estiraate of himself and his works, with the ex
tended detaUs which I have brought forward, leave little to be
said in the way of a general summary. My own opinions have
been always freely expressed on all the subjects which have passed
successively under consideration ; and, had I now been disposed
to criticise the writings and character of Baxter more minutely,
the extracts just given from his own pen raust have, in a great
measure, deprived me of the power to censure. Though not
unconscious of his iraperfections, I frankly acknowledge that
I have been more disposed to raark his beauties, than to expose
his faults ; and would rather leave the reader under the impres
sion of his many and great exceUencies, than minutely acquainted
with his foibles and failings.
Every reader ofthe preceding part of this work .must be struck
with the magnitude of Baxter's labors as a writer. The age
in which he lived was an age of voluminous authorship ; and
Baxter was beyond comparison the raost volurainous of all his
conterapoaries. Those who have been accquainted only with
what are called his practical or spiritual writings, form no
correct estimate of the extent of his works. These form twenty-
two volumes octavo, in the present edition ; and yet they are but
a smaU portion of what he wrote. The number of his books
has been very variously estimated ; as sorae ofthe volumes which
he pubUshed contained several distinct treatises, they have sorae
tiraes been counted as one, and soraetimes reckoned four or five.
The best raethod of forming a correct opinion of Baxter's la
bors from the press, is by coraparing them with sorae of his
brethren, who wrote a great deal. The works of Bishop HaU
amount to ten volumes octavo ; Lightfoot's extend to thirteen ;
Jereray Taylor's to fifteen ; Dr. Goodwin's would raake about
twenty ; Dr. Owen's extend to twenty-eight ; Richard Baxter's,
if printed in a uniform edition, could not be coraprised in less
(s) Life, part i. p. 137.
VOL. II. 43

328 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
than sixty volumes, making more than from- thirty to forty
thousand closely-printed octavo pages !
On this mass of writing he was employed from the year 1649,
when his first work appeared, tiU near the time of his death in
1691, a period of forty-four years. Had he been chiefly engaged
in writing, this space was amply sufficient to have enabled him
to produce all his works with ease. But, it must be recollected
tbat writing was but a smaU part of his occupation. His labors
as a minister, and his engagements in the pubhc business of his
tiraes, forraed his chief employment for many years, so that he
speaks of writing but as a kind of recreation from raore severe
duties. Nor is this aU ; his state of health raust be taken into
consideration, in every estiraate of his work. A raan more dis
eased, or who had more to contend with in the frame of his
body, probably never existed in the same circumstances. He
was a constant martyr to sickness and pain, so that how he
found it practicable to write with the composure which he ge
nerally did, is one of the greatest mysteries in his history. The
energy of his raind was superior to any diseourageraent, for,
though it often felt the burden and clog of the flesh, it never gave
way to its desire of ease, or succurabed under the pressure of
its infirraities. He furnishes an illustrious instance of what may
be done by principle, energy, and perseverance, in the most
untoward and discouraging circumstances.
The subjects on which Baxter wrote erabrace the whole range
of theology, in all the parts of which he seeras to have been
nearly equally at home. Doctrinal, practical, casuistical, and
poleraical, all occupied his thoughts, and engaged his pen. His
inquiries ranged and his writings extended from the profoundest
and most abstruse speculations on the divine decrees, the con
stitution of man, and the origin of evil, to the simplest truths
adapted to the infant mind. To say he was master of any
subject, would be too much ; but he must be very wise or very
stupid to whom Baxter can impart no instruction. If he does
not always impart Ught, he seldom fails to suggest some pro
fitable reflection, or to lead his readers to discover difficulties
where they had seen none before. On the most iraportant
subjects, he dwells with the greatest deUght, expatiating vrith a
freedora which evinces how fully they occupied his own mind,
and interesting his readers by tbe earnestness of his manner and
the beauty of his Ulustrations.
Few men, perhaps, have had greater command of their know
ledge, or of the power of conveying it, than Baxter. He appears
to have read everything relating to his own profession, and to
have remembered aU he read. The fathers and schoolmen,
the doctors and reformers of all ages and countries, seem to have
been as famihar to him as the alphabet of his native tongue.

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 329
He rarely makes a parade of his knowledge, but he never fails
to convince that he was well acquainted with most that had been
written on the subject he discusses. His mistakes were seldom
the raistakes of ignorance. He labored to derive his know
ledge from the fountains of information ; and considering that he
had not enjoyed the benefits of a university education, the defects
of it very rarely appear. Such an education raight have given
more correctness, but would have added nothing to the vigor
of his mind.
Ever ahve to the claims of duty, and the calls of Providence,
he obeyed with the utmost promptitude every demand raade upon
him by his brethren, bis country, or the state of the church.
Perhaps he erred in complying too readily, and using his pen on
occasions when a dignified sUence would have been raore suita
ble. His own apology, however, on the subject of his raany
writings, is very satisfactory. With him it was usually matter of
conscience to write, and only such an acquaintance with all the
circurastances as can now scarcely be had, could enable us to
form a correct judgment as to the necessity which he conceived
was laid upon hira.
When he did write, it was with a pointed pen, which is never
chargeable with obscurity or feebleness. The extent of his
knowledge and his coraraand of language, betrayed him into
exuberance and redundancy. He heaps up arguments, and rais
es piles of reasons, scarcely knowing when to stop, or what lira-
its to prescribe to a discussion. Though a lover of order, he
had no tirae to arrange or select his thoughts when he sat down
to write, so that he poured them forth with all the copiousness
of his mind, but often with an irregularity and incongruity that
materially injured their beauty and eflect. He belabors an ad
versary tiU he has destroyed not only his existence but his very
form. Not content with disarming hira, and using his arras
against hiraself, he seeras to take pleasure in having hira an
object of pity, if not of scorn. His metaphysics and refinements
have frequentiy been referred to. These consrituted both his
power and his weakness as a controversialist. They enabled him
to discover any assailable points in tbe positions of his adversa
ries ; to penetrate into every crevice, and to lay open every rais
take. They at the sarae tirae supplied an almost invulnerable
protection to himself. He had always ground on which he could
retreat with advantage, so that he was frequently left in quiet
possession ofthe field. This style of debate, however, enfeebled
the cause, while it appeared to constitute tbe strength of its ad
vocate. It rarely produced conviction of the truth, but often in
duced suspicion that error was lurking under the forms and be
hind the battlements of logic and metaphysics.
The style of Baxter is considerably diversified. It is often

330 THF, LIFE AND WRITINGS
incorrect, rugged, and inharraonious, abounding in parentheses
and digressions, and enfeebled by expansion. It is happiest
when it is divested entirely of a controversial character, and the
subject relates to the great interests of salvation and charity. It
then flows with a copiousness and purity to which there is no
thing superior in the language in which he wrote. The vigorous
conceptions of his mind are then conveyed in a corresponding
energy of expression ; so that the reader is carried along with a
breathless irapetuosity, which he finds it irapossible to resist.
Baxter knew nothing of that vice of learning wbich Bacon so
beautifully describes, as consisting " raore in hunting after
words than raatter ; more after the choiceness of the phrase,
and the round and clean composition of the sentence, and the
sweet falling of the clauses, and tbe varying and iUustration with
tropes and figures, than after the weight of matter, worth of
subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of
judgment." Baxter was superior to all this. Truth in all its
majesty and infinite iraportance alone occupied the throne of his
spirit, and dictated the forms in which its voice should be ut
tered. And when it spoke, it was in language divinely suited
to its nature, never distracting by its turgidness, or disgusting
by its regularity. He could be awful or gentle, pathetic or
pungent, at pleasure ; always suiting his words to his thoughts,
and dissolving his audience in tenderness, or overwhelming them
with terror, as heaven or heU, the mercies of the Lord, or the
wrath to come, was the topic of discourse. It may confidently
be affirmed, that frora no author of the period could a greater
selection of beautiful passages of didactic, hortatory, and con
solatory writings, be made.
In the character of Baxter, both as a writer and a pubUc man,
there was a marked deficiency of wisdom. Had this been in
proportion to his knowledge, his piety, and his fearlessness, he
would have been unequalled among the men of his tiraes. But
in this respect he often fell far below those who were greatly his
inferiors in every other quality of rnind and character. His re
proofs and expostulations were frequentiy iU-tiraed and injudi
cious, in consequence of which they failed in producing the
effect which he was raost anxious to accomplish. The same
remark is applicable to many of his writings ; not his contro
versial ones only, but even his practical works, displaying frequent
marks of want of judgraent. This defect did not arise chiefly
frpm the haste with which he cemppsed. In thpse cases in
which he bestpwed rapst labpr, we are furnished with the
greatest proofs that knowledge and wisdora do not always go
together ; and in the conduct of great public raeasures, he was
guilty of the greatest blunders.
This feature of his raind fully accounts for that want of con-

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 331
sistency which is so remarkable in sorae parts of his conduct.
It did not arise from timidity, from the fear of giving offence,
or from the desire of human applause. None of these diposi-
tions had any place in the soul ol Baxter. On the contrary, his
would have been a smoother and more pleasant part, had he
acted decidedly with either of the two great professions, who
both clairaed hira, and both disowned him. From this want of
judgraent, in the grand struggle for Nonconforraity, what he
buUt up with one hand, he puUed down with the other. He
first opposed the church, and then turned round and opposed his
bretiiren. He objected to conforraity, and yet conforraed ; he
seceded frora the estabhshraent, and yet held stated coramunion
with it ; be declined a bishopric, and begged for a curacy. He
VTrote books which made many dissenters, and yet was always
angry with those who dissented. He decided where he ought
to have hesitated, and hesitated where he should have decided.
Possessed of a firraness of character which nothing could sub
due, he was yet often turned aside frora his purpose for a tirae
by a trifling difficulty, and frequently lost hiraself in raists of his
own creating.
It is a striking fact, that raen of extraordinary talents and
attainraents are frequently raarked by tbe peculiarity which has
been adverted to in the case of Baxter — an inaptitude to manage
littie raatters, or to apply their general knowledge to practical
purposes. Bacon could lay down laws for the government of
the world, both of matter and mind, and yet cpuld npt manage
with discretipn his pwn servants. Newtpn cpuld measure and
weigh the universe, but in ordinary affairs manifested the sim
plicity of childhood. In Baxter there was a guUeless simpUcity
of purpose, and a straightforward earnestness in prosecuting it,
which prevented his attending to those minor circumstances of
raanner and method that often corapletely frustrated the object
of his strongest desire. Deceived by the purity of his own prin
ciples and aims, he often expected too rauch from others ; and
was iU prepared for the reception and opposition which he ex
perienced. Confident in the correctness of his own opinions on
sorae important points, and desirpus of inducing all raen to
erabrace thera, he over-estiraated the strength of principles in
others, and moderated the difficulties which obstructed the pro
gress of his schemes. In various respects, he was born before
his tirae ; and was therefore imperfectly adapted to the world in
which he lived. His scheraes of reconciUation, catholic cora
raunion, and general philanthropy, which were deeraed Utopian
by raany, have survived the opposition which they then expe
rienced, are no longer regarded as visionary speculation, and are
destined to enjoy a still greater measure of approbation in the
ages to come.

332 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
In the greater number of the practical writings of Baxter, a
larger infusion of evangelical doctrine would have added greatiy
to their interest and effect. The fulness, freeness, and suitable
ness, of the grace and salvation of the Redeeraer to sinners, are
rather implied and assuraed in his treatises than brought promi-
nentiy forward or urged. That he understood them weU is un
questionable ; but his talent lay in dealing with sinners on some
what different grounds. He had seen much of the abuse of the
doctrines of grace, and was in consequence induced to dwell
on the dangers of abusing them too frequentiy, and at too great
length. In his system, terms, conditions, and quaUfications (a
phraseology foreign from the Gospel), frequentiy occur, embar
rassing himself, and stumbling to others. His directions to the
smner, and the weak believer, are not sufficientiy simple ; they
lead rather to the mind itself for comfort, than to the object
which alone can relieve it. Faitb, repentance, and good works,
aU of great importance in themselves, are more frequentiy the
subjects of discourse than the person, the atonement, and the
glory of the Saviour, as the ground of all hope, and the source
of aU consolation. In these respects, the writings of Baxter
differ considerably from those of Owen, and the men of his
school ; though no substantial difference of sentiment subsisted
between them.
Men equaUy sincere and enhghtened in their attachment to
Christianity, view it from different points, and are variously in
fluenced by it. Some are most attracted by its grace, others
most influenced by its holiness. The divine goodness and love
are consequently the chief subjects of discourse by the former,
while the malignity of sin and its hatefulness to God are chiefly
dwelt upon by the latter. Both hold the same sentiments re
specting the two parts of divine economy, though each dweU on
that, which is the principal motive to love and obedience in their
respective cases. The experience of Baxter shows, that from
the commencement to the close of his religious course, he was
chiefly influenced by those views of God which induced hatred
of sin, repentance, and self-abasement ; and all that is included
in the phrase — Godly fear. This led him to say,
" Fear is to love, as was the law to grace ;
And as John Baptist goes before Christ's face,
Preaching repentance : it prepares his way.
It is the fast appearing of the day —
The dawning light which comes before the sun."
What he felt hiraself to be a great constraining principle, he
naturaUy enough applied to others ; and was thus led to dweU
more on "the terrors," than the " tender mercies ofthe Lord."
" My feeble new-bom sonl began with crying.
My infant life did seem to me still dying,

OF RICHARD BAXTER. 333
Betwixt supporting hope and sinking fears.
My doubting soul did languish many years." t
This gives an air of sternness and severity to raany of his
writings, and the appearance of legality, which raust not be con
sidered as evidence that he did not understand the Gospel,
enjoyed little of its consolation, or iraperfectly experienced its
sweetening influence. On the contrary, the very poem from
which I have extracted his representation of the influence of
fear, and which records his experience, is entitled 'Love
breathing thanks and praise,' and affords the most delightful
illustration of the power of this heavenly principle upon him.
He tells us, after dweUing upon his fears,
" At last my fears became my greatest fear.
Lest that my whole religion should lie there.
No man hath more of holiness than love ;
Which doth free souls by complacency move,
A slavish fear desireth leave to sin ;
It doth but tie the hands and wash the skin.
Hypocrites act a forced, affected part.
Where love is absent, God hath not the heart." u
His pantings after greater measures of holy love and delight
in God, were singularly ardent ; every paragraph of this poem
closing with the beautiful hne,
" O my dear God ! How precious is thy love !"
Indeed, in aU his devotional writings, the predominance of
his love to God is apparent ; and from the contemplation of the
love of God, he derived pure and constant enjoyment.
The natural temper of Baxter was quick and irritable, irapa
tient of contradiction, and prone to severity. This was partly
owing to the diseased state of body, frora which he endured
constant and incredible pain. It appears that he was deeply
sensible of this infirmity, and that he labored hard to subdue
it. It led him frequently to use harsh and irritating language
towards his opponents, which created increased hostility, and
gave thera an idea that he was an unaraiable man, who might be
feared or esteemed, but who could not be loved. But if Baxter
was easily provoked, he was ever ready to forgive. He was
warm, but not irascible. He cherished no resentments, was
always happy to accept an explanation or apology, and was as
prompt tp pardpn, as he had been ready tP take offence. In
the expression ofali his feeUngs, he was open and undisguised.
He always spoke from the heart, whether it was filled with in
dignation, or overflowed with love.
I have literally exhausted aU I can say respecting the faults
and infirmities of this extraordinary and excellent man. Such
(t) Poetical Fragments, p. 13. (u) Ibid. pp. 14, 15.

334 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
as they were, they were obvious on the very surface of his char
acter ; while they constitute but a sraaU drawback on the numer
ous virtues by which it was adorned. In his personal character,
the grace of God shone forth with distinguished lustre. The
Christian ministry enjoyed in him one of its brightest ornaments,
and the Nonconformists one oftheir ablest defenders and advo
cates. He died full of years and honor, in the presence of
his brethren, and laraented by aU good raen. He is now enjoy
ing that ' Everlasting Rest,' of which he wrote so weU, and for
which he prepared so many. Np sculptured menument has been
reared tp his memory, to raark the spot where his ashes repose.
He needs it not. His narae lives in his works. Araong the
Christian writers of our country, there is perhaps no individual
who occupies so wide a circle, or who fiUs it with so deserved
an influence, as Richard Baxter.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST

THE WORKS OF BAXTER

y

1. Aphorisms of Justification, with their Explications.
Wherein also is opened the Nature of the Covenants,
Satisfaction, Righteousness, Faith, Works, Sic. 1649.
12mo.
-/ 2. The Saint's Everlasting Rest ; or, a Treatise of the bless
ed Stateof the Saints in their enjoyment of God. 1649.
4to.
y 3. Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' Church-membership
' and Baptism. 1 65^. 4to.
«>^ 4. Animadversions on a Tract by Mr. Thos. Bedford. 1652.
4tp.
' 5. A Friendly Accpmmodation of the Controversy with Mr.
Bedford. 1652. 4to.
C> 6. Torabs's Precursor, stayed and exarained. 1652. 4to.
' 7. Letters between Mr. Baxter and Mr. Torabs, concerning
their Dispute. 1652. 4to.
/ 8. The right Method for Peace of Conscience and Spiritual
Corafort, in thirty-two Directions. 12mo. 1653.
O 9. Richard Baxter's Judgment about the Perseyerance of
Behevers. 1653.
yiO. Christian Concord; or, the Agreeraent of the Associated
Pastors and Churches of Worcestershire. 1653. 4to.
"(fil. The Worcestershire Petition to Parliaraent. 1653. 4to.
a 12. The Petition Defended in Sixteen Queries, in a book en
titied ' A Brief Discovery of the three-fold State of
Antichrist.' 1653. 4to.
^13. True Christianity ; two Assize Serraons. 1654. 4to.
\j 14. Richard Baxter's Apology ; containing his Reasons of
' Dissent from Mr. Blake, Sic. 1654, 4to.
VOL. II. 44

346 chronological list

^

¦1

^

15. Richard Baxter's Reduction of a Digressor in Reply to
Kendal. 1654. 4to.
16.  Admonition to Eyre. 1654. 4to.
17.  Crandon Anatomised. 1654. 4to.
18.  Confutation of Lewis MoUnffius. 1654.
4to.
v>/ 19.  Confession of Faitii ; especiaUy concern-
' ing the Interest of Repentance and sincere Obedience
to Christ in our Justification and Salvation. 1655. 4to.
20.  Humble Advice to the Members of Par
Uament ; a Sermon preached m Westminster Abbey.
1655. 4to.
/ 21. Making Light of Christ. 1655. 4to.
f 22. Of Judgment; a Serraon preached in St. Paul's. 1655.
4to.
/ 23. The Quaker's Catechisra. 1655. 4to.
The Unreasonableness of Infidelity. 1655. Svo.
GUdas Salvianus ; or, the Reforraed Pastor. 1656. Svo.
The Agreeraent of the Worcestershire Ministers for Cate
chising. 1656. 12mo.
Certain Disputations of Right to the Sacraments. 1656.
The Safe Religion ; or, three Disputations for the Reform
ed Religion against Popery. 1657. Svo.
A Treatise of Conversion. 1657. 4to.
A Winding-Sheet for Popery. 1657. Svo.
A Sheet for the IMinistry against Malignants. Ibid,
A Sheet against the Quakers. Ibid,
A Second Sheet for the Ministry. Ibid.
A Sheet directing Justices in Corporations to discharge
their duty to God. Ibid.
A CaU to the Unconverted. 1657. Svo.
The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ.
,, 1658. 4to.
Saving Faith. 165S. 4to.
Confirmation and Restoration. 1658. 12mo.
Directions and Persuasions to a sound Conversion. 1658.

Y24.
A 25.
1 26.

N 27.
V28.

W29.
-/ 30.
V 31:
> 32.
N 33.
^34.

' 35.
VI 36.

, 37.
^/3S.
J39.

..40.'TJisputations of Church Government. 1658. 4to.
/ 41. The Judgment and Advice of the Associated Ministers of
Worcestershire, in reference to Dury. 1658. 4to.
^42. Four Disputations of Justification. 1658. 4to.
m43. Universal Concord. 1658. 12mo.
~' 44. The Grotian Religion discovered. 1658. 12mo.
7 45. Key for Catholics. 1659. 4to.
^46. Holy Coramonwealth. 1659. Svo.
w '47. A Treatise of Death ; a Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Baker.
' 1669. Svo.

OF THE WORKS OF BAXTER. 347
f48. A Treatise of Self-Denial. 1659. 4to.
/'49. Catholic Unity. 1659. 12mo.
1.50. The True Catholic and Catholic Church described. 1659.
/ 12mo.
I 51. A Sermon of Repentance, preached before the House of
Commons, AprU 30. 1659. 4to.
y 52. A-Sermon xif ¦fight Rejoicing;, preached before the Lord
.Mayor, May 10, 1659. 4to.
.-'¦ 53. The Life jof Faith, a Sermon preached before the King,
July 22, 1659. 4to.
S 54. The Successive Visibility of the Church. 1659. 12mo.
' 55. The vain Religion ofthe formal Hypocrite. 1659. 12rao.
i^ 56. The Fool's Prosperity. 1659. 12mo.
/ 57. The Last Work of a Believer ; a Serraon preached at tbe
death of Mrs. Hanraer. 1659. 4to.
y58. The Petition to the Bishops for Peace, &;c. 1661.
¦S 59. The Reformed Liturgy. 1661.
y 60. The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance, and the Benefits of Self-
Acquaintance. 1662. Svo.
¦ 61. Baxter's Account to the Inhabitants of Kidderminster of
the Cause of his being forbid to preach among them.
1662. 4to.
7 62. A Saint or a Brute. 1662. 4to.
y 63. Now or Never. 1663.
y 64. Fair Warning ; or, Twenty-five Reasons against the Tolera
tion of Popery. 1663. Svo.
•-f 65. Divine Life. 1664. 4to.
u 66. Two Sheets for Poor FamiUes. 1665.
^ 67. A Sheet for the Instruction of the Sick during the Plague.
1665.
'-J 68. Reasons for the Christian Religion. 1667. 4to.
/ 69. Directions to the Converted, for their Estabhshment,
Growth, and Perseverance. 1669. Svo.
M 70. The Life of Faith. 1670. 4to.
V71, Cure of Church Divisions. 1670. 8vo.
y72. Defence ofthe Principles of Leve, in answer to exceptions
' against the Cure pf Church Divisipns. 1671. Svo.
/73. The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day. 1671. Svo.
''74. The Duty of Heavenly Meditation revived. 1671. 4to.
' 75. How far Holiness is the Design of Christianity. 1671 4to
N 76. The Difference between the Power of Magistrates and
Church Pastors, and the Roman Kingdom and Magistra
cy. 1671. 4to.
^77. God's Goodness Vindicated. 1671. 12mo.
y 78. A Second Admonition to Mr. Edward Bagshaw. 1671.
Svo
M 79. More Reasons for the Christian Religion, and no Reason
against it. 1672. 12mo.

f

348 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST
v.^ 80. Sacrilegious Desertion of the Holy Ministry rebuked.
' 1672. 12mo.
w81. The Certainty of Christianity without Popery. 1672. Svo.
^ 82. The Church told of IMr. Edward Bagshaw's Scandals.
' 1672. 4to.
Y 83. Christian Dfrectory. 1673. Foi.
y\ 84. FuU and Easy Satisfaction which is the true and safe Re-
^ Ugion. 1674. Svo.
v^ 85. The Poor Man's Family Book. 1674. Svo.
^ 86. An Appeal to the Light; a Sermon on Ephesians i. 3.
1674. 4to.
87. CathoUc Theology. 1675. Foi.
88. More Proofs of Infants' Church- ^Membership. 1675. Svo.
89. Two Disputations of Original Sin. 1675. 12mo.
^ 90. Select Arguments against Popery, 1675. 4tp.
'] 91. A Treatise pf Justifying Righteousness. 1675. Svo.
y 92. An Answer to Dr. TuUie's angry Letter. 1675. Svo.
^ 93. The Substance of Mr. Cartwright's Exceptions considered.
> 1675. Svo.
X 94. Christ, not the Pope, the Universal Head ofthe Church,
a Sermon. 1675. 4to.
* 95. Reasons for Ministerial Plainness and Fidelity. 1676. Svo.
V 96. A Review ofthe State of Christian Infants. 1676. Svo.
I 97. Judgmentof Nonconformists, concerning the office of Rea
son in ReUgion. 1676. 4to.
• 98. The Judgment ofNonconforraists on the difference between
Grace and ^Morality. 1676. 4to.
I 99. Their Judgraent about Things Indifferent commanded by
authority. 1676. 4to.
» 100. Their Judgment about Things Sinful by Accident. 1676.
4to.
M 101. What ]Mere Nonconforraity is not. 1 676. 4to.
/ 102. Roraan Tradition examined in the point of Transubstan
tiation, 1676.
^ 103. Naked Popery; or, the Naked Falsehood of a Book
' called 'The CathoUc Naked Truth.' 1677. 4to.
( 104. A Funeral Sermon for iMr. Henry Stubbs. 1678. Svo.
105. Which is the True Church — ^the whole Christian Church,
as Headed by Christ, or the Pope and his Subjects.
1679. 4to.
V106. The Nonconformist's Plea for Peace. 1679. Svo.
' 107. A Funeral Serraon for ]Mrs. Mary Cox. 1680. Svo.
^v, 108. The Trae and only Way of Concord of all Chnstian
^ Churches. 1680. Svo.
i 109. Defence ofthe Nonconforraist's Plea for Peace. 1680. Svo.
,110. The Second Part ofthe Nonconformist's Plea for Peace.
1680. 4to.

y.

^

k

OF THE VVORKS OF BAXTER. 349
V 111. A moral Prognostication of what raust be expected in the
Churches of Christendom till the Golden Age returns.
1680. 4to.
y 112. Church History of tlic Government of Bishops and their
Councils. 16S0. 4to.
y 113. An Answer to Dr. StUlingfleet's Charge of Separation.
1680. 4to.
Y 114. Treatise of Episcopacy. 1681. 4to.
115. A Funeral Serraon for Henry Ashurst, Esq. 1681. 4to.
116. Poetical Fragraents, 1681. 12mo.
117. An Apology forthe Nonconformist's Ministry. 1681. 4to.
/lis. Methodus Theologiae Christians. 1681. Foi.
119. Universal human Church Supreraacy, in answer to Dod
weU. 1681. 4to.
120. Baxter's Account of his Dissent from Dr. Sherlock. 1681 .
4to.
121. A Search for the EngUsh Schismatic. 1681. 4to.
122. A Third Defence ofthe Cause of Peace. 1681. Svo.
yl23. A Second True Defence of the Mere Nonconformists.
/ 1681.
'y 124. A Breviate ofthe Life of Mrs. Margaret Baxter. 1681.
4to.
yi25. An Answer to Mr. Dodwell's Letter, calling for more An
swers. 1682. 4 to.
, 126. A Speciraen of the present mode of Controversy in
England, in Reply to L'Estrange. 1682. 4to.
\yl27. The True History of CouncUs enlarged and defended.
' 1682. 4to.
. 128. A Funeral Serraon for Mr. John Corbet. 1682. 4to.
^29. Of the Iraraortality of Man's Soul. 1682. 12rao.
V 130. On the Nature of Spirits. 1682. 12mo.
' 131. A Serraon for the Cure of Melancholy. 1682^ 4to.
W132. Compassionate Counsel to Young Men. 168^. 12mo.
\ 133. How to do Good to Many. 1682. 4to.
' 134. Faraily Catechisra. 1683. Svo.
^135. Additions to Poetical Fragraents. 1683. 12mo.
. 136. Obedient Patience. 1683. Svo.
y 137. Richard Baxter's FareweU Sermon, prepared to have
been preached to his hearers in Kidderrainster at his
departure, but forbidden. 1683. 4to.
•v^j 138.  Dying Thoughts. 1683. Svo.
, 139. The dangerous Schisraatic clearly Detected and fully
Confuted. 1683. 4to.
M 140. The Second Part against Schisra, and a Book reported to
' be Mr. Raphson's. 1683. 4to.
? 141. A Survey ofthe Reply to Mr. Huraphrey. 1683. 4to.
v,142. CathoUc Coraraunion defended against both extremes.
^ 1684. 4to.

1

y If
1\\

350 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST.
143. An Answer to Dr. Owen's Arguraents against that Prac
tice. 1684. 4to.
144. Whether Parish Congregations be true Christian Churches.
1684. 4to.
, 145. A short Answer to the Chief Objections in a Book entitled
' A Theological Dialogue.' 1684. 4to.
*• 146. Catholic Coramunion doubly Defended. 1684. 4to.
( 147. The Judgmentof Sir Matthew Hale, ofthe Nature of True
Religion. 1684. 4to. ""
0 148. Unum Necessarium. 1685, Svo.
^1 149. A Paraphrase on the New Testament. 1685. 4to.
, 150. Richard Baxter's Sense ofthe Subscribed Articles. 1689.
f 4to.
y 151. The EngUsh Nonconformity, as under King Charles the
' Second, and Jaraes the Second, stated and argued.
1689. 4to.
52. A Treatise of Knowledge and Love cpmpared. 1689. 4tP.
53. Cain and Abel's Malignity. 1689. 8vp.
^154. The Scripture Gcspel defended. 1690. Svo.
? 155. A Defence ofChrist and Free Grace. 1690. Svo.
v<156. An End of Doctrinal Controversies. 1691. Svo.
vl57. The Glorious Kingdora of Christ Described and Vindicat
ed against Mr. Thos. Beverly. 1691. 4to.
-t 158. A Reply to Mr. Thos. Beverly. 1691. 4to.
' 159. Of National Churches. 1691. 4to.
yl60. Against Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction. 1691. Svo.
Nj 161. Richard Baxter's Penitent Confession and necessary Vin
dication. 1691. 4to.
v*162. The Certainty of the World of Spirits, fully evinced by
unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witch
crafts, &tc. 1691. 12rao.
y 163. The Protestant ReUgion truly Stated and Justified. 1692.
Svo.
^ 164. A Paraphrase on the Psalms of David, with other Hymns.
1692. Svo.
165. A Treatisegf Universal Rederaption. 1694. Svo.
166. Reliquiae Baxterianae : or. Narrative ofhis Life and Times.
1696. Foi.
* 167. Monthly Preparations for the Holy Communion. 1696.
12mo.
168. The Mother's Catechism. 1701. Svo.

INDEX

.det of Uniformity, injustice, impolicy, and cruelty of, i. 206 — 211. Its effects,
211,212. Mr. Southey's misstatement of it exposed, 212 noie. Severe act
against private meetings, or conventicles, 221, 222. The Five-mile Act passed,
230. Oath imposed by it, i6. Observations on it, 231. Renewal of the con
venticle act, 254, 255. The Test Act passed, 268. Act for excluding the Duke
of York from the throne carried in the House of Commons, but lost in the
House of Lords, 295. The Toleration Act passed, 347.
Adamic curse, on the extent of, ii. 39, and note.
Addison's (Joseph) opinion of Baxter, ii. 326.
Alleine's {Joseph) 'Alarm,' character of, ii. 81.
Ames (Dr.), notice of his ' Fresh Suit against Human Ceremonies in God's Wor
ship, i. 25, notes. And of his ' Cases of Conscience,' ii. 126, note x.
Anabaptists. See Baptists.
Anglesey (Earl of), character of, i. 165, note r.
Antinomianism., nature of, ii. 228. Its appearance at the Reformation, 229. Orig
inated in Popery, ib. Opposed by Luther, 231. Its origin in England, 232.
Statement of its principles by Dr. Crisp, ib. Opposition of Baxter, 234. Anti
nomianism, the chief subject ofhis 'Confession of Faith,' 235. Remarks on
it, 237. On Baxter's ' Holiness, the Design of Christianity,' 238. ' Appeal to
the Light,' 239. Reply to it, ib. ' Treatise of Justifying Righteousness,' ib.
'Scripture-Gospel Defended,' 241. Influence of Baxter's writings and preach
ing on Antinomianism, 242. Observation of Baxter on the conduct and princi
ples of the Antinomians, 100. Leading errors of their system, 243. Antinomi
anism successfully opposed by the Rev. Andrew Fuller, 245, note.
Army, Parliamentary, increased by the accession of the Puritans, i. 36 — 38. Its
state after the battle of INaseby, 46 — 48. Character of it, SO — 63. Various Oc
currences in it, after the battle of Langport, 57 — 60. Causes why Mr. Baxter
had so little success in his ministerial labors in it, 60, 61. Remarks on his
views of the army, and on his conduct while in it, 65, 66.
Articles of religion, required to be signed by the Toleration Act, Mr. Baxter's
opinion of the sense of certain, 347 — 350.
Ash {Mi. Simeon), biographical notice of, i. 217,218.
Ashurst (Mr. Henry), benevolence of, during and after the fire of London, i. 234.
Biographical account of, 302.
Ashurst (Sii Henry), Biographical notice of, i. 327, noie. His generous conduct
to Mr. Baxter, 322, 324. Extract from a dedication to him, ii. 115.
Assembly of Divines, Mr. Baxter's character of, i. 67, 68. Lord Clarendon's ac
count of it, 68, note. Remarks on it, 69. Milton's account of it, ib. Remarks
on it, 70, notes. Comparison of the three characters, 68. Mr. Baxter's ac
count of the leading parties represented init, 71 — 79. Remarks thereon, 79,80.
Bagsha-iD (Edward), Biographical'account of, ii. 178, 179, and note q. Notice of
his vindication of Mr. Baxter against Bishop Morley, 89. Account of his con
troversy with Mr. Baxter on church divisions, 176. And of Baxter's replies to
him, 177. Character of his treatise, ' De Monarchia Absoluta Politica,' 267,
notem.
Balcarras (Countess of). Biographical account of, ii. 87. 299, note. Notice of
her son, 88. Baxter's ' Divine Life ' undertaken at her request, 299.
Baldwin (Mr. Thomas), successor of Baxter, at Kidderminster, character of, i.
125.
Baptists, or Anabaptisti, discussions of, with other sects, i. 42. Mr. Baxter's ac-

352 INDEX.
count of theni; 77, 79. Analysis of Mr. Baxter's controversial pieces on bap
tism, with remarks, ii. 247—233.
Barlow (Bishop) , an opponent of Mr. Baxter, notice of, ii. 62.
Barrow's (Dr.) character of Mr. Baxter's writings, ii. 321.
Bastunck (Dr.), notice of, i. 30, note m.
Bates (Dr. William), censured by the !Nonconformists forhis occasional conform
ity, i. 223. Consults Lord Keeper Bridgman on the construction of the oath
required by the Five-mile Act, 232. Which he takes, ib. His account of Mr.
Baxter's last sickness and death, 353. And of his character and labors, ii. 324.
Battle of Edghill, i. 43. Of Naseby, 4G. Of Langport, 54. Of Worcester, 107.
Baxter {Mrs.), step-mother to Mr. Baxter, character of, i. 303. ii.282.
Baxter (Mrs. Margaret), marriage of to Mr. Baxter, i. !215. Conditions of their
marriage, ib. Her attention to him during his imprisonment, 250. Instance of
her presence of mind, 272, Tiote j. Encourages him to submit to warrants of
distress, 282, note y. Her death, 304. Her attachment to him, ib. His character
of her, 305. Account of her husband's ' Breviat ' of her life. ii. 281.
BAXTER (Richard).
1. Personal Memoirs of Him. — Birth, i. 9. Character of his father, i6. His
first religious impressions, 10. Education and character ofhis tutors, 11. Pro
gress of his religious feelings, 13. His escape from gaming during his resi
dence at Ludlow Castle, ib. Illness and its effects, 14. Further progress ofhis
education, 14 — 16. Is troubled with doubt, 17. His consequent distress of
mind, 17 — 20. His diseased habit of body, 20. Goes to court, 21. Remarka
ble preservation, ib. Death of his mother, and character of his mother-in-law,
ib. His attachment to the ministry, 22. His conformity, 24. Is ordained by
Bishop Thomborough, ib. Preaches his first sermon at iJudley, 25. Examines
the Nonconformist controversy, and adopts some of the principles of Noncon
formity, 26. Progress of his mind, ib. Residence and labors in Bridgenorth,
27. Eflect of the Et-Caetera oath on him, ib. Examines the subject of Epis
copacy, 28. Is invited to Kidderminster, 31. Removes thither, 32. His ac
count of the state of religion at this time, 33 — 36. His judgment of the causes
of the civil war, 36. His reflections on the character of the opposing parties,
40. Reasons which probably inclined him to the parliamentary cause, 41. Is
obliged to quit Kidderminster, ib. Goes to Gloucester, 42. Returns to Kid
derminster, and is obliged to withdraw, ib. Visits Alcester, 43. His residence
in Coventry, 44. Opposes the Anabaptists, 45. Consults several ministers
about his going into the army, 49. Consents to become chaplain to Colonel
Whalley's regiment, ib. His cool reception by Cromwell, 50. His opinion of
the soldiers, tb. He is falsely accused of murdering a man at Langport, 56.
His satisfactory vindication of himself, i6. His illness at Bristol, 57. His ac
count of various occurrences in the army, 58. He disputes with some secta
ries at Agmondesham, 60. Chief impediments to his success in it, ib. Goes
to London on account of his health, 64. His illness in Worcestershire, ib.
Quits the army, and is entertained by Lady Rous, 63. Remarks on his views
of the army, and on his conduct in it, ib. His account of the Westmins'ter as
sembly, 67. Remarks thereon, 68. His account of the religious parties in En
gland between 1646 and 1656, 71 — 79. Observations on it^ 79, 80. His remarks
on various minor sects, 82 — 91. Observations on it, 91 — 94. He resumes his
labors at Kidderminster, 95. Proofs of his devoted loyalty, 103. Remarks on
his conduct towards King Charles I., i6. Towards the parliament, 105, And
towards the leaders and soldiers ofthe Commonwealth, t&. Account ofhis
ministry and success at Kidderminster, 108 — 122. Remarks on his style of
preaching, and on his public and private exertions, 122. Lasting effects of his
labors, 124. Principles on which he acted towards Cromwell, 131. He preach
es before the Protector, 133. Interview of Baxter with him, ib. He goes to
London, 146, Preaches before the parliament, li7. liemarks on his sermon,
ib., note t. And before the Lord Mayor, ifi., and TWte u. Notice of his labors
during his second residence at Kidderminster, 150. His extensive correspond
ence, 151, 155 and note e. His efi'orts to promote the propagation of the Gos
pel among the American Indians, 151 — 153. He is appointed one of the king's
chaplains, 157, and TWte ^. His desire of agreement between the Episcopa
lians and Presbyterians, i6. Interview with the king, and speech to him, 13S —
160. Observations thereon, 160. Propositions drawn up by Baxter, 162. Char
acter of them, 1G.3. They are presented to the king, ib. His observations on
the king's declaration, 165. Petition to the king, 166. Further proposals made
to the king, and interview with him, 167, 170. Imperfect notions of Baxter on
reUgious liberty, 170, note. His sentiments on the altered declaration of the
king, ib. His account of the king's oflier to make some of the Nonconformists
bishops, 175. Letter to Lord Clarendon, 177. His modest request for himself^
that he might be permitted to remain at Kidderminster, 179. His proceedings

INDEX. 353
at the Savoy conference, 181. Prepares a reformed liturgy, 183. And exceptions
against the national liturgy, ib. He endeavors to be restored lo Kidderminster,
but is fruslrated, 19 1—200. A letter of his intercepted, 200. Preaches in London,
201. Obtains a license from the Archbishop of Canterbury, 202. Unjustly charr
ed with sedition, 203. Attempts, but in vain, to negociale with the vicar of Kid
derminster, lA. Conduct of Bishop Morley and the Dean of Worcesier towards
him, 204. .Mr. Baxter lakes leave of Kidderminster, 205. His reasons for discon
tinuing his ministry before Bartholomew-day, ib. Account of his marriage, 212—
215. Narrowly escapes a plot to arrest him, 219. He retires from London to Ac
ton, 224. Works written or published by him between 1G6I and 1665, ib. His prov
idential escape from assassination, 225. And from a malevolent informer, ib. His
opinion respecting occasional communion, 22G. His reflections on the plague in
London, 226. His account of the Five-mile Act, 230. And of the fire of London,
232. Interview of Baxter with the Lord Keeper respecting a comprehension, 240.
His refleclions on the terms oflered, 242. He is complained against for preaching,
243. His character of Lord Chief-Justice Hale, 245. Treatment of Baxter by Dr.
Ryves, 247. Al whose instigation he is seut to prison, 24-9. He is advised to apply
(or a. habeas corpus, 250. Demands it from the Court of Common Pleas, 251. Be
havior of the judges, iA. He is released, 252. His benefactors during his impris
onment. 253. Removes lo Totleridge, ib. His writings between the years 1665
and 1670, ib. Remarks on his controversy with Dr. Owen, on the agreement of
Christians, 254. Amicable letter of Baxter to Lord Lauderdale, declining the ac
ceptance of preferment in Scotland, 255. His pecuniary loss by the shutting of the
Exchequer, 262. Takes out a license to preach, 265. Preaches at Pinner's Hall,
and afterwards near Fetter-lane, ib. Removes from Totteridge lo Bloomsbury,
266. Is requested to draw up new terms of agreement, 269. Healing measure
proposed in consequence, which fails in the House of Commons, 270. Providential
deliverance frora danger while preaching at St. James's market-house, 272. At
tempts of informers against him fruslrated, 273. His license recalled, 274. Em
ploys an assistant, ib. Escapes being imprisoned, ib. Engages in another scheme
of comprehension, 275. He is harassed by informers, ib.—118. Baxter's goods
distrained, 281. His refleclions on being obliged to part with his library, 283. Va
rious ministerial labors, 284. His controversy with William Penn, ib., note. Lib
erates Mr. Seddon, who had been imprisoned for preaching in his chapel, 285. Va
rious publications between 1670 and 1675, ib. His further preaching in London,
286. Is preached against by Dr. Jane, 287. Calumniated by Dr. Mason, 288.
Warrant issued against hira, and his interview with Bishop Compton, ib. Offers his
chapel in Oxendon-slreet to Dr. Lloyd, ib. Various slanders against him, 290.
His reflections on the times, 296. Remarks thereon, ib. Books published by him,
between 1676 and I63I', 298. His continued sufferings, 306. Is apprehended, and
his goods are distrained, 307. Could obtain no redress, 308. His devout reflec
lions on his sufferings, 309. He is again apprehended and bound to his good be
havior, 311. He is brought before the justices, and again bound over, 313. His
refleclions on the state ofhis own times, ib. Apprehended on a charge of sedition,
317. Copy ofhis indictment, 318 — 321. Extracts from his 'Paraphrase on the New
Testament,' on which the indictment was founded, 322, note. Argument of his
counsel, Mr. PoUexfen, 323. Extraordinary behavior of Jefferies to Him and to Mr.
Baxter, 324. Arguments ofhis other counsel, Mr. Wallop, 325. Mr. Rotheram. ib.
Abuse of Baxter by Jefferies, 326. Arguments of Mr. Atwood, ii. Jefleries' ad
dress to the jury, 327. He is found guilty, ib. He endeavors to procure a new
trial, or a* mitigated sentence, 328. His letter to the Bishop of London, ib. He is
fined and imprisoned, 329. Remarks on his trial, lA. His behavior while in prison,
331. His fine remitted, and he is released, 333. His review of his own life and
opinions, and account of his matured sentiments, with remarks thereon, 334 — 345.
His sense of certain articles required to be subscribed by the dissenting miuisters
under the Toleration Act, 347 — 350. Notice ofhis latter years, 361. He preaches
for Mr, Sylvester, zA. Writings at this time, 352. Account of his last sickness and
death, 352 — 356. Buried at Chrisl Church, Newgate-street, 356. Devout exor
dium of his will, ib. Notice of his principal bequests, 3.57. Character given
him by his nephew, ib. note. Numerous funeral sermons preached for him, 368.
Description of his character and person by Mr. Sylvester, ib. Of his labors and
character by Dr Bates, 359 — 361. General estimate of his character, talents, and
piety, 362— 364.
II. Survey of Mr. Baxter's Writings, ii.9. Observations on the theological
literature of the period, 10 — 13. Chronological Hst of his works, 346 — 350. Clas
sification of them, 14.
I. Works on the Emdences of Religion: — Design, plan, and execution ofhis 'Unrea
sonableness of Infidelity,' ii. 16 — 21. Of his 'Reasons of the Christian Religion,'
and its 'Appendix,' 21 — 24. And 'More Reasons for the Christian Religion,' 24.
Ofhis treatises 'On the Immortality of Man's Soul, and of the Nature ofit and of
VOL. II. 45

354 INDEX.
olher Spirits,' 26—29. Ofhis 'Certainty of the World of Spirits evinced,' 29—32.
Mr. Baxter the first original writer in the English language on the evidences of re
vealed religion, 32.
2. Doctrinal Woj-fe.— 'Aphorisms on Justification,' ii. 34—40. 'Apology for them,
and its opponents, 41—45. 'Confession of Faith,' 45— 4-8. 'Thoughts on Perse
verance,' 49. 'Four Disputations of Justification,' 50. 'Treatise of Saving Faith,'
51. 'Treatise of Justifying Righteousness,' 52. 'Two Disputations of Original Sin,'
ib. 'Catholic Theology,' 54— 56. 'Methodus Theologi»,' 66— 60. 'End of Doc
trinal Controversies,' 60. General view of his doctrinal sentiments, 62—66. Re
marks on his manner of conducting controversy, 66 — 71.
3. Works on Conversion:— Uis 'Treatise on Conversion,' ii. 72 — 79. 'Call lo the Un
converted,' 79. 'Now or Never,' 80. 'Directions for a sound Conversion,' 82.
'Directions to the Converted,' 83. 'Character of a sound Christian,' 84. 'Mis
chiefs of Self-Ignorance,' 86. 'A Saint or a Brute,' 91. Various smaller treatises,
93. Observations on this class of Baxter's writings, 94.
4. Works on Christian Experience:— 'Rigbl Method for settled Peace of Con
science,' ii. 96—99. 'The Crucifying of the Worid,' IOO. 'Treatise on Self-De
nial, 104. -Obedient Patience,' 108. 'Life of Faith,' 109. 'Sermon on Faith,' 111.
'Knowledge and Love compared,' 112. 'God's Goodness Vindicated,' 116. Va
rious Discourses, 117. 'Cure of Melancholy,' ib.
5. Works on Christian Ethics:— 'Chnsiian Directory,' ii. 121—135. 'Gildas Salvi
anus, or Ihe Reformed Pastor,' 135—140. 'Reasons for Ministers using Plainness,'
140. 'The Poor Man's Family Book,' 140. 'Catechising of Families,' 142. 'The
Mother's Catechism,' 143. 'Sheets for the Poor and Afflicted,' 14-1. 'Directions
to Justices of the Peace,' ib. 'How to do Good to Many,' 145. 'Compassionate
Counsel lo Young Men,' 147. 'Divine Appointment ofthe Lord's Day,' ib. Gen
eral remarks on Mr. Baxter's elhical writings, 151.
6. Works on Catholic Communion: — 'Christian Concord, or Agreement of Ihe As
sociated Pastors and Churches of Worcestershire,' ii. 156. 'Agreement of divers
Ministers for Catechising,' 159. 'Disputations of Right to Sacraments,' 160. No-
lice of a Reply to it, 162. 'Confirmation and Restauration,' 163. 'Five Dis.serta-
lions of Church Government,' 165. 'Judgment concerning Mr. Dury,' 168. Uni
versal Concord,' 169. 'The True Calholic, and Catholic Church Described,' 172.
'Cure for Church Divisions,' ib. 'Defence ofthe Principles of Love,' 176. 'Second
Admonition lo Bagshaw,' 177. 'The Church told of Mr. Edward Bagshaw's Scan
dal,' il}. 'True and Only Way of Concord,' 180. 'Catholic Communion Defended,'
181. 'Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale on the Nature of True Religion,' 185.
'Sense of the Subscribed Articles of the Church of England,' ib. 'Church Con
cord,' ih. Treatise 'Of National Churches,' 186. 'Moral Prognostication,' ib.
Summary View of Mr. Baxter's opinions on Calholic Communion and Church
Government, ib.
7. Works on Nonconformity: — 'Account of the Proceedings at the Savoy Confer
ence,' ii. 194. 'Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry Rebuked,' 195. Notice of
Dr. FuUwood's reply Lo it, 196. 'The Judgment of the Nonconformists concern
ing the Office of Reason in Religion,' ib. 'Difference between Grace and Moral
ity,' ib. 'About Things Indifferent,' ib. 'And Sinful,' ib. 'What Mere Noncon
formity is not,' ib. Remarks on these treatises, 197. 'The Nonconformist's Plea
for Peace,' 198. Reply to it by Mr. Cheney, 200. 'Second Part of the Plea,' ib.
'Defence' ofit, -tA. Accouut of Stillingfleet's attack upon it, 201. Reply of Mr.
Baxter to his charge of separation, 203. Rejoinder of Stillingfleet, 204. Baxter's
'Second Defence,' 205. Further answer to Stillingfleet, 206. 'Search after Eng
lish Schismatics,' 207. 'Treatise of English Episcopacy,' 208. 'Apology for the
Nonconformists' Ministry/ 209. 'English Nonconformity Truly Stated,' 210. Ob
servations on the various Treatises on Nonconformity, ib.
S. ^Vorks on Popery: — 'The Safe Ileligion,' ii. 213. 'Winding-Sheet for Popery,'
ib. 'Grotian Religion Discovered,' 214. Controversy il produced with Pierce,
Womack, Heylin, and Bramhall, 216. 'Key for Catholics,' 218. 'Successive
Visibility ofthe Church,' 219. Controversy with Johnson respecting il, ib. 'Fair
Warning, or Twenty-five Reasons against Toleration of Popery, 220. 'Difference
between the Power of Church Pastors and the Roman Kingdom,' ih. 'Certainly of
Christianity vrithout Popery,' 221. 'Full and Easy Satisfaction which is the True
Religion,' 222. 'Christ, not the Pope, the Head of the Church,' 223. 'Roman
Tradition Examined,' ib. 'Naked Popery,' ib. Controversy with Hutchinson re
specting it, 224. 'Which is the True Church?' ib. Controversy with Dodwell re
specting il,tA. 'Dissent from Dr. Sherlock,' 226. Answer to Dodwell's letter,
calling for more Answers, ib. 'Against Revolt lo a Foreign Jurisdiction,' 226.
'The Protestant Religion Truly Stated and Justified,' ib. His prayer for deliver
ance from Popery, S27.

INDEX. oOa
9. J\^orts om A ;:; \:mijmsm — Baxter's eariy bo? ulily lo il, ii. 2o-i. The chief suh-
jecl ofhis 'Confession of Faiih.' ib, *How for Holiuess is the Design cf Ciui-vau-
iiT.' Co<. -Appeal to ibe I-'^t.' 239. NoiJcc of a reply lo il. i*. ¦ Tntausc of
Jiiii'fyiiis^ R suieousness.' ifr. ^-..-.-art Gospel Defended/ -41. influence of
Barter's writinfirs and preaching^on ADiiDoauanisni, 2-11 — 2A/\
10. H'orfcs en B:v:ism. Q . ':erism,anJ MiUatariamsm:. — Controversy with Tombes
on Baptism, ii. -47. I' .•.:. Proofs of lai^uji Bap. v^i. 549. Its success. Col. Re
ply to it by Tombes. o. Baxter publishes his .More Pi oofs of Infaiib^' Thurch
Membership." 252. His Controva^y wnh Daiiver?,i6. Pic^new of the S;:iie of
Christian Infanis.' Coo. Remarks ou iL;> Conirover-y. ib. Conduct of the Uca-
kers. and conirwersy of Baxter with iLem. Co4. *Tiie Worctsicrsiiire Peiition to
Pariiament,' 2a5. The -Petition Defended.' :i56. 'TTie Quaker'^ CatechUni." C57.
Single sheets agc!-:i>i U.-?-tensiu. 258. Coairoversy with Beveriy on ihe M!Ilen-
niom. -iX'. 'The Gloricus Kingdom of Oirist deserii>ed.' -l J. A^v.ercd by Bev
erley. C64. Reply" of Baxl«-, ifr.
11. PcUtiail end Historicai Vt'orks — 'Humble A'i\'ice,' it- CC-t" *HoJy Common
wealth,' ifr. Occasion ofit, ifr. Analysis of it, 268. His opinion on resisiauce lo
illegal iTovemmenis, and ofthe causes of the civil war, 361) — C72. The publication
ofthis woit the reason why Baxter was not permitted lo preach in the diocese of
Worcester, CTC. Notice of various attacks upon the "lU'Iy Commoawealih,' iV*.
He recalls ih»? work, CT4. His motives ft»r doing so. ifr. Remarks thereon, ?7j.
Analysis of n > 'Chorch Hlslwy ofthe Govemment of Bishops and their Coudc;'?
Abbreviated,' C76- It is stacked by -Morrice, -7J. Baxters *Troe His: ory of
Councils EnlarsreJ and Defended.' ib. Extract from it, ifr. Account of bis •Breviat
of the Life of Mrs. Baxter," 'Z'A. His 'Penitent Co-ifession.' C:^. Conduct ofLok^
towards him, -14. Character ofhis 'Reliqoae Baxieriaj.s / 286. Imper\ ciiy eclKd
by SylTester.ifr. Dr. Calamy^? account ofit. and ofiis reception, ^SS. Notice < f
his ah'rid^^eineni and CABtinnation ofit, and of the controverey to which it led, !!yi.'.
12- -Z^TcrjV.ji Uonfcf. — Salnis Everiasiins^ Rest,' written forhis own use uium^
sickness, ii- -?3. AnJ in sis months, ifr. His reasons for omitting the names c:
Lord Broofc, Hampden and Pym, in the later editions, -94. Description, charac
ter, and nseftdiiess of mis wori, ?.1*5. It is attacked by Firman, ifr. Baxter's *An-
swa- to his Exceptions,' C97. HU -Kvioe Liie* occasioned by a reqnesi ofthe
Coontess of Balcarras. 290. Its object and excellency, il'. Notice ofhis *Faneral
Sermons,' Treatise oi" Death,' and 'Dying Tbcug-bis." SCtl. ovl. Character of his
'Reformed Litmsrr.' 304. Origin and object c! bis 'Paraphrase on the New Testa-
m^eni." 305. His rea-sons for not attempting an exposition of the book of Revela
tions, SilC Noiice of Lis 'Monthly Preparations for the Holy Commimion,' 308.
Mr. Mcmtgomoy's character of Baxter as a Christian poet- u'. Account ofhis
^Poetical FragmMite,' 309. And "Additions^ lo them, ifr. -Paraparase on iLe
Psalms,' ifr. Hi<; obs«~vations on the qualifications of a poet, 310. SpecinLens of
his poetry, wiih remarks thereon. 311 — 315.
13. J^scdLtmeous Wntins^-?- — Noi; ces of iMr. Baxters prefaces lo the works of
others, ii. 317. 318. Xud of various treatises in manuscript left by him, ifr. His
extensive correspondence, 319. Leiier to Increase IMalher, 320. His account of
his transactions with his booksdlers, 3C1. Concurrence of opinions respecili]* him
as a wril«", 323. Hi^: own candid and faithful review of his wrliing-s- 3i3 — 338.
Number and variety of his works. 337. 333. Facility with which be ^^roie, 339.
Character of his st^e, 340. SoUielimes injadicions both la his wrluasrs and his
conduct. 341. Deficieit in ihe full statement of evang^eJical doctrine, 3-ilZ. Causes
ofit, 343.
Bjjcter (William), principal legatee of Mr. iBaxter, biographical notice of, ii. ^^4.
His character of his uncle, ib. note.
Bekmefd^.s. Sir. Baxter's account of the tenets of, and their principal followers in
EnWand, i. 87. ODse-'-ailoas on the writings ofBehmen. 8S, noley.
Berry (Colonel James),. Mr. iBaxters chaiacter ot, i- 0± iRemarks thereon, 63, nafe.
E^ract from a dedication to him. ii. 105.
BeceHeg, (Rev. Thomas), account ofthe Millenarian tenets of, ii. 560. Publishes bis
•Millenarv Catechism,' -61. Q leslioos addressed lo him by Baxter, ifr. AVho pub
lishes his -G-orloos Kingdom ofChrist Described.' ag^nsi hiro. ~C2. iElxtraci from
it, -63. Jkoiice of Beveriey's answer, and Baxter s ^Beplj,' -t^- Axd of Beveriey's
rejoinder, ifr,
BishiopHcs offered bv Charies H. to certain Noncoriformisi mlaisiers. i. 175. 176. One
of them declined " by Baxter. 179. The bishopric of N ons ich accepted ty Rey
nolds, ifr. Remarks oo the proceedings, 130.
Biduyps, conduct of, al the ^^avoy Conference, i. ISl — 189. Remarks thereon, 189.
Baxter's account of those who" attended, ib. iRemarks on tbe whole proceeding,
192. Alterations proposed bv the episcopal commissioners in the iBook of Common
Prayer, 193, note h. Seve.-al of them advise Claries H. to recall the Nonconform-

356

INDEX.

ists' licen.ses lo preach, 273. Accouul of the proceedings on the Bishops' Test
Act, 279-281.
Blake (Mr.), an opponent of Mr, Baxter, notice of, ii.50, note f.
Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, ob.servations on, ii. 20.
Booksellers, Mr. Baxter's account of his transactions with, ii. 321 — 324.
Boyle's {Hon. Robert) character of Mr. Baxter, ii. 324.
jBoy/e (Rodger). See Broghill.
Bramhall's (Bishop) Vindication of himself from the charge of Popery, notice of, ii.
226. Baxter's opinion of this work, ib.
Bridges (Colonel), Biographical notice of, ii. 98. Extract of adedicaiion to him, ib.
Bridgman (Sir Orlando), Lord Keeper, biographical noiice of, i. 232, note a. His
construction ofthe Five-Mile Act, ib. Resigns the great seal, 263.
Brodie's History of Englaod, character of, i. 104.
Broghill (Roger Boyle, Baron of, aflerwards Earl of Orrery), character of j. 157,
note i, 269, note d. Requests Mr. Baxter to draw up new terms of agreement, 269.
His treatise on the 'Unreasonableness of Infidelity,' dedicated lo hini, ii. 16.
Brook (Robert Greville, Lord), biographical notice of, ii. 295.
Buckingham (George Viliiers, Duke of), character of, i. 238 and note i. His conduct
towards the Nonconformists, 239.
Bunny's (Edmund) 'Resolution,' notice of, i. 12 and note.
Burgess (Anthony), an opponent of Mr. Baxter, notice of, ii.36, 50, note g.
Burnet's (Gilbert, Bisliop of Salisbury) character of Sir Matthew Hale, i. 247, note a.
His evideuce against the Duke of Lauderdale, 278. Remarks on a dedication of
his, to the duke, ib., note p. His testimony to Mr. Baxter's writings, ib. rwie.
Burton (Henry), notice of, i. 30, note I.
Burton (Dr. Hezekiah), notice of, i. ^l,note n.
Bushby {Mr.), master of Westminster School, anecdotes of, ii. 179, notes.
Calamy (Dr.) declines a bishopric, i. 180. Remarks on his conduct, ib., note o. His
account of Baxter's 'Reliquire,' or Narrative of his Life and Times, ii. 288 — 290.
Character of his Abridgement and Continuation of that work, 290. Its reception,
291. Controversy lo which it gave nse,ib.
Calderwood's (David) Altare Dairuiscenum, notice of, i. 28, note.
'Call to the Unconverted,' plan of, ii. 79. Mr. Baxter's account of its eflfects. ib., 80.
Comparison of il, with Mr. Law's 'Serious Call,' 81. And with Alleine's 'Alarm,' ib.
Calr.in's Institutions, character of, ii. 124-.
Campbell's (Dr.) 'Treatise on Miracles' recommended, ii. 17, -note g.
Cartwright (Christopher), an opponent of fi'r. Baxter, notice of, ii. 36, 52.
Casuists ofthe Ilomish Church, observations on, ii. 124. Paucity of casuistical books
among the reformed churches accounted for, 127, Twte-
Catechising,'MT. Baxter's Method of, i. Ul. Analysis ofhis trealise on the 'The
Catechising of Families,' ii. 142. And of his 'Mother's Catechism/ 143. His ac
count of his practice in catechising, 159.
'Catholic Theology,' title of Mr. Baxter's treatise so called, ii. 54-. His design 'm'\i,ib.
Remarks on it, 55.
Catholic Communion, observations on Mr. Baxter's eflTorts to promote it, ii. 154. And
on his several treatises on this subject, 155 — 186. Observations upon his senti
ments on this subject, 186. And on his eflTorts to promote it, 170.
Charles I., conduct of, at the commencement of the civil war, i. 36. By whom sup
ported, 37. Strongly marked diflerence between his supporters and his antago
nists, ib. Mr. Baxter's account of public aflfairs during his reign, from 1646 tillTiis
death, with remarks thereon, 97 — 108. Pi.emarks on a passage in the 'Eikon Basi-
like,' ascribed to him, 163, note a.
Charles II., defeat of, at tbe battle of Worcester, i. 107. His flight, ib. Account of
his restoration, 144—146. His arrival in London, 147. Base hypocrisy of, ex
posed, 14S, iwfe x. Intoxication of the people at his return, iA., mo(c y. Remarks
OB the circurastances of his restoration, I4S. Views of the Nonconformists respect
ing him, 156. His conduct towards them, ib. Interview of Baxter and several
ministers with him, 157. Remarks thereon, 160. He requires the ministers lo draw
up proposals respecting church govemment, 161. Their paper presented to him,
162. His reply to Ihem, 163. Meeting of the ministers with Charles, lo hear the
declaration, 164. Petition against it, 166. Charles alters his declaration, 167 —
171. He offers bishoprics to Baxter, Calamy, and Reynolds, 175. He has a pri
vate interview with Baxter, 180. Issues a commission for the Savoy Conference,
181. And his declaration for liberty of conscience, 216. His conduct towards
Lord Clarendon, 238, note h. An address presented him by the Nonconformist
ministers, 243. He shuts up his Exchequer, 262. Its consequences, ii. Issues his
dispensing declaration, 263. Which the Parliament votes to be illegal, 265. Pro-
ro^es Parliament, 268. Commands the persecution of the Nonconformists, 286.
His death and character, 314, and note.

INDEX. 357
Charlton (Miss Margaret), Biographical notice of, i. 213. Her marriage to Mr Bax
ter, 215.
Clieney's (Mr.) 'Conforming Nonconformist,' notice of, ii. 200. And of Baxter's re
ply to it, ib.
'Chrislian Directory,' Baxter's accouut of ii. 126. Remarks on its arrangement, 129.
Opposed lo tho politics of Hooker, 130. Remarks on the notion of passive obedi-
sive obedience in this treatise, 131. General character of the work, 133. Com
parison of it with the 'Doctor Dubitantium' of Bishop Taylor, ib. Defects and ex
cellencies of the 'Christian Directory,' 134.
Christian experience, observations on, and on abuses and mistakes respecting it,
ii. 96.
Chnstian feUoicsliip, Mr. Baxter's sentiments concerning, ii. 160. Remarks there
on, 161.
Christians (early), observations on the union of, ii. 152. Causes of separation among
them, 153. Observations on the means of effecting their re-union, i^
Church communion, observations on Mr. Baxter's sentiments respecting, ii. 187.
'Church Diiisions,' account of Mr. Baxter's 'Cure' for, ii. 174. Its reception, 176.
Attacked by Mr. Bagshaw, 177. Mr. Baxter's replies to him, ib.
Church Govei-njHP^nt, account of ftlr. Baxter's 'Five Dissertations' on, ii. 166. Ex
tract from his dedication of them to Kichard Cromwell, 167. Remarks thereon, fi.
'Chiiirh Ilisii't-y of the Government of Bishops,' design of Mr. Baxter's treatise on,
ii. 276. His reasons for undertaking this work, 277. Outline of it, 278. Attacked
by Morrice, 279. And defended by Baxter, ib.
Churclies, national, Mr. Baxter's opinion on, ii. 186. Analysis ofhis 'True and only
Way of Concord of all Christian Churches,' 180. And ofhis "Moral Prognostica
tion,' respecting the future state of churches by the restitution of primitive piety,
purity, and charity, 186. *»
Civil War, stale of religion in England, before and at the commencement of, i. 33 —
36. Its causes, 36. Character of the parties engaged in it, ib. Reasons assigned
for it, by both parties, 39. Remarks thereon, ib. Sir. Baxter's judgment on this
subject, 40.
Clare (Sir Ralph), biographical notice of, i. 195, note. Account of his successful
opposition lo Mr. Baxter's return to Kidderminster, 194 — 197.
C/az-enrfon (Edward Hyde, Earl of), character of, 'i. 167, note z. His character of
the Westminster assembly, 68, note. Remarks on it, ib. His account ofthe con
duct ofthe Nonconformists, 171. Exposure of its unfairness and inaccuracy, 172.
Letter of Baxter lo him, 177. His letter, recommending Mr. Baxter to be fixed at
Kidderminster, 197. Observations on his conduct, 198. Promotes the passing of
the Five-Mile Act, 230. His fall, and remarks thereon, 237, note h. 238.
Clarkson's (David) publications on episcopacy, notice of, i. 281, and note e.
Coleman, a Papist, execution of, for treason, i. 293, and notey.
Common Prayer-Book, exceptions oi {he Nonconformists against, i. 183. Proceed
ings thereon, 187. Alterations proposed therein by the episcopal commissioners
at Ihe Savoy Conference, 192, note h, 193.
Communicants, number of, at Kidderminster, i. 112.
Communion, occasional, Baxter's opinion on, i. 226.
Comprehension, account of the discussions concerning, with Lord Keeper Bridg
man, i. 240. A bill proposed for it, frustrated by Bishop Ward, 242. A secoud
scheme of comprehension proposed, 275.
Compton, (Dr. Henry), Bishop of London, notice of, i. 289, notch. Interview of
Baxter with him, ib.
Conference, at the Savoy, account of, i. 181 — 192. Observations on it, 192.
'Confirmation and Restauration,' analysis of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, ii. 163. His
account ofthe mode in which confirmation was ouce administered in England, 164,
note X.
Conformist clergy, labors of, after the fire of London, i. 235. Observations on the
published writings of some of them, 236.
Conventicle Act, passed, i. 221. Sufferings ofthe people in consequence of il, 223.
Renewal ofthe act, 254.
Conversion, analysis, with remarks on Mr. Baxter's various publications on; 'Treatise
on Conversion,' ii. 73— 79. 'Call to the Unconverted,' 79. 'Now or Never,' 80.
'Directions for a Sound Conversion,' 81. 'Directions lo the Converted,' 83. Im
portance of this division of Mr. Baxter's works, 72 — 74. General remarks on
Ihem, 96.
Convocation of 1661, notice of, i. 183.
Corbet (Rev. John), biographical account of, i. 300 — 303.
Corporation .dci, observation on the repeal of, i. 226.
Con-espondence, extensive, of Mr. Baxter, ii. 319.
Coventry, notice of Mr. Baxter's residence at, i. 44. Character of his hearers there, 45.

358 INDEX.
Covenant, taken by Mr. Baxter, of which he afterwards repented, i. 45. He opposes
the taking ofit in Kidderminster, 105.
Cradock (VValter), a Nonconformist minister, notice ofi. 23, note o.
Crandon (John), an opponent of Mr. Baxter, notice of, ii. 41.
Creighton (Dr.), anecdote of, i. 243.
Crew (Dr.), Bishop of Durham, anecdotes and character of, i. 239, and note I.
Crisp (Dr.), biographical notice of, ii. 232, 233. Account of his Antinomian senti
ments, ii. They are opposed by Baxter, 234. Republication of his works by his
son, 240. Account ofthe controversy which ensued, ih.
Cro/i's (Bishop of Hereford), 'Naked Truth,' notice of, and ofthe controversy to
which it gave rise, ii. 223, notes.
Cromwell (Oliver) invites Jlr. Baxter to become his chaplain, but is refused, i. 48.
His cool reception of Mr. Baxter, 50. Mr. Baxter's character of Cromwell, 61.
His treatment ofthe Parliament, 127 — 130. Institutes a commillee of triers, 130.
And a committee to report of fundamentals, 131. Baxter's conduct towards him,
132. Account ofhis preaching before Cromwell, 133. His interview with the lat
ter, 134. Admission ofthe beuefits of his government, 135. Mr. Baxter's charac
ter ofhim, 136. Remarks thereon, 140.
Cromwell (R.ichard), succession of, to the Protectorate, and his subsequent retire
ment, i. 142. Remarks thereon, 143. Extract from a dedication of Mr. Baxter's
to him, ii. 167. Observations on it, ih.
'Crucifying of tlie World by the Cross of Christ,' plan ofthis treatise, ii. 100.
Comparison of il with Maclaurin's sermon on the same subject, iA. Fine passage
quoted from it, 102 — 104.
'Cure of Mdancholy,' observations on, ii. 117 — 120.
Danby (Sir Thomas Osborne, Earl of, and Lord Treasurer), character of, i. 269,
7to(e c. Attacked by Parliament, 279. Impeachment of, for high treason, 293.
His subsequent history, ib., note z.
Dance (Mr.), Vicar of Kidderminster, characterof, i. 31. And ofhis preaching, 195.
Allows a lecturer lo be chosen by his parishioners, ib. Baxter solicits preferment
for him, 179. Failure ofhis application, 197.
Danvers (Mr.), biographical notice of, ii, 262. His controversy with Baxter, on bap
tism, and Baxter's reply, ib.
Daventnj , origin of the dissenting congregation al, ii. 142.
Davis (Sir Thomas), a city magistrate, conduct of, towards Baxter, i. 276 — 278.
Declension (religious), instance ofthe progress of, i. 13.
Dickson (David), biographical notice of, li. 127, nxtie.
'Directions to a Sound Conversion,' analysis of, ii. 81. And to the converted, 83.
Discipline, account of Mr. Baxter's meetings for, i. 110. His exercise of church dis
cipline, 118. Want of discipline in the established Church, ib. note.
Dispensing, declaration issued by Charles II., i. 263. Remarks on its design, ib.
Proceedings of the Nonconformists in relation to it, ib. It is voted to be illegal by
Parliament, 266.
Dissenters, zeal of, against Popery, ii. 227. See Nonconformists.
Distress, spiritual, remarks on, i. 18. Account of Mr. Baxter's distress, 17.
'Divine Life,' treatise on, written at the request ofthe Countess of Balcarras, ii. 299.
Its object and excellency, ib.
Doctrinal Controversies, analysis of Mr. Baxter's treatise on the end of, ii. 60. Ob
servations on his doctrinal sentiments, 62, and on his mode of conducting doctrinal
controversies, 66 — 71.
Doddridge's (Dr.) recommendation ofthe 'Reformed Pastor,' ii. 139. His character
of Mr. Baxter's writings, 324.
DodweU (Henry), account of, and of his tenets, ii. 224. Baxter's Controversy with
him, 225. Their correspondence, 226, note. Tillotson's opinion of both of them,
225, note.
Dunstan's (St.) Church, accident at, during Mr. Baxter's preaching there, i. 201, and
note n.
Dury (Mr. Johu), account ofhis endeavors lo promote ecclesiastical peace, ii. 168.
'Dying Tlumghts' of Mr. Baxter, character of, ii. 303} and of Mr. Fawcelt's abridg
ment of them, 304, note.
Ecclesiastical History, diflficuUy of writing, ii. 276.
JSrf^AiH, battle of, i. 43.
Education, importance of, especially of academical education, i. 16. Account of Mr.
Baxter's education, 11—15.
Edwards' (Thomas) 'Baxterianism Barefaced,' notice of, ii. 67; and of himself, ib.
note.
Election, Mr. Baxter's sentiments on, ii. 62.
Elliot's (Mr.) efforts to propagate the gospel among the American Indians, promoted

INDEX. o59
by Ba.\tcr, i. 151. Success ofhis labors, 152. Extract of a letter from Baxter to
htm . ib.
England, stale of religion in, before and al tlie commencement ofthe ci\il wars, i,33
— 3b,
Episcopalians, Mr. Baxter's accouut ol the tenets of, i. 71, A limited episcopacy,
pleaded for by him aud by others, ih. Account of his 'Treatise of Episcopacy,'
li. -OS. Anecdote of their rejecting a toleraliou from Cromwell, .ai. note (.
Erastians, tenets of, i. 70; and iio^e d, 71.
ErsUne (Jlr.), observations of, on Ilie characteristic features of the writings of the
Puritans aud Nouconformisis, li. 12.
Et-ca:lcra oath, nature and effect of, i. 27.
Evidences of Religion. Mr. Baxter's plan in studying and w riling on, ii. 14,15. Mr.
Baxter the earliest original English writer on the Evidences of Revealed Religion,
3J. Analysis ofhis various treatises on, wiili remarks, 1(3 — 32.
Ejrchegiur shut by Charles II., i. v]ii-. lis consequences, ib.
E.rclusioit-Bill passed in the House of Commons, but lost in Uie House of Lords, i
2;T5.296. '
Eyre (William), au opponent of Jlr. Baxter, notice of, ii. 41.
Faith: — Mr. Baxters sentiments on justifying failh, ii. 65. Account of his 'Life of
Faith,' 109—111. Notice ofhis sermon on Failh, HI.
Faiccett's (Benjamin) Abridgement of Baxter's Saint's Rest,' chcuraclcr of, ii. 298;
aud ofhis -Dyinsr Thoughts.' oOt, note o.
Fctter-Latte, historical nonce of the Dissenting Congregation in, i. 266, note a.
Filth-Monarchy Men, account ofthe insurrection ol, i. -00.
Finch (Sir Heneage), noiice of, i. 273, note.
Ftr€ of London, in 1666, account of, i, -2:1.2. Benevolent eflforls made to relieve the
inhabitants, 23-1. The fire favorable to the labors of the Nonconformist Ministers,
235. Preaching ofthe Conformist Clersv. 237.
Firmin (Giles) attacks Ihe Saini's Rest,' "ii. 299. Noiice of Mr. Baxter's reply lo
him, ib.
Fisher (Samuel,) notice ofthe 'Rustic's Alarm to the Rabbies,' by, ii. 259. Ac
count ofhim, ib.
Five-Mile Act passed, i. 230. Oath imposed by it, ib. It is rigorously enforced,
2ol. Sir Orlando Bridgraan's construction of it. iA. Observations on il, 231.
Foley (Thonias. esq.,) Biographical notice of, ii. 100.
FoUterby's (Bishop) 'Atheomastix,' notice of, ii, 32.
Fountain (Mr, Serjeant,) Biographical notice of, i. 260, note I. His kindness to Mr.
Baxter, 251. 253. His interesting character of Fountain, 259.
Fowler (Dr. Edward,) bishop of Gloucester, notice of, ii. 237. Account of his
'Design of Christianity,' ib.
Fox's (Mr.) notice ofthe treatment of the Dissenlei-s, and of the trial of Baxter, i.
315, Remarks thereon, 316,
Freedom ofthe wdl. Mr. Baxter's sentiments on,ii, 65.
Fretcen (Dr..) archbishop of York, conduct of. at the Savoy Conference, i. 181, 189.
Fuller (Rev. .Vndrew.) wTitings of, against Antinomianism, ii, 245, iwte.
Fundamentals of religion, remarks on the committee for, i, 131. __
•Funeral Scrmans,' uouce of various, published by Mr. Baxter, ii. 302.
Gauden (Dr..) conduct of, at the Savoy Conference, i. 190, and nod: a.
Gayer (Sir John,) determination upon ihe will of, i. 310, Twte.
Gell (Dr..) noiice ofthe tenets of, i. 88, and note a.
Gibbon (Dr. Nicholas,) account of, i. 89. note c.
• Gildas Salvianus, or the Reformed Paiior,' analysis of, with remarks, ii, 135 — 140.
G'ill.^pie iGeorge,) his accoimt of Erastianism, i. 7I_, note.
Glanvil's (Joseph) "Sadducismus Triumphatus,' notice of, ii. 28. His coiTespond-
ence with Mr. Baxter, ib. -Vnd offer to vindicate him against the attacks of Bishop
Moriey. 89.
Ghvicestcr, anecdote of the siege of, i, 300, note 1.
'God's Goodness Vindicai,:d.' remarks on this trealise, ii. 116.
Godfrey (Sir Edmondbury,) death of, i. 292, and note u.
Godicin's Historv of the Commonwealth, character of, i. 104.
Good, doing lo many, account of Mr. Baxter's directions for, ii. 145, 147.
Gospel, observations on the Spirit's testimony to, ii. 19.
Goring (Lord,) defeat of, at the battle of Langport, i. 54.
Gouffe (Rev, Thomas.) benevolent labors of, after the fire of London, i. 234. Bio
graphical account of him, 301.
Gough (General,) anecdote of, ii.45.
Grainger's (-Mr..) character of Mr. Baxter, ii. 326, 327.
Greville. See Brook (Lord.)

360 INDEX.
Grigg (Thos.,) chaplain to the Bisfao|) of London, Mr. Baxter's account of his re
fusing" to license one of his treatises, ii. 85.
Grotiusj character of, ii. 214. Vindication of him by Dr. Peirce, ib. Lord Lauder
dale's opinion of Grotius, 215, note c.
Hale (Sir Matthew,) Lord Chief Justice, Mr. Baxter's character of, i. 245. Confirm
ation of it, by Bishop Burnet, 247, note a. Noiice of his death, 299. And of his
'Judgment on the Naiure of True Religion,' &c., ii. 185.
HaU (Rev. Robert,) observations of on the means of effecting a re-union among
Christians, ii. 153. Character of his publications on Christian communion, 154,
note.
Hampden (John,) character of, ii. 294.
Harrington? s (James) 'Oceana/ character of, ii. 267, note g.
Harrison (Major-General,) character of, i. 56, note.
Henry (Rev. Matthew,) account of his interview with Mr. Baxter, in private, i. 332.
Herbert's (Lord) treatise de Vcrit'Xle, account of Mr. Baxter's reply lo, ii. 24.
Heylin (Dr. Peter,) controversy of, with Baxter, ii. 216. Proof of his leaning to
wards Popery, 217. Notice of a 'Review of his Certeunen Epistolare,' ib., note.
Hinchvian (Dr. bishop of London,) character of, i. 190.
Hoadly's (Benjamin) 'Reasonableness of Conformity,' and Calamy's reply to him,
notice of, ii.292.
Hobbes's 'Leviathan,' character of, ii. 266, Tiofed.
Hollis (Denzil, Lord,) character of, i. 165, note s.
'Holy Comvtonwealth, or Political Aphorisms' of Baxter, origin and design of, ii.
266—269. Remarks on il, 269. Political principles which it avows, 270—272.
Notice of various attacks upon it, ib. He recals' it, 273. Reasons for so doing,
274. Observations thereon, ib.
Holy Ghost, observations on the blasphemy of, ii. 20.
Hooke's (Dr. Richard) 'Nonconformist Champion,' notice of, ii. 207.
Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polily, character of, i. 22. His view of government op
posed by Baxter, 119, 130.
Hungarian Protestant Ministers, case of, i. 294. Oppression of the Protestants in
Hungary, ih., note b.
Hutchinson^s 'Catholic Naked Truth,' notice of, ii. 223. Answered by Baxter, ifi.
Hyde. See Clarendon.
l-mmoi'tality of the Soul, analysis of Mr. Baxter's Treatise on, with remarks, ii. 26
—32.
Independents, Mr. Baxter's character of, with remarks, i. 74 — 76, 79. Union of the
Independent and Presbyterian ministers, 397.
Indictment of Mr. Baxter for sedition, i. 318 — 321.
Infanis, opinion of the Synod of Dort on the Salvation of, ii. 252, note. Excellent
treatise of Mr. Russell on this subject, 253, note.
Injidelitij, close connection of Popery with, ii. 247.
Informers against Baxter and others, account ofthe proceedings of, i. 273 — 276, 281.
Insvrrection of Venner cind the Fifth Monarchy-men, account of, i. 200.
Jacob, a Brownist, notice of, i. 28, note e.
James, (Duke of York, afterwards Kin^ James H.,) opposition of the Parliament lo
his marrying a Popish wife, i. 268. Exclusion bill passed against him in the House
of Commons, 295. But lost in the House of Lords, ib.
James's (St.) Market-house, account of Mr. Baxter's preaching there, i. 270. Prov
idential escape of him and his congregation, ib., 272.
Jane (Rev. Dr.,) biographical accomit of, i. ^Bl,note. Preaches against Mr. Bax
ter, ib.
Jefferies (Lord Chief Justice,) conduct of, on Mr. Baxter's trial, i. 323—327.
Jennings (Thoraas) charges Mr. Baxter with being guilty of murder, i. 66. Refuta
tion of this false charge, i6.
Johnson's (Dr. Samuel) opinion of Baxter, ii. 326.
Johnson, a Romish priest, controversy of Baxter with, on the successive visibility of
the church, ii, 219.
Judges, behavior of, to Mr. Baxter, on his applying for a habeas corpus, i. 251.
Justices of the Peace, notice of Mr. Baxter's 'Directions' to, ii. 144.
Justification, analysis of Mr. Baxter's 'Aphorisms' of, ii. 35. Animadversions there
on, by Anthony Burgess, 36. John Warren, ib. Dr. John Wallis, ih. Christo
pher Cartwright, ib. George Lawson, ib. Observations on the Aphorisms, 38 —
—40. Further attacks on Baxter, by Ludovicus Molinseus, 41. John Crandon,
ib. William Eyre, ib. Analysis of the 'Apology' for the Aphorisms, 42. Extracts
from- the dedication to Colonel Whalley, lA. Extracts from Baxter's 'Confession
of Faith,' on justification, &c.j 46 — 48. JVotice of his 'Four Disputations on Jus-

INDEX. 361
tification,' 50. Analysis of his 'Treatise on Justifying Righteousness,' and account
of its opponents, 52.
Juxon, (Dr.,) Archbishop of Canterbury, character of, i. 220.
Keeling, an informer against Baxter, account of, i. 274, 275. He is liberated from
prison through Baxter, 281.
Kendal (Dr,,) an opponent of Mr. Baxter, notice of, ii, 50.
'Key for Catholics, notice of, ii. 218.
Kiddennijister , inhabitants of, petition against their minister, i. 31. A Committee of,
invite Mr. Baxter to become their lecturer, ib. He is chosen lecturer, and goes lo
reside there, 32. State of the people there, ib. Account of his first residence
there, i/i. He is obliged to quit the town, 41. Returns, and is again obliged to
withdraw, 42. Once more resumes his labors there, 95. His account ofhis labors
there, 108. His success, 109. Advantages enjoyed by him there. III — 122,
Remarks on his style of preaching there, 122, On his public and private exer
tions, 123, Their lasting effects at Kidderminster, 124. Account of his system of
pastoral government there, ii. 156 — 158. Notice of his successors in the minis-
rty ihere, i. 125. Notice of his various labors, and works composed, during
his second residence, in Kidderminster, 150, His efforts to be restored to Kid
derminster, 194. Charles II. and Lord Clarendon favorable to them, ib. Frus
trated by Sir Ralph Clare and Bishop Morley, 194 — 196. Why Morley would not
allow him to returu to Kidderminster, ii. 273, note. The conduct of Clare
lo the People of Kidderminster, i. 198. Character of some of his succes
sors, 205. His parting advice to his flock, ib. Extract from his dedication to
Ihem of his 'Treatise on Conversion,' ii, 75, Of his 'Directions lo the Converted,'
83, Of his 'Saint or a Brute,' 91,
Kippis's (Dr,) parallel between Baxter and Orion, ii. 325. Remarks on it, ib.
'Knowledge and Love Compared,' plan of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, ii. 112 — 115.
JLajupi^:^ (Bishop,) anecdotes of, i. 289, note i.
Langport, account of the battle of, i. 54.
Latin verses of Mr. Baxter, specimen of, ii. 59.
Latitudina-rian divines, Mr. Baxter's account of, i. 237. Observations thereon, ib.
and Twie.
Laud, (Archbishop,) conduct of, and its effects, ii. 192.
Lauderdale (Lord,) character of, i. 258. Offers preferment to Mr. Baxter, 255. His
admirable reply to this offer, 285. Proceedings of parliament against him, 278,
His opinion of Grotius, ii. 215, note c. Baxter's 'Full and Easy Satisfaction
which is the Safe Religion,' dedicated to him, 222. Their correspondence, 223,
Lawson (George,) an opponent of Mr, Baxter, notice of, ii. 36,
Lecture, Tuesday morning, instituted, i. 266. Its present state, ib., note z.
Leigh's (Edward) System of Divinity, character of, ii. 125.
Leighton (Dr.,) notice of, i, 30, note k. Observations on his 'Sion's Plea against
Prelacy, ib.
L'Estrange (Sir Roger,) character of, i. 331. Anecdote of him, ib. Account of
his 'Casuist Uncased,' ii. 207.
Library, Baxter's account of his being obliged to part with, ii. 279, 280.
License to preach granted to Mr. Baxter, i. 266. The licenses lo Nonconformists
recalled, 274.
Liturgy, a reformed one prepared by Baxter, and adopted by the Presbyterian min
isters, i. 183. Who brought il lo the bishops at the Savoy Conference, 185. Their
exceptions lo the existing liturgy, 184. Alterations made in il, 193, note h. Char
acter of it, ii. 304.
Lloyd (Dr.,) Vicar of St. Martin's, Mr. Baxter's chapel offered to, i. 289. He vin
dicates Baxter's characler, 290.
Locke's (Mr.) observations on the operation ofthe Act of Uniformity, i. 210. And on
the conduct ofthe clergy towards the Nonconformists, 211, note.
London, Mr. Baxter's reflections on the plague of, i. 226. Account of it, 227.
Preaching of the Nonconformist ministers to the inhabitants of, 228. Account of
the fire of, 232. Benevolence of Mr. Ashurst and the Rev. Mr. Gouge on this
occasion, 234. The fire advantageous to the preaching of the silenced ministers,
235, 239. Labors of the Conformist ministers, 236.
Long's (Mr.) attack on Mr. Baxter, notice of, ii. 207. Remarks on his abuse of
Baxter's 'Penitent Confession,' 284. His virulent epitaph on Baxter, ib., note.
Notice of his 'Review' of Mr. Baxter's Life, 289.
Long Parliament, proceedings of, i. 29.
Lord's Day, analysis, with remarks, of Mr. Baxter's trealise on the divine appoint
ment of, ii. 147; How the Lord's-day was celebrated in his early days, ISO.
Loughborough, ravages of the plague at, i. 228, note.
Love (Mr.,) notice of the execution of, i. 106, note.
VOL. II. 46

236

INDEX.

Madstard (Mr. William,) minister of Bridgnorth, notice of, i. 27.
'Making Light of Christ,' a sermon of Baxter's, anecdote respecting the delivery
of, ii. 93.
Malignant, origin of the term , i. 39, note t.
Manchester (Edward Eari of,) characler of, i. 167, note h.
Manton, (Dr. Thomas,) characler of, i. 243, note. Mr. Baxter's character of him,
291. His character of Baxter, ii. 324.
Martin (Henry,) anecdote of, i. 128, note m.
Mason (Dr.,) calumny of, against Baxler, i. 288.
Mather, (Increase,) letter of Mr. Baxter to, ii. 320.
Mayot (Rev. Robert) bequeathes a legacy to Baxter, in trust, i. 309. Which is for
cibly withheld by the Court of Chancery, but ultimately restored, ih.
Meal-Tub Plot, notice of, i. 296, and note e.
Melandwlij persons, numbers of, consulted Mr. Baxler, ii. 117. Observations ou his
'Cure of Melancholy by Failh and Physic,' 118.
'Methodus Theologim Christiana;,' Mr. Baxter's account of this treatise, ii. 56 — 58.
Analysis of it, 58, and 59, note p. Concluding lines of, ib.
Millfunarian Controversy, account of Baxter's writings on, ii. 261—264.
Milton's (John) character of the Westminster Assembly, i. 69, note. Remarks
thereon, 70, note.
Minister's maintenance, proceedings of the Parliament respecting, i. 128, and note.
Notice of ministers imprisoned, 243. See Nonconformists.
Miracles, argument from, forcibly stated, ii. 17, 18.
'Mischiefs of Self- Ignorance,' analysis of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, ii. 86.
Molinams (Ludovicus,) an opponent of Mr. Baxter, noiice of, ii, 42. Baxter's 'Dif
ference between the Power of Magistrates and Church Pastors, and the Roman
Kingdom,' why addressed to him, 220.
Monk (General,) conduct of in promoting the Restoration, i. 144, -.Mr. Baxter's
interview with him, 146,
Montgomery (Mr.,) his character of Baxter as a Christian poet, ii. 309. ^- , ,^ _ -
More, (Dr. Henry,) account of the philosophical notions of, ii. 27. Difference be
tween him and Mr. Baxter on the immortality of the soul, 28.
Morice's (WiHiam) 'Coena quasi Koine,' notice of, ii, 162. Mr, Baxter's sentiments
on this work, ib,
Morley (Dr.,) bishop of Worcester, conduct of, at the Savoy Conference, i. 187,
189. Unites with Sir Ralph Clare in preventing BIr. Baxter's return lo Kidder
minster, 196. Whom he silences, 204.. His reason for so doing, ii. 272, noie. In
conjunction with Bishop Ward, he purposes a comprehension, 309. Account of
Mr. Baxter's controversy with him, ii. 88. Characler of the Bishop's 'Vindication'
of himself, 90. Notice of publications on this controversy, 91. note. His
severe reflections on Baxter's retanlatioD of his 'Holy Commonwealth,' 276, note y.
Moi-nay's treatise on the Christian religion, noiice of, ii. 32.
Morrice (Dr.) attacks Baxter's 'Church History of Government by Bishops,' ii. 279.
Baxter's reply lo him, ib. Interesting extract from il, ib., 280.
Nalton (Mr. John,) biographical notice of, i. 218, 219.
Naseby baltle of, i. 46.
Naijlor (James,) a (Quaker, observations on the case of, i. 87, and note x.
Needliam (Marchmont,) biographical notice of, ii. 267, note I.
Neville (Henry,) notice of, ii. 267, note f.
Nicholas's (Dr. Wm.) writings against the Dissenters, noiice of, ii. 291, and note.
Nonconformists, why opposed to the bishops, i. 38, and joined lo the parliament, 39.
Their views after the Restoration, 157. Conduct of Charles II. towards them. ib.
They have an interview with him, 158. Remarks thereon, 160, They are required
lo draw up proposals concerning church-government, 161, Which they present to
the king, 162, His reply to them, 163, Meeting of Nonconformist ministers with
Charles to hear his declaration, 165, They have a meeting with some bishops,
166. Petition the king, 167. Who alters his declaration, 169. Clarendon's ac
count of their conduct, 171. Exposure of its inaccuracy aud unfairness, 173. Ac
count of the king's offer to make some of them bishops, 175. Remarks thereon,
179. Account of their proceedings at the Savoy conference, 181 — 192. Observa
tions 00 it, 192. Two thousand Nonconformist mimsters ejected by the Act of Uni
formity, 206. Their character and conduct vindicated, 207 — 210. Injustice and
cruelty of the act exposed, 210. Its injurious effects, 211. Remarks on their
jealousy of the Roman Catholics, 217. Severe act against their holding private
meetings, 221. Its effects upon the people, 222. Censures of the Nonconformists
against their ministers, 223. Devoted labors ofthe silenced Nonconformist minis
ters in London during the plague, 228. The Five-mile act passed against tbem,
230. Observaiions on il, ii. The fire of London favorable to the preaching of the
Nonconformists, 235. Which is connived at, 239. Account of tbe efforts made by

INDEX. 363
theLord Keeper and others to procure comprehension for -the Nonconformists,
240. Efforts of Archbishop Sheldon to crush thei'.i, 242. Many of them impris
oned, 243. The Nonconformist rainisters present an address to the king, ib. Its
reception, 244. They are assailed from the press, ii. Charles II. connives at
their toleration, 260 — 262. Their proceedings in relation lo the king's dispensing
declaration, 265. Proceedings of the aspiriug Conformists against thein, 270.
Perseculion against tliem renewed by order of Charles II., 286. Their oppressed
situation between 1676 and 1681, 297, and atthe close of Charies II. 's reign, ii.
Mr. Fox's remarks on the conduct of the court towards the Nonconformists, 316.
Observaiions thereon, ib.
Nonconformity defined, ii. 189. Observations on the history of Nonconformity, 190,
Some principles of Nonconformity adopted by Mr. Baxter, ib. Analysis, with re
marks, of his various works on Nonconformity: ofthe 'Account of the Proceedings
at the Savoy Conference,' 194. This treatise never answered, ib. 'Sacrilegious
Desertion of the Ministry Rebuked,' ib. Notice of Dr. Fulwood's reply to this
treatise, 196, 'The Judgment of Nonconformists concerning the Office of Reason
in Religion,' ib. 'Difference between Grace and Morality,' ib. 'About Things
Indifferent,' ii. 'About Things Sinful,' ii. What mere Non-conformity is not,
ib. Observations on these several tracls, 197. The 'Nonconformist's Plea for
Peace,' ii. Reply to it, by Mr. Cheney, 200. Second part of the 'Plea,' ii. De
fence of il, ii. Attack of it by Dr. Stillingfleet, 201. Answer of Ba.xter lo his
charge of separation, 203. Stillingfleet's reply in his 'Unreasonableness of Sep
aration, 204. Baxter's 'Third Defence' noticed, ib. His further answer to Slill-
ingfleet, 205. Various supporters of Stillingfleet, 206. Baxter's 'Search for the
English Schismatic,' 207. 'Treatise of Episcopacy,' 208. 'Apology for the Non
conformist's Ministry,' 209. 'English Nonconformity Truly Stated,' 210. Re
marks on these various publications, ib.
North, (Lord Keeper), character of, i. 310, note c.
Nye (Mr.) endeavors to persuade Mr. Baxler lo accepi Charles II. 's declaration of
indulgence, i. 216.
Oales (Titus), and the popish plot discovered by him, i. 292, 293. His character,
293, note x.
Oaths, profligate disregard of, by Charies II. , i. 156, and note f. Oath required by the
Five-mile-Acl, and observations on it, 230. Lord Keeper Bridgman's construc
tion of il, 232. Il is taken by Dr. Bates, ii. Oath required by the bishops' Test
Act, 281, '^ y V
Occasional Communion, discussions among the Nonconformists respecting, i. 226.
OUyffe's (Thomas) 'Defence of Miiiisterial Conformity,' notice of, ii. 292.
Ormond {Duke oi), notice of, i. 167, noie z.
Orrery (Earl of), see Broghill.
Orton's (Rev. Job) character of Baxter's writings, ii. 326. Remarks on Kippis's
parallel between Baxter and Orton, 325.
Osborne (Sir Thomas), see Danby.
Overton's (Richard) treatise on 'Man's Mortallitie,' answered hy Mr. Baxter, ii. 26.
Owen (Rev.Dr.), controversy of Mr. Baxter with, on the terms of agreement among
Christians, i. 254. And on catholic communion, il. 182. Supposed address of
Owen to the disputers ou this subject, 184.
Owen (Mr. John), one of Baxter's tutors, character of, i. 11.
Oxendon-street, a chapel erected in, for Mr, Baxler, i. 282. It is offered to Dr.
Lloyd, vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields, 289. Its subsequent history, ih , note k.
Oxford, act of parliament passed at, against the Nonconformists, i. 230.
Packington (Sir John), notice of, i. 196. Intercepts a letter of Mr. Baxter's, 200.
Pagitt's (Ephraim) Heresiography, notice of, i. 92, note.
^Paraphrase on the New Testament,' origin and object of, ii. 305. Extracts from, on
which Sir. Baxter was indicted for sedition, i. 322, note. Why it contains no ex
position ofthe book of Revelations, ii. 307.
PaWmmeTii, forces of, why increased by the accession of the Puritans, i. 36. Its
cause, why embraced by Baxter, 41. Remarks ou his treatment of 4)0 Parliament,
105. Cromwell's conduct towards the Parliament, 127. Charapler of Cromwell's
Parliament, 128, note n. Their proceedings with regard to ihe maintenance of
ministers, ib. and note o. Their apprehensions of, and opposition to, Popery, 258,
266, 267. Oppose the Duke of York's marrying a popish princess, 268. Prorogu
ed by Charles II., ib. Proceedings of, against Lauderdale and Lord Danby, 278.
Their proceedings on re-assembling, 279. Debates in Parliament on the bishops'
Test act, ib. Disputes between the Lords and Commons respecting privileges, 281.
The Long Parliament dissolved by Charles IL, 294. A new one called, and the
Exclusion bill passed by the House of Commons, 295. But lost in the House of
'Lords, ib. Prorogation of this Parliament, and resolutions of the House of Com
mons, 296.

304 INDEX,
/Wiifoierfi'oici!, doctrine of, asserted by Mr Baxter, ii. 131. Observnlions on tho
principles aud writings of som'e ofthe clorgy on this subject. 1;^2.
Ptilivnre, account of Mr. Baxter's treatise on. ii. 108.
r<.ice of (^>M,M I. M.-. , publication of IMr, Bnxior's 'Right Method' for. ii. 9S. Extract
li-om'llic dodii':uiou of it to Colonel Bridges, ;i9. jVud lo the poor in spirit. IIH).
Char.icler ot this treatise, ib.
Peirce (Or.), couduct of. i\l the S.ivoy conference, i. 191, am) note i\. Vindicates
Gratius. and attacks Mr. Baxler. ii. 'J! 1. Notice of liis '[Sou l>iseo\eiX'r Diseov-
oied,''J16.
-P.nil.nl C.>«/;-,Mi.'ir of Baxter, notice ol'. ii, '::!;i. ':il6. And of its nssoilnnls, 282,283.
P.-nn (William), controversy with Ba\ler. i. 'J;>1, aud note.
r.rkiu.^'s (William) 'Goldeii Chain,' noliee of, ii. I'.Vi.
Perseverance ofth.: saints, nnnlys'i-i oI'iMr. Bn,xler's 'Tliongliis' on, ii.50.
P,llll's (Edward) ¦\'ision.< of tuiveninu'ul,' and atlaeks on llaxler. noliee of, ii. '-72.
note u.
Pinn.'r's Hall, Mr. U.ixler preaches al. i. 'ilu'i. .\eeouiil ef Iho leelures theii'. 'i'1.
Plague if l.o:!don. ravages of. i. 2-21. IMr. Uaxler's relleelioiis on il, '2-6. Preaching
of the Noncoiirormist minislers to the inlinbiliuils of, ',!¦,';!. Notices of works ro-
specliiig it, '2'-9. note r.
Portrii (l.alin) of Mr, Baxler. specimen of. ii, 59. .\nd of his English pcelrv. with
rtNnarks.107,311— 314,
Political ittl'.iirs. tho conduct of minisiei-s re,<peeliiig, considered, ii. '-Vi. .\nalv,sis of
Baxter's 'Polilieal \^¦oli;s. 'J66— ':7 1.
Pollc.rfen (iMr), argumont of. for Mr. Baxter, i. o'23. Judge .lell'eries' Irealmont of
him, ,'<2k
'jPoor Mail's Famihj Book,' analysis of, with remarks, ii. 140. Interesting auocdolo
ofthis work. II-.'
Popcnj, appreliensioiis of the bishops and their regents eoiieeniiini'. i. 'J5S. Oread of
llic nation ag.iinsl it, 266, Public fast iigainst Popery-, 269. Baxter's pra>er for
deliverance lioni Popery, ii. '-27. Ot'servations on il nt ihe time ho wroie. 212.
.Analvsis. wiih remarks, ol" his works ai;ainsl Popei-y: — 'The Safe Religion,' 213.
'.V \Viiidiiig. Sheet for Popery,' ii. 'Groliaii Keligion niseo\-ei('d.' 'Jll. t''onti-o-
x'orsy lo which il j;ave rise, 2\5 — 218. 'Key for Catholics,' 'ilS. 'Sneeessivo
\"isil>iliiy of the Cliureli,' and conti'oversy with .Tohnson respeeiinj;' it, '-I9, 'I'air
\^'aniiiii;; or, 'I^^enly-^l^¦e Ueasons aii.iinsl Toleration of Popery,' '220. 'DilVer-
enee behveen the Power of Chureli P.wtors and Ihe Uoinan Kingdom,' ib. 'Tho
Cerlainly of Chrisliaiiily wiihoul Popei y,' I'i., 'J'JI . 'Full and easv Snlisfnclion
which is ihc true Religion,' ib.,'222. 'Chrisl, not Ihe Pope, the Head of llie Chureh.'
2J.I ¦ Roman Tradition <'\a:niiied.' i/'. 'Naked Popeiy,' ?7i. (^oiilro\ersy witli
Hulehinsou rosperlins il. il'. '\\'liirh is Ihc Iriie ("hiiiehr 221. Conli-oversy
wiih nod«ell, //'. 'liisseni from Dr, Slieriock,' )i. '.Viiswer lo Doilwell's Leiier
calling for more -Answer.s.' 2'2r), '.V^ainsl Ke\nlt lo a I'oreign .lilrisdietion,' '226.
'The I'roleslaiit Religion truly Staled and .lusiified,' ih. 'Observnlions ou the '/.onl
of ProtesLmt Dissenters against Popery,' '2'27. Popery tho Originator of Anlino-
mianisni. 229. 230.
Porilas^c (Dr..) noiice of tho tenets of i. 88, and note z.
Prcsl'ii/rn'.vis. Mr. Bnxler's account of the leiiels of, i. 72, 73. 79. Remarks thereon,
73. Union of the Piesbylcrinn nud Independent miuisters, 350,
Profession. Chrislinn, observations on. ii. UiO, 161.
Priinnc (William), biographical noliee of, i. 30. note e.
Psalm, the l\venl\'-lliird. versilied by Ba,xler, ii. 311.
Pulpit in which Mr. Baxter preaehed, notice of, i, I'ld, note m. Observnlions on tho
style best adapted for tho pulpit, ii. 77.
Puritans, Irealmont of, before and nt the conimeiu'euienl of Ilie civil wars, i, 34,
The garb of, assumed by Romish piicsis, for the purpose of jiropngating sedition,
ii.2l.i. note.
Pym (John), characler of, ii, S95.
Qm^kcrs. Mr. Baxter's account of the tenets of, i. 86. Remarks on it, 87, note x.
Their sufl'erings under Ihe bill against private meelin^s, '2'2;1, and note. Their con
duct towards Baxter, ii. 256. Remarks on it, i/i. ''rhe Worresleishiie Pelition'
ngainsl thom, ii. Tho pelition defended by llaxler, 2.'ili. Who publishes tho
'Ouaker's Cateclilsni,' '2.57. Spceinicn of his questions to lliein. 261!. Notice ofhis
'Single Sheds' relating to iheiii, ib. Controversy wiih William Penn, on the prin
ciples of Ciuakcrisiii, '259.
JJaiilcrs, notice of tho tenets of, i. 86.
RcikI (Rev. Joseph), account of tho iniprisonnient of, i. 287.
'Reasons of Ihc Christian Religion,' view of Mr. liavler's trealise nn, ii, 21 

INDEX. 365
24. Account of 'More Reasons for the Christian Religion, and no Reason against
Redemption, Mr. Baxter's sentiments on the extent of, ii. 64.
'Reformed Pastor,' analysis of, with remarks, ii. 13.5— 139. Noiice of abridgments
ofthis treatise, 139. Dr. Doddridijo's recommendation ofit, ib.
Religion, low slate of, at tho lime of Mr. Baxter's birth, i. 10 Slate of, before and
al the commencement of the civil wars, 34 — 36. State of religious parties from
16<k) to 16.56, 67 — 9 1 Improved state of Religion during the Commonwealth, 141.
'R.l'iquim littxteriana:,' character of, ii. 286. Imperfectly edited by .Sylvester, Hi.
Observations on it, 287. Calamy's account of this publication and of its recep
tion, 288—290. Notice ofhis abridgment ofit, and of the controversy lo which it
gave rise, 290—292.
Restoration of Charles II. account of, i. 145. Remarks thereon, 148.
RereUiliini (Book of), Mr. Baxter's reasons for not writing an exposition of, ii. 307.
Itvolulion of 1688, noiice of, i. 31.6.
Reynolds (Dr. Edward) accepts the bishopric of Norwich, i, 179, Observations on
his conduct, ib. note n.
Rich (Robert, secoud Earl of Warwick), characler of, i. 133, rwte.
Rogers (John), a Fifth-monarchy man, noiice of, ii. 267, note k,
Rogers (Sir William), minister of Eaton Constantine, noiice of, i. 10.
Roman Catholics , iea\oasy of the Nonconformists against, 1. 217. Proofs thot their
priests disguised themselves as Puritans, ii. 213, note.
R'isewell (Rev. Thomas), trial of, on a charge for high-tre£tson, i.3II. Its result, 312,
R.'lherham ( Mr.), argument of, in behalf of Mr, Baxter, i. 325.
Roundhead, origin ofthe term, i. 39, note s.
Rump-Parliament, put down by Cromwell, i. 127.
Ryves (Dr.), minister of Acton, conduct of, towards Mr. Baxter, i. 247. Causes him
lo be sent to prison, 249.

Notice
respecting

Sacraments, analysis of Mr. Baxter's 'Disputations' on the right to, ii. 161.
of Mr. Morice's observations on il, 162, and of Mr. Baxter's sentiments re
them, 163.
'Saint or a Brute,' extract from Mr. Baxter's dedication of, ii. 91. Remarks on this
treatise, 92,
'Saint's Everlasting Rest,' occasion of, ii. 293. Baxter's reasons for omitting the
names of Brook, Pym. and Hampden, in the later editions of this treatise, 294.
Beautiful quotations from it, 316, 317. Description, character, and usefulness of
this work, 298. It is attacked by Giles Firmin, ib. And defended by Baxler, ib.
Character of Mr. Fawcelt's abridgment of it, ii.
Saltmarsh, biographical notice of. ii. 235, and note.
Sanderson (Dr.), bishop of Lincoln, conduct of, at the Savoy Conference, i. 190, and
notez.
Saravia (Dr. Adrian), notice of, i. 28, Twte h.
.SaiJoi/ Conference, a royal commission issued for holding, i. 180. History of the pro
ceedings at it, 181 — 192. Remarks thereon, 192.
Sawyer (Sir Robert), character of, i. 310, jiote h.
Schoolmen, Mr. Baxter's opinion of, ii. 114. Character of some oftheir works, 123.
Scotch Presbyterians, oppression of, i. 294, and note a.
Seddon (.Mr. ), imprisonment of, for preaching, i. 285. Is liberated by Baxter, ib.
Seekers, notice ofthe tenets of, i. 85.
Self-Denial, analysis of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, ii. 106. Extract from the dedication
ofit, 104—106.
Sharpe (Rev. John, afterwards archbishop of St. Andrews), notice of, i. 155, and
note d,
Sliaw (Rev. Samuel), anecdote of,i. 228, note.
Sheldon (Dr.), bishop of London, characterof, i. \S9, notey. His proceedings at the
Savoy Conference, 181—139. Succeeds lo the see of Canterbury, 220, Promotes
the passing ofthe Five-mile act, 2,30. Which he rigorously enforces, 232. Hig
efforts to crush the Nonconformists, 242, 254, 230, note s.

itertocA (Dr.), suspectea 01 insiigaiing me prosecuuuu ."•»"¦ ""-"^'j '¦ "^^,323.
Noiice ofhis defences of Stillingfleet against Baxter, u, 206; and of Baxter's 'Ac
count ofhis Dissent from Dr. Sfieriock,' 225.
Smart (Peter), notice of, i. 30, notej.
.Sou<A(Dr.), anecdote of, ii. 276, note. . . ,, r'- -i . -non
Southampton (Eari), noble opposition of, to the passing of the I'lve-mile act, i. 230,
and note.

366 INDEX.
Southey's (Mr.) account ofthe Act of Uniformity, mis-statements of exposed, i. 212,
note.
Spilsbury (Mr. Francis), a successor of Baxter, at Kidderminster, notice of, i. 125.
Spirits: — Account of Mr. Baxter's treatise on the 'Certainty ofthe World of Spirits,'
ii. 29—32.
Sprigge's 'AngVia. Redivlva,' character of, i. 4-6, noie. His character ofthe parha-
mentary army, 64. Notice ofhis sermons, 83, endnote r.
Sterne (Dr.), bishop of Carlisle, conduct of, at the Savoy Conference, i. 190.
Sterry (Peter), Mr. Baxter's character of, i. 83, note q. Remarks on it, ib.
Stillingfleet (Dr.), zealous efforts of, against Popery, i. 268. Characler of his 'Ori
gines Sacrae/ ii. 32. His vindication of Baxter frora the charge of leaning towards
Socinianism, 64. Notice of his 'Irenicum,' 201, note. Observations on his 'Mis
chief of Separation,' ib. He is answered by Baxter, 202. Publishes his 'Unrea
sonableness of Separation,' ih, Baxter's reply to it, 205. Noiice of some of Stil
lingfleet's defenders, 206.
StonehoJise's (Sir James) characler of Baxter's 'Dying Thoughts,' ii. S04>,note.
Stubbs {Henry) , d. partisan of Sir Henry Vane, characterof, i. 84, and woie s. Notice
ofhis writings, ii. 267, noie i.
Stubbs (Rev. Henry), biographical account of, i. 299. Notice of Mr. Baxter's funeral
sermon on him, 300.
Stijle of Mr. Baxter, remarks on, ii. 388.
Subscription, Mr. Baxter's opinion on, ii. 180. Notice ofhis 'Sense ofthe subscribed
Articles of the Church ofEngland,' i. 347—34.9. ii. 185.
Swallow-street, chapel erected in, for Mr. Baxter, i. 288. He is forcibly kept out of
it, ib. Subsequent history of the church there, ib. noteg.
Sy/ue5ier (Mr.), his account of Mr. Baxter's preaching for him, i. 351. And of his
last sickness and death, 354, 355. Vindication of his memory from slander, 356.
Description ofhis character and person, 358. Observations on his edition of 'Re
liquiae Baxterianae,' ii. 286.
Symonds, notices of some Nonconformist ministers of that name, i. 23, note n.
Systematic Theology, observations on, ii. 121 — 124-. Notice of the systems of Calvin,
124. Of Perkins, 125. And ofUsher and Leigh, ib.
Taylor (Colonel Silvanus), biographical notice of, i.290, note.
Taylor (Bishop), observaiions of, on the paucity of casuistical books among the re
formed churches, ii. 127, note. His 'Ductor Dubitantium/ compared with Baxter's
'Christian Directory/ 133.
Test Act, proceedings relative to the passing of, i. 267.
Theological Literature of 'Baxter's time, observations on,iI. 10 — 14.
ThornhorQugh (Bishop), notice of, i. 24, and note.
Tilenus (Daniel), biographical notice of, ii. 215, note d. His name assumed by
Bishop Womack, in his attacks upon the Puritans, ib.
TVWo^sora (Archbishop), correspondence of Baxter with, on the subject of his court
sermon, ii. 201. His opinion of Baxler and Dodwell, 225, note. Dedication of
Baxter's trealise 'Against Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction/ 226.
To/eraHori of Popery, opposed by Baxter, ii. 220. Account ofthe passing ofthe
Toleration Act, 246. Mr. Baxter's sense of certain articles of rehgion required to
be subscribed by it, 247—249.
Tombes (John), origin ofhis controversy with Mr. Baxter, on the subjects and modes
of baptism, ii. 246. Account of iheir conference, 248. Notice of Tombes' 'Anti
dote against the Venom' of Baxter, 249. And of the reply of the latter in his
'Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' Church- Membership, 250. Of Torabes' 'Pre
cursor,' and 'Anti-pedobaptism/ 251. And of Baxter's 'More Proof of Infant
Church-Membership/ 252.
Tomkins (Thomas), an opponent of Mr. Baxter, notice of, ii. 272.
Tongue (Dr, Israel), biographical notice of, i. 292, note s.
Totteridge, residence of Mr. Baxter at, i. 253.
Trial of Mr. Rosewell for high-lreason, i. 311, 312. And of Mr. Baxter on a charge
ofsedition, 317—327.
Triers, character ofthe assembly or committee of, i. 130.
Tully's (Dr.) attack on Mr. Baxler upon justification, notice of, ii. 52.
Uniformity, Act of, i. 206. Its irff^olicy, 207. Injustice and cruelty, 210. Its inju
rious effects, 211. Mr. Southey's mis-statements respecting it, exposed, 212, note.
Union ofthe early Christians, Ii. 152. Causes of separation, 153. Means of promot
ing re-union, ib.
* Unreasonableness of Infidelity ,' dedication of, to Lord Broghill, ii. 16. Intended as
a reply to Clement Writer, ib. Its plan and arrangement, 15. Five observations
on miracles, 17 — 19. And on the Spirit's testiraony lo the Gospel, 19.

INDEX. 367
t-f/itN- (Archbishop) persuades Mr. Baxter lo write his treatise on Conversion, ii. 78.
Notice ofhis sysiem of divinity, 1-5.
I ane (Sir Henry), and the Vanists, Mr. Baxter's account of, i. 82—85. Remarks on
it, So, note.
Vattghan (Lord Chief Justice), character of, i. 'iJoO, note n. Opinion of, on Mr. Bax
ter's mittimus, -51. His opinion against the fining ofjur^'men, 260.
^ennti-'s msurrection, account of, i. 200, aud note.
'^illLrs, see Buckingham (Duke of).
Vt«fe;ii {Rev. Thomas), labors of, in London, during tlie plague, i. 229, and note q,
^ValAer's (James) Account ofthe Sufferings ofthe Clergy/ chcu^cter of, ii. 291.
H .iMrui£- with God, fehcity of, ii. 301, 302.
JVaUis (Dr. John), an anta^nist of Baxter, notice of, ii.36.
^VaJlop (Mr.), ai'gumeuls ot, inbehalf of Mr. Baxter, i. 3-4.
Ward (Setb. bishop of Salisbury), biographical noiice of, i. 259, note i. He prevents
tne passing ofa comprehension act, 272. His activity agaiust the Nonconformists,
2p9, and note.
W^mestry, (Dr.), dean of Worce:>ior, preaches against Mr. Baxter, i- 204.
^ViJmer (John), an opponent of Mr. Baxler, notice of, ii. 50, and note h.
H^f-ren (John) an opponent of Baxter, notice of. ii. 36.
B^^losters (John) 'Displa^'ing of Witchcraft/ notice of, ii. 31, note.
Westminster Assembly, see Assembly of IHvines.
TV?ia//e(/ (Colonel), why engaged to Cromwell, i. 49. Receives Mr. Baxler as chap
lain lo his regiment, 50. Characler ofit, ib. Notice ofthe colonel, ii. 45. Dedi-
caiiou of Baxter's 'Apology' lo him, 42, 43.
White (Thomas)j a Catholic priest, notice of, li. 266, Tioie e.
'Wicksiead (Richard), one of Bcixters tutors, notice of, i. 12.
'^Vight (Isle of), account ofthe treaty of, with Charles, i. 99.
^MJberforc^s (Mr.) opinion of Mr. ^Baxters works, il. 321.
^Vilkins (Dr. John), bishop of Chester, character of, i. -41, iwte m. His character
of Mr. Baxter, ii. 3-4,
^MIliam III., Toleration Act of, and remarks on it, i. 346,
^MUia}ns (Dr. Daniel), opposes AntinomicUiism, ii. 241.
lllichcraft, and apparitions, remarks on, ii. 30.
Womack^s (Bishop) 'Examination of Tilenus before the Triers,' notice of, ii. -15, 216.
-Vnd ofhis 'Arcana Dogmatum Anli-RemonsiTcUitium,' 216-
Worcester, battle of, i, 107.
Worcestershire Mijusters, agreement of; its design, ii. 156. Articles oftheir agree
ment for catechising, 159.
Writer (Clement), notice of, ii. 16, note e. Mr. Baxter's 'Unreasonableness of Infi
delity/ designed as a reply to him, ib.
York (Duchess of), becomes a Papist, i. 253, note.
Young _l/t7i. Mr. Baxter's compassionate counsel to, noticed, ii. 147.
young's -Anti-Baxlerians,' notice of, ii. 290. His virulent epitaph on Baxter, 284,
note.

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