In this work the famed seventeenth-century pastor Richard Baxter provides worthy instruction in the proper valuation of earthly and heavenly goods, including practical and perennial lessons on how to pursue the common good in society. Baxter’s practical wisdom and doctrinal acumen, including his great theological achievements, were always rooted in his pastoral ministry among the English people, first in the town of Kidderminster and then in London. His pastoral heart is reflected in How to Do Good to Many, which was addressed to the people of London. Although he was a controversialist and nonconformist, Baxter always engaged in dispute and polemic in pursuit of unity, love, and truth. This treatise, newly updated for modern readers by Jordan Ballor, captures many of the significant themes that characterize Baxter’s brilliant theological career: charity, fidelity, bravery, and wisdom.
He wrote 168 or so separate works -- such treatises as the Christian Directory, the Methodus Theologiae Christianae, and the Catholic Theology, might each have represented the life's work of an ordinary man. His Breviate of the Life of Mrs Margaret Baxter records the virtues of his wife, and reveals Baxter's tenderness of nature. Without doubt, however, his most famous and enduring contribution to Christian literature was a devotional work published in 1658 under the title Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live. This slim volume was credited with the conversion of thousands and formed one of the core extra-biblical texts of evangelicalism until at least the middle of the nineteenth century.
Richard Baxter was ordained into the Church of England, 1638, but in two years allied with Puritans opposed to the episcopacy of his church. At Kidderminster (1641-60) he made the church a model parish. The church was enlarged to hold the crowds. Pastoral counseling was as important as preaching, and his program for his parish was a pattern for many other ministers. Baxter played an ameliorative role during the English Civil Wars.
He was a chaplain in the parliamentary army but then helped to restore the king (1660). After the establishment of the monarchy, he fought for toleration of moderate dissent in the Church of England. Persecuted for more than 20 years and was imprisoned (1685) for 18 months, the Revolution of 1688, replacing James II with William and Mary, brought about an Act of Toleration that freed Baxter to express his opinions.
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