"The most outstanding pastor, evangelist and writer on practical and devotional themes that Puritanism produced." --"J. I. Packer"An English Puritan, Baxter was an "exegete" of culture, a memorable preacher, and a prolific writer. He is known for his practical advice on applying Scripture to all areas of life and his emphasis on the "heart work" involved in doing everything to the glory of God--whether one is pastor, pilgrim, or parent.
The Puritans knew that they would not be able to deal with man's problems if they did not understand the source from which all these problems stem. Therefore, they sought what the Bible had to say about the heart in order to properly confront the difficulties that flow from it. This edition of the most complete abridgment of Baxter's 23-volume work is a treasury of carefully selected sermons and essays that combine the principles of communion with God and the specifics of obedience to God, including:
- The Saints' Everlasting Rest
- The Divine Life
- A Treatise of Conversion
- A Call to the Unconverted
- Now or Never
- Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion
- Directions for Weak Distempered Christians
- The Character of a Sound, Confirmed Christian
- The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance and the Benefits of Self-Acquaintance
- Dying Thoughts
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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