Richard Baxter Books: A Reading Guide to All 14 and Where to Start
Richard Baxter (1615–1691) wrote more than a hundred books, and some of them are very long. That can make him hard to begin. TheWay Library has fourteen of his works, all free to read: his classic on heaven, his book for pastors, his famous call to unbelievers, a set of devotional treatises, his poems, a short tract for families, all four parts of A Christian Directory, and a short life drawn from his own words. For his story, see who was Richard Baxter.
This guide sorts them so you can find the right one.
Where to start
Start with The Saints' Everlasting Rest. Our edition is an abridgment, so it's far shorter than the original, and it's the book that made Baxter loved in his own day and after.
Then choose by what you need:
- If you're a pastor or church leader: The Reformed Pastor.
- If you want to share the gospel, or hear it plainly: A Call to the Unconverted, in Making Light of Christ and Salvation.
- If you're facing death or caring for someone who is: The Dying Thoughts, or his Poetical Fragments.
- If you want something short to read with your family: What We Must Do to Be Saved.
- If you want practical guidance for home, work and church: A Christian Directory, the part that fits your question.
- If you want his life: The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter.
For his best lines, see our collection of Richard Baxter quotes.
Devotional books
The Saints' Everlasting Rest
Baxter's classic on heaven, first preached to his people at Kidderminster and written while he was gravely ill. It describes the rest that remains for the people of God, warns of the loss of those who miss it, shows how to discern your title to it, explains why afflictions keep us from resting in this world, and ends with his well-known method of heavenly meditation.
The worth of everlasting rest is not felt, because it is not considered; it is forgotten because a thousand trifles are preferred before it.
The Saint's Everlasting Rest, The Preface
Read The Saints' Everlasting Rest.
The Dying Thoughts of the Rev. Richard Baxter
An abridgment of the meditations Baxter wrote as he faced death, on Paul's words "to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." In five short chapters he weighs what is still good in this life, why believers go to Christ at death, and why that is far better, and he prays for a willing heart. The compiler warns that you won't find deathbed raptures here, only the honest struggle of a godly man learning to be willing to go. Read The Dying Thoughts.
The Divine Life: In Three Treatises
Three treatises on the soul's life with God. The first, on John 17:3, walks through God's attributes and relations and asks what each should do to the heart. The second, on Enoch, describes walking with God and exposes the "practical atheism" of people who live as if God weren't there. The third, on Christ's words "I am not alone," teaches communion with God in solitude. It began as a sermon for a noblewoman who had suffered many losses. Read The Divine Life.
The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance and the Benefits of Self-Acquaintance
A treatise on self-knowledge from Paul's question, "Know ye not your own selves?" Baxter shows what true self-acquaintance is, the many harms of being a stranger to yourself, and why the unconverted need to see their sin and the godly need to know both their sins and their graces. Our copy is uncorrected scanned text with some misread words, so it reads less smoothly than his other books. Read The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance.
The Poetical Fragments of Richard Baxter
Baxter's devotional poems, published near the end of his life, soon after his wife died. In the preface he defends holy poetry and singing and says the verses are fitted to the afflicted, the sick, the dying and the doubting. The long opening poem reviews his life as a record of God's mercies; shorter pieces follow on being silenced, on sickness, on doubt and return, and a dialogue between Death and the believer. It ends with hymns of praise. "The Covenant and Confidence of Faith," which his wife signed in a time of sickness, holds his best-known lines:
Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than he went through before
The Poetical Fragments of Richard Baxter, The Covenant and Confidence of Faith
For pastors
Gildas Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor
Baxter's classic on the minister's work, written for a day of fasting among the ministers of Worcestershire after they agreed to teach their people family by family. From Acts 20:28 he calls pastors to take heed first to themselves and then to the whole flock, confesses the clergy's pride and neglect, and argues for personal catechizing of every household.
All that a preacher doth is a kind of preaching: and when you live a covetous or a careless life, you preach these sins to your people by your practice.
Gildas Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor, Chapter I: The Text Explained, and Taking Heed to Ourselves
The Causes, Evils, and Cures of Heart and Church Divisions
Francis Asbury's abridgment, made for American Methodists, of two Puritan books on unity: Jeremiah Burroughs's work on heart divisions and Baxter's Cure of Church Divisions. It names pride and party spirit as the roots of division, counts the damage they do, and gives many principles for healing them, with a closing word to pastors. Read The Causes, Evils, and Cures of Divisions.
Gospel and household writings
Making Light of Christ and Salvation
A volume of Baxter's gospel writings with a long essay on his life and ministry. It holds four works: Making Light of Christ and Salvation, on the guests who brushed off the wedding invitation in Matthew 22; his famous A Call to the Unconverted, on Ezekiel 33:11; The Last Work of a Believer, a funeral sermon on dying in faith; and a treatise on God's love shed abroad in the heart. If you read one Baxter book to an unbelieving friend, make it the Call.
It is the unchangeable law of God, that wicked men must turn or die.
Making Light of Christ and Salvation, A Call to the Unconverted
Read Making Light of Christ and Salvation.
What We Must Do to Be Saved
A rare short tract, reprinted in 1868, written to keep new converts going and to teach households. The first part shows why holiness is necessary and how to begin; the second warns that many who start well fall away and gives plain directions for keeping on. Two catechisms and two family prayers close it. You can read it in about an hour. Read What We Must Do to Be Saved.
A Christian Directory
Baxter's largest work, and one of the largest practical handbooks ever written in English. He meant it as a complete guide to the Christian life, answering "cases of conscience" with numbered directions. It isn't a book you read straight through. Find the part and chapter that fit your question.
- Part 1: Christian Ethics: the private life of the soul. Directions for the unconverted and for young Christians, the grand directions for walking with God, and then the sins of heart and life one by one: unbelief, pride, sinful passions, wasted time and an unruly tongue. His chapter on redeeming the time is a good place to dip in.
- Part 2: Christian Economics: the Christian household. Choosing a husband or wife, family worship, the duties of husbands, wives, parents, children, masters and servants, keeping the Lord's Day, reading the Bible, prayer, and counsel for the troubled, the backsliding, the poor, the rich, the sick and the dying.
- Part 3: Christian Ecclesiastics: the church. Worship, baptism, vows, the people's duty to their pastors and how to keep unity without schism, followed by some 170 questions and answers on church matters. The last one gives his advice on what books to read when you can afford only a few.
- Part 4: Christian Politics: duties to rulers and neighbors. Directions for rulers, lawyers, physicians, schoolmasters and soldiers, then honesty in buying, selling and lending, forgiveness, charity and restitution. It closes with a reformed liturgy.
His life
The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter
A short life from 1835, built mostly from Baxter's own narrative and quoting him at length. It covers his boyhood and conversion, his ordination, his years at Kidderminster, the writing of The Saints' Rest and The Reformed Pastor, his public life through the Civil War and the Restoration, his ejection, trial and imprisonment, his death, and his character.
And I found that the transcript of the heart has the greatest force on the hearts of others.
The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter, Chapter III: His Labors, Trials, and Success at Kidderminster
Read The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter.
A simple reading plan
- The Saints' Everlasting Rest, a chapter a day.
- A Call to the Unconverted, in one or two sittings, and What We Must Do to Be Saved with your household.
- The Reformed Pastor, if you lead others; The Divine Life, if you don't.
- The Dying Thoughts, slowly.
- Then keep A Christian Directory at hand for questions as they come up.
All of Baxter's books in the library are on the Richard Baxter author page. For other writers of his age, see the best Puritan books.