The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter was born at Rowton, Shropshire, (England,) on the 12th of November, 1615. He resided in that village with his maternal grandfather till he was nearly ten years of age, when he was taken home to live with his parents at Eaton Conslantine, in the same county. His father, he says, “had the competent estate of a freeholder, free from the temptations of poverty and riches; but having been addicted to gaming in his youth, as was also his father before him, it was so entangled by debts, that it occasioned some excess of worldly cares before it was freed.”

The father of Richard Baxter, about the time cf his son’s birth, became seriously impressed with the importance of divine truth, and appears to have subsequently become a sincere follower of the Redeemer. His conversion was effected chiefly through the instrumentality of reading the Scriptures. He had but few opportunities of attending on other means of grace. Many of the pulpits were occupied by ministers igno-LIFE OF BAXTER.

rant of the truili as it is in Jesus; and those who preached the Gospel in its purity were, for the most part, so despised and contemned, that it required no small share of moral courage to attend on their ministry. Converted himself, he became anxious for the salvation of his only son. He directed the attention of his youthful charge to the sacred Scriptures, whence he had himself derived so much benent. Nor were his in&irueiions and efforts al together vain. Baxter thus mgenuousiy confesses his early &ins and convictions, in his history of his own life and times:

At first my father set me to read the historical parts of Scripture, which, suiting with my nature, greatly delighted me; and though all that time I neither understood nor relished much the doctrinal part and mystery of redemption, yet it did me good, by acquainting me with the matters of fact, and drawing me on to love the Bible, and to search by degrees into the rest.

“But though my conscience would trouble me when I sinned, yet diveta sins I was addicted to, and often committed against uiy conscience; which, lor the warning of others, I will here confess, to my shame.

“1. I was much addicted, when I feared correction, to lie, that I might escape.

“2. I was much addicted to the excessive gluttonous eating of apples and pears, which, I think, laid the foundation of that weakness of my stomach which caused the bodily calamities of my life.

“3. To this end, and to concur with naughty boys that gloried in evil, I have often gone into other men’s orchards, and stolen their fruit, when I had enough at home.

“4. I was somewhat excessively addicted to play, and that with covetousness for money.

“5. I was extremely bewitched with a love of romances, fables, and old tales, which corrupted my affections and wasted my time.

“6. I was guilty of much idle foolish chat, and imitation of boys in scurrilous foolish words and actions, though I durst not swear.

“7. I was too proud of the commendations of my instructors, who all of them fed my pride, making me seven or eight years the highest in the school, and boasting of me to others; which, though it furthered my learning, yet helped not my humility.

“8. I was too bold and irreverent towards my parents.

“These were my sins, with which, in my childhood, conscience troubled me for a great while before they were overcome.”

His convictions gathered strength, although occasionally resisted. The temptations to neglect religion were strong and powerful. The reproach cast on his father and others, who, for their desire and pursuit of holiness, were contemptuously designated “Puritans,” proved for a season a stumbling-block in his path. Still, however, the reflecting mind of the son led him to discern the difference between the conduct of his father and that of his calumniators, and to conclude that there was more of reason and truth in a life of holiness, than in a life of impiety and rebellion against the majesty of heaven. He says:

“In the village where I lived, the Reader read the common prayer briefly; and the rest of the day, even till dark night almost, except eating time, was spent in dancing under a may-pole and a great tree, not far from my father’s door, where all the town met together: and though one of my father’s own tenants was

LIFE OF BAXTER.

the piper, he could not re*irain him not break the sport: so that we could not read the Scripture in our family without the great disturbance of the taber and pipe, and noise in the street 1* Many times my mind was inclined to be among them, and sometimes I broke loose from my conscience and joined with them; and the more I did it, the more I was inclined to it. But when I heard them call my father ‘Puritan,- it did much to cure me and alienate me from them; for I considered that ray father’s exercise of reading the Scripture was better than theirs, and would surely be judged better by all men at the last; and I considered what it was. for which he and others were thus derided. M’hen I heard them speak scornfully of others, as Puritans, whom I never knew, I was at first apt to beliere all the lies and slanders wherewith they loaded them; but when I heard my own father so reproached, and perceived that drunkards were the most forward in the reproach. I perceived that it was mere malice. For my father never objected to common prayer or ceremonies, nor spoke against bishops, nor ever so much as prayed but by a book or form, being unacquainted then with any that did otherwise. But only for reading Scripture when the rest were dancing on the Lord’s day, and for praying by a form out of the end of the common prayer book, in his house, and for reproving drunkards and swearers, and for talking sometimes a few words of Scripture, and about the life to come, he was reviled commonly by the name of Puritan. Precisian, and Hypocrite; and so were the godly ministers that lived in the country near us, not only by our neighbors, but by

* These profanations of the Lxprd’«i dmv were authorised amd

encouraged by the roval proclamatiou. called the Book of Sports, set forth A. D. lolS. — See Life of Bishop HaU, p. 36.

hllh OF BAXTER. the common talk of the multitude all about us. By this observation I was fully convinced that godly people were the best; and those that despised them, and lived in sin and pleasure, were a malignant, unhappy sort of people; and ttiis kept me out of their company, except now and then, when the love of sports and play enticed me.”

When about fifteen years of age, “it pleased God,” he writes, of his wonderful mercy, to open my eyes with a clearer insight into the concerns and case of my own soul, and to touch my heart with a livelier feeling of things spiritual than ever I had. found before.” While under this concern, a poor man in the town lent his father an old torn book, entitled “Bunny’s Resolutions.” “In reading this book,” he observes, “it pleased God to awaken my soul, and show me the folly of sinning, and the misery of the wicked, and the inexpressible weight of things eternal, and the necessity of resolving on a holy Vile, hiore than “I was ever acquainted with before. The same things which I knew before, came now in another manner, with light, and sense, and seriousness to my heart.”

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