His Labors, Trials, and Success at Kidderminster
To this importarPE and interesting scene of labor Baxter was invited on the 9th of March, 1640. His legal appointment, afteriaboring among the people durin;r the interval, is dated April 5, 1641.
For this station of public and extensive Usefulness, lie had been prepared by various painful and alarming aiflictions. He says: “All this forertieutloned time of
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myi
Dcnea, wiiicii woeao-^reatas anda ok Irre wmA m coBtiaval ezpedatioB of deaifa, aupiwwiag aufl tkas I had Boi long to live And tkb I feanl, liiraagh all m J iilie, to be an wMaMc menry to me: iisr
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I wmsL say, tollie praiae of my
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any of the aioa vUdi go onder the ■atoeoff
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^Tbeaej with the rest whidi I
when I apakeof ray infinnilieit weie the I
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I aibe laOer, aa Lntherspc
Hia ipiritnl oonflkitom ractei and tended, evanMlty, by the gnee of God, loqnfifyhim to be an inattnetor af iHhf n, both as a writer. Qe says: -Atone tioK. above aUthe present expectation of my change, and going for comfort to the promises, as I was used, the tempter strongly assaulted my faith, and would have drawn me towards infidelity itself. Till I was ready to enter into the ministry, all my troubles had been raised by the hardness of my heart and the doublings of my own sincerity; but now all these began to vanish, and never much returned to this day. And, instead of these, I was now assaulted with more pernicious temptations; especially to question the certain truth of the sacred Scriptures; and also the life to come, and the immortality of the soul. And these temptations assaulted me, not as they do the melancholy, with horrid vexing importunity; but, by pretence of sober reason, they would have drawn me to a settled doubting of Christianity.
“And here I found my own miscarriage and the great mercy of God. My miscarriage, in that I had so long neglected the well settlmg of the foundations oa which I rested, while 1 had bestowed so much time in the superstructure and the applicalory part. For, not daring to question the truth of the Scriptures and the life to come, 1 had either taken it for a certainty upon trust, or taken up with common reasons of it, which I had never well considered, digested, or made my own; insomuch, that when this temptation came, it seemed at first to answer and enervate all the former reasons of my feeble faith, which made me take the Scriptures for the word of God; and it set before me such mountains of difficulty in the incarnation, the person of Christ, his undertaking and performance, with the scripture chronology, histories, style, &c. as had overwhelmed me, if God had not been my strength. And here I saw much of the mercy of God, that he let not out these terrible and dangerous temptations upon
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me while I was weak and in the infancy of my faith; for then I had never been able to withstand them. But faith is like a tree whose top is small while the root is young and shallow; and therefore, as then it has but small rooting, so it is not liable to the shaking winds and tempests as the large and high-grown trees are; but, as the top rises higher, so the root at once grows greater and deeper fixed, to cause it to endure its greater assaults.
“Though formerly I was wont, when any such temptation came, to cast it aside, as fitter to be abhorred than considered, yet now this would not give me satisfaction; but I was disposed to dig to the very foundations, and seriously to examine the reasons of Christianity, and to give a hearing to all that could be said against it, that so my faith might be indeed my own. And at last I found that ‘Nothing is so firmly believed as that which has been some time doubted.’
“In the storm of this temptation, I questioned awhile whether I were indeed a Christian or an infidel, and whether faith could consist with such doubts as I was conscious of. For I had read, in the works of papists and protestants, that faith had certainty, and was more than an opinion; and that, if a man should live a godly life, from the bare apprehensions of the probability of the truth of Scripture and the life to come, it would not save him, as being no true godliness or faith. But my judgment closed with the reason of Dr. Jackson’s determination of this case, which supported me much; that as in the very assenting act of faith there may be such weakness as may make us cry — ‘Lord, increase our faith: we believe; Lord, help our belief;’ so, when faith and unbelief are in their conflict, it is the effects which must show us which of them is victorious. And that he that has so much faith as will cause him to deny himself, take up his cross, and forsake all the profits, honors, and pleasures of this world, for the sake of Christ, the love of God, and the hope of glory, has a saving faith, how weak soever. For God cannot condemn the soul that truly loves and seeks him; and those that Christ brings to persevere in the love of God, he brings to salvation. And there were divers things that, in this assault, proved great assistances to my faith.”
“From this assault I was forced to take notice that our belief of the truth of the word of God, and the life to come, is the spring of all grace; and with which it rises or falls, flourislies or decays, is actuated or stands still: and that there is more of this secret unbelief at the root than most of us are aware of; and that our love of the world, our boldness in sin, our neglect of duty, are caused hence. I observed easily in myself, that if at any time Satan, more than at other times, weakened my belief of Scripture and the life to come, my zeal in every religious duty abated with it, and I grew more indifferent in religion than before. 1 was more inclined to conformity in those points which I had taken to be sinful, and was ready to think. Why should I be singular, and offend the bishops and other superiors, and make myself contemptible in the world, and expose myself to censures, scorns and sufferings, and all for such little things as these, when the foundations themselves have such great difficulties as I am unable to overcome? But when faith revived, then none of the parts or concerns of religion seemed small; and then man seemed nothing, and the world a shadow, and God was all.
“In the beginning, I doubted not of the truth of the 1
L. B. ’
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Holy Scriptures, or of the life to c(Aiie, because I saw not the difficulties which might cause doubting. After that, I saw tiiein, and I doubted, because I saw not that which siioiild satisfy the mind against them. Since that, having segji both dijficuiiies and evidences though I am not so unmolested as at the first, yet is ny faith, I hope, much stronger, and far better able to repel the temptations of Satan, and the sophisms of infidels, than before. But yet it is my daily prayer that God would increase my faith, and give my soul a clear sight of the evidences of his truth, and of himself, and of the invisible world.*’ )
Nor was Baxter exempt from slander: his moral character was assailed by base and unfounded calumnies. These he was enabled successfully to refute. His chief calumniator was obliged to confess that the charges were fabrications, and to beg his forgiveness which was freely given.
The trials of ministers are frequent!)- of a painful character, but, like those of private Christians, they work together for good.*’ They are over-ruled, not only for their personal benefit, but for the edification of their fiOcks.” If their sufferings abound, so do their consolations also,-’ and that in order to their being the comforters of others. 2 Cor. 1: 1-5.
Baxter entered on his work with spirit and zeal; nor was he suffered to labor long without witnessing blessed results in the conversion of sinners to God. At first he used to register the names, characters, »S:c. of his converts; but they became, at length, so numerous, that he discontinued the practice.
He continued successfully discharging his ministerial and pastoral labors for nearly two years, when the civil wars (growinsr out of a run«ure bct«’f*rn Ih’- .V’.r.C and his parliament) threw the whole country into confusion. His situation, though he was no partizan, was critical and dangerous. He was at length advised by his friends to retire from Kiddermmster till public affairs should assume a more peaceable aspect. The immediate occasion of his leaving, he thus describes:
“About that time the parliament sent down an order for the demolishing of all statues and images of any of the three persons in the blessed Trinity, or of the virgin Mary, which should be found in churches, or on the crosses in churchyards. My judgment was for the obeying of this order, thinking it came from just authority; but I meddled not in it, but left the churchwarden to do what he thought good. The churchwarden, an honest, sober, quiet man, seeing a crucifix upon the cross in the churchyard, set up a ladder to have reached it, but it proved too short: whilst he was gone to seek another, a crew of the drunken riotous party of the town, poor journeymen and servants, took the alarm, and ran together with weapons to defend the crucifix and the church images, of which there were many remaining since the time of popery. The report v.’as among them that I was the actor, and it was me they sought; but I was walking almost a mile out of town, or else, I suppose, I had there ended my days. When they missed me and the churchwarden both, they went raving about the streets to seek us. Two neighbors that dwelt in other parishes, hearing that they sought my life, ran in among them to see whether I were there, and they knocked them both down in the streets; and both of them are since dead, i and, I think, never perfectly recovered of the wounds then re(;eived. When they had foamed about half an hour, and met with none of u., I came in fron’ mv
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walk, and hearing the people cursing at me in their doors, I wondered what the matter was, but quickly found how fairly I had escaped. The next Lord’s day I dealt plainly with them, and laid open to them the quality of that action, and told them, seeing they so requited me as to seek my blood, I was willing to leave them, and save them from that guilt. But the poor sots were so amazed and ashamed that they took on sorrily, and were reluctant to part with me.
“About this time the king’s declarations were read in our market-place, and the Reader, a violent country gentleman, seeing me pass the streets, slopped, and said, ‘There goes a traitor,’ without ever givmg a syllable of reason for it.
And the commission of array was set afoot, for the parliament meddled not with the militia of that county. Lord Howard, their lieutenant, not appearing. Then the rage of the rioters grew greater than before. And in preparation for the war, they had got tli« word among them — ‘Down with the roundheads;’ insomuch that if a stranger passed in many places, that had short hair and a civil habit, the rabble presently cried, ‘Down with the roundheads;’ and some they knocked down in the open streets.
“In this fury of the rabble I was advised to withdraw awhile from home; whereupon I went to Gloucester. As I passed but through a corner of the suburbs of Worcester, they that knew me not cried, ‘Down with the roundheads;’ and I was glad to spur on and begone. But when I came to Gloucester, among strangers also that had never known me, I found a civil, courteous, and religious people, as different from Worcester as if they had lived under another government.”
“When 1 had been at Gloucester a month, my neighbors of Kidderminster came for me home, and told me that if I stayed any longer the people Avonld interpret it either that I was afraid, upon some guilt, or that I was against the king; so I bid my host, Mr. Darney, the town-clerk, and my friends, farewell* and never went to Gloucester more.
“For myself, I knew not what course to take. To live at home I was uneasy; but especially now, when soldiers, on one side or other, would be frequently among us, and we must be still at the mercy of every furious beast that would make a prey of us. I had neither money nor friends. I knew not who would receive me in any place of safety; nor had I any thing to satisfy them for my diet and entertainment. Hereupon I was persuaded, by one that was with me, to go to Coventry, where one of my old acquaintance was minister, Mr. Simon King, some time schoolmaster at Bridgnorth. So thither I went, with a purpose to stay there till one side or other had got the victory, and the war was ended, and then to return home.
“Whilst I was thinking what course to take, the committee and governor of the city desired me that I would stay with them, and lodge in the governor’s house, and preach to the soldiers. The offer suited well with my necessities, but I resolved that I would not be chaplain to the regiment, nor take a commission; but, if the mere preaching of a sermon once or twice a week to the garrison would satisfy them, I would accept of the offer, till I could go home again. Here I lived in the governor’s house, and followed my studies as quietly as in a time of peace, for about a year, only preaching once a week to the soldiers, and once on the Lord’s day to the people, not taking from any of them a penny for either, save my diet only.”
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The war conliniied with unabated fury and severity. During his slay at Coventry lie was invited by Cromwell to become chaplain to his troops which lay at Cambridge. This invitation he declined; but some time after, on learning the stale of the army and the prospects of usefulness among the soldiers, at the solicitation of Captain Evanson, he became chaplain to Colonel Whalley’s regiment, and left his quarters at Coven-Irj’, to the deep and universal regret of the residents in the garrison.
On joming his regiment he writes:
“I set myself, from day to day, to find out the corruptions of the soldiers, and to adapt my discourses and conversation to their mistakes, both religious and political. My life among them was a daily contending against seducers, and gently arguing with the more tractable.”
His “efforts to do good” were unremitting. His time was occupied ‘* in preaching, conference, and disputing against confounding errors.” and in directing and comforting believers under the difficulties and perils of the times. His success, however, did not equal his expectations: party spirit ran exceedingly high; the soldiers were divided in their religious opinions; the camp afforded but few facilities for collecting any considerable numbers together, and besides, was constantly changing its position, according to the dirrction of war. And probably his desire to reconcile their religious differences, and to unite them under one religious discipline, led him more frequently to dispute than to preach, to dwell more on the details and niinutiap of the Gospel than on its essential truths: to labor as though they were at peace and had time fur punctilios, rather than as being in a state of war, and in danger every hour of being hurried into eternity. These, with other untoward circumstances, contributed to diminish the probability of success, but at the same time to illustrate the zeal, the piety, and the perseverance of the conscientious chaplain. He was never in any engagement, nor took part, personally, in any contests, though present at some sieges.
After the fatal battle of Worcester, with health enfeebled by his excessive exertions in the army, he visited his old flock at Kidderminster, and thence proceeded to London for medical advice. His physician directed him to visit Tunbridge Weils, and try the efficacy of its waters. With this advice he complied. His health was in consequence improved, and in due time he returned to his quarters in Worcestershire, where the army s*ill lay.
In all his peregrinations with the army and otherwise, he preached in most of the churches in the towns through which he passed; and no doubt can be entertained that his earnest, affectionate, and faithful preaching was attended with important results.
While staying at the house of Sir John Cook, Melborne, Derbyshire, he was seized with a violent bleeding at the nose, which so reduced his slrengtli that his case was considered almost hopeless. His countenance was so altered as scarcely to be recognized by his most intimate friends. As soon as he could remove, he visited a friend in Leicestershire, where he remained three weeks in an exhausted state. In this state he was invited by his friends Sir Thomas and Lady Rous to take lodgings at their mansion. Thither he was conveyed, and experienced the greatest kindness and attention. At the end of three months, having recovered his strength, he returned to Kiddermin?ter.
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During this period of sickness and retirement from public labors; he was luixious to be useful, and to be restored, if agreeable to the Divine will, that his usefulness might be increased. He states concerning Ijimself, “Being conscious that my time had not been improved to the service of God as I wished it had been, I put up many- an earnest prayer to God that he would restore me, and use me more successfully in his work. And, blessed be that mercy which heard my groans in the day of my distress, and granted my desires, and wrought my deliverance, when men and means fail’ ed, and gave me opportunity to celebrate his praise,”
It was during this afliiction that he wrote his celebrated work, “the Saints’ Everlasting Rest:”* a work, the usefulness of which no mortal can estimate. It was a blessing to the age in which lie lived, and will continue to be so to the remotest ages of time. Had he lived only to write this work, his name would have been held in “everlasting remembrance.”
His own account of the origin and progress of the work is interesting. “The second book which I wrote, and the first which I began, was that called ‘The Saints’ Everlasting Rest.’ Whilst I was in health, I had not the least thought of writing books, or of serving God in any more public way than preaching; but, when I was weakened w’ith great bleeding, and left solitary in my chamber, at Sir John Cook’s, in Derbyshire, without any acquaintance but my servant about me, and was sentenced to death by the physicians, I begn to contemplate more seriously the everlasting rest which I apprehended myself to be just on the borders of. And that ray thoughts might not too
* Published by the American Tract Society.. much scatter in my meditation, I began to write something on that subject, intending but a quantity of a sermon or two, but being continued long in weakness, where I had no books, and no better employment, I pursued it, till it was enlarged to the bulk in which it is published. The first three weeks I spent in it was at Mr. Nowel’s, in Leicestershire; a quarter of a year more, at the seasons which so great weakness would allow, I bestowed on it at the house of Sir Thomas Rous, in Worcestershire; and I finished it, shortly after, at Kidderminster. The first and last parts were first done, being all that 1 intended for my own use; and the second and third parts were written afterwards, beyond my first intention.
This book it pleased God so far to bless to the profit of many, that it encouraged me to be guilty of all those writings which afterwards followed. The marginal citations I put in after I came home to my books; but almost all the book itself was written when I had no book but a Bible and a concordance. And I found that the transcript of the heart has the greatest force on the hearts of others. For the good that I have heard that multitudes have received by that book, and the benefit which I have again received by their prayers, I here
numbly return my thanks to Him that compelled me
0 write it.”
Anticipating that some objection might be made in respect to its style, he says, in his dedication of the work to the people of Kidderminster,” It is no wonder, therefore, if I am too abrupt in the beginning, seeing I then intended but the length of a sermon or two. Much less may you wonder if the whole is very imperfect, seeing it was written, as it were, with one foot in the grave, by a man that was betwixt living and
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dead, that wanted strength of nature to quicken invertlion or affection, and had no book but his Bible until the chief part was finished, nor had any regard to human ornaments. But, O how sweet is this providence now to my review! that so happily forced me to the work of meditation, which I had formerly found so profitable to my soul! and showed me more mercy in depriving me of other helps than I was aware of! and has caused my thoughts to feed on this heavenly subject, which has more benefited me than all the studies of my life 1”
On his recovery he received a pressing invitation to return to his old charge at Kidderminster, which he instantly and cordially accepted. He was devotedly attached to his people, and considered himself bound to resist all attempts to procure his services in other places. He thus affectionately writes to “his beloved friends “If either I or my labors have any public use or worth, it is wholly, though not only yours; and I am convinced, by providence, that it is the will of God it should be so. This I clearly discerned on my first coming to you, in my former abode with you, and in the time of my forced absence from you. When I was separated by the miseries of the late unhappy wars, I durst not fix in any other congregation, but lived in a military unpleasing state, lest I should forestall my return to you, for whom I conceived myself reserved. The offer of great worldly accommodations, with five times the means I receive with you, was no temptation to me once to question whether I should leave you Your free invitation of my return, your obedience to my doctrine, the strong affection I have yet towards you, above all people, and the general hearty return of love whici. I find from you, do all persuade me that I was sent into the world especially for the service of your souls.”
He resumed his labors under great bodily weakness, “being seldom an hour free from pain.” He was subject to repeated attacks, from which he recovered, according to his own account, chiefly through the intercessions and fervent prayers of. his friends. “Many a time have I been brought very low, and received the sentence of death in myself, when my poor, honest, praying neighbors have met, and, upon their fasting and earnest prayers, I have recovered. Once, when I had continued very feeble three weeks, and was unable to go abroad, the very day that they prayed for me I recovered, and was able to preach on the following Sabbath, and administered the Lord’s supper; and was better after it, it being the first time that ever I administered it. And ever after that, whatever weakness was upon me, when I had, after preaching, administered that ordinance to many hundred people, I was much revived and eased of my infirmities.”
“Ohow often,” he writes in his ‘Dying Thoughts,’ “have I cried to Him, when men and means were nothing, and when no help in second causes appeared; and how often, and suddenly, and mercifully has he delivered me! What sudden ease, what removal of long affliction have I had I Such extraordinary changes, beyond my own and others’ expectations, when many plain-hearted, upright Christians have, by fasting and prayer, sought God on my behalf, as have over and over convinced me of a special providence, and that God is indeed a hearer of prayer. And wonders have I seen done for others also, upon such prayer, more than for myself: yea, and wonders for the church, and for public societies.”” Shall I therefore forget how
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often he has heard prayers for me? and how wonderfully he often has helped both rae and others; my faith has been helped by such experiences, and shall I forget them, or question them without cause at last V-Baxter relates several extraordinary instances of answers to prayer, in the recovery and preservation both of himself and friends. He was attentive in seeking such blessings, and in observing such circumstances; and, as an old divine justly observes, “they that watch providence shall never want a providence to watch.” Having now brought down Baxter’s life to the period when he settled again amongst his old friends, and resumed his accustomed labors, it will be desirable to .ntroduce, in an abridged form, his own account of his “employments, success, and advantages,” during his fourteen years’ continuance among them.
1. Employments.
“I preached, before the wars, twice each Lord’s day; but, after the war, but once, and once every Thursday, besides occasional sermons. Every Thursday evening, my neighbors that were most desirous, and had opportunity, met at my house, and there one of them repeated the sermon; and afterwards they proposed what doubts any of them had about the sermon, or any other case of conscience, and I resolved their doubts. And, last of all, I caused sometimes one, and sometimes another of them to pray, sometimes praying with them myself. Once a week, also, some of the young who were not prepared to pray in so great an assembly, met among a few more privately, where they spent three hours in prayer together. Every Saturday night they met at some of their houses to repeat the sermon of the last Lord’s day, and to pray and prepare themselves for the following day. Once in a few weeks we had a day of humiliation, on one occasion or other. Two days every week my assistant and rayself took fourteen families between us for private catechising and conference; he going through the parish, and the town coming to me. I first heard them r?cite the words of the catechism, and then examined them about the sense, and lastly urged them, with all possible engaging reason and vehemence, to answerable affection and practice. If any of them were perplexed through ignorance or bashfulness, I forbore to press them any farther to answers, but made them hearers, and either examined others, or turned all into instruction and exhortation. But this, I have opened more fully in my ‘.Reformed^Pastoj;.’ I spent about an hour with a family, and admitted no others to be present, lest bashfulness should make it burdensome, or any should talk of the weaknesses of others. So that all the afternoons, on Mondays and Tuesdays, I spent in this, after I had begun it; for it was many years before I attempted it; and my assistant spent the mornings of the same days in the same employment. Before that, I only catechised them in the church, and conferred with, now and then one occasionally.
“Besides all this, I was forced five or six years, by the people’s necessity, to practise physic. A common pleurisy happening one year, and no physician being near, I was forced to advise them, to save their lives; and I could not afterwards avoid the importunit)’- of the town and country round about. And because 1 never once took a penny of any one, I was crowded with patients, so that almost twenty would be at my door at once; and though God, by more success than I expected, so long encouraged me, yet, at last, I could endure it no longer; partly because it hindered my
L. B. 4*
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Other studies, and partly because the very fear of miscarrying and doing any one harm, made it an intolerable burden to me. So that, after some years’ practice, I procured a godly diligent physician to come and live in twwn, and bound myself, by promise, to practise no more, unless in consultation with him in case of any seeming necessity. And so with that answer I turned them all off, and never meddled with it more.” 2. Success.
“I have mentioned my sweet and acceptable employment; let me, to the praise of my gracious Lord, acquaint you with some of my success. And I will not suppress it, though I foreknow that the malignant will impute the mention of it to pride and ostentation. For it is the sacrifice of thanksgiving which I owe to my most gracious God, which I will not deny him for fear of being censured as proud, lest I prove myself proud indeed, while I cannot undergo the imputation of pride in the offering of my thanks for such undeserved mercies.
“My public preaching met with an attentive, diligent auditory. Having broke over the brunt of the opposition of the rabble before the wars, I found them afterwards tractable and unprejudiced.
“Before I ever entered into the ministry, God blessed my private conference to the conversion of some, who remain firm and eminent in holiness to this day. Then, and in the beginning of my ministry, I was wont to number them as jewels; but since then I could not keep any number of them.
“The congregation was usually full, so that we were led to build five galleries after my coming thither, the church itself being very capacious, and the most commodious and convenient that ever I was in.
Our private meetings also were full. On the Lord’s day there was no disorder to be seen in the streets, but you might hear a hundred families singing psalms and repeating sermons, as you passed through the streets. In a word, when I came thither first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and called on his name; and when I came away, there were some streets where there was not more than one family in the side of a street that did not so; and that did not, in professing serious godliness, give us hopes of their sincerity. And of those families which were the worst, being inns and ale-houses, usually some persons in each house did seem to be religious. Though our administration of the Lord’s supper was so ordered as displeased many, and the far greater part kept themselves away, yet we had six hundred that were communicants, of whom there were not twelve that I had not good hopes of, as to their sincerity; and those few that came to our communion, and yet lived scandalously, were excommunicated afterwards. And I hope there were many who feared God that came not to our communion, some of them being kept off by husbands, by parents, by masters, and some dissuaded by men that differed from us.
“When I commenced personal conference with each family and catechising them, there were very few families in all the town that reiused to come; and those few were beggars at the town’s ends, who were so ignorant that they were ashamed it should be manifest. And few families went from me without some tears, or seemingly serious promises for godly life. Yet many ignorant and ungodly persons there were still among us; but most of them were in the parish, and not in the town, and in those parts of the parish which were
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farthest from the town. Some of the poor men competently understood the body of divinity, and were able to judge in difficult controversies. Some of them were so able in prayer, that very few ministers equalled them in order and fullness, apt expressions, holy oratory, and fervency. A great number of them were able to pray very appropriately with their famiUes, or with others. The temper of their minds, and the correctness of their lives, were even more commendable than their talents. The professors of serious godliness were generally of very humble minds and carriage; of meek and quiet behavior towards others; and blameless in their conversation.
“And in my poor endeavors with my brethren in the ministry, m*y labors were not lost. Our discussions proved not unprofitable; our meetings were never contentious, but always comfortable. We took great delight in the company of each other; so that I know the remembrance of those days is pleasant both to them and me. When discouragements had long kept me from proposing a way of church order and discipline which all might agree in, that we might neither have churches ungoverned, nor fall into divisions among ourselves at the first mention of it, I found a readier consent than I could expect, and all went on without any great difficulties. And when I attempted to bring them all conjointly to the work of catechising and instructing every family by itself, I found a ready consent in most, and performance in many. So that I must here, to the praise of my dear Redeemer, set up this pillar of remembrance, even to his praise who hath employed me so many years in so comfortable a work, with such encouraging success! O what am I, a worthless worm, not only wanting academical honors, but much of that furniture which is needful to so high a work, that God should thus abundantly encourage me, when the reverend instructors of my youth labored fifty years together in one place, and could scarcely say they had been instrumental in the conversion of even one or two of their hearers. And the greater was this mercy, because I was naturally of a desponding spirit; so that if I had preached one year, and seen no fruits of it, I should hardly have forborne running away like Jonah, but should have thought that God called me not to that place.” 3. Advantages.
“Having related my encouraging successes in this place, I shall next tell you by what and how many advantages so much was effected, under that grace which worketh by means, though with a free diversity; which I do for the help of others in managing ignorant and sinful people.
“One advantage was, that I came to a people that never had any awakening ministry before. For if they had been hardened under a powerful ministry, and been sermon proof, I should have expected less.
“Another advantage was, that at first I was in the vigor of my spirits, and had naturally a familiar moving voice, which is a great matter with the common hearers; and doing all in bodily weakness, as a dying man, my soul was the more easily brought to seriousness, and to preach as a dying man to dying men; for drowsy formality does but stupify the hearers and rock them asleep. It must be serious preaching which makes men serious in hearing and obeying it.”
“Another advantage which I had was, the acceptation of my person. Though to win estimation and love to ourselves only, be an end that none but proud
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men and hypocrites intend, yet it is most certain that the acceptableness of the person ingratiates the message, and greatly prepares the people to receive the truth, y Had they taken me to be ignorant, erroneous, scanda- / lous, worldly, self-seeking, or such like, I could have expected small success among them.
“Another advantage which I had was through the zeal and diligence of the godly people of the place, who thirsted after the salvation of their neighbors, and were, in private, my assistants; and being dispersed through the town, they were ready, in almost all companies, to repress seducing words, and to justify godliness, and convince, reprove, and exhort men according to their needs; and also to teach them how to pray, and to help them to sanctify the Lord’s day. Those people that had none in their families who could pray or repeat the sermons, went to the houses of their neighbors who could do it, and joined with them; so that some houses of the ablest men in each street were filled with them that could do nothing or little in their own.
“And the holy, humble, blameless lives of the religious was a great advantage to me. The malicious people could not say. Your professors here are as proud and covetous as any. But the blameless lives of godly people shamed opposers, and put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and many were won by their good conversation.”
“Our private meetings were a marvellous help to the propagating of godliness among them; for thereby truths that slipped away were recalled, and the seriousness of the people’s minds renewed, and good de sires cherished; and hereby their knowledge was much increased; and here the younger Christians learned to pray, by frequently hearing others. And here I had
Opportunity to know their case; for if any were touched and awakened in public, I would presently see them drop in to our private meetings.”
“Another furtherance of my work was the works which I wrote and distributed among them. Of some small books I gave each family one, which came to about eight hundred; of the larger I gave fewer; and to every family that was poor, and had not a Bible, I gave a Bible. I had fomid, myself, the benefit of reading to be so great, that 1 could not but think it would be profitable to others.
“And it was a great advantage to me, that my neighbors were of such a trade as allowed them time enough to read or talk of holy things; for the town liveth upon the weaving of Kidderminster stuffs, and as they stand in their loom they can set a book before them, or edify one another.”
And I found that my single life afforded me much advantage; for I could the more easily take my people for my children, and think all that I had too little for them, in that I had no children of my own to tempt me to another way of using it. And being discharged from the most of family cares, keeping but one servant, I had the more time and liberty for the labors of my calling.
“And God made use of my practice of physic among them as a very great advantage to my ministry; for they that cared not for their souls, loved their lives and cared for their bodies. And by this they were made almost as observant as a tenant is of his landlord. Sometimes I could see before me in the church a very considerable part of the congregation, whose lives God had made me a means to save, or to recover
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their health; and doing it for nothing, so obliged them, that they would readily hear me.
“And it was a great advantage to me, that there were at last few that were bad, who had not some of their own relations converted. Many children were subjects of God’s grace at fourteen, or fifteen, or sixteen years of age; and this did marvellously reconcile the minds of their parents to godliness. They that would not hear me, would hear their own children. They that before could have talked against godliness, would not hear it spoken against when it was their children’s case. 3Iany that would not be brought to it themselves, were gratified that they had intelligent religious children. And we had some persons near eighty years of age, who are, I hope, in heaven, and the conversion of their own children was the chief means to overcome their prejudice, and old customs, and conceits.
“And God made great use of sickness to do good to many. For though sick-bed promises are usually soon forgotten, yet was it otherwise with many among us; and as soon as they were recovered, they first came to our private meetings, and so kept in a learning state, till further fruits of piety appeared.”
“Another of ray great advantages was, the true worth and unanimity of the honest ministers of the country round about us, who associated in a way of concord with us. Their preaching was powerful and sober; their spirits peaceable and meek, disowning the treasons aad iniquities of the times, as well as we; they were wholly devoted to the winning of souls; self-denying, and of most blameless lives; evil spoken of by no sober men, but greatly beloved by their own people and all that knew them; adhenng to no faction; neither Episcopal; Presbyterian, nor Independ* ent, as to parties; but desiring union, and loving that which is good, in all.”
“Another great help to my success at last, was the before described work of personal conference with every family apart, and catechising and instructing them. That which was spoken to them personally, and sometimes drew forth their answers, awakened their attention, and was more easily applied than public preaching, and seemed to do much more upon them.
“And the exercise of church discipline was no small furtherance of the people’s good; for I found plainly, that without it I could not have kept the more spiritual from separations and divisions. There is something generally in their dispositions which inclines them to separate from open ungodly sinners, as men of another nature and society; and if they had not seen me do something reasonable for a regular separation of the notorious obstinate sinners from the rest, they would have withdrawn themselves irregularly; and it would not have been in my power to satisfy them.”
Another means of success was, directing my in structions to them in a suitableness to the main end, and yet so as might suit their dispositions and diseases. I daily opened to them, and with the greatest importunity labored to imprint upon their minds the great fundamental principles of Christianity, even a right knowledge and belief of, and subjection and love to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and love to all men, and concord with the church and one another. I daily so inculcated the knowledge of God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and love and obedience to God, and unity with the spiritual church, and love to men, and hope of life eternal, that these were the matter of their daily thoughts and discourses,
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and indeed their religion. And yet I usually put something in my sermon which was above their own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this I did, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance, and be willing to keep in a learning state. And I did this also to increase their knowledge and make religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to their former light, and to draw them on with desire and delight. But these things which they did not know before, were not unprofitable controversies, whicji tended not to edification, nor novelties in doctrine, contrary to the universal church; but either such points as tended to illustrate the great doctrines before-mentioned, or usually about the right methodizing of them; as the opening of the true and profitable method of the creed or doctrine of faith, the Lord’s prayer or m.atter of our desires, and the ten commandments or law of practice; which afford matter to add to the knowledge of most professors of religion a long time. And when that is done, they must be led on still further, by degrees, as they are capable; but so as not to leave the weak behind; and so as shall still be truly subservient to the great points of faith, hope, and love, holiness and unity, which must be still inculcated as the beginning and the end of all.”
“And it much furthered my success, that I stayed still in this one place near two years before the wars, and above fourteen years after; for he that removeth often from place to place, may sow good seed in many places, but is not likely to see much fruit in any, unless some other skillful hand shall follow him to water it. It was a great advantage to me to have almost all the religious people of the place of my own instructing and informing; and that they were not formed into erroneous and factious principles before; and that I stayed to see them grown up to some confirmedness and maturity.”
These passages strikingly depict the means and effects of a revival of religion. Only let love to the Redeemer burn with quenchless ardor in the breast, and eternity with its tremendous and unutterable consequences be distinctly realized; compassion to immortal spirits infuse its tenderness and solicitude throughout the soul; a deep and unfailing sense of ministerial responsibility rest upon the conscience; then all the powers, talents, and influence that can be commanded, will be brought into exercise, and made to bear with unceasing energy on the great work of saving immortal souls, and then the Lord will command his “blessing, even life for evermore.”
The secret of Baxter’s success, perhaps, consisted prominently in the zeal, affection, and perseverance he displayed in following his ‘people to their’ homes. His visits from house to house were for the purpose of applying with more close and pungent force the truths which were taught from the pulpit, or learned in the systematic instructions which were given to families and to children. And it is remarkable that his success in the earliest period of his ministry was chiefly amongst the young. In the preface to his work entitled “Compassionate Counsel to all Young Men,” &c. he observes —” At Kidderminster, where God most blessed my labors, my first and greatest success was with the youth: and what was a marvellous way of divine mercy, when God had touched the hearts of young people, and brought them to the love and obedience of the truth, the parents and grand-parents who had grown old in an ignorant and worldly stale, enibrac-LIFE OF BAXTER.
ed religion, led by the love of their children, whom they perceived to be made, by it, much wiser and better, and more dutiful to them.” — “By much experience I have been made more sensible of the necessity of warning and instructing youth, than I was before. Many say reports have taught it to me; the sad complaints of mournful parents have taught it me; the sad observation of the willful impenitence of some of my acquaintance tells it me; the many scores, if not hundreds of bills, that have been publicly put up to me to pray for wicked and obstinate children, have told it me; and, by the grace of God, the penitent confessions, lamentations, and restitutions of many converts, have made me more particularly acquainted with their case; which moved me for a time, on my Thursday’s lecture, the first of every month, to speak to youth and those that educate them.”
The religious education of youth is of infinite importance to families and to a nation, to the church and the world.
The youthful members of his congregation should engage the anxious attention of every pastor. They are the hopes of his ministry. With them truth meets the readiest reception. Among them conversion most frequently takes place. From them the most valuable members of Christian society are obtained. Rising into life, their influence is exerted wholly on the side of truth and piety; and when more matured in years, their instructions and example benefit and bless their iiamilies, their connexions, and the world. The conversion of a soul in the period of youth prevents its entering on a course of sin, engages it to the practice of holiness, ensures the exertion of its influence in behalf of God and his cause through the whole of its earthly being; and thus a career of happiness begins which shall ‘xtend throughout eternity.
In conpsction with this statement of Baxter’s labors and sue ;ss, some notice may be taken of his work entitled the “Reformed Pastor,” written expressly to arouse the attention and excite the eftbrts of the Christian ministry to the great work in which he himself had so successfully engaged. His reverend brethren had witnessed the astonishing results of his pastoral engagements, and were anxious to make some efforts to accomplish among their own people similar results. A day of fasting and prayer was appointed by themselves at Worcester, before entering on their untried labors, and Baxter was requested to preach on the occasion. He prepared his sermon, but his illness prevented his preaching. He therefore enlarged his sermon into a treatise, and published it. Concerning this work he says:
“I have very great cause to be thankful to God for the success of that book, as hoping many thousand souls are the better for it, in that it prevailed with many ministers to set upon that work which I there exhort them to. Even from beyond the seas I have had letters of request to direct them how they might promote that work, according as that book had convinced them that it was their duty. If God would but reform the ministry, and set them on their duties zealously and faithfully, the people would certainly be reformed. All churches either rise or fall as the ministry rise or fall, not in riches and worldly grandeur, but in knowledge, zeal, and ability for their work.”
Many and just encomiums have been passed on this work. “In the whole compass of divinity there is
L. B. 5*
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scarcely any thing superior to it, in close pathetic appeals to the conscience of the minister of Christ, upon the primary duties of his office.” The editor of a recent edition justly says, “Of the excellence of this work it is scarcely possible to speak in too high terms. For powerful, pathetic, pungent, and heart-piercing address, we know of no work on the pastoral care to be compared with it. Could we suppose it to be read by an angel, or by some other being possessed of an unl’allen nature, the argumentation and expostulations of our author would be felt to be altogether irresistible: and harcf must be the heart of that minister who can read it without being moved, melted, and overwhelmed: hard must be his heart, if he be not roused to greater faithfulness, diligence, and activity in winning souls to Christ. It is a work worthy of being printed in letters of gold. It deserves, at least, to be engraven on the heart of every minister. I cannot help suggesting to the friends of religion that they could not, perhaps, do more good at less expense, than by presenting copies of this work to the ministers of Christ throughout the country. They are the chief instruments through whom good is to be effected in any country. How important, then, must it be to stir them up to holy zeal and activity in the cause of the Redeemer! A tract given to a poor man may be the means of his conversion; but a work, such as this, presented to a minister, may, through his increased faithfulness and energy, prove the conversion of multitudes.”
In addition to Baxter’s numerous ministerial and pastoral labors, he was consulted by persons of all classes and professions on the various subjects connected with church and state, which at that period were hotly and fiercely agitated. His pacific disposition, and his desire to promote universal concord among all religious parties, were generally known. Hence his advice was eagerly sought by all. This must have occupied no small portion of his time, and caused him no little anxiety. He gives a curious account of his being consulted by Cromwell, and his preaching before him.
“At this time Lord Broghill and the Earl of Warwick brought me to preach before Cromwell, the protector, which was the only time that ever I preached to him, save once long before, when he was an Inferior man among other auditors. I knew not which way to provoke him better to his duty, than by preaching on 1 Cor. 1: 10, against the divisions and distractions of the church, and showing how mischievous a thing it was for politicans to maintain such divisions for their own ends, that they might fish in troubled waters, and keep the church, by its divisions, in a state of weakness, lest it should be able to offend them: and to show the necessity and means of union. But the plainness and nearness,! heard, was displeasing to him and his courtiers; yet they bore with it.
“A while after, Cromwell sent to speak with me; and when I came, in the presence only of three of his chief men, he began a long and tedious speech to me of God’s providence in the change of the government, and how God had owned it, and what great things had been done at home and abroad, in the peace with Spain and Holland, &c. When he had wearied us all with speaking thus slowly about an hour, I told him it was too great condescension to acquaint me so fully with all these matters which were above me, but that we took our ancient monarchy to be a blessing, and not an evil to the land, and humbly craved his patience,
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that I might ask him how England had ever forfeited that blessing, and unto whom the forfeiture was made? I was led to speak of the species of government only, for they had lately made it treason by a law to speak for the person of the king. Upon that question he was awakened into some passion, and told me it was no forfeiture, but God had changed it as pleased him; and then he let fly at the parliament, which thwarted him; and especially by name at four or five of those members who were my chief acquaintance; and I presumed to defend them against his passion: and thus four or five hours were spent.
“A few days after, he sent for me again, to hear my judgment about liberty of conscience, which he pretended to be most zealous for, before almost all his privy council, where, after another slow, tedious speech of his, I told him a little of my judgment.”
Baxter was also consulted by various private individuals on cases of conscience, which he was requested to solve. To these he lent a willing ear, and administered suitable advice; or he replied to them in suitable and interesting letters. This must have occupied his time considerably. Besides, during his residence at Kidderminster, and while pursuing his indefatigable labors among his flock, he wrote and published nearly sixty different works, many of them quarto volumes of considerable size. Among these may be specially enumerated, in addition to those already noticed, his “Call to the Unconverted,”* his “Treatise on Conversion,” “On Self-denial,” on “Crucifying the World,” on “Peace of Conscience,” &c. &c. &c.
These herculean labors seem incredible. But for the
•Published by the American Tract Society. existence of the works themselves, his own declarations, and the concurring testimony of his several biographers, it would have been deemed impossible that, with his enfeebled health and incessant pain, he could have accomplished so much in so short a time.
His own account of his general labors shows at once his piety and devotedness, his spirit and energy, his zeal and perseverance. He remarks:
“But all these my labors, except my private conferences with the families, even preaching and preparing for it, were but my recreaiions, and, as it were, the work of my spare hours; for my writings were my chief daily labor, which yet went the more slowly on, that I never one hour had an amanuensis to dictate to, and especially because my weakness took up so much of my time. For all the pains that my infirmities ever brought upon me, were never half so grievous an affliction to me as the unavoidable loss of my time which they occasioned.”
His treatise on “Self-denial” originated in his deep conviction of the “breadth, and length, and depth of the radical, universal, odious sin of selfishness.” Under this conviction he preached a series of sermons on the subject, and, at the urgent entreaty of his friends, he published them in the form they now assume. He says that the work “found better acceptance than most of his others, but yet prevented not the ruin of church and state, and millions of souls by that sin.”
Previous to this he had published his work on “Conversion.” This he says” was taken from plain sermons which Mr. Baldwin bad transcribed out of my notes. And though I had no leisure, in this or other writings, to take much care of the style, nor to add any ornaments, or citations of authors, I thought it might better
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pass as it was, than not at all; and that if the author missed of the applause of the learned, yet the book might be profitable to the ignorant, as it proved, through the great mercy of God.”
Apologizing for the plainness and earnestness of his manner, he observes, “The commonness and the greatness of men’s necessity commanded me to do any thing that I could for their relief, and to bring forth some water to cast upon this fire, though I had not at hand a silver vessel to carry it in, nor thought it the most 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 they may modestly 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 hinders the due operation of the matter, keeps it from the heart, stops it in the fancy, and makes it seem as light as the style. AVe use not compliments when we run to quench a common fire, nor do we call men to escape from it by an eloquent speech. If we see a man fall into fire or water, we regard not the manner of plucking him out, but lay hands upon him as we can, whhout delay.”
Baxter’s “Call to the Unconverted” was made remarkably useful. He says, “The occasion of this was my converse with Bishop Usher, while I was at London, who, much approving my method or directions for peace of conscience, was importunate with me to write directions suited to the various states of Christian?, and also against particular sins. I reverenced the man, but disregarded these persuasions, supposing I could do nothing but what was done as well or better already. But when he was dead, his words went deeper lo my mind, and I purposed to obey his counsell yei so as that to the first sort of men, the ungodly, I thought vehement persuasions meeter than directions only. And so for such I published this little book, which God has blessed with unexpected success beyond all the rest that I have written, except the Saints’ 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, besides many thousands by stolen impressions, which men stole lor lucre’s sake. Through God’s mercy I have had information of almost whole households converted by this small book, which I set so light by. And as if all this in England, Scotland, and Ireland were not mercy enough to me, God, since I was silenced, has sent it over on his message to many beyond the seas; for when Mr. Eliot had printed the Bible in the Indian language, he next translated this my ‘Call to the Unconverted,’ as he wrote to us here.”
In addition to its usefulness mentioned by Baxter himself. Dr. Bates relates an instance of six brothers being converted at one time by this invaluable book. To this work, multitudes now in glory, and many advancing thither, stand indebted for their first serious impressions. Urged by its awful denunciations, they have fled from the “city of destruction;” they have sought refuge at the cross of Calvary. Like the preaching of John, it awakens, alarms, and terrifies, that it may lead to peace, holiness, and glory, through Christ.
Among other methods of doing good, Baxter adopted the plan which is now so generally employed, of
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publishing small tracts, broadsheets, or liaiidbills. He published various broadsheets, and had them affixed to walls and public buildings, that the attention of passengers might be arrested, and that those who had no leisure for larger works, or were indisposed to purchase treatises, might be informed, edified, and saved. This plan he adopted with great success during the raging of the plague.
This was certainly the most active, useful, and im* portant period of his life. His labors subsequently to this were of a more chequered, desultory, and less obvious character. Their results, though undoubtedly great, inasmuch as he labored with the same zeal, piety, and devotedness as heretofore, yet could not be perceived so manifestly as when his efforts were concentrated in one spot, and were superintended by his untiring pastoral vigilance. The time of persecution for conscience’ sake was at hand. He therefore, in common wiih multitudes of his brethren, was obliged to labor in such places, and on such occasions only, as the providence of God pointed out. But these labors were not in vain, for, as in days of old, they “that were scattered abroad, went every where preaching the word.”