Excerpt from Reliqui� Baxterian�, or Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the Most Memorable Passages of His Life and Times
You have here the Hiliory of his Minillerial Self. God fet upon his Soul, asone' refolv'd to q'ualifie and anoint it in no ordinary manner, for that Sacred Function, whereunto after many Temptations and Attempts to fix him in fome Other Stati-f on and Employment, both from others and himlelf) by the Call and Conduct of his heavenly Mailer, he applied and kept himfelf at lafl. God throughly made him li'rll to know the Soul which he had breathed into him, as to its Faculties, Capaci tics, Worth and Ufefulnels. God made him feel and mind that Body wherein this Soul of his was lodged; and wherein and how far his better Part might be helped or hinder'tl thereby: and the two Worlds whereto borh Soul and Body were 'rela ted and wherewith they were varioufly concerned. And in this World God fix'd him in fuch a Profpe& of another, as made him intimately and lharply feel bot'h what, and where, amidli what Circuml'tances, and to what purpofes be here a bode in painful, exercifed and declining Flelh. And all this gave him great Advantages and Inducements to deal more clol'ely, skilfully, diligently, and conllantly, and im portunately with Souls, about their great Concerns. And what a Tranlcript God made him of what the Apollle fpeaks asto himlelfand sotby, in Cal. 29. The following Hillory of his Kit/derminjier (and other) Labours and Succeifes in the Gofpel, will convince you to great Satisfatftion: as allo of What Oppolitions and Deliverances and Prelervations he met with there.
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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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