We have already observed in these pages that the Church having failed at the beginning of its career as the corporate witness on earth to the truth of God, the true testimony was maintained by individuals. This is seen at every subsequent phase of its history. It is strikingly true of the period we are now considering. In every period there have been men and women whose lives have shone with distinctive luster and who have set a shining example, not only to those of their own generation, but to those who have followed after.
The revival of the sixteenth century had failed to restore the Church. Rome, though chastened and weakened, still dominated a large part of Europe in the seventeenth century. Lutheranism and Calvinism had become moribund systems. The Anglican Church had become a department of the State. If we look for Christianity, we shall only find it in individuals or in little groups drawn together by a common faith in and love for Christ.
In England two outstanding examples of such overcomers are Richard Baxter and John Bunyan. In faith and unswerving devotion to their Master, in a clear grasp of the gospel, as men whose lives illuminated their teaching, and as powerful writers and effective speakers, they are alike; in other respects they differ greatly. Bunyan served all his life among the persecuted Dissenters outside the State Church; Baxter found his sphere of service in it, until he was driven out in 1662 by the Act of Uniformity.
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter was born at Rowton in Shropshire, son of a Christian father who had himself been converted by reading the Scriptures. In early years, Baxter passed through much exercise of soul but arrived gradually at settled peace. His first impressions were doubtless received from his godly father, but he read helpful books from which he gained further insight into the truth. He never had the benefit of a university education, but his native genius enabled him to acquire a varied stock of knowledge. Ill health persisted throughout his long life of seventy-six years.
He had a longing to serve God and was ordained in 1638 by the Bishop of Worcester. Though officially a minister of the Church, he sympathized strongly with the Non-Conformist point of view. Like many other Puritans of his day, he would have liked to see the English Church reformed on more scriptural lines, and his lifelong desire was to see Christians united.
In 1640 the people of Kidderminster petitioned against their vicar who, like many others at this time, was a drunken and ignorant man. A compromise was reached by the vicar allowing sixty pounds a year for a preacher who would do most of the work of the parish. Baxter was offered and accepted the post.
Kidderminster had then about three thousand inhabitants, mostly engaged in weaving. A local historian writing in 1777, when carpet weaving had been introduced, attributed the success of the industry to Baxter’s influence on the lives and character of the people. There was no other church in the town, and a revival quickly followed his labors, so that the church had to be enlarged. There were many conversions, and family worship became the custom in the town. Baxter himself records that when he arrived, there was but one family in a street that worshipped God, and when he left there was hardly more than one family on each side of the street that did not make a serious profession. His earliest successes were among the youth of the town, and, in many cases, parents were won by seeing the effect of the gospel on their children. He was not content merely to preach, but, with his two assistants, he reckoned to cover the whole of the eight hundred families in the town in the course of a year. Families came to his house where he exhorted and conversed with them.
His devotion and enthusiasm affected others, and he and neighboring ministers met to help and encourage each other. Together they formed an association, and on its inauguration asked Baxter to preach to them. He intended to speak on the passage in Acts 20:2828Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28), “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” Owing to illness, the address was never delivered, but it became the basis of what is regarded as his greatest book, The Reformed Pastor. He used the word “reformed” in the sense of a change of heart in the man himself.
For a period his work at Kidderminster was interrupted, and during that interval he served as a chaplain in the Parliamentary forces. Following this, he had a serious illness, and while lying in expectation of death, he meditated on what lay beyond. He began to write, and his writing grew into the well-known book, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, which is looked upon as one of the classics of Puritan literature. It was after this that he resumed his lectureship at Kidderminster, for which he received about eighty or ninety pounds a year.
Baxter was not very favorable to Cromwell, but he was bound to admit that much blessing had resulted from the liberty that was enjoyed under the Commonwealth. All his life he endeavored to reconcile and unite. He never approved the execution of Charles I, and, like many others who were deceived by the specious promises of his son, he favored the Restoration. Baxter and his friends were full of hope that a compromise embracing the various elements in the Church might be arrived at. He was appointed, among others, chaplain to Charles II. He also attended the Savoy Conference, being the chief spokesman for the Puritans. A bishopric was offered him, but he declined it, preferring rather to resume his humble and poorly paid service among his beloved flock at Kidderminster.
His services as a preacher were in great demand; more than once he preached to large congregations in Westminster Abbey and also at Old St. Paul’s. He preached before Cromwell and Parliament and before Charles II himself. His address on this occasion has been likened to Paul’s to Festus, reasoning of “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come” (Acts 24:2525And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. (Acts 24:25)). The following brief extract gives the general tone of this bold and telling sermon.
“Princes and nobles live not always; you are not the rulers of the unmovable kingdom, but of a boat that is in a hasting stream or a ship under sail, that will speed both pilot and passengers to the shore. ... The inexorable Leveller is ready at your backs to convince you by unresistable arguments that dust you are and to dust you shall return. Heaven should be as desirable and hell as terrible to you as to others. No man will fear you after death; much less will Christ be afraid to judge you. ... Live as if you saw the glorious things which you say you do believe, that when worldly titles are insignificant words, when fleshly pleasures have an end, when faith and holiness will be marks of honor, when unbelief and ungodliness will be the badges of perpetual shame, and when you must give an account of your stewardship and shall be no longer stewards, you may then be brought by faith unto fruition and see with joy the glorious things which you now believe. Write upon your palaces and your goods that sentence: ‘Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God’ (2 Peter 3:11-1211Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:11‑12)).”
The King remarked that Presbyterianism was no religion for a gentleman.
Until the Act of Uniformity in 1662, Baxter preached frequently in London to crowded congregations. When that Act was law, he left the Church with two thousand other ministers. The State Church was purged of its best elements. To those already outside, these were now added. Baxter of all people was no sectarian, but faithfulness to Christ and His Word would not allow him to remain. He now joined the large and growing band of Dissenters, who for the next twenty years were the objects of relentless persecution. In 1670 Baxter was arrested and sent to prison, but his wife was allowed to accompany him and look after him. Under the Declaration of Indulgence, 1672, he was granted license to teach, but he was soon in trouble again and only escaped prison by reason of illness. He continued to suffer from time to time. On one occasion in 1682, after the death of his wife, his goods were distrained upon to pay a fine he had incurred for preaching, even to the bed upon which he was lying ill. Two years later, though he had not preached in the interval, he was carried from his bed to court to answer a bond of £400 for his good behavior. In the following year, he fell into the cruel hands of the notorious Judge Jeffreys who mocked and insulted him in the most shameful manner. The charge was seditious writing based on something he had written in his Paraphrase of the New Testament. He was committed to prison where he stayed from June 1685 to November 1686. He was, however, well treated in jail. After his release he labored on, and when in 1690 illness no longer permitted him to go out of doors, he opened his house to all who were willing to come to family worship morning and evening. On the day before his death, he said to two friends, “I have pain; there is no arguing against sense. But I have peace; I have peace.” In his closing hours, he meditated much on Hebrews 12. He departed to be with Christ on December 8, 1691. He was one of those who, because they fear God, do not fear man.