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Richard Baxter's Preaching Ministry: its History and Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

N. H. Keeble
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Extract

Richard Baxter (1615–91) was possessed of that all-embracing curiosity, indefatigable energy and tenacious idealism which, as Reformation and Renaissance passed into the sober Augustan certainties of the Enlightenment, became ever rarer among Englishmen. His many-sidedness is reflected in the very different kinds of interest his career attracts. The ecclesiastical historian meets in Baxter both puritanism's most committed apologist and its most idiosyncratic representative, a man who, involved in every doctrinal controversy and every negotiation or conference convened to discuss a national church settlement, was to have a lasting influence on English Dissent. His participation in these debates is, however, more than a chapter in the history of later puritanism: it contributed to the development of seventeenth-century rationalism and liberalism and shows suggestive affinities with the thought of the Cambridge Platonists. There is, furthermore, contemporary relevance in Baxter's conception of ‘mere Christianity’: ‘the first exponent of Ecumenism in England’, he promoted ecclesiastical reconciliation, both practically, in the Worcestershire Association, and theologically, in the attempt of such treatises as Richard Baxter's Catholick Theologie (1675) to harmonise Calvinism and Arminianism.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , October 1984 , pp. 539 - 559
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 For discussion of Baxter in these respects see Morgan, Irvonwy, The Nonconformity of Richard Baxter, London 1946Google Scholar; Martin, H., Puritanism and Richard Baxter, London 1954Google Scholar; Nuttall, Geoffrey F., Richard Baxter and Philip Doddridge: a study in tradition, London 1951Google Scholar; Bolam, C. G., et al. , The English Presbyterians, London 1968, 93–125, 259–61Google Scholar; Gordon, Alexander, ‘Baxter as a founder of liberal nonconformity’, Heads of English Unitarian History, London 1895, 56–101Google Scholar.

2 Gordon, Heads, 31–2, 98–9; Bolam, etal., English Presbyterians, 103–12, 145–7; Nuttall, Geoffrey F., et al. , The Beginnings of Nonconformity, London 1964, 48–60Google Scholar; Powicke, Frederick J., The Reverend Richard Baxter under the Cross (1662–1691), London 1927, 53–6Google Scholar, 238–52; Watts, Michael R., The Dissenters, Oxford 1978, 294, 376–7Google Scholar.

3 Davies, Horton, The English Free Churches, London 1952, 79Google Scholar. Wood, A. H., Church Unity without Uniformity…, London 1963Google Scholar, discusses Baxter's proposals; for the Worcestershire Association see Powicke, Frederick J., A Life of the Reverend Richard Baxter 1615–91, London 1924, 163–74Google Scholar; Nuttall, Geoffrey F., Richard Baxter, London 1965, 64–74Google Scholar, and ‘The Worcestershire Association: its membership’, this Journal, i (1950), 197–206Google Scholar.

4 Baxter's political thought is the subject of Schlatter, Richard B. (ed.), Richard Baxter and Puritan Politics, New Brunswick 1957Google Scholar and, especially in its relation to millenarianism, Lamont, William, Richard Baxter and the Millennium, London 1979Google Scholar.

5 Grosart, A. B., Representative Nonconformists, London 1879, 137Google Scholar. Baxter is considered from this point of view in Keeble, N. H., Richard Baxter: puritan man of letters, Oxford 1982Google Scholar.

6 Baxter, Richard, Compassionate Counsel to all Young-men, London 1681, 48Google Scholar.

7 Baxter, Richard, Reliquiae Baxterianae, London 1696, 1Google Scholar. 84, § 136 (hereafter cited as Rel. Box.: reference is to part, page and numbered section).

8 Rel. Bax., 1. 83, §135(1); 1. 85, §136; 11. 179–80, §§40–1; Powicke, Life of Baxter, 105, 128–33; Nuttall, Baxter, 57–8; Keeble, Baxter, 81–2, 86, 87–8.

9 The numeration of the checklist in part III of this article is used to identify sermons referred to in the text.

10 Quoted in Nuttall, Baxter, 48, 57.

11 Rel. Bax., 1. 85, § 136 and 1. 14, §20.

12 Clarke, Samuel, The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons, London 1683, fo. a3Google Scholar; cf. Rel. Bax., 1. 84, §136.

13 Rel. Bax., 1. 84, § 136; on the nature of these galleries see Powicke, Life of Baxter, 36–8, and Cave, Thomas, John Baskerville… Richard Baxter and Kidderminster Parish Church, Kidderminster 1923Google Scholar.

14 Rel. Box., 1. 111–12, §165. To this incident Baxter alludes in his poem prefixed to Vines's, RichardA Treatise of… The Lords-Supper, London 1657Google Scholar, reprinted in Baxter's Poetical Fragments, London 1681, 120–6Google Scholar. For Richard Vines see DNB, s.v.

15 Baxter, Richard, Breviate of the Life of Margaret… Baxter, London 1681, 52Google Scholar.

16 Powicke, F. J., ‘Richard Baxter ad clerum’, The Expositor, 8th ser., xvi (1918), 425–40, at p. 425Google Scholar.

17 The certificate of Baxter's deacon's orders and the licence to teach are in Dr Williams's Library, London, ‘Baxter Treatises’ (hereafter cited as ‘Treatises’), iv. 120–1 (consulted by permission of the Trustees). On whether Baxter subsequently proceeded to the priesthood see Powicke, Baxter under the Cross, 218–20; Nuttall, Baxter, 18. On Baxter and the Foleys see Nuttall, Baxter, 15, 16–17; Palfrey, H. E., ‘Foleys of Stourbridge’, Trans, of the Wares. Arch. Soc., new ser., xxi (1945), 1–15Google Scholar; Schlatter, Richard B., The Social Ideas of Religious Leaders 1660–1688, Oxford 1940, 183–4Google Scholar.

18 Rel. Box., 1. 13, § 19.

19 Nuttall, Baxter, 19.

20 Rel. Box., 1. 15, §21. Baxter's stay at Bridgnorth is discussed in Clark-Maxwell, W. G., ‘Baxter at Bridgnorth’, Trans, of the Shrops. Arch. Soc., 4th ser., ix (1923), 66–75Google Scholar.

21 Baxter, Richard, Making Light…, ed. Jenkyn, T. W., London 1846, xxvGoogle Scholar.

22 Nuttall, Baxter, 19 (where ‘1640’ should read ‘1639’ (Rel. Box., 1, 14, §§20–1)), 24, 26.

23 Rel. Box., 1. 40–4, §§ 56–61; Baxter, Richard, Richard Baxter's Penitent Confession, London 1691, 12–13Google Scholar, 21.

24 Rel. Box., 1. 51–2, §75; for Whalley see DNB s.v.

25 Rel. Box., 1. 58, §85.

26 Rel. Box., 1. 58–9, §§ 85–6 and 1. 79, §128. For Baxter and the Rouses see Barnard, E. A., ‘The Rouses of Rous Lench’, Trans. of the Wares. Arch. Soc., new ser., ix (1933), 31–74Google Scholar; Nuttall, G. F., ‘The death of Lady Rous, 1656 – Richard Baxter's account’, Trans, of the Worcs. Arch. Soc., new ser., xxviii (1952), 4–13Google Scholar.

27 Rel. Box., 1. 83, § 135 and 1. 84, § 136.

28 Nuttall, Baxter, 79. Rel. Box., n. 197–205, §§50–5, gives an account of the subcommittee's proceedings. See also Knox, R. Buick, James Ussher: archbishop of Armagh, Cardiff 1967, 74–5Google Scholar; Toon, Peter, God's Statesman: the life and work of John Owen, Exeter 1971, 94–6Google Scholar.

29 Rel. Box., 1. 215, §69; The Autobiography of Richard Baxter, ed. Thomas, J. M. Lloyd, London 1931Google Scholar; rpt. 1974, 142–3; Nuttall, Baxter, 85.

30 Rel. Box., 1. 120, §§198–200 and 11. 217–18, §§76–9.

31 Rel. Box., n. 301, §§ 160–1 (and cf., a year later, n. 374, §246).

32 Rel. Box., n. 301, § 160; n. 302, § 162; 1. 120, §205. For William Bates see DNB and Matthews, A. G., Calamy Revised, Oxford 1934Google Scholar, s.v. (hereafter cited as CR).

33 Mary Hanmer died in January 1661; the title page of the 1682 edition advises that the sermon is ‘at the desire of her daughter before her death, reprinted’, but no copy of a 1662 edition is known.

34 Rel. Box., n. 302–3, §§163–5, 167 and 11. 384, §278. For Ashurst see DNB, s.v. and for his relationship with Baxter, Powicke, F. J., ‘The Reverend Richard Baxter and his Lancashire friend Mr. Henry Ashurst’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, xiii (1929), 309–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited as BJRL).

35 Rel. Box., 1. 19–20, §29; Baxter, Richard, An Apology for the Nonconformists Ministry, London 1681, 79–81Google Scholar; Baxter, Penitent Confession, 57–8; Nuttall, Baxter, 24–7. Dance's bond of agreement is in ‘Treatises’, iv. 128. For Dance, see Matthews, A. G., Walker Revised, Oxford 1948, 383–4Google Scholar.

36 Rel. Bax., 1. 79–80, § 128 and 1. 97, § 142; Nuttall, Baxter, 40–1.

37 Ret. Box., n. 374–6, §§249–52 and 11. 377–8, §§257–60; Baxter, Richard, Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance, London 1662Google Scholar, fos. c1–c6v; idem, The True and Only Way of Concord, 1680, fo. A3; idem, Penitent Confession, 37; idem, The Second Part of the Nonconformists Plea for Peace, 1680, fo. A2v; Nuttall, Baxter, 90–1; Nuttall, G. F. and Chadwick, O. (eds.), From Uniformity to Unity, London 1962, 152–3Google Scholar; Kitchin, George, Sir Roger L’Estrange, London 1913, 80–3Google Scholar. In ‘Treatises’, vi. 202 is ‘Richard Baxter's Defense of Charity; of his owne and his Brethren's innocency, against the invectives, and numerous palpable mistakes of Dr. Morley…in his printed letter and his Sermon at Kederminster’. For Bagshaw, L’Estrange and Morley see DNB, s.v.v., and for Bagshaw also CR, s.v.

38 Rel. Bax., III. 440, §439.

39 Rel. Bax., III. 46, §102; Baxter, Apology, 13.

40 Rel. Box., III. 48–60, §§110–32; Nuttall, Baxter, 99–100. The warrant and mittimus are in ‘Treatises’, i. 17, ii. 43.

41 Rel. Box., III. 99, §214.

42 Rel. Box., III. 102–3, §226. The letter of application and the accompanying statement of ‘My Case’ are in ‘Treatises’, vii. 268, printed in Autobiography, 1974, 300, and Powicke, Baxter under the Cross, 71–2.

43 Rel. Bax., III. 103, §§226–8, 230–1 and III. 151, §270. Margaret Baxter's repeated provision of places to preach is described in the Breviate, 54–9 and in Nuttall, Baxter, 104–5. In 1675 from Edmund Saunders, afterwards knighted and chief justice of the King's Bench, and in 1682 from Henry Pollexfen, afterwards knighted and chief justice of the Common Pleas, Baxter obtained the legal opinion that the licence to preach in London granted him by Sheldon on 25 February 1661 (‘Treatises’, iv. 119) continued to be valid and that the Act of Uniformity did not prohibit him from delivering occasional sermons (Rel. Bax., III. 195–6; Baxter, Penitent Confession, 38; cf. Baxter, Apology, 12). For John Turner see CR, s.v.

44 Rel. Box., III. 191, §75. There is a manuscript eye-witness account of the trial in Dr Williams's Library, London, ‘Baxter Letters’, iii. fos. 208–1 iv; cf. Macaulay's retelling in his History of England, ed. Firth, C. H., 6 vols., London 1913–15, i. 484–8Google Scholar, and Nuttall, Baxter, 109–11.

45 Matthew Sylvester, ‘Elisha's Cry after Elijah's God’, appended to Rel. Box., p. 16; Nuttall, Baxter, 111–12. For Sylvester see DNB and CR, s.v.

45 Baxter, Richard, The Quakers Catechism, London 1655, 20Google Scholar. Baxter was quite capable of preaching extemporarily when necessary: see Sylvester, ‘Elisha's Cry’, p. 17. The five methods of delivery commonly used are surveyed in Mitchell, W. F., English Pulpit Oratory, London 1932, 15–26Google Scholar, which is misled (p. 26) by the italics of Rel. Box., 1. 112, § 168, into supposing that ‘the Title The True Catholick and The Catholick Church Described’ refers to two works deriving from one sermon; it is the title of one enlarged piece (1660).

47 Baxter, Compassionate Counsel, 158; Baxter, Richard, A Defence of the Principles of Love, London 1671, n. 22Google Scholar.

48 Baxter, Principles of Love, n. 23.

49 Rel. Box., 1. 114, § 173. For Baldwin see Nuttall, Baxter, 62, and CR, s.v.

50 Mitchell, Pulpit Oratory, 14–15, discusses the varying textual authority of printed sermons, mistakenly citing Gildas Salvianus as a n example of a sermon written, delivered and edited before publication; because of illness it was never delivered (Rel. Box., 1. 115, §177).

51 Clarke, Samuel, A General Martyrologie, 2nd edn, London 1660, 205Google Scholar.

52 Dent, Arthur, The Plaint Mans Path-way to Heaven, 16th edn, London 1617, fo. A3vGoogle Scholar; Preston, John, The Breast-Plate of Faith and Love, London 1630, n. 10Google Scholar; Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, I. Hi. See G. Cragg, R., Puritanism in the Period of the Great Persecution, Cambridge 1957, 203–4Google Scholar, for discussion of this point.

53 Selden, John, Table Talk, ed. Pollock, F., London 1927, 106–7Google Scholar.

54 Hyperius, Andreas, The Practise of Preaching, transl. Ludham, John, London 1577, fo. 22Google Scholar; Perkins, William, The Arte of Prophecying, in The Workes, 3 vols., London 1616–18, ii. 673Google Scholar; Bernard, Richard, The Failhfull Shepheard, London 1607, fos. A3v–A4Google Scholar; Wilkins, John, Ecclesiastes, London 1646, 5Google Scholar; Arderne, James, Directions Concerning…Sermons, ed. Mackray, John, London 1952, 9Google Scholar.

55 Baxter, Quakers Catechism, 21–3; Baxter, Richard, A Christian Directory, London 1673, ii. xix. 575Google Scholar.

56 Clarke, Samuel, A Collection of the Lives of Ten Eminent Divines, 1662, 312–13Google Scholar; Bernard, Faithfull Shepheard, 60.

57 Baxter's style is discussed in Keeble, Baxter, 48–68.

59 Bates, William, A Funeral Sermon for…Baxter, London 1692, 90Google Scholar.

59 The funeral sermons are discussed in Keeble, Baxter, 123–4.

60 On the composition of The Saints Rest, see Powicke, F. J., ‘Story and significance of the Rev. Richard Baxter's “Saints’ Everlasting Rest”’, BJRL, v (1920), 445–79Google Scholar, at pp. 447–56, 463–7, and Keeble, Baxter, 4, 13–14, 95–100.

61 For Glynne, see DNB s.v.

62 For Pack, see DNB s.v.

63 For Foley, see DNB s.v., and above n. 17; for his sons, see Lacey, Douglas R., Dissent and Parliamentary Politics in England 1661–1689, New Brunswick 1969, 395–8Google Scholar. This sermon is on Galatians vi. 14, not vi. 16 as reported in Rel. Box., 1. 116, § 183.

64 Elizabeth Baker was ‘Wife to Mr. Joseph Baker Minister at Worcester’ (Ret. Box., 1. 120, §202), for whom see CR, s.v.

65 For Alleyne see Davies, Godfrey, The Restoration of Charles II, San Marino 1955, 149Google Scholar, 181, 183, 281, 353.

66 This was much further enlarged in the 1670 edn, dedicated to Richard and Lady Laetitia Hampden, to whose home Baxter had repaired from Acton during the Great Plague and from where he dated Part II of Rel. Box., 28 September 1665. For Hampden and his friendship with Baxter, see DNB, s.v. and Lacey, Dissent and Parliamentary Politics in England, 69, 292n, 375, 402–3.

67 For the Countess of Balcarres, see DNB s.v. Anna Mackenzie Campbell, and for her relationship with Baxter, Powicke, F. J., ‘Richard Baxter and the Countess of Balcarres’, BJRL, ix (1925), 585–99Google Scholar.

68 This sermon was taken down by an auditor who ‘mangled so both Matter and Style’ that Baxter in 1669 issued the larger treatise Directions for Weak… Christians, on the same text, to replace it. In the preface (fos. A4–A5v) he speaks of this work as deriving from a series of Kidderminster sermons, but in Rel. Box., n. 303, § 168, he describes it as an enlargement of the farewell sermon. Both statements may be true, if misleading, if both the Directions and the farewell sermon rework material first preached at Kidderminster.

69 Being charged with having preached ‘against the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness, and for Justification by our own Righteousness’, Baxter felt ‘constrained to publish the truth of the Case’ (Rel. Box., iii. 154, §279; cf. in. 103, §227). For this controversy and its continuance into the 1690s, see Toon, God's Statesman, 140–1; Toon, Peter, The Emergence of Hyper-Calvinism in English Nonconformity, London 1967, 49ffGoogle Scholar; Nuttall, et al., Beginnings, 40ff; Bolam, et al., English Presbyterians, 99, 103–12.

70 For Stubbe, see DNB and CR. s.v.

71 Mary Coxe was the wife of the physician Thomas Coxe, for whom see DNB, s.v.

72 For Ashurst see above n.34. for his eldest son, Sir Henry, to whom Sylvester dedicated Rel. Box., see Lacey, Parliamentary Politics, 375.

73 For Corbet see DNB and CR, s.v.