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Never
in
the
history
of
England
were
times
more
chaotic
than
during
the
lifetime
of
Richard
Baxter.
Yet
in
spite
of
war,
division,
persecution,
and
ill
health,
Baxter
became
one
of
history’s
most
memorable
preachers
(Currier
1912:125).
As
Kenneth
Latourette
depicts,
the
Puritan
Richard
Baxter
(1615-1691)
had
a
noted
record
as a
pastor
during
the
Commonwealth
in
reforming
morals
and
religion
within
his
parish.
He
refused
a
bishopric
under
the
Restoration
of
the
Stuart
monarchy,
was
forbidden
to
preach,
and
was
fined
and
imprisoned.
He
was
a
voluminous
author,
but
it
is
significant
that
with
him
his
best
remembered
work
was
on
Christian
life
and
prayer,
Saint’s
Everlasting
Rest
(1975:824).
Above
all
things,
he
was
a
preacher
who
saw
virtually
the
whole
people
in
his
parish
converted.
His
Formative
Years
During
Baxter’s
lifetime
(1615-1691),
the
religious
and
political
life
of
England
fragmented
into
scores
of
warring
camps.
In
1603
James
Stewart
ascended
the
English
throne.
James,
a
devout
believer
in
the
divine
right
of
kings,
committed
himself
to
the
establishment
of
an
absolute
government.
One
of
the
king's
first
acts
was
to
announce
a
policy
of
opposition
to
Puritanism.
The
Church
of
England
then
was
composed
of
two
highly
different
groups:
high
church
Anglicans,
who
leaned
toward
formality
and
ritual;
and
the
Puritans,
who
craved
a
simpler
service
(Fant
1971:231-32).
Richard
Baxter
lived
during
the
turmoil
in
the
reign
of
James
I,
Charles
I,
Oliver
Cromwell,
Charles
II,
James
II,
and
the
coming
of
William
of
Orange.
He
was
born
on
November
12,
1615
at
Rowtown,
Shropshire
in
England
(Fant
1971:235).
Shropshire,
where
he
spent
his
youth,
was
a
part
of
England
then
comparatively
little
influenced
by
the
Puritan
movement.
His
parents
were
pious,
middle-class
people
who
gave
him
careful
religious
training.
In
childhood,
however,
he
heard
the
word
‘Puritan’
usually
as a
term
of
scorn
in
his
neighborhood
(Murray
1991:13).[1]
Books,
however,
did
penetrate
where
there
was
no
worthy
preacher.
About
the
age
of
fifteen
Baxter
was
awakened
and
went
‘many
a-day
with
a
throbbing
conscience’
through
a
reading
of
Edmund
Bunny’s
Resolution.
It
was
Richard
Sibbes’
Bruised
Reed
which
resolved
this
state
of
sorrow.
The
book,
he
says,
opened
the
love
of
God
to
him
and
gave
him
a
livelier
apprehension
of
the
Mystery
of
Redemption
(Murray
1971:13-14).
Currier
explains
that
Baxter’s
decision
to
enter
the
ministry
in
his
nineteenth
year
was
due
to
the
serious
impressions
made
by
his
mother’s
death
and
his
narrow
escape
from
death
occurred
about
the
same
time
(1912:113).
In
Baxter
we
find
a
case
of
rather
unusual
leadership
formation.
He
received
no
university
training.
He
was
self-educated.
Yet
he
was
better
educated
than
many
who
went
through
the
formal
disciplines
of
academic
life
because
he
read
widely
in
all
fields.
When
he
was
twenty-three
year,
he
was
ordained
in
Worcester
Cathedral.
After
two
years
of
preaching
in
various
places
without
holding
a
settled
pastorate,
he
went
to
Kidderminster
in
1640
as
pastor
(Fant
1971:235).
There
were
many
dark
shadows
in
Baxter’s
life.
He
suffered
from
a
life-long
health
problem.
Yet
the
aggravating
weakness,
the
excruciating
pain,
the
coughing
and
spitting
of
blood,
and
the
constant
ill
irritations
of a
large
kidney
stone
in
later
life,
contributed
to
the
urgency
of
his
preaching
as
“a
dying
man
to
dying
man”
(Rooy
1965:67-68).
His
Pastoral
Theology
of
Mission
Baxter
indicates
his
strong
emphasis
on
mission
in
his
pastoral
theology.
In
his
farsightedness,
he
advocates
what
we
can
call
‘a
mission/evangelism
structure
within
the
church.’
The
Foundation
for
the
Minister’s
Duty
Baxter
uses
the
commission
of
Christ
as
the
foundation
for
the
minister’s
duty
to
spread
the
gospel
to
unbelievers
at
home
and
abroad.
He
holds
the
position
that
the
authority
conveyed
by
the
commission
did
not
end
with
the
apostles
but
carries
validity
to
the
end
of
the
world
and
necessitates
preaching
to
the
whole
world
(Rooy
1965:154).
This
requires
our
attention
that
this
position
was
contrary
to
what
many
were
teaching
then.
Baxter
acted
on
what
he
believed.
As
his
philosophy
of
ministry
was
evangelism,
so
was
his
direction
of
ministry.
In
addition
to
his
preaching,
visiting
and
conferences,
Baxter
developed
other
approaches
to
ministry
and
evangelism.
He
utilized
laymen
intensively
in
his
ministry.
He
believed
that
laymen
should
visit
those
around
them
and
share
the
Christian
faith
with
them.
In
short,
he
was
mobilizing
the
evangelistic
force
of
laymen.
Furthermore,
He
began
prayer
meeting
throughout
the
area
and
these
prayer
meetings
for
evangelism
(Fant
1971:236).
Baxter
believes
that
the
primary
message
of
the
gospel
is
one
of
good
news
and
hope.
We
proclaim
life
and
not
death,
salvation
and
not
damnation,
pardon
and
not
judgment,
is
the
first,
great,
and
primary
doctrine
that
is
to
be
proclaimed.
There
is
indeed
a
message
of
wrath
and
death.
But
this
is
not
the
principle
message.
As
Baxter
puts
it,
“There
is
mercy
in
God,
there
is
sufficiency
in
the
satisfaction
of
Christ,
the
promise
is
free,
full,
and
universal:
You
may
have
life
if
you
will
but
turn”
(1888:
II.
516).[2]
Two
Sorts
of
Ministers
Baxter
seems
to
imply
that
there
is
often
a
‘sodality
structure’
within
a
‘modality
structure’
of
the
Church.
He
classifies
two
sorts
of
ministers:
the
unified
ministers
“who
employ
themselves
in
converting
infidels
and
in
an
itinerant
service
of
the
churches,
“and
the
stated,
fixed
ministers
“having
a
special
charge
of
each
particular
church”
(1888:
I.
556).
The
former
is
in
the
general
ministry
and,
as
such,
is
“a
pastor
in
the
universal
church,”
(641)
preaching
to
the
unbelieving
world
as
the
one
who
is
dedicated,
separated,
and
set
apart
to
that
ministry
(IV.
383).[3]
The
latter
preaches
to
the
congregation
as
their
ordinary
teacher.
However,
a
man
may
be
made
at
once
“a
minister
in
general,
and
the
pastor
of
this
or
that
church
in
particular:
and
in
kingdoms
wholly
unchurched
and
Christian,
it
is
usually
fittest
so
to
do…”
(I.
641).
For
Baxter,
the
first
duty
of
the
sacred
ministry
is
to
make
the
world
Christian
and
gather
men
into
the
church
by
teaching
and
baptizing
them
(1888:
IV.
151).
He
says,
“Alas!
The
misery
of
the
unconverted
is
so
great,
that
it
calleth
loudest
to
us
for
our
compassion”
(:
IV.
381).[4]
The
Christians’
Motive
for
Witnessing
Alexander
H.
Drysdale
describes
that
“Baxter’s
great
desire
was
to
vitalize
the
popular
religion
and
bring
the
quickening
power
of
the
Gospel
into
direct
contact
with
the
masses”
(1889:366).
Rooy
summarizes
Baxter’s
view
on
Christian’s
basic
motive
for
witnessing:
The Christian basic motive for witnessing is the love of God. His glory is the ultimate end of all redemptive action. The happiness of man may be called a proximate end, since our happiness results from God; love to us and ours to him. God’s glory is most clearly revealed to us in the incarnate Christ. In response to Christ’s love and mercy, and not from fear of wrath and judgment, the Christian loves God. The love of God constrains man to love by Christ’s blessed example of mercy. Our highest motive should be as living images to show God to the world.[5]
Rooy
argues
that the
motive
of pity
increasingly
awakened
Baxter
to a
sense of
the need
for
foreign
missions.
The
ignorance
and
tyranny
in
so-called
Christian
lands,
the
miserable
state of
the
heathen,
and the
plague
of the
division
of
languages
move him
to
confess:
“…there
is
nothing
in the
world
that
lyeth so
heavy
upon my
heart,
as the
thought
of the
miserable
nations
of the
earth” (
1965:154).
Receptor-oriented
Communication
Expounding
the
instruction
of
new
Christians,
Baxter
accentuates
essential
doctrine.
He
proposes
to
begin
with
the
greater
common
truths
in
communicating
the
gospel
(1888:I.
592).
Put
the
essential,
necessary
truths
first
(40).
Teach
all
that
is
of
“felt
necessity
to
salvation”
(II.
387).
Keep
the
smaller
controversial
truths
in
the
background;
put
the
essential
necessary
truths
first
(I.
40).[6]
Baxter
indicates
that
the
public
preaching
of
the
word
requires
greater
skill
and
greater
life
and
zeal
because
it
is
the
proclamation
of
the
profound
gospel
message
in
simple
language.
It
is
no
small
matter
to
stand
up
in
the
face
of a
congregation,
and
deliver
a
message
of
salvation
or
damnation,
as
from
the
living
God,
in
the
name
of
our
Redeemer.
It
is
no
easy
matter
to
speak
so
plain,
that
the
ignorant
may
understand
us;
and
so
seriously,
that
the
deadest
hearts
may
feel
us;
and
so
convincingly,
that
the
contradicting
cavilers
may
be
silenced
(1888:
IV.
383).
Baxter
was
one
of
the
first
preachers
to
emphasize
an
oral
style
in
preaching—a
talking
style—though
he
usually
read
his
sermons.
Many
of
the
passages
in
his
published
works,
such
as
The
Call
to
the
Unconverted,
are
transcripts
of
those
sermons
that
preserve
his
characteristic
style—that
give
evidence
of a
natural,
conversational
manner
of
delivery
(Fant
and
Pinson
1971:237).
|
Hermeneutics
©
This article is an excerpt from Dae Ryeong Kim's paper, "The
Missionary Proclamation of the English
Puritanism,"