Richard Baxter

The Reformed Pastor Richard Baxter

Despite the title, this book is equally informative to those in the pulpit and those in the pew. It was penned when Baxter was unable to attend a meeting of ministers, so he wrote this to them. It covers what it means to take heed to ourselves, to the flock, to spiritual things, to church discipline. He prays for unity and peace in the churches, for greater vigor on the part of everyone in expressing our life in Christ. He proves the importance of family worship and catechism, hope in and expectation of success in all our Christian endeavors, due to the mediatorship of Christ and the indwelling guidance of the Spirit. In this book one discovers the heart of the man. For Baxter was both earnest and insistent upon discovering to a person their spiritual state. He would ask, ''Can you truly say that all the known sins of your past life are the grief of your heart, . . . that you have cast your soul upon Christ alone for the pardon of your sins by His blood? Can you truly say that your heart has turned away from your former sins [so that] you now hate the sins you formerly loved. Can you truly say that you have taken the everlasting enjoyment of God for all your happiness [so that] it has all of your heart, of your love, of your desire and care? . . . Do you daily and principally seek to please God?'' If these questions did not convince him that the person was converted, then he must be made to know how far he fails to measure up to being a Christian. Make him to know how he has despised God. For His view was, ''you must get to his heart, or else you have done nothing.'' He applied this method of catechizing families in his Kidderminster parish, insisting on heads of families learn, then teach their children. There resulted multitudes of conversions during his 14 years there.