Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/442

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Baxter
436
Baxter

the morning sermon of every Sunday and the Thursday lecture for good Matthew Sylvester. His 'Reliquiæ Baxterianæ' went forward to completion, and his review of his long life is very pathetic. In 1688, true to his lifelong principles, he entered heart and soul into what has been called the coalition of the protestant dissenters with the clergy of the national church against the popish king, James II. Even the church of England had a short memory for what Baxter and Howe and Bates then achieved (Macaulay, ch. viii. 1688). He complied with the Toleration Act under William and Mary. He kept in harness to the end. When some one whispered of the good he had done by his books, he faintly answered, 'I was but a pen, and what praise is due to a pen?' Visited of Mather, 'almost well' was his greeting, as he felt the advancing chill. He died at about four o'clock on Tuesday morning, 8 Dec. 1691. He was buried beside his wife and her mother in Christ Church, London. William Bates [q. v.] preached his funeral sermon with rare power and pathos. Never had there been such a private funeral seen in England.

There are various authentic portraits of him still extant. That usually met with shows him gaunt and worn. By far the best is the painting preserved in Williams's Library, London. Adlard's engraving after it (in Orme) comes far short of the original.

Once started as an author, Baxter literally poured out book after book–great folios, thick quartos, crammed duodecimos, pamphlets, tractates, sheets, half-sheets, and broadsides. The following is a list of the most important (titles abbreviated). We take first 1649 to 1660, in addition to the two noticed. They are:

  1. 'The Right Method for Peace of Conscience and Spiritual Comfort,' 1653.
  2. 'Making Light of Christ,' 1655.
  3. 'Gildas Salvianus; or the Reformed Pastor,' 1656.
  4. 'The Safe Religion; or Three Disputations for the Reformed Religion against Popery,' 1657.
  5. 'A Treatise of Conversion,' 1657.
  6. 'A Call to the Unconverted,' 1657.
  7. 'The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ,' 1658.
  8. 'Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion,' 1658.
  9. 'A Treatise of Self-Denial,' 1659.
  10. 'The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite,' 1659.
  11. 'The Fool's Prosperity,' 1659.
  12. 'The Last Walk of a Believer,' 1659.

We take next, that all may be brought together, 1662 to 1692. They are:

  1. 'The Mischief of Self-ignorance and the Benefits of Self-acquaintance,' 1662.
  2. 'A Saint or a Brute,' 1662.
  3. 'Now or Never,' 1663.
  4. 'Divine Life,' 1664.
  5. 'Two Sheets for Poor Families,' 1665.
  6. 'A Sheet for the Instruction of the Sick during the Plague,' 1665.
  7. 'Directions to the Converted for their Establishment, Growth, and Perseverance,' 1669.
  8. 'The Life of Faith,' 1670.
  9. 'The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day,' 1671.
  10. 'The Duty of Heavenly Meditation revived,' 1671.
  11. 'How far Holiness is the Design of Christianity,' 1671.
  12. 'God's Goodness vindicated,' 1671.
  13. 'More Reasons for the Christian Religion and no Reason against it,' 1672.
  14. 'Full and Easy Satisfaction which is the True and Safe Religion,' 1674.
  15. 'The Poor Man's Family Book,' 1674.
  16. 'Reasons for Ministerial Plainness and Fidelity,' 1676.
  17. 'A Sermon for the Cure of Melancholy,' 1682.
  18. 'Compassionate Counsel to Young Men,' 1682.
  19. 'How to do Good to many,' 1682.
  20. 'Family Catechism,' 1683.
  21. 'Obedient Patience,' 1683.
  22. 'Farewell Sermon prepared to have been preached to his Hearers at Kidderminster at his departure, but forbidden,' 1683.
  23. 'Dying Thoughts,' 1683.
  24. . 'Unum Necessarium,' 1685.
  25. 'The Scripture Gospel defended,' 1690.
  26. 'A Defence of Christ and Free Grace,' 1690.
  27. 'Monthly Preparations for the Holy Communion,' 1696.
  28. 'The Mother's Catechism,' 1701.
  29. 'What we must do to be saved,' 1692.

Long as is this roll, it is merely a typical selection; for besides these there are more than one hundred distinct books. These are all carefully recorded and annotated in Dr. Grosart's 'Bibliographical List of the Works of Baxter,' 1868 (see also list in Orme, containing 168 articles, where is also a full account of his writings).

His 'Practical Works' only have been collected, 23 vols. 8vo, 1830, with Life by Orme; reprinted with essay by Henry Rogers, 4 vols. la. 8vo, 1868. His political, historical, ethical, and philosophical works still await a competent editor. His 'Holy Commonwealth' had the distinction of being burned at Oxford along with Milton's and John Goodwin's books. The most diverse minds have their favourites among his books. There never has been a day since 1649 that something by him was not in print. His works have still a matchless circulation among the English-speaking race. They have also been largely translated into many languages.

[Baxter left a mass of autobiographical materials to his friend Sylvester, who published the whole as Reliquiæ Baxterianæ; Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times, faithfully published from his own original manuscript, by the Rev. Matthew Sylvester, fol. 1696. This is the main authority for the life. In 1702 Edmund Calamy