No Rest Til Heaven: The Life of Richard Baxter

Youth and conversion

1. On 12 November 1615 in England, Richard Baxter was born.
2. He lived with his grandparents because his father was ungodly.
3. About 10 years old, his father was converted and took his son back so that he might lead the boy to Christ.
4. Baxter came under great conviction of sin:
   1. “I was much addicted to lie that I might escape [correction].” 8
   2. “I was much addicted to the excessive gluttonous eating…” 8
   3. “I have often gone into other men’s orchards, and stolen their fruit…” 8
   4. “I was somewhat excessively addicted to play…” 8
   5. “I was extremely bewitched with a love of romances, fables, and old tales, which corrupted my affections, and lost my time.” 8
   6. “I was guilty of much idle foolish chat…” 8
   7. “I was too bold and irreverent towards my parents.” 8
5. Baxter was led to saving faith by his father’s prayers and reading as well as privately reading other godly books.
6. To the end of his life, Baxter believed reading good books—after manly preaching—was the best way to see a sinner saved.
7. Even after finding the truth, Baxter doubted his own conversion for years.
8. He later thanked God for these doubts since the doubts (15):
   1. Taught him to hate his own sin since they were the cause of the doubts.
   2. Kept him from wasting his youth with too many sports.
   3. Made Christ and salvation very important and desirable to him.
   4. Showed him that the world was like a dead carcass.
   5. Urged him to study the Bible and theology in detail.
9. These years of doubt and introspection prepared him to deal with the complex problems in the souls of many others.
10. Baxter only had an informal education with private tutors, but he read carefully and was able to feed himself.
11. From age 20 to 76 Baxter was constantly sick writing many things like, “being seldom an hour free from pain (40),” or “God was pleased so greatly to increase my painful diseases (108).”
12. Because of sickness, he was often confined to bed, but he said that the pain was not nearly so hard to endure as the loss of time. 60

Pastor at Kidderminster

12. At 24 years old, Baxter was invited to preach in Kidderminster.
13. His sicknesses were still so great that he wrote, “[they] made me live and preach in some continual expectation of death, supposing still that I had not long to live.” 27
14. “[My sicknesses] I found, through all my life, to be an invaluable mercy to me for: 27
    1. They greatly weakened my temptations.
    2. They kept me in a great contempt of the world.
    3. They taught me to highly esteem time. If any of it passed away in idleness or unprofitableness, it was so long a pain and burden to my mind.
    4. They made me study and preach… as a dying man to dying men.”
15. “Time hath seemed to me more precious than gold, or any earthly gain…” 27
16. In Kidderminster, he preached for 17 years seeing a miracle of revival in the town.
17. At first, he recorded the names of all those who were converted, but then so many came to Christ that he stopped the list.
18. After two years he was taken with such a violent sickness that he thought again he would die.
19. At this time, he wrote The Saints’ Everlasting Rest about the glory of Heaven.
20. When he was stronger, he began the practice of visiting, evangelism, and catechism two days per week.
21. They continued to expand the church building in the small town until more than a thousand could squeeze in.
22. When Baxter arrived, there was less than one family per street who were true believers. After a few years there was less than one family per street who were unbelievers.
23. He influenced the pastors around him by meeting with them on a consistent pattern so that he could say, “[The pastors in this area now] were wholly addicted to the winning of souls.” 51
24. He devoted himself to youth evangelism since they were the most likely to be converted and it is easier to prevent than repent.
25. He wrote a book to encourage pastors to be humble and evangelize, The Reformed Pastor.
26. Now his books were becoming so popular that he devoted himself to writing while relaxing by preaching.
27. Baxter wrote on average 3 books per year for 50 years.
28. About this time, the king offered Baxter a very large church with a high salary, but he turned it down.
29. Baxter often supported missionaries even writing a book touching on how to reach unreached areas.
30. Throughout this time lies commonly circulated about him.
31. “I had long been learning not to overvalue the thoughts of men.” 76

Marriage to Margaret

32. He had resolved to live a single life so that he could give God more of his time.
33. Yet a woman in his church Mrs. Charlton urged him to marry her daughter Margaret.
34. She had come to Christ under his preaching, and now they were married though he was 46 and she was 22.
35. They loved each other dearly and she even accompanied him when he was sent to prison.
36. At her death, Baxter wrote a biography of his wife professing her deep spirituality and spiritual insight.
37. He said she has more ability to help souls in sin than most pastors.
38. They lived together for 19 years before she passed away at 41.

Suffering

39. Baxter lived and ministered during the great plague when men would get sick in the morning and die in the evening.
40. Burying the dead overwhelmed the people and villages were devastated and emptied.
41. He was sent to prison more than once for preaching the gospel.
42. At the end of his life, his books and even bed were seized by the government authorities.
43. He urged his people to remember that “the design of Satan was more against their souls than their bodies.” 90
44. As a 70 year old man, he was unjustly sent to court and then prison while he was sick and widowed.
45. During his last sermon, he nearly died in the pulpit.
46. On his death bed, his friends visited him, and heard him say, “You come hither to learn to die; I am not the only person that must go this way. I assure you, that your whole life, be it ever so long, is little enough to prepare for death.” 127

Lessons from the life of Richard Baxter

1. Time is a special and limited gift from God. We must be especially hard working, not losing a day or even a minute if we can help it. In this sense, men are all the same. They are all given the same amount of time: One life.
2. The human soul is infinitely valuable because it will live without end and because it has a unique role in honoring God.
3. The wise man will give himself to reading good books. Even without formal education, we can be teach ourselves through careful reading and discipline.
4. Souls will not generally be won to Christ without a great deal of hard work in prayer and conversations. If we truly believe Heaven, Hell, sin, and Christ, we will study how to speak in a persuasive, lively way.

Thesis

• Seeing that life is so short and eternity so long, let us serve the Lord and the souls of men with all our might while we have might.

Bibliography

• Richard Baxter’s abridged Autobiography by Christian Focus.
• “Richard Baxter” Meet the Puritans.
• “Memoir of Richard Baxter’s Life” The Practical Works of Richard Baxter.