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came as the garden of the Lord, and assumed the fragrance of Carmel, and the fertility of Lebanon.

all, to answer the great ends of preaching-the conviction and conversion of sinners, the nourishment, stability, and practical godliness of the saints. His reasoning is generally clear-his arguments conclu

His

The celebrated and eloquent Dr Bates, in his funeral sermon on Baxter, gives an admirable epitome of his talents, genius, and character. He knew hissive, though sometimes redundant his style terse friend to the core; and in his fine chaste classic style, and nervous—his remonstrances rousing his warnhe has given the lineaments from the life, with the ings solemn as thunder his reproofs piercing and hand of a master, who had dipped his pencil in the vivid as lightning and his appeals to the heart so variegated and harmonious hues of the rainbow. He tender and melting, that it could not be easy for the says. In his sermons there was a rare union of ar- most obdurate to withstand them. His addresses guments and motives to convince the mind and gain are free as the vital air, and clear as the light of heathe heart. All the fountains of reason and persua- ven. Nature, art, and eloquence, laid all their vasion were open to his discerning eye. There was ried stores at his feet, for immediate use, when 'beno resisting the force of his discourses, without deny-seeching sinners to be reconciled to God.' ing reason and divine revelation. He had a marvel-mind was never fettered nor cramped with the molous felicity and copiousness in speaking. There dern question,' whether it was the duty of sinners, of every grade, without delay to repent and believe the gospel.'. His success was answerable to his efforts. If he did not study preaching as a science, as some have done, his love to the Saviour, the labour, and the souls of men, had enwrought it into the very texture of his soul as an art. It was not more his duty than it was his delight, to warn every man, and teach every man, in all wisdom, that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.' It is as a writer, however, that the vitality, the

was a noble negligence in his style, for his great mind could not stoop to the affected eloquence of words. He despised flashy oratory; but his expressions were clear and powerful-so convincing the understanding-so entering into the soul-so engaging the affections, that those were deaf as adders who were not charmed by such a charmer. He was animated with the Holy Spirit, and breathed celestial fire to inspire heart and life into dead sinners, and to melt the obdurate in their frozen tombs.' And in the dedication of the same sermon to Sir Henry Ashurst, Bax-vigour, the variety, and versatility of Baxter's genius ter's steady and long-tried friend, who had not left off his kindness to the living and the dead,' Dr Bates goes on to say:

chiefly appear. Very few writers, in any age, have traversed the fields of theology to a wider extent. No corner of the vast continent seems to have es'I cannot omit the mentioning, that Mr Boyle and caped his eagle eye-no crevice is left unexplored. Mr Baxter, those incomparable persons in their seve- There were few authors of any note, foreign or doral studies, and dear friends, died within a short space mestic, who had written on theological subjects, with of one another. Mr Boyle was engaged in the con- whom he did not seem to have a familiar acquainttemplation of the design and architecture of the visi-ance. ble world, and made rare discoveries in the system rade. of nature, not for curiosity and barren speculation, but to admire and adore the perfections of the Deity, in the variety, order, beauty, and marvellous artifice of the creatures that compose this great universe. Mr Baxter was conversant in the invisible world. His mind was constantly applied to understand the harmonious agreement of the Divine attributes in the economy of our salvation, and to restore men to the image and favour of God. They are now admitted into the enlightened and purified society above, where the immense volumes of the divine wisdom are laid open, and by one glance of the eye they discover more perfectly the glorious and wonderful works of God in heaven and earth, than the most diligent inquirers can do here in a thousand years' study, though they—and took large and deep draughts from the founhad the sagacity of Solomon. By the light of glory they see the face of God, and are satisfied with his likeness for ever.' *

As a preacher, Baxter has been styled 'the English Demosthenes.' His pulpit powers were of a very high order. If he was not uniformly happy in his divisions, logically clear and correct in his arrangement; if his style was sometimes rugged, his particulars multiplied to an undue extent without a palpable distinction, and some of his discourses had less of the pruning knife, and the polish of a classical diction, than could have been desired; yet few sermons, in either earlier or later times, have been more fitted, all in * Middleton's Lives, vol. iv. pp. 47, 48.

He could, and did, quote them without paIt was the order of the day, for the authors of the seventeenth century to overload their margins and columns with copious quotations from the Greek and Latin fathers, and from continental divines. Baxter, as a matter of course, went into the custom. It is now wisely discontinued. He was a man who read the bible, prayed to the Father of lights, and thought for himself; and the best parts of his varied and voluminous productions, are those that seem to have sprung from his own spontaneous contemplations of the inspired volume, irrespective of any previous writer, any suspected sentiments, or jarring system. When he ceased to think of the thorns and thickets of controversy got out of the smoke and dust of polemics-wrestled in secret prayer with God

tain of Israel-he pours out such a rich flood of vital and varied thought, that, like the Jordan in harvest, he overflows his banks, and sweeps every thought and feeling, of his readers into the powerful current.

Baxter's active and vigorous mind delighted to expatiate over the whole encyclopedia of religion, natural and revealed; and his inquisitive soul, with a wing that never wavered, loved to trace it out in all its reasons and ramifications. He was master of himself and his subject. He seemed equally at home with the histories, the facts, the principles, the precepts, the promises, the consolations, and the evidences of divine revelation. With the different do

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partments of doctrinal, vital, experimental, and prac- | to ten volumes octavo; Lightfoot's extend to thirtical theology, he was quite familiar. From the teen; Jeremy Taylor's to fifteen; Dr Goodwin's first principles of the doctrine of Christ,' through all would make about twenty; Dr Owen's extend to the intermediate stages of divine truth, to the pro- twenty-eight; Richard Baxter's, if printed in a unifundity of the divine decrees, which set bounds to form edition, could not be comprised in less than created intellect, his sleepless, ceaseless inquiries were sixty volumes, making more than from thirty to directed. What was minute, and what was magni- forty thousand closely printed octavo pages!' ficent in the system of sacred truth, shared their proportion in his attention. At one time we find him 'a teacher of babes, and an instructor of the foolish;' at another, breaking the bread of life in crumbs to the humble rural rustic, in his Poor Man's Book; framing catechisms to the poor peasant; and unfolding the principles of personal and domestic piety to the English farmer. At another time you find him contending with the most cultivated minds of the sceptical class and infidel school; again, detecting and exposing the sophistry of the Jesuits, and laying bare the arbitrary principles and abominations of Popery. At one time we find him composing Compassionate Counsels to Young Men; and at another, contending with Stillingfleet, the archbishop of Canterbury, or writing his Humble Advice to the Members of Parliament. At one time writing his Call to the Unconverted; and at another Directing Justices in corporations to discharge their duty to God; at one time persuading the ignorant sinner to become 'a saint,' or submit to the shameful alternative of living and dying 'a brute;' and at another, writing his Reformed Pastor, and remonstrating with the slothful and inert of his own profession with a searching solemnity, that thrills through the secret recesses of the heart. Prose, in all its doctrinal and didactic | ciple, energy, and perseverance, in the most untoward forms, was his main forte; but sacred poetry was sometimes resorted to as a kind of relaxation, and to feed and fan the flame of personal and domestic devotion.

The magnitude and variety of Baxter's works, as a writer, fill us with astonishment. Had he been a recluse, or a mere book-worm, all his life, the extent of his mental productions would have been less wonderful; but he was a man of public spirit, of catholic feeling, and of active habits. It is astonishing how he could husband time for such herculean labours of the pen and the press. The late Mr Orme, his last biographer, has given the titles, dates, and list of no less than one hundred and sixty-eight distinct treatises and sermons, from the folio and thick quarto, to his single sermons and minor pieces. Mr Orme says: The age in which he lived was an age of voluminous authorship; and Baxter was, beyond comparison, the most voluminous of all his contemporaries. Those who have been acquainted only with what are called his practical or spiritual writings, form no correct estimate of the extent of his works. These form twenty-two vols. octavo in the present edition; and yet they are but a small portion of what he wrote. The number of his books has been variously estimated. As some of the volumes which he published contained several distinct treatises, they have sometimes been counted as one, and sometimes reckoned four or five. The best way of forming a correct opinion of Baxter's labours from the press, is by comparing them with some of his brethren who wrote a good deal. The works of bishop Hall amount

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His biographer continues: 'On this mass of writing he was employed from 1649, when his first work appeared, till near the time of his death, in 1691, a period of forty-four years. Had he been chiefly en. gaged in writing, this space was amply sufficient to have enabled him to produce all his works with ease. But it must be recollected, that writing was but a small part of his occupation. His labours as a minister, and his engagements in the public business of his times, formed his chief employment for many years, so that he speaks of writing but as a recreation from more severe duties. Nor is this all, his state of health must be taken into consideration in every estimate of his work. A man more diseased, or who had more to contend with in the frame of his body, probably never existed in the same circumstances. He was a constant martyr to sickness and pain, so that how he found it practicable to write with the composure that he generally did, is one of the greatest mysteries in his history. The energy of his mind was superior to any discouragement; for though it often felt the burden and clog of the flesh, it never gave way to its desire of ease, or succumbed under the pressure of its infirmities. He furnishes an illustrious instance of what may be done by prin

and discouraging circumstances.'* Numerous and various as have been the productions of the prolific pen of the author of Waverley,' with a firm constitution, flexible materials among his hands to take the form of his fancy, like melted wax; enjoying perfect freedom from the harpies of persecution; in the sunshine of his study, or the tranquillity of his mansion; with every facility which books and leisure could afford; if mere quantity alone-not to speak of the very different character and qualities of the themes which occupied these authors' time and talents-I suspect that the mental opulence and manual operations of our afflicted and emaciated Noncon. formist, will leave the celebrated novelist, poet, and baronet, far in the rear.

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That Baxter would have written better had he written less, is highly probable. Had he taken more time to form the plan of some of his treatises—had he taken more pains to mature and assort his ample materials-given a more simple and lucid form to some of his discussions-had he dropped some extraneous digressions, pruned some exuberances, and polished some parts of his style, it would have unquestionably added much to the value of some of his incomparable productions. It is also highly probable, if not absolutely certain, that had Baxter's mind been less distracted with polemical discussions-had he allowed many of the vagaries and crudities then broached and some of the violent attacks against himself to pass unnoticed and unanswered, and, like the ephemera and weeds of summer, to die a natura * Orme's Life of Baxter, pp. 785-6.

death and had he restricted the operations of his mind, and the labours of his pen, more to the doctrinal, devotional, and practical parts of theology, which were so congenial to the high-toned spirituality of his mind, it would have added materially to their worth. A deep sense of duty, and an impression of the dangerous and deleterious influence of error, with the urgency of the case, and the temper of the times, however, all conspired to urge him to write on those multifarious topics. It was, perhaps, one of the weaknesses of this great and good man, that, as a kind of inquisitor general, he considered himself bound to expose, counteract, and condemn, all that he considered erroneous. His controversial talents were of a superior order. His brethren knew it, and sometimes urged him to engage in it. On these subjects he at times used too much acerbity of expression. He was apt to overdo the thing, and overlay his opponent with arguments. Many of his controversial pieces were of a local and ephemeral character. But none was ever more severe in sifting and searching out his own defects and faults than he was himself; and few have ever been so candid in confessing them, and conscientious in correcting them. He says himself:-

'Concerning almost all my writings, I must confess that my own judgment is, that fewer, well studied and polished, would have been better; but the reader who can safely censure the books, is not fit to censure the author, unless he had been upon the place, and acquainted with all the occasions and circumstances. Indeed, for the Saints' Rest, I had four months vacancy to write it, in the midst of continual languishing and medicine; but for the rest, I wrote them in the crowd of all my other employments, which would allow me no great leisure for polishing, and exactness, and ornament; so that I scarce ever wrote one sheet twice over, nor stayed to make any blots or interlinings, but was fain to let it go as it was first conceived; and when my own desire was rather to stay upon one thing long, than run over many, some sudden occasion or other extorted almost all my writings from me; and the apprehensions of present usefulness, or necessity, prevailed against all other motives; so that the divines that were at hand with me, still put me on, and approved of what I did, because they were moved by present necessities as well as I. But those who were far off, and felt not those nearer motives, did rather wish that I had taken the other way, and published a few elaborate writings; and I am ready myself to be of their mind, when I forget the case that I then stood in, and have lost the sense of former motives.' This is a noble instance of Baxter's searching selfdiscernment and ingenuous candour, in giving an impartial verdict upon his own mental offspring, to which the most of authors are blind and partial to a proverb. In the document from which the above extract is taken, there is much to the same effect. Indeed, no modern critic, sitting in his self-imaginary chair, hearing evidence, examining witnesses, sifting discrepancies, and seeking facts, and passing judgment, could go through the process with more inpartiality and severity than Baxter has done with the productions of his own pen.

But Baxter, with all these occasional slips, minor defects, metaphysical obscurities, casual exuberances, and inadvertent digressions, I love thee still! There is no lack of rich gold ore in the mine, though found amidst a few rough incrustations. The man who has patience to ponder your pages, and eyes to behold spiritual excellence, may dig diamonds from the veins which you have opened in the inexhaustible mine of divine revelation. Your defects are only like spots upon the disk of the sun. You have furnished your table with ample variety of wholesome well dressed provisions; if they are not set with all the finery of French cookery, they have all the substantial qualities that are befitting an English table. All that your guests require is a healthful appetite, to feel themselves at home, and happy in your society.

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There is a cloud of witnesses who bear concurrent and unequivocal testimony to the high character and useful tendency of Baxter's writings, especially his devotional and practical works. They were extensively read, and highly appreciated, by many of his contemporaries. It was a reading as well as a writing age. Dr Barrow (who was no mean judge) said, 'His practical writings were never mended, and his controversial ones seldom confuted.' The Hon. Robert Boyle declared, that He was the fittest man of the age for a casuist, because he feared no man's displeasure, nor hoped for any man's preferment.' Bishop Wilkins remarked of him, that he had cultivated every subject he had handled; that if he had lived in the primitive times, he would have been one of the fathers of the Church; and that it was enough for one age to produce such a man as Mr Baxter.' Archbishop Usher entertained the highest opinion of his abilities; and it was by his persuasion he was induced to write his treatises upon Conversion. Manton thought he came nearer to the apostolical writings than any man of the age.' Dr Bates says, 'that his books, for their number and variety of matter, make a library. They contain a treasure of controversial, casuistical, and practical divinity. His books of practical divinity have been effectual for more numerous conversions of sinners to God, than any printed in our time; and while the church remains on earth, will be of continual efficacy to recover lost souls. There is a vigorous pulse in them that keeps the reader awake and attentive.' Addison says, 'I once met with a page of Mr Baxter. Upon the perusal of it, I conceived so good an idea of the author's piety, that I bought the whole book.' The celebrated Dr Johnson has quoted Baxter more than once in his Rambler. When asked by Boswell, what works of Richard Baxter he should read?' the doctor, in his sage epigrammatic style, replied, 'Read any of them, for they are all good.' Job Orton, who laboured some time in Kidderminster, and after many years had rolled by, had opportunity of witnessing the remote effects of his successful labours, entertained the highest opinion of Baxter's piety, talents, and character. Dr Doddridge styled him the English Demosthenes,' and called Baxter his particular favourite;' and adds, 'It is impossible to tell how much I am charmed with the devotion, good sense, and pathos, which is every

where to be found in him.

I cannot forbear look- | toned piety, which has given such an inimitable charm to the productions of his pen-his unflinching fidelity and inviolable integrity, which neither men nor money, friends nor foes, frowns nor flatteries, could shakehis mortification to all the blandishments and fascinations of time, of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,' and singular self-de

ing upon him as one of the greatest orators, both with regard to copiousness, acuteness, and energy, that our nation has produced,' &c. &c. I shall only add the testimony of the late William Wilberforce, who comes down to our own times, and whose fine taste and sterling piety fully qualified him to mark the beauties, and appreciate the excellencies, of Bax-nial-his gravity and Christian cheerfulness, so beauter, as an author, with whose writings he was long familiar. In writing of him he says: With his controversial pieces I am little acquainted; but his prac- | tical writings, in four massy folios, are a treasury of Christian wisdom. It would be a most valuable service to mankind to revise them, and perhaps to abridge them, to render them more suited to the taste of modern readers.'

In reference to the above suggestion of the deceased Christian statesman, the writer of this article takes leave to say, that it is extremely difficult to abridge such an author as Baxter, or materially to alter the arrangement of his treatises, without the spirit of the work evaporating; and the freshness, the fervour, the feeling, and the unction, stamped upon the original work, being dissipated, and a naked, nerveless skeleton, under a misnomer, being put into the reader's hands. The publishers of the present edition of Baxter's Practical Works, therefore, have wisely determined not to present the public with an abridgment. They have resolved minutely and rigidly to revise, and select, and arrange the treatises in consecutive order; but in absolute good faith to give Richard Baxter, in his own native cut and costume, to the public, with only the antiquated dust decently brushed from his venerable vestments. The reader will bona fide find himself conversing with 'the mighty dead.'

This sketch has already far exceeded our intended limits, yet a tenth has not been told of what is really interesting in the fertile and eventful life and times of Richard Baxter. With the utmost cordiality we refer the inquisitive reader to Orme's Life of Baxter, to which we have already frequently referred with unqualified praise, and to which we have been not a little indebted in drawing up the preceding sketch. Much remains yet to be said and seen of Baxter's deep

tifully blended and happily balanced in his character. We might multiply paragraphs and pages in writing of his quenchless ardour—his incessant diligencehis herculean labours his child-like simplicity-his love of peace and his fruitless and ill-judged attempts to effect union among materials that had no common principle of affinity-the painful position in which he sometimes placed himself between High Churchmen and decided Nonconformists his want of sound judgment in some matters, even while 'his failings leaned to virtue's side.' Much might be mentioned of his active benevolence, which embraced the necessities of the soul as well as those of the body— his zeal for ameliorating the miseries of fallen humanity-some of his embryo schemes for circulating the scriptures at home, and for sending the gospel to some of the accessible parts of the heathen world, partly anticipating, by more than a century, some of those excellent institutions of modern times, which have been an honour to our native country, and a blessing to the heathen world. In one word, though he was not a perfect nor a faultless man, yet, with all his faults and infirmities, he was a very extraordinary person. He possessed much largeness of soul. The sensibilities of his heart were warın. He was a man of faith and prayer. He lived near to God, and walked with him. This was the secret of his support, the spring of his untiring activity, and the source of his success. What he was, he was by the grace of God, and to him belongs all the glory. The righteous shall be held in everlasting reniembrance.' The record' of Richard Baxter is on high;' and 'his works will praise him in the gates' while sound searching theology is valued in the church of Christ, and respected within the boundaries of the British Isles.

THE

SAINTS' EVERLASTING REST.

“There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God."

HEBREWS IV. 9.

CHAPTER I.

temper, and clearly and largely proves, that the end of all ceremonies and shadows, is to direct

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK, WITH SOME AC- them to Jesus Christ the substance; and that the

COUNT OF THE NATURE OF THE SAINTS' REST.

Sect. 1. The important design of the Apostle in the text, to which
the Author earnestly bespeaks the attention of the Reader. 2.
The Saints' Rest defined, with a general plan of the Work. 3.
What this rest pre-supposes. 4. The Author's humble sense of
his inability fully to show what this rest contains. 5. It contains
(1.) A ceasing from means of grace; 6. (2.) A perfect freedom
from all evils: 7. (8.) The highest degree of the saints' personal
ment of God the Chief Good; 9-14. (5.) A sweet and constant
as for instance, bodily senses, knowledge memory, love joy, to-

perfection, both in body and soul; 8. (4.) The nearest enjoy

action of all the powers of soul and body in this enjoyment of God;

gether with a mutual love and joy. 15. The Author's humble reflection on the deficiency of this account.

rest of sabbaths, and Canaan, should teach them to look for a farther rest, which indeed is their happiness. My text is his conclusion, after divers arguments; a conclusion, which contains the ground of all the believer's comfort, the end of all his duty and sufferings, the life and sum of all gospel promises and Christian privileges. What more welcome to men, under personal afflictions, tiring duties, successions of sufferings, than rest? It is not our comfort only, but our stability. Our liveliness in all duties, our enduring tribulation, our honouring of God, the vigour of our love, thankfulness, and all our graces; yea, the very being of our religion and Christianity, depend on the believing serious thoughts of our rest. And now, reader, whatever thou art, young or old, rich or poor, I entreat thee, and charge thee, in the name of thy Lord, who will shortly call thee to a reckoning, and judge thee to thy everlasting unchangeable state, that thou give not these things the reading only, and so dismiss them with a bare approbation; but that thou set upon this work, and take God in Christ for thy only rest, and fix thy heart

1. It was not only our interest in God, and actual enjoyment of him, which was lost in Adam's fall, but all spiritual knowledge of him, and true disposition towards such a felicity. When the Son of God comes with recovering grace, and discoveries of a spiritual and eternal happiness and glory, he finds not faith in man to believe it. As the poor man, that would not believe any one had such a sum as a hundred pounds, it was so far above what himself possessed: so men will hardly now believe there is such a happiness as once they had, much less as Christ hath now procured. When God would give the Israelites his sabbaths of rest, in a land of rest, he had more ado to make them believe it, than to over-upon him above all. May the living God, who come their enemies, and procure it for them. And when they had it, only as a small intimation and earnest of an incomparably more glorious rest through Christ, they yet believe no more than they possess, but say, with the glutton at the feast, Sure there is no other heaven but this! Or, if they expect more by the Messiah, it is only the increase of their earthly felicity. The apostle bestows most of this epistle against this dis

is the portion and rest of his saints, make these our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving him, and delighting in him, may be the work of our lives; and that neither I that write, nor you that read this book, may ever be turned from this path of life; lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, we should come short of it, through our own unbelief or negligence!

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