The Introduction
One reviewer said he would never read The Reformed Pastor again.[1] Another said, reading the table of contents could transform someone’s life.[2] Reformed theologians and pastors commend the practical writings of Baxter but critique aspects of his theology.
Baxter was a controversial theologian
Tom Hicks writes that Richard Baxter seems to be largely known today for his works of practical theology, including, The Christian Directory, which has been used in some quarters as a manual of Christian counseling, and The Reformed Pastor, which is often commended as a useful paradigm of pastoral ministry among Reformed men. But Baxter is less known for his doctrinal theology, particularly for his doctrine of justification. Baxter first wrote on the doctrine of justification in Aphorisms of Justification, published in 1649. In that work, he reacted against the antinomian spirit he discovered among the soldiers of Cromwell’s army, while he served as a chaplain. Baxter believed the doctrine of justification by faith alone on the basis of Christ’s righteousness was the root error among the antinomian soldiers, and he wrote Aphorisms of Justification, partly to correct that error. In response to scathing criticisms from the Reformed orthodox, Baxter wrote Of Justification in 1658, which contained four disputations on justification. Consider the following quotations from Baxter’s second disputation:
“It is not therefore any one single act of faith alone by which we are justified, but it is many physical acts conjunctly which constitute that faith which the gospel makes the condition of life.”[3]
Baxter was a political activist
“Richard Baxter was a 17th-century pastor and political activist. He was active in the English Civil War against the monarchy but was critical of Oliver Cromwell’s government. He began his life within the Church of England, but ended his life as a non-conformist.”[4]
Baxter was an exemplary pastor
J. I. Packer wrote, “As a pastor, however, Baxter was incomparable.”[5] Packer mentioned other important leaders from yesteryear who commended Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor including George Whitefield, John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon.[6]
By “reformed” Baxter did not mean reformed as in reformed theology or Calvinism but as in the need for pastors to reform or repent and be renewed:
Baxter wrote: Too many who have undertaken the work of the ministry so obstinately proceed in self–seeking, negligence, pride, and other sins, that it is become our necessary duty to admonish them. If we saw that such would reform without reproof, we would gladly forbear the publishing of their faults .... And how can we more effectually further a reformation, than by endeavoring to reform the leaders of the Church.[7]
Baxter had planned to address the area pastors but became sick. He expanded his sermon into The Reformed Pastor. In his dedication, Baxter states his thesis of his book: The first and main point, which I have to propound to you, is this, Whether it be not the unquestionable duty of the generality of ministers of these three nations, to set themselves presently to the work of catechizing, and instructing individually, all that are committed to their care, who will be persuaded to submit thereunto?[8]
Next, Baxter provided his method for catechizing those committed to his care: We spend Monday and Tuesday, from morning almost to night, in the work, taking about fifteen or sixteen families in a week, that we may go through the parish, in which there are upwards of eight hundred families, in a year.[9] At each home, Baxter spent one hour.
An Overview of Each Chapter
Richard Baxter divides his book into three chapters:
Chapter 1 - The Oversight of Ourselves
Chapter 2 – The Oversight of the Flock
Chapter 3 – Application
Each chapter is divided into sections. Chapter three is divided into sections, parts, and articles.
Chapter 1
The Oversight of Ourselves
Section 1
The Nature of the Oversight
This personal oversight begins with the necessity of the pastor being converted: “See that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Saviour, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss an interest in him and his saving benefits.[10] This is the same counsel with which Charles Spurgeon opened his Lectures to My Students.
Next, Baxter exhorted his fellow pastors: Content not yourselves with being in a state of grace, but be also careful that your graces are kept in vigorous and lively exercise, and that you preach to yourselves the sermons which you study before you preach them to others.[11] This advice reminds me of the example of Ezra who was called a “skilled teacher” (7:6). God’s hand was on Ezra in 7:9 “Because Ezra had prepared his heart to seek [study] the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgment” (7:10). Baxter admonished his co-laborers to practice what they preached “lest your example contradict your doctrine.”[12] These pastors were also exhorted to “Take heed yourselves, lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others, and lest you be guilty of that which daily you condemn.”[13]
Lastly, Baxter instructed these men of God to “take heed to yourselves ... he must not be himself a babe in knowledge, that will teach men all those mysterious things which must be known in order to salvation.”[14]
In his final challenge in Section One, Baxter with an emotional “O” declared, “Therefore, brethren lose no time! Study, and pray, and confer, and practice; for in these four ways your abilities must be increased. Take heed to yourselves, lest you are weak through your own negligence, and lest you mar the work of God by your weakness.”[15] You can almost hear an echo of Paul’s challenge to Timothy: “Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this you shall both save yourself and them that hear you” (1 Tim 4:16).
[1] Tyler Robbins, Shaper Iron, accessed 10/19/20.
[2] Chad Van Dixhoorn, “The Reformed Pastor: A Reader’s Guide to a Christian Classic” in Desiring God September 16, 2022. Chad Van Dixhoorn is a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary
[3] Tom Hicks, “Was Richard Baxter Orthodox on Justification” in Founder’s Ministries, n.d.
[4] Old Answers to New Problems: Richard Baxter on Work, Andrew J. Spencer | January 13, 2016 in Center for Faith and Culture.
[5] J. I. Packer, “Introduction” in The Reformed Pastor (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2020), xviii.
[6] Ibid., xix-xxiv.
[7] Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2020), 4-5.
[8] Ibid., 7.
[9] Ibid., 9.
[10] Ibid.,17.
[11] Ibid., 27.
[12] Ibid., 29.
[13] Ibid., 35.
[14] Ibid., 36.
[15] Ibid., 40.