Baxter, Richard

BAXTER, RICHARD. - English Protestant theologian, b. at Rowton in 1615, d. in 1691. He was ordained an Anglican minister in 1638, but did not abandon the nonconformist doctrines of his family. From 1641 to 1662 he was pastor at Kidderminster, where he labored with such fruit as to transform that village. Even with his nonconformist ideas, he celebrated the restoration of the monarchy. He was appointed chaplain by King Charles II (1660-85); indeed in 1660 the episcopal see of Hereford was offered to him, which he did not accept. The following year he took part in the conference held at Savoy Palace for the revision of the Prayer Book. In 1662, having refused to adhere to the "Uniformity Act," by which all Anglican ministers had to conform to the new Prayer Book, he was deprived of his parish of Kidderminster, and had to suffer many persecutions. With the accession to the throne of King William III, in 1688, his troubles ended, and when he died, the nonconformists mourned one of their principal leaders. The literary activity of B. was incredible.

His important Practical Works alone form 4 folio volumes; they were later reprinted in 23 octavo volumes, and constitute an important collection of casuistry, polemics and positive and moral theology. Much fame also came to him from his treatise on The Saints' Everlasting Rest (vols. 22 and 23), a good part of which was suppressed in all editions printed after the restoration, because he had placed among the beasts certain deceased persons opposed to the monarchy. The doctrine called Baxterian teaches that common grace is given to all, but needs another special grace to be effective with regard to salvation: election and reprobation must not be attributed in the same way to God, who elects, but the sin that produces reprobation cannot be imputed to him; Christ died for all and therefore to all, but not in the same way, is the invitation made. As can be seen, B. here separates himself from Calvinist doctrine, but on other points he clearly professes it. Almost foreseeing the efforts that centuries later were to be made for the union of the Churches, B. wrote: The True and Only Way of Concord of all the Christian Churches (London 1680). For him the first condition would be to know the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Decalogue. In the united Church, it would fall to the civil magistrates to determine which religions should be approved, which tolerated or rejected; to the ecclesiastics alone (bishops or simple ministers) to ordain candidates, and to the individual communities to choose their own pastor, etc. Among the many writings of B. there are some strongly anti-Catholic ones. Baxterianism had many adversaries; one of these, Thomas Edwards, did not hesitate to print on the title page of his book, Baxterianism Barefaced, the following distich: "Fronte mel apparet, tegitur sed ventre venenum; Mellique, sub cauda toxica mixta iacent."

Camillo Crivelli