An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Saturday 24 July 2021

The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter - updated and abridged by Tim Cooper

The Reformed Pastor

Richard Baxter; updated and abridged by Tim Cooper

Crossway Books

Hardback; 176 pp; £18.50

ISBN 978-1-4335-7318-7


Richard Baxter (1615-1691) was known as 'Scribbling Dick' because of his prodigious writings. He was born Rowton, Shropshire. When a teenager he was influenced by the works of William Perkins, Richard Sibbes and Edmund Bunny. In 1638 he became the master at the free grammar school in Dudley, where he was ordained by the bishop of Worcester, John Thornborough. The main part of his ministry took place in Kidderminster at St Mary and All Saint's Church (1647-1661).  During the Civil War he left Kidderminster as a chaplain to the parliamentary army, but later returned to Kidderminster. In 1662 he married and retired to Middlesex after being part of the Great Ejection bought about by the Act of Uniformity. 


He was a prolific writer and wrote over 140 books. It was during his first spell at Kidderminster that he wrote The Reformed Pastor in 1656That is the book is still in print today is and merits a new abridged edition is a testimony to its impact and longevity. James I. Packer named it among one of the five books that have most influenced him. Packer described Baxter as “the most outstanding pastor, evangelist and writer on practical and devotional themes Puritanism has produced”. 


This is not the first time this book has been abridged - the standard edition was edited and abridged by William Brown in 1829 and republished by The Banner of Truth Trust in 1974. The BoT edition still used archaic language. What Tim Cooper has done is to make this book much more readable and accessible. It is also much shorter, but still keeps the key message of the book.


Cooper is no stranger to Baxter. He is author of Fear and Polemic in Seventeenth Century England: Richard Baxter and Antinomianism (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2001), John Owen, Richard Baxter and the Formation of Nonconformity (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2016), and co-editor of Richard Baxter: Reliquiæ Baxterianæ: Or, Mr Richard Baxter's Narrative of the Most Memorable Passages of his Life and Times (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). Thus, he is well equipped to abridge and edit this book. 


Cooper has added a useful summary at the beginning of each chapter. A series of pertinent and challenging questions also conclude each chapter. This adds to the value of Baxter’s book. 


What Baxter puts forward in this book is a call for church ministers to take pastoral work seriously. This for Baxter entails, not only teaching and preaching from the pulpit but also daily visitation. Visitation includes private instruction with the use of a catechism - it is one-to-one personal discipleship. He stresses the need for pastors to know themselves and to know their flock.


What Baxter is very good at is exploring the motives behind the nature of pastoral work. He is both an encourager and an exhorter. He deals extremely well with possible objections to the nature of this type of ministry and pulls no punches. 


Baxter held to a view known as neo-nomianism, and there are traces of this that can be seen in his (over)emphasis on the need for faith and repentance and human autonomy; sometimes his exhortation comes close to legalism. This does not detract from the importance of this book - it should be required reading for all pastors. 


Thanks to Crossway for a review copy of this book.


Friday 16 July 2021

Family Tree of Calvinistic philosophy

 Over at the Layman's Lounge is my family tree of Calvinistic philosophy - concentrating primarily on neo-Calvinists.



It has gone through several drafts - with helpful comments from Gregory Baus, Derek Schuurman and Jet Weigand-Timmer. 

This is the latest iteration (click on the image to enlarge it):






Thursday 8 July 2021

Mark Roques in the Baptist Times

 The Baptist Times has a piece by Mark Roques on his excellent new resource for creative faith sharing. You can read it here.