A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live by Richard Baxter

He commenced his ministry after being ordained by John Thornborough, Bishop of Worcester and was soon transferred to Bridgnorth, in Shropshire. With the help of James Berry, who later became a colonel in the New Model Army, in 1638 Baxter became master of the free grammar school at Dudley. In about 1634, he met Joseph Symonds (assistant to Thomas Gataker) and Walter Cradock, two Nonconformists. Īfter three months spent working for the dying Owen as a teacher at Wroxeter, Baxter read theology with Francis Garbet, the local clergyman, adding to his reading (initially in devotional writings, of Richard Sibbes, William Perkins and Ezekiel Culverwell, as well as the Calvinist Edmund Bunny at age 14, and then in the scholastic philosophers) orthodox Church of England theology in Richard Hooker and George Downham, and arguments from conforming puritans in John Sprint and John Burges. He was confirmed in the decision by the death of his mother. He was reluctantly persuaded to go to court, and he went to London under the patronage of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, with the intention of doing so, but soon returned home, resolved to study divinity. On Owen's advice he did not proceed to Oxford (a step which he afterwards regretted), but went to Ludlow Castle to read with Richard Wickstead, chaplain to the Council of Wales and the Marches. He was helped by John Owen, master of the free school at Wroxeter, where he studied from about 1629 to 1632, and made fair progress in Latin. Richard's early education was poor, being mainly in the hands of the local clergy, themselves virtually illiterate. On 10 September 1662, Baxter married Margaret Charlton, who died in 1681. His views remain controversial within the Calvinist tradition of Predestination because he taught that Christians are placed under a type of faith-law.īaxter was born on 12 November 1615 at Rowton, Shropshire, in the home of his maternal grandfather, and baptised at its then parish church at High Ercall, before moving in February 1626 to his parents' home in Eaton Constantine. He became one of the most influential leaders of the Nonconformist movement, spending time in prison.

He made his reputation in the late 1630s by his ministry at Kidderminster in Worcestershire, when he also began a long and prolific career as theological writer.įollowing the Act of Uniformity 1662, Baxter refused an appointment as Bishop of Hereford and was expelled from the Church of England.

Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Nonconformist church leader and theologian from Rowton, Shropshire, who has been described as 'the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen'.

Church leader, theologian, controversialist, poet

A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live by Richard Baxter