Baxter, Richard, one of the most eminent of the Nonconformist divines, was born November 12, 1615, at Rowton, Shropshire. His father, Richard Baxter, of Eaton-Constantine, Shrewsbury, was a man of some means, but had squandered his property in gambling, so for the first ten years of his life Baxter lived with his grandfather. His education was irregular and imperfect, but he acquired immense stores of varied knowledge by private study. When eighteen years of age, he was persuaded to make trial of a court life, as the most likely way to rise in the world, and was introduced to the Master of the Revels at Whitehall; but the experiment was eminently unsuccessful, and at the end of a month he returned home, 'glad to be gone,' he says. From his earliest days he was under religious impressions, which deepened as he grew older, and led to his entering the ministry, though in very delicate health, when he was about twenty-three years of age. He was ordained by the Bishop of Worcester, and entered on the mastership of Dudley grammar-school, preaching occasionally. After a year he went as assistant to a clergyman in Bridgnorth, where he laboured for nearly two years. Originally, like his family and friends, an unhesitating conformist, he about this time found himself led by study of the controversial points to adopt some of the nonconformist views. In 1640 he was invited to officiate for the vicar of Kidderminster, where he remained for other two years. When the civil war broke out in 1642, he found his political views at variance with the public feeling of Worcestershire, and, some disorder arising, he retired to Coventry, where he ministered for two years to the garrison and inhabitants. His sympathies were almost wholly with the Puritans, and after the victory of Naseby he acted as chaplain to one of the regiments, and was present at the sieges of Bridgewater, Bristol, Exeter, and Worcester. Whilst with the army, he employed all his eloquence to moderate the extreme views, political and religious, of the soldiers, and with considerable success. His health continuing very uncertain, he retired from the army to the house of his friend, Sir Thomas Rouse, of Rouse-Lench, Worcestershire; and here, 'in continual expectation of death, with one foot in the grave,' he wrote the first part of the best of all his works, The Saints' Everlasting Rest, published in 1650. On the invitation of his former parishioners, he returned to Kidderminster, and, in spite of continued bad health, laboured there for fourteen years with eminent success. 'When I came,' he says, 'there was about one family in a street that worshipped God, and when I came away there were some streets where there was not one poor family that did not do so.' At the Restoration, Baxter was appointed one of the king's chaplains, and took a leading part in the Savoy Conference. Presbyterian though he was, he did not object to a modified form of Episcopacy; yet he declined the proffered bishopric of Hereford. Shortly afterwards, in 1662, the Act of Uniformity having driven him out of the English church, he was compelled to leave Kidderminster, and was subjected to much hardship and persecution. Retiring to Acton, in Middlesex, in 1663, he spent the greater part of nine years chiefly in the composition of some of the most important of his works. The Act of Indulgence in 1672 permitted him to return to London, where he divided his time between preaching and writing. But in 1685, after the accession of James II., he was brought, for alleged sedition in his Paraphrase of the New Testament, before Judge Jeffreys, who treated him in the most brutal manner, calling him a dog, and swearing it would be no more than justice to whip such a villain through the city. Condemned to pay 500 marks, and to be imprisoned till the fine was paid, he lay in King's Bench Prison for nearly eighteen months, and was released only on the mediation of Lord Powis. The later years of his life were spent in tranquillity. He died on the 8th December 1691, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
Baxter was a large-hearted man, and though a keen controversialist, had greater tolerance for the persons of those who were opposed to him than was common in those days. He was one of the ablest and most eloquent preachers of his time, and a most voluminous writer. His style is direct and manly; 'there is a vigorous pulse in his writings that keeps the reader awake and attentive,' and in his practical works he is intensely in earnest. Of these, The Saints' Everlasting Rest (1650), Now or Never (1663), Call to the Unconverted (1657), and The Reformed Pastor (1656) are the best known. His theological works, such as Methodus Theologicæ, Catholic Theology, and controversial works, are learned and profound, but are for the learned only. His theological catholicity and tolerance led some to regard him as an Arminian, while by others he was held to be a Calvinist. It was said of his works by Dr Isaac Barrow, with pardonable exaggeration, that 'his practical writings were never mended, and his controversial seldom confuted.' The few poems he has left are of considerable merit. The chief authority for his life is the remarkable and interesting autobiographical work published in 1696 as Reliquiæ Baxterianæ.
An edition of his practical works in 23 vols., with a Life by Orme, was published in 1830. Editions of select practical works appeared in 1830 and 1840. Recent shorter Lives are those by Dean Boyle (1883) and Davies (1886).