A Breviate of the Life of Margaret Baxter - Puritan Richard Baxter ▶️SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/stack45ny ▶️After subscribing, click on NOTIFICATION BELL to be notified of new uploads. ▶️SUPPORT CHANNEL: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=RB72ANM8DJL2S&lc=US&item_name=stack45ny¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted Top 10 Most Popular Sermons (Playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzOwqed_gET3I_hiobSa2ftDDZZW-HoD7 Charles Spurgeon Sermon Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCDB844A9113F938C Puritans (Playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL147B764889A13CCA ▶️GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/christianty ▶️My WordPress blog: https://sermonsandsongsdotorg.com/ ▶️Telegram: https://t.me/ChristianSermonsAndAudioBooks ▶️RUMBLE https://rumble.com/c/c-278901 Richard Baxter playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=353D9FC6791C59E2 Richard Baxter - English puritan divine (1615-1691) was a prominent English churchman / preacher of the 1600s. He was a peacemaker who sought unity among Protestants, and yet he was a highly independent thinker and at the center of every major controversy in England during his lifetime. Born in Rowton, Baxter was largely self-taught. He eventually studied at a free school, then at royal court, where he became disgusted at what he saw as frivolity. He left to study divinity, and at age 23, he was ordained into the Church of England. Within the Anglican church, Baxter found common ground with the Puritans, a growing faction who opposed the church's episcopacy and was itself breaking into factions. Baxter, for his part, did his best to avoid the disputes between Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and other denominations, even convincing local ministers to cooperate in some pastoral matters. "In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity," he was fond of saying. The interest in cooperation was not due to a lack of conviction. On the contrary, Baxter was opinionated in his theology, which was not quite Separatist and not quite Conformist. Among his more than 200 works are long, controversial discourses on doctrine. Still, he believed society was a large family under a loving father, and in his theology, he tried to cut between the extremes. He eventually registered himself as "a mere Nonconformist" ("Nonconformist" was a technical term meaning "not Anglican"), breaking with the Church of England mainly because of the lack of power it gave parish clergy. Baxter also found himself as a peacemaker during the English Civil Wars. He believed in monarchy, but a limited one. He served as a chaplain for the parliamentary army, but then helped to bring about the restoration of the king. Yet as a moderate, Baxter found himself the target of both extremes. He was still irritated with the episcopacy in 1660, when he was offered the bishopric of Hereford, so he declined it. As a result, he was barred from ecclesiastical office and not permitted to return to Kidderminster, nor was he allowed to preach. Between 1662 and 1688 (when James II was overthrown), he was persecuted and was imprisoned for 18 months, and he was forced to sell two extensive libraries. Still, he continued to preach: "I preached as never sure to preach again," he wrote, "and as a dying man to dying men." The Saints' Everlasting Rest was one of the most widely read books of the century. eHis autobiography and his pastoral guide, The Reformed Pastor, are still widely read today. A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton, of apply in Shropshire, esq. and wife of Richard Baxter. For the use of all, but especially of their kindred. There is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughter’s request, called, the last work of a believer, his passing-prayer, recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him. "Being thus obliged by her request, mine own affections urged me to premise this Breviate of her own life: Written, I confess, under the power of melting grief, and therefore perhaps with the less prudent judgment; but not with the less, but the more truth: For passionate weakness poureth out all, which greater prudence may conceal. Conscionable men’s histories are true; but if they be also wise, they tell us but some part of truth, concealing that which would do harm, and which the depraved world cannot bear without abusing it: But we that are less wise, tell all the truth, too little regarding how men will receive it. And hence comes all history, which hath not evidence equal to natural, to be of less credit than most men think; while bad men lie, and good men leave out so much of the truth, as makes the rest to be as another thing than altogether it would appear." - Summary from the title page and text