The Reformed Pastor-3

The Reformed Pastor

By Richard Baxter

Yet another email from my son with his progressing thoughts on Baxter's book, The Reformed Pastor.

The first observation you will note below is the definition of Reformed, like my son, I to have been reflecting on J.I. Packer's "helpful observation" these past few days.

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Dad,

One thing that just keeps coming to my mind as I read this book is Packer's helpful observation made in his introduction, that the word "Reformed" in the title was not used by Baxter to refer to Calvinistic doctrine, but to being renewed in practice.

"By 'reformed' he means, not Calvinistic doctrine, but renewed in practice."

In light of that, the title 'The Reformed Pastor' should be understood to mean 'The Renewed Pastor.'

In pages 72 to 86 Baxter supplies numerous stirring and convicting motives for us to 'take heed' to our own walk with Christ. There is so much meat in this section that it is a bit painful to condense it for you. So I will supply the main points and the comments which struck me the most, and of course, the verse upon which this book is based, Acts 20:28. The following is so plain, I don't think there can be much that I can contribute to it. There is such a degree of strength in it that my words would but water it down.

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseeers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Acts 20:28

"1. Take heed for you have heaven to win or lose..."

"...it concerneth you to begin at home, and to take heed to yourselves as well as to others."

"O sirs, how many men have preached Christ, and yet have perished for want of saving interest in him?"

"How many, who are now in hell have told their people of the torments of hell, and warned them to escape from it?"

"a holy calling will not save an unholy man."

"2. Take heed to yourselves, for you have a depraved nature and sinful inclinations."

"Sin dwelleth in us, when we have preached ever so much against it."

"In us there are, at the best, the remnants of pride, unbelief, self-seeking, hypocrisy, and all the most hateful, deadly, sins."

"3. Take heed to yourselves, because the tempter will more ply you with his temptations than other men."

"he knows what a route he will make... if the leaders fall before their eyes"

"As wise and learned as you are, take heed to yourselves, lest he outwit you... The devil is a greater scholar than you, and a nimbler disputant..."

"4. Take heed to yourselves, because there are many eyes upon you, and there will be many to observe your falls."

"5. Take heed to yourselves, for your sins have more heinous aggravations than other men's."

"It was a saying of king Alphonsus, that 'a great man cannot commit a small' sin'"

"a. You are more likely than others to sin against knowledge, because you have more than they..."

"b. your sins have more hypocrisy in them than other men's, by how much the more you have spoken against them."

"6. Take heed to yourselves, because such work as ours require greater grace than other men's."

"we have seen some private Christians of good esteem, who, having thought too highly of their parts, and thrust themselves into the ministerial office, have proved weak and empty men, and have become greater burdens to the Church than some whom we endeavored to cast out. They might have done God more service in the higher rank of private men, than they do among the lowest of the ministry."

"7. Take heed to yourselves, for the honor of your Lord and Master, and of his holy truth and ways, doth lie more on you than on other men."

"Would it not wound you to the heart to hear the name and truth of God reproached for your sakes; to see men point to you, and say, 'There goes a covetous priest, a secret tippler [alcoholic], a scandalous man; these are they that preach for strictness, while they themselves can live as loose as others; they condemn us by their sermons, and condemn themselves by their lives; notwithstanding all their talk, they are as bad as we.'"

"O take heed, brethren, of every word you speak, and of every step you tread, for you bear the ark of the Lord, you are entrusted with His honor!"

"Never did a man dishonor God, but it proved the greatest dishonor to himself."

"8. Lastly, Take heed to yourselves, for the success of all your labors doth very much depend upon this."

"a. Can it be expected that God will bless that man's labors, (I mean comparatively, as to other ministers) who worketh not for God, but for himself? Now, this is the case with every unsanctified man. None but converted men do make God their chief end, and do all or any thing heartily for his honor; others make the ministry but a trade to live by."

"O sirs, all your preaching and persuading of others, will be but dreaming and vile hypocrisy, till the work be thoroughly done upon your own hearts. How can you set yourselves, day and night, to a work that your carnal hearts are averse to? How can you call, with serious fervor, upon poor sinners to repent and return to God, that never repented or returned yourselves? How can you heartily follow poor sinners, with importunate solicitations to take heed of sin, and to lead a holy life, that never felt yourselves the evil of sin, or the worth of holiness?"

"What, can you love other men better than yourselves?"

"As Calvin saith on my text; 'For never will the man take diligent care for the salvation of others who neglects his own salvation.'"

"I CONFESS, THAT MAN SHALL NEVER HAVE MY CONSENT TO HAVE THE CHARGE OF OTHER MEN'S SOULS, AND TO OVERSEE THEM IN ORDER TO THEIR SALVATION, THAT TAKES NOT HEED TO HIMSELF, BUT IS CARELESS OF HIS OWN, except it were in case of absolute necessity, that no better could be had." [Original text was upper case]

"he who cherisheth sin in his own heart doth never fall upon it in good earnest in others... a wicked man may be more willing for the reformation of others than of his own... he can preach against sin at an easier rate than he can forsake it..."

The Reformed Pastor-2

The Reformed Pastor

By Richard Baxter

[This is the 2nd post commenting on this book]

Today I received another email from my son with some more great observations from Baxter’s, The Reformed Pastor. His thoughts as follows:

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Baxter really bears down heavily on the negligence of preachers in caring for their own souls.

"Oh sirs, how many men have preached Christ, and yet have perished for want of a saving interest in him?" "A holy calling will not save an unholy man."

While the book is very rich and appealing to the intellect, it is not a 'thrill' read. I have to read slowly and prayerfully. It is very convicting. He also gives the 'beware that you don't study to your own further damnation' warning.

He particularly points out that people ought not to be studying theology as they would physics. On the other hand, he does intensely desire that people study physics almost as they would study theology. Namely, study physics as a textbook declaring the glory of God in science, as all creation is a textbook declaring the glory of the Lord. He would rather that young people first study theology so that their foundation is set for other studies.

"Nothing can be rightly known if God be not known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied."

"It is one thing to know the creatures as Aristotle, and another thing to know them as a Christian. None but a Christian can read one line of his Physics so as to understand it rightly. It is a high and excellent study, and of greater use than many apprehend; but it is the smallest part of it that Aristotle may teach us."

The Reformed Pastor

THE REFORMED PASTOR

By Richard Baxter

As part of the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge ,my son is currently reading Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor.

Available on line here.

Following are some introductory comments he passed on to me by way of an email:

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I am 67 pages deep into reading Richard Baxter's Reformed Pastor. Wow, what a book! Very, very piercing.

J.I Packer says, "By 'reformed' he means, not Calvinistic doctrine, but renewed in practice." Regarding the book, Packer writes, "It's words have hands and feet... the book has reality... a model of rationality."

Baxter seems to be imminently practical. His goal is to seriously convict preaches, and work them towards renewal for their sake and the sakes of their flocks. And so he writes,

"How can you choose, when you are laying a corpse in the grave, but think with yourselves, 'here lieth the body; but where is the soul? and what have I done for it, before it departed? It was part of my charge; what account can I give of it?'"

Baxter puts more weight on follow-up one-on-one ministry, (the personal imparting of doctrine through catechisms and counseling) than preaching.

"I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular sinner..."

"...I frequently meet with those that have been my hearers eight or ten years, who know not whether Christ be God or man, and wonder when I tell them the history of his birth and life and death as if they had never heard it before.... But most of them have an ungrounded trust in Christ, hoping that he will pardon, justify and save them, while the world hath their hearts, and they live to the flesh..."

According to Packer, "...he taught individuals through personal counseling and catechizing. Christians, he urged, should regularly come to their pastor with their problems and let him check their spiritual health, and ministers should regularly catechize their entire congregations."

Baxter urged other pastors to also do this, and so he writes, "The common cry is, 'Our people are not ready for it; they will not bear it' But is not the fact rather, that you will not bear the trouble and hatred which it will occasion?"

Baxter writes later on, "If you intend the end of the ministry in the pulpit only, it would seem you take yourselves for ministers no longer than you are there. And, if so, I think you are unworthy to be esteemed ministers at all."

Baxter gives the structure of his book at the end of his introduction;

First, To consider what it is to take heed to ourselves
Secondly, To show why we must take heed to ourselves
Thirdly, To inquire what it is to take heed to all the flock
Fourthly, To illustrate the manner in which we must take heed to all the flock.
Fifthly, To state some motives why we should take heed to all the flock
Lastly, to make some application of the whole


"Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish, while you call upon others to take heed of perishing... preach to yourselves the sermons which you study, before you preach them to others."


It is very easy to read. Baxter writes in plain English, yet it is weighty, doctrinally solid, practical and convicting. It is a favorite already,