Richard Baxter
256 pages
Richard Baxter was vicar of Kidderminster from 1647 to 1661. His ministry transformed the people of Kidderminster from 'an ignorant, rude and revelling people' to a godly, worshipping community. These pages, first prepared for a Worcestershire association of ministers in 1656, deal with the means by which such changes are ever to be accomplished. In his fervent plea for the discharge of the spiritual obligations of the ministry, Baxter, in the words of his contemporary, Thomas Manton, 'came nearer the apostolic writings than any man in the age'. A century later Philip Doddridge wrote, 'The Reformed Pastor is a most extraordinary book...many good men are but shadows of what (by the blessing of God) they might be, if the maxims and measures laid down in that incomparable Treatise were strenuously pursued'.