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the picture drawn by a late English historian of the infamous
Jeffreys in his judicial robes, sitting in judgment upon the venerable
Richard Baxter, brought before him to answer to an indictment, setting forth that the said ‘
Richardus Baxter, persona seditiosa et factiosa pravae mentis, impiae, inquietae, turbulent disposition et conversation; falso illicte, injuste nequit factiose seditiose, et irreligiose, fecit, composuit, scripsit quendam falsum, seditiosum, libellosum, factiosum et irreligiosum librum,’ is so remarkable that the attention of the most careless reader is at once arrested.
Who was that old man, wasted with disease and ghastly with the pallor of imprisonment, upon whom the foul-mouthed buffoon in ermine exhausted his vocabulary of abuse and ridicule?
Who was
Richardus Baxter?
The author of works so elaborate and profound as to frighten by their very titles and ponderous folios the modern ecclesiastical student from their perusal, his hold upon the present generation is limited to a few practical treatises, which, from their very nature, can never become obsolete.
The
Call to the Unconverted and the
Saints' Everlasting Rest belong to no time or sect.
They speak the universal language of the wants and desires of the human soul.
They take hold of the
