New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:
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In his contribution to a book on Puritan Richard Baxter’s (1615-1691) ministry to those suffering from “melancholy” (we’d say “depression”), Packer makes an important point about two trajectories that developed in Puritanism during the time leading up to the English Civil War. He writes,
In his adult life Baxter was called a Puritan, a term of disrespect, but one he accepted, though increasingly he referred to himself as a “meer Christian,” a cautious friend to all creedal churches and their adherents, while yet showing an unqualified commitment to none of them. “Puritan,” however, tagged him as involved in a sometimes impatient and imprudent left-wing Reformational movement that had been making waves in England ever since Elizabeth’s reign began.
It had developed in two directions, political and pastoral. The political wing clamored, unsuccessfully, for a radicalizing of the Elizabethan settlement in a number of ways. From its ranks were to come the revolutionaries who, provoked beyond endurance by Charles I’s autocracy and bad faith, finally fought and executed him and set up the well-meant but short-lived Commonwealth. Pastorally oriented Puritans, on the other hand, gave themselves to preaching, teaching, and what we would call evangelism. Their goal was the conversion of all England to vital biblical and Reformed faith. To this end, they produced a steady flow of catechetical, homiletical, and devotional literature. This was Baxter’s own prime field of ministry; while he dabbled in political concerns, his main contribution was as one of Puritanism’s most gifted writers of didactic devotional material….
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