On Baxter's Call Part 07

Conclusion
'If you want to know the art of pleading' said Spurgeon 'read Baxter.' This book is certainly a lesson in that art. At the close of a paper on Baxter some years ago Maurice Roberts quotes Jim Packer saying that "The content of Baxter's Gospel is not in any way distinctive. It was the historic, Puritan, evangelical, New Testament message of ruin, redemption and regeneration." He then asks what made Baxter so successful. He suggests a number of things to which we have added some points taken from Timothy Beougher. We say

1. The seriousness with which he goes about his task.
2. The directness with which he addresses his hearers. He takes his hearer by storm. He almost takes us by the throat in his earnestness.
3. The eagerness with which he seeks to be effective in his presentation.
4. The reasonable way he presents his case. Baxter did not rant; he did not make an assault on the will or on the emotions but on the mind. He deals with man as a rational being.
5. The way he uses the ploughshare of exhortation to rip up his hearers' conscience. Almost every word is a challenge to the conscience of sinful man, to drive him from his refuge to Christ.
6. The thoroughness that he shows. He said it and then said it again. He put it in different forms, different ways: arguing, reasoning, persuading, convincing. There is relentless application to the conscience. In light of what God says, you must do this and this, if you do you will be blessed in such and such ways; if you refuse then you will inherit such and such a curse.
7. The clarity of his method. He follows the Puritan plan and begins with a text, drawing out the doctrines then proving them, explaining and expounding them. .
8. The focus on primary truths. He does not get side-tracked but deals with the great themes: heaven and hell, God and Christ, faith and repentance, Christ's cross, the need to come at once.
9. His deep pastoral compassion and concern. He cared profoundly for the lost state of man. He had a burning heart of love to Christless sinners and his motive is to move men to God.
10. His determination to answer every conceivable objection anyone might at any time raise against the truth. He strips the sinner of his armour and leaves him naked before God's Judgement Throne.
11. His unmasking of sin and laying bare of the heart. Man is shown to be a sinner; sin to be very sinful.
12. His presentation of God in Christ as supremely delightful, desirable and to be attained to, no matter what the cost or difficulty, the sacrifice or the apparent loss in this life.
13. The urgency with which he spoke. He demands a response. There is no better time than now.
14. His constant looking to the Lord to do the work, not to his own efforts.

15. The providence of God. Baxter would surely want us to add this. From the invention of printing and the popularity of such literature to Baxter's own history and background and beyond, the success of the book is due very much to the providence of God.