Letters

Dublin Core

Title

Letters

Description

This collection is a small sample of the kinds of letters that Richard Baxter exchanged with women and men from all walks of life throughout England between 1657 and 1659. Here we profile his correspondence with a French émigré, a vulnerable young ministerial assistant, an imprisoned Scottish Earl, a melancholic gentlewoman, Oliver Cromwell's household chaplain, and an irascible Baptist.

Contributor

Dr Williams's Library

Collection Items

Katherine Gell to Richard Baxter
Katherine Gell struggles to understand the part played by affections in the process of sanctification. She is also troubled by melancholy. In this letter she presents Baxter with a specific instance of her 'case'. She is concerned by the way in which…

Richard Baxter to Katherine Gell
Richard Baxter was known for his pastoral care and skill in casuistry. In this letter he seeks to reassure Katherine Gell that her varied emotional experiences, particularly fear, do not negate the significant progress she has made in spiritual…

Abraham Pinchbecke to Richard Baxter
Abraham Pinchbecke was at this point the assistant minister to the Presbyterian, Thomas Manton, at Covent Garden. He writes to ask Baxter's advice about who should be admitted to the Lord's Supper (Eucharist or Communion) and to justify the teaching…

John Howe to Richard Baxter
John Howe, a distant relation of Baxter’s, writes to Baxter from his position at Whitehall as domestic chaplain to Cromwell. Here, he confides in Baxter his frustration in this position, and his desire to return to his former post as vicar of Great…

Peter Du Moulin to Richard Baxter
Peter Du Moulin wrote to Baxter from Christ Church College, Oxford, where he was tutor to the sons of Richard Boyle, second earl of Cork. This letter reveals Baxter’s interest in seeing the translation into English of Nouveauté du papisme, the…

Richard Baxter to Peter Du Moulin
Baxter replies to Peter Du Moulin’s letter (DWL MS ii.293-94), encouraging Du Moulin towards completing an English translation of Nouveauté du papisme, and responding to his queries about Baxter’s position on admitting all to the sacrament.

John Maitland to Richard Baxter
John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale, provides Baxter with an account of James Ussher's Britanniarum ecclesiarum antiquities (Dublin, 1639). He apologises for wasting his time on a book of John Dee's and he offers to engage in translation work to assist…

John Tombes to Richard Baxter
The Baptist minister, John Tombes, discusses with Baxter the various prefatory epistles which the latter is writing for his publications. Tombes indicates also his active involvement in Baxter's attempts to establish ecumenical ties between the…
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