Richard Baxter - A Christian Directory, Part 4 - Christian Politics

4. As the upright, so their upright life and duties are specially delightful and acceptable to God, Prov. xv. 8. The prayer of the upright is his delight, Psal. xv. 2. Therefore God blesseth their duties to them, and they are comforted and strengthened by experience of success. "The way of the Lord is strength to the upright, but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity," Prov. x. 29. "Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly," Micah ii. 7.

5. No carnal policies, no worldly might, no help of friends, nor any other human means, doth put a man in so safe a state, as uprightness of heart and life. To walk uprightly, is to walk surely, because such walk with God, and in his way, and under his favour, and his promise; and if God be not sufficient security for us, there is none. "Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name; the upright shall dwell in thy presence," Psal. cxl. 13. "The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness," Prov. xi. 3, 6.

6. Lastly, the failings and weaknesses of the upright are pardoned, and therefore they shall certainly be saved, Rom. vii. 24, 25; viii. 1. The upright may say in all their weaknesses as Solomon; "I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness; as for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things," 1 Chron. xxix. 17. "God will do good to them that are good, and to them that are upright in their hearts," Psal. cxxv. 4. The upright love him, Cant. i. 4, and are loved by him. "No good thing will he withhold from them," Psal. lxxxiv. 11. The way to right comforting the mind of man, is to show to him his uprightness, Job xxxiii. 23. "And whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved," Prov. xxviii. 18. "For the high way of the upright is to depart from evil; and he that keepeth his way, preserveth his soul," Prov. xvi. 17. I conclude with Psal. xxxvii. 37, "Mark the upright man, and behold the just, for the end of that man is peace."

II. The true rules of an upright life are these that follow.

1. He that will walk uprightly must be absolutely devoted and subjected unto God: he must have a God, and the true God, and but one God; not notionally only, but in sincerity and reality: he must have a God whose word shall be an absolute law to him; a God that shall command himself, his time, his estate, and all that he hath, or that he can do; a God whose will must be his will, and may do with him what he please; and who is more to him than all the world; whose love will satisfy him as better than life, and whose approbation is his sufficient encouragement and reward. 1 1 Psal. lxxiii. 25; lxiii. 3; 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4; Phil. iii. 8, 9, 18, 19; Psal. iv. 7, 8; Luke xii. 4; Matt. vi. 1-3.

2. His hope must be set upon heaven as the only felicity of his soul: he must look for his reward and the end of all his labours and patience in another world; and not with the hypocrite, dream of a felicity that is made up first of worldly things, and then of heaven, when he can keep the world no longer. He that cannot, that doth not in heart, quit all the world for a heavenly treasure, and venture his all upon the promise of better things hereafter, and forsaking all, take Christ and everlasting happiness for his portion, cannot be upright in heart or life. 2 2 Luke xiv. 26, 27, 33, 34; xviii. 22; Matt. vi. 19, 20; 1 John ii. 15; Phil. iii. 18, 21.

3. He must have an infallible teacher (which is only Christ) and the encouragement of pardoning grace when he faileth, that he sink not by despair; and therefore he must live by faith on a Mediator. And he must have the fixed principle of a nature renewed by the Spirit of Christ. 3 3 John xii. 16; xv. 1, &c.; iii. 5, 6; Rom. viii. 8, 9.

4. He that will walk uprightly, must have a certain, just, infallible rule; and must hold to that, and must try all by it; and this is only the word of God. The teachings of men must be valued as helps to understand this word; and the judgments of our teachers, and those that are wiser than ourselves, must be of great authority with us in subordination to the Scripture. But neither the learned, nor the godly, nor the great, must be our rule in co-ordination with the word of God. 4 4 2 Tim. iii. 15; Isa. viii. 20; 1 Thess. v. 12; Isa. xxxiii. 21; Jam. iv. 12; Heb. viii. 10, 16; Neh. ix. 13, 14; Psal. xix. 7; cxix. 1-3.

5. He that will walk uprightly, must have both a solid and a large understanding, to know things truly as they are, and to see all particulars which must be taken notice of, in all the cases which he must determine, and all the actions which his integrity is concerned in. 5 5 Prov. i. 5; x. 23; xvii. 27; iii. 4; Psal. cxi. 10; Eph. i. 10; Acts xxvi. 18; Col. i. 9; ii. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 7; 1 Cor. xiv. 5, 20. 1. There is no walking uprightly in the dark. Zeal will cause you to go apace; but not at all to go right, if judgment guide it not. Erroneous zeal will make you to do evil with double violence, and with blasphemous fathering your sins on God, and with impenitence and justification of your sin. This made Paul mad in persecuting the church. Prov. xv. 21, "Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom; but a man of understanding walketh uprightly." No man can do that well which he understandeth not well. Therefore you must study and take unwearied pains for knowledge; wisdom never grew up with idleness, though the conceit of wisdom doth no where more prosper. This age hath told us to what dangerous precipices men will be carried by an ignorant zeal. 2. And the understanding must be large, or it cannot be solid; when many particulars are concerned in an action, the overlooking of some may spoil the work. Narrow-minded men are turned as the weathercock, with the wind of the times, or of every temptation; and they seldom avoid one sin, but by falling into another. It is prudence that must manage an upright life: and prudence seeth all that must be seen, and putteth every circumstance into the balance; for want of which, much mischief may be done, while you seem to be doing the greatest good. 6 6 Luke xxiv. 45; Matt. xv. 16; Eph. v. 17; 1 Tim. i. 7; Prov. viii. 5; John xii. 40; 2 Pet. ii. 12; Rom. iii. 11; Matt. xiii. 19, 23; Isa. lii. 13; Hos. xiv. 9; Prov. xiv. 15, 18; xviii. 15; xxii. 3; viii. 12; Eph. v. 15; Psal. ci. 2. "The prudent man looketh well to his going," Prov. xiv. 15. "See therefore that ye walk circumspectly, (at a hair's breadth,) not as fools, but as wise."

6. But because you will object, that, alas, few even of the upright, have wits so strong as to be fit for this, I add, that he that will walk uprightly, must in the great essential parts of religion have this foresaid knowledge of his own, and in the rest at least he must have the conduct of the wise. And therefore, 1. He must be wise in the great matters of his salvation, though he be weak in other things. 2. And he must labour to be truly acquainted who are indeed wise men, that are meet to be his guides: and he must have recourse to such in cases of conscience, as a sick man to his physician. It is a great mercy to be so far wise, as to know a wise man from a fool, and a counsellor from a deceiver. 7 7 Psal. cxix. 98; Prov. i. 6-8; xii. 15, 18; xiii. 1, 14, 20; xv. 2, 7, 12, 31; xxii. 17; xxv. 12; Eccl. xii. 11; Dan. xii. 3, 10; Matt. xxiv. 45; Psal. xxxvii 30; Eccl. ii. 13; Isa. xxxiii. 6; Matt. xii. 42; Luke i. 17; xxi. 15; Acts vi. 3; 2 Pet. iii. 15; Mal. ii. 6, 7; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13; Heb. xiii. 7, 17; Tit. i. 9, 13; ii. 1, 8; 2 Tim. iv. 3.

7. He that will walk uprightly must be the master of his passion; not stupid, but calm and sober. Though some passion is needful to excite the understanding to its duty, yet that which is inordinate doth powerfully deceive the mind. Men are very apt to be confident of what they passionately apprehend; and passionate judgments are frequently mistaken, and ever to be suspected; it being exceeding difficult to entertain any passion which shall not in some measure pervert our reason; which is one great reason why the most confident are ordinarily the most erroneous and blind. Be sure therefore whenever you are injured, or passion any way engaged, to set a double guard upon your judgments. 8 8 Prov. xiv. 29; Col. iii. 8.