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

8. He that will walk uprightly, must not only difference between simple good and evil, but between a greater good and a less; for most sin in the world consisteth in preferring a lesser good before a greater. He must still keep the balance in his hand, and compare good with good; otherwise he will make himself a religion of sin, and prefer sacrifice before mercy; and will hinder the gospel and men's salvation for a ceremony, and violate the bonds of love and faithfulness for every opinion which he calleth truth; and will tithe mint and cummin, while he neglecteth the great things of the law. When a lesser good is preferred before a greater, it is a sin, and the common way of sinning. It is not then a duty when it is inconsistent with a greater good. 9 9 Matt. ix. 13; xii. 7; Psal. xl. 6; li. 16; 1 Sam. xv. 22.

9. He must ever have a conjunct respect to the command and the end: the good of some actions is but little discernible any where, but in the command; and others are evidently good because of the good they tend to. We must neither do evil and break a law, that good may come by it; nor yet pretend obedience to do mischief, as if God had made his laws for destruction of the church or men's souls, and not for edification. 10 10 2 Cor. x. 8; xiii. 10; Rom. xv. 2; xiv. 9; 1 Cor. xiv. 26; 2 Cor. xii. 19; Rom. iii. 8.

10. He must keep in union with the universal church, and prefer its interest before the interest of any party whatsoever, and do nothing that tendeth to its hurt. 11 11 Eph. iv. 12, &c.; 1 Cor. xii.

11. He must love his neighbour as himself, and do as he would be done by, and love his enemies and forgive wrongs; and bear their defamations as his own. 12 12 Matt. xxii. 39; v. 43, 44; vii. 12.

12. He must be impartial, and not lose his judgment and charity in the opinion or interest of a party or sect: nor think all right that is held or done by those that he best liketh; nor all wrong that is held or done by those that are his adversaries. But judge of the words and deeds of those that are against him, as if they had been said or done by those of his own side: else he will live in slandering, backbiting, and gross unrighteousness. 13 13 Jam. iii. 15-18; Gal. ii. 13, 14; Deut. xxv. 16; 1 Cor. vi. 9.

13. He must be deliberate in judging of things and persons; not rash or hasty in believing reports or receiving opinions; not judging of truths by the first appearance, but search into the naked evidence: nor judging of persons by prejudice, fame, and common talk. 14 14 Matt. vii. 1, 2; John vii. 24; Rom. xiv. 10, 13; 1 Pet. i. 17.

14. He must be willing to receive and obey the truth at the dearest rate, especially of laborious study, and a self-denying life; not taking all to be truth that costeth men dear, nor yet thinking that truth indeed can be over-prized. 15 15 Luke xiv. 26, 33; xii. 4; Prov. xxiii. 23.

15. He must be humble and self-suspicious, and come to Christ's school as a little child; and not have a proud overvaluing of himself and his own understanding. The proud and selfish are blind and cross, and have usually some opinions or interests of their own, that lie cross to duty, and to other men's good. 16 16 Matt. xviii. 3; Prov. xxvi. 12, 16; xxviii. xx; 1 Cor. iii. 18; Prov. iii. 7.

16. He must have an eye to posterity, and not only to the present time or age; and to other nations, and not only to the country where he liveth. Many things seem necessary for some present strait or work that we would do (which in the next age may be of mischievous effects); especially in ecclesiastical and political professions, covenants and impositions, we must look further than our present needs. And many things seem necessary for a local, narrow interest, which those at a distance will otherwise esteem. 17 17 Judg. viii. 27; 1 Cor. vii. 35; 1 Kings xiv. 16; xv. 26; Deut. xxix. 22; Exod. xii. 26; Josh. iv. 6, 22; xxii. 24, 25.

17. He that will walk uprightly must be able to bear the displeasure of all the world, when the interest of truth requireth it; yea, to be rejected of learned and good men themselves; and account man's favour no better than it is; not to despise it as it is a means to any good, but to be quite above it as to his own interest. Not that uprightness doth use to make a man despised by the upright; but that it may bring him under their censure in some particulars, which are not commonly received or understood to be of God. 18 18 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4; John v. 44; Luke xiv. 26; Gal. ii. 13, 14; Acts xi. 2, 3.

18. He must make it a great part of the work of his life to kill all those carnal desires, which the sensual make it their work and felicity to please; that appetite, sense and lust, and self-will may not be the constant perverters of his life; as a fool in a dropsy studieth to please his thirst, and a wise man to cure it. 19 19 Col. iii. 4, 5; Rom. vi. 1, &c.; xiii. 12, 13; viii. 13.

19. He must live a life of constant and skilful watchfulness, apprehending himself in continual danger; and knowing his particular corruptions, temptations, and remedies. He must have a tender conscience, and keep as far as possible from temptation, and take heed of unnecessary approaches or delightful thoughts of sin. Oh what strong resolutions, what sound knowledge, have the near-baits of sensuality (meat, drink, lust, and pleasures) overcome! Never think yourselves safe among near-temptations, and opportunities of sinning. 20 20 Matt. xxiv. 42; xxv. 13; Mark xiii. 37; 1 Thess. v. 6; 1 Pet. iv. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 15; Matt. vi. 13; xxvi. 41.

20. Live as those that are going to the grave; die daily, and look on this world as if you did look on it out of the world to which you go. Let faith as constantly behold the world unseen, as your eye seeth this. Death and eternity make men wise: we easily confess and repent of many things when we come to die, which no counsels or sermons could make us penitently confess before. Death will answer a thousand objections and temptations, and prove many vanities to be sin, which you thought the preacher did not prove: dying men are not drawn to drunkenness, filthiness, or time-wasting sports; nor flattered into folly by sensual baits; nor do they then fear the face or threats of persecutors. As it is from another world that we must fetch the motives, so also the defensative of an upright life. And oh happy are they that faithfully practise these rules of uprightness! 21 21 Eccl. vii. 2-6; 2 Cor. iv. 16; v. 1, 7, 8; Luke xii. 17-20; xvi. 20, &c.; Matt. xxv. 3-8; Acts vii. 56, 60.

Though it be my judgment that much more of the doctrine of politics or civil government belongeth to theology, 22 22 Among the Jews it was all one to be a lawyer and a divine; but not to be a lawyer and a priest. than those men understand, who make kings and laws to be mere human creatures, yet to deliver my reader from the fear lest I should meddle with matters that belong not to my calling, and my book from that reproach, I shall overpass all these points, which else I should have treated of, as useful to practise in governing and obeying. 1. Of man as sociable, and of communities and societies, and the reason of them, of their original, and the obligation on the members. 2. Of a city, and of civility. 3. Of a republic in general. (1.) Of its institution, (2.) Of its constitution, and of its parts. (3.) Of its species. (4.) Of the difference between it, 1. And a community in general. 2. A family. 3. A village. 4. A city. 5. A church. 6. An accidental meeting. (5.) Of its administrations. (6.) Of the relation between God's government and man's, and God's law and man's, and of their difference; and between man's judging and God's judging. Nay, I will not only gratify you, by passing over this and much more in the theory, but also as to the practical part, I shall pass over, 1. The directions for supreme governors. 2. And for inferior magistrates towards God, and their superiors, and the people. 3. And the determination of the question, How far magistrates have to do in matters of religion? Whether they be christian or heathen? 4. How far they should grant or not grant liberty of conscience, (as it is called,) viz. of judging, professing, and practising in matters of religion; with other such matters belonging to government: and all the controversies about titles and supremacy, conservations, forfeitures, decays, dangers, remedies, and restorations, which belong either to politicians, lawyers, or divines; all these I pretermit, save only that I shall venture to leave a few brief memorandums with civil governors (instead of directions) for securing the interest of Christ, and the church, and men's salvation; yet assuring the reader that I omit none of this out of any contempt of the matter, or of magistracy, or as if I thought them not worthy of all our prayers and assistance, or thought their office of small concernment to the welfare of the world and of the church; but for those reasons, which all may know that know me and the government under which we live, and which I must not tell to others.