A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics — Themes and Context

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In Category - Ethics

Authors: Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2013 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Christian sociology; Casuistry Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 269,776

Reading time 1173 min

Text sections 25

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #43967

Richard Baxter's casuistical guide to Christian conduct in public life, using question-and-answer logic to resolve moral dilemmas about rulers, subjects, contracts, and conscience, with a proposed Reformed liturgy appended.

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GENERAL RULES FOR AN UPRIGHT CONVERSATION.

Solomon saith, Prov. x. 9, "He that walketh uprightly walketh surely." And perfection and uprightness are the characters of Job, Job i. 1, 8; ii. 3. And in the Scripture to be upright or righteous, and to walk uprightly, and to do righteously, are the titles of those that are acceptable to God. And by uprightness is meant not only sincerity as opposed to hypocrisy; but also rectitude of heart and life, as opposed to crookedness or sin; and this as it is found in various degrees: of which we use to call the lowest degree that is saving by the name of sincerity, and the highest by the name of perfection.

Concerning uprightness of life, I shall, I. Briefly tell you some of those blessings that should make us all in love with it, and, II. Give you some necessary rules of practice.

1. Uprightness of heart and life is a certain fruit of the Spirit of grace, and consequently a mark of our union with Christ, and a proof of our acceptableness with God. "My defence is of God, who saveth the upright in heart," Psal. vii. 10. "For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and his countenance doth behold the upright," Psal. xi. 7. It is a title that God himself assumeth; "Good and upright is the Lord," Psal. xxv. 8. "To show that the Lord is upright, he is my Rock, and no unrighteousness is in him," Psal. xcii. 15. And God calleth himself the Maker, the Director, the Protector, and the Lover of the upright. "God made man upright," Eccl. vii. 29. "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous," Psal. i. 6. "What man is he that feareth the Lord? him will he teach in the way that he shall choose," Psal. xxv. 12. "He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous; he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly," Prov. ii. 7.

2. The upright are the pillars of human society, that keep up truth and justice in the world: without whom it would be but a company of liars, deceivers, robbers, and enemies, that live in constant rapine and hostility. There were no trust to be put in one another, further than self-interest did oblige men. "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart," Psal. xv. 1, 2. Therefore the wicked, and the enemies of peace, and destroyers of societies, are still described as enemies to the upright. "For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Psal. xi. 2, 3. "The just and upright man is laughed to scorn," Job xii. 4. "The wicked have drawn out the sword to slay such as be of upright conversation," Psal. xxxvii. 14. And indeed it is for the upright's sake that societies are preserved by God, as Sodom might have been for ten Lots. At least they are under the protection of omnipotency themselves. "He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppression, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ear from hearing of blood, that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off," Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16. "The upright shall have good things in possession," Prov. xxviii. 10. "The house of the wicked shall be overthrown; but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish," Prov. xiv. 11.

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Richard Baxter's Christian Politics, the fourth part of his massive Christian Directory, opens not with abstract theory but with a series of practical questions: what duties do subjects owe to rulers? How should a lawyer, physician, or soldier serve God in their calling? The work is structured as a casuistical manual, moving from general rules to specific cases of conscience. Baxter's voice is direct, often legalistic, and he repeatedly anchors his reasoning in biblical citation and natural law. The text is dense with hypotheticals—such as whether a finder of lost goods must share them with bystanders—revealing a mind intent on covering every contingency of moral life in a fallen world.

The Casuistical Method: Questions and Distinctions

Baxter's primary rhetorical tool is the numbered question followed by a carefully qualified answer. For instance, in the section on lost property, he poses: "If many be present when I find it, may I not wholly retain it to myself?" His answer distinguishes between legal obligation and moral equity, noting that if the law does not overrule, the finder may conceal the finding to become the sole occupant. This pattern recurs throughout: a practical dilemma, a distinction of circumstances, and a resolution that balances strict justice with charity. The method reflects Baxter's training in scholastic casuistry, yet his language remains accessible, often using second-person address to draw the reader into the moral calculus.

Voice and Rhetorical Posture

Baxter writes as a pastor and a moral theologian, not a philosopher. His sentences are long and clause-laden, but they serve a clarifying purpose: he anticipates objections and answers them before they arise. In the section on merchants traveling to infidel countries, he breaks the question into four distinctions—concerning the country of origin, the destination, the person's character, and the cause of travel. This taxonomic approach gives the prose a methodical, almost legal rhythm. Yet Baxter's voice is not cold; he frequently invokes "charity and mercy" as correctives to strict justice, reminding the reader that the poor must not be oppressed. The tone is authoritative but pastoral, aiming to guide conscience rather than merely dictate rules.

Structural Pacing and the Liturgical Appendix

The main body of the work consists of thirty-four chapters, each addressing a distinct sphere of duty—from rulers to subjects, lawyers to soldiers, merchants to neighbors. The pace is steady, each chapter following the same question-and-answer pattern. But the work concludes with two unusual additions: a "Moral Prognostication" on the future of the churches, and a "Reformed Liturgy" that Baxter himself composed. The liturgy shifts the register entirely: it is a script for public worship, with italicized rubrics and biblical sidenotes. This appendix breaks the casuistical rhythm, offering a practical model for the reformed worship that Baxter's political theology envisions. The change in pace signals that the manual's ultimate aim is not just ethical reasoning but the shaping of communal religious practice.

Readers approaching this text should be prepared for its length and its methodical, question-driven structure. Baxter assumes a reader willing to follow fine distinctions and multiple hypotheticals. The work rewards those who read it as a manual for moral reasoning rather than a treatise to be consumed in one sitting. The appended liturgy offers a concrete example of how Baxter's principles might be enacted in worship, providing a useful counterpoint to the abstract cases that precede it.

There’s something steadying about Baxter’s patient, question-by-question wrestling with duty—how conscience holds its ground in tangled public life. It reminds me of another old friend who traced the quiet threads of meaning through history itself, never forcing conclusions. That book, The Purpose of History — Inside the Classic, sits beside my Baxter now, two voices at ease with life’s unresolved weight.