Richard Baxter’s Social and Economic Teaching
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Richard Baxter’s Social and Economic Teaching
I. Baxter as a Teacher
Richard Baxter was born in 1615 and converted at 14. For over 13 years he ministered to a very large congregation at Kidderminster, and under God altered the whole character of the town before being ejected in 1662, along with some 2,000 other Puritan clergy, for refusing to conform. Thenceforth he lived in and around London, preaching occasionally and writing voluminously, till his death in 1691. The following summary of his social and economic teaching is drawn from a series of extremely practical discussions of these matters, notably in his magnum opus, A Christian Directory.
We begin by glancing briefly at Baxter’s approach to the Christian life, for his emphases here are basic to his specifically economic teaching.
(a) The beginning of the Christian life. This must be by conversion: the unbeliever must give himself completely and unconditionally to the Lord and turn at every point from his past wickedness. Baxter urges this repeatedly. “Deliver up yourselves to the Lord Jesus, as the Physician of your Souls, that he may pardon you by his Blood, and sanctifie you by his Spirit . . . Do it speedily without delay . . . Do it unreservedly, absolutely and universally . . .” (Works, 1707 ed., 2:515a). This decisive self-surrender is man’s entry into a covenant, or contract, with God, on the basis of God’s promise to give pardon and life now and glory hereafter, to penitent believers; and this covenant obliges the Christian to continue in obedience as the condition of final salvation. Baxter therefore stresses the necessity of perseverance in good works, in conscious opposition to the loose antinomian tendency of some contemporaries. This emphasis adds urgency to his demand for Christian consistency in the world of business.
(b) The continuance of the Christian life. Baxter condemns all sinful self-indulgence and continually demands abstention from all forms of evil. He commends Bible reading and the study of other good books, public worship, private prayer, Christian fellowship, serious meditation on the life to come, and the choice of at least one Christian “bosom friend,” as means to living a sanctified life. Holiness is “nothing else but the habitual and predominant devotion and dedication of soul, and body, and life, and all that we have to God; and esteeming, and loving, and serving, and seeking him, before all the pleasures and prosperity of the flesh” (1:7a)—and the perfecting of holiness must be the Christian’s supreme concern. Christian virtue must be cultivated; love, honesty, kindness, and gentleness must become features of the believer’s character, and he must be tireless in doing good. “Your lives must be laid out in doing God service, and doing all the good you can, in works of piety, justice and charity” (1:102b). “Do all the good that possibly you can” (1:103b). “Living and dying, let it be your care and business to do good” (1:439a). This thought returns again and again in his writings, and his constant aim is to show Christians what “doing good” means in every branch of life.
(c) The culmination of the Christian life. Baxter spent most of his life in acute suffering, supposing himself to be constantly at death’s door. This taught him to direct his thoughts heavenward, and to live responsibly, as one whose time was short and who must soon give account of himself to God. Repeatedly he urges others to learn the same lesson. “Live as those that are going to the Grave . . .” (1:725a). “Spend every day in preparation for death; and in all your business remember whither you are going and where you must dwell for ever” (Poor Husbandman’s Advocate). Daily life must be carried on sub specie aeternitatis.
In the light of these emphases, we now turn to examine Baxter’s teaching on two main subjects—work and wealth.
II. Baxter’s Teaching on Work
Baxter held the Reformed doctrine of the calling, which rests on the idea that secular work is as much a rendering of service to God as priestly ministry. He makes these points:
(i) The Christian must have a calling. All who can work in a calling must; only genuine disability can excuse one from so doing. This applies even to the rich, for while riches may excuse them from “sordid” work, they bestow no right to be idle. The minister may be excused “worldly labour” because he has “spiritual labour” to employ him, but the recluse is condemned for making his religion a pretext against doing good (1:106, 355b; 3:450).
(ii) The Christian must carefully choose his calling. His chosen employment should be that in which he can be most “serviceable to God,” profiting both himself and others. It should be something which he finds agreeable and for which he is suited, and it should not be one which endangers his spiritual life. Some callings are better than others: e.g., those involving murder or gambling are definitely sinful; some are dangerous, e.g., that of vintner; others, like tobacco-selling and feather-making, should be avoided in favour of those of greater usefulness; a group including magistracy, schoolmastering, husbandry, tailoring, and the manufacture of clothes are recommended (1:357). Baxter’s constant touchstone in judging callings is the public good. Employments which contribute to the public good (which includes one’s personal welfare, both physical and spiritual) are lawful; and, of these, those which contribute most are the best.
(iii) The Christian must work hard in his calling. God means man to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow; if he does not work, he does not deserve his food. The fourth commandment, to rest on the seventh day, presupposes that “six days shalt thou labour . . .” God in Scripture commands and demands hard work. Baxter deals trenchantly with the “mischiefs of idleness,” stressing the seriousness of this sin. Sloth, he tells us, destroys our faculties, robs God of His due service, robs ourselves and the commonwealth, destroys grace, spawns other sins, makes us the shame of creation, and disables us from doing good to others (1:358–361). Indeed, “Idleness is of the same kind with Fornication, Gluttony, Dr.unkenness, and other such beastley Sins; For all is but sinful Flesh-pleasing, or Sensuality” (3:641a).
It follows that Christians must “redeem the time”—“see that we cast none of it away in vain; but use every minute of it as a most precious thing and spend it wholly in the way of duty” (1:218b). All our time must be laid out for God; not only in meditating and praying, but also in working with the utmost diligence at our calling. Time must be put, not just to a good use, but to the best use; priorities must be observed. “He loseth his time, when he is getting a penny when he might get a pound, who is visiting his Neighbour, when he should be attending his Prince” (1:227a). Time wasters like excess of sleep, idle talk, needless sports, ungoverned thoughts, and useless reading must be renounced along with that “Master Thief . . . an unsanctified, ungodly heart” (1:227–228). “O spend your Time as you would hear of it in the Judgement!” (1:222a).
Now let us see what further specific advice Baxter has for three groups of people in particular callings—landowners, servants, and merchants.
(a) Landowners. Baxter was always a realist; his thoughts may have been fixed on heaven, but his eyes remained open to what was happening around him, and one of the crying abuses which he saw as the seventeenth century wore on was the serious oppression of the poor tenant farmer by the rich landowner. Baxter realised that the nation whose wealth was based on these yeoman farmers was suffering, but he writes against this oppression chiefly as a violation of justice and mercy from man to man.
First, he condemns high rents. He recognises that inflation may embarrass the landlord with a fixed income and that he may then have a just claim to raise the rent—indeed, when the tenant is able to pay the increase and the lease permits it, he ought then to do so. But in cases of great hardship mercy must come first, even where the landowner is himself short of money.
Secondly, Baxter condemns extravagance, which he sees as a root cause of high rents (“rack rents,” as they were called). He rebukes landlords severely for love of money, hardness of heart, and sensuality.
Thirdly, he pleads for charity. This would mean a lowering of oppressive rents. Practical Baxter suggests also that landlords should visit their tenants to learn first-hand the extent of their needs and problems, so as to be able to help them effectively.
Baxter is also concerned for the spiritual welfare of the small tenant farmers themselves, who, as things were, could only make ends meet by toiling “like beasts.” Having no time for anything but work, they were ignoring “soul-concernes,” and Baxter foresaw the land degenerating into “Atheisme, Infidelity, and Barbarisme.” Great poverty and excessive work were depriving the poor husbandman of education and so preventing him from reading the Bible and other books which could lead him to God. (For all this, see The Poor Husbandman’s Advocate, ed. Powicke, 1926.)
To the rich who employ servants Baxter gives parallel advice. Servants must be given neither so little work that they have time for idleness, nor so much that they have no time for prayer, Bible reading, and other spiritual exercises. Their master has a special responsibility to care for their spiritual needs, in addition to their temporal wants.
(b) Servants. In selecting employment and a master, servants must not make ease, good wages, and pleasure their criteria, but rather “the pleasing of God and the saving of your Souls.” Find, if you can, says Baxter, a godly family to serve, or, failing that, get a post where you can live under “a faithful, powerful, convincing Minister.” “Neither a life of idleness, nor of excess of business should be chosen, if you have your choice” (1:386). Baxter in his practical way adds that if a servant wants the best master and the best job, he must try to be the best servant by excelling others in laboriousness, diligence, trustworthiness, and other menial virtues (1:387).
The servant must honour and obey his master, and work hard; for half-hearted work defrauds one’s employer of labour for which he has paid, and thus amounts to theft. It is a sin to idle away time which belongs to someone else. Baxter reproves the servant who complains and is dishonest, and instructs him to bear hardship and admonition and to pray for his master (1:435–437; 4:208b).
(c) Merchants. Casuists of earlier ages had condemned the merchant’s work as sinful, but Baxter, living in an age when the merchant was playing an increasingly important role, disagreed. The merchant’s calling contributed to the “public good”; therefore Baxter judged it lawful (1:819a.).
Baxter provides general principles for business activities. All “bargaining and contracts” must be controlled by the twin axioms of religion and justice—love to one’s neighbour and denial of oneself. Business life must be of a piece with religious life; commercial practice must be governed by the law of God. There can be no dual standard, and no compromise; life is not lived in watertight compartments. To the pragmatic objection, “It is taken for granted in the Market, that every Man will get as much as he can have,” Baxter retorts, “It is not so among Christians, nor Infidels who profess either truth or common honesty.” (See 1:805–23.)
In all transactions, therefore, the Christian must be exceptionally honest and always put the other person’s interests first. Traders are advised on price fixing thus: Abide by the legal price requirement; observe the market price when selling there; estimate the true value of the goods in an equal contract, where the buyer can leave them if he wishes; do not take too large an advantage from one who has particular need of the goods. A relevant factor for determining prices is the financial position of the parties involved. There is no reason why a larger price should not be taken from a willing rich person than from a poor person. Price haggling is bad, for it encourages salesmen to mark up their goods at a dishonestly high level, whereas Christians should price goods at their true worth and “ask no more at all than a just gain.”
“Window dressing” must not be used to enhance a commodity’s value. The Christian should not pass on a faulty product by which he was deceived when he bought it. Generally, Baxter’s rule is to sanction as much in the way of business enterprise as possible, as long as it does not violate truth, honesty, and the best interests of other persons. In cases of difficulty, Christian charity must guide and the rich help the poor.
Baxter’s funeral encomium of his friend Henry Ashurst mirrors his ideal of a Christian tradesman: “God greatly blessed his honesty and liberality; and men knew that they might Trade with him without any danger of deceit, so that he grew up into a very considerable estate: And yet was never so intent upon his Trade, but he was ready for any service of God, and help to others or publick work” (4:909b).
III. Baxter’s Teaching on Wealth
Baxter makes three points here.
(i) Wealth is a reward of diligence. Baxter did not regard poverty as an ideal, any more than does the Bible. To him, “success is God’s ordinary temporal reward of diligence” (2:527a); legitimately gained wealth is a mark of God’s blessing on the diligent. However, riches are not invariably a sign of God’s blessing, and may prove a curse, as our next point shows.
(ii) Wealth is a danger to salvation. To seek gain for God’s sake is right and good, but to aim at wealth for one’s own benefit is covetousness, which is “a very denying of God and a perverting of the way of a man’s life” (1:203a). Covetousness is idolatry, and turns labour into sin (3:627a). Wealth was never meant to be an end, but only a provision on the way. The Christian’s heart must be in heaven, serving God, not on earth, enslaving itself to money. “Take heed lest the world or anything in it steal again into your hearts, and seem too sweet to you.” “It is the love of money that is the root of all evil; and the love of this world that is the mortal enemy of the love of God” (1:488a). It is peculiarly difficult for the rich to be saved, because of the peculiar temptations which assault them at this point. Scripture teaches not merely that few will be saved, but that of the prosperous few among the few will find life: “Scripture speaketh in such general Language, as if Salvation had been almost appropriated to the Poor, and the Rich had been excluded, because of the rarity of their salvation” (4:474b).
(iii) Wealth is a talent to be used.
(a) Wealth must not be wrongly used: i.e., in personal extravagance. Baxter complains that “rich Men are not acquainted with the true use of Riches, nor think of the Account which they must make to God of all they have; They think that their Riches are their own, and that they may use them as they please” (1:294b). Wealth is a God-given stewardship; money should be employed for the glory of the Giver.
(b) Wealth may be used for investment. Baxter considers investment an essential part of economic life, in which Christians may lawfully partake. Indeed, lending is a duty when others’ need so requires and prudence permits (1:816b); and there is no sin in expecting a reasonable rate of interest. Baxter proves the lawfulness of usury thus: First, it may greatly help the poor in the form of charitable endowments. Second, it is not forbidden by God: the Mosaic prohibitions forbid it only where it is an act of unkindness, and there is no positive law of Christ against it. Third, the “Law of Nature doth not forbid all Usury,” for usury is not necessarily opposed either to piety, or to one’s own welfare, or to one’s neighbour’s. Usury is sinful, however, when it is against justice or charity: e.g., it is wrong to charge interest when charity requires a loan interest-free.
Baxter wisely argues that wealth should not be allowed to depreciate by hoarding, but be used to increase its value and—more important still—to help others. It is this that glorifies God.
(c) Wealth must be used sparingly on our own needs. God is its “Chief Owner”; man must administer it faithfully as God’s steward, and this means eschewing wastefulness and prodigality. Expensive eating and drinking, overdressing, and lavish outlay on sumptuous buildings and needless recreations must be ruled out (1:927ff.); though Baxter recognises that certain unavoidable expenses may be incurred in soberly maintaining one’s appointed rank in society (1:372). Before the Christian devotes money to recreations and entertainments, he must reckon up how much he must spend on himself, his children, taxes, the poor, and church charges, according to the good which is likely to follow. Therefore he needs to keep accounts. Money should in any case be spent only on such “recreations” as are sinless and really recreate, i.e., promote the health of body and mind and make the Christian fitter for the service of God.
(d) Wealth must be used to do positive good. Baxter has a high view of the place of charity in the Christian life. Doing good in this way makes us like God; it pleases God; it shows our faith to be sincere; and it is commanded and commended in Scripture in the strongest terms. Therefore, “take it as the chiefest extrinsecal part of your religion to do good; and make it the trade and business of your lives; and not as a matter to be done on the by” (1:868a). And, he adds, do it now; good works should not be postponed to the indefinite future. This “doing as you would be done by” in meeting others’ needs by charitable donation is a basic element in loving one’s neighbour as oneself.
Baxter will not be legalistic in determining how much one should give to those in need. He lays down no fixed proportion; his only rule is “give as much as you can.” On tithing, his judgment (in a letter to Thomas Gouge) is as follows: “Your proportion of the tenth part, is too much for some, and much too little for others, but for the most part, I think it as likely a proportion as is fit for another to prescribe in particular” (1:865b). He wants to see the Christian’s money used for the conversion of the heathen, at home and abroad; for encouraging a “Godly ministry”; for building and endowing schools and hospitals; for helping poor children; and, of course, for relieving the poor. It seems that he himself gave almost half his own annual income to charitable causes of this kind.
IV. Conclusion
Thus Baxter shows us how God is to be glorified in our earning and in our spending. We must work with all our might in our calling; “we must endeavour after the most successful way, and pray for a just prosperity for our Labours; And when God doth prosper us with Wealth, we must take it thankfully (tho’ with fear) and use it to his Service, and do all the good with it that we can” (3:658b). But we must not lose our heart to it. “Look up to Heaven men; and remember that there is thy Home, and there is thy Hope, or else thou art a man undone forever; and therefore it is for that that thou must care and labour” (1:206a).