Politics and Theology in the Thought of Richard Baxter

universals from particulars and to communicate the results in words. Therefore it is with some care that he draws his illustrations from the universals and the particulars. Is CD, 423. See also Works, vol. 6. H C , p. 22. 20 Ibid. 126 W A L T E R B. T. DOUGLAS Man, because of his social creatureliness, needs and desires to be governed, according to Baxter, who states: The intellect in man is made to guide and the will to command, and all the inferior faculties to obey: showing us that in societies the wise should guide, the good should command, and the strong and all the rest should execute and obey. .An ungoverned man is a mad man or a bad man.?l The same argument holds in an ungoverned society. This type of society is incongruous with God's universal mediate ordered government of the world. "The great disparity that is among all creatures (including the angels that did not sin) in the frame of Nature7' Baxter declares, "intimateth the beauty of Orderly Political d i~pa r i ty . "~~ In summary, since man is rational, moral, and ultimately responsible to God, government by law is the only government consistent with man's nature. 21 Ibid., p. 55. Ibid.