A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics

by Richard Baxter

Quest. XII. What if I take a thing from a friend but in a way of jest, intending to restore it?

Answ. If you have just grounds to think that your friend would consent if he knew it, you will not be blamable: but if otherwise, either you take it for your own benefit and use, or you take it only to make sport by; the former is theft, for all your jest; the latter is but an unlawful way of jesting.

Quest. XIII. What if I take it from him, but to save him from hurting his body with it: as if I steal poison from one that intended to kill himself by it; or take a sword from a drunken man that would hurt himself; or a knife from a melancholy man? Or what if it be to save another; as to take a madman's sword from him who would kill such as are in his way, or any angry man's that will kill another?

Answ. This is your duty according to the sixth commandment, which bindeth you to preserve your neighbour's life; so be it these conditions be observed: 1. That you keep not his sword for your benefit and advantage, nor claim a property in it; but give it his friends, or deliver it to the magistrate. 2. That you do nothing without the magistrate, in which you may safely stay for his authority and help: but if two be fighting, or thieves be robbing or murdering a man, or another's life be in present danger, you must help them without staying for the magistrate's authority. 3. That you make not this a pretence for the usurping of authority, or for resisting or deposing your lawful prince, or magistrate, or parent, or master, or of exercising your own will and passions against your superiors; pretending that you take away their swords to save themselves or others from their rage, when it is indeed but to hinder justice.

Quest. XIV. May I not then much more take away that by which he would destroy his own or other men's souls: as to take away cards or dice from gamesters; or heretical or seditious books, or play-books and romances; or to pull down idols which the idolators do adore, or are instruments of idolatry?

Answ. There is much difference in the cases, though the soul be more precious than the body: for, 1. Here there is supposed to be so much leisure and space as that you may have time to tell the magistrate of it, whose duty primarily it is: whereas in the other case it is supposed that so much delay would be a man's death. Therefore your duty is to acquaint the magistrate with the sin and danger, and not to anticipate him, and play the magistrate yourself. Or in the case of cards, and dice, and hurtful books, you may acquaint the persons with the sin, and persuade them to cast them away themselves. 2. Your taking away these instruments is not like to save them: for the love of the sin, and the will to do it, remain still; and the sinner will but be hardened by his indignation against your irregular course of charity. 3. Men are bound to save men's bodies whether they will or not, because it may be so done; but no man can save another's soul against his will! And it is God's will that their salvation or damnation shall be more the fruit of their own wills, than of any other's. Therefore, though it is possible to devise an instance, in which it is lawful to steal a poisonous book or idol from another, (when it is done so secretly as will encourage no disobedience or disorder; nor is like to harden the sinner, but indeed to do him good, &c.) yet ordinarily all this is unlawful for private men, that have no government of others, or extraordinary interest in them.[155]

Quest. XV. May not a magistrate take the subjects' goods, when it is necessary for their own preservation?

Answ. I answered this question once heretofore in my "Political Aphorisms:" and because I repent of meddling with such subjects, and of writing that book, I will leave such cases hereafter for fitter persons to resolve.

Quest. XVI. But may I not take from another for a holy use; as to give to the church or maintain the bishops? If David took the hallowed bread in his necessity, may not hallowed persons take common bread?

Answ. If holy persons be in present danger of death, their lives may be saved as other men's on the terms mentioned in the first case. Otherwise God hath no need of theft or violence; nor must you rob the laity to clothe the clergy; but to do such evil on pretence of piety and good, is an aggravation of the sin.