A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics

by Richard Baxter

Quest. VIII. What reparation can or must be made for murder or manslaughter?

Answ. By murder there is a manifold damage inferred: 1. God is deprived of the life of his servant. 2. The person is deprived of his life. 3. The king is deprived of a subject. 4. The commonwealth is deprived of a member. 5. The friends and kindred of the dead are deprived of a friend. 6. And perhaps also damnified in their estates. All these damages cannot be fully repaired by the offender; but all must be done that can be done. 1. Of God he can only beg pardon, upon the account of the satisfactory sacrifice of Christ; expressing true repentance as followeth. 2. To the person murdered no reparation can be made. 3. To the king and commonwealth, he must patiently yield up his life, if they sentence him to death, and without repining, and think it not too dear to become a warning to others, that they sin not as he did. 4. To disconsolate friends no reparation can be made; but pardon must be asked. 5. The damage of heirs, kindred, and creditor, must be repaired by the offender's estate, as far as he is able.

Quest. IX. Is a murderer bound to offer himself to death, before he is apprehended?

Answ. Yes, in some cases: as, 1. When it is necessary to save another who is falsely accused of the crime. 2. Or when the interest of the commonwealth requireth it. But otherwise not; because an offender may lawfully accept of mercy, and nature teacheth him to desire his own preservation: but if the question be, When doth the interest of the commonwealth require it? I think much oftener than it is done: as the common interest requireth that murderers be put to death, when apprehended; so it requireth that they may not frequently and easily be hid, or escape by secrecy or flight; for then it would imbolden others to murder: whereas when few escape, it will more effectually deter men. If therefore any murderer's conscience shall constrain him in true repentance, voluntarily to come forth and confess his sin, and yield up himself to justice, and exhort others to take heed of sinning as he did, I cannot say that he did any more than his duty in so doing; and indeed I think that it is ordinarily a duty, and that ordinarily the interest of the commonwealth requireth it; though in some cases it may be otherwise. The execution of the laws against murder, is so necessary to preserve men's lives, that I do not think that self-preservation alone will allow men to defeat the commonwealth of so necessary a means of preserving the lives of many, to save the life of one, who hath no right to his own life, as having forfeited it. If to shift away other murderers from the hand of justice be a sin, I cannot see but that it is so ordinarily to do it for oneself: only I think that if a true penitent person have just cause to think that he may do the commonwealth more service by his life than by his death, that then he may conceal his crime or fly; but otherwise not.

Quest. X. Is a murderer bound to do execution on himself, if the magistrate upon his confession do not?

Answ. No: because it is the magistrate who is the appointed judge of the public interest, and what is necessary to its reparation, and hath power in certain cases to pardon: and though a murderer may not ordinarily strive to defeat God's laws and the commonwealth, yet he may accept of mercy when it is offered him.

Quest. XI. What satisfaction is to be made by a fornicator or adulterer?

Answ. Chastity cannot be restored, nor corrupted honour repaired. But, 1. If it was a sin by mutual consent, the party that you sinned with must by all importunity be solicited to repentance; and the sin must be confessed, and pardon craved for tempting them to sin. 2. Where it can be done without a greater evil than the benefit will amount to, the fornicators ought to join in marriage, Exod. xxii. 16. 3. Where that cannot be, the man is to put the woman into as good a case for outward livelihood, as she would have been in if she had not been corrupted by him; by allowing her a proportionable dowry, Exod. xxii. 17; and the parents' injury to be recompensed, Deut. xxii. 28, 29. 4. The child's maintenance also is to be provided for by the fornicator. That is, 1. If the man by fraud or solicitation induced the woman to the sin, he is obliged to all as aforesaid. 2. If they sinned by mutual forwardness and consent, then they must jointly bear the burden; yet so that the man must bear the greater part, because he is supposed to be the stronger and wiser to have resisted the temptation. 3. If the woman importuned the man, she must bear the more: but yet he is responsible to parents and others for their damages, and in part to the woman herself, because he was the stronger vessel, and should have been more constant: and volenti non fit injuria, is a rule that hath some exceptions.

Quest. XII. In what case is a man excused from restitution and satisfaction?

Answ. 1. He that is utterly disabled cannot restore or satisfy. 2. He that is equally damnified by the person to whom he should restore, is excused in point of real equity and conscience, so be it that the reasons of external order and policy oblige him not. For though it may be his sin (of which he is to repent) that he hath equally injured the other, yet it requireth confession, rather than restitution or satisfaction, unless he may also expect satisfaction from the other. Therefore if you owe a man an hundred pounds, and he owe you as much and will not pay you, you are not bound to pay him, unless for external order sake, and the law of the land. 3. If the debt or injury be forgiven, the person is discharged. 4. If nature or common custom do warrant a man to believe that no restitution or satisfaction is expected, or that the injury is forgiven, though it be not mentioned, it will excuse him from restitution or satisfaction: as if children or friends have taken some trifle, which they may presume the kindness of a parent or friend will pass over, though it be not justifiable.