Baxter: A Holy Commonwealth

by Richard Baxter, William Lamont (Editor)

Overview

A Holy Commonwealth was written in 1659 by the Puritan minister Richard Baxter (1615-91), and is a candid confession as to why a conservative Puritan fought for Parliament in the Civil War and gave his support to the Cromwells. Baxter publicly repudiated the work in 1670, and in 1683 the Oxford University authorities ordered it to be part of a book-burning that included the works of Hobbes and Milton. This modern edition makes available the work's unique perspective on the relation between Church and magistrate and the origins of the English Civil War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521405188
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/28/1994
Series:	Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	5.63(w) x 8.78(h) x 0.79(d)

Table of Contents

1. There is a God that is mans creatour, proved; 2. God is the Soveraign ruler of Mankind; 3. Of the Constitution of this Kingdom of God; 4. Of the Administration of the Universall Kingdom; 5. Of a particular Commonwealth in generall subordinate to the Universall; 6. Of the divers sorts of Commonwealths; 7. Of the Fundation, efficient and conveying Causes, and means of power; 8. Of the best forms of Government and happyest Commonwealth; 9. How a Commonwealth may be reduced to its Theocraticall temper; 10. Of the Soveraigns power over the Pastors of the Church; 11. Of the Soveraigns prerogatives; 12. Of due Obedience to Rulers, and of Resistance; 13. An Account of the Reasons that perswaded me (and many others) to take up Armes in obedience to the Parliament in the Late Warres.

Editorial Reviews

"Lamont's edition of 'A Holy Commonwealth' judiciously extracts the substance of the full work, including, for the first time in a modern edition, all of the three hundred eighty theses as well as those explanatory comments which contain new material....For the first time, students have access to the full range of Baxter's arguments without having to wade through the original, parts of which are redundant. The result is brilliant." Richard Greaves, Church History

From the Publisher