Richard Baxter on Depression, Scrupulosity (OCD), and the Embodied-Soul

History Teaches…Will We Humbly Learn?

When I describe my approach to biblical counseling, I highlight 6 convictions. Among those is my conviction that biblical counselors should be “church history-informed.” We demonstrate humility when we are willing to learn from that great cloud of past spiritual witnesses—from Christians soul physicians throughout church history.

Some in our modern biblical counseling movement seem instinctually prone to minimize the potential role of the body in various issues such as depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar depression, schizophrenia, etc. It appears that part of their hesitancy is the fear that we are caving to the modern materialistic perspective that we are only bodies. Unfortunately, this fear often leads us to swing the pendulum too far the other way, toward a gnostic, spiritualistic perspective that we are all soul, rather than embodied-souls.

I have found it helpful to consider how our predecessors in the faith—especially those who ministered and wrote prior to the current modern materialistic worldview—saw the role of the body in issues like depression, anxiety, OCD, and scrupulosity. Consistently, they identified the body—the embodied-soul—as significantly intertwined with both the cause and cure of depression, anxiety, OCD, and scrupulosity. That is true, as we see in today’s post, with Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter. It is also true with C. H. Spurgeon and Timothy Rogers:

Also, for resources on OCD and scrupulosity, see, 55 Resources for OCD and Scrupulosity.

Flying from Florida for a Funeral…

On a recent flight from Florida to Indiana to preach at the funeral of a relative, I read the book, Depression, Anxiety, and the Christian Life: Practical Wisdom from Richard Baxter. J. I. Packer wrote the Introduction. Michael Lundy edited the book. It includes three original writings by Baxter (1615-1691):

Directions to the Melancholy about Their Thoughts (in A Christian Directory) (1673)
The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow (1682)
The Duty of Physicians (in A Christian Directory)

I’m dividing today’s post into two sections, based upon the first two of these three writings. In section one, I’m focused primarily on interacting with Baxter’s thoughts on depression, as he addresses them in Directions to the Melancholy about Their Thoughts.

In section two, I’m focused primarily on interacting with Baxter’s thoughts on OCD, “religious scrupulosity,” and “excessive sorrow” as he addresses them in The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow. In this writing, Baxter provides counsel for what we might today call “an overactive conscience,” or an “overly tender conscience” of the person feels and believes that they must meet an imagined standard of perfection to enjoy peace with God.

Section 1: Depression and the Embodied-Soul

A Soul Physician of Embodied-Souls

Packer entitles his Introduction, “Richard Baxter, Spiritual Physician.” Packer explains that Baxter was not only a “physician of souls” (22), but he also acted as a physician of bodies because the town lacked a doctor. Though not trained, “Baxter had evidently gained a good deal of medical knowledge from living with his own sickliness” (22).

Packer explains that Baxter knew “that each human being is a psychophysical unit, in which body and the mind, though distinct, are currently inseparable, and either may make its mark functionally on the other, for better and for worse” (27). Packer then describes how Baxter saw depression (“melancholy”) as a disease of the embodied-soul.

“One problem here, whereby physical factors led to a measure of mental imbalance, was what Puritans labeled melancholy. The word melancholy, which nowadays is a simple synonym for sadness, was in the seventeenth century a technical medical term. It comes from two Greek words meaning ‘black bile.’ Baxter’s observant, analytical mind, which fitted him to function as an amateur physician, equipped him to focus and describe melancholy with precision” (27-28).

How did the Puritan soul physician of embodied-souls diagnose the cause of depression? Was it only “spiritual”? No. It was bio-spiritual, psychophysical.

“Melancholy, as Baxter perceived it, was a psychophysical reality, a ‘diseased craziness … of the imagination’ that might be caused by the body being out of sorts (‘sorrows that come from your spleen,’) or by overload or overstain on the mind, or perhaps both together” (28).

Shepherd of Soul and Body

While Packer describes Baxter as a “soul physician” of embodied-souls, Michael Lundy, MD, describes Pastor Baxter as “shepherd of soul and body” (36).

“Baxter lived a double life…. Baxter was an ordained pastor who also, out of necessity, served as a lay physician” (36). Baxter sought to “reduce the unhelpful and often unwarranted segregation of the body and soul, medical and pastoral, theological and psychological” (37).

“Baxter wrote about the care of the soul and the care of the body as if they were indivisible if not indistinguishable components of the same person. He actually wasn’t trying to unite two divided parts of the person but saw the soul and body together clearly as the person. His writing and advice reflect that” (41).

Notice how Baxter understands the biblical truth of embodied-souls, addresses the tendency for Christians to diminish the role of the body, and provides biblical correctives to this imbalance.

“For Baxter, there was no conflict between body and soul, though he would not dispute that there was very often a real and practical tension—or imbalance—between them. But one gathers that encounters with either disembodied souls or soulless but still-living bodies were alien to Baxter’s thought and practice. He had an appreciation of the tendency in his own day for patients to emphasize the soul over the body. His counsel is a directive and effective correction to those tendencies which, while ancient, continue to this very day and still need to be countered” (41).

The Source of Baxter’s Pastoral Wisdom

Speaking of Baxter’s wisdom about embodied-souls and depression, Lundy asks the question, “Whence this wisdom?” (49). What sources informed Baxter’s soul care for embodied-souls? According to Lundy, it was a combination of the Bible and extra-biblical information.

“While the Bible is the absolute, carefully examined basis for faith and life among Baxter and his Puritan colleagues, in practical terms he and they borrowed widely from many sources, and used Aristotelian principles of logic, which they made to conform to Christian theology” (51).

“It is Baxter’s deeply and carefully articulated Christian theology coupled with his adaptation of Stoic moral philosophy that makes his work so enduring and compelling. The Puritans unabashedly took what they could from a variety of sources, holding that all truth was ultimately from God, and that such truth as was revealed to ancient pagans through general revelation could be legitimately recycled, with care, and applied in an explicitly Christian context” (51).

“What emerges in Baxter’s material is a curious and compelling mixture of sound Christian doctrines and general holistic medical principles, applying reframed Stoic concepts to those doctrines and principles, and formulated as irrefutable logic” (51-52).

The Need for More Than Talking about Truth

In Baxter’s Directions to the Melancholy about Their Thoughts, he specifically recognizes that depression can become a “diseased craziness” (74) which renders the person incapable of logical thought. “Such individuals have lost the power of controlling their thoughts by reason” (79).

They resist counsel to renew their minds, put off false thinking, put on the truth, and reflect on Christ’s grace.

“They are under a compulsion or constraint. They cannot push out their troublesome thoughts; they cannot redirect their minds; they cannot think about love and mercy” (79).

“When the natural course of this disease is far advanced, counsel to the affected persons themselves is useless, because they have no rationality or free will to implement it. Rather it is their friends nearest them that need counsel” (84).

Physiological Interventions

So what is needed? Baxter perceives the depressed person’s need for medication, embodied-care, and physiological interventions. Sadly, depressed persons,

“Can hardly be persuaded to take any medications or use other means for the cure of their bodies. They maintain that they are well, being confident that this is only their souls that are distressed” (83).

Baxter recommends rudimentary physiological intervention when a person cannot “rouse themselves and shake off” irrational thoughts.

“Some individuals, by splashing a little cold water in their faces (or by asking someone to do it for them), can arouse themselves from melancholic torpor as if from sleep. If not this, can you get out of your room and begin some task that will serve as a diversion?” (89).

“Be sure that you keep yourself constantly busy—as far as your strength will allow—in the diligent labors of a lawful calling” (97).

“I have known despairing, melancholy persons cured by setting themselves resolutely and diligently about their duties and changing locations, company, and going outside” (98).

Baxter concludes his counsel in Directions to the Melancholy about Their Thoughts with these words about medication and embodied care.

“My last advice is this: strive for the cure of your disease, and commit yourself to the care of your physician and obey him. Don’t be like most depressed persons, who will not believe that medication will do them good, but who think it is only their soul that is troubled. Because—understand this—it is the chemistry, reason, and mood that are unbalanced” (100).

“I have personally known many individuals to be cured by medication. What is more, unless the body is cured, the mind will hardly ever be cured, so that even the most lucid and well-reasoned advice will prove ineffective” (101).

Baxter: “Don’t Blame Yourself”—Depression and Culpability

Lundy notes that “Baxter refuses to ‘blame the victim,’ but instead takes a very compassionate and understanding posture” (83). Baxter writes,

“Few of them respond positively to any reason, persuasion, or counsel. It is the nature of their illness to think the way they do” (83).

“This is the miserable case of these unfortunate people, greatly to be pitied and not to be despised by anyone. Let no one look down on these individuals” (83).

Further, Baxter insists that to the extent that the depressed person can understand biblical reason, they need to be assured that “the effects of natural sickness or disease are not sins” (85).

Baxter doubles-down on this perspective in his direct counsel to depressed persons.

“Don’t blame yourself any more than there is cause to do for the effects of your disease. Directly, the involuntary effects of sickness are not sinful. Depression is simply a disease affecting the emotions and imagination, though you sense no illness” (96).

Baxter illustrates to the depressed person via comparison—comparing the illness of depression to the illness of a fever.

“It is as expected for a depressed person to be impetuous and tormented with doubts, fears, despairing thoughts, and blasphemous temptations as for a man to talk incoherently in a fever when his cognition fails. Similarly, how common it is for a fever to provoke thoughts of water and powerful thirst. Would you have a man in a fever accuse himself for being thirsty or for such thoughts, desire, or talk? If you had the hideous thoughts in your dreams that you now have while awake, would you not classify them as unavoidable weakness rather than unpardoned sins? Accordingly, your disorder makes your evil thoughts morally equivalent to dreams” (96).

Depression and God’s Unique Design

Baxter believes that God designed us each uniquely. In fact, the entire concept of “melancholy” comes from the concept of distinct temperaments and “the humoral theory of medicine” (44). Baxter believed that Satan worked against each “temperament.”

“For as he can more easily tempt a choleric person to anger, a phlegmatic, sensual person to sloth, and a sanguine or hot-tempered person to lust and immorality, so a melancholy person is more easily tempted to thoughts of blasphemy, infidelity, and despair” (81).

Note: I am not agreeing with Baxter’s temperament theory. I am simply acknowledging that Baxter followed the medical/philosophical information of his day.

Baxter uses his understanding of unique temperaments or personalities as a means of consoling the melancholic person in their depression. He understands the concept of highly sensitive persons—and adjusts his counsel accordingly.

“God knows how much you are able to bear. Passionate feelings depend considerable upon nature. Some persons are more expressive than others. A little thing affects some deeply” (93).

Depression and One-Another Ministry

Because of the embodied-soul nature of depression, Baxter counsels the depressed person not to trust their own judgement, but instead, to entrust themselves to the care and wisdom of others.

“Do not trust your own judgment in your depressed and anxious condition, as to either the state of your soul or the choice and conduct of your thoughts or ways. Commit yourself to the judgment and direction of some experienced, faithful guide. In this dark, disordered condition, you are unfit to judge your own condition or the way to approach your duty.”

Section Two: OCD, Religious Scrupulosity, and the Embodied-Soul

In The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow, Baxter draws on 2 Corinthians 2:7 where Paul speaks of repentant sinners being “overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” Baxter’s writing shifts here from an exclusive focus on depression/melancholy to a focus on what we might today call “religious scrupulosity” or OCD.

Throughout this document, Baxter moves back and forth between OCD/scrupulosity and depression/melancholy. In his comprehensive thinking, Baxter addresses how an overactive conscience, spurred on by Satan’s condemnation, can lead to spiritual depression and obsessive doubts about God’s love and Christ’s grace.

A Dangerous Virtue

Surprisingly, given how some people picture the Puritans, Baxter describes how Christians “can overdo their newfound sorrow for sin” (107).

“They so fear being hard-hearted that they end up being nearly swallowed up by an excessive, exaggerated sorrow. Even though this excessive sorrow may be for real sins, past or present, it is a dangerous virtue, as it were, and as such, none at all” (107).

Lighten the Conscience with Grace; Load the Conscience with Guilt

Many seem to misperceive the Puritans as always “loading the conscience with guilt”—always spotting, exposing, and confronting sin. However, Baxter and other Puritans, as wise soul physicians, grasp that where sin abounds, grace superabounds (Romans 5:20). Therefore, they highlight “lightening the conscience with grace”—assuring believers of the Father’s compassion, the Son’s grace, and the Spirit’s mutual groaning with us.

Baxter writes that, “Guilt is excessive when it is self-destructive in either a physical or an intellectual sense” (108). Physically, our guilt and religious scruples can become imbalanced.

“Nature requires being taken seriously, and its enjoyment requires a proper exercise of duties attached to it. But clearly, such gravity and associated duties must not alone or together be understood or implemented in a way that is harmful to one’s well-being” (108).

Baxter then illustrates one possible way (fasting) that the overly scrupulous, perfectionistic Christian might harm their body by excessive spiritual practices.

“As God has stated his preference for mercy over sacrifice, it is clear that we are not to use religion as a pretense to do hard to ourselves or our neighbors. We are told to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. Fasting, as an example, may be considered a duty only so far as it advances spiritual good” (108).

Religious Scrupulosity and Doubts About God’s Goodness

Baxter, as an astute physician of souls, empathizes with the mental/spiritual battle that the overly-scrupulous person endures.

“It would be easier to keep leaves on a tree motionless during a windstorm than to bring about calm thoughts to those who are so disturbed. If one employs reason in an effort to keep them away from agonizing subjects or to direct them to more pleasant matters, it proves fruitless. Reason alone is powerless” (109).

“Such an exaggerated sorrow consumes any comfort one might otherwise find in the goodness and love of God, and interferes with love toward God. It is nearly impossible for someone so troubled to grasp the general goodness of God at all, and even more so to experience him as good and friendly in a personal and intimate sense” (111).

Rather than chiding and confronting (loading the conscience with guilt) the despairing person, Baxter evidences understanding and expresses empathy for their tormented soul.

“Such a soul finds himself, as it were, like a man in a Saharan desert, blistered by the intense sun, about to die from dehydration and exhaustion. While he can admit that the sun is the source of life on earth and a general blessing to mankind, he is only aware of it bringing him misery and death. Those overwhelmed with sorrow and guilt will admit to God’s goodness toward others but experience him as an enemy set upon their destruction…. They would find it nearly impossible to love a human who slandered, oppressed, or otherwise wronged them; they find it even more difficulty to love a God who, they believe, intends to damn them, and who has cut off all means of their escape” (111).

Likewise, Baxter grasps the distorted thinking and tormented emotions of the overly-scrupulous person.

“It follows as a matter of course that these disordered sentiments make for a distorted and highly prejudicial view of God’s Word, works, mercy, and disciplines. The depressed person hears or reads Scripture as directed against himself personally: every lament and threatened judgment he takes as intended for him. Yet, he excuses himself from all the promises and comforting verses, as if he has been personally excluded from them by name” (111).

Satan: The Accuser and Condemner

Baxter, ever the wise soul physician, describes how Satan exploits the troubled mind of the overly-tender conscience.

“This malady is readily exploited by Satan for introducing blasphemous thoughts about God—as if God were evil—and hating and destroying those who long to please him. The design of the Devil is to present God to us as being like the Evil One himself, who is in fact a malicious Enemy who delights to cause hurt” (113).

Religious Scrupulosity and Culpability

As with depression, so also with religious scrupulosity, Baxter teaches that diminished capacity equates to lessened culpability.

“This excessive sorrow makes people incapable of constructive meditation. It confuses thoughts and leads them into harmful distractions and temptations” (113).

“Preaching and counsel are also rendered ineffective in the face of such thoughts; no matter what you say or how convincing it is at the moment, it has either no effect upon them or only a momentary one” (114).

The Physical Causes of Scrupulosity/OCD

Once it again, it may surprise those who picture the Puritans as sin-spotters to learn what Baxter believes causes OCD, religious scrupulosity, overmuch sorrow, and an overly-sensitive conscience.

“Question: What are the causes and cures of this excessive and misguided sorrow and guilt?” (114).

“Answer: With many individuals, much of the cause is to be found in physiological disturbances, physical diseases, and general weakness” (114).

Baxter expands upon this, discussing once again the issue of culpability.

“Here again it must be emphasized that the more the condition arises unavoidably from unseen physiological process beyond the choice and control of the individual, the less sinful and less dangerous to the soul is that state, even though it is no less perplexing but may be more so for seeming to have no demonstrable cause” (114).

Pastor Baxter moves to specifics as he begins discussing “particular diseases” (114) that “appear to cause excessive sorrow” (114).

First, religious scrupulosity can be caused by “intense and violent pain as cannot be withstood” (115). Recall that Baxter wrote/preached this message in 1681—in an era of frequent and varied painful illnesses without the pain medications of our day. According to Baxter’s understanding, intense embodied pain can be a cause of soul scrupulosity.

Second, as with depression, Baxter believes that scrupulosity/OCD can be due to the unique God-designed personality, temperament, and emotional sensitivity of an individual.

“Others involve an innately strong emotional reactivity, and the lack of an ability to moderate that reactivity is deemed causal” (115).

“Temperamentally, they are predisposed toward an anxious, fearful discontentment…. They are always disconcerted, offended, or frightened by one thing or another…. They find offense in a single word or glance, or take fright in every sad news story, or startled at every noise” (115).

Baxter may have been thinking of his wife, Margaret, as he wrote the preceding words. Of her, Richard wrote in another place (A Breviate of the Life of Margaret, The Daughter of Francis Charlton, and Wife of Richard Baxter):

“Her understanding was higher and clearer than other people’s, but, like the treble strings of a lute, strained up to the highest, sweet, but in continual danger.” She “proved her sincerity by her costliest obedience. It cost her . . . somewhat of her trouble of body and mind; for her knife was too keen and cut the sheath. Her desires were more earnestly set on doing good than her tender mind and head could well bear.”

Third, Baxter speaks generically of another potential cause of scrupulosity. “When reason is largely lost through actual disease, recovery is rendered more difficult and protracted” (116). He then links body and soul in his comprehensive understanding of causes of OCD/scrupulosity:

“When those already prone to volatile emotions and a nervous disposition become seriously depressed, the conjunction of temperament and illness doubles the resulting misery” (116).

The Physical Cause of Depression, Anxiety, Fear, OCD, and Scrupulosity

Baxter next begins a section entitled “Reviewing the Signs of Severe Depression and Anxiety” (117). In this context, he includes depression, anxiety, fear, and scrupulosity (OCD). In case Baxter has not been clear enough to this point, he now is crystal clear about his understanding of the cause of depression, anxiety, fear, and scrupulosity:

“Console them as often as you will—the fears will return many times, and quickly, because the cause of their fears is in their physical illness, not their theological understanding” (118).

In this preceding quote, Baxter counsels the counselors. In the following quote, Baxter counsels the counselee.

“The thoughts, fears, and troubles that depression, natural weakness, and a disordered mind invariably cause have more to do with physical illness than with sin” (150).

Believers today can agree or disagree with Baxter. However, given that he wrote in 1681, it is clear that it is not some modern capitulation to materialism that drives Baxter’s conclusion that difficulties like depression, anxiety, fear, OCD, and scrupulosity are caused by physical issues.

Given his understanding, how does Baxter think soul physicians should minister to embodied-souls? Baxter eschews “stop it!” counsel. He believes it is cruel to fail to recognize the physiological component and causes of their emotional distress. Hear his words:

“Their misery comes from what they cannot help but think. Their thoughts flow from illness. You might as easily try to persuade someone not to shiver with a chill, or not to feel pain when hurt, as try to keep them from thinking the thoughts they do” (117).

“It is futile to command them to stop what is so far beyond their control, and cruel to fail to recognize how much they have succumbed to illness and become captives to thoughts they would very much be rid of if only they could. As it is, they are tormented—sometimes day and night—by psychotic thoughts they cannot escape” (117).

“They can hardly be convinced that their illness is physical rather than only spiritual” (154).

The Satanic Cause of Depression, Anxiety, Fear, OCD, and Scrupulosity

Baxter sees emotional distresses as a “complicated state of affairs” (121). Their cause includes the physiological as just documented. Another cause is satanic:

“We do not deny that Satan has been given latitude in the lives of such depressed persons” (123).

“His working is often evident in a physiological imbalance in the body” (123).

Because of this understanding, Baxter once again emphasizes that the person is not culpable, instead, Satan is!

“But I hasten to add that God will impute the Devil’s temptation not to you but to the Devil, no matter how hideous, so long as you reject them and hate them. Similarly, you will not be held responsible for those unavoidable ill effects of a physical illness, no more than God would condemn a man for raving thoughts or words said in a delirium or frank psychosis” (123-124).

Here Baxter, right or wrong, directly compares the hopelessness of depression and the doubts of scrupulosity to the “unavoidable ill effects of a physical illness,” and claims that God sees such effects in the same non-condemning, non-culpable way of a person in the throes of “delirium.”

Speaking now specifically of depression, Baxter again highlights the complexity. “It is necessary to employ many words to convey the truly complicated nature of this disease of souls” (124).

**How Not to Care for Embodied-Souls: Five Marks of Unbiblical Biblical Counselors**

Before moving to a section on how soul physicians care for embodied-souls struggling with depression and overmuch sorrow, Baxter first exposes the folly of unskilled soul care givers.

“Unskilled teachers of Scripture cause grief and perplexity for many” (131).

How do they do this? Baxter shares five marks of unbiblical biblical counselors. Many of these are akin to Job’s “miserable comforters.”

They fail to publicly confess their own struggles. Baxter explains that parishioners and counselees “imagine themselves to be without grace because they fall short of our supposed virtues”—the supposed virtues of Christian leaders (131). Baxter, in honesty and humility counters this lie. “However, if they lived near us and saw our failings, or knew us as well as we know ourselves, or could read all our sinful thoughts and know our vicious dispositions, they would be free of this error!” (131).
They fail to lighten the conscience with grace. According to Baxter, unskilled biblical counselors “are unable to explain to their listeners the tenor of the covenant of grace” (131). They pride themselves in being competent to confront, but like the Pharisees, heap heavy burdens on others and do not lift a finger to provide comfort from the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.
They are themselves not comfort-receivers. Without flinching, Baxter explains why some biblical counselors of his day did not provide comfort for the depresses and overly-scrupulous. “Others are themselves unacquainted with any spiritual, heavenly comfort” (131). Only comfort-receivers who receive comfort from the God of all comfort are equipped to be comfort-sharers (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).
They lack holiness, humility, and sincerity. “Some are lacking in personal holiness or renewal by the Holy Spirit, and no not know the meaning of sincerity” (131).
They lack wisdom and discernment. If the only tool you have is a hammer, then you treat everything as if it were a nail. They see people struggling with depression and scrupulosity only through the lens of personal sin and total depravity. “They cannot tell the difference between a godly person and an unrepentant sinner. Being wicked themselves they blur the distinction between good and bad” (131). Further, they focus on works to the diminishment of Christ’s grace. “Others, again, unskilled in spiritual matters, put inordinate emphasis on things that are not even duties, as the Roman Catholics do in their many inventions and superstitions” (131). They strain at a gnat but swallow a camel by emphasizing lesser important issues and focusing on opinions and needless controversies. “Some cause men’s peace, if not their actual salvation, to depend on controversies beyond their own understandings, and boldly denounce as heretical and anathema matters they do not comprehend. Even the Christian world itself has long been divided into factions by unwise quarrels over texts and competing interpretations. Is it any wonder that present-day hearers of such controversies find themselves confused?” (131-132). “Many are confused by religious controversies, and every contending faction is confident and has a great deal to say, all of which may seem true to the ignorant and irrefutable to the listener. Each faction claims to be the only way and threatens damnation to those who do not turn to it” (140-141).

How to Care for Embodied-Souls Suffering with Depression and Scrupulosity

Baxter rightly emphasizes the need for discernment—the need for wisdom to know when to lighten the conscience with grace (loving comfort) and when to load the conscience with guilt (gentle confrontation). Soul care givers, when they listen and discern that they are ministering to a tender conscience, must not “condemn them for the very things they abhor, and reckon their very illness of depression to them as a crime” for these “notions need to be refuted and discarded” (133).

On the other hand, if they listen and discern that the person “takes little notice of any sin,” then gentle confrontation is in order. “Unsophisticated friends and pastors may offer only comfort, when in face a discovery and rebuke of their sin would be the better part of curing them” (132). It is important to understand the context. Baxter here emphasizes sinful responses to suffering, depression, scrupulosity, and distressing emotions. As he has consistently done previously, Baxter does not condemn or confront the person for their feelings of overmuch sorrow. However, if necessary, he is willing to humbly address potential sinful responses to their emotional distresses.

Perhaps out of concern for not heaping false guilt on a tender conscience, Baxter ends the brief section on confronting sin with these words of caution.

“However, if your sorrows are not the result of the aforementioned sins, then the reproofs listed above are not intended for you. Instead, I will outline the proper remedy for you” (140).

How to Care for Your Own Embodied-Soul: “Approaches to Quieting One’s Heart”

After addressing how to counsel the overly-scrupulous person, Baxter next offers wisdom principles for self-counsel, under the header of, “Approaches to Quieting One’s Heart.”

Be informed by general revelation.

Interestingly, Baxter begins not with special revelation, but with general revelation.

“Be careful that you are faithful to the light and law of nature, which all mankind is obliged to observe. Had you no Scripture or Christianity, then nature (that is, the works of God) would tell you that there is a God, and ‘that he rewards those who seek him’” (141-142).

Baxter does not pit special revelation against natural/general revelation. In fact, for the person struggling with doubts about God’s goodness, the first place Baxter sends them is to nature! As Psalm 19 insists, nature speaks; creation talks; general revelation communicates.

Baxter insists that soul physicians must be “nature-informed,” or “general revelation-informed” biblical counselors.

“Nature informs you that God is absolutely perfect in power, knowledge, and goodness, and that man is a reasoning, free agent made by God and is therefore God’s won, subject to his will and rule” (142).

This quote is just the beginning of a long section where Baxter repeatedly asserts that Christians must be general revelation-informed.

Nature informs us that we are not morally neutral.
Nature informs us that virtue and vice, moral good and evil do differ greatly.
Nature informs us of universal laws that obligate us to good.
Nature informs us that all men owe God their absolute obedience and greatest love.
Nature informs us that God is our chief benefactor.
Nature informs us that God made us all as members of “one worldwide family, and that we own love and help to each other.”
Nature informs us that God rewards obedience to him.
Nature informs us of the fleeting nature of life (142).

Be Faithful to Special Revelation

Having begun with being general revelation-informed, Baxter next counsels the overly-scrupulous person to cling to special revelation.

“With respect to God’s supernatural revelation, cling to God’s Word, the sacred Bible, written by special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as the sufficient documentation of it” (142).

Again, rather than pitting one form of God’s revelation against another form, Baxter highlights both special and general revelation.

“God’s law is only found in nature and the Holy Scriptures, and that is the law that provides the only divine rule of our faith or judgment, or of our hearts and lives” (143).

Saturate Your Mind on Truths about God’s Grace

Baxter then provides a lengthy section of thirty-one “truths about God’s grace.” Grace is the cure for our sense of disgrace. Grace is the remedy for an overly-scrupulous, condemning conscience.

The Roles of Family and Friends

Baxter nears the conclusion of his thoughts on depression and scrupulosity by discussing the roles of family and friends. His counsel includes a great deal of focus on physiological interventions.

Activity: “Be especially careful not to let them be idle, but press or entice them into some pleasant activity that may entail physical as well as mental action. If they are voracious readers, don’t let them read for too long a period at once” (160).
Community: “Take them out to meet new people” (161).
Ministry: “It is also useful if you can engage them in providing comfort to others” (161).
Medication Quote #1: “If other means fail, do not neglect medication. Although many are averse to it and maintain that their illness is ‘only’ in the mind, they must be persuaded or compelled to take it. I have known of a woman bound deep in melancholy who for the longest time would not speak, take medicine, or permit her husband to leave the room; he died of grief over this, though she herself was cured by medication literally forced upon her” (162).
Medication Quote #2: “When the disease begins in the mind and spirits, and the body is healthy, medicine—even very harsh medicine—may cure the depression, even though the patients may protest that medicine cannot cure souls. Yet the soul and body are intrinsically and wonderfully partnered in both disease and healing. Though we may not understand the mechanism behind this interaction, experience informs us that it is real, and thus we have a rationale to use medicine for the body to treat the mind” (165-166).
Diet and Exercise: “Diet can be a significant part of a cure, as I have suggested elsewhere.” “They may benefit from exercise, even vigorous exertion” (166). “As to actual diet, it must be as carefully tailored to the individual as medication” (166).

“The Democracy of the Dead”

Studying church history exposes our modern blind spots and our biased assumption that somehow we alone have cornered the market on understanding and applying God’s truth. G. K. Chesterton said it poetically.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.”

Church history teaches. Church history humbles.

What might the modern biblical counseling movement learn from Richard Baxter on depression, scrupulosity, and the embodied-soul? What could you and I learn from Baxter? What could we do differently? Better? More compassionately? Wiser? More comprehensively?

Where you might disagree with Baxter, how would you support your view biblically? What might you learn from Baxter even in areas of disagreement?