A convinced atheist is not included in the supposed readers of Christian Directory. To make this clear, Richard Baxter made an important qualification in chapter 1 of Christian Ethics. Here we learn that the chapter is not applicable to all natural man. He mentioned 18 presuppositions that describe the kind of natural man he expects that would benefit from his writings. I reduce, simplify and personalize the paragraphs so that readers will easily understand the essence of these presuppositions:
Presupposition # 1 - I suppose that you recognize yourself as a man with "reason and natural free-will" "capable of loving and serving" your Creator (p. 6).
Presupposition # 2 - I assume that you acknowledge that flesh should not rule over you, that you are created for the purpose of loving and serving your Maker.
Pressupposition # 3 - I presuppose that you "have a natural self-love" (p. 7) for your personal happiness. You neither want to be hated by God nor suffer misery in hell as your eternal destiny.
Presupposition # 4 - I presume that you deny that you are your own maker, and that the power and wisdom you have came from you, and instead, you acknowledge the existence of God the Creator of all things and that all wisdom and power are his.
Presupposition # 5 - I suppose that you recognize that the Creator is not only the Owner, but also the Governor of all things. As a Governor, He has his laws that demand duties from you and he executes his judgment on the basis of these laws, and that he promises rewards and threatens punishment.
Presupposition # 6 - I presuppose that as a man, you are convinced that "God must be absolutely submitted to, and obeyed before all others in the world, and loved above all friends, or pleasures, or creatures whatsoever" (p. 8).
Presupposition # 7 - I assume that accepting the kind of God that I have told you so far, you also accept that your highest good can only be found in submission and obedience to your God, and your greatest harm is to stand in opposition to him and his will.
Presupposition # 8 - (I think this is a repetition of presupposition # 5 expressed differently and with some addition).
Presupposition # 9 - I presume that since you accepted that your highest good is found in God, therefore you also recognize that a man who devotes his life into his service will never be a loser.
Presupposition # 10 - I presuppose that you cannot say for "sure that there is not another life for man, in which his present obedience shall be rewarded, and disobedience punished" (p. 10). I assume that you dare not deny the possibility or probability of another life.
Presupposition # 11 - I suppose that you are aware about "vanity of all the glory and pleasures of the flesh; and that they are all so quickly gone," and you accept that even time itself is so short, "quickly gone, and then it is nothing!" (p. 10). From this consideration, therefore you "easily conclude, that the bare probability or possibility of an endless happiness, should be infinitely preferred before such transitory vanity, even the greatest matters that can be expected here; and that the probability or possibility of endless misery in hell, should engage us with far greater care and diligence to avoid it, . . ." (ibid.).
Presupposition # 12 - I assume that "You see that a religious, holy life, is every man's duty," not only because God is our Creator, "but also, because as lovers of ourselves, our reason commandeth us to have ten thousandfold more regard of a probable or possible joy and torment which are endless, than of any that is small and of short continuance" (ibid.). And since you think this is the case, "then it is most evident, that there is such a life to come indeed, and that it is more than probable or possible, even certain" (pp. 10-11). Or if you deny the existence of such a life to come, you cannot avoid to conclude that God has deceived mankind with delusion and false hopes.
Presupposition # 13 - I presuppose that since you accepted the existence of a life to come, you also "confess, that all things in this life, whether prosperity or adversity, honour or dishonour, are to be esteemed and used as they refer to the life to come" and that the things that are good in this life are those that advance "the happiness of our endless life" (p. 11).
Presupposition # 14 - I presume that you "confess that God cannot be too much loved, nor obeyed too exactly, nor served too diligently . . . and that no man can make too sure of heaven, or pay too dear for it, or do too much for his salvation, . . . . And that you have nothing else that is so much worth your time, and love, and care, and labour" and that "there is no need of stopping men in their love, and care, and labour for God and their salvation; which is worth more than ever we can do, and where the best are apt to do too little" (ibid.).
Presupposition # 15 - I suppose that you know "that this present life is given us on trial, to prepare for the life that shall come after . . . . and that time cannot be recalled, when it is gone; and therefore that we should make the best of it while we have it" (p. 12).
Presupposition # 16 - I assume that since you accept "matters of everlasting consequence," your "thoughts of them should be frequent and very serious, and your reason should be used about these things, by retired, sober deliberation" (ibid.).
Presupposition # 17 - I suppose that you are well-acquainted with yourself and you know "whether your heart and life" "are more for heaven or for earth" and therefore you are capable of judging yourself (ibid.).
Presupposition # 18 - Finally, I suppose "that you take on you also to believe in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier, and that the Scriptures are the Word of God" (ibid.).
After reading all these 18 presuppositions, it appears that our author assumes too much from his readers. However, he explains that all these assumptions are not for those under the state of grace, but for natural man who at least accept the existence of God and uses his reason.
Source:
Baxter, R. (1830). The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter: with A Life of the Author, A Critical Examination of His Writings by the Rev. William Orme. Volume 2: A Christian Directory or, a Sum of Practical Theology Part 1 Christian Ethics (or Private Duties). London: Paternoster Row. 616 pages.
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