BAXTER, Richard. A Holy Commonwealth, or Political Aphorisms, Opening the True Principles of Government for the Healing of Mistakes and Resolving the Doubts that Most Engender England at this time. London: Thomas Underhill and Francis Tyton, 1659. First edition, 8vo (164 x 101mm.) Decorative initial and head-piece, 9pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. (Small tear to A6, browning and some spotting throughout.) Contemporary calf, red morocco lettering piece to spine (front board detached, initial blank and A1-A5 bound to front board, some loss to lettering piece, crude glue repairs to spine). Note: scarce. As a Puritan minister, Baxter's works incited political and theological debate, but this was his most controversial work. He repudiated it himself in 1670 and in 1683 the Oxford University authorities ordered it to be part of a book-burning that included the works of Milton and Hobbes.