Baxter’s opinions of the efficacy of Christ’s death resemble those of John Goodwin, rather than those of Thomas Goodwin. For he remarks, “God hath made a universal deed of gift of Christ and life to all the world, on condition that they will but accept the offer. In this testament or promise, or act of oblivion, the sins of all the world are conditionally pardoned, and they are conditionally justified, and reconciled to God.”[537]
BAXTER.
Baxter seems to have believed that whilst those who are ultimately saved, are saved by the sovereign and gracious purpose of the Almighty—in other words, by Divine election—there is a provision made by the mediation of Christ, sufficient for the wants of all men, and of which all men, if they pleased, could avail themselves; and in this respect his views do not materially differ from those expressed by Dr. Edward Williams, in his treatise on The Divine Equity and Sovereignty; or from those taught by Andrew Fuller in several of his publications. A somewhat similar via media was pursued by Amyraut, the French Divine. Yet it is, I believe, not an uncommon impression that Baxter went beyond this, and supposed that whilst some are elected to eternal life by a special Divine decree, others are saved through a general provision of Divine grace. I do not pretend to have read all Baxter’s works: but in those with which I am acquainted, I find no trace of such an opinion, neither does it appear in Orme’s careful summary of Baxter’s theological writings. It is a curious fact, however, that an idea of the kind attributed to the Puritan was expressed, at the Council of Trent, by a Papist, Ambrosius Catarinus, of Siena,[538] and that a similar idea is exhibited in the writings of Fowler, the Latitudinarian.[539]
Baxter did not adopt the doctrine of imputation held by Thomas Goodwin and John Owen. He remarks:—
“Most of our ordinary Divines say, that Christ did as properly obey in our room or stead, as He did suffer in our stead, and that in God’s esteem, and in point of law, we were in Christ’s obeying and suffering, and so, in Him we did both perfectly fulfil the commands of the law by obedience, and the threatenings of it by bearing the penalty; and thus (say they) is Christ’s righteousness imputed to us (viz.)—His passive righteousness for the pardon of our sins and delivering us from the penalty, His active righteousness for the making of us righteous, and giving us a title to the Kingdom—and some say the habitual righteousness of His human nature, instead of our own habitual righteousness—yea, some add the righteousness of the Divine nature also. This opinion (in my judgment) containeth a great many of mistakes.”[540]
Faith, Baxter explains as “both a general trust in God’s revelations and grace, and a special trust in Jesus Christ,” adding, “I have oft proved this justifying faith to be no less than our unfeigned taking Christ for our Saviour, and becoming true Christians according to the tenour of the baptismal covenant.” The characteristic nature of Christian faith he further represents as consisting of trust in a personal Saviour, inclusive of an assenting trust by the understanding; a consenting trust by the will; and a practical trust by the executive powers.[541] The linking of the exercises of faith upon three faculties in human nature may be observed both in Goodwin and in Owen; but Baxter seems to have proceeded further than they in carrying out the practical relations of faith, and in this respect to have occupied ground not unlike that of Thorndike.[542]
HOWE.
Howe’s Puritanism might almost be said to have reached him by descent; but his extraordinary thoughtfulness, and his singular originality, require us to believe, that far from blindly accepting the inheritance, he carefully investigated the whole subject, and became a Puritan from conviction. His father, appointed to the incumbency of Loughborough by Archbishop Laud, afterwards displeased his patron, by refusing to comply with his requirements, and was consequently ejected. The father took the son to Ireland, whence he was driven back by the rebellion; after which, John Howe, before he proceeded to Oxford, went to Cambridge, and there, from the “Platonic tincture” of his mind, became associated with Cudworth, More, and John Smith, from whom his Platonic tastes received the highest culture. The great Pagan theologue, however, exerted a more powerful influence upon his sympathizing disciple, than did any of these under-masters; for Howe carefully read Plato for himself. He had “conversed closely with the heathen moralists and philosophers; had perused many of the writings of the schoolmen, and several systems and common places of the Reformers. Above all, he had compiled for himself a system of theology, from the Sacred Scriptures alone: a system which, as he was afterwards heard to say, he had seldom seen occasion to alter.”[543]
His defects of style have robbed him of that meed of honour to which as a theologian he is entitled. He exhibits an utter neglect of the art of composition, like a man of great wealth, thoroughly careless about his attire, and falls into a habit of writing most inharmonious periods, perhaps for want of a musical ear. His frequent poverty of expression, and his numerous and intricate subdivisions, are failings in their effect vastly heightened by the unaccountably strange method of punctuation which he adopted himself, or left his printer to adopt for him.[544] Yet his works present, in numerous instances, the most felicitous phrases and the choicest epithets, and only less frequently does he, under the inspiration of his genius, pour forth sonorous sentences, with an organ-like swell, in keeping with the magnificent ideas which they were employed to convey. After all Howe’s drawbacks, I have often risen from the perusal of his works with feelings similar to those of a traveller, who, at the end of his journey, charmed with the remembrance of the scenes he has visited, forgets the ruggedness of the road, and the inconvenience of his conveyance, however unpleasant they might have been at the moment they were experienced. The originality and compass of Howe’s mind, and the calmness and moderation of his temper, must ever inspire sympathy, and awaken admiration in reflective readers: his Platonic and Alexandrian culture commends him to the philosophical student, and the practical tendency of his religious thinking endears him to all Christians. His works contain no treatises on Faith, on Justification, on Election, or Particular Redemption. Though essentially evangelical, Howe’s writings are pervaded by a tone of thought which varies from that which is predominant in Puritan literature: and I may add that, as in Baxter, so in Howe, yet not from exactly the same cause, or in the same measure, heresy hunters, if their scent be keen, may discover passages open to exception.
HOWE.