Confession of His Faith, Letter 2 – Comments
Mr Gatakers second Letters Declaring his JUDGEMENT OF MY APOLOGY.
Worthy Sir,
YOurs of May 24. together with your very welcome present (for both which I return you many thanks, a sorry requital) came to my hands June 7. upon receipt whereof, perceiving by the Title, that it contained much variety and store of such matter, as I much desired to see dealt in by some able hand and pen, and deemed none fitter in divers respects to undertake then your self; I presently setting all other businesses aside, addressed my self unto the cursory perusal of the several parcels. That which I purposely made choise of to begin with, was that debate with Mr Kendal, the rather, because I had heard both the Work and Workman by some highly extolled, though I had never seen either; and a religious Gentlewoman sometime visiting me, among other discourse, related unto me, that understanding that notice was given of an Ordination of Ministers to be on such a day in such a place, and repairing early thither to get a convenient room, the better to see the whole carriage of that solemn performance, she demanded of the Clerk (as they term him) who officiously attended her, Who was the Pastor of the place? who answered her, it was one Dr Kendal, a gallant Preacher, one that had written against Mr Baxter; and by occasion thereof asking me, who that Mr Baxter was; I told her, if she would but read such a work of yours, which I used to commend to my friends, and had been sometime long since commended much to me by a pious Kinswoman, that professed to have received no small benefit and comfort by it, (whenas I had not so much as heard of your name before, though of another of the same name, nothing like you) she might soon come to know both who, and what manner of man you were. Howbeit in reading over Mr Eyre's Vindiciae, lighting on a strange Exposition of that Scripture-phrase, in Gods s…ght, cited out of him, there began to arise some doubt in my minde, whether the mans soundness of judgement might be all out answerable to the high report raised of him, and abated with me much of the esteem, that I had formerly entertained of him. Nor do I finde it much improved again with me, by his whole Digression read over, as I finde it related here in your Book; notwithstanding that, Tanquam Martius anguis, Nic m…diâ plus parte leves erectus in auras, D…spicit omne nemus; and as one mounted up into some lofty Chair, he seem to cast his eye down on his Adversary, whom he hath picked out to oppose, as one sitting beneath at his footstool, or lying far below him on the ground; whom he therefore frequently turns off rather with ironies then with Arguments. But such high-flown spirits I have so oft observed, to be large promisers and scant performers, that apud me magna fidem premissa levant; and I see them sometime, while they strive to shew their rank wits, slip into such absurdities, as other of weaker brains and shallower capacities are able easily to des…ry and discover the folly and vanity of, while they please and pride themselves in them, and look that other should applaud them. Having dispatched your Debate with him, I went on to the ensuing ones, in whom, as in the former, many passages I could not reade but with much indignation, divers not without laughter. And truly, Sir, it vexed me not a little, to think how you were fallen into the hands, not foreign only, but as the Apostle speaks, foreign, such as seem to have laid aside in their dealing with you, not Christianity and charity alone, but even common civility, ingenuity, humanity, and shame: and yet withall could I not forbear to laugh at their folly, that had no more wit and discretion, then by such manner of dealing so inconsiderately to lay open their own nakedness, and expose themselves in the issue unto contempt even with the meanest, losing much of that reputation with sober-minded men at least, that before by their parts otherwayes they had gained, while by such unchristian, unseemly and unsavoury carriages they seek to improve and inhance it. But you have, Sir, for the main matters in contest between you and them, besides their reproachfull and cheating courses (for they are many of them no other, no better) so put it home to them, that you have throughly and abundantly vindicated your self, cause and credit, from their false and frivolous aspersions, with all not grosly fore stalled and palpably partial; and I suppose they will have little lust (those later of them above pointed at, I mean, that yet survive) to reply ought, unless they have so brazed the fore-head, that they regard not at all, what men deem or say of them, so they may seem to say somewhat, and have the last word: Which is, I doubt, in part the disposition of that grand Champion of the Antipoedobaptistae (for an Anabaptist he will not yet be termed) who (as I am enformed) hath lately published a Work of that subject, in way of Answer to a whole half dozen of Opposites, whereof you are said to be one.
For your Confession, I should have been glad to have seen it, and shall be right glad to see it, when it shall come abroad. But I heard nothing at all from your Bookseller concerning it: your Letter and Book being brought over to me by a poor woman, whom he made use of for the delivery of it, who having delivered it, made no stay. Nor do I suppose that it needed any perusal of mine, not likely to contain any matter of moment, that would require change: and if some phrase or form of speech should have occurred, concerning some notion, which in other terms▪ I should have deemed more fitly expressed, yet might your own expressions seem the fitter to you, as mine to me; nor would the matter in likelihood have been of that importance, as might countervail either the delay of the Work, being already in part wrought off, or the damage necessarily incurred, by either the stay of the Press, or reprinting, while Letters at such distance passe v…cissim to and fro. Otherwise I should not have been nice of affording that office, though lesse needfull, to one, whom I ingenuously acknowledge to owe so much to in divers respects, and concerning mine esteem of whom I both speak and write that occasionally to others, which I will not to your self; which I am not wont to deny unto divers other, whom I stand lesse engaged unto, requesting of me, for what cause sometime I know not, to peruse some things, which they purpose for the Presse, or have already published, and to give my thoughts thereof; which though I finde sometime a thanklesse office, yet hath proved with other some not unusefull. From yours, Sir, I should rather have hoped to learn and gain somewhat, then to help mend or better ought.
As for mine own work, though having found it a very tedious businesse, to raise any well-composed frame out of such maimed and confused Notes or scraps rather, as I finde them to be; yet I had begun to set upon it, and had written out some few sheets of it, when some other urgent occasions intervening, enforced to lay it aside: and to let you know the plain truth, I am now at a stand (considering the multitude of intricate questions, and nice subtilties concerning this subject, th…t I meet with in the writings of learned men, occasioned a great part of them by those vain and fond fancies, which these men have of late broached, and many are much taken with among us, such as I little dreamed of, when above twenty years ago I dealt in this Argument, framing my then Discourse in a practical way most, to the capacity of a plain popular Auditory, in doubt whether at all to resume it, and return to it again. Howsoever I shall not refrain briefly to acquaint you with my minde concerning the seeming difference of those two great Apostles in this point, which I suppose will prove the same in substance with what I finde here in yours.
The Case or Question in Paul and James to me seems not the same. In Paul the Question is of sinne in general, concerning which when any man shall therewith be charged; there is no means whereby he may be justified, that is, justly assoiled from the otherwise just charge of being a sinner, but by his faith in Christs bloud; Christs bloud having made Satisfaction to Gods Justice for sinne; and his Faith in it, giving him a right to it, and interest in it. Whereas in James the Question is concerning some special sinne, and the questioned persons guilt of it, or freedom from it, to wit, Whether a man be a true or a counterfeit believer, a sound and sincere, or a false and feigned Professour? In which case, any person that is wrongfully so charged, may plead not guilty, and offer himself to be tried by his works, as in some cases Gods Saints have done, even with appeal to God himself: That which may be illustrated with instances for either case in Abraham▪ David, Job, Paul, and others. The first hint and occasion given me to the consideration hereof, was from a Collation that a reverend and learned Divine Mr John B…yse, one of the Senior Fellows of St Johns in Cambridge had of this Argument, when I was a young novice in that House. Paul, said he, dealeth in genere didactico, by way of Instruction and Information, as the Master giving the Scholar out his lesson: the onelyonly way for you, being sinners by nature, to become discharged of your sinnes, is by faith in Christs bloud. James, in genere elenctico, by way of Examination and Triall; as the Master in hearing and examining his Scholar. Have you learned your lesson? Yea, then you can say it, you can construe and pearce it: if not, it is certain you have not yet learned it. So here. Have you taken out the L…sson Paul taught you? Yea, then you can say, then you can shew it. Do you▪ believe in Christ? Yea, then it will appear in your life, else it is apparent you do not. So he then; and either from him or some other I remember to have heard that cited as Zanchies, Fides justificat hominem, opera justificant fidem. These gave hints of that, which I afterward pitched on. But I hope this foreign will shortly be more fully discussed and cleared at the Commencement in Cambridge, where (as I am informed by a Letter from my worthy Friend Dr Tuckney, who withall sent me his Sermon, a Learned and pious Piece, Preached at the Funerall of that Faithfull and Painfull Servant of Christ Dr Hill, now at length Printed: The loss of whom and memory of it, together with the late departure from us of my next Neighbour Mr Whitaker, not coming short of that other eminent person either for piety or sedulity in the work of the Lord, wherein also they were for some space of time Collegues, while God was pleased to continue any measure of ability to him, and a mirour of patience amids those extremities of pains that the Lord for a long time exercised him with, proceeding from exulcerated Kidneys, a Stone in the Bladder, and the neck thereof gangrened; a pretious man, and the loss of him much lamented by all the Pious in these parts. Ah, how many such usefull Instruments far younger persons then my self hath the Lord of late taken away in the midst of their daies, in the prime of their strength, when they might have further have been very serviceable to his people, having much need of such in these loose and unsetled times, while I stay still, as a rotten stake in the hedge, rather needing support then helping to support; or as his truncus ficulnus, inutile lignum, foreign, encombring only the ground; an useless creature, a bare title of a stander, which now at length I have also wholly in a manner divested my self of, and devolved to one of good abilites to undertake and undergo the Charge, under the weight whereof I have long groaned. But, Sir, you may perceive by this impertinent excursion, quam per aetatem malam hanc, as he terms it, and Solomon himself, deliram, as the propriety of the word is by some Criticks deemed to import, and forget what I was about, and had begun to relate. De semitâ in viam. At the approaching Act or Commencement at Cambridge, the former Thesis to be disputed and asserted the second day is said to be this, Jacobus non contradicit Paulo in Articulo Justificationis, the later is concerning the Deity of Christ: Those for the first day are, Evangelici convenientes in fundamentalibus debent se mutuò ferre in extrafundamentalibus. Articuli fidei supra rationem non sunt contra rationem. All of them very seasonable and sutable to the state of these times.
In running over these your Elaborate Debates, (which I wonder much, considering mine own weakness especially, how you were able with such speed to dispatch, or could finde time but to write) though but foreign, (which a great Author inhibites) and by starts, (being oft interrupted by unavoidable intervening occurrents, and restless, untill I returned again to them) so greedy was I of devouring the whole, when I had once taken a tast of it, that much of it went down without chewing, while I feared to be taken off mainly, if not wholly, ere I were got to an end, by some expected imployments, which go much against the hair with me, but I cannot shift off. Howbeit in this posting haste I took notice of a slip or two overseen at the Press, and in the Errata therefore not appearing: It is the want of a negative in two places not farre asunder, if I mistake not, with L. C. p. 270. prope fin. The first Grace hath a prerequisite Condition, though oft preparations, &c. Should it not be, no prerequisite Condition? Again, p. 276. l. 12. 1. That God did (not, sure wants) from eternity send his Son,—but in the fulness of time, &c. but any ordinary Reader may of himself easily discover the defect in either of those places, and without other help supply it. As also that in the Debate with Mr Bl. p. 155. l. 2. The most—that explain (for, exclaim) against my (These words are no… put as my sense, but others absurd consequent. R. B.)Judgement. But ibid. p. 38. l. 9. there is a passage that I have been chewing the cud upon, and cannot get over: The words are these, Credere non est actus subditi vel l…gatarii, sed Rectoris, Judicis & Testatoris, &c. I am not ignorant that Credere in that sense, whence with us a Creditor, for fidei alterius quidpiam committere, may be actio Testatoris, but how that will agree with the main drift of your discourse, I conceive not, and there seems therefore to me, unless I mistake, some mistake in the words.
Concerning Believing in Christ, (which seems scarce good English) or Trusting on him, or in him, (which I suppose the more proper) I cannot as yet conceive, but that, to Trust on Christ, and to Receive him, and to be Bred of G…d, (for so I would rather render it Bred, then Born, to take off that nice distinction, wherewith B. D. seeks to elude Mr P. in his Appendix) and to be Adopted by God, are so many distinct notions, yea and severall things, though never severed. And the term of Receiving being acknowledged to be Metaphoricall, (as, if my memory do not, which frequently it doth, fail me, your self somewhere expresly say) of Trusting on or in being proper: it may seem not so fit to define, describe, or expound the proper by the tropicall, which in Dr Gouges Definition of Faith I first observed, but could not then so well relish, and finde since in many other: Nor do I finde where the term of Regeneration is used to comprehend Justification, Remission and Adoption; which you seem to affirm, with L. C. p. 200. whereas on the other side Mr Forbes in his of Justification, makes Adoption to comprehend it, which he makes therefore the prime benefit, and the rest to spring from it, wherein I cannot assent to him. Nor can I yet bring my minde to close with B. Downham against Mr Pemble; in Defence of whom against him I had once a purpose to write a short Discourse framed out of such Exceptions as I had blurred the Margin of my Book withall, and to have crowded it into some other Work. And your self also seem to depart from him, in placing Faith before Regeneration, where you say with Mr Bl. p. 103. prope fin. This (viz. to take God sincerely for their God) no unrenewed soul ever did or can do. Nor seems B. Davenant so clear herein, making some graces concomitants of Faith, as Repentance; some consequents, as Love. Wherein also you seem to leave him, affirming the Reception of Christ to be a loving receiving of him, which cannot be without Love. As for the Instrumentality of Faith in or about the work of Justification, albeit the term commonly received and used be not proper, yet as the meaning may be, you seem not to disallow it. And surely Faith as a medium seems to have a more peculiar Office in the transaction of that main business of Justification, then either Repentance or any other grace, as the Love or Fear of God, or the like. Which to me seems the more apparent, because I finde it so oft said in the Word, that men are justified by Faith, but no where by Repentance, albeit that also be as a condition thereunto required: as also that form of speech, foreign, fides, or fiducia in sanguine, seems to intimate and imply, that this grace hath a more speciall reference then any other, to the satisfaction made to Gods justice for our sins by Christs sufferings, which alone we can plead for our discharge of them at Gods Tribunall. Nor is it as I conceive the intent of our Divines, when they use that term, to lay upon it the main stress of the great difference between us and the Papists in the Doctrine of Justification, which as it is laid down in the Council of Trent, (howsoever some of them that wrote before it, came in a manner home to us, and some of them that have writ since, seem now and then to condescend much to us, till they come to deliver the genuine sense of the Council) stands upon other terms, as Guil. Rivetus hath shewed at large in his Vindiciae Evangelicae de Justificat. Part. 3. Cap. 2, & 3. But these things, Sir, I mention not to put you unto the trouble▪ of writing about them, having your hands so over-full already; but to propound them only to your consideration, as you find, or meet with occasion. Many thoughts of them, but confused ones, I have sometime in my brains, which I finde no fit terms to express, nor ability aptly to distinguish and orderly to digest: Trouble enough, and more then enough, I fear, I have put you unto, in tendring to you these so many scrabbled and blurred lines, which I am scarce able sometime to reade over again my self. Nor will I imitate the Florentine Cooper, whom his soul, when he was so long about lighting a candle to see it, checks for complaining of and laying the fault on the moistness of the tinder, the bluntness of the stone, and the badness of the steel, when indeed the main defect and default was in the weakness and unsteadiness of his own hand; excusing this my scrawling by the badness of my pen, ink and paper, none yet of which I was well stored with at present, nor can I be furnished with, when I want, or have not at hand, but from the City; but the main reason of my such slovenly and illegible writing, and so oft blotting and interlining, is partly from my slippery memory, that forgets what I began with, ere the sentence be ended, and partly from mine unsteady hand, very much shaking after a few lines of any length drawn slowly out and dispatcht, and this unsteadiness, (contrary to the wont of most others) being much more troublesom to me in hot weather then in cold, and making writing therefore more tedious to me in the heat of Summer then at any other time. But it is high time for me to cease by my prating (you may well apply to me that of the Poet, not so ancient as the Name given him pretended, O solâ fortes garrulitate senes) to molest you, and withhold you from better and more usefull employments. I shall conclude all, as with a renewed acknowledgement of a double engagement unto you, the one for your gift and your peculiar affection to me thereby expressed, the other for the work it self, and the business therein undertaken and transacted, so exceedingly advantagious, if not for the stopping of the mouths, (for who can charm the untamable tongues of such quarrelsom, licentious and shameless people?) of these broachers and abettors of these pernicious conceptions and impious notions gilded over with the specious Titles of Free Grace, and Gospel-Doctrines, &c. like those Quacksalvers implements, of which that Ancient Writer, Tituli habent pharmaca or remedia, pyxides venena, yet to discover their frauds and the dangerousness of their devices to others, and to defend and clear up the truth of God against their wicked impostures, and consequently for the staying of those that otherwise might be, and the reducing of some at least, that have been seduced by them; in which kinde I hold, as all Gods people in generall, and my self in particular, very deeply engaged unto any whom they know to have eminently laboured, as your self here have done, and to bless God for stirring them up and enabling them thereunto: So with earnest also and hearty prayer unto him, whose work it is that herein you do, that he will vouchsafe in much mercy and goodness, to second these your Pious undertakings with his blessing, whereby they may become efficacious for the end by you intended in them, to support and strengthen you in your present languishing condition, against the malicious calumnies and oppositions of your ill-minded Adversaries, and to enable you to proceed in the propugnation of his Truth and cause, so as his might may appear in your weakness. That which shall be the constant request at the Throne of Grace of▪
Your feeble and weak-handed, but unfained and sincerely affected Friend and Fellow-servant, Tho. Gataker. Rederith June 20. 1654.
Mr Gatakers last Letter with his Notes.
Worthy Sir,
MY Father being by an extream languishment of body disinabled to write unto you himself, hath required me to give you this account of his present condition, and of his endeavours to express his respects unto you: On July 7. he received some sheets of your Confession: the night following he was surprized with fainting fits, which afterwards turned to a Tertian Feaver: yet in the intervals he perused your Papers, wherein he met nothing of much moment that required any animadversion▪ Some things of less concernment he had noted in a loose Paper, which you shall finde inclosed herein. He lies now expecting Gods season of removall of him hence, which he professes much to desire, hoping that his unquiet and painfull state here will be by Gods mercy exchanged for a blessed condition of rest in the Lord, before this come to you. He beseeches God to lengthen out the line of your life, inabling you to proceed in Defence of his Truth, against these novell inventions, and to the clearing of your self from these gross and false calumnies of il-minded men. Thus, Worthy Sir, my Father recommends himself unto you, and I desire you to imploy your prayers for our comfort, assuring you that your good opinion of, and kinde respect to my Father hath engaged me to remain,
Sir, Your very loving Friend and Servant in the Lord, Charles Gataker. Rederith July 21. 1654.
PAg. 23. l. 1. Though I have read.] The sentence seems foreign, nothing to answer the things. l. 3. The Author a Papist.] I have run over much of his Book, and finde him an Arminian and a Revelationist, not a Papist.
Pag. 40. n. 25. l. 4. To sanctifie is to pardon.] If Justification consist in pardon, as you seem to hold, and by repentance as a condition we obtain pardon, it seems then that we are sanctified before we are justified, and consequently pardoned.
Pag. 41. n. 26. l. 11. Sanctity and phrases.] reade, Praises.
Pag. 77. l. 21. Tho. Grotius saith.] reade, Though (or though scil. quanquam) Grotius saith.
Pag. 80. l. 4. As we did.] reade, As if we did.
Pag. 108. l. 7, 8. Any man man.] reade, may.
Pag. 114. l. 2. Which the contrary opinion lies.] Somewhat seems to be wanting.
Alicubi scribitur, Intercession for Intercision.
The sheets H. I. I had not. The last sheet I received is Y.
FINIS.
End of the text · Richard Baxter, Confession of His Faith (1655)