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This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The Hallowing of Logic: The Trinitarian Method of Richard Baxter’s Methodus Theologiae Simon J. G. Burton PhD University of Edinburgh 2011 i Table of Contents Declaration iv Abstract v-vi Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations viii Introduction 1-15 1. Prologue 1-4 2. Approaching Baxter‟s Theology 4-10 3. Purpose, Rationale and Methodology 10-15 Chapter One: Touchstones of Theology 16-45 1. Introduction 16-17 2. Catechising – Historical and Theological Background 17-22 3. Baxter‟s Catechetical Practice 22-25 4. Baxter‟s Catechetical Theology 25-39 4.1. Essentials of the Christian Religion 25-29 4.2. Theology as Scientia-Affectiva-Practica 29-39 5. Trinitarian Catechetical Theology 39-44 6. The Centrality of the Triune Baptismal Covenant 44-45 Chapter Two: The Quest for Method 46-90 1. Introduction 46-47 2. Exaltation of Method 47-68 2.1. Ramist Logic 47-56 2.2. Lullist Logic 57-65 2.3. The Theo-Political Method of George Lawson 65-68 3. Baxter‟s Response to Scholastic and Ramist Logic 68-75 3.1. Baxter and Scholastic Logic 68-70 3.2. Baxter and Ramist Logic 70-75 4. The Hallowing of Logic 75-85 4.1. Political Method of the Triune Baptismal Covenant 75-80 4.2. Trinitarian and Exemplaristic Logic 80-85 5. A Primer of Hallowed Logic 85-90 ii Chapter Three: The Physics and Metaphysics of the 91-126 Vestigia Trinitatis 1. Introduction 91-92 2. Historical and Intellectual Context 92-96 3. Baxter‟s Response to the Atomists 97-102 4. Tenets of Baxter‟s Ontology 102-125 4.1. The Hexaemeral Ground of Baxter‟s Ontology 105-111 4.2. Trinitarian Metaphysics of Divine Principles 112-125 4.2.1. Efficient Cause 114-116 4.2.2. Final Cause 116-118 4.2.3. Constitutive Cause 118-125 5. The Ladder of Triune Being 125-126 Chapter Four: The Soul as the Imago Trinitatis 127-169 1. Introduction 127-129 2. The Soul and its Faculties 129-139 2.1. The Vegetative Soul 133-135 2.2. The Sensitive Soul 135-138 2.3. Man the Microcosm 138-139 3. Powers of the Soul 139-145 4. Triune Faculties of the Soul 145-163 4.1. Vital-Active Virtue 146-149 4.2. Intellective Virtue 149-156 4.3. Volitional Virtue 156-163 5. Image of God 163-169 Chapter Five: Metaphysics of the Trinity 170-210 1. Introduction 170-172 2. The Centrality of the Triune Baptismal Covenant 172-174 3. Theology of Attribution 174-179 4. The Analogy of Being 180-186 4.1. Scriptural and Scotist Grounds of Analogy 180-183 4.2. Analogia Entis 183-186 5. Scholastic Dimensions of Baxter‟s Thought 187-201 5.1. Divine Attributes 188-191 5.2. Divine Persons and Supposita 191-195 5.3. Divine Relations 195-201 6. Holkot and the Logic of Faith 201-204 7. The Trinity of Principles and Persons Compared 204-210 iii Chapter Six: Theo-Politics 211-262 1. Introduction 211-212 2. Baxter‟s Doctrine of the Regnum Dei 212-214 3. The Threefold Kingdom of Nature, Grace and Glory 214-232 4. God‟s Operation on Man‟s Soul 232-245 4.1. Divine Concurrence and Premotion 233-238 4.2. Grace and Habitual Mechanisms 238-245 5. The Trinitarian Dynamic of Faith, Hope and Love 245-257 5.1. Faith 248-252 5.2. Hope 252-255 5.3. Love 255-257 6. The Primacy of Love 258-262 Conclusion 263-269 Appendix One – The Creed, Lord’s Prayer and Decalogue 270-281 Appendix Two – Baxter, Glisson and Inadequate Concepts 282-292 Appendix Three – The Eternal Foundation of Divine Government 293-315 Bibliography 316-334 iv Declaration I declare that this thesis has been composed by myself, and that the work contained therein is my own, and has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Simon J. G. Burton v Abstract While Richard Baxter (1615-91) is well known and rightly held in high esteem for his practical divinity and his evangelistic zeal, he has hitherto been conspicuously neglected as a theologian. In particular there have been no major studies of him with respect to the renewed paradigm of Protestant Scholasticism and none at all of his Methodus Theologiae (1681), which represents the fruit of a lifetime of theological reflection and study and which is arguably, in both scope and vision, one of the last great Summas of English scholastic divinity. This thesis focuses on the Methodus and on Baxter‟s theological method, which he took, though imperfect, to be the closest to the true Scripture method of theology that anyone had yet come. Baxter believed that every level of (active) created reality reflected the impress of God‟s Triune being in metaphysical composition, structure and activity. This he described, following the Italian metaphysicist Tommaso Campanella, in terms of the divine primalities or principles of Power, Wisdom and Love. In the Methodus these insights are systematised into a kind of Trinitarian logic. Baxter held that human reason should be sanctified in order to conform to the Trinitarian structure of created reality, and therefore espoused a method of trichotomising organised according to these same divine principles, derivative of both Ramist and Lullist method. This thesis argues that the whole of Baxter‟s mature thought is structured in a Trinitarian fashion according to his own „hallowed logic‟ and that two themes, often interlinked, are the key to interpreting his thought: the metaphysics of the divine principles and the Christian‟s baptismal covenant with the Triune God. Furthermore it examines Baxter‟s analogical ascent from the general vestigia Trinitatis present in the whole created order through the special vestigium of man‟s soul fashioned in the image of God and finally to the Trinity itself. This detailed exposition provides the basis, in the concluding chapter, for an examination of the whole of the Methodus and a demonstration that this represents a methodological unfolding of the covenant between the believer and God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the threefold Kingdom of Nature, Grace and Glory. In this way the Methodus may vi be seen as having taken its inspiration from the Theo-Politica (1659) of Baxter‟s friend George Lawson. Finally this thesis concludes that Baxter‟s thought has pronounced Scotist and Nominalist accents. His Scotism in particular runs deep and has strong ties with his Trinitarian thought, which is especially significant in light of the recent increasingly vocal discussions of the Scotist character of Protestant Scholasticism. Overall therefore it is suggested that Baxter is a neglected figure who deserves to be rediscovered and whose mature theology represents a fascinating reconstrual of biblical ideas according to a Trinitarian and scholastic paradigm. vii Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my principal supervisor Dr Susan Hardman Moore, for all her help and advice over the course of my doctoral studies and especially for her warm encouragement and all the time she devoted to reading the various drafts of my thesis. I am also very grateful to my secondary supervisor Professor Oliver O‟Donovan for all his help and encouragement which went far beyond the call of duty. A number of other scholars were kind enough to offer their advice and encouragement at various stages of my doctoral studies, of whom Professor Ian Green, Professor Howard Hotson, Professor Neil Keeble, Professor Paul Lim and my friends Dr Simon Podmore and Dr Lydia Schumacher deserve particular mention. Over the course of my post-graduate studies I have received funding from the AHRC and I would like to thank them for their financial support and also for their willingness to countenance my shifting interests in research! In the final stages of preparing my thesis for submission my cousin Robert Wainwright and my friend Ian Clausen provided particular help in proof-reading. I am grateful to them for this, as well as for their unstinting friendship and encouragement, and for the many theological and metaphysical discussions we have had over the years. I would also like to thank my other friends at New College and in Edinburgh for their interest in my project and encouragement, as well as for their friendship. For their close friendship over many years, which surely had a more than indirect influence on my thesis, I would like to thank Thomas West, Andrew Peevor and the Rev. Matthew Firth. Finally I wish to offer a special thanks to my brother Matthew and sister Emma and their families for all their steadfast love, support and prayers, to my parents-in-law Alan and Sandra for their great kindness and the welcome they have extended me as a son-in-law and most of all to my parents David and Hilary and my wife Marilyn, for more than words can express, and to whom I also dedicate this thesis.
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