A26879:133
The catechizing of families a teacher of householders how to teach their householdsThe catechizing of families a teacher of housholders how to teach their housholds
The catechizing of families a teacher of householders how to teach their households : useful also to school-masters and tutors of youth : for those that are past the common small catechisms [sic], and would grow to a more rooted faith, and to the fuller understanding of all that is commonly needful to a safe, holy comfortable and profitable life / written by Richard Baxter ...The catechizing of families a teacher of housholders how to teach their housholds : useful also to school-masters and tutors of youth : for those that are past the common small chatechisms [sic], and would grow to a more rooted faith, and to the fuller understanding of all that is commonly needful to a safe, holy comfortable and profitable life / written by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Q. 3. You begin to make me think that GOD is the SOUL of the WORLD, and that we must conceive of him in the World, as we do of the Soul of Man in his Body.
A. You cannot better Conceive of GOD, so you will but take in the points of Difference, which are very great; for no Creature known to us, doth resemble God without vast Difference.
The Differences are such as these. First, The Soul is part of the Man, but God is not a part of the World, or of Being: For to be a part, is to be less than the whole, and so to be Imperfect. Secondly, We cannot say that the Soul is any where out of the Body, but the World is Finite, and God ⟨p. 15⟩is Infinite, and therefore God is not Confined to the World. 3. The Soul ruleth not a Body that hath a distinct Understanding and Free Will of its own to receive its Laws, and therefore ruleth it not by proper Law, but by despotical Motion: But God ruleth men that have Understanding and Free Will of their own to know and receive his Laws, and therefore he ruleth them partly by a Law. 4. The Soul doth not use another Soul under it to rule the Body, but GOD maketh use of Superior Spirits to move and rule things and Persons below them, so that there is great difference between Gods ruling the World, and the Souls ruling the Body.
The Differences are such as these. First, The Soul is part of the Man, but God is not a part of the World, or of Being: For to be a part, is to be less than the whole, and so to be Imperfect. Secondly, We cannot say that the Soul is any where out of the Body, but the World is Finite, and God ⟨p. 15⟩is Infinite, and therefore God is not Confined to the World. 3. The Soul ruleth not a Body that hath a distinct Understanding and Free Will of its own to receive its Laws, and therefore ruleth it not by proper Law, but by despotical Motion: But God ruleth men that have Understanding and Free Will of their own to know and receive his Laws, and therefore he ruleth them partly by a Law. 4. The Soul doth not use another Soul under it to rule the Body, but GOD maketh use of Superiour Spirits to move and rule things and Persons below them, so that there is great difference between Gods ruling the World, and the Souls ruling the Body.