A26883:222
Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who,…Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who,…
Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who, 1. by contending about things unrevealed or not understood, 2. and by taking verbal differences for real,Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who, 1. by contending about things unrevealed or not understood, 2. and by taking verbal differences for real,
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1675
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.
5. It is not true which many great Metaphysicians assert, that the Quiddity of God is totally unknown to us: For then it could not be life eternal to know him; nor would a mere Negative knowledge cause in us a sufficient Positive Love, or Joy or Trust, &c. But to know that we cannot know him, would but infer that we cannot Love him: For we Love not an unknown Good.
5. It is not true which many great Metaphysicians assert, that the Quiddity of God is totally unknown to us: For then it could not be life eternal to know him; nor would a meer Negative knowledge cause in us a sufficient Positive Love, or Joy or Trust, &c. But to know that we cannot know him, would but inferr that we cannot Love him: For we Love not an unknown Good.
6. Nor is it true that Pet. Hurtado de Mendoza (in fine Disput.) and some others say, that the Notions of Life and Intellect are all that we have of the Quiddity of God, and that the Divine Will is not a Quidditative notion.
7. God is here seen in the Glass of his Works, with the Revelation of his Word and Spirit. And from these works we must borrow our conceptions.*
- *The doubt is, How Imperfect works can notify the perfect God: And the Schoolmen manage it as an insuperable difficulty, Whether God could have made the World, or any thing better than it is? If you will pardon me for making that easy, which they make ineffable, I answer, Goodness is Primitive (that is, God) or Derivative, which only is in Creatures: This last is formally Good, as it is Related as Conform to Gods Will, the Prime Good, as its Rule: To be à Deo Volitum is the formal notion of Created Good. And so the world is perfect, and can be no better, because it is as God willeth it: And yet God can make particular creatures better to themselves, and to one another; He can make any man more wise, more holy, &c. But bonum sibi is no further properly bonum, than it is Volitum à Deo: Therefore God can make the world far otherwise than it is; and yet then it would be no Better. For still it would be but as God willed it to be: So that the matter and private Goodness might alter; but the true form of Goodness would be still just the same as now.