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,…

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.^*

1. *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.The doubt is, How Imperfect works can notifie 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 easie, 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.