A26883:241
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.
22. And so we must conceive of God by all these following inadequate Conceptions, confessing the impropriety, but having no better. I. The Essence of God, who in Scripture is called in two words [An Infinite Spirit] is necessarily conceived of by these Three Conceptions: 1. [Greek or Hebrew], 2. Vita, 3. Perfectio. The two first being the substantial Conceptus of a Spirit, and the third that which answereth to all perfective degrees, properties and accidents in Creatures, and comprehendeth a multitude of Perfective Attributes: which I express in the Abstract, being loth much to use Concretes or Adjectives of God. Of these as the first answereth to Matter in Materials, and to the Genus and substantia abstractè sumpta in Spirits, so doth the second to the Form and Difference; when yet in God there is no Composition, or Matter.
22. And so we must conceive of God by all these following inadequate Conceptions, confessing the impropriety, but having no better. I. The Essence of God, who in Scripture is called in two words [An Infinite Spirit] is necessarily conceived of by these Three Conceptions: 1. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, 2. Vita, 3. Perfectio. The two first being the substantial Conceptus of a Spirit, and the third that which answereth to all perfective degrees, properties and accidents in Creatures, and comprehendeth a multitude of Perfective Attributes: which I express in the Abstract, being loth much to use Concretes or Adjectives of God. Of these as the first answereth to Matter in Materials, and to the Genus and substantia abstractè sumpta in Spirits, so doth the second to the Form and Difference; when yet in God there is no Composition, or Matter.
23. II. And the Formal Conceptus [VITA] must it self be conceived of in this Threefold inadequate Conception; 1. *Potentia-Actus, 2. Intellectus, 3. Voluntas. I call the first Potentia-Actus, to avoid Concretes, and to signify, that as God hath no Potentia Passiva, so his Potentia-Activa is not an idle cessant Power, but in perpetual perfect Act; and that Act is a most Powerful-Act: so that neither Potentia alone, nor Actus alone, but both together, are our best Conception of this first Principle in the Deity. And I take it for granted, that even in Mans soul, the Potentia-Vitalis Activa, the Intellect and Will, are not as Thomas thought Accidents, but the formal essence of the soul, as the Scotists and Nominals better say; And I have largely elsewhere proved, and therefore stand not here upon it.