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,…

III. But yet my greatest difficulty remaineth: I am in doubt Whether he that denieth common sufficient grace, and extendeth the grace of Christ seemingly but to few, do not really either make it the same thing ⟨p. 103⟩with Nature, or extend it to all: For I suspect that all or almost all men on earth, (till they have sinned themselves into diabolical desperate malignity) have this which he calleth Amor amicitiae and sincere imperfect love to God and Justice. For Intellectus est Entis & veri intellectus, & Voluntas est Boni. Good apprehended such, is the Wills necessary natural object. And a simple complacency in apprehended good, is the wills first necessary act. Nature telleth man, that there is created goodness; and that the Creator who giveth it, must needs have more than all his creatures: And nature tells men, that the World, or millions are better than one person; and their good to be preferred: And how can it be then, that he that taketh the World to be so much better than himself, and God to be better, that is, more amiable than all the World, should not have the least simple complacency in thinking of him▪ All men take Wisdom and Goodness, and Beneficence for amiable: And they that believe that God hath most of these, must needs have some Love to him, not only as good to them, but as most excellent in himself: Insomuch that as Adrian the sixth before cited saith, in some sort a bad man may love God better than himself; and he is scarce worthy the name of a man, that would not rather be annihilated, or wish that he had never been born, than that there were no World, or no God, (if per impossibile he supposed he could live without them.) And if you tell every man that he hath that sincere love to God which is Gratia Christi, who hath the least love to God and Justice propter se, though he have more love to his fleshly interest and sinful pleasures, I doubt you will not much differ from Pelagius, and will have no way left but to say, that it is not of Grace by Christ that Nature is reprieved and supported: Or at least that this is of a common sort of grace. We may presume of many things as received from our Teachers: but it is hard to prove, that Adam the next moment after his sin was totally deprived of all degrees of love to God, and goodness, and so was privatively as bad as Devils; or that all mankind are naturally so:

III. But yet my greatest difficulty remaineth: I am in doubt Whether he that denyeth common sufficient grace, and extendeth the grace of Christ seemingly but to few, do not really either make it the same thing