A26883:2636
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.
§. 20. 3. But yet all these are no parts of God, as the fruit and leaves▪ are of the Tree, and as the beams are of the Sun's But they are Creatures, because Gods emanation or causation is creative, causing the whole Being of the effect: And it seemeth likest to the Sun (or fire's) causation of Motion, Light and Heat as they are in the Recipient, distinct ab essentia & actione Agentis quà tully.
§. 20. 3. But yet all these are no parts of God, as the fruit and leaves▪ are of the Tree, and as the beams are of the Sun's But they are Creatures, because Gods emanation or causation is creative, causing the whole Being of the effect: And it seemeth likest to the Sun (or fire's) causation of Motion, Light and Heat as they are in the Recipient, distinct ab essentia & actione Agentis quà tuli.
§. 21. 4. I grant that (though as to proximity of essence God is no further from one Creature than from another, being intimate to all, immediatione essentiae, yet) he useth one Creature as a second Cause to operate on another; and that the Higher and Nobler, operate on the lower and more ignoble: And in that sense we may conceive that some Creatures are first from God or nearest to him, that is, of the highest nature and use. And so we deny not, but that it is like that in the Creation God made one nature existent, (e. g. the highest Intellectual) as more excellent, powerful, pregnant, active, and perfect than any of the rest: that there was in the wonderful diversity, some one that was Best, and above the rest.
§. 22. 5. I grant that it soundeth probably that the first and noblest Nature in specie should be found but in one Individual; But of this there is not the least certainty to us mortals: viz. Whether from one God first flow one perfect Created Intelligence of Spirit; or, ab uno plures, two, three or millions in the first order flow from one God? Though in nature we see that from the trunk of the Tree few great members first arise, and multiplicity is in the extremities. And we grant that the greatest multiplicity appeareth where things dwindle to littleness or baseness: One sound Sheep i better than a rotten one that hath a thousand Worms in his Veins and Intestines: And a man that hath a thousand Lice on his Head is not the Nobler: And when the one soul hath left a Garkass, it may turn to thousands of contemptible Vermin: And a Looking-glass broken into an hundred pieces is not the better because it will make an hundred images of the face. But yet we are strangers to Gods unseen works, further than he revealeth them, and therefore must confess our ignorance.