A26883:2647
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.
§. 31. IV. Accordingly I take Duty to be Rewardable and Laudable; and sin to be odious as it is the Act of a free agent: And that the Nature of Moral Good and Evil, consisteth not in its being the mere effect of physical premotion, but in being a Voluntary Conformity or Disconformity to the Sapiential Rule of duty, by a free agent that had Power to do otherwise.
§. 31. IV. Accordingly I take Duty to be Rewardable and Laudable; and sin to be odious as it is the Act of a free agent: And that the Nature of Moral Good and Evil, consisteth not in its being the meer effect of physical premotion, but in being a Voluntary Conformity or Disconformity to the Sapiential Rule of duty, by a free agent that had Power to do otherwise.
§. 32. V. Free-will then is not only the same with willing it self, or a mere agency according to Nature, by the premotion of the first determining necessitating Mover. It is not only such a freedom as Fire, Water, Beasts, and every moved thing hath, (to be moved according to the first Moyers action) which is in the, will of man; But it is a Power to be a first determining Specifier of its own acts as Moral: Not that it is never predetermined, but that it can do this.
§. 32. V. Free-will then is not only the same with willing it self, or a meer agency according to Nature, by the premotion of the first determining necessitating Mover. It is not only such a freedom as Fire, Water, Beasts, and every moved thing hath, (to be moved according to the first Moyers action) which is in the, will of man; But it is a Power to be a first determining Specifier of its own acts as Moral: Not that it is never predetermined, but that it can do this.
§. 33. VI. Accordingly I judge of Guilt, and Shame, and the Accusation of Conscience; which will not be a bare discerning what God made us do or be; but what we voluntarily did or were, when we could do otherwise.