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,…

C. You know all our Divines say, That Gods end in decreeing, is the Glory of his Mercy in the Salvation of the Elect, and of his Justice in the damnation of the Reprobate.^†

1. †Bannes's order is thus, 1. q. 23. a. 2. pag. 266. [Actus q•os nos possumus imaginari esse in mente divina tam communes quam proprio• circa praedesti•atos hi sunt: Cognovit Deus omnes homines possibiles; ex quibus quosdam dilexit quantum ad esse naturae, & hos voluit creare: ex quibus adhuc quosdam dilexit ad finem supernaturalem, quae divina electio dicitur; quatenus ex aliis quos creare volebat is•os seperavit sibi; & denique hos electos praedestinavit; hoc est, providet & ordinavit ut per quaedam media supernaturaliter efficaciter pervenirent in finem supernaturalem]. That nothing but God himself can be the objectum formale of Gods Volition, see Ruiz de Vol. Dei disp. 15. sect. 6. p. 165. Ruiz de V•l. Dei disp. 22, 23, 24. pretendeth to more accurateness than others in ordering Gods Decrees, and other Acts. Denying with others all real distinction, but asserting a distinction secundum rationem ratiocinatam, and would persuade us that he knoweth what that is (what the fundamentum in re is) he refuteth many others Opinions de ratio ordinis (Molina's Vasquez, Zumel, Dried•s, &c.) especially Aureolus, and concludeth (sect. 5.) that inter divinas operations ordo prioris & posterioris ex eo est, quod •nus actus sit requisitus ad alium, vel sit, alterius ratio vel conditio: He confesseth all these to be fictitious, and that there is no real diversity, (and disp. 11. sect. 1. on the qu An in Deo sit proprie libera Volitio effi•ax) dicit (Nullius animus tranquilla pa•e qui•scit solutionibu• hac usque inventis, nec aliis se satisfacisse put at, qu• nec sibi satisfecerit.) Yet against Ockam he would have these fictions thought to be of very gr use: when as all his profane tremendous presumptions are but enquiring after a cause of the first cause, under the name of Ratio vel conditio, while he denieth that indeed there is any cause. Their question is, why Gods Will is terminated on this Object rather than on that? And is not this to ask a cause of it (of the first cause); say but that Deus volitione nica vui diversa diver si mde ordinata, and you have said enough? Had they meant only the Ratio receptiva increatis, & ratio constituiv allim diviarum ut in effectis vel psso & extrineu denominatrum, it had been sense. But in God himself there is diversitas rationum volendi.