A26883:311
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.
Answ. 1. To be future is a word whose sound deceiveth men, as if it signified some being; which is not so. 2. God cannot know that a thing will be, unless it will be; But this signifieth no more but that he cannot know this proposition to be true [This or that will be] unless it be true: But 1. there were from eternity no propositions. 2. And the proposition is not true before it is a proposition. 3. And therefore not before it is conceived in the mind, whence it hath its first being. 4. But if you might suppose God to have eternal propositions, their Being is considerable before their Verity; and the Verity hath its Cause. But that cause is nothing but what is in God himself, which is either his Decree of what he will Cause, or his foreknowledge of what will be caused by a sinning Creature: And neither of them as a cause of the truth of the proposition, causeth that the Thing will be: nor yet is any other existent Cause supposed; but only that God knowing that he will make the free agent, knoweth also that this agent will freely sin: In all which the futurity is Nothing, nor is any existent cause of it necessary: But only the truth of the proposition would result from the Infinite perfection of Gods knowledge.
84. Obj. The futurity of things is True whether God or man know it or think of it or not. Answ. 1. Futurity being Nothing is neither true ⟨p. 11⟩nor false. *2. But all that you can truly mean is but this, that whether it be thought on or not, this is a true proposition, Hoc vel illud futurum est. Which is true when there are propositions, extrinsical, which no man thinketh of. But 1. God hath no propositions; 2. Much less extrinsical from Eternity. But if he had any, they would be nothing but the acts of his own knowledge. 3. And they have no Cause. 4. If they had been uttered by words, they needed no Cause but his perfect knowledge.
84. Obj. The futurity of things is True whether God or man know it or think of it or not. Answ. 1. Futurity being Nothing is neither true ⟨p. 11⟩