A26883:649
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.
384. 5. Divines usually say, that Nothing below God himself can be his End. But where there is no means, there is no End or intention of it. ⟨p. 60⟩But to God there is no Means. He is not a Means of himself; And no creature can be a means of him: If we say, that any thing can be a means ut Deus sit, vel ut sit Maximus, Sapientissimus, Optimus, it were no better than Blasphemy. God then hath not an End like man.
385. Yet necessity constraineth us to use the phrase, but these things must still be understood when we use it. 1. That no creature can be Gods End; unless you will call an object as terminative, an End; or else an Effect.
386. 2. That it is not Gods Essence and perfections that is an end as to any medium; But it is his Will: For his Free Will is the Beginning, and the Complacency of that Will is the End of all things. But if you call God his own Object, and so call the final Object an End, so we must consider God as Loving Himself; and Himself is the End or final object of his own Love or Complacency; and he himself as Loving himself, is said to Act on that End or Object. And indeed eternal self-knowledge and self-love (which some of old ventured to call the second and third Persons) are the Great Immanent Acts of the Divine Essence, (with the sibi vivere.) And it seemeth the chief Notion of Holiness in God, that he Loveth Himself in primo instanti, and that he is most Amiable to his Creatures in secundo instanti, and that he is the Cause and End of all that is good in them. Thus a final object of his own and our Love or Complacency, God is past all doubt. And secondarily his Will is pleased and fulfilled in all his works.