A26892:1657
A Christian Directory
A Christian directory, or, A sum of practical theology and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortify every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.A Christian directory, or, A summ of practical theologie and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortifie every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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. As the existence and Event, and the Moral Goodness must be distinguished; so must Gods mere Volition of Event, and his Complacency in Good as Good. God doth not Will the Existence of a reasonable soul in a Stone or Straw: And yet it followeth not, that he loveth a Stone or Straw for its substance, better than Reason in a man: For though God willeth to make his Creatures various in degrees of Goodness, and taketh it to be good so to do, and that every Creature be not of the Best, yet still this Goodness of them is various: as one hath more excellency in it than another. The Goodness of the whole, may require that each part be not Best in it self, and yet best respectively in order to the beauty of the whole. As a Peg is not better than a Standard, and yet is better to the Building in its place: And a Finger is not better than a Head, and yet is better to the body in its place, than another Head would be in that place. The Head therefore must be loved comparatively better than the Finger, and the Finger may be cut off to save life, when the Head must not: So God can see meet to permit men and Devils to fall into misery, and Thieves to be hanged, and use this to the beauty of the whole, and yet love a true man better than a Thief, and a good man better than a bad.
Answ. As the existence and Event, and the Moral Goodness must be distinguished; so must Gods me•r Volition of Event, and his Complacency in Good as Good. God doth not Will the Existence of a reasonable soul in a Stone or Straw: And yet it followeth not, that he loveth a Stone or Straw for its substance, better than Reason in a man: For though God willeth to make his Creatures various in degrees of Goodness, and taketh it to be good so to do, and that every Creature be not of the Best, yet still this Goodness of them is various: as one hath more excellency in it than another. The Goodness of the whole, may require that each part be not Best in it self, and yet best respectively in order to the beauty of the whole. As a Peg is not better than a Standard, and yet is better to the Building in its place: And a Finger is not better than a Head, and yet is better to the body in its place, than another Head would be in that place. The Head therefore must be loved comparatively better than the Finger, and the Finger may be cut off to save life, when the Head must not: So God can see meet to permit men and Devils to fall into misery, and Thieves to be hanged, and use this to the beauty of the whole, and yet love a true man better than a Thief, and a good man better than a bad.