A26892:1669
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.
Object. 7. All Goodness or Holiness is some ones Goodness or Holiness (as health is) And as it is the persons welfare and perfection, so it is given for the persons sake: Therefore the person as the finis cut, and utmost End, is better than the thing given him, and so more amiable.
Object. 7. All Goodness or Holiness is some ones Goodness or Holiness (as health is) And as it is the persons wellfare and perfection, so it is given for the persons sake: Therefore the person as the finis cut, and utmost End, is better than the thing given him, and so more amiable.
Answ. That all Goodness is some ones Goodness, proveth but that some one is the Subject or Being that is Good, but not that to Be, is better than to be Good as such. And as he is in some respect the finis cui, for whom it is, and so it is Good to him; yet he and his Goodness are for a higher end, which is the pleasing of God in the demonstration of his Goodness. That therefore is best, which most demonstrateth Gods Goodness. And there is no subject or substance without its accidents or modes: And that person that is not Good and Holy, is Bad and Unholy: Therefore the question should be, Whether a person bad and unholy, be more amiable than a person good and holy, that hath both Physical and Moral Goodness. And for all that the name of an Accident maketh Action seem below the person; yet it must be also said, that the person and his faculties, are for Action, as being but the substance in a perfect Mode, and that Action is for higher ends than the persons being or felicity.
Object. 8. Love is nothing but benevolence, Veil bonum alicui ut ei bene sit. But who is it that would not wish good to God, that is to be blessed as he is? But how can holiness then be loved, but rather the person for his holiness; because we cannot wish it good, but only to be what it is.