A26892:8731
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.
Part 4 › Chapter 18 › Tit. 2. Certain Cases of Conscience about Theft and Injury.
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.
§. 3. But whether in an innocent absolute necessity it be lawful to steal so much as is merely sufficient to save ones life, is a thing that Casuists are not agreed on. They that think it lawful, say that the preservation of life is a natural duty, and preservation of propriety is but a subservient thing which must give place to it. So Amesius de Conscient. l. 5. c. 50. maketh it one case of lawful taking that ⟨p. 110⟩which is another's, Si irrationabiliter censeatur Dominus invitus: ut in eis quae accipit aliquis ex alieno ad extremam & praesentem suam necessitatem sublevandam, cui alia ratione succurrere non potest. H•c enim videtur esse ex jure naturali, division rerum antiquiore & superiore; quod jure humano quo facta est divisio rerum non potuit abrogari: Quo sensu non male dicitur, omnia fieri communia in extrema necessitate.
§. 3. But whether in an innocent absolute necessity it be lawful to steal so much as is meerly sufficient to save ones life, is a thing that Casuists are not agreed on. They that think it lawful, say that the preservation of life is a natural duty, and preservation of propriety is but a subservient thing which must give place to it. So Amesius de Conscient. l. 5. c. 50. maketh it one case of lawful taking that ⟨p. 110⟩which is anothers, Si irrationabiliter censeatur Dominus invitus: ut in eis quae accipit aliquis ex alieno ad extremam & praesentem suam necessitatem sublevandam, cui alia ratione succurrere non potest. H•c enim videtur esse ex jure naturali, divisione rerum antiquiore & superiore; quod jure humano quo facta est divisio rerum non potuit abrogari: Quo sensu non male dicitur, omnia fieri communia in extrema necessitate.
§. 4. On the other side, those that deny it say, that the same God that hath bid us preserve our lives, hath appointed propriety, and forbid us to steal, without excepting a case of necessity, and therefore hath made it simply evil, which we may not do for the procurement of any good: And the saving of a mans life will not prove so great a good, as the breaking of Gods Law will be an evil.