The divine life in three treatises

Name: The divine life in three treatises
Author: Richard Baxter

The divine life in three treatises ... by Richard Baxter.

Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1664

[20], 379 p. · 160k words · Wing B1254 · ESTC R3168

Title page typeset from the transcription.

Treatise › Chapter 9

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.

[ Earlier:175–189 of 889

:175p. 65

CHAP. IX.

:176p. 65

8. THE next of Gods Attributes that must make its Impress on the soul, is Hit Infinite Goodness. The Denomination of Goodness (as all other his Attributes) is fetched from, and suited to the capacity or affections of the soul of man. That which is truly Amiable is called Good. Not as if there were no Goodness, but what is a means to mans felicity, as some most sottishly have affirmed: For our End and Felicity it self, and God as he is Perfect and Excellent in himself, is more amiable then all means.

8. THE next of Gods Attributes that must make its Impress on the soul, is Hit Infinite Goodness. The Denomination of Goodness (as all other his Attributes) is fetcht from, and suited to the capacity or affections of the soul of man. That which is truly Amiable is called Good. Not as if there were no Goodness, but what is a means to mans felicity, as some most sottishly have affirmed: For our End and Felicity it self, and God as he is Perfect and Excellent in himself, is more amiable then all means.

:177p. 65

In three respects therefore it is that God is called Good, or Amiable to man. 1. In that he is Infinitely Excellent and perfect in Himself. For the Love of Friendship is a higher Love then that of Desire. And the most perfect sort of Love, is that which wholly carrieth the Lover from himself ▪to the perfect object of his Love. The soul Delighteth to contemplate excellency, when the excellency it self and not the delight, is the ultimate end of that desire and contemplation.

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CHAP. IX.