A26923:335
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches
An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1691
Chapter 7: Of God's Providence, and predetermining Premotion and Miracles.
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.
§. 7. But we must not dream that God is involuntarily tied to his own Work, or hindered by second Causes, or the course of Nature, from doing what He would; but His free-will delighteth it self in this Constancy and ordered Course of Nature, and use of second Causes, which have ⟨p. 73⟩still all their being, force and order continued by Him.
§. 8. And the number and operations of second Causes are so unknown to us, that when things seem Miracles to us, it is hard for us to say, that God useth no second Cause in effecting them. But it is enough to the use of Miracles to know that their extraordinary production hath an answerable extraordinary use and signification of God's Will.
§. 9. And no doubt but Nature and all its parts are absolutely in the Power and Government of God's Will: And He can and doth turn things up and down as He pleaseth, without making any breach in his established Order: If the Husbandman can turn the course of Rivers to water his Grounds, by mere Impediments and Receptivities, without any alteration of the natural motion of the Water; how much more must we ascribe to God, in using Nature without overthrowing it?
§. 9. And no doubt but Nature and all its parts are absolutely in the Power and Government of God's Will: And He can and doth turn things up and down as He pleaseth, without making any breach in his established Order: If the Husbandman can turn the course of Rivers to water his Grounds, by meer Impediments and Receptivities, without any alteration of the natural motion of the Water; how much more must we ascribe to God, in using Nature without overthrowing it?