A26923:465
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 12 › Section 1: Of the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam.
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.
§. 4. The Law of Nature, properly so called, is in esse Objectivo, that signification of God's Will concerning Man's Duty, which was discernible in the Universa rerum Natura in all God's Works; but principally in Mans own Nature, as related to God and all Persons, and Things about him.
§. 5. But Improperly or Metonymically so called, the Law of Nature is in esse subjectivo the Communes notitiae, which Man had and was to have from the said Objective Law of Nature. But properly this is rather the Knowledge of the Law, than the Law it self, being not perfect in Adam himself at first, but was to be perfected as he came to know more and more of the Works of God, and varying much now in several Persons. Yet may it well be called God's Law written in the Heart, when we have the Knowledge and Love of his primary proper Law.
§. 6. This Law of Nature bound Adam to perfect Devotedness to God as his Owner, and perfect gratitude to God as his Antecedent Benefactor, and to perfect Obedience to God as his Ruler, and to perfect Love to God as his ultimate most amiable End. And this perfect Obedience was to be perpetual.
§. 7. It was Adam personally that the Law bound to this perfect perpetual Obedience, and not another for him, or that he should obey by a Representative, or a Delegate, a Servant, or by any other.