A26923:708
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
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.
§. 10. When we know so little of the secret Energies of natural Principles, nor how God produceth Animals in the Womb, nor how he causeth our Food to nourish us, nor how any of our Senses do their Office, nor how our Souls do use the Corporeal Spirits, &c. And when Christ hath told us, That the Wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound of it, but know not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; and so is he that is born of the Spirit, Joh. 3. 8. Should not this, with the experience and consciousness of our Ignorance, suffice to keep us from bitter Contendings about that which is certainly beyond our reach, and from presumptuous boldness with the unsearchable things of God?
§. 10. When we know so little of the secret Energies of natural Principles, nor how God produceth Animals in the Womb, nor how he causeth our Food to nourish us, nor how any of our Senses do their Office, nor how our Souls do use the Corporeal Spirits, &c. And when Christ hath told us, That the Wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound of it, but know not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; and so is he that is born of the Spirit, Ioh. 3. 8. Should not this, with the experience and consciousness of our Ignorance, suffice to keep us from bitter Contendings about that which is certainly beyond our reach, and from presumptuous boldness with the unsearchable things of God?
§. 11. Whether you will with Bradwardine and many others say, That it is God's mere Volition that effecteth all things ad extra; or whether you will say with the most, That it is not his Will alone, but his Will as operating by his executive Power, the meaning seemeth to be the ⟨p. 186⟩same, and the difference to be but notional, as is aforesaid: For they that speak in the first manner, mean, That it is not God's Will as in it self immanently considered, but his will as going forth to produce an effect; which emanation or exertion is, from the effect, called by those that speak in the second manner, God's Executive Power.