A26935:52
Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted…
Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted to deny it, and think him cruel, because of the present and future misery of mankind, with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and damnation / by Richard Baxter ... ; published and prefaced by a friend at whose desire it was written, and to whom it was committed.
London: printed for N. Simmons, 1671
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.
5. God cannot be proved to Decree, or Will the Permission of mans sin: For to Permit is nothing. It is but, not to hinder; which is no act: And to Decree and Will is a Positive Act: And if you fain God to have a Positive Volition or Nolition, of every nothing, or Negative; then he must have positive decrees of every mere possible Atom, Sand, Worm, Name, Word, Thought of Man, &c. That such and such a nothing shall never ⟨p. 63⟩be: whereas there needeth no more to keep any thing from being (in this case) than Gods not Causing it, not Willing it, not Decreeing it. The Creatures Active Nature, Disposition, Objects, and Circumstances, are here presupposed: And the Impedition necessary, is by Act, (or subtraction of these aforesaid) And Gods nonagere needs no positive decree; I must tell the Learned Reader that this room will not serve to Answer his foreseen objections: but I hope I have done it sufficiently elsewhere.
5. God cannot be proved to Decree, or Will the Permission of mans sin: For to Permit is nothing. It is but, not to hinder; which is no act: And to Decree and Will is a Positive Act: And if you fain God to have a Positive Volition or Nolition, of every nothing, or Negative; then he must have positive decrees of every meer possible Atome, Sand, Worm, Name, Word, Thought of Man, &c. That such and such a nothing shall never ⟨p. 63⟩be: whereas there needeth no more to keep any thing from being (in this case) than Gods not Causing it, not Willing it, not Decreeing it. The Creatures Active Nature, Disposition, Objects, and Circumstances, are here presupposed: And the Impedition necessary, is by Act, (or substraction of these aforesaid) And Gods nonagere needs no positive decree; I must tell the Learned Reader that this room will not serve to Answer his foreseen objections: but I hope I have done it sufficiently elsewhere.