A27004:1066
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
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.
Answ. Much might be done, if all men did their best: But, 1. The difficulty is such, that the learned themselves are lamentably imperfect and unsatisfied, (as I shall further show.) 2. Though the vulgar cannot search out the truth without help, yet is it necessary that by help they come to see with their own eyes, and rest not in a humane belief alone; especially when their Teachers are of so many minds, that they know not which of them to believe. To learn the truth in its proper evidence, is very hard to them that have no more than the light of nature.
Answ. Much might be done, if all men did their best: But, 1. The difficulty is such, that the learned themselves are lamentably imperfect and unsatisfi'd, (as I shall further shew.) 2. Though the vulgar cannot search out the truth without help, yet is it necessary that by help they come to see with their own eyes, and rest not in a humane belief alone; especially when their Teachers are of so many minds, that they know not which of them to believe. To learn the truth in its proper evidence, is very hard to them that have no more than the light of nature.
Obj. But what difficulty is there in these few precepts, that all men may not easily learn them? [Thou shalt love God above all, and repent of sin, and set thy heart upon the ⟨p. 194⟩Life to come, 1and love thy neighbour as thy self, &c.
- 1You may rerceive the Heathens g•at•ud, to God by the •rd• of Cotta•. […] Nat. Deor. 3. pag. 109 Num• is quod onus […], grat. as Ds […] unan? At quod dives, quod honoratu, quod incolumis. Jovemqe Optimum Maximum ob eas res appellant, non quod nos justos, temperatos, sapientes efficiat, sed quod salvos, incolumes, op lentos, copiosos. —Judicium hoc omnium mortalium, fortunam à Deo petendam, à seipso sumendam esse sapientiam.