A27004:1109
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
Part 2 › Chapter 2: Of the several Religions which are in the world.
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.
§. 9. But I find it to be my duty to love them for all the good which is in them, and all that is true and good in their Religion, I will embrace: and because it is so defective, to look further, and try what I can learn from others.
There is so much lovely in a Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Antonine, Epictetus, Plutarch, &c. in the Religions of Siam, in the dispersed Persian Ethnics in India, in the Bramans, or Banians of India, in the Bonzii of Japan, and divers others in China and else-where, that it obligeth us not only to love them benevolently, but with much complacence. And as I will learn from Nature it self what I can, so also from these Students of Nature. I will take up nothing merely on their trust, nor reject any doctrine merely because it is theirs; but all that is true and good in their Religions, as far as I can discern it, shall be part of mine; and because I find them so dark and bad, I will betake me for further information to those that trust to supernatural Revelation; which are the Jews, Mahometans and the Christians; of which I shall next consider a-part.
There is so much lovely in a Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Antonine, Epictetus, Plutarch, &c. in the Religions of Siam, in the dispersed Persian Ethnicks in India, in the Bramans, or Bannians of India, in the Bonzii of Japan, and divers others in China and else-where, that it obligeth us not only to love them benevolently, but with much complacence. And as I will learn from Nature it self what I can, so also from these Students of Nature. I will take up nothing meerly on their trust, nor reject any doctrin meerly because it is theirs; but all that is true and good in their Religions, as far as I can discern it, shall be part of mine; and because I find them so dark and bad, I will betake me for further information to those that trust to supernatural Revelation; which are the Jews, Mahumetans and the Christians; of which I shall next consider a-part.