A27004:150
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 1 › Chapter 4: Of Man, and other things, as produced by their first Cause.
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.
§. 3. My Parents were not the first cause of my being what I am.
As each Individual cannot be the first Cause of it self, so neither can their Parents; for they do not so much as know my frame and nature, nor the order and temperature of my parts; nor how or when they were set together; nor their use, or the reason of their location. And certainly he that made me, knew what he did, and why he did it in each particular. My Parents could not choose my sex, nor shape, nor strength, nor qualifications.
§. 4. The world which I see, and live in, did not make it self.
As Men, and Beasts, and Trees, and Stones did not make themselves, so neither did they join as concauses or assistants in the making of the whole; nor did any one of them make the rest: nor did any of the more simple substances, called Elements, make themselves; neither the passive Elements, or the active; the Earth, the Water, the Air or the Fire: For we know, past doubt, that nothing hath no power or action;1 and before they were, they were not, and therefore could not make themselves. Nor can they be the first cause of mixed bodies, because there is that exceeding wisdom most apparent in the generation, production, nature and operations of these Bodies, which these Elements have not.