A27004:155
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.
For all the generated parts we see, do oriri & interire; they have a beginning, progress, decay and end. And the inanimate ⟨p. 14⟩parts having less of natural excellency than the living, cannot infinitely exceed them, in the excellency of Deity as uncaused and independent. And we see that they are all dependent in their operations. They show in the order of their beings and action, that incomprehensible wisdom, which is not in themselves: the Earth, the Sea, the Air and Winds, are all ordered exactly by a Wisdom and a Will, which they themselves are void of. Besides, they are many and various; but their order and agreement showeth, that it is some One universal Wisdom and Will which ruleth them all: and if they are dependent in operation, they are certainly dependent in being. And had they that excellency to be uncaused and independent, they would have had therewith all other perfections, which we see they want; and they would not have been many but one in that perfection.
For all the generated parts we see, do oriri & interire; they have a beginning, progress, decay and end. And the inanimate ⟨p. 14⟩parts having less of natural excellency than the living, cannot infinitely exceed them, in the excellency of Deity as uncaused and independent. And we see that they are all dependent in their operations. They shew in the order of their beings and action, that incomprehensible wisdom, which is not in themselves: the Earth, the Sea, the Air and Winds, are all ordered exactly by a Wisdom and a Will, which they themselves are void of. Besides, they are many and various; but their order and agreement sheweth, that it is some One universal Wisdom and Will which ruleth them all: and if they are dependent in operation, they are certainly dependent in being. And had they that excellency to be uncaused and independent, they would have had therewith all other perfections, which we see they want; and they would not have been many but one in that perfection.
§. 6. The first universal Matter is not an uncaused independent being.