A27004:172
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 5: What this Cause is, in it self. That it is God.
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.
If any shall say, that the Sun and other creatures are more excellent than Man, and therefore God (or the first Cause) is to be searched after rather in them, and his Attributes denominated from them: I answer, There is no doubt but secundum quid, 1the Sun is a nobler Creature than Man. But what it is simpliciter we cannot tell, unless we knew it better. The highest excellencies known to man in the Sun, is the Potentia Motiva, Illuminativa & Calefactiva; Motion, Light and Heat, with their effects, do tell us, what we know of it. That which we are conscious of in Man is, Posse, Scire, Veil; Power, Intellection and Will, with their Perfections; which are an higher excellency than Motion, Light and Heat.
If any shall say, that the Sun and other creatures are more excellent than Man, and therefore God (or the first Cause) is to be searched after rather in them, and his Attributes denominated from them: I answer, There is no doubt but secundum quid, 1the Sun is a nobler Creature than Man. But what it is simpliciter we cannot tell, unless we knew it better. The highest exellencies known to man in the Sun, is the Potentia Motiva, Illuminativa & Calefactiva; Motion, Light and Heat, with their effects, do tell us, what we know of it. That which we are conscious of in Man is, Posse, Scire, Velle; Power, Intellection and Will, with their Perfections; which are an higher excellency than Motion, Light and Heat.
- 1Jovem dominatorem rerum & omnia nutu regentem, & praesentem & praepotentem, qui dubitat, haud sanè intelligo cur non idem, Sol sit, an nullus sit dubitare possit, Cicer. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. pag. (mihi) 48.
§. 3. He that giveth Being to all else that is, must needs be the first Being formally or eminently Himself.