A27004:185
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.
3. And as it is a nobler nature which acteth by Volition, or Free-will, than that which hath no Will at all, and so no voluntary choice and complacency; so the first Cause which hath given this noble faculty to Man, hath certainly himself, though not a Will univocally the same with ours, yet a Will of a transcendent excellency, which expresseth it self in ours as its Image, and must be something better and greater, but cannot be lower or less. And though such Indetermination as proceedeth from imperfection, and consequently such Liberty belongeth not to the first Cause, which hath no defects, yet all that Liberty which belongeth to perfection must undoubtedly belong to Him. He that did what we see, hath done it willingly and freely.
§. 8. What ever the first Cause is, it must needs be in absolute Perfection.
It must needs have in it more than the whole world besides, because it giveth all that to the whole Creation, which it hath received, and is. An imperfect cause could never have made such a world as we behold, and partly know. And were the first Cause imperfect, there would be no perfection in being.