A27004:190
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.
Obj. Something may oriri de novo without any Cause, as well as God be eternally without any Cause.
Answ. Its impossible: For he that is eternally, hath all perfection eternally in himself, and needeth no Cause, being still in being, and being the Cause of Causes. But Nothing hath no perfection or being, and therefore needeth an Omnipotent Cause to give it a being.
Obj. If the world may be created of nothing materially, it may be what it is without any thing efficiently.
Answ. Impossible: Pre-existent matter is not necessary to the first created matter: for Matter may be caused of Nothing by an Omnipotent Efficient, as well as the wonderful frame of all things be made out of Matter. But without an Efficient, no Being can arise de novo.