A27004:222
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.
The Love of complacency to all created Good, is necessary in God, supposing the continued existence of that created Good, which is the object. But it is not necessary that such created Good do continually exist. The Love of Benevolence is also natural to God in this sense, that it is his natural perfection as respecting the Creature to be used agreeably to his ⟨p. 26⟩perfect wisdom; but the exercise of it is not necessary, because the being or felicity of the Creature is not necessary; but it is acted freely, according as the infinite wisdom seeth it fit, as to those Ends to which all Creatures are but the Means.
§. 23. The first Being must needs be the only ultimate end to himself, so far as he may be said to intend an End.
§. 23. The first Being must needs be the onely ultimate end to himself, so far as he may be said to intend an End.
1God doth not intendere finem in defectiveness and imperfection as the Creature doth: He wanteth nothing, nor is he in via as to his felicity. But eminently he may be said to intend an End, as he maketh one thing a means to produce or attain another, and doth nothing disorderly nor in vain, but ordereth all things in infinite wisdom. He is not wanting, but enjoying his end at all times, even in the midst of his use of means. To his essential Goodness and Blessedness, there is no means, nothing is capable of the honour of contributing to it.2 But his Will is the Beginning of all derived Beings, and his Will is the ultimate End of all. He is pleased to make and order all by his power and wisdom, and he is pleased in all things as so made and ordered. The complacency of his Will then is the ultimate end of all his works, as the Glory of his own Power, Wisdom and Goodness shineth in them. And though Complacency, or Pleasedness, or Will, be not formally the same in God, as in us, yet something eminently there is in him, which under this Notion we must conceive of, and express.