A27004:248
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 6: Of GOD as RELATED to his Creatures: especially to Man. And I. as his OWNER.
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.
Though he made his Body of pre-existent Matter, yet was that Matter made of nothing; and therefore God is ⟨p. 33⟩properly Mans CREATOR, and not his Fabricator only. And a CREATURE is a Relation, which inferreth the Correlate, a CREATOR, as a Son doth a Father. This therefore is Gods first grand Relation unto Man, which hath no cause to produce it, but his actual Creation, which is its fundamentum.
§. 2. This Grand prime Relation, inferreth a Trinity of Grand Relations, viz. That God is our OWNER, our RULER, and our BENEFACTOR, of which we are now to speak in order.
§. 2. This Grand prime Relation, inferreth a Trinity of Grand Relations, viz. That God is our OWNER, our RƲLER, and our BENEFACTOR, of which we are now to speak in order.
That these Three are justly distinguished from each other, is past doubt to all that understand what is meant by the terms. An Owner as such is not a Ruler or Benefactor, a Ruler as such is not an Owner or a Benefactor. A Benefactor as such is neither an Owner nor a Ruler. And the enumeration is sufficient: All humane affairs, or actions of converse and society, belong to Man in one of these three Relations, or such as are subordinate to them, and mere dependents on them, or compounded of them. They are in some respect the Genera, and in some as it were the Elements of all other Relations. And from the manner of men, they are applied to God, with as much propriety of speech, as any terms that man can use concerning him. And he that could draw a true scheme or method of the Body of Morality (or Theology, for all is one with me) would reduce all the dealings of God with Man, which are subsequent to the fundamental Act of Creation, to these three Relations; and accordingly distinguish of them all: Yet in the Mixed acts, (as most are such) distinguishing only of the compounding Elements (I mean, the interest of these three Relations, as making up the several acts.)