A27004:253
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.
1§. 4. GOD is jure Creationis & Conservationis, the most absolute Owner or Proprietor of Man, and the whole Creation.
- 1Those writers who confound Propriety and Government under the word Dominion, and then bestow long and sharp disputes on the question, what is the fundamentum of Gods dominion, do but delude the ignorant, and exercise the patience or contempt of the intelligent,
It is not possible that there should be a more full and certain title to propriety, than Creation, and total conservation is. He that giveth the World all its Being, and that of nothing, and continueth that being, and was beholden to no pre-existent matter, nor to any co-ordinate concause, nor dependent on any superior cause in his causation, but is himself the first independent, efficient, total cause of being and well-being, and all the means thereto, must needs be the absolute Owner of all, without the least limitation or exception.
It is not possible that there should be a more full and certain title to propriety, than Creation, and total conservation is. He that giveth the World all its Being, and that of nothing, and continueth that being, and was beholden to no pre-existent matter, nor to any co-ordinate concause, nor dependent on any superiour cause in his causation, but is himself the first independent, efficient, total cause of being and well-being, and all the means thereto, must needs be the absolute Owner of all, without the least limitation or exception.
It is not the supereminency of Gods nature, excelling all created beings, that is the foundation of this his Propriety in the creature. For Excellency is no title to Propriety. And yet he that is unicus in capacitate possidendi, that is so transcendently excellent as to have no Copartner in a claim, might by Occupation be sole Proprietor, in that kind of Propriety secundum quid, which Man is capable of: Because there is no other whom he can be said to wrong. But GOD hath a more plenary title by Creation, to Absolute Propriety.