A27004:359
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
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.
1By a Community I mean a company of men that have yet set up no Government among them: If God be not their Governor, such have none at all, and so are under no moral obligation: for Covenants themselves cannot bind, if there be no superior obligation, requiring man to stand to his Covenants.
1By a Community I mean a company of men that have yet set up no Government among them: If God be not their Governour, such have none at all, and so are under no moral obligation: for Covenants themselves cannot bind, if there be no superiour obligation, requiring man to stand to his Covenants.
- 1Animal hoc providum, sagax, multiplex, acutum, memor, plenum Rationis & consilii quem vocamus hominem, praeclarâ quâdam conditione generatum esse à supremo Deo: solem est enim ex tot animantium generibus & naturis particeps Rationis & cogitationis, cum caetera sint omnia expertia. Quid est autem non dicam in homine, sed in omni coelo, atque terra ratione divinius, quae cum adolevit atque perfecta est, nominatur rite sapientia. Est igitur quoniam nihil est ratione melius, eaque & in homine & in Deo, prima homini cum Deo Rationis societas. Inter quos autem Ratio, inter cosdem recta ratio est communis: Quae cum sit Lex, lege quoque consociati homines cum Diis putandi sumus; Quibus autem haec sunt inter cos communia & civitatis ejusdem habendi sunt unde universus hic Mundus una civitas communis Deorum atque hominum existimanda. Cic. de Leg. 1. p. 219.
Obj. Then God's Covenants to man do not bind him.
Answ. Not at all, by proper obligation, as if it were his Duty to keep them, and his Sin to break them; for God is not capable of duty or sin. But yet improperly they may be called Obligations, because they are the demonstrations of his Will, which the perfection of his Nature will not let him violate. It would be an imperfection, if God should break promise, though not a sin or crime: And therefore it is impossible for God to lie.