A27004:360
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.
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.
Obj. But suppose we say, that Man is under no other obligations than a Beast; and that among men there is no proper right or wrong, duty or fault: yet men by confederacies, without any other Government, would settle Rules for the safety of cohabitation and converse, and for love of themselves would forbear wronging others. And this is all the Law of Nature that Man hath above Bruits.
Answ. Those Confederacies would no further oblige them, than their Interest required them to observe them. Still by this rule a man is left free to kill wife and children; if he be weary of them, which no neighbour, being wronged by none, will seem obliged to revenge: still he that is the stronger is left to do his worst, without fault, to seize upon other mens estates, and to depose Kings and destroy them, and all the world would be in a state of war. Or if self-interest keep some quiet for a time, it would be but till they had strength and opportunity to do otherwise. He is not fit for humane society, who would tell all about him [I take my self free to defraud and murder any of you, as soon as my own safety and interest will allow it me.] And no man that thus taketh a man for a beast, can expect any better usage than a beast himself, any further than self-love shall restrain others from abusing him: nor can he plead any better title to his estate, nor exemption from the violence of the stronger. And it will