A27004:448
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 10: Of GOD's particular Laws as known in Nature.
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.
§. 3. All the objective significations in natura rerum, within us or without us, of the Will of God, concerning our Duty, reward or punishment, are the True Law of Nature, in the primary proper sense.
§. 4. Therefore it is falsely defined by all Writers, who make it consist in certain axioms (as some say) born in us, or written on our hearts from our birth; (as others say) dispositively there.
§. 4. Therefore it is falsly defined by all Writers, who make it consist in certain axioms (as some say) born in us, or written on our hearts from our birth; (as others say) dispositively there.
It is true, that there is in the nature of Mans Soul a certain aptitude to understand certain Truths, as soon as they are revealed, that is, as soon as the very Natura rerum is observed: And it is true, that this disposition is brought to actual knowledge, as soon as the mind comes to actual consideration of the things. But it is not true that there is any actual knowledge of any Principles born in Man: Nor is it true, that the said Disposition to know is truly a Law; nor yet that the actual knowledge following it, is a Law: But the disposition may be called a Law Metonymically, as being the aptitude of the faculties to receive and obey a Law; as the Light of the Eye, ⟨p. 71⟩which is the potentia & dispositio videndi, may be called [the Light of the Sun] but unhandsomely: And the subsequent actual knowledge of Principles, may be called the Law of Nature metonymically, as being the perception of it, and an effect of it: as actual sight may be called, the Light of the Sun, and as actual knowledge of the Kings Laws, may be called His Laws within us, that is, the effect of them, or the Reception of them: But this is far from propriety of speech.