A27004:452
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.
It is therefore most evident, that the true Law of Nature is another thing: (And is it not then a matter of admiration, that so many sagacious, accurate Schoolmen, Philosophers,1 Lawyers, and Divines, should for so long time go on in such false definitions of it!) The whole World belongeth to the Law of Nature, so far as it signifieth to us the will of God, about our duty, and reward, and punishment: The World is as Gods Statute Book: The foresaid natural aptitude, maketh ⟨p. 72⟩us fit to read and practise it. The Law of Nature is as the external Light of the Sun; and the said natural disposition, is as the visive faculty to make use of it. Yet much of the Law of Nature is within us too: But it is there only in genere objectivo, & signi: Mans own Nature, his Reason, Free will, and Executive power, are the most notable signs of his duty to God; To which all Mercies, Judgements, and other signifying means belong.
- 1Omnis lex inventum sane & donum est Deorum. Decretum vero hominum prudentum— Demost. cont. Aris. or. 1.
§. 5. The way that God doth by Nature oblige us, is by laying such fundamenta from which our duty shall naturally result, as from the signification of his Will.
1§. 6. These fundamenta are some of them unalterable (while we have a being,) and some of them alterable: And therefore some Laws of Nature are alterable, and some unalterable accordingly.
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