A27004:497
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.
§. 36. Nature teacheth us, 1that it is our duty to love humane Nature in our enemies, and pity others in their infirmities and miseries, and to forgive all pardonable failings, and not to seek revenge and right our selves by our brothers ruin: but to be charitable to the poor and miserable, and do our best to succour them, and help them out of their distress.
§. 36. Nature teacheth us, 1that it is our duty to love humane Nature in our enemies, and pity others in their infirmities and miseries, and to forgive all pardonable failings, and not to seek revenge and right our selves by our brothers ruine: but to be charitable to the poor and miserable, and do our best to succour them, and help them out of their distress.
- 1De altero temere affirmare periculosum est, propter occultas hominum voluntates multiplicesque naturas. Cic.
All these are our undeniable duties to GOD and our Neighbours.
§. 37. Nature also telleth us, that every man, as a rational lover of himself, should have a special care of his own felicity, 1and know wherein it doth consist, and use all prudent diligence to attain it, and make it sure.
- 1A man that loved his belly, desiring to be admitted into Cato's family, Cato answered, Non possum cum tali vivere, cujus palatum plus sapit, quàm cerebrum. Erasm. Nullus mihi per otium dies exit. Partem noctium studiis vendico, non vaco somno sed succumbo. Senec. What mean you to make your prison so strong, said Plato to one that pampered his body. Ficin. in vit. Plot. Vires corporis sunt vires carceris, inquit Petrarch. l. 1. dial. 5. Cato homo virtuti simillimus-qui nunquam recte fecit ut facere videretur, sed quia aliter facere non poterat: cuique id solum visum est rationem habere; quod haberet justitiam. Velleius Pater. l. 2. Magna pars libertatis est, bene moratus venture. Senec. Plato saith, God is the temperate man's Law, and Pleasure the intemperate man's. Temperantia voluptatibus imperat: alias odit atque abigit: alias dispensat & ad sanum modum dirigit: nec unquam ad illas propter ipsas venit. Sen. Scit optimum esse modum cupidorum, non quantum velis, sed quantum debeas sumere. Senec. Animis tenduntur infidiae— ab ea quae penitus in omni sensu implicata infidit imitatrix boni, voluptas, malorum autem mater omnium: cujus blanditiis corrupti, quae naturâ bona sunt, quia dulcedine hac & scabia carent, non cernimus satis. Cic. de leg. 1. p. 226.