A27004:525
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.
2. That which is the Beginning must be the End: But God is the Beginning of all his works: therefore he is the End of all. He himself hath no Beginning or Efficient, and consequently no final cause of himself: but his works have himself for the Efficient, and for their End: that is, He that made them, intended in the making of them, that they should be illustrious with his communicated beams of Glory, and thereby amiable to his will, and should all serve to his complacency.
2. That which is the Begining must be the End: But God is the Beginning of all his works: therefore he is the End of all. He himself hath no Beginning or Efficient, and consequently no final cause of himself: but his works have himself for the Efficient, and for their End: that is, He that made them, intended in the making of them, that they should be illustrious with his communicated beams of Glory, and thereby amiable to his will, and should all serve to his complacency.
If the End were lower than the Beginning, there would be no proportion; and the Agent would sink down below himself.
3. If any thing besides God were his ultimate End, it must thereby be in part Deified, or his actions debased by the lowness of the End: but these are impossibilities. The Actions are no nobler than their End: and the End is more noble than the Means as such.
3. If any thing besides God were his ultimate End, it must thereby be in part Deifi'd, or his actions debased by the lowness of the End: but these are impossibilities. The Actions are no nobler than their End: and the End is more noble than the Means as such.