A27004:541
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.
2.1 If this had been true of the World as consisting of its constitutive causes, that it is God in perfection, and eternal, &c. yet it could not be true of the daily-generated and perishing beings. There are millions of men and other animals, that lately were not, what they are: Therefore as such they were no eternal parts of God, because as such they were not eternal: Therefore if God brought them forth for his own Perfection, it would follow that he was before imperfect, and consequently not God; and that his Perfections are mutable and perishing. Therefore at least some other cause of these must be found out.
2.1 If this had been true of the World as consisting of its constitutive causes, that it is God in perfection, and eternal, &c. yet it could not be true of the daily-generated and perishing beings. There are millions of men and other animals, that lately were not, what they are: Therefore as such they were no eternall parts of God, because as such they were not eternall: Therefore if God brought them forth for his own Perfection, it would follow that he was before imperfect, and consequently not God; and that his Perfections are mutable and perishing. Therefore at least some other cause of these must be found out.
- 1Quid enim est aliud natura quàm Deus? & divina ratio? toti mundo partibusque ejus inserta? Ergo nihil agis ingratissime mortalium, qui te negas Deo debere, sed naturae; quia nihil natura fine Deo est, nec Deus sine natura, sed idem est uterque nec distat officio. Senec. de Benefic.
And as for the similitudes in the objection, I answer; 1. That the fructifying of a Tree is an act of Generation;1 and the ends of it are partly the use (for food) to superior sensitive Creatures, especially man; and partly the propagation of its species, because it is mortal. Fructification is indeed its perfection, but that is because it is not made for it self, but for another. Sic vos non vobis, may be written upon all. But God is neither mortal needing a propagation of the species, nor is he subservient to any other, and finally for its use.