A27004:546
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.
§. 5. The same Will of God which was the free efficient, 1is the End of all his Works ad extra.
- 1Goodness signifieth more than utility or Pleasure to our selves: As when we call a Man, a good Man, a good Scholar, a good Judge, &c. And so doth evil signify on the contrary. Bonum est quod sui ipsius gratiâ expetendum est. Aristot. Rhet. 1. Bonum omnis originis & ortûs finis est. Id. Metaph. l. ae. c. 3.Goodness signifieth more than utility or Pleasure to our selves: As when we call a Man, a good Man, a good Scholar, a good Judge, &c. And so doth evil signifie on the contrary. Bonum est quod sui ipsius gratiâ expetendum est. Aristot. Rhet. 1. Bonum omnis originis & ortûs finis est. Id. Metaph. l. ae. c. 3.
Gods Essence hath no Efficient or final Cause, but is the efficient and final cause of all things else: They proceeded from his Power, his Wisdom and his good-will; and they bear the Image of his Power, Wisdom, and Good-will; and he loveth his own Image in them, and loveth them as they bear his Image; and loveth his Image for Himself. So that the act of his Love to Himself is necessary, though voluntary; and so is the act of his Love to his Image, and to all the Goodness of the Creature, while it is such: But he freely and not necessarily made and continueth the Creature in his Image; and needeth not the Glass or Image, (being self-sufficient) so that his Creature is the mediate Object, 1his Image on the Creature is the ultimate created Object; his own perfections to which that Image relateth, is the objectum simpliciter ultimatum; his complacency or love is the Actus ultimus; and that very act is the object of his precedent act of Creation, or volition of the Creatures: But all this is spoken according to the narrow imperfect capacity of man, who conceiveth of God as having a prius & posterius in his acts, which is but respectively and denominatively from the order of the objects. In short, Gods free-will is the Beginning of his works ad extra; and the complacency of that will in his works as Good in relation to his own perfections, is the END: And therefore he is said to Rest when he saw that all his works were Good.