A27004:564
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.
If you say, that all this is hurtful to the Individuals, but not to the Universe; to which it is better that there be a mixture of evil with good, than that every part had a perfection in it self: I answer:
If you say, that all this is hurtfull to the Individuals, but not to the Ʋniverse; to which it is better that there be a mixture of evil with good, than that every part had a perfection in it self: I answer:
1. It seemeth then that the good which you measure Gods goodness by, is not the Interest of any individual Creature, at least that is in this lower World. For you confess, that the good which would make it Happy, is given to it limitedly, and with mixtures of permitted or inflicted evil; and that God could have given them more of that goodness, if he would: God could have freed them from pain and misery; yea, and have given the ignorant more knowledge, and honesty, and grace. So that it is not our interest that is the measure of his goodness: And if so, what is it that you call the Universal interest. Surely, the universality ⟨p. 93⟩of Rational creatures, hath no being but in the Individuals; and if it be not the welfare of the Individuals, which is the Measure, then is it not any interest or welfare o the Universe, which is of the same kind: and for the insensible creatures, they feel neither good nor hurt; and therefore by your Measure should be none of the Universe, whose interest is the Measure. Therefore it must be somewhat above the sensible interest of any or all the Individuals, which you call the Bonum Universitatis: and that can be nothing else but that state and order of the Universe, in which it is conform to the Idea of the Divine Intellect, and to the Volition of the Divine Will, and so is fittest for him to take complacency in, as being the measure and reasons of his own volitions and operations, which he fetcheth not aliunde; or at least which are unknown to such as we. No doubt but it is more for the happiness of the Individuals, that every Dust, and Stone, and Fly, and Beast, and Man were an Angel: but it is not so.