A27004:733
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 14: That there is a Life of Retribution after this.
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.
Answ. The Brutes are no subjects capable of moral Government, and consequently of Propriety, of Right or of Wrong. God that made them uncapable of Government, thereby declared that he intended them not for it. Let no man here play with ambiguities, and say, that God governeth all the creatures. The word [Government] is taken equivocally, when it is applied to a dead or brutish subject, a Ship, a Coach, a Horse, a Dog; and meaneth not the same thing which we discourse of. It is Moral Government by Laws and Judgment which we treat of. When God had made Man a Governable Creature, he thereby declared his will to be himself his Governor, which is all the obligation that God is capable of, as to actions ad extra. He therefore that made the rational world his Kingdom, did thereby engage himself to govern them in Justice: there is therefore no comparison between the case of men and brutes, who never were subjects, but utensils in his Kingdom.
Answ. The Bruits are no subjects capable of moral Government, and consequently of Propriety, of Right or of Wrong. God that made them uncapable of Government, thereby declared that he intended them not for it. Let no man here play with ambiguities, and say, that God governeth all the creatures. The word [Government] is taken equivocally, when it is applied to a dead or bruitish subject, a Ship, a Coach, a Horse, a Dog; and meaneth not the same thing which we discourse of. It is Moral Government by Laws and Judgment which we treat of. When God had made Man a Governable Creature, he thereby declared his will to be himself his Governour, which is all the obligation that God is capable of, as to actions ad extra. He therefore that made the rational world his Kingdom, did thereby engage himself to govern them in Justice: there is therefore no comparison between the case of men and bruits, who never were subjects, but utensils in his Kingdom.
§. 2. II. If there were no retribution in the life to come, the secret sins and duties of the heart and life would be under no sufficient Government. But the secret sins and duties of the heart and life are under a sufficient Government: Therefore there is a Retribution in the life to come.