A27004:797
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.
§. 12. XII. Another illustration or confirming argument may be gathered from the great disparity which God hath made between Men and Beasts: If God had intended us for no more knowledge and fruition of himself hereafter than the Beasts have, then he would have given us no more Capacity, Desire or Obligation to seek it than the Beasts have: But he hath given us more Capacity, Desire and Obligation to seek it: Ergo.—
A Beast hath no knowledge that there is a God, no ⟨p. 142⟩thoughts of a Life to come,1 no desire to know God, or love him, or enjoy him; no obligation to take care for another life, nor to provide for it, nor once to consider whether there be any such or not: Because he is not made for any life but this. And if God had made Man for no more, he would have disposed and obliged him no further: We have an understanding to know it, and thoughts, and hopes, and fears, and cares about it, which are not all in vain; and we are plainly in reason obliged to this, and more than we do; and that Obligation is not vain.
- 1Ex terra sunt homine•, non ut incolae & habitatores, sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque coelestum: quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud animantium genus pertinet. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. Non temere, nec fortuitò, sati & creati sumus: sed profectò fait quaedam vis, quae generi consuleret humano: nec id gigneret aut aleret, quod cum omnes labores exantlavisset, tum incideret in mortis malum sempiternum. Cic. 1. Tusc.
§. 13. XIII. If there were no Life of Retribution hereafter, Man were more vain and miserable than the Brutes by far, and his Reason would but more delude him, and torment him: But the Consequent is absurd: Ergo, so is the Antecedent.