A27004:85
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 1: Of the Nearest Truths, viz. of Humane Nature.
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.
Though it be possible that some sensual sluggish person, may be so taken up with present earthly things, as to drown these desires, and scarce to think of any first cause, or take any pleasure in the exercise of his higher faculties; yet, as I feel it otherwise in my self, so I find it otherwise in multitudes of others, and in all that have free minds, and in the worst at certain times; so that I perceive it is natural to man, to desire to know even the first Cause, and highest excellency.1
Though it be possible that some sensual sluggish person, may be so taken up with present earthly things, as to drown these desires, and scarce to think of any first cause, or take any pleasure in the exercise of his higher faculties; yet, as I feel it otherwise in my self, so I find it otherwise in multitudes of others, and in all that have free minds, and in the worst at certain times; so that I perceive it is natural to man, to desire to know even the first Cause, and highest excellencie.1
- 1Omnes ad id quod Bonum videtur, omnes suas actiones referunt. Aristot. de Republ. 1. c. 1.
§. 8. Yet do I find that my mind is not satisfied in knowing, nor is Entity and Verity the ultimate object which my mind looketh after; but Goodness.
Entity and Verity may be unwelcome loathed things, if against my good. The thief could wish, that neither Law,1 nor Judge, nor Gallows had a being, and that his sentence were not true. Knowledge is but a mediate motion of the Soul, directive to the following volitions and prosecution.