A97353:110
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
10. Therefore to feign God to be a mere principle of Universal motion as the Spring in a Watch, or the poise of a Clock, is to debase him below the Vitality of Beasts: and to feign him to be a mere sensitive principle of motion, is to debase him below humane nature. And to feign him to be a mere Vital-Intellectual mover without Will, Love and Voluntary Goodness, is to think of him in a maimed defective notion, as baser than man's, whose Will is one of his noblest faculties, without which he hath no Love to or complacency in himself or any other. Even as we think of a man of mere speculative knowledge, who nevertheless may be stark naught: (And so men think of the Devil himself).
10. Therefore to feign God to be a meer principle of Vniversal motion as the Spring in a Watch, or the poise of a Clock, is to debase him below the Vitality of Beasts: and to feign him to be a meer sensitive principle of motion, is to debase him below humane nature. And to feign him to be a meer Vital-Intellectual mover without Will, Love and Voluntary Goodness, is to think of him in a maimed defective notion, as baser than man's, whose Will is one of his noblest faculties, without which he hath no Love to or complacency in himself or any other. Even as we think of a man of meer speculative knowledge, who nevertheless may be stark naught: (And so men think of the Devil himself).
11. Gods will is the cause and Conserver and end of all things, and therefore to deny his will is to deny all things.
12. Gods will hath all that Liberty which belongeth to Perfection, but no liberty or indifferency which implieth imperfection.
12. Gods will hath all that Liberty which belongeth to Perfection, but no liberty or indifferency which implyeth imperfection.