Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A69536
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The judgment of non-conformists about the difference between grace and morality
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing B1292_VARIANT; ESTC R16284
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66,799
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124
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2. The Action as farther specified by the terminating Object 1. In the first respect the Gradus Actus is Accidens accident 〈◊〉 And an Act may become Good or Evil by such Intenseness or Remissness as is ordinate or inordinate And the Timing it may do the like As to be thinking when I should sleep 2. In the second respect an Accident supervening or added to the Object is said to make that Action Good or Evil by Accident that is by an alteration of the specifying Object by some Accident And this is the commonest Case and the Sense in which this Controversie in hand is most concerned which therefore we desire to be most observed Prop. 15. Any Man therefore that knoweth what true Knowledge is may easily perceive that he that will Dispute about Bonum vel Malum per se per accidens if he would not lose his labour or deceive must use more diligence in explaining these Terms than they do that toss them about unexplained as if they were sufficiently intelligible of themselves to such as some use to make the Receivers of their cholerick and splenetick evacuations Even Bonum Malum per se is not such Ver se qua substantiam nor per se qua Actum nor per se qua Intellectionem Volitionem aut Praxin execu ivam but per se ut Accidens substantiae scilicet Actum circa Objectum quod est accidens plerumque sine altero accidente superaddito So that the same which now is Bonum vel Malum per accidens is called Bonum vel malum per se in respect to a supervenient Accident And excluding all Accidents or all Good or Evil by Accident so nothing in the World is Bonum or Malum morale per se except what is anon excepted E. G. To Love is an Act that Act as is the Habit also is an Accident To love a Man as godly or wise or as my King or Teacher is to love him for Accidents that is Godliness Wisdom Authority c. This is Bonum per accidens and yet Bonum per se stating the Object thus without farther Accidents To love him as an Enemy and Persecutor and Silencer of Godly Ministers of Christ is Malum per Accidens and yet Malum per se in respect to farther Accidents To love the Man is not Evil but to love him for his Evil. The Exception here is when we are bound to love the simple Essence as such abstracting from all Accidents The principal Instance is of our love to God of which more anon because God hath no Accidents and therefore is loved meerly as in his Essence And no doubt but God is to be loved as in his Essential perfection But yet we are nono of those that against Pet. Hurtado Mendez and other Nominals will undertake to prove that Relations to the Creatures which are Accidents do not truly belong to God such as that of Creator Owner Ruler Benefactor c. we leave that Task to the Thomists and to other Mens judgements how well they perform it The next Instance is our love to Man as Man and so to other Created Essences which we deny not but add 1. That Man's Relation to God as he sheweth his Maker's perfections is a Relation and that 's it that is to be loved morally in Man at least principally and never left out The same we say of other Essences 2. And the Wisdom Goodness and so the moral amiableness of Man at least the principal is it self an Accident The Word of God and the Worship of God are Accidents But yet we say that the properest Notion of Bonum per se is when we love a thing but specially God himself as in the simple Essence 〈◊〉 a supervening obliging Accident And of malum per 〈◊〉 when God's very Essence is hated or not loved But that any morally hate the very substantial Essence of a Creature we leave others to prove Prop. 16. This holdeth about the very Negative Laws of the Decalogue e. g. To kill a Man is in it self no moral Evil else it were sin to Execute Malefactors and Kings Judges and Souldiers were the most criminal sinners To kill a Man Authoritatively that is a Traytor or Murderer is good that is an Act with its due Mode and Object which are Accidents that make it good And to kill the Innocent or without Authority is sin by this Accident of an undue Mode and Object To take another Mans Goods or Money is not Malum per se for it may be done as a Mulct or by Law on just Cause or for the Publick defence by Authority or by his Consent But to take it without Consent Right or Authority is sin by this Accident So also of the seventh Commandment The Law forbids the Act as Clothed with its undue Accidents The Names of Injustice Coveting Murder Adultery Theft False-witness c. all signifie the Acts with the undue prohibited Accidents One of our Casuists excepteth only Lying as simply per se Evil But he that Lyeth sinneth not because he speaketh those same words but because he speaketh words that in relation to his own mind and to the matter and to the hearers understanding are false and deceitful And that Relative Incongruity of the words is the accident that maketh them sinful Prop. 17. Man passeth his life among such a multitude of accidents and circumstances that it is not one but very many that every one of our actions is Clothed with or concerned in which tend to make it Good or Evil. Prop. 18. A chief distinction here to be observed is between Immutable Duties supposing our own continued Faculties and mutable ones and those things are principally or eminently called Good or Evil per se which are so immutably and no supervenient accident can ever make them otherwise And in the most notable Sense those things are called Good or Evil per accidens which by supervening accidents may be changed from what they were before Pr. 19. That which is thus immutably Good per se is Mans Duty to God himself immediately as he is our Owner Ruler Benefactor and End Considering this Duty not in this or that time but in kind in its season and supposing our Faculties and Con-causes For if a Man should be exercising even Love to God when he is bound to sleep for the support of Nature or if a Man should love God with so passionate an affection as would distract him this as so used is not good but we never knew any in much danger of so over-doing Nor is it a Duty for a Man in Infancy or an Apoplexy or deep sleep c. actually to love fear or trust God and in other such Cases of Impossibility But when possible or in its season it is immutably a Duty Not so rarely as the Jansenist chargeth the Jesuite Casuists to hold once in many Weeks or Months or Years but Love constraining us to its holy Fruits must be the very New
28. and 13. 9. Col. 3. 16. and 4. 6. Eph. 4. 7. 29. and 3. 8. Gal. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 6 7. and 9. 8. Joh. 1. 16. c. II. The words MORALITY and MORAL have also divers significations I. In the first most comprehensive and most famous sense MORALITY as distinguished from meer Naturality or Physicks doth signifie the Relation of the Manners or Acts of an Intelligent free Agent to the Governing Will and Law of God And so Actus morales and Actus humani are used in the same sense and all Morality is distinguished into Moral Good and Moral Evil Virtue and Vice II. Some have used MORALITY in a narrower sense unfitly for so much of Man's duty as is revealed by the meer Law of Nature and as is of common obligation to lapsed Mankind And so it comprehendeth the relicts of the Law of Innocent Nature to love God and obey him c. and the additional Law of Lapsed Nature to Repent and use all possible means for our recovery and thankfully improve the Mercies which we receive And thus it is distinguished from Duty known by supernatural Revelation and especially the Mysteries of Redemption by Jesus Christ III. Some use the word improperly also for all that Duty which is of perpetual Obligation whether by natural or supernatural Revelation And so it is distinguished from Temporary Duties And thus the Lords-Day Baptism the Lords-Supper a Gospel Ministry Scripture to be used discipline are said to be Moral-Positives distinct from meer Natural Duties and from Temporaries IV. Lastly Some yet more unaptly confine the sense to the Duties of our common Conversation towards man as distinct from Holiness or our Duty to God And so they distinguish a meer moral honest man from a godly or religious man Though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common Fuel of vain Contendings yet we being not the Masters of Language must take words as we find them used and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them before they lay any stress on them in disputing In reference to these various senses of these words we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth I As to MORALITY in the first and most famous signification we are agreed 1. That all proper Humane Acts are moral that is morally Good or Evil And all Duty and Sin Virtue and Vice in Habit and Act Positive and Privative Vice are parts of Morality moral Good directly and moral Evil reductively and consequently 2. Holiness to the Lord or the Love of God as God is the chief part of Morality and what Duty soever is Evangelical and spiritual is also moral 3. Nothing is morally laudable or rewardable but Moral Good and nothing is punishable but Moral Evil. 4. All Morality is seated primarily in the Will but is secondarily as flowing thence in the imperate Acts of the Intellect and inferior Faculties 5. All truly moral Good in lapsed man is 1. From God's Efficient Grace 2. And exercised on some Objective Grace And 3. Is it self Subjective Grace either special or common 6. The Good called Moral in Infidels and all other ungodly unsanctified men is such but secundum quid and not simpliciter nor in the full or properest sense Because bonum est ex omnibus Causis essentialibus And a good Principle Rule End and right Object especially the formal Object are all essential to a truly good moral Act But every ungodly man in every Action doth want at least some one of these And an Act is denominated in Morality from that which is prevalent in it and not from every conquered deprest ingredient We say not that he that killeth his Father or Prince with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations doth therein do a good work though that reluctancy was good So he that hath some Love to God and Goodness but more Hatred and more love to sinful pleasure doth not a work properly Good which proceedeth from such a mixed Cause But the evil Principle and End is predominant in all ungodly men 7. But materially and secundum quid bad men may do Works that are morally good and physically very good to others as Governing and Protecting Common-wealths and Churches building Cities and Temples and Hospitals relieving the Poor preaching the Gospel expounding Scripture defending Truth promoting Learning and in good Nature Patience Meekness Temperance Chastity Wit and Industry they may be commendable and exemplary and their Precepts and Practice may conduce much to the good of others 8. Whatever good is found in Heathens or Infidels or ungodly Men is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth it being all from God who must not be robbed of his praise 9. A Man that hath but Common Grace is better than he would be if he had none and it is the usual preparatory for special saving Grace Though many civil temperate persons by overvaluing Common Good are hindred from seeking Special Grace that is not caused by the Good but by their abuse of it objectively And though God take occasion from some mens great sins to affright their Consciences to Repentance and Reformation that is not caused by the sin but by Gods Mercy Sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring nor sin as repented of in repenting but before in the committing God may Convert Paul in the act of Persecuting But Persecuting is not the way or means of Conversion Special Grace must be sought in the use of Common Grace and not in a way of negligence contempt or wilful sin II. Of MORALITY in the second sense as taken for Natural Duties which all Mankind is obliged to by Natural Revelation of God's Will we are agreed as followeth 1. The sum of this Natural Morality or Duty is to love God as God for himself and all things else for him even as being of Him and through Him and to Him to obey God and make it our chief care to please him and therein to place and seek our Happiness even in everlasting mutual love To love others as our selves and do all the good we can to all for Soul and Body especially to the most publick Societies to do justly and as we would be done by to use our Bodies as the Servants of our Souls and Soul and Body as the Servants of God And to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these This Natural Evidence will prove to be the Common Duty of Mankind 2. This Love to God and Man before described is true Holiness that is The Soul's separation and devotedness to God 3. All the Evidence which Nature affordeth us herein is not seen by all men that are of natural Wit or Industry no more than all that is revealed by the Scripture is known to all that read the Scripture or that believe it 4. Holiness is the End of Medicinal Grace as used