A25294:99
The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easy draught of the Christian…The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian…
The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easy draught of the Christian catechism in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy labourer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian catechisme in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy laborer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...
London: printed by T. Mabb for Thomas Davies, 1659
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Reas. 1. Because God made man upright and after his own image; that is, not only free from all sin (which may in some sort also be said of all other Creatures) but also adorned him with all those endowments and faculties, whereby Gods nature might, as it were in a portrait be expressed and represented; and by help whereof in keeping of the law, he might have attained unto a certain sort of divine blessedness or felicity. For as there is no fault in a portrait, so it be well drawn or made by a perfect workman, unless the fault be in the Original, from whence the portrait is taken: so also no fault could be in man created according to Gods Image, and that by God himself, unless some fault be attributed to God himself, whose Image man is.
Reas. 1. Because God made man upright and after his own image; that is, not onely free from all sin (which may in some sort also be said of all other Creatures) but also adorned him with all those endowments and faculties, whereby Gods nature might, as it were in a pourtrait be expressed and represented; and by help whereof in keeping of the law, he might have attained unto a certain sort of divine blessedness or felicity. For as there is no fault in a pourtrait, so it be well drawn or made by a perfect workman, unless the fault be in the Original, from whence the pourtait is taken: so also no fault could be in man created according to Gods Image, and that by God himself, unlesse some fault be attributed to God himself, whose Image man is.
Reas. 2. Is, because God did not only prescribe a law unto man in the Creation, but also engraved it upon his heart; by which means it was, that man had in himself a most certain Testimony of his uprightness, in which and to which, he was created, and withal a most sufficient and ready means of living well and unblameably to God: For the law of God perfectly & purely written in the heart of man, is as it were a solemn Testimony registered in a Table or Book, that man was made fit and able to keep that Law. It is as it were the voice of God sent down from Heaven, whereby man was called and stirred up to observe that way of living, which is taught thereby.
Reas. 2. Is, because God did not onely prescribe a law unto man in the Creation, but also engraved it upon his heart; by which means it was, that man had in himself a most certain Testimony of his uprightness, in which and to which, he was created, and withall a most sufficient and ready means of living well and unblameably to God: For the law of God perfectly & purely written in the heart of man, is as it were a solemn Testimony registred in a Table or Book, that man was made fit and able to keep that Law. It is as it were the voice of God sent down from Heaven, whereby man was called and stirred up to observe that way of living, which is taught thereby.