A26786:229
The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…
The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in several discourses / by William Bates.
London: printed for Brabazon Aylmer, 1691
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.
This will appear by considering,
1. The end of the Sanction is to preserve the Authority of the Law in its full vigour, to render it most solemn and awful; and consequently 'tis the wisdom of the Law-giver, to ordain a Punishment so heavy, as to overpoise ⟨p. 174⟩all Temptations that might otherwise induce the Subjects to transgress its Precepts.
Therefore to Adam, the first and second Death was threatened upon his Disobedience; and Fear, as a Sentinel, was planted in his Breast, that no guilty Thought, no irregular Desire, no deceitful Suggestion should enter to break the Tables of the Law deposited therein. Now since, notwithstanding the threatening, Man was so easily seduced by the insinuations of the Tempter to break the Law, and disorder the Government of God in the World, 'tis evident that such a Restraint was not over-rigorous to secure his Obedience. I shall not insist on what is sadly visible since the first Apostasy, that there is in Mankind such a prodigious propensity to sensual things, that without the fear of Hell, no Arguments are strong enough to prevent the bold violation of the Divine Law.
Therefore to Adam, the first and second Death was threatned upon his Disobedience; and Fear, as a Sentinel, was planted in his Breast, that no guilty Thought, no irregular Desire, no deceitful Suggestion should enter to break the Tables of the Law deposited therein. Now since, notwithstanding the threatning, Man was so easily seduced by the insinuations of the Tempter to break the Law, and disorder the Government of God in the World, 'tis evident that such a Restraint was not over-rigorous to secure his Obedience. I shall not insist on what is sadly visible since the first Apostacy, that there is in Mankind such a prodigious propensity to sensual things, that without the fear of Hell, no Arguments are strong enough to prevent the bold violation of the Divine Law.