A26796:112
The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…
The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is showed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is shewed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.
London: printed by J. Darby for Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson and Brabazon Aylmer, 1674
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.
1. Voluntary: All Habits receive their character from those acts by which they are produced, and as the Disobedience of Adam was voluntary, so is the Depravation that sprung from it. 2. 'Tis inherent in the Will. If Adam had derived a Leprosy to all Men, it were an involuntary evil: Because the Diseases of the Body are foreign to the Soul; But when the Corruption invades the internal Faculties, ⟨p. 44⟩'tis denominated from the subject wherein 'tis seated. 3. 'Tis the voluntary cause of actual Sins; and if the acts proceeding from this corruption are voluntary the principle must be of the same nature.
1. Voluntary: All Habits receive their character from those acts by which they are produced, and as the Disobedience of Adam was voluntary, so is the Depravation that sprung from it. 2. 'Tis inherent in the Will. If Adam had derived a Leprosie to all Men, it were an involuntary evil: Because the Diseases of the Body are forreign to the Soul; But when the Corruption invades the internal Faculties, ⟨p. 44⟩'tis denominated from the subject wherein 'tis seated. 3. 'Tis the voluntary cause of actual Sins; and if the acts proceeding from this corruption are voluntary the principle must be of the same nature.
2. 'Tis Culpable. The formality of Sin consists in its opposition to the Law, according to the definition of the Apostle, Sin is a transgression of the Law. Now the Law requires an entire rectitude in all the Faculties. It condemns corrupt inclinations, the originals as well as the acts of Sin. Besides, Concupiscence was not inherent in the humane Nature in its Creation, but was contracted by the Fall. The Soul is stripped of its native Righteousness and Holiness, and is invested with contrary qualities. There is as great a difference between the corruption of the Soul in its degenerate state, and its primitive purity, as between the loathsomeness of a Carcass, and the beauty of a living Body. Sad change! and to be lamented with tears of confusion.