A26796:405
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.
II. The Life of Adam was attended with innocent infirmities. For the body being composed of the same principles with other sensitive creatures, 'twas liable to hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and was to be repaired by food and sleep. Adam was made a living Soul, therefore subject to those inclinations and necessities which are purely animal.1 And although whilst innocent, no disease could seize on him, yet he was capable of hurtful impressions: though he should have been preserved from death, yet he was perishable. His life was in a perpetual flux: 'twas Immortal not merely from the temperament of his Body, but to be sustained by the power of God in the use of means. From hence it follows that Adam in his natural state▪ was not capable of the vision of God. Heaven is too pure an Air for him to have lived in. The Glory of it is inconsistent with such a tempered Body. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. 2The faculties would be confounded with its overcoming brightness. Till the sensitive powers ⟨p. 203⟩are refined, and exalted to that degree that they become spiritual, they cannot converse with glorified objects. Now the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with Celestial qualities. The Natural shall be changed into a Spiritual body, and be preserved as the Angels by the sole virtue of the quickening Spirit. The life above shall flourish in its full vigour, without any other support, than the Divine power that first created it. And as the body shall be spiritual, so truly immortal, and free from all corruptive change; as the Sun which for so many ages hath shined with an equal brightness to the World, and hath a durable fullness of light in it. In this respect the Children of the Resurrection, 3are equal to the Angels, who being pure Spirits, do not marry to perpetuate their kind, for they never die. And the glorified body shall be clothed with a more Divine beauty in the Resurrection, than Adam had in the Creation. The glory of the second Temple shall excel that of the first. In short,4