A26796:640
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.
2. Our Redeemer hath abolished all obligation to the other Rituals of Moses, to introduce that real Righteousness which was signified by them. The carnal Commandments given to the Jews, are called ⟨p. 336⟩Statutes that were not good;1 either in respect of their matter, not being perfective of the humane nature, or their effect: for they brought Death to the disobedient, not Life to the Obedient: the most strict observation of them did not make the performers either better, or more happy. But Christians are dead to these Elements, 2that is, perfectly freed from subjection to them. The Kingdom of God consists not in Meat, and Drink, 3but Righteousness, and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost; for he that in these things serves Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved of Men. We are commanded to purge out the old leaven of Malice, and Wickedness, that sowers and swells the mind, and to keep the feast, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We are obliged to be free from the moral imperfections, the vices and passions, which were represented by the natural qualities of those Creatures which were forbidden to the Jews, and to purify the Heart instead of the frequent washings under the Law. But the Gospel frees us from the intolerable yoke of the legal abstinencies, observations, and disciplines, the amusements of low and servile Spirits, wherewith they would compensate their defects in real Holiness, and exchange the substance of Religion for the shadow and colours of it. For this reason the Apostle is severe against those, who would join the fringes of Moses to the robe of Christ.
2. Our Redeemer hath abolisht all obligation to the other Rituals of Moses, to introduce that real Righteousness which was signified by them. The carnal Commandments given to the Jews, are called ⟨p. 336⟩Statutes that were not good;1 either in respect of their matter, not being perfective of the humane nature, or their effect: for they brought Death to the disobedient, not Life to the Obedient: the most strict observation of them did not make the performers either better, or more happy. But Christians are dead to these Elements,