A26796:644
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. The Laws of Christ exceed the Rules which the best Masters of Morality in the School of Nature have prescribed for the Government of our Lives. 'Tis true, there are remaining Principles of the Moral Law in the heart of Man; Some warm sparks are still left which the Philosophers laboured to enliven and cherish. Many excellent Precepts of Morality they delivered, either to calm the Affections, and lay the storms in our Breasts, whereby the most men are guilty and miserable, or to regulate the civil Conversation with others. And since the coming of Christ, Prometheus-like,1 they brought their dead Torches to the Sun, and stole some light from the Scriptures. Yet upon searching we shall easily discover, that notwithstanding all their boasts, to purge the Soul from its defilements, contracted by its union with the Body, and to restore it to its primitive Perfection, They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. Although the vulgar Heathens thought them to be guides in the safe way, yet they were Companions with them in their wanderings; And Truth instructs us, that When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch. I will briefly show that their Morals are defective, and mixed with false Rules: only premising three things. 1. That I shall not insist on their Ignorance of our Redeemer, and their Infidelity in respect of those Evangelical Mysteries, that are only discovered ⟨p. 340⟩by Revelation; for that precisely considered, doth not make them guilty before God: But only take notice of their defects in natural Religion, and moral Duties,2 to which the Law written in the heart obliges all Mankind.
2. The Laws of Christ exceed the Rules which the best Masters of Morality in the School of Nature have prescribed for the Government of our Lives. 'Tis true, there are remaining Principles of the Moral Law in the heart of Man; Some warm sparks are still left which the Philosophers laboured to enliven and cherish. Many excellent Precepts of Morality they delivered, either to calm the Affections, and lay the storms in our Breasts, whereby the most men are guilty and miserable, or to regulate the civil Conversation with others. And since the coming of Christ, Prometheus-like,