A26796:731
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. From hence it appears, that Saving Grace gives no encouragement to the practice of Sin. For the principal aim of our Redeemers Love in dying for us, was to sanctify and cleanse us, by the washing of water and the Word. And accordingly all the Promises of Pardon and Salvation are conditional. The holy Mercy of the Gospel offers Forgiveness only to Penitent Believers, that return from Sin to Obedience: We are commanded to repent and be converted, that our sins may be blotted out, 1in the time of refreshment, from the presence of the Lord. And Heaven is the reward of persevering Obedience: To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, 2seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life. There cannot be the least ground of a rational just Hope in any person without Holiness. Whoever hath this hope in him, purifies himself even as he is pure. 3By which it appears, that the genuine and proper use we are to make of the exceeding great, and precious Promises is, That by them we may be partakers of the Divine Nature, 4and escape the pollution that is in the world through lust. Yet the corrupt hearts of men are so strongly inclined to their lusts, that they turn the Grace of God into wantonness, and make an advantage of Mercy to assist their Security; presuming to sin with less fear and more licence, upon the account of the glorious Revelation of it by our Redeemer. The most live as if they might be saved without being Saints, and enjoy the Paradise of the Flesh here, and not be excluded from that of the Spirit hereafter. But Grace doth not in the least degree authorize ⟨p. 400⟩and favour their Lusts, nor relax the Sinews of Obedience; 'tis perfectly innocent of their unnatural abuse of it. The Poison is not in the Flower, but the Spider. Therefore the Apostle propounds it with indignation, Shall we sin that Grace may abound? God forbid. 5He uses this form of Speech, to express an extreme abhorrency of a thing that is either impious and dishonourable to God, or pernicious and destructive to Men. As when he puts the question, Is God unjust who taketh vengeance? God forbid. And is there iniquity in God?