A26796:79
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.
5. Unaccountable and amazing Folly. What a despicable acquisition tempted him out of Happiness? If there had been any possible comparison between them, the choice had been more excusable. But that the pleasures of Taste and Curiosity should outvie the favour of God, which is better than Life, that the most pernicious evil, gilded with the thin appearance of good, should be preferred before the substantial and supreme Good, is the reproach of his Reason, and makes the choice so criminal. And what less than voluntary Madness could incline him to desire that, which he ought infinitely to have feared, that is, the knowledge of evil: for nothing could destroy his Happiness, but the experience of Evil. What but a wilful distraction could induce him to believe that by defacing God's image, he should become more like him? Thus Man being ⟨p. 28⟩in honour, 1but without understanding, became like the beasts that perish.
5. Unaccountable and amazing Folly. What a despicable acquisition tempted him out of Happiness? If there had been any possible comparison between them, the choice had been more excusable. But that the pleasures of Taste and Curiosity should outvie the favour of God, which is better than Life, that the most pernicious evil, guilded with the thin appearance of good, should be preferr'd before the substantial and supreme Good, is the reproach of his Reason, and makes the choice so criminal. And what less than voluntary Madness could encline him to desire that, which he ought infinitely to have fear'd, that is, the knowledg of evil: for nothing could destroy his Happiness, but the experience of Evil. What but a wilful distraction could induce him to believe that by defacing God's image, he should become more like him? Thus Man being ⟨p. 28⟩in honour, 1but without understanding, became like the beasts that perish.