A27004:1257
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
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.
§. 10. When God in mercy would forgive and save a sinful people, it was very congruous to reason, that there should be some fit means provided, to demonstrate his holiness in his justice, and to vindicate the honour of his Laws and Government, and so to secure the ends of both.
For if God make a penal Law and execute it not, but let man sin with impunity, and do nothing which may deter him, nor demonstrate his Justice, as much as the sinners sufferings would do, it would tell the world, that he that gave them the Law, and thereby told them, that he would rule and judge them by it, did but deceive them, and meant not as he spake: And it would bring both the Law and Governor into contempt, and persuade men to sin without any ⟨p. 254⟩fear: and he that was questioned for the second crime, would say, I ventured, because I suffered not for the first. It was the devils first way of tempting men to sin, to persuade mankind that God meant not as he spake in his threatening of their death, but that they should not die, though God had threatened it. And if God himself should by his actions say the same, it would tempt them more to sin than Satan could, as his credibility is greater. Therefore he that is a Governor must be just as well as merciful; and if God should have pardoned sinners, without such a sacrifice or substitute means, as might preserve the honour of his Law and Government, and the future innocency of his Subjects, as well as their punishment in the full sense of the Law would have done, the consequents would have been such, as I will leave to your own judgements.
For if God make a penal Law and execute it not, but let man sin with impunity, and do nothing which may deter him, nor demonstrate his Justice, as much as the sinners sufferings would do, it would tell the world, that he that gave them the Law, and thereby told them, that he would rule and judge them by it, did but deceive them, and meant not as he spake: And it would bring both the Law and Governour into contempt, and perswade men to sin without any ⟨p. 254⟩