A27004:891
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.
39. It is the gratifying of the malicious Tempter, the enemy of God and of our souls; the doing his will, and receiving his image instead of God's.
40. And all this is done voluntarily, without constraint, by a rational free-agent, in the open light, and for a thing of nought. Besides what Christians only can discern, all this the light of Nature doth reveal to be in the malignity of sin.
§. 8. Sin being certainly no better a thing than is here described, it is most certain that it deserveth punishment.
§. 9. And reason telleth us, 1that God being the Governor of the world, and perfect Government being his perfect work and glory in that relation, it is not meet that in such a Divine and perfect Government so odious an evil be put up, and such contempt of God and all that is good be past by without such execution of his Laws as is sufficient to demonstrate the justice of the Governor, and to vindicate his Laws and authority from contempt: nor that it be pardoned on any terms, but such as shall sufficiently attain the ends of perfect Government.