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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61628	Six sermons with a discourse annexed, concerning the true reason of the suffering of Christ, wherein Crellius his answer to Grotius is considered / by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1669 (1669)	Wing S5669; ESTC R19950	271,983	606

reconciled then there was no need for Christ to dye to reconcile God and us but withal actual Reconciliation implies pardon of sin and if sin were actually pardoned before Christ came there could be no need of his coming at all and sins would have been pardon'd before committed if they were not pardoned notwithstanding that love of God then it can imply no more but that God was willing to be reconciled If therefore the not-remission of sins were consistent with that love of God by which he sent Christ into the world then notwithstanding that he was yet capable of being reconciled by his death So that our Adversaries are bound to reconcile that love of God with not presently pardoning the sins of the world as we are to reconcile it with the ends of the death of Christ which are asserted by us To the other Objection Concerning the inconsistency of the Freeness of Gods Grace with the Doctrine of Satisfaction I answer Either Gods Grace is so free as to exclude all conditions or not If it be so free as to exclude all conditions than the highest Antinomianism is the truest Doctrine for that is the highest degree of the Freeness of Grace which admits of no conditions at all If our Adversaries say That the Freeness of Grace is consistent with Conditions required on our part Why shall it not admit of conditions on Gods part especially when the condition required tends so highly to the end of Gods governing the world in the manifestation of his hatred against sin and the vindication of the honour of his Laws by the Sufferings of the Son of God in our stead as an Expiatory Sacrifice for our sins There are two things to be considered in sin the dishonor done to God by the breach of his Laws and the injury men do to themselves by it now remission of sins that respects the injury which men bring upon themselves by it and that is Free when the penalty is wholly forgiven as we assert it is by the Gospell to all penitent sinners but shall not God be free to vindicate his own Honor and to declare his righteousness to the world while he is the Justifier of them that believe Shall men in case of Defamation be bound to vindicate themselves though they freely forgive the Authors of the slander by our Adversaries own Doctrine and must it be repugnant to Gods Grace to admit of a Propitiatory Sacrifice that the world may understand that it is no such easie thing to obtain pardon of sin committed against God but that as often as they consider the bitter Sufferings of Christ in order to the obtaining the forgiveness of our sins that should be the greatest Argument to disswade them from the practice of them But why should it be more inconsistent with the Sacrifice of Christ for God freely to pardon sin than it was ever presumed to be in all the Sacrifices of either Jews of Gentiles who all supposed Sacrifices necessary in order to Atonement and yet thought themselves obliged to the goodness of God in the Remission of their sins Nay we find that God himself in the case of Abimelech appointed Abraham to pray for him in order to his pardon And will any one say this was a derogation to the grace of God in his pardon Or to the pardon of Jobs Friends because Job was appointed to sacrifice for them Or to the pardon of the Israelites because God out of his kindness to them directed them by the Prophets and appointed the means in order to it But although God appointed our High-Priest for us and out of his great love sent him into the world yet his Sacrifice was not what was given him but what he freely underwent himself he gave us Christ but Christ offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the world Thus Sir I have now given you a larger account of what I then more briefly discoursed of concerning the true Reason of the Sufferings of Christ and heartily wishing you a right understanding in all things and requesting from you an impartial consideration of what I have written I am SIR Your c. E. S. Jan. 6. 1668 9 FINIS Books printed for Henry Mortlock at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall A Rational account of the grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterburies relation of a Conference and from the pretended Answer by T. C. wherein the true grounds of Faith are cleared and the false discovered the Church of England Vindicated from the Imputation of the Schism and the most important Controversies between us and the Church of Rome throughly examined Origines Sacrae or a Rational account of the grounds of Christian Faith as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures and the matters therein contained Irenicum A Weapon-Salve for the Churches wounds All three by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Knowledge and Practice or a plain Discourse of the chief things necessary to be known believed and practiced in order to Salvation By S. Cradoc● The Being and Well-being of a Christian in three Treatises The first setting forth the property of the Righteous The second the Excellency of Grace The third the Nature and Sweetness of Fellowship with Christ. By Edward Reyner The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks Translated out of French into English By Charles Cotton Esq. Jam. 2. 1. Luke 17. 28 29. Hv 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de bell Jud. l. 7. c. 14. Jude 7. Tacit. An. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xiphil in Epit. Dion in Tito p. 227. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodian in Com●od hist. l. 1. p. 22. v. Xiphil ad fin Commodi Niceph. l. 15. c. 21. Evagr. l. 2. cap. 13. 〈◊〉 Baron Tom. 5. A. 465. 1. Hieron in loc Gildas de Excid Brit. Scipio apud Aug. de Civ D. l. 1. c. 33. Cicer. pro Flacco Hab. 2. 11. Isa. 47. 7 8. 11. Zeph 1. 13 14 15. Amos 3. 6. Lact. l. 2. c. 11. Rev. 9. 20. 1 King 4. 29 30 31. 1 Joh. 4. 4 Nicol. Damascen de moribus gent. p. 9. Ed. Cragii Geta in Appiano Herod Thal. v. Synes de laude Calvitii p. 77. Tit. 2. 12. Tacit. de moribus German Gal. 6. 7. Eph. 5. 6. Luke 3. 5 6. Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. Titus 2. 12. Rom 5. 1. Rom. 10. 3. Rom. 3. 27. Gal. 3. 10. Rom. 3. 29. Mat. 11. 23. Heb. 10. 28 29. Mark 4. 19. Matth. 5. 3. V. 4. V. 5. V. 6. V. 7. V. 8. V. 9. V. 10 11 12. V. Lud. Viv. ad S. Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 19. c. 1. Mat. 25. 41. Mark 9 44. 1 Thess. 1. 10. 2 Thess. 1. 9. Matth. 10. 28. 2 Cor. 4. 17. Rev. 7. 14. Heb. 10. 27. Gal. 6. 7 8. Heb. 2. 10. 1 John 11. Matth. 13. 55 56. John 3. 2. Mat. 11. 21. Luk. 22. 44. Mat. 26. 39. Isa. 53. 4. 5. Mat. 26. 38.

Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will So that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost falling upon the Apostles and the many signs and wonders which were wrought by them were the great testimony of God to the world that these were the persons imploy'd by himself to declare that Doctrine whereon the eternal salvation of Mankinde did depend And since we have so lately acknowledg'd the truth of this testimony which God gave to the Apostles by the solemn celebration of that glorious descent of the Holy Ghost upon them on the day of Pentecost that which naturally follows from it is the great care we ought to take lest we be found guilty of neglecting that great salvation which is offered to us in that Doctrine which was attested in so eminent a manner by God himself and that from the consideration of our own danger for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation wherein are three things considerable 1. The care God hath taken to make us happy by offering so great salvation to us 2. The care we ought to take in order to our own happiness not to neglect the offers which God hath made us 3. The unavoidable punishment which those do incurre who are guilty of this neglect How shall we escape I need not tell this Auditory how forcible the Negative is which is expressed by such an interrogation which appeals to the judgement of all who hear it and so relyes not upon the bare authority of the speaker but upon the plain evidence of the thing which others were judges of as well as himself As though he had said if you slight and disesteem the Gospel of Christ upon whatever grounds ye do it if either through too great an opinion of the wisdom of this world you despise it as vain and useless if through too mean an opinion of the excellency of Christianity you reject it either as uncertain in its Theory or impossible in its practise or if through too great a love of the pleasures of sin or a secure and careless temper of minde you regard not the doing what Christianity requires to make you happy think with your selves what way you can finde to escape the wrath of God for my part I know of none for if God were so severe against the violation of a far meaner institution viz. of the Law of Moses insomuch that every contempt and disobedience did receive a just recompence of reward how shall we escape who neglect so great salvation or as the Apostle elsewhere argues to the same purpose He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace This is a sad subject but I am afraid too necessary to be spoken to in the Age we live in wherein men seem to be inapprehensive of the danger of inwardly despising the Religion they profess to own and the neglecting of that which they hope to be saved by It is strange that it should be so but much more strange that men should think to do so and not be call'd to an account for it It is not only the gross and open sinner that desies Heaven and by his oaths and blasphemies dares God to shew his Power and Justice upon him but the slye and self-deceiving hypocrite that hates Religion while he thinks he loves it that in his heart contemns it but is afraid to know that he does so that ought to be possess'd with a truer sense of Religion and a greater dread of the issue of the contempt or neglect of it There is some appearance of ingenuity in an open enmity but none so dangerous as that which hides it self under the disguise of friendship In our Saviours time there were several sorts of those who shewed their disesteem of him some that were so enraged against him that they contrive all wayes for his disgrace and punishment others could hear him with patience but the cares of this World the deceitfulness of Riches and the lust of other things choaked and stifled all good apprehensions of him that they became weak and ineffectual And those were guilty of making light of the marriage-feast because of other business which they had to minde Matth. 22. 5. as well as those who offered all the injuries and affronts to his servants that invited them v. 6. And as it was in the dayes of our Saviour so it is now some were eating and drinking minding nothing but the vain and sensual pleasures of the world some were buying and selling so busie in this world that they had no leisure to think of being happy in another some were deriding and blaspheming but all these too wise or too vain or too profane to minde the offers of eternal salvation I wish we could say it were otherwise now that a sensual and voluptuous an easie and a careless life in some that ambition and the restless pursuit after the honour and riches of the world in others that a profane wit and a contempt of all that is serious in those that think themselves too great to be Religious did not enervate the force of Christianity upon their minds and make them all though upon different grounds agree in the neglect of their own salvation But is the case of such men grown so desperate that no remedy can work upon them hath the love of sin and the world so far intoxicated them that no reason or consideration whatever can awaken them have they hardened themselves against all the power of divine Truths with a resolution as strong as death and as cruel as the grave whither they are going Will neither the love of happiness nor the fear of misery their own interest and the wisdom of avoiding so great a danger the dread of the Majesty and Power of God and the horror of the great day prevail at least so far on men to consider whether these things be true or no and if they be what unspeakable solly it is to neglect them And the better to make that appear I shall prove these following things 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens happiness that nothing but a gross neglect can make them miserable 2. That nothing can be more unreasonable than when God hath taken so much care of it men should neglect it themselves 3. That it is very just for God to vindicate himself against so gross a neglect by the severe punishments of the life to come 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens salvation that nothing but a gross neglect can make them