A39669:2605
The Method of Grace
The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mystery of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mysterie of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...
London: printed by M. White for Francis Tyton, 1681
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.
Sixthly, The greater and clearer the light is, under and against which men continue in sin, the more must the Consciences of such sinners be supposed to be wasted and violated by such a way of sinning: for this is a sure rule, that the 1greatest violation of Conscience is the greatest sin. Conscience is a noble and tender part of the soul of man, it is in the soul as the eye in the body, very sensible of the least injury, and a wound in the Conscience is like a blow in the eye: but nothing gives a greater blow to Conscience, nothing so much wastes it and destroys it as sins against the light do: this puts a plain force upon the Conscience, and gives a dreadful stab to that noble power: Gods vicegerent in the soul. And thus you see the first thing made good, that light puts deep guilt and aggravation into sin.
- 1Maxima violatio conscienti• est maximum peccat•m.
Secondly, In the next place let us examine why sin so aggravated by the light, makes men liable to the greater condemnation: 1for that it doth so is beyond all debate or question, ⟨p. 557⟩else the Apostle Peter would not have said of those sinners against light as he doth, 2 Pet. 2. 21. That it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness: nor would Christ have told the Inhabitants of Chorazin or Bethsaida, that it should be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Judgement than for them. There is a twofold reason of this.
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