A39660:10
Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20
Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20 : wherein is opened the admirable condescension and patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate sinners, the wretched state of the unconverted, the nature of evangelical faith ..., the riches of free grace in the offers of Christ ..., the invaluable privileges of union and communion granted to all who receive him ... / by John Flavell ...Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20 : wherein is opened the admirable condescension and patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate sinners, the wretched state of the unconverted, the nature of evangelical faith ..., the riches of free grace in the offers of Christ ..., the invaluable priviledges of union and communion granted to all who receive him ... / by John Flavell ...
London: printed for Matthew Wotton, 1689
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.
Candid Reader,
THE following Discourse comes to thy hand in that Native plainness wherein it was Preached. I was conscientiously unwilling to alter it, because I found by experience, the Lord had blessed and prospered it in that dress, far beyond any other composures on which I had bestowed more pains. Let it not be censured, as vanity or ostentation, that I here acknowledge the goodness of God in leading me to, and blessing my poor Labours upon this Subject: Who, and what am I, that I should be continued, ⟨image 3⟩and again employed in the Lords Harvest, and that with success and encouragement; when so many of my Brethren, with their much richer Furnitures of Gifts and Graces, have, in my time, been called out of the Vineyard, and are now silent in the Grave! 'Tis true, they enjoy what I do not; and 'tis as true, I am capable of doing some Services for God which they are not. In Preaching these Sermons I had many occasions to reflect upon the mystical sense of that Scripture, Amos 9. 13. The Plough-man shall overtake the Reaper, and the Treader of Grapes, him that soweth Seed. Sowing and Reaping time trod so close upon one another, that (in all humility I speak it to the praise of God) it was the busiest and blessedst time I ever saw, since I first Preached the Gospel.
THE following Discourse comes to thy hand in that Native plainness wherein it was Preached. I was conscienciously unwilling to alter it, because I found by experience, the Lord had blessed and prosper'd it in that dress, far beyond any other composures on which I had bestowed more pains. Let it not be censured, as vanity or ostentation, that I here acknowledge the goodness of God in leading me to, and blessing my poor Labours upon this Subject: Who, and what am I, that I should be continued, ⟨image 3⟩and again employed in the Lords Harvest, and that with success and encouragment; when so many of my Brethren, with their much richer Furnitures of Gifts and Graces, have, in my time, been called out of the Vineyard, and are now silent in the Grave! 'Tis true, they enjoy what I do not; and 'tis as true, I am capable of doing some Services for God which they are not. In Preaching these Sermons I had many occasions to reflect upon the mystical sense of that Scripture,