A39660:1038
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.
VIII. Excellency.
'Tis the Evidence of our Union with Christ, and interest in him. All Union with Christ must evidence its self by a life of communion with him, or our pretensions to it are vain and groundless. There be many of you (I wish there were more) enquiring after evidences and signs of your union with Christ; why, here is an Evidence that can never fail you; do you live in communion with him? May your life be called a walking with God, as Enoch's was? Then you may be sure you have union with him; and this is so sure a sign, as death it self, (which uses to discover the vanity of false signs) will never be able to destroy, 2 Kings 20. 2, 3. Remember now, O Lord, (saith Hezekiah) that I have walked before thee in truth, and in a perfect Heart. O Professors, 'twill be a dreadful thing, (whatever ungrounded hopes, and false comforts you now have) to find them shrinking away from you as certainly they will do at death, and all upon this account; I have been a man of knowledge, I have been frequent in the external duties of Religion, but my heart was not in them; I had no communion with the Lord in them, and now God is a terror to my Soul. I am going to his awful bar, and have not one sound evidence to ⟨p. 428⟩carry a long with me; that's a remarkable place, Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, let us evidence the life of grace in us by exercising that grace in a life of communion with God. When all is said, this is the surest evidence of our union with Christ, and no gifts or performances whatsoever can amount to an evidence of our union with Christ without it.