A39660:459
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.
2ly. The next thing implied in this action of Christ is this, That the first motions towards the recovery and Salvation of sinners begin not in themselves, but in Christ. We never knock at Heavens door by Prayer till Christ hath first knocked at our doors by his Spirit: Did not Christ move first, there would be no motions after him in our Hearts; we move towards him, because he hath first moved upon our Souls. Christ might sit long enough unsought and undesired, did he not make the first motion. All our motions are secondary and consequential motions, Isa. 65. 1. I am found of them that sought me not. As we love him because he first loved us, so we seek after him, because he first sought us. Alas, poor sinners are as well satisfied as any people in the World can be, to lye fast asleep in the Devil's Arms. When the Spirit of God goes forth with the Word of Conviction, he finds the Souls of Men in the very same posture which the Angels, that had surveyed the World, reported the whole Earth to be in, Zach. 1. 11. Behold all the Earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Every Man settled and satisfied in his own way; what a strange stillness, and midnight silence is there amongst sinners? Not a sigh, not a cry to be heard for sin: So the Psalmist, Psal. 14. 2. represents the case of sinners, The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men, to see if ⟨p. 137⟩there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, &c. There is one thing that is admirably strange in this case, that even those Men and Women whose Rattles of earthly pleasures and delights, which brought them into this sleep and security, are taken away from them by the Hand of Providence, I mean their Estates, Health, Children, &c. yet they awake not; there are no stirrings after God. O what a dead sleep hath sin cast the Souls of sinners into! You have a notable Scripture to this purpose, in Job 35. 9. 10. they are the words of Elihu, concerning Men and Women under grievous oppression; persons squeezed and ground by the cruel Hands of wicked Men, by reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry; they cry out by reason of the Arm of the Mighty, but none saith, where is God my Maker who giveth songs in the night? i. e. Succour, Comfort and Refreshment to the afflicted.