A39660:460
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.
Here are Men turned out of their Estates, thrown into Prisons, cast upon all extremities and miseries, and what do these poor creatures do? Why (saith he) they cry by reason of their oppression. O my Father, or my Mother, my Wife, my Child, my Estate, my Liberty, but none saith where is my God? O my sin, or my misery by reason of sin; where is he that giveth Songs in the night? The People of God when they lye musing upon their beds under affliction, they have their Songs in the Night, in the midst of the multitude of their troubled thoughts within them, the Comforts of God delight their Souls. Those are their Songs in the Night, but no such word or thought in carnal Men; how plain is it, ⟨p. 138⟩that all the first motions of Salvation have their first spring and rise in God, and not in us. That's the Second thing implied in Christ's knocking.
Thirdly, Christ knocking at the door of the Heart, implies the method of the Spirit in Conversion; to be congruous and agreeable to the nature of Man's Soul; mark Christ's expression in the Text, he doth not say, Behold I come to the door and break it open by violence; no, Christ makes no forcible Entries whether sinners will or no; he will come in by consent of the Will or not at all. I stand and knock, if any Man open the door, I will come in to him. There is a great difference between a friendly admission by consent, and a forcible entrance; in a forcible entrance bars of Iron are brought to break open the door; but in a friendly admission one knocks and the other opens: Forcible actions are unsuitable to the nature of the Will, whose motions are free and spontaneous; therefore it is said, Psal. 110. 3. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power. 'Tis true, the Power of God is upon the Will of Man in the day of his Conversion, or else it would never open to Christ; but yet that Power of God doth not act against the freedom of Man's Will, by co-action and force; no, but of unwilling he makes it willing; taking away the obstinacy and reluctancy of the Will by the efficacy of his Grace, which some Divines call victrix delectatio, a sweet and pleasant victory; and so the door of the Will still opens freely,