A39660:475
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.
II. As God makes use of the Hammer of Judgments, so he makes use also of Mercies to make way for Christ into the Hearts of Men. Every Mercy is a call, a knock of God, and truly if there be any ingenuity left unextinguished in the Heart, one would think Mercy should prevail more than all the Judgments in the World, Rom. 2. 4. Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? q. d. Dost thou not see the Hand of Mercy stretched out to lead thee into a corner, there to mourn over thy sins committed against so gracious and merciful a God? By every Mercy you receive, Christ doth as it were •ee you to open your Hearts to him; they are so many gifts sent from Heaven to make way for Christ into your Hearts. It would be an endless task to enumerate all the Mercies bestowed to this end upon the unregenerate; but surely this is the errand of them all; and the Lord takes it very ill when his end is not answered in them; hence ⟨p. 148⟩is that complaint, Jer. 5. 24. Neither say they in their Heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth us rain, both the former and the latter in his season. Some of you have been marvellously preserved in times of common Contagion and Death, when thousands have fallen at your right hand and left: then have you been preserved or recovered, according to that, Exod. 15. 26. I will put none of those Diseases upon thee, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am Jehovah Rophe, the Lord the Physician; many of you have been at the Graves mouth, in many Diseases; others upon the Deeps, yet the Hand of Mercy pulled you back and suffered you not to drop into the Grave and Hell in the same moment. O what a knock was here given by the Hand of Mercy at thy hard Heart! Certainly if Men would but observe, they might see a strange, marvellous working and moulding of things by the Hand of providence, for the production of thousands of Mercies for them; and if Mercy would do the work, and win you over to Christ, many rods had been spared, which your obstinacy hath made necessary. O ungrateful sinners! Doth your Redeemer thus woo and fee you by so many gifts of Mercy, and yet will you shut him out? Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? For which of all his benefits do your ungrateful Souls shut the door upon him?