A39660:876
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.
First, What Christs coming in to the Soul intends; and in general, I must say, this is a great mystery, which will not be fully understood, till we come to Heaven, John 14. 20. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Then the essential union of Christ and his Father, and the mystical union between believers and Christ will be more clearly understood, than we are capable to understand them in this imperfect state: yet for present so much is discovered as may justly astonish poor sinners at the marvellous condescension of the Lord Jesus to them. More particularly, this expression, I will come in to him, imports no less than his uniting such a Soul to himself; for he comes in with a design to dwell in that Soul by faith, Eph. 3. 17. to make such a man a mystical member of his body, flesh, and bones, Eph. 5. 30. which is the highest honour the Soul of man is capable of; indeed, this coming of Christ into the Soul of a sinner, doth not make him one person with Christ, that is the singular honour to which our nature is advanced by the Hypostatical Union; but this makes a person mystically one with Christ, and though it be beneath the Hypostatical Union, yet it is more than a mere Federal Union. Christs coming into the Soul signifies more than his coming into Covenant with it, for it is the taking of such a person into a mystical Union with himself by the imparting of his Spirit unto him; as the vital sap of the stock coming into the grass, makes it one with the stock, John 15. 5. So the coming of Christs Spirit into the Soul makes it a member of his mystical body; and this is a glorious supernatural work of God, ⟨p. 354⟩1 Cor. 1. 30. most honourable, most comfortable, and for ever sure and indissoluble;1 as I have elsewhere more fully showed.
First, What Christs coming in to the Soul intends; and in general, I must say, this is a great mystery, which will not be fully understood, till we come to Heaven,