A39660:917
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.
III. Inference.
Thirdly,1 Hence it follows, that no man can be owner of any true comfort till he be in Christ.
- 13. Infer.
Comfort and refreshment in the natural order follow faith; 'tis the vainest imagination in the World to expect solid Spiritual comfort before union with Christ; you may as well expect an harvest before a seed-time. I do confess there are two sorts of comforts found in the World without Christ. (1.) Men may have sensitive and sinful comforts and delights without Christ; these are common in the unregenerate World; where you may daily see rich men taking comfort in their riches; voluptuous men in their pleasures, Jam. 5. 5. You have lived in pleasures upon Earth. But these are the pleasures common to brutes, and beneath the noble immortal spirit of a Man. (2.) Hypocrites have their delights and comforts, in a false imaginary happiness which they fancy to themselves; but this is a vanishing shadow: they take comfort from their groundless hopes of Heaven, whither they shall never come; 'tis a feast in a dream, Isa. 44. 20. Thus they make a bridge of their own shadow, and are drowned in the waters. Such sensitive and false comforts and pleasures Men may have; but no true solid scriptural joy takes place in any mans Heart before Christ come into it.