A39669:1022
The Method of Grace
The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mystery of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mysterie of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...
London: printed by M. White for Francis Tyton, 1681
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.
O if sin upon the soul that's coming to Christ for deliverance be so burdensome, what is it upon the soul that is shut out from Christ, and all hopes of deliverance for ever! For do but ponder these differences betwixt these two burdens.
First, No soul is so capacious now, to take in the fullness of the evil and misery of sin, as they are, who are gone down to the place of torments. Even as the joys of Gods face ⟨p. 188⟩above are much unknown to them that have the foretastes and first-fruits of them here by faith; so the misery of the damned is much unknown, even to them that have in their consciences now the bitterest taste and sense of sin in this world: as we have the visions of heaven, so we have the visions of hell also but darkly through a glass.
First, No soul is so capacious now, to take in the fulness of the evil and misery of sin, as they are, who are gone down to the place of torments. Even as the joyes of Gods face ⟨p. 188⟩above are much unknown to them that have the foretastes and first-fruits of them here by faith; so the misery of the damned is much unknown, even to them that have in their consciences now the bitterest taste and sense of sin in this world: as we have the visions of heaven, so we have the visions of hell also but darkly through a glass.
Secondly, No burden of sin presseth so continually upon the soul here, as it doth there: afflicted souls on earth have intermissions and breathing times; but in hell there are no Lucid intervals: the wrath of God there is still flowing: it is in fluxu continu•,