A39669:1097
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.
Inference 5.
How sweet and unspeakably relieving is the closing of a burdened 1soul with Jesus Christ by faith! 'Tis rest to the weary soul.
- 1Inference 5.
Soul troubles are spending and wasting troubles. The pains of a distressed conscience are the most acute pains. A poor soul would fain be at rest, but knows not where: he tries this duty and that, but finds none: at last he falls into the way of believing; he casts himself with his burden of guilt and fear upon Christ, and there is the rest his soul desired. Christ and rest come together: till faith bring you to the bosom of Jesus, you can find no true rest; the soul is rolling and tossing, sick and weary upon the billows of its own guilt and fears. Now the soul is come like a Ship tossed with storms and tempests, out of a raging Ocean into the quiet harbour, or like a lost Sheep that hath been wandering in weariness, hunger and danger, into the fold. Is a soft bed in a quiet chamber sweet to one that is spent and tired with travel? Is the sight of a shore sweet to the shipwrecked Mariner that looks for nothing but death? much more sweet is ⟨p. 204⟩Christ to a soul that comes to him pressed in conscience, and broken in spirit under the sinking weight of sin.
Soul troubles are spending and wasting troubles. The pains of a distressed conscience are the most acute pains. A poor soul would fain be at rest, but knows not where: he tryes this duty and that, but finds none: at last he falls into the way of believing; he casts himself with his burden of guilt and fear upon Christ, and there is the rest his soul desired. Christ and rest come together: till faith bring you to the bosome of Jesus, you can find no true rest; the soul is rolling and tossing, sick and weary upon the billows of its own guilt and fears. Now the soul is come like a Ship tossed with storms and tempests, out of a raging Ocean into the quiet harbour, or like a lost Sheep that hath been wandring in weariness, hunger and danger, into the fold. Is a soft bed in a quiet chamber sweet to one that is spent and tired with travel? Is the sight of a shoar sweet to the shipwrackt Mariner that looks for nothing but death? much more sweet is