A39669:1120
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.
Secondly, The soul of a convinced sinner is exceedingly 1burdened with the uncleanness and filthiness wherewith sin hath defiled and polluted it. Conviction discovers the universal pollution of heart and life, so that a man loathes and abhors himself by reason thereof: If he do not look into his own corruptions, he cannot be safe: and if he do, he cannot bear the sight of it; he hath no quiet: Nothing can give rest, but what gives relief against this evil. And this only is done by faith uniting the soul with Jesus Christ. For though it be true, that the pollution of sin be not presently and perfectly taken away by coming to Christ; yet the burden thereof is exceedingly eased: for upon our believing, there is an heart-purifying principle planted into the soul, which doth by degrees cleanse that fountain of corruption, and will at last perfectly free the soul from it, Acts 15. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith: and being once in Christ, he is concerned for the soul, as a member now of his own mystical body to purify and cleanse it, that at last he may present it perfect to the Father without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, Eph. 5. 26. The reigning power of it is gone immediately upon believing, and the very existence and being of it shall at last be destroyed. O what rest must this give under those troubles for sin?
Secondly, The soul of a convinced sinner is exceedingly 1burdened with the uncleanness and filthiness wherewith sin hath defiled and polluted it. Conviction discovers the universal pollution of heart and life, so that a man loaths and abhorrs himself by reason thereof: If he do not look into his own corruptions, he cannot be safe: and if he do, he cannot bear the sight of it; he hath no quiet: Nothing can give rest, but what gives relief against this evil. And this only is done by faith uniting the soul with Jesus Christ. For though it be true, that the pollution of sin be not presently and perfectly taken away by coming to Christ; yet the burden thereof is exceedingly eased: for upon our believing, there is an heart-purifying principle planted into the soul, which doth by degrees cleanse that fountain of corruption, and will at last perfectly free the soul from it,