A39669:1127
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 1.
Is there rest in Christ for weary souls that come unto him, Then certainly it's a design of Satan against the peace and welfare 1of mens souls to discourage them from coming to Christ in the way of faith.
- 1Inference 1.
He is a restless spirit himself, and would make us so too: it is an excellent note of Minutius Felix, Those desperate 1and restless Spirits (saith he) have no other pleasure, but in bringing us to the same misery themselves are in: he goeth about as a roaring Lyon, seeking whom he may devour. It frets and grates his proud and envious mind to see others find rest, when he can find none: an effectual Plaster applied to heal our wound, when his own must bleed to eternity: and he obtains his end fully, if he can but keep off souls from Christ: look therefore upon all those objections and discouragements raised in your hearts against coming to Christ, as so many Artifices and cunning Devices of the Devil to destroy ⟨p. 212⟩and ruin your souls. 'Tis true, they have a very specious and colourable appearance, they are gilded over with pretences of the Justice of God, the heinous nature of sin; the want of due and befitting qualifications for so holy and pure a God: the lapsing of the reason of mercy, and an hundred other of like nature: but I beseech you lay down this as a sure conclusion, and hold it fast; that whatever it be that discourages and hinders you from coming to Christ, is directly against the interest of your souls, and the hand of the Divil is certainly in it.