A39669:1201
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.
How sad is the case of those souls, to whom Christ hath not 1yet been a Physician? They are mortally wounded by sin, and are like to dye of their sickness; no saving healing applications having hitherto been made unto their souls: and this is the case of the greatest part of mankind; yea, of them that live under the discoveries of Christ in the Gospel: which appears by these sad symptoms.
- 1Inference 4.
First, In that their eyes have not yet been opened to see their sin and misery, in which illumination the cure of souls begins, Act. 26. 18. to this day he hath not given them Eyes to see, Deut. 29. 4. but that terrible stroke of God, which blinds and hardens them, is too visibly upon them, mentioned in Isai. 6. 9, 10. no hope of healing till the sinners Eyes be opened to see his sin, and misery.
Secondly, In that nothing will divorce and separate them from their lusts: a sure sign they are not under Christs cure, nor were ever made sick of sin. O if ever Christ be a Physician to thy soul, he will make thee loath what now thou lovest, and say to thy most pleasant and profitable lusts, get ye hence, Isai. 30. 22. till then there is no ground to think that Christ is a Physician to you.