A39669:1250
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, They derive their value as well as nature from Christ: for how little, I pray you, doth it signify to any man to be rich, honourable, politic, and successful in all his designs in the world; if after all, he must lye down in Hell?
Secondly, They derive their value as well as nature from Christ: for how little, I pray you, doth it signifie to any man to be rich, honourable, politick, and successfull in all his designs in the world; if after all, he must lye down in Hell?
Thirdly, All other mercies derive their sweetness from Christ, and are but insipid things without him. There is a twofold sweetness in things; one natural, another spiritual: those that are out of Christ can relish the first, Believers only relish both: they have the natural sweetness that is in the mercy it self, and a sweetness supernatural from Christ and the Covenant, the way in which they receive them. Hence it is that some men taste more spiritual sweetness in their daily bread, than others do in the Lords Supper: one and the same mercy by this means becomes a feast to soul and body at once.
Fourthly, All mercies have their duration and perpetuity from Christ: all Christless persons hold their mercies upon ⟨p. 236⟩the greatest contingencies and terms of uncertainty: if they be continued during this life, that's all: there is not a drop of mercy after death; but the mercies of the Saints are continued to eternity: the end of their mercies on earth, is the beginning of their better mercies in Heaven. There is a twofold end of mercies, one perfective, another destructive: the death of the Saints perfects and completes their mercies; the death of the wicked destroys and cuts off their mercies: for these reasons Christ is called the mercy.