A39669:1475
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 2.
How transcendently glorious is the advancement of Believers by their union with the Lord of Glory! This also is an admirable, 1and astonishing mystery; 'tis the highest dignity of which our nature is capable, to be hypostatically united, and the greatest glory of which our persons are capable to be mystically united to this Lord of Glory; to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. O what is this! Christian dost thou know, and believe all this, and thy heart not burn within thee in love to Christ? O then what a heart hast thou? What art thou by nature, but sinful dust, a loathsome sinner, viler than the vilest Toad, cast out to the loathing of thy person in the day of thy nativity! O that ever the Lord of Glory should unite himself to such a lump of vileness! take such a wretch into his very bosom! Be astonished O Heavens and earth at this; this is the great mystery which the Angels stooped down to look into. Such an honour as this could never have entered into the heart of man: it would have seemed a rude blasphemy in us once to have thought, or spoken of such a thing, had not Christ made the first motion thereof. Yet how long didst thou make this Lord of Glory wait upon thy undetermined will, before he gained thy consent? Might he not justly have spurned thee into Hell upon thy first refusal, and never have made thee such another offer? Wilt thou not say, Lord, what am I, and what is my Fathers house, that so great a King should stoop so far beneath himself to such a worm as I am! That strength should unite it self to weakness, infinite glory to such baseness! O grace, grace, for ever to be admired!
How transcendently glorious is the advancement of Believers by their union with the Lord of Glory! This also is an admirable, 1and astonishing mystery; 'tis the highest dignity of which our nature is capable, to be hypostatically united, and the greatest glory of which our persons are capable to be mystically united to this Lord of Glory; to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. O what is this! Christian dost thou know, and believe all this, and thy heart not burn within thee in love to Christ? O then what a heart hast thou? What art thou by nature, but sinful dust, a loathsom sinner, viler than the vilest Toad, cast out to the loathing of thy person in the day of thy nativity! O that ever the Lord of Glory should unite himself to such a lump of vileness! take such a wretch into his very bosom! Be astonished O Heavens and earth at this; this is the great mystery which the Angels stoopt down to look into. Such an honour as this could never have entred into the heart of man: it would have seemed a rude blasphemy in us once to have thought, or spoken of such a thing, had not Christ made the first motion thereof. Yet how long didst thou make this Lord of Glory wait upon thy undetermined will, before he gained thy consent? Might he not justly have spurned thee into Hell upon thy first refusal, and never have made thee such another offer? Wilt thou not say, Lord, what am I, and what is my Fathers house, that so great a King should stoop so far beneath himself to such a worm as I am! That strength should unite it self to weakness, infinite glory to such baseness! O grace, grace, for ever to be admired!