A39669:1510
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.
First, That the matter thereof be some spiritual, eminent and durable good: else our consolation in it, will be but as the crackling of Thorns under a Pot; a sudden blaze, quickly extinct with the failing matter: Christ only gives the matter of solid, durable Consolation: The righteousness of Christ, the pardon of sin, the favour of God, the hopes of glory, are the substantial materials of a Believers Consolation, Rom. 5. 2. Mat. 9. 2. Psal. 4. 6, 7. 2 Pet. 1. 8. Things are as their foundations be.
Secondly, Interest and propriety in these comfortable things, is requisite to our consolation by them, Luke 1. 47. My Spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour. 'Tis no consolation to him that is hungry, to see a Feast; to him that is poor, to see a Treasure; if the one may not taste, or the other partake thereof.
Secondly, Interest and propriety in these comfortable things, is requisite to our consolation by them, Luke 1. 47. My Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour. 'Tis no consolation to him that is hungry, to see a Feast; to him that is poor, to see a Treasure; if the one may not taste, or the other partake thereof.
Thirdly, Knowledge, and evidence of interest in some degree is requisite to actual consolation, though without it a man may be in the state of consolation: for that which appears not, is (in point of actual comfort) as if it were not.