A39669:1524
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.
Fourthly, Are outward afflictions matter of dejection, and trouble? Alas, who finds them not to be so? How do our hearts fail, and our spirits sink under the many smarting rods of God upon us! but our relief and consolation under them all, is in Christ Jesus: for the rod that afflicts us is in the hand ⟨p. 292⟩of Christ that loveth us, Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten: his design in affliction is our profit, Heb. 12. 10. That design of his for our good shall certainly be accomplished, Rom. 8. 28. and after that no more afflictions for ever, Rev. 21. 3, 4. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. So that upon the whole, two things are most evident.
First, Nothing can comfort the soul without Christ: he is the soul that animates all Comforts, they would be but dead things without him. Temporal enjoyments, riches, honours, health, relations, yield not a drop of true Comfort without Christ. Spiritual enjoyments, Minister, ordinances, promises, are fountains sealed, and springs shut up till Christ open them, a man may go comfortless in the midst of them all.
Secondly, No troubles, sorrows, or afflictions can deject, or sink the soul that Christ comforteth, 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. A Believer may walk with a heart brim full of comfort, amidst all the troubles of this world. Christ makes the darkness of trouble, to be light round about his people. So that the conclusion stands firm, and never to be shaken; that Christ, and Christ only is the Consolation of Believers: which was the thing to be proved.