A39669:1579
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 3.
Hence it also follows, That no remission is to be expected by any 1soul without interest by faith in Jesus Christ: no Christ no pardon, no faith no Christ. Yet how apt are many poor deluded souls to expect pardon in that way where never any soul yet did, or ever can meet it? Some look for pardon from the absolute mercy of God, without any regard to the blood of Christ, or their interest therein: we have sinned, but God is merciful. Some expect remission of sin by virtue of their own duties, not Christs merits. I have sinned but I will repent, restore, reform, and God will pardon: but little do such men know how they therein diminish the evil of sin, undervalue the justice of God, slight the blood of Christ, and put an undoing cheat upon their own souls for-ever: to expect pardon from absolute mercy, or our own duties, is to knock at the wrong door, which God hath shut up to all the world, Rom. 3. 20. Whilst these two principles abide firm, that the price of pardon is only in the blood of Christ, and the benefit of pardon only by the application of his blood to us; this must remain a sure conclusion, that no remission is to be expected by any soul without interest by faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance, ⟨p. 306⟩restitution and reformation are excellent duties in their kind, and in their proper places; but they were never meant for saviours or satisfactions to God for sin.
Hence it also follows, That no remission is to be expected by any 1