A39669:175
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.
He is one that naturally and inherently hath neither wisdom, nor righteousness, sanctification nor redemption: all 1these must come from without himself, even from Christ; who is made all this to a sinner, or else he must eternally perish.
He is one that naturally and inherently hath neither wisdome, nor righteousness, sanctification nor redemption: all 1these must come from without himself, even from Christ; who is made all this to a sinner, or else he must eternally perish.
- 1Quin dicitur eum factum esse nobis sapie•tiam, justitiam, sanctitatem & redemptionem, rursus & nostra dignitas & meritum excluduntur: ex hoc etiam consequitur, ante perceptionem ejus, nos fuisse slultos, injustos, profanos & diaboli ma•cipia. Muscul. inloc.
As no creature (in respect of external abilities) comes under more natural weakness into the world than man, naked and empty, and more shiftless and helpless than any other creature; so it is with his soul, yea, much more than so: all our excellencies are borrowed excellencies, no reason therefore to be proud of any of them: 1 Cor. 4. 7. What hast thou, that thou hast not received? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? q. d. what intolerable insolence, and vanity would it be for a man that wears the rich and costly robe of Christ's righteousness, in which there is not one thread of his own spinning; but all made by free grace, and not by free will; to jet proudly up and down the world in it, as if himself had made it; and he were beholding to none for it? O man! thine excellencies whatever they are, are borrowed from Christ, they oblige thee to him, but he can be no more obliged to thee who wearest them, than the Sun is obliged to him that borrows its light, or the fountain to him that draws its water for his use and benefit.