A39669:1832
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, The Spirit hath a glorious sovereignty over the word it self, whose instrument it is, to make it successful or not; as it pleaseth him, Isai. 55. 10, 11. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from Heaven, &c. so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth: as the Clouds so the word is carried and directed by divine pleasure: 'tis the Lord that makes them both give down their blessings, or to pass away fruitless and empty: yea, 'tis from the Spirit that this part of the word works and not another: those things upon which Ministers bestow greatest labour in their preparation, and from which accordingly they have the greatest expectation; these do nothing, when mean time something that dropped occasionally from them, like a chosen Shaft strikes the mark and doth the work.
First, The Spirit hath a glorious soveraignty over the word it self, whose instrument it is, to make it successful or not; as it pleaseth him, Isai. 55. 10, 11. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from Heaven, &c. so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth: as the Clouds so the word is carried and directed by divine pleasure: 'tis the Lord that makes them both give down their blessings, or to pass away fruitless and empty: yea, 'tis from the Spirit that this part of the word works and not another: those things upon which Ministers bestow greatest labour in their preparation, and from which accordingly they have the greatest expectation; these do nothing, when mean time something that dropt occasionally from them, like a chosen Shaft strikes the mark and doth the work.
Secondly, The Spirit of the Lord hath a glorious sovereignty over the souls wrought upon; 'tis his peculiar work to take away the stony heart out of our flesh, and to give us an heart of flesh, Ezec. 36. 26. We may reason, exhort and reprove, but nothing will stick till the Lord set it on. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia under Pauls ministry: he opens every heart that is effectually opened to receive Christ in the word: if the word can get no entrance, if your hearts remain dead under it still, we may say concerning such souls, as Martha did concerning her Brother Lazarus; Lord if thou hadst been here, my Brother had not died. So, Lord, if thou hadst been in this Sermon, in this Prayer, or in that counsel, these souls had not remained dead under them.