A39669:1881
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, How doth God teach men, or what is imported in 1our being taught of God? To this I will speak both negatively and positively, for your clearer apprehension of the sense and meaning of the Spirit of God in this phrase.
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First, The teaching of God, and our hearing and learning of him is not to be understood of any extraordinary visional appearances, or Oraculous and immediate voice of God to men: God indeed hath so appeared unto some, Numb. 12. 8. such voices have been heard from Heaven: but now these extraordinary ways are ceased, Heb. 1. 1, 2. and we are no more to expect them: we may sooner meet with Satanical delusions, than Divine illuminations in this way. I remember the Learned Gerson tells us that the Devil once appeared unto an holy man in Prayer, personating Christ, and saying, I am come in Person to visit thee, for thou art worthy: but he with both hands shut his eyes, saying, nolo hîc Christum videre, satis est ipsum in gloria videre, (i. e.) I will not see Christ here, it is enough for me to see him in glory. We are now to attend only to the voice of the Spirit in the Scriptures: this is a more sure word, than any voice from Heaven, 2 Pet. 1. 19.
First, The teaching of God, and our hearing and learning of him is not to be understood of any extraordinary visional appearances, or Oraculous and immediate voice of God to men: God indeed hath so appeared unto some, Numb. 12. 8. such voices have been heard from Heaven: but now these extraordinary wayes are ceased,