A39669:1886
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, In his Sanctifying impressions, or regenerating works upon the soul, by virtue whereof it receives marvellous light and insight in spiritual things: and that not only as illumination is the first act of the spirit in our conversion, Col. 3. 10. but as his whole work of sanctification is Illuminative and instructive to the converted soul, 1 Joh. 2. 27. the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you: the meaning is, that Sanctification gives the soul experience of those Mysterious things which are contained in the Scriptures, and that experien• the most excellent key to unlock, and open those deep Scripture Mysteries: no knowledge is so distinct, so clear, so sweet, as that which the heart communicates to the head, Joh. 7. 17. if any man do his will, he shall know the doctrine: a man that never read the nature of love in books of Philosophy, nor the transports and ecstasies thereof in History, may yet truly describe and express it by the sensible motions of that passion in his own soul: yea, he that hath felt, much better understands, than he that hath only read or heard. O what a light doth spiritual sense and experience cast upon a great part of the Scriptures! for indeed sanctification is the very copy or transcript of the Word of God upon ⟨p. 378⟩the heart of man, Jer. 31. 33. I will write my Law in their heart: so that the Scriptures, and the experiences of believers by this means answer to each other as the lines and letters in the Press, answer to the impressions made upon the paper: or the figures in the wax to the engravings in the Seal. When a Sanctified man reads David's Psalms, or Pauls Epistles, how is he surprised with wonder to find the very workings of his own heart so exactly deciphered, and fully expressed there! Oh saith he, this is my very case: these holy men speak what my very heart hath felt.
First, In his Sanctifying impressions, or regenerating works upon the soul, by vertue whereof it receives marvellous light and insight in spiritual things: and that not only as illumination is the first act of the spirit in our conversion,