A39669:1948
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.
Secondly, They have influence upon the mind to remove what hindered it from Christ; except the minds of men be first untaught those errors by which they are prejudiced against Christ, they will never be persuaded to come unto him: and nothing but the Fathers teachings can unteach those errors, and cure those evils of the mind: the natural mind of man slights the truths of God until God teach them; and then they tremble with an awful reverence of them. Sin is but a trifle till God shows us the face of it in the glass of the Law, and then it appears exceeding sinful, Rom. 7. 13. We think God to be such a one as our selves, Psal. 50. 21. until he discover himself unto us in his infinite greatness, awful holiness, and severe Justice; and then we cry, who can stand before this great and dreadful God! We thought it was time enough hereafter to mind the concernments of another world, until the Lord open our eyes, to see in what danger we stand upon the very brink of eternity; and then nothing scares us more than the fears that our time will be finished before the great work of Salvation be finished. We thought our selves in a converted State before, till God make us to see the necessity of another manner of conversation upon pain of eternal damnation. We readily caught hold upon ⟨p. 393⟩the promises before, when we had no right to them; but the teachings of God make the presumptuous sinner let go his hold, that he may take a better and surer hold of them in Christ. We once thought that the death of Christ in it self had been enough to secure our Salvation; but under the teachings of God, we discern plainly the necessity of a change of heart and state; or else the blood of Christ can never profit us. Thus the teachings of God remove the errors of the mind by which men are withheld from Christ.
Secondly, They have influence upon the mind to remove what hindered it from Christ; except the minds of men be first untaught those errors by which they are prejudiced against Christ, they will never be perswaded to come unto him: and nothing but the Fathers teachings can unteach those errors, and cure those evils of the mind: the natural mind of man slights the truths of God untill God teach them; and then they tremble with an awful reverence of them. Sin is but a trifle till God shews us the face of it in the glass of the Law, and then it appears exceeding sinful,