The Method of Grace

Had God suffered you to degenerate, as many do, it would have been but a poor consolation to have said, my Progenitors were men of honour, the love and delight of their Country. This as ⁿone excellently expresseth it, would be the same thing as if one that is blind himself, should boast what a sharp and piercing sight his father had, or one that is lame himself should glory in those feats of activity his Grandfather performed: but God (to whose bounty therefore ⟨image 5⟩you are doubly obliged) hath made you the inheritor of their virtues, as well as of their lands, and therein fulfilled many thousand prayers which have been poured out to God upon your account. But I must forbear, lest I provoke others to envy, and draw upon ²my self the suspicion of flattery: what hath been already said may serve for a sufficient reason of this Dedication. I know the ^oagreeableness of such discourses to the pious dispositions of your souls is of it self sufficient to make it welcome to you. It is a Treatise of Christ, yea, of the method of grace in the application of Christ; than which no subject can be more necessary to study, or sweet to experience. ^pAll goodness is attractive, how powerfully attractive then must Jesus Christ be who is the ocean of all goodness, from whom all streams of goodness are derived, and into whom they all empty themselves? ^qIf Pindarus could say of the lovely Theoxenus, that whosoever saw that august and comely face of his, and was not surprised with amazement and inflamed with love, must have an heart of Adamant or Brass, what ⟨image 6⟩then shall we resemble that mans heart unto that hath no fervorous affections kindled in it by the incomparable beauty of Christ! A beauty which excels in lustre and brightness that visible light which so dazzles our eyes ^r