A39669:2050
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.
Two things are to be respected in spiritual knowledge; 1viz. the quantity and the efficacy thereof: your condition doth not so much depend upon the measures of knowledge, for haply, you are under many natural disadvantages, and want those helps and means of increasing knowledge, which others plentifully enjoy: it may be you have wanted the helps of education, or have been encumbered by the necessities and cares of the world; which have allowed you but little leisure for the improvement of your minds: but if that which you do know be turned into practice and obedience, Col. 1. 9, 10. if it have influence upon your hearts, and transform your affections into a spiritual frame and temper, 2 Cor. 3. 17, 18. if your ignorance humble you, ⟨p. 421⟩and drive you to God daily for the increase of knowledge: one drop of such knowledge of Christ and your selves as this, is more worth than a Sea of humane, moral, unsanctified, and speculative knowledge: though you know but little, yet that little being sanctified is of great value: though you know but little, time was when ye knew nothing of Jesus Christ, or the state of your own souls. In a word, though you know but little, that little you do know will be still increasing, like the morning light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day, Prov. 4. 18. If thou knowest so much as brings thee to Christ, thou shalt shortly be where thy knowledge shall be as the light at noon day.
Two things are to be respected in spiritual knowledge; 1viz. the quantity and the efficacy thereof: your condition doth not so much depend upon the measures of knowledge, for haply, you are under many natural disadvantages, and want those helps and means of increasing knowledge, which others plentifully enjoy: it may be you have wanted the helps of education, or have been incumbred by the necessities and cares of the world; which have allowed you but little leasure for the improvement of your minds: but if that which you do know be turned into practice and obedience,