A39669:2058
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.
But the Spirit of God is a comforter as well as a sanctifier: 1he doth not only enable men to believe, but after they believe he also▪ seals them, Eph. 1. 13. but I walk in darkness, and am a stranger to the sealing, and comforting work of the spirit: how therefore can I imagine the spirit of God should dwell in me, who go from day to day in the bitterness of my soul, mourning as without the Sun?
- 1Obj. 4.
There is a twofold sealing, and a twofold comfort: the 1spirit sealeth both objectively in the work of sanctification, and formally in giving clear evidence of that work: thou mayest be sealed in the first, whilst thou art not yet sealed in the second sense: if so, thy condition is safe, although it be at present uncomfortable. And as to comfort, that also is of two sorts, viz. seminal, or actual: in the root, or in the fruit: light is sown for the righteous, Psal. 97. 11. though the harvest to reap and gather in that Joy and Comfort be not yet come; and there are many other ways beside that of joy and comfort, whereby the indwelling of the spirit may evidence it self in thy soul: if he do not enable thee to rejoice, yet if he enable thee sincerely to mourn for sin; if he do not enlarge thy heart in Comfort, yet if he humble and purge thy heart by sorrows; if he deny thee the assurance of faith, and yet give thee the dependence of faith, thou hast no reason to call in question, or deny the indwelling of the spirit in thee for that cause.
There is a twofold sealing, and a twofold comfort: the 1