A39669:2155
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, have your vain spirits been composed to the greatest seriousness, and most solemn consideration of things eternal, as the hearts of all those are whom God regenerates? When the Lord is about this great work upon the soul of man, whatever vanity, levity, and sinful jollity was there before, it is banished from the heart at this time, for now heaven and hell, life and death, are before a mans eyes, and these are the most awful and solemn things that ever our thoughts conversed ⟨p. 452⟩with in this world: now a man of the most airy and pleasant constitution when brought to the sight and sense of those things, saith of laughter it is mad, and of mirth what doth it? Eccles. 2. 2.
Secondly, A lowly, meek, and humble frame of heart accompanies the new Creation: the soul is weary and heavy laden, Matth. 11. 28. convictions of sin have plucked down the pride and loftiness of the spirit of man, emptied him of his vain conceits: those that were of lofty, proud, and blustering humours before, are meekened and brought down to the very dust now: it is with them (to speak allusively) as it was with Jerusalem, that lofty City, Isa. 29. 1. 4. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the City where David dwelt; thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust. Ariel signifies the Lyon of God, so Jerusalem in her prosperity was, other Cities trembled at her voice, but when God brought her down by humbling Judgements, then she whispered out of the dust: so it is in this case.
Secondly, A lowly, meek, and humble frame of heart accompanies the new Creation: the soul is weary and heavy laden, Matth. 11. 28. convictions of sin have plucked down the pride and loftiness of the spirit of man, emptied him of his vain conceits: those that were of lofty, proud, and blustring humours before, are meekened and brought down to the very dust now: it is with them (to speak allusively) as it was with Jerusalem, that lofty City,