A39669:2217
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.
Evidence 1.
Whatsoever evidences the indwelling of the holy spirit of God in us, must needs be evidential of a saving interest in Christ; as hath been fully proved before: but the mortification of sin doth plainly evidence the indwelling of the spirit of God; for as we proved but now, it can proceed from no other principle: there is as strong and inseparable a connection betwixt mortification and the spirit, as betwixt the effect, and its proper cause, and the self-same connection ⟨p. 470⟩betwixt the inbeing of the spirit, and union with Christ. So that to reason from mortification to the inhabitation of the spirit, and from the inhabitation of the spirit to our union with Christ; is a strong scriptural way of reasoning.
Evidence 2.
That which proves a soul to be under the Covenant of Grace, evidently proves its interest in Christ: for Christ is the head of that Covenant, and none but sound Believers are under the blessings and promises of it; but mortification of sin is a sound evidence of the souls being under the Covenant of Grace, as is plain from those words of the Apostle, Rom. 6. 12, 13, 14