A39669:224
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.
The Scriptures have borrowed from the book of Nature four elegant and lively Metaphors to help the Nature of this Mystical Union with Christ into our understandings; Namely, that of two pieces of timber, united by glue: that of a graft taking hold of its stock; and making one tree: that of the husband and wife, by the marriage Covenant becoming one flesh: and that of the members and head animated by one soul, and so becoming one Natural body. Every one of these is more lively and full than the other, and what is defective •in one, is supplied in the other; but yet, neither any of these singly, or all of them jointly, can give us a full and complete account of this Mystery.
The Scriptures have borrowed from the book of Nature four elegant and lively Metaphors to help the Nature of this Mystical Union with Christ into our understandings; Namely, that of two pieces of timber, united by glew: that of a graff taking hold of its stock; and making one tree: that of the husband and wife, by the marriage Covenant becoming one flesh: and that of the members and head animated by one soul, and so becoming one Natural body. Every one of these is more lively and full than the other, and what is defective •in one, is supplied in the other; but yet, neither any of these singly, or all of them jointly, can give us a full and compleat account of this Mystery.
Not that of two pieces united by glue, 1 Cor. 6. 17. he that 1is joined to the Lord is one Spirit: [Greek or Hebrew], glued to the Lord. For though this cementeth, and strongly joins them in one; yet this is but a faint and imperfect shadow of our Union with Christ: for though this Union by glue be intimate, yet it is not vital; but so is that of the soul with Christ.