A39669:2260
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.
4. Motive.
As Temptations will be irresistible, so afflictions will be unsupportable to you without Mortification. My friends, you 1live in a mutable world, providence daily rings the changes in all the Kingdoms, Cities, and Towns all the world over. You that have husbands or wives to day, may be left desolate to morrow: you that have estates, and children now, may be bereaved of both before you are aware. Sickness will tread upon the heel of health, and death will assuredly follow life, as the night doth the day. Consider with your selves, are you able to bear the loss of your sweet enjoyments with patience? Can you think upon the parting hour without some tremblings? O get a heart mortified to all these things, and you will bless a taking as well as a giving God. 'Tis the living world, not the crucified world that raises such tumults in our souls in the day of affliction. How cheerful was holy Paul under all his sufferings! and what think you gave him that peace, and cheerfulness, but his mortification to the world? Phil. 4. 12. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; every where, and in all things I am instructed, both to be full, and to be hungry, both to abound, and suffer need. Job was the mirror of patience in the greatest shock of calamity, and what made him so, but the mo•tifiedness of his heart in the fullest enjoyment of earthly things? Job 31. 25.
As Temptations will be irresistible, so afflictions will be unsupportable to you without Mortification. My friends, you