A39669:241
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 Spirit must therefore first take hold of us, before we can live in Christ; and when he doth so, then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ: all this lies plain in that one Scripture, Joh. 6. 57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that cateth me (that is by faith applies me) even he shall live by me. ⟨p. 31⟩So that these two, namely the Spirit on Christs part, and Faith his work, on our part, are the two ligaments by which we are knit to Christ.
The Spirit must therefore first take hold of us, before we can live in Christ; and when he doth so, then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ: all this lyes plain in that one Scripture, Joh. 6. 57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that cateth me (that is by faith applys me) even he shall live by me. ⟨p. 31⟩So that these two, namely the Spirit on Christs part, and Faith his work, on our part, are the two ligaments by which we are knit to Christ.
So that the Spirits work in uniting or engrafting a soul into Christ is like the cutting off the graft from its native stock (which he doth by his illuminations and convictions) and closing it with the living stock when it is thus prepared, and so enabling it (by the infusion of faith) to suck and draw the vital sap, and thus it becomes one with it. Or as the many members in the natural body, being all quickened and animated by the same vital Spirit, become one body with the head which is the principal member: Eph. 4. 4. there is one body, and one Spirit.