A39669:2560
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.
Secondly, Unbelief excludes a man from all the saving benefits that come by the sacrifice or death of Christ. For if faith be the only instrument that applies and brings home to the soul the benefits of the blood of Christ, as unquestionably it is: then unbelief must of necessity exclude a man from all those benefits, and consequently leave him in the state of death and condemnation. Faith is the applying cause, the instrument by which we receive the special saving benefit of the blood of Christ, Rom. 5. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Eph. 2. 8. By grace are ye saved through faith. So then if the unbeliever be acquitted and saved, it must be without the benefit of Christs death and sacrifice, which is utterly impossible.
Thirdly, Unbelief excludes a man from the saving efficacy and operation of the Gospel, by shutting up the heart against it, and crossing the main drift and scope of it, which is to bring up men to the terms of salvation: to persuade them to believe, this is its great design, the scope of all its commands, 1 John 3. 23. Mark 1. 14, 15. John 12. 36. 'Tis the scope of all its promises, they are written to encourage men to believe, Joh. 6. 35, 37. So then, if the unbeliever escape condemnation, it must be in a way unknown to us by the Gospel: Yea, contrary to the established order therein. For the unbeliever obeyeth not the great command of the Gospel, 1 John 3. 17. Nor is he under any one saving promise of it, Gal. 3. 14, 22.