A39669:2572
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
Sermon 32 › DOCT. › The Uses follow. › Subsection 3: Inference 3.
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.
Inference 3.
How dreadful a sin is the sin of unbelief, which brings 1men under the condemnation of the great God! no sin startles less, or damns surer: 'Tis a sin that doth not affright ⟨p. 547⟩the conscience, as some other sins do, but it kills the soul more certainly than any of those sins could do: for indeed other sins could not damn us, were it not for unbelief, which fixes the guilt of them all upon our persons. This is the condemnation. Unbelief is the sin of sins, and when the spirit comes to convince men of sin, he begins with this as the capital sin, John 16. 9. But more particularly,
- 1Inference 3.
First, Estimate the evil of unbelief from its Object. It is the slighting and refusing of the most excellent and wonderful person in heaven or earth. The fiducial vision of Christ is the joy of Saints on earth; the facial vision of Christ, is the happiness of Saints in heaven. 'Tis a despising of him who is altogether lovely in himself, who hath loved us and given himself for us. 'Tis the rejecting of the only Mediator betwixt God and man, after the rejecting of whom there remains no sacrifice for sin.