A39669:2604
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.
Fifthly, Sinning against the light argues a love to sin as sin: to naked sin without any disguise or covert. It is nothing so bad for a man to sin through a mistake of judgement; when he thinks that to be lawful which is indeed sinful; he doth not now close with sin as sin: but he either closes with it as his duty, or at least his liberty. 'Tis hard for Satan to persuade many men to embrace a naked sin, and therefore he clothes it in the habit of a duty or liberty, and thereby deceives and draws men to the commission of it. But if a man have light shining into his Conscience, and convincing him that the way he is in is the way of sin quite contrary to the revealed will of God; stripping the sin naked before the eye of his Conscience, so that he hath no covert or excuse, and yet will persist in it: this, I say, argues a soul to be in love with sin as sin. Now as for a man to love grace as grace, is a solid argument to prove the truth of his grace; so on the contrary, for a man to love sin as sin, doth not only argue him to be in the state of sin, but to be in the forefront, and among the highest rank of sinners.
Fifthly, Sinning against the light argues a love to sin as sin: to naked sin without any disguise or covert. It is nothing so bad for a man to sin through a mistake of judgement; when he thinks that to be lawful which is indeed sinful; he doth not now close with sin as sin: but he either closes with it as his duty, or at least his liberty. 'Tis hard for Satan to perswade many men to embrace a naked sin, and therefore he cloaths it in the habit of a duty or liberty, and thereby deceives and draws men to the commission of it. But if a man have light shining into his Conscience, and convincing him that the way he is in is the way of sin quite contrary to the revealed will of God; stripping the sin naked before the eye of his Conscience, so that he hath no covert or excuse, and yet will persist in it: this, I say, argues a soul to be in love with sin as sin. Now as for a man to love grace as grace, is a solid argument to prove the truth of his grace; so on the contrary, for a man to love sin as sin, doth not only argue him to be in the state of sin, but to be in the forefront, and among the highest rank of sinners.
Sixthly, The greater and clearer the light is, under and against which men continue in sin, the more must the Consciences of such sinners be supposed to be wasted and violated by such a way of sinning: for this is a sure rule, that the