A39669:2629
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.
These words come into the Apostles discourse, by way of prolepsis: he had been speaking in the former Chapter of the transcendent excellency of the Gospel above the Law: and among other respects he prefers it to the Law in point of clearness. The Law was an obscure and cloudy dispensation, there was a veil upon the face of Moses, and the hearts of the people, that they could not see to the end of that which is abolished: but under the Gospel we all with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord. ⟨p. 567⟩Against this discourse the Apostle foresaw and obviated this objection. If your Gospel be so clear, what is the reason that many who live under the ministration of it (and they none of the meanest neither, for wisdom and understanding) do yet see no glory nor excellency in it? To this he returns in the words I have read; if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded, &c. q. d. 'Tis true, multitudes there are who see no glory in Christ or the gospel, but the fault is not in either; but in the minds of them that believe not. The Sun shines forth in its glory, but the blind see no glory in it: the fault is not in the Sun but in the eye. In the words themselves we have three parts to consider.
1. A dreadful Spiritual Judgement inflicted. 2. The wicked instrument by whom it is inflicted. 3. The politic manner in which he doth it.
1. A dreadful Spiritual Judgement inflicted. 2. The wicked instrument by whom it is inflicted. 3. The politick manner in which he doth it.
First, We have here a very dreadful Spiritual Judgement inflicted upon the souls of men, viz. the hiding of the Gospel 1