A39669:2690
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.
We have shown already what the blinding of the mind, or hiding of the Gospel from it is, it hath also been demonstrated that the Gospel is hid, and the minds of many blinded under it; you have also seen what policies Satan uses to blind the minds of men, even in the clearest light of the Gospel. It remains now that I open to you the dreadful nature of this judgement of God upon the souls of men, and then make application of the whole.
We have shewn already what the blinding of the mind, or hiding of the Gospel from it is, it hath also been demonstrated that the Gospel is hid, and the minds of many blinded under it; you have also seen what policies Satan uses to blind the minds of men, even in the clearest light of the Gospel. It remains now that I open to you the dreadful nature of this judgement of God upon the souls of men, and then make application of the whole.
There are many Judgements of God inflicted upon the souls and bodies of men in this world, but none of them are so dreadful as those Spiritual Judgements are, which God inflicts immediately ⟨p. 583⟩upon the soul; and among Spiritual Judgements few or none are of more dreadful nature and consequence, than this of spiritual blindness; which will appear by considering,
First, The Subject of this Judgement which is the soul, and the principal power of the soul, which is the mind and understanding faculty: the soul is the most precious and invaluable part of man, and the mind is the superior and most noble power of the soul: it is to the soul what the eye is to the body, the directive faculty. The bodily eye is a curious, tender, and most precious part of the body. When we would express the value of a thing, we say, we prize it as our eyes. The loss of the eyes is a sore loss, we lose a great part of the comfort of this world by it. Yet such an affliction (speaking comparatively) is but a trifle to this. If our bodily eyes be blinded we cannot see the sun, but if our spiritual eye be blinded we cannot see God, we wander in the paths of sin,