A39669:464
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.
No man is compelled to come to Christ against his will, he that cometh, comes willingly, but even that will and desire to come is the effect of grace: Phil. 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you both to will, and to do, of his own good pleasure.
If we desire the help and assistance of grace (saith Fulgentius) 1even the desire is of grace; grace must first be shed forth upon us before we can begin to desire it: by grace are y• saved through faith, and that not of your selves, it is the gift of God, Eph. 2. 8. suppose the utmost degree of natural ability, let a man be as much disposed and prepared as nature can dispose or prepare him, and to all this add the proposal of the greatest arguments and motives to induce him to come; let all these have the advantage of the fittest season to work upon his heart; yet no man can come till God draw him: we move as we are moved; as Christs coming to us, so our coming to him are the pure effects of grace.
- 1Ut ergo desideremus adjutorium, hoc quoque est gratiae; ipsa namque incipit effundi, ut incipiat posci. Fulgen. Epist. 6. ad Theod.
Three things require Explication in this point before us. First, What the drawing of the Father imports. Secondly, In what manner he draws men to Christ. Thirdly, How it appears that none can come till they be so drawn.