A39669:467
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.
First, What the drawing of the Father imports.
To open this, let it be considered, that drawing is usually 1distinguished into Physical and Moral. The former is either by coaction, force, and compulsion, or by a sweet congruous efficacy upon the will: as to violence and compulsion it is none of Gods way and Method, it being both against the nature of the will of man which cannot be forced, and against the will of Jesus Christ who loves to reign over a free and willing people, Psal. 110. 4. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power: or as that word may be rendered, they shall be voluntarinesses, as willing as willingness it self: it is not then by a forcible coaction, but in a Moral way of persuasion that God the Father draws men to Jesus Christ: he draws with the bands of a man, as they are called, Hosea 11. 14. (i. e.) in a way of rational conviction of the mind and Conscience, and effectual persuasion of the will.
To open this, let it be considered, that drawing is usually 1distinguisht into Physical and Moral. The former is either by coaction, force, and compulsion, or by a sweet congruous efficacy upon the will: as to violence and compulsion it is none of Gods way and Method, it being both against the nature of the will of man which cannot be forced, and against the will of Jesus Christ who loves to reign over a free and willing people, Psal. 110. 4. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power: or as that word may be rendred, they shall be voluntarinesses, as willing as willingness it self: it is not then by a forcible coaction, but in a Moral way of perswasion that God the Father draws men to Jesus Christ: he draws with the bands of a man, as they are called, Hosea 11. 14. (i. e.) in a way of rational conviction of the mind and Conscience, and effectual perswasion of the will.