A39669:509
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.
Secondly, And if we look to the other Term to which the soul moves, we shall find it acting as much above the Sphere and ability of improved Nature as here it acts and moves against the stream and current of corrupted nature: for how wonderful and supernatural an adventure is that which the soul makes in the day that it comes to Jesus Christ!
Surely for any poor soul to venture it self for ever upon Jesus Christ whom it never saw, nay, upon Christ whose very existence its own unbelief calls into question whether he be, or no: and that when it's even weighed down to the dust with the burdensome sense of its own vileness and total unworthiness, feeling nothing in it self but sin and misery, the workings of death and fears of wrath: to go to Christ of whose pardoning grace and mercy it never had any the least experience, nor can find any ground of hope in it self that it shall be accepted; this is as much above the power of nature, as it is for a stone to rise from the earth and fix it self among the Stars: well might the Apostle ascribe it to that almighty power which raised up Christ from the dead, Eph. 1. 19, 20. if the Lord draw not the Soul, and that with an omnipotent pull, it can never come from it self to Christ. And yet farther,
Thirdly, The Natural impossibility of coming to Christ will more clearly appear, if we consider the enemies to faith, or what blocks are rolled by Satan and his instruments into the way to Christ: to mention (in this place) no more, but our own carnal reason as it's armed and managed by the subtlety of Satan; what a wonder is it that any soul should come to Christ?
Thirdly, The Natural impossibility of coming to Christ will more clearly appear, if we consider the enemies to faith, or what blocks are roll'd by Satan and his instruments into the way to Christ: to mention (in this place) no more, but our own carnal reason as it's armed and managed by the subtilty of Satan; what a wonder is it that any soul should come to Christ?