A39669:567
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.
That those Souls which have Union with Christ, are quickened with a Supernatural principle of life by the Spirit of God in order 1thereunto.
- 1Doct.
The Spirit of God is not only a living Spirit, formally considered, but he is also the Spirit of life effectively or causally considered: and without his breathing or infusing li• into our souls, our Union with Christ is impossible.
It is the observation of learned Camero, that there must be 1an Unition before there can be a Union with Christ. Unition is to be conceived efficiently as the work of Gods Spirit, joining the believer to Christ, and Union is to be conceived formally, the joining it self of the persons together: we close with Christ by faith, but that faith being a vital act, presupposes a principle of life communicated to us by the Spirit; therefore it's said Joh. 11. 26. whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye: the vital act and operation of faith springs from this quickening Spirit: so in Rom. 8, 1, 2. the Apostle having in the first verse opened the blessed estate of them that are in Christ, shows us in the second verse how we come to be in him, The Spirit of life (saith he) which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death.