A39669:574
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.
And this change is not made by altering and rectifying the disorders of the life only, leaving the temper and frame of the heart still carnal; but by the infusion of a supernatural permanent principle into the soul, Joh. 4. 14. it shall be in him a well of water: principles are to a course of actions as fountains or springs are to the streams and rivers that flow from them, and are maintained by them: and hence is the evenness and constancy of renewed souls in the course of godliness.
And this change is not made by altering and rectifying the disorders of the life only, leaving the temper and frame of the heart still carnal; but by the infusion of a supernatural permanent principle into the soul, Joh. 4. 14. it shall be in him a well of water: principles are to a course of actions as fountains or springs are to the streams and rivers that flow from them, and are maintain'd by them: and hence is the evenness and constancy of renewed souls in the course of godliness.
Nor is this principle or habit acquired by accustoming our selves to holy actions, as natural habits are acquired by frequent acts, which beget a disposition, and thence grow up to an habit or second nature; but it is infused or implanted into the soul by the Spirit of God. So we read Ezek. 36. 25, 26. a new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: it grows not up out of our Natures, but is put, or infused into us: as it's said of the two witnesses, Rev. 11. 11. who lay dead in a Civil sense three days and an half, that the Spirit of life from God entered into them; so it is here in a spiritual sense, the spirit of life from God enters into the dead, carnal heart: it's all by way of supernatural infusion.