A39669:582
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.
None can make another by any words to understand what that pleasure is which the renewed soul feels diffused through all its faculties and affections in its communion with the Lord, and in the sealings and witnessings of his Spirit. That is a very apt and well known similitude which Peter Martyr used, and the Lord blessed to the conversion of that Noble Marquess Galeacius: If, said he, a man should see a company of people dancing upon the top of a remote hill, he would be apt to conclude they were a company of wild distracted people; but if he draw nearer and behold the excellent order, and hear the ravishing sweet Music that is among them, he will quickly alter his opinion of them, and fall a dancing himself with them.
None can make another by any words to understand what that pleasure is which the renewed soul feels diffused through all its faculties and affections in its communion with the Lord, and in the sealings and witnessings of his Spirit. That is a very apt and well known similitude which Peter Martyr used, and the Lord blessed to the conversion of that Noble Marquess Galeacius: If, said he, a man should see a company of people dancing upon the top of a remote hill, he would be apt to conclude they were a company of wild distracted people; but if he draw nearer and behold the excellent order, and hear the ravishing sweet Musick that is among them, he will quickly alter his opinion of them, and fall a dancing himself with them.
All the delights in the sensual-life, all the pleasure that ever your lusts gave you, are but as the putrid stinking waters of a corrupt pond, where Toads lye croaking and spawning, to the Crystal streams of the most pure and pleasant fountain.