A39669:586
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.
Fifthly, To Conclude, this life with which the regenerate are quickened, is an everlasting life. This is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his son, 1 Joh. 5. 11. this principle of life, is the seed of God, and that remains in the soul for ever, 1 Joh. 3. 9. it is no transient vanishing thing, but a fixed permanent principle, which abides in the soul for ever; a man may lose his gifts, but grace abides: the soul may and must be separated from the body, but grace cannot be separated from the soul: when all forsake us, this sticks by us.
This infused principle is therefore vastly different both from the extraordinary gifts of prophecy wherein the Spirit sometimes was said to come upon men, under the old Testament, 1 Sam. 10. 6, 10. and from the common vanishing effects he sometimes produceth in the unregenerate, of which we have frequent accounts in the new Testament, Heb. 6. 4. and Joh. 5. 35. it's one thing for the Spirit to come upon a man in the way of present influence and assistance, and another thing to dwell in a man as his Temple.
This infused principle is therefore vastly different both from the extraordinary gifts of prophecie wherein the Spirit sometimes was said to come upon men, under the old Testament, 1 Sam. 10. 6, 10. and from the common vanishing effects he sometimes produceth in the unregenerate, of which we have frequent accounts in the new Testament, Heb. 6. 4. and