A39669:610
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.
Arg. 4.
If our new birth be our resurrection, a new creation, yea, a victory over nature, then we cannot actively contribute to its production; but under all these notions it is represented to us in the Scriptures. It's our resurrection from the dead, Eph. 5. 14. and you know the body is wholly passive in its resurrection: but though it concurs not, yet it gives preexistent ⟨p. 106⟩matter: therefore the metaphor is designedly varied, Eph. 4. 24. where it's called a creation: in which there is neither active concurrence, nor pre-existent matter: but though Creation excludes pre-existent matter, yet in pro•cing something out of nothing there is no reluctancy nor opposition; therefore to show how purely supernatural this principle of life is, it is clothed and presented to us in the notion of a victory, 2 Cor. 10. 4. and so leaves all to grace.
If our new birth be our resurrection, a new creation, yea, a victory over nature, then we cannot actively contribute to its production; but under all these notions it is represented to us in the Scriptures. It's our resurrection from the dead, Eph. 5. 14. and you know the body is wholly passive in its resurrection: but though it concurrs not, yet it gives preexistent ⟨p. 106⟩