A39669:685
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.
It is disputed by some whether faith can be seated in two distinct faculties, as we seem to place it, when we say it involves both the approbation of the judgement, and the consent of the will. I will not here entangle my discourse with that fruitless dispute. I am of the same judgement with those Divines that think Faith cannot be expressed fully by any one single habit or act of the mind or will distinctly, for that (as one ⟨p. 121⟩well notes) there are such descriptions given of it in Scripture, 1such things are proposed as the object of it; and such is the experience of all that sincerely believe; as no one single act either of the mind or will can answer unto: nor do I see any thing repugnant to Scripture or Philosophy, if we place it in both faculties. Consent (saith Vasquez) seems to denote the concourse of the will with the understanding: but to leave that, it is most certain, the saving justifying act of faith lies principally in the consent of the will, which consent is the effect of the almighty power of God, Eph. 1. 19. he allures and draws the will to Christ, and he draws with the cords of a man, (i. e.) he prevails with it by rational Arguments: for the soul being prepared by convictions of its lost and miserable estate by sin, and that there is but one door of hope open to it for an escape from the wrath to come, and that is Christ: being also satisfied of the fullness and completeness of his saving ability, and of his willingness to make it over for our salvation upon such just and equal terms; this cannot but prevail with the will of a poor distressed sinner, to consent and choose him.
It is disputed by some whether faith can be seated in two distinct faculties, as we seem to place it, when we say it involves both the approbation of the judgement, and the consent of the will. I will not here intangle my discourse with that fruitless dispute. I am of the same judgement with those Divines that think Faith cannot be expressed fully by any one single habit or act of the mind or will distinctly, for that (as one ⟨p. 121⟩well notes) there are such descriptions given of it in Scripture,