A39669:688
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.
Secondly, Christ is offered to us in the Gospel entirely and undividedly, as clothed with all his offices, Priestly, Prophetical, 1and Regal: as Christ Jesus the Lord, Acts 16. 31. and so the true believer receives him: the hypocrite like the harlot is for dividing, but the sincere believer finds the need he hath of every office of Christ, and knows not how to want any thing that is in him.
Secondly, Christ is offered to us in the Gospel intirely and undividedly, as cloathed with all his offices, Priestly, Prophetical, 1and Regal: as Christ Jesus the Lord, Acts 16. 31. and so the true believer receives him: the hypocrite like the harlot is for dividing, but the sincere believer finds the need he hath of every office of Christ, and knows not how to want any thing that is in him.
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His ignorance makes him necessary and desirable to him, as a Prophet: His guilt makes him necessary as a Priest: His strong and powerful Lusts and Corruptions makes him necessary as a King: and in truth he sees not any thing in Christ that he can spare; he needs all that is in Christ, and admires the infinite wisdom in nothing more than the investing Christ with all these offices, which are so suited to the poor sinners wants and miseries. Look as the three offices are undivided in Christ, so they are in the believers acceptance: and before this trial, no hypocrite can stand, for all hypocrites reject and quarrel with something in Christ: they like his pardon, better than his government: they call him indeed Lord and master, but it is but an empty Title they bestow upon him; for let them ask their own hearts, if Christ be Lord over their thoughts, as well as words: over their secret, as well as open actions: over their darling Lusts, as well as others: let them ask, who will appear to be Lord and master over them, when Christ and the world come in competition? when the pleasures of sin shall stand upon one side, and sufferings to death, and deepest points of self-denial upon the other side? Surely 'tis the greatest affront that can be offered to the divine wisdom and goodness to separate in our acceptance, what is so