A39669:692
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.
Fourthly, The Gospel offers Christ freely to sinners as the gift, not the sale of God, Joh. 4. 10. Isa. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17. and even so faith receives him. The believer comes to Christ with an empty hand, not only as an undeserving, but as an hell deserving sinner: he comes to Christ as to one that justifies the ungodly, Rom. 4. 5. Unto him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness: where by him that worketh not, he means a convinced humbled sinner, who finds himself utterly unable to do the task the Law sets him (i. e.) perfectly to obey it; and therefore in a Law sense is said not to work: for it's all one as to the intent and purpose of the Law not to work and not to work perfectly: this he is convinced of, and therefore comes to Christ as one that is in himself ungodly, acknowledging the righteousness by which he alone can stand before ⟨p. 124⟩God; is in Christ, and not in himself, in whole, or in part: and by the way, let this encourage poor souls that are scared and daunted for want of due qualifications, from closing with and embracing Christ: there is nothing qualifies any man for Christ more than a sense of his unworthiness of him, and the want of all excellencies or ornaments that may commend him to divine acceptance.
Fifthly, The Gospel offers Christ orderly to sinners, first his person, then his privileges. God first gives his son, and then 1with him, or as a consequent of that gift; he gives us all things, Rom. 8. 32. In the same order must our faith receive him. The believer doth not marry the portion first, and then the person: but to be found in him is the first and great care of a believer.