A39669:811
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.
First, If you would discern the sincerity of your faith examine 1whether those Antecedents and preparative works of the Spirit were ever found in your souls, which use to introduce and usher it into the souls of Gods Elect: such are illumination, ⟨p. 147⟩conviction, self-despair, and earnest cries to God.
First, If you would discern the sincerity of your faith examine 1whether those Antecedents and preparative works of the Spirit were ever found in your souls, which use to introduce and usher it into the souls of Gods Elect: such are illumination, ⟨p. 147⟩conviction, self-despair, and earnest crys to God.
- 11. Mark.
First, Illumination is a necessary antecedent to faith: you cannot believe till God hath opened your eyes to see your sin, your misery by sin, and your remedy in Jesus Christ alone: you find this act of the Spirit to be the first in order both of nature and time, and introductive to all the rest, Acts 26. 18. To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. As faith without works (which must be a consequent to it) is dead, so faith without light, which must be an Antecedent to it, is blind: faith is the hand by which Christ is received, but knowledge is the eye by which that hand is directed.