A39669:812
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, 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.
Well then, hath God opened your eyes to see sin and misery in another manner than ever you saw it before? for certainly if God have opened your eyes by saving illumination, you will find as great a difference betwixt your former and present apprehensions of sin and danger, as betwixt a painted Lion upon the wall or sign post, and the real living Lion that meets you roaring in the way.
Secondly, Conviction is an Antecedent to believing: where this goes not before, no faith can follow after: the Spirit first convinces of sin, then of righteousness, Joh. 16. 8. So Mark 1. 15. repent ye, and believe the Gospel: believe it O man, that breast of thine must be wounded, that vain and frothy heart of thine must be pierced and stung with conviction, sense, and sorrow for sin: thou must have some sick days and restless nights for sin, if ever thou rightly close with Christ by faith: 'tis true, there is much difference found in the strength, depth, and continuance of conviction and spiritual troubles in converts, as there is in the labours and travailing pains of women, but sure it is, the child of faith is not ordinarily born without some pangs. Conviction is the application of that light which God makes to shine in our minds, to our particular case and condition, by the conscience: and sure when men come to see their miserable and sad estate by a true light, it cannot but wound them, and that to the very heart.