A39669:822
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, The heart is deeply serious, and as much in earnest in this matter, as ever it was, or can be about any thing in the world. This you see in that example of the Jailer, Acts 16. 29. he came in trembling and astonished: it is the most solemn and important matter that ever the soul had before it in this world, or ever shall, or can have: how much are the hearts of men affected in their outward straits and distresses about the concernments of the body? their hearts are not a little concerned in such questions as these, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? where withal shall I and mine be fed and clothed? but certainly the straits that souls are in about salvation, must be allowed to be greater than these; and such questions as that of the Jailers; Sirs! what must I do to be saved? make deeper impressions upon the ⟨p. 150⟩heart, than what shall I eat, or drink? Some indeed have their thoughts sinking deeper into these things than others: these thoughts lye with different degrees of weight upon men: but all are most solemnly and awfully concerned about their condition: all frothiness and frolics are gone, and the heart settles it self in deepest earnest about its eternal state.
First, The heart is deeply serious, and as much in earnest in this matter, as ever it was, or can be about any thing in the world. This you see in that example of the Jaylor, Acts 16. 29. he came in trembling and astonished: it is the most solemn and important matter that ever the soul had before it in this world, or ever shall, or can have: how much are the hearts of men affected in their outward straits and distresses about the concernments of the body? their hearts are not a little concern'd in such questions as these, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? where withal shall I and mine be fed and cloathed? but certainly the straits that souls are in about salvation, must be allowed to be greater than these; and such questions as that of the Jaylors; Sirs! what must I do to be saved? make deeper impressions upon the ⟨p. 150⟩heart, than what shall I eat, or drink? Some indeed have their thoughts sinking deeper into these things than others: these thoughts lye with different degrees of weight upon men: but all are most solemnly and awfully concerned about their condition: all frothiness and frolicks are gone, and the heart settles it self in deepest earnest about its eternal state.