A39669:992
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.
Believe it Friends, words cannot express what those poor creatures feel, that lye down and rise under these fears and frights of conscience. Lord what will become of me! I am free among the dead, yea, among the damned. I hang by the frail thread of a momentany life, which will and must break shortly, and may break the next moment, over the everlasting burnings: no pleasant bread is eaten in these days, but what is like the bread of condemned men.
Believe it Friends, words cannot express what those poor creatures feel, that lye down and rise under these fears and frights of conscience. Lord what will become of me! I am free among the dead, yea, among the damned. I hang by the frail thred of a momentany life, which will and must break shortly, and may break the next moment, over the everlasting burnings: no pleasant bread is eaten in these days, but what is like the bread of condemned men.
And thus you see what the burden of sin is, when God makes it to bear upon the consciences of men, no burden of affliction is like it: losses of dearest relations: sorrows for an only son are not so pungent, and penetrating as these, For
First, No creature enjoyment is pleasant under these inward troubles: in other troubles they may signify something to a mans relief, but here they are nothing, the wound is too deep to be healed by any thing but the blood of Jesus Christ: Conscience requires as much to satisfy it, as God requires to satisfy him. When God is at peace with thee (saith Conscience) then will I be at peace with thee too; but till then, expect no rest nor peace from me: all the pleasures and diversions in the world shall never stop my mouth: go where thou wilt, I will follow thee like thy shadow: be thy portion in the world as sweet as it will, I will drop in Gall and Wormwood into thy cup, that thou shalt taste no sweetness in any thing, till thou hast got thy pardon.