A39669:996
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.
Secondly, These inward troubles for sin, put a dread into death beyond whatever the soul saw in it before. Now it looks like the King of terrors indeed: you read in Heb. 2. 15. of some that through fear of death are all their life long subject to bondage. O what a lively comment is a soul in this case able to make upon such a Text? they would not scare at the pale horse, nor at him that sits on him though his name be called death, if it were not for what follows him, Rev. 6. 8. but when they consider that hell follows, they tremble at the very name, or thoughts of death.
Secondly, These inward troubles for sin, put a dread into death beyond whatever the soul saw in it before. Now it looks like the King of terrours indeed: you read in Heb. 2. 15. of some that through fear of death are all their life long subject to bondage. O what a lively comment is a soul in this case able to make upon such a Text? they would not scare at the pale horse, nor at him that sits on him though his name be called death, if it were not for what follows him, Rev. 6. 8. but when they consider that hell follows, they tremble at the very name, or thoughts of death.
Thirdly, Such is the nature of these inward troubles of spirit that they swallow up the sense of all other outward troubles: alas these are all lost in the deeps of soul sorrows as the little rivulets are in the vast Sea: he that is wounded at the heart, will not cry Oh at the bite of a Flea: and surely no greater is the proportion betwixt outward and inward sorrows: a small matter formerly would discompose a man, and put him into a fret, now ten thousand outward troubles are lighter than a feather. For, saith he, why doth the living man complain? am I yet on this side eternal burnings? O let me not complain then, whatever my condition be: have I losses in the world, or pains upon my body? alas these are not to be named with the loss of God, and the feeling of his wrath and indignation for evermore. Thus you see what troubles inward troubles for sin be.