PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Whole Works of John Flavel — Volume 6
Flavel, John, 1630?-1691 · 329,010 words · 268 reading sections
Section 121
A. The second absurdity is this, that it denies the truth of the tes- timony given by the senses of all men, that it is real bread, and real wine, after consecration, and not flesh and blood. And if the testimony of sense be not certain, then the being of God cannot be proved by the things that are made ; contrary to R…
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A. If our doubts arise from the weakness, and not the total want of grace, such doubts should not hinder us; Rom. xiv. 1. Him that is weak in the faith, receive you, &c. Q. 10. What is the danger of coming to the Lord's table without these graces ? A. The danjrer is exceeding great both to soul and body. (1.) To the …
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Q. 9. Do not prayers thus qualified sometimes miscarry ; J. God may delay and suspend the answer of them for a time ; Psal. xxii. 2. O my God I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not, &c. But sooner or later God will always answer them, either in the very thing we ask ; 1 John v. 15. -We know that we have the pet…
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A. Divines give us these reasons against it, (1.) Because this prayer is set down diversly by the evangelists; Mat. vi. 10, 12. Thy king- dom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And Luke xi. 3, 4. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us ou…
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Q. 2. What doth the name of God, I AM, signify to us ? A.\t signifies to us, first, The reality of his being, in opposition to idols, which are but imaginary and fantastic things ; 1 Cor. viii. 4, We know that an idol is nothing in the world, &c. God is not only the most perfect Being, but the root of all other bein…
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A. It signifies the removal of all impediments, that hinder its pro- pagation in the world ; 2 Thess. iii. 1. Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. Q. 3. Who, and what hinders the propagation of it .? A. Antichrist, that man of sin, h…
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A. Because we are his creatures, and the most noble instrument of the inferior world ; and therefore we should be willing to be acted bv him, and active for him ; and because this will of providence is always just, good, and true, and for his own glory ; Psalm cxlv. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy i…
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A. Because those concern immediately and generally God's glory, in the advancement of his name, kingdom and will, which ought to be preferred to all our personal concerns ; Psal. Ixix. 9. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Acts xxi. 13. I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name o…
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A. That we must not seek *?reat matters for ourselves, neither make Vol. VL U 308 AN' EXPOSrriON OF THE ASSEMBLY'S CATECHISM. them the matter of prayer to God ; nor the end and design of our labours and callings among men. Q. 20. What is a second inference from hence ? J. That having food and raiment, we must be th…
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A. Yes, it does so ; for the Lord Christ, by his life and death, did satisfy Divine Justice, and did merit our forgiveness : But if he did so, we did not so ; our sins cost him dear, but their pardon cost us nothing ; our pardon is perfectly free to us, though due to Christ, for God gave Christ freely for us ; God acce…
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A. That if we live in hatred when we pray the Lord's prayer, we pray for our own damnation ; Mat. xviii. 22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Ver. 45. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his broth…
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A. It is not only lawful, but expedient, yea, highly commendable; as is seen in the saints prayer. In Moses,' Num. xiv. 13. And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them.) Ver. 19. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, acc…
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By proving the law at Sinai, and the Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham, were the very same with Adam's Covenant of Works, and that because the Gospel-covenant is absolute. A friendly Preface to the Author of the Soleirrm Call, and the more discreet and charitable of the Party con- cerned with him in this Controver…
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I well remember that blessed time, when o^irs and yours were terms almost unknown amongst professors in England. When their affec- tions and prayers melted and mingled together sweetly in days of hu- miliation, and other duties of edifying and heavenly communion ; and then churches began to flourish, and the graces of …
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Next I shall shew how far we are agreed in the matters here con- troverted, and where it is in each of these that the controversy indeed Hes betwixt us. And as to I. Position^ viz. That the Sinai law is the same with Adam's covenant (yf worhs^ made in paradise. The difference betwixt us here is not (1.) Whether both …
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The controversy betwixt us in this point, is not whether circunici- sion were an ordinance of God, annexed by him to his covenant with Abraham ? Nor (2.) Whether Abraham's ordinary and extraordina- ry seed ought to be, and actually were signed by it? Nor, (-S.) Whe- ther it were a seal of the righteousness of faith to …
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X HE book I have undertaken to animadvert briefly upon, bears the title of a solemn call ; but I am not so much concerned with the solemnity, as I am with the authority of this call. Not how it is, but whose it is. If it be the call of God, it must be obeyed though it be to part not only with \\\q privileges, but lives…
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(1.) That God's covenant with Abraham, Gen. xvii. was the same covenant for substance we Gentile believers are now under; and they substantially prove it from Luke i. from the 54th to the 74th verse ; which place evidently shews the sameness of the covenant of grace they were, and we are now under; and from Matth. xxi.…
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(1.) During life, they must hang mid-way between justification and condemnation; justified they could not be, for justification is the soul's passing from death to life, 1 John iii. 14. John v. 24. This they i:ould not possibly do, for the ministration of death and condemnation hindered. He that is under condemnation b…
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Moreover, in making this the promise which must relieve and com- fort the distressed Israelites in the purest gospel-times, towards the end of the world, you as palpably contradict yourself in another res- pect ; for we shall find you by and by stoutly denying, that the gos- pel promises have any conditions or qualific…
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•' the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth,'* Rom. X. 4. Are works and grace more consistent than grace with grace ? Explain your meaning in this paradoxical eocpression, and leave not yourself and others in such a maze. I read, Gal. iii. 19. for what end God published the law 430 years after …
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To conclude: These premises (as before I noted) can never be true, from whence such, and so many gross and notorious absurdities are regularly and unavoidably deducible. For ex veris nil nisi verum, from true premises nothing but truth can regularly follow. Had 3^ou minded those things which I seasonably sent you, you…
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This I utterly deny ; and will Xxy whether you have any better success in the proof of your second, than you had in your ^Y$,t posi- tion. And to convince you of your mistake, let us consider what the general nature of this ordinance of circumcision was ; what its ends were ; and then prove, That it cannot be what you …
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Mr. Sedgwick, that learned and grave divine, is checked, p. 148. for confounding the ceremonial lazv that was sprinkled with blood, with themorallaw (which you call the covenant of works)t.hgit was not sprink- led with blood ; and say you, p. 147. It could not possibly he the same. And then, p. 151, you say. It is clea…
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obliged to walk before God, and be perfect ? Does not that also there alter the nature of the covenant, as well as here in the seventeenth chapter? You also grant, the covenant made with Abraham, Gen. xxii. was a pure gospel-covenant ; or if you deny it, the apostle proves it, Heb. vi. 1^5. And yet there is more appear…
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their lusts, in the virtue of Clirist's death and resurrection, whereof baptism that succeeds it, is a sign now, as circumcision was then ; as is plain from Col. ii. 11, 12. 'In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of…
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cp»s an act required of us in point of duty ^ to a blessing consequent by 'virtue of a promise ? Such a thing, whatever it be, hath the nature of a condition, inasmuch as it is antecedent to the benefit of the promise; and the mercy or benefit granted, is suspended until it be peribrmed. The question is not, whether th…
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(1.) For the first you instance in as a pure gospel-covenant made with Abraham, Gen. xii. 2, 3. I must confess, as you dismember the text, p. 229. by chusing out the second and third verses, and leaving out the first, which was the trial of Abraham's obedience, in forsaking his native country, and his father's house ; …
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I know no othodox divine in the world, that presumes to thrust in any work of man's into the covenant of grace, as a condition, which, in the Armenian sense, he may or may not perform, accord- ing to the power and pleasure of his own free will, without the pre- venting or determining grace of God ; which preventing gra…
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The minor is undeniable in the text cited : If you say, These are duties^ but not conditions; I reply, they are such duties, without the performance of which we can have no benefit by Christ and the new covenant, Luke xiv. 33. And such duties have the true suspending i\2iX.\XYe oi conditions m them. If you say they are…
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(2.) It is objected against you, pag. 2. ' That if the commission, Mat. xxviii. excludes none from baptism, but such as are to be ex- cluded by the order therein to be observed ; and if baptizing and teaching are to precede, or follow one the other, as there named by- Christ, then these two conclusions will follow. (1.…
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Reply. If this be the true and genuine sense of this text, then all the children in the world, not immediately descended from one, or both believingparents, must of necessity be all bastards ; their parents, how solemnly soever married, must live in uncleanness : And what mad work (think you) will this assertion make i…
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Reply. Your meaning is, that these words [as many as the Lord shall call] are a limitation of the promise to them only, whether parents or children, that are actually called. Let this your interpretation be compared with, and examined by the scope of the text, which you confessed before to be a motive to persuade them …
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Reply. Your first answer is manifestly false : for if the apostle dis- tinguishes of a twofold circumcision, one made with hands, the other 864 A REPLY TO MR. CARy's SOLEMN CALL. made \vithout hands ; then it is manifest, he means the circumcision in thejlesh^ which is now abohshed, and all its ends and uses answer- …
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tree, boast not against the branches,"* &c. This place is deservedly of great value with us, to prove, that we Gentile believers^ with our infant-seed, are invested under the gospel with the same substantial privileges that the Jews and their infdnts formerly enjoyed. Here, without opening one term, you proceed, in you…
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and ours are comprehended in the parents, as twigs are comprehended in the branch, or buds in the graft, and the one being holy, so is the other. And thisjced€f'al holiness of the children is not only mentioned in this chapter, ver. 16. but also in 1 Cor. vii. 14. Now are your chil- dren holy. And the very same prom is…
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We thought, sir, that our children's title to baptism was derived to them from their believing parents, as the children of the Jews was to circumcision, from their circumcised and professing parents ; and that the same promise which conveyed their children's privilege to them, Gen. xvii. had conveyed the right of belie…
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(2.) That it is no other than a change of a divine institution, and making void \\\e commandmeiit of Christ, the horrid sin charged by Christ upon those hypocrites, the Scribes and Pharisees, Matth. xv. 6. With no better than these doth he rank and associate the many thousands of God's choice and dear people, who diffe…
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Sir, we never vet deserted the judgment or practice of infants bap- tism, and yet have had (blessed be Jesus Christ for it) great and mani- fold, sweet and signal proofs and evidences of his presence with us; He bath owned and blessed our ministry to the conversion of many ; and there are some, and those not mean, or f…
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And as for myself, you need not much fear me; I have not, nei- ther do I intend to vibrate my sting against you, unless I find you infecting or disturbing that hive to which I belong, and to which I am daily gathering and carrying honey ; and then who but a drone would not sting. (4.) To conclude : in the close of you…
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Firsts Examine thyself, reader, whether there be any gracious prin- ciple planted in thy soul, whereby thou art alive indeed unto God. It v/as an ancient abuse of the sacrament (condemned and cast out by the * Carthaginian council) to give it unto dead men. Dead souls can have no communion with the living God, no more …
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Secondly^ The subject, or the person that approaches unto God m his worship ; " His saints, and all that are about him." By saints, many interpreters do (in this place) understand the angels, called saints, from the purity and holiness of their nature ; and so make the next clause exegetical of this. Those that before …
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Reason 2. As the nature and ends of this ordinance call for the greatest composedness of spirit ; so the danger of unworthy receiving, should work our hearts to the most serious frame : for if a man be here without his wedding garment, if he eat and drink unworthily it is atthegreatest peril of his soul that he doth so…
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Thirdly, The most attractive object of love is here. Put all crea- ted beauties, excellencies, and perfections together ; and what are they but blackness and deformity, compared with the lovely Jesus ? My bt'loved (saith the enamoured spouse) is rchite and ruddy. Cant, vi. 10. Behold him at the table, in his perfect in…
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Secondly, He is described by that he hath not, or by what he wants; And (or, but) thou art far from their reins: i. e. They feel not the power and influences of that name, which they so often invocate and talk of, going down to their very reins, and affecting their very hearts. So we must understand this metaphorical e…
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do not only read of a glorified eye, but they have something of it, or like it in this world : " The pure in heart do here see God,'* Mat. V. 8. The saints have not only a witness without them in the word that there is a state of glory prepared for believers, but they have a witness in themselves. These are not the tes…
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First, The person complaining : I find, I Paul, though I come not behind the chiefest of all the apostles, though I have been wrapt into the third heaven, and heard things unutterable ; yet I, for all that, find in me a law. Never was any mere man more deeply sanc- tified ; never any lived at an higher rate of communio…
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Nothing is found sufficient sometimes to affect and raise them ; and yet if they be not excited out of their torpor and stupidity, they can- not have conununion with God in duties. Secondlu^ And if we enquire into the reasons why poor Christians find themselves more infested by natural corruptions in the seasons of du…
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1. Hence we may take our measures of the wonderful and asto- nishing grace and condescension of God to his people, who, notwith- standing all that evil which is at present with them in the good they do, will not reject their persons or duties for all that. How doth free grace make its own way through swarms of vanity …
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Rule 4. Lastly, Consider what an aggravation it is to your evil, to vent itself in the special presence of God in duties. See how Paul mourns over it in the text : It is not only a sin, but an affront- ing of God to his face : This grieving of his Spirit is the spoil of thy duty ; it is (as one aptly calls it) obex inf…
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In sealing, he both attests the Jldem quce crcditur, the doctrine or object of faith, and the Jideni qua creditur, the infused habit or grace of faith ; of the former he saith. This is my word ; of the lat- ter, This is my work : and his seal or testimony is ever more agree- able to the written word, Isa. viii. 20. So …
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Mlily, It is usually found that a sealing-time follows a dark day of desertion, and sore combats of temptations ; post nubila phoehus. So that text. Rev. ii. 17. is expounded by some, ' To him thatover- cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written.'…
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2. Renewed care and diligence follows the sealings of the Spirit : Now is the soul at the foot of Christ, as Mary was at the sepulchre, with fear and great joy. He that travels the road with a rich trea- sure about him, is afraid of a thief in every bush. This is exem- 408 6ACIIAMENTAL MEDITATIONS, plified in the spo…
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jL he scope of this chapter, is to prove the divinity and eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ. One of those arguments by which this great article of faith is confirmed and proved is the testimony of John. This testimony of John is the more remarkable, because it was before prophesied of him, that when the Messiah should co…
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O profound wisdom ! which from the loss and ruin of our primi- tive glory (which was the undoing of us, soul and body) takes the SACRAMENTAL MEDITATIONS. 413 occasion of raising us to a far better state, and settles us in it with a much better security than the former. Who but Jesus Christ, the wisdom of God, as he …
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I remember, when the worthies of Israel brake through the host of the Philistines, and brought unto David the waters of the well of Bethlehem, it is said, 2 Sam. xxiii. 17. ' He would not drink thereof, but poured it out before the Lord, and said. Be it far from me, that I should do this : Is not this the blood of the …
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Christ calls off your eyes and thoughts from all other objects to himself; Isa. Ixv. 11. ' I said. Behold me ! behold me !' JFix the eye of faith here, and you will feel a pang quickly coming upon your hearts like that. Cant. ii. 5. " Stay me with flaggons, comfort me with apples; I am sick with love."" Your eyes will …
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He suffered in his body the most exquisite torments : the cross was a cruel engine of torment, and more so to him than any other, by reason of the excellent cras'is and temperament of his body, and his most acute and delicate sense, for, as the schoolmen truly say, he was optime complexionatus, of the most exact and ex…
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The honour of divine justice required, that he should suffer the utmost degree of pun'shment. It was meet that the rights of hea- ven should be vindicated to the full, and that the justice of God should have the last mite it could demand for satisfaction. And this was the special design and aim of God in the sufferings…
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Thirdly^ How incomprehensible and ravishing is the love of God to men, that would rather be so severe lo Jesus Christ, the darling of his soul, than make us the objects of his wrath for ever ? Which of you (though there be infinitely less tenderness in your hearts than God's) would lay your hands upon a child, the wors…
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.