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BX 8915 .F58 1820 v. 4 Flavel, John, 16307-1691 The whole works of John Flavel
REV. MR. JOHN FLAVEL,
LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT DARTMOUTH, DEVON.
OF THE PRINCIPAL MATTERS CONTAINED IN THE WHOLE.
PRINTED FOR W. BAYNES AND SON, 25 & 54, PATERNOSTER-ROW j WAUGH AND INNES, EDINBURGH, AND M. KEENE, DUBLIN.
UNDER tH£ i»RESENT . r. ^
GOSPEL^LIBERTY: V> "^^
Thanksgiving Sermon for Ejjg land's Delivery from Popery, Feb. 1688-9.
AN EPISTLE TO THE READER. Candid Aeader,
A HE following discourse comes (o thy liand iii that native |)lainness wherein it was preached. I was conscientiously unwilling to alter it, because I found by experience, the Lord had blessed and prospered it in that dress, far beyond any other composures on which I had besto\ted more pains. Let it not be censured as vanity oi* ostentation, that I here acknowledge the goodness of God in leading me to, and blessing my poor labours upon this fiubjecti Whoj and what am I that I should be continued, and again employed in the Lord's har\'est, and that with success and encouragement, when so many of my brethren^ with their much, richer furnitures of gifts and graces, have in my time been called out of the vineyard, and are now silent in the grave ! It is true, they enjoy what I do not ; and it is as true^ I am capable of doing some service for God which they are not. In preaching these ser- inons, 1 had many occasions to reflect upon the mystical sense of that scripture, Amos ix. 13. "The plowman shall overtake the ** reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.'' Sow- ing and reaping times trode so close upon one anothet, that (in all humility I speak it to the praise of God) it was the busiest and bles- fiedest time I ever saw since I first preached the gospel.
England hath now a day of special mercy : there is a wide door of opportunity opened to it ; O that it might prove an effectual
4 AX EPISTLE TO THE READER.
door ! It is transporting and astonisliing, that after all the high and. horrid provocations, the atheism;, protaneness, and bitter enmity against light and reformation : this sweet voice is still heard in Eng- land, Behold, I stand at the door and hiock. The mercies and liber- ties of this day are a new trial obtained for us by our potentate Ad- >'ocate in the heavens ; if we bring forth fruit, well ; if not, the ax lieth at the root of the tree. Let us not be secure. Jerusa- lem was the city of the great King ; the seat of his worship, and the symbols of hii^ presence were fixed there ; it was the joy of the •whole earth, the house of prayer for all nations ; thither the tribes went up to worship, the tribes of the Lord unto the testi- mony of Israel. For there were set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David, Psal. cxxii. 4, 5. These privileges she enjoyed through the successions of many ages, and she had remain- ed the glory of all nations to this day, had she known and improved in that day, the things that belonged to her peace ; but they neglected their season, rejected their mercies, and miserably perished in their sins : for there ever was, and will be found an inseparable connex- ion betwixt the final rejection of Christ, and the destruction of the rejecters, ]VIatth. xxii. 5, 6, 7. The contemplation whereof drew those compassionate tears from the Redeemer's eyes, when he be- held it in his descent from the mount of Olives, Luke xix. 41, 42.
Let all that are vase in heart henceforth depose their animosi- ties, sadly reflect on their follies, encourage and assist the labours of their brethren in the Lord's harvest; and rejoice that God hath set them at liberty by law, m hose assistance in so great an oppor- tunity is necessary and desirable. It is against the laws of wisdom and charity to envy the liberty, and much more the success of our brethren, 1 Cor. xiii. 4. If the workmen contend and scuffle in a catching har\^est, who but the owners suffers damage by it ? If, af- ter so miraculous, recent, and common salvation as this, we still retain our old prejudices and bitter envyings; if we smite with the tongue and pen, when we cannot with the hand; and study to blast the reputation and labours of our brethren ; and still hate those we cannot hurt : In a word, if we still bite and devour one another, we shall be devoured one of another. Let us not lay the fault upon others, we ourselves have been the authors and instru- ments of our own ruin; and this must be the inscription upon our tombstone, O England, thou hast destroyed thyself. I am more afraid of the rooted enmity and fixed prejudices that are to be found in many against holiness and the serious professors o^ it, and tlie inflexible obstinacy and dead formality in many others, (the tokens of a tremendous infatuation) than I am of all the whispered fears from other hands, or common enemies upon our bor- ders.
AN EPISTLE TO THE READER. 5
To prevent these mischiefs, and promote zeal and unanimity among the ministers of the gospel, I have presumed to address them in the following epistles. I am conscious of my own un- wortliiness to be their monitor, and of the defects their judicious eyes will easily discern in the stile it is Written ; and yet can pro- mise myself a becoming reception of what is so faithfully, season- ably, and honestly designed for their good. I am satisfied that no candid and ingenuous person will put words upon the rack, quarrel at a similitude, or expose a trifle, when he finds the design honest, and the matter good and necessary.
As to the treatise itself, thou wilt find it a persuasive to open thy heart to Christ. Thy soul, reader, is a magnificent structure built by Christ ; such stately rooms as thy understanding, \vdll, con- science and affections, are too good for any other to inhabit. If thou be in thy unregenerate state, then he solemnly demands in this text admission into the soul he made, by the consent of the will ; which, if thou refuse to give him, then witness is taken, that Christ once more demanded entrance into thy soul which he made, and was denied it. If thou hast opened thy heart to him, thou wilt, I hope, meet somewhat in this treatise that will clear thy evidences, and cheer thy heart : Pray read, ponder, ajad ap- ply. I am
To the dearly beloved IMiuisters of the Gospel, (much to be reverenced in Christ) now at length, by the wonderful Providence of God, restored to Liberty : Addressed as a humble Supplication to the 7nore aged, and as an Ex- hortation to younger Ministers and Candidates.
Reverend Fathers, and Brethren in Christy
X HOUGH it is not fit for us to coin metaphors according to our fancy, yet we ought to have a great liking to those which the Spirit himself hath authorised in scripture. There he hath represented and painted to the life the deliverance of his suffering church, by the sweet deHghts of the advancing spring. Cant. ii. 1%