O Precious Faith

"O believer, though the arms of thy faith be small and weak, yet they embrace a great Christ, and receive the richest gift that ever God bestowed upon the world. No sooner art thou become a believer, but Christ is in thee the hope of glory; and thou hast the broad seal of heaven to confirm thy title and claim to the privileges of adoption, for 'to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.' ...O precious faith! The treasures of ten thousand worlds cannot purchase such privileges as these; all the crowns and scepters of the earth, sold at full value, are no price for such mercies."

- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 144


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Faith in Christ Matters

"There are many graces besides faith, but faith only is the grace that gives us right to Christ; and there are many acts of faith besides receiving, but this receiving or embracing of Christ is the justifying and saving act...Nothing but unbelief bars men from Christ and his benefits."

-John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 116-117


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Spiritual Life Diagnostics

"How greatly are all men concerned to examine their condition with respect to spiritual life and death! It is very common for men to presume upon their union with and interest in Christ. This privilege is, by common mistake, extended generally to all that profess the Christian religion, and practice the external duties of it, when, in truth, no more are or can be united to Christ, than are quickened by the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1, 2). O try your interest in Christ by this rule. If I am quickened by Christ, I have union with Christ.

"First, if there be spiritual sense in your souls, there is spiritual life in them.  there are senses belonging to the spiritual as well as to the animal life (Heb. 5:14). They can feel and sensibly groan under soul pressures and burdens of sin (Rom. 7:24). The dead feel not, moan not under the burdens of sin, but the living do: they may be sensible indeed of the evil of sin, with respect to themselves, but not as against God, damnation may scare them, but pollution does not; hell may fright them, but not the offending of God.

"Secondly, if there be spiritual hunger and thirst, it is a sweet sign of spiritual life; this sign agrees to Christians of a day old, 1 Pet. 2:2. Even 'new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word:' If spiritual life be in you, you know how to expound that scripture, Psal. 42:1. without any other interpreter than your own experience: you will feel somewhat like the gnawing of an empty stomach making you restless during the interruption of your daily communion with the Lord.

"Thirdly, if there be spiritual conflicts with sin, there is spiritual life in your souls, Gal. 5: l7. Not only a combat between light in the higher, and sense in the lower faculties; not only opposition to more gross external corruptions, that carry more infamy and horror with them than other sins do: but the heart will be the seat of war; and the more inward and secret any lust is, by so much the more will it be opposed and mourned over.

"In a word, the weakest Christian may, upon impartial observation, find such signs of spiritual life in himself (if he will allow himself time to reflect upon the bent and frame of his own heart) as desires after God, conscience of duties, fears, cares, and sorrows, about sin; delight in the society of heavenly and spiritual men; and a loathing and burden in the company of vain and carnal persons.

"Objection: O but I have a very dead heart to spiritual things!

"Answer: It is a sign of life that you feel, and are sensible of that deadness; and besides, there is a great deal of difference betwixt spiritual deadness and death; the one is the state of the unregenerate, the other is the disease of regenerate men.

"Objection: Some signs of spiritual life are clear to me, but I cannot close with others.

"Answer: If you can really close with any, it may satisfy you, though you be dark in others; for if a child cannot walk, yet if it can take its food - if it cannot take its food, yet if it can cry - yea, if it cannot cry, yet if it breathe, it is alive."

- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, pp. 114-115

Only the Regenerate Know Real Pleasure

"This life imparted by the regenerating Spirit, is a most pleasant life. All delights, all pleasures, all joys, which are not fantastic and delusive, have their spring and origin here...Regeneration is the point from which all true pleasure commences; you never live a cheerful day till you begin to live to God...None can by words make another understand what that pleasure is which the renewed soul feels in its communion with the Lord, and in the sealings and witnessings of his Spirit...All the delights in the sensual life are but as the putrid waters of a corrupt pond where toads lie croaking and spawning, compared to the crystal streams of the most pure and pleasant fountain."
-John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 103


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Letter to a 12-Year-Old Girl About the Eternal Destiny of Those Who Have Not Heard the Gospel - Desiring God

Letter to a 12-Year-Old Girl About the Eternal Destiny of Those Who Have Not Heard the Gospel - Desiring God:

'via Blog this'

What Must Be Overcome In the Unconverted Is More Than Inability

"You see where it sticks, not in simple inability to believe, but in an inability joined with an enmity; (unbelievers) neither can come nor will come to Christ. It is true, all that do come to Christ, come willingly; but thanks be to the grace of God, that has freed and persuaded the will, else they never had been willing to come...This aversion of the will and affections from God is one of the main roots of original sin. No argument can prevail to bring the soul to Christ till this be mastered and overpowered by the Father's drawing...He that comes to heaven may say, Lord, if I had had mine own way, I had never come here: if thou hadst not drawn me, I should never have come to thee. O the riches of the grace of God! O unparalleled mercy and goodness, not only to prepare such a glory as this for an unworthy soul, but to put forth the exceeding greatness of thy power afterwards to draw an unwilling soul to the enjoyment of it!"
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 91


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A Challenge to All Pastors, Starting with This One!

"O study not only to preach exactly, but to live exactly; let the misplacing of one action in your lives trouble you more than the misplacing of your words in your discourses; this is the way to succeed in your embassy, and give up your account with joy." - John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 72


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The Potency of the Preached Word

"No heart so hard, no conscience so stupid, but this sword can pierce and wound; in an instant it can cast down all those vain reasonings and fond imaginations which the carnal heart has been building all its life long, and open a fair passage for convictions of sin, and the fears and terrors of wrath to come, into that heart that never was afraid of these things before...What shall we do? (Acts 2:37) is the doleful cry of men at their wit's end; the voice of one in deepest distress: and such outcries have been no rarities under the preaching of the word; its power has been felt by persons of all orders and conditions; the great and honorable of the earth, as well as the poor and despicable. The learned and the ignorant, the civil and profane, the young and the old, all have felt the heart-piercing efficacy of the gospel."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 61


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You Shine with a Borrowed Light

"How contented and well pleased should we be with our outward lot, however Providence has cast it for us in this world. O do not repine, God hath dealt bountifully with you; upon others he hath bestowed the good things of this world; upon you, himself in Christ. How humble and lowly in spirit should you be under your great advancement. It is true, God hath magnified you greatly by this union; but yet do not boast. You bear not the root, but the root you. You shine, but with a borrowed light."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 51


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Persecutors of the Church, Beware!

"If the saints are so nearly united to Christ, as the members to the head, O then, how great a sin and full of danger is it, for any to wrong and persecute the saints; for in so doing they persecute Christ himself...Oh, it were better thy hand should wither, and thine arm fall off from thy shoulder, than ever it should be lifted up against Christ in the poorest of his members. Believe it, not only your violent actions but your hard speeches are all set down upon your doomsday-book; and you shall be brought to an account for them in the great day. Beware what arrows you shoot, and be sure of your mark before you shoot them."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 49


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Is “Accepting Jesus In Your Heart” Superstitious & Unbiblical?

This is a tremendously sobering thought which we need to share with our churches...

The Lowest Believer More Dignified Than the Greatest Angel

"(Christ) is the head of the angels as well as the saints, but in different respects. To angels he is a head of dominion and government, but to saints he is both a head of dominion and of a vital influence - they are his chief and most honorable subjects, but not his mystical members; they are as the barons and nobles in his kingdom, but the saints as the dear spouse and wife of his bosom. This dignifies the believer above the greatest angel."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 43


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Borrowed Excellencies

"What intolerable insolence and vanity would it be for a man that wears the rich and costly robe of Christ's righteousness, in which there is not one thread of his own spinning, to pride himself as if he had made it, and were beholden to none for it. O man, thine excellencies, whatever they are, are borrowed from Christ; they oblige thee to him, but he can be no more obliged to thee who wearest them, than the sun is obliged to him who borrows its light, or the fountain to him that draws its water for his use and benefit."
-John Flavel (1630-1691), The Method of Grace, pp. 23-24


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