John Flavel
1627–1691
Puritan minister at Dartmouth, ejected in 1662; wrote warmly on providence and the believer's inner life.
In his own words
Doct. That there is a strict and dear union betwixt Christ and all true believers. The scriptures have borrowed from the book at nature four elegant and lively metaphors, to help the nature of this mystical union with Christ into our understandings; namely, that of pieces of timber united by glue, that of a graff taking hold of its stock, and making one tree; that of the husband and wife, by the marriage-covenant, becoming one flesh; and that of the members and head animated by one soul, and so becoming one natural body. Every one of these is more lively and full than the other: and what is defective in one, is supplied in the other; but yet neither any of these singly, or all at them jointly, can give us a full and complete account of this mystery. Not that of two pieces united by glue, 1 Cor 5:17 "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit," "kollamenos", glued to the Lord For though this cements, and strongly joins them in one, yet this is but a faint and imperfect shadow of our union with Christ; for though this union by glue be intimate, yet not vital, but so is that of the soul with Christ.
Quoted verbatim from the library, as an answer would quote it.
What we hold of him
The Method of Grace
Classic
A Saint Indeed
Classic
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