A09990:455
The new covenantThe nevv covenant
The new covenant, or the saints portion A treatise unfolding the all-sufficiency of God, and mans uprightness, and the covenant of grace. delivered in fourteen sermons upon Gen. 17. 1. 2. Whereunto are adjoined four sermons upon Eccles. 9.1. 2. 11. 12. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ John Preston. Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.The nevv covenant, or the saints portion A treatise vnfolding the all-sufficiencie of God, and mans uprightnes, and the covenant of grace. delivered in fourteene sermons vpon Gen. 17. 1. 2. Wherevnto are adioyned foure sermons vpon Eccles. 9.1. 2. 11. 12. By the late faithfull and worthie minister of Iesus Christ Iohn Preston. Dr. in Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiestie, maister of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by I. Dawson for Nicolas Bourne, 1629
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.
The first Covenant was a Ministration of the Letter; 1that is, in the first Covenant, there was no more heard nor seen, but the naked Commandment, it was written in Tables of stone, and presented to them, there went; with it no aptness, no disposition to keep it; they heard what the Law was, they saw what God required, but there was no more and those that were decla•ers of it, were but the Ministry of the letter, and not of the Spirit.
The first Couenant was a Ministration of the Letter; 1that is, in the first Couenant, there was no more heard nor seene, but the naked Commandement, it was written in Tables of stone, and presented to them, there went; with it no aptnesse, no disposition to keepe it; they heard what the Law was, they saw what God required, but there was no more and those that were decla•ers of it, were but the Ministeri of the letter, and not of the Spirit.
- 11. Difference.
Secondly,1 this Covenant, it brings only a servile fear, and an enmity; for when a man looks upon the Author of this Covenant, & he hears no more but the Law, and what it requires; he looks upon God as a hard Master, as an enemy; again, he looks upon his Law as a hard and cruel Law, as a heavy yoke, as an unsupportable bondage, and therefore he hates ⟨p. 73⟩i•, and wishes there were no such law; he runs from it, as a Bond-slave runs from his master, as far as it is in his power. This is that which is said