A09990:460
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.
Secondly, a ministration of love, not of enmity; of freedom, not of bondage; it is a ministration of righteousness, as it is there called the ministration of righteousness; for if the ministration of condemnation were glorious, much more shall the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
Secondly, a ministration of loue, not of enmity; of freedome, not of bondage; it is a ministration of righteousnesse, as it is there called the ministration of righteousnesse; for if the ministration of condemnation were glorious, much more shall the ministration of righteonsnesse exceed in glory.
Thirdly, a ministration of life and justification, and not a ministration of death and condemnation. The ground of this, and how it is thus, we shall show show you, by expressing to you, he order how these depend, and follow one upon the other: when a man hath looked upon ⟨p. 75⟩the Covenant of works, and sees death in it, sees a strict Law that he is not able to keep; then come• the Covenant of grace, and shows to him a righteousness to satisfy this Law, that himself never wrought, shows him a way of obtaining pardon and remission for the sins that he hath committed against this Law, by the death and satisfaction of another; when he sees this, he sees withal the goodness and mercy of GOD, giving this to him, for his salvation, out of his free grace and mercy; when he sees this, the opinion of a sinner is changed: mark; I say, his opinion, his disposition and affection is altered, he looks not upon God now as upon a hard and cruel Master, but he looks upon him now as a God exceeding full of mercy and compassion; whence this follows, that his heart melts towards the Lord, it relents, it comes to be a soft heart, that is easy and tractable, it is not haled now to the Commandment, but out of an ingenuity and willingness, he comes and serves the LORD with alacrity and cheerfulness: this disposition is wrought upon him, because now he sees another way, his apprehension is altered, even as a servant, when it is revealed to him that he is a son, and that those hard tasks that are laid on him, are the best way to lead him to happiness, they are but rules of direction, for his own wealth, and for his own advantage, he doth them now with all willingness, the case is altered, he looks not now upon the Law of GOD as an