A09990:478
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 ELEVENTH SERMON.
GENESIS 17. 2. And I will make my Covenant between me and thee.
GENESIS 17. 2. And I will make my Couenant betwenne mee and thee.
The third Use (which we did but touch upon the last day,1 and mean at this time somewhat to enlarge) is,2 that if the Covenant of the Law, and likewise the Old Testament, as it consists in types and shadows, be but a ministration of the letter, a ministration of bondage, and a ministration of enmity: But this new Covenant, this Covenant of Grace, is the ministration of the Spirit, the ministration of love, the ministration of freedom, the ministration of righteousness, ⟨p. 96⟩and the ministration of life: then, beloved, we may gather this from it, that if a man will obtain the Spirit, and thereby mortify the deeds of the body, if he would be delivered from the bondage of sin and of death; then let him make use of, and apply to himself the Covenant of Grace, the free promises of the pardon and remission of sins, let him apply them, that is the way to get the Spirit, that is the way to mortify the deeds of the flesh, that is the way to get his heart changed, that is the way to be made a new creature. For the better understanding of which, this is to he observed, that which keeps every man off, that which keeps men in a condition of strangeness from the life of God, is, because they see such difficulties in the commandments of GOD, as they are not able to keep, when they look upon the Commandment, and on the stubbornness of their own hearts, and the indisposition that is in them to yield obedience, they think there is no hope, and therefore they never go about it: for they see the Commandment, and they find in their own heart no disposition to keep it, but an aptness to rise in rebellion against it; I say, this keeps men off from the life of God: But, on the other side, when a man looks upon the promises, he begins to see the Covenant that his sins shall be put a way, he begins to see the goodness, and the mercy, and the tender compassion of God towards him; he begins to see a possibility of fulfilling the Law, in such a