A09990:572
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.
Beloved,1 it is a witness in this manner; when a mans spirit shall consider the promises, and ponder them well, and shall say this with himself, Well, I have applied these promises, b•t upon what warrant? upon what ground have I done it? every body will be ready to apply the promises of mercy and forgiveness, but what warrant have I to apply them? To know that, upon good ground, I lay hold of these promises? then a man considers with himself the promises, they are sure, they are clearly and distinctly set down in the Word; he considers to whom these promises are offered, to those that are unrig• t• ous; the LORD justifieth the unrighteous, even to Publicans and Harlots, to sinners; such they were that came to CHRIST, to such the promises were offered. Well, I know I am an unrighteous man, and therefore the want of sorrow and contrition, and the want of holiness, and the want of tenderness of heart in the beginning shall not exclude me: for they are promises that are made to the unrighteous, to the unclean and polluted, to the hard-hearted, such they are at the first to whom the promises are made; but what doth the Lord require of those? That they thi•st: all that thirst, come, I find an ext••me thirst, ⟨p. 170⟩I would dye that I might have Christ, and his righteousness: Is this all? No, it is required further, that when thou art come in, thou take this resolution, now I will serve him, now I will love him, now I will obey him, I will be content to take Jesus Christ, for better for worse, I will be content to deny my self, to take up my Cross, to follow him, in all his ways. When a mans spirit hath pondered this well, when he hath looked on the blood of JESUS CHRIST, and the promises, and sees himself qualified, upon this, he says, surely these promises belong to me; this is the witness of the blood: then follows the witness of the water; for the blood hath a double virtue in it, it hath not only the virtue to deliver us from the guilt of sin, to cause the LORD to pass over us, when he sees the sprinkling of the blood upon our hearts, and upon our persons, but there is this more, it hath a cleansing virtue in it, cleanseth the conscience from dead works; and so hath faith, it hath not only a virtue in it, to receive, and to digest and to take the promises, but it hath an ability to work;