A09990:573
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.
as the hand, you know, hath two offices, it hath an office to receive, and to take, and likewise it hath ability to work: Beloved, these are never disjoined, the blood never washeth from sin, but likewise it cleanseth the conscience from dead works; faith never receives the promise, but it works likewise; indeed for the •eceiving part, we receive all alike precious ⟨p. 171⟩faith; but for the working part, there is much difference: you know, a weak hand is able to receive, as well as a stronger, but a stronger can do more work: therefore, as faith grows more, so it works more. Some man hath a more working faith then others, though, as it is a receiving faith he hath it alike: therefore thou mayest consider this with thy self, if I have the testimony of the blood, I have also the testimony of the water, that is a sanctification joined with justification; Christ came not by blood only, but by water also: if the spirit of a man look on this now, and can say, I see, I am renewed in the spirit of my mind, I see I am washed from my filthiness, I see my conscience is in some measure cleansed from dead works, then he may conclude with himself, surely I am in the state of grace, I am in the Covenant. And this, beloved, is the witness of our own spirits, and the witness of the water, and of the blood. But when this is done, it may be the LORD continues, yet, at some fits, to write bitter things against thee, he seems to cast thee off, he seems to wound thee sometimes, with the wounds of an enemy. This the LORD many times doth, that he may put usto it; he turns the deaf ear, that he may try what we will do: when the spirit of a man hath now these testimonies, and yet hath not rest, though it have them on good ground, (for I mean not the naked spirit of a man, but his spirit enlightened and sanctified ⟨p. 172⟩by the Holy Ghost) yet when he hat• good ground, and saith thus with himself, Yet for all this, I will trust in him, I have his sure Word for it, I have his promise, I know that heaven and earth shall pass, rather then any promise of his shall pass: now when the Lord seeth a man believing thus, and trusting him upon his bate word, then the Lord goes a step further with him, & seals the same things to him, with the spirit of promise, that is, (as I showed before out of