A29699:241
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to public view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to publick view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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 Covenant is called both a Covenant and a Testament, because his Covenant and Testament is founded, established, ratified, and immutably sealed up, in and by his blood: Christ is the faithful and true witness, yea, truth it self, his word shall not1 pass away. If the word of Christ be sure, if his promise be sure, if his Covenant be sure, then surely his last Will and Testament, which is ratified and confirmed by his death, must needs be very sure; Christ's blood is too precious a thing to be spilt in vain; but in vain is it spilt, if his Testament, his Covenant, ratified thereby, be altered. If the Covenant of Grace be not a sure Covenant, then2 ⟨p. 49⟩Christ died in vain, and our preaching is in vain, and your hearing, and receiving, and believing is all in vain: Christ's death is a declaration and evidence of the eternal counsel of his father, which is most stable and immutable in it self; but how much more is it so, when it is ratified by the death of his dearest son, In whom all the promises are, yea, 3and Amen; that is, in Christ they are made, performed and ratified: By all this, we may safely conclude, that the Covenant of Grace is a most sure Covenant, there can be no addition to it, detraction from it, or alteration of it; unless the death of Jesus Christ, whereby it's confirmed, be frustrated and overthrown: Certainly, the Covenant is as sure as Christ's death is sure. The sureness and certainty of the Covenant, is the ground and bottom of bottoms, for our faith, hope, joy, patience, peace, &c. take this corner, this foundation stone away, and all will tumble; were the Covenant uncertain, a Christian could never have a good day all his days, his whole life would be filled up with fears, doubts, disputes, distractions, &c. and he would be still a crying out, Oh! I can never be sure that God will be mine, or that Christ will be mine, or that mercy will be mine, or that pardon of sin will be mine, or that heaven will be mine; Oh! I can never be sure that I shall escape the great damnation, the worm 4that never dies, the fire that never goes out, or an eternal separation from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. The great glory of the Covenant, is the certainty of the Covenant; and this is the top of God's glory, and of a Christian's comfort, that all the mercies that are in the Covenant of Grace are, the sure mercies of David;