A29709:158
A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse…
A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favourable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favorable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
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.
Sixteenthly [If God be with us, who can be 1against us?] I answer, none, so as to make void our Covenant-relation, or our covenant-interest, as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margin together. The Covenant of grace is bottomed upon Gods free love, upon Gods everlasting love, upon Gods special and peculiar love, upon Gods unchangeable love, so that God can as soon cease to be, as he can cease to love those whom he has taken into covenant with himself, or cease to keep covenant with them: Those whom free-grace hath brought into covenant, shall continue in covenant for ever and ever, once in covenant and for ever in covenant. The Covenant of grace is bottomed upon Gods immutable counsel and purpose. The foundation 2of God standeth sure; that is, the decree and purpose of Gods election stands firm and sure. Now the purpose of Gods election is compared to a foundation, because it is that upon which all our happiness and blessedness is built and bottomed, and because as a foundation ⟨p. 108⟩it abides firm and sure. The Covenant of grace is 3bottomed upon Gods glorious power, upon Gods infinite power, upon Gods supreme power, upon Gods invincible power, upon Gods independent power, upon Gods incomparable power, and till you can find a power that can overmatch this Divine power, the Saints covenant-relation holds good. The Covenant of grace is bottomed upon the oath of God; To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers, and to remember his holy Covenant, 4the oath which he sware to our Fathers. Now to think that God will break his oath, or be perjured, is an intolerable blasphemy. The Covenant of grace is bottomed upon the precious blood of Christ; the blood of Christ 5is called, The blood of the everlasting Covenant. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant. Now by these hints it is most evident, that the Saints covenant-relation, their covenant-interest holds good at all times, in all cases, and in all conditions. It is not the indwelling power of sin, nor spiritual desertions, nor violent temptations, nor heavy afflictions, nor Divine delays, that can dissolve our covenant-relation.