A30345:63
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
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 stipulation required is, that we take God to be our God, that is, that we repent of our iniquities, believe the promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart, and yield love, fear, reverence, worship, and obedience unto him, according to the prescript rule of his word. Repentance is called for in this Covenant, as it setteth forth the subject capable of Salvation by faith, but is it self only an acknowledgement of sin, no healing of our wound, or cause of our acquittance. The feeling of1 pain and sickness, causeth a man to desire and seek remedy, but it is no remedy it self. Hunger and thirst make a man to desire and seek for food, but a man is not fed by being hungry. By repentance we know our selves, we feel our sickness, we hunger and thirst after grace, but the hand which we stretch forth to receive it, is faith alone, without which repentance is nothing but darkness and despair. Repentance is the condition of faith and the qualification of a person capable of Salvation: but faith alone is the cause of Justification and Salvation, on our part required. It is a penitent and petitioning faith, whereby we receive the promises of mercy, but we are not justified partly by prayer, partly ⟨p. 19⟩by repentance, and partly by faith, but by that faith, which stirreth up godly sorrow for sin, and enforceth us to pray for pardon and Salvation. Faith is a necessary and lively instrument of Justification, which is amongst the number of true causes, not being a cause without which the thing is not done, but a cause whereby it is done. The cause without which a thing is not done, is only present in the action, and doth nothing therein: But as the eye is an active instrument for seeing, and the care for hearing, so is faith also for justifying. If it be demanded whose instrument it is? It is the instrument of the Soul, wrought therein by the Holy Ghost, and is the free gift of God. In the Covenant of works, works were required as the cause of life and happiness: but in the Covenant of grace, though repentance be necessary and must accompany faith, yet not repentance, but faith only is the cause of life. The cause not efficient, as works should have been, if man had stood in the former Covenant, but instrumental only:
The stipulation required is, that we take God to be our God, that is, that we repent of our iniquities, believe the promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart, and yeeld love, feare, reverence, worship, and obedience unto him, according to the prescript rule of his word. Repentance is called for in this Covenant, as it setteth forth the subject capable of Salvation by faith, but is it selfe only an acknowledgement of sinne, no healing of our wound, or cause of our acquittance. The feeling of