A30345:724
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.
To what end do the promises and threatenings tend (may some man say) if God do work all things by his effectual power in them that believe? To what end, but that men might be saved? But God doth that which pertaineth to a King and Law-giver towards many, when that which pertaineth to the secret and unutterable dispensation of his grace, he doth not do: that is, he invites many in the Ministry of his Word, and external administration of the Covenant, whom he doth not inwardly instruct and draw, taking away the blindness and hardness of the heart. But then the invitation is a giftless gift. Not so neither, but rather he is a most unthankful servant, of a perverse mind that he1 cannot obey: For this inability is no cause of disobedience, proceedeth from no fault of the faculties subject to the mind and will, from no natural quality of the matter necessitating, but the mere wilfulness and perverseness of the soul. The invitation of God is not so hard, that man cannot fulfil it, if he would; nor wicked, that we cannot will to do it without sin: but lawful, just, honest, and such as if man would he could not but execute, so far as he truly judgeth it ought to be willed and executed. If the efficacy of grace depend upon the liberty of mans will to things opposite, then the promises of God the Father made to his Son might all be frustrate; That he should see his seed: that the people should come unto him from the North, and the West, and from the Isles: that he should possess the Gentiles as his inheritance: that his dominion should be from Sea to Sea: that a willing people should come unto him, &c. But the Covenant of God with his Son cannot be made void and of none effect.
To what end doe the promises and threatnings tend (may some man say) if God doe worke all things by his effectuall power in them that believe? To what end, but that men might be saved? But God doth that which pertaineth to a King and Law-giver towards many, when that which pertaineth to the secret and unutterable dispensation of his grace, he doth not doe: that is, he invites many in the Ministery of his Word, and externall administration of the Covenant, whom he doth not inwardly instruct and draw, taking away the blindnesse and hardnesse of the heart. But then the invitation is a giftlesse gift. Not so neither, but rather he is a most unthankfull servant, of a perverse minde that he1 cannot obey: For this inability is no cause of disobedience, proceedeth from no fault of the faculties subject to the minde and will, from no naturall quality of the matter necessitating, but the meer wilfulnesse and perversenesse of the soul. The invitation of God is not so hard, that man cannot fulfill it, if he would; nor wicked, that we cannot will to doe it without sinne: but lawfull, just, honest, and such as if man would he could not but execute, so farre as he truly judgeth it ought to be willed and executed. If the efficacie of grace depend upon the liberty of mans will to things opposite, then the promises of God the Father made to his Sonne might all be frustrate; That he should see his seed: that the people should come unto him from the North, and the West, and from the Isles: that he should possesse the Gentiles as his inheritance: that his dominion should be from Sea to Sea: that a willing people should come unto him, &c. But the Covenant of God with his Sonne cannot be made void and of none effect.