A34674:120
The Covenant of Grace
The covenant of grace discovering the great work of a sinners reconciliation to God / by John Cotton ... ; whereunto are added Certain queries tending to accommodation [sic] between the Presbyterian and Congregational churches ; also a discussion of the civill magistrates power in matters of religion ; by the same author.The covenant of grace discovering the great work of a sinners reconciliation to God / by John Cotton ... ; whereunto are added Certain queries tending to accommodadation [sic] between the Presbyterian and Congregationall churches ; also a discussion of the civill magistrates power in matters of religion ; by the same author.
London: printed by M.S. for Francis Eglesfield and John Allen, 1655
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.
But now it is questioned, Whether the Promise wherein the Lord giveth himself, be Absolute or Conditional? Faith to receive Christ is ever upon an Absolute Promise, if you will say it is a Promise to a Condition, what kind of condition was it? there is no Condition before Faith, but a condition of misery, a lost condition, or if a gracious Condition, it is a Condition subsequent, not prae-existent, no Condition before ⟨p. 57⟩it, whereby a man can close with Jesus Christ: and if it was a Condition after Faith, unto which the Promise was made, then faith was there before, and whatsoever followeth Conversion, is no ground of Faith, but a fruit and effect of it; therefore I say our first coming on to Christ cannot be upon a Conditional but upon an Absolute Promise.
But now it is questioned, Whether the Promise wherein the Lord giveth himselfe, be Absolute or Conditionall? Faith to receive Christ is ever upon an Absolute Promise, if you will say it is a Promise to a Condition, what kind of condition was it? there is no Condition before Faith, but a conditon of misery, a lost condition, or if a gratious Condition, it is a Condition subsequent, not prae-existent, no Condition before ⟨p. 57⟩it, whereby a man can close with Jesus Christ: and if it was a Condition after Faith, unto which the Promise was made, then faith was there before, and whatsoever followeth Conversion, is no ground of Faith, but a fruit and effect of it; therefore I say our first coming on to Christ cannot be upon a Conditionall but upon an Absolute Promise.
And if ever the Lord minister comfort unto any man, true comfort upon good grounds is ever built upon a Promise of free grace. If the witness be unto Justification received, it is true indeed, a gracious Qualification, and a Promise to it, may give good Evidence of it a posteriore. And so for Sanctification, if the Lord come to bear witness unto a mans Sanctification, then he doth it from some work or other of his grace in him, as unto Abraham,