A34674:121
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.
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, Gen. 22.12.
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 witnesse be unto Justification received, it is true indeed, a gratious Qualification, and a Promise to it, may give good Evidence of it a posteriore. And so for Sanctification, if the Lord come to bear witnesse unto a mans Sanctification, then he doth it from some work or other of his grace in him, as unto Abraham, Gen. 22.12.
There is a fourth Question which is as a further branch of this fourth Use, which I would not speak to, but that I might through the good hand of God, the better clear things, that we may not stumble in our expressions in ⟨p. 58⟩any conference about the Covenant of Grace and works.
Quest. 4. Now forasmuch as you hear of a Sanctification under a Covenant of works, it doth imply that there is a Sanctification that is but transitory, and not everlasting, nor immortal: Whether then may a man evidence his Union with Christ, by his Sanctification?