A34674:184
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.
First, unto carnal men, and they are of two sorts, some belong unto the election of grace, though they be not yet called; others are not written in the Lambs book of life, but will in the end finally perish, and the Law is yet of use unto both sorts of them.
First, unto carnall men, and they are of two sorts, some belong unto the election of grace, though they be not yet called; others are not written in the Lambs booke of life, but will in the end finally perish, and the Law is yet of use unto both sorts of them.
For the Elect, it is of use unto them; to aggravate their sin, and to multiply it unto them as it were, that is to say, to aggravate the apprehension of the heinousness of sin upon their Consciences, and to set home the burden of sin unto their souls, thereby to drive them to feel their great need of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom otherwise they should for ever have despised. ⟨p. 109⟩Thus the Apostle answereth in the place aforenamed, The Law was added, because of transgressions; that they might clearly appear, and be aggravated thereby, that a man might plainly discern how he hath made himself liable to the wrath of God, by so manifold breaches of so many Commandments in one kind or other: the Law giveth clear knowledge of sin, and so much the more doth it set on the weight of it upon the Conscience, working fear in the heart, Rom. 8.15. And hence it is, that the Apostle telleth us, Gal. 3.24. The Law was our School-Master to Christ; As a School-Master driveth his Scholar through fear unto this or that duty, either to do it himself, or (if he cannot) to get others to do it for him; so the Law of God driveth the soul through fear unto Jesus Christ; not that it doth reveal Christ a Saviour of free-grace, but the soul being once brought down under sense of sin by the terrors of the Law, will readily & willingly hearken unto the news of Christ a Saviour; for being once made sensible of his own inability to redeem himself,