A34674:197
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.
2 They are under the faith and sense also of Gods gracious acceptance of their ways, when they are suitable to the blessed directions of his word; not that they can raise there-from their justified estate, but by the same Spirit of God, whereby they are helped to obey the Commandments of God, they do see the Lords gracious approbation of them in their poor and weak endeavours; for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, that is, acknowledgeth and approveth it, Psal. 1.6. When the Lord by his Spirit boweth the hearts of his people unto obedience, then he knoweth and accepteth their obedience, Gen. 22.12. Thus the Lord beareth witness ⟨p. 121⟩unto his Servants, that he doth accept their works; so that they sensibly know and believe, that the Lord doth acknowledge their poorest and weakest endeavours, unto which they are carried forth by his Spirit, in the Obedience of his word: this the Prophet David confirmeth, Psal. 18.20. to 26. where he speaketh of his righteous dealing with Saul, and whereas his enemies laid it to his charge that he was an enemy unto Saul, the Lord beareth him witness, that he had walked toward Saul with a good conscience; now the Lord having led him an end to deal justly, and righteously, and purely with Saul, having kept him from all the malice and outrage of Saul, and maintained his cause against him, and delivered him out of his hands, whom the Lord had now rejected, herein the Prophet seeth the Lord accepting him, when in the name of his Son, by the power of his Spirit, he is helped to attend unto the Commandments of God. This is comfortable unto a Christian spirit, when the Lord beareth witness unto his soul, that he hath an eye to all the Commandments of God. And all this argueth, that the ⟨p. 122⟩servants of God, being in a state of grace in Jesus Christ, have looked at themselves as bound by the Commandments of the Law, and as being under the Law to Christ, who hath given the Law and power unto his servants sincerely to keep it, both by writing in their hearts a Law of obedience, and by putting his Holy Spirit within them; for if the people of God were not sensible of their bounden duty to the observation of the Law of God, they would neither have faith nor sense of Gods fatherly displeasure, when they negligently break these Laws; neither would they be sensible of Gods acceptance of their conformity thereunto.