A34674:218
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.
Use 4. May serve to Teach the servants of God, that desire to walk in a way of constant obedience, how to build their faith and hope; truly if they be grounded upon your own obedience or righteousness of sanctification, if they depend upon you, you will find your hearts ever unsettled: you may find comfort, as under the Law you shall, for the Law will cast in comforts upon a man because of his obedience, if he be married to the Law; but if you shall believe that Christ is yours, and comfort your selves because you have been by the power of the Law constrained to duties, and restrained from sin, and thereupon build your conjugal communion with Christ, you will find your souls full of sadness and fear ere long; especially if you have true grace in your hearts: and therefore it is the ⟨p. 139⟩faithfulness and tenderness of the grace of God unto his people, that when Christians come into this Country, though they have been marvellous eminent in our native Country, yet here they cannot pray fervently, nor hear the word with profit, nor receive the Seals with Comfort, they wonder what is become of their old prayers, and hearings, and Sacraments, and of their lively spirits in holy duties, truly the Lord hath disabled them (as it were) from such things, because they did build their union and fellowship with Christ upon them; that so they might know the freedom of the grace of God, that justifieth the ungodly; then will the poor soul be glad to seek after the Lord Jesus Christ, and say (as the people of God sometimes did, Hos. 2.7.) I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me, than now: now the soul will plainly see & discern that he closed not with his true husband when as he built so much hope and comfort upon his duties; therefore he will find himself weak and dead (as it were) to all spiritual duties, and can find no life in ⟨p. 140⟩them, no comfort from them; and it is the marvellous goodness and free grace of God unto such a soul, whom the Lord will not suffer to bless himself in his works; for if a man should lay the foundation of his comforts in them, and be ready as it were to take it ill, if he should not find God accepting his works; Wherefore have we fasted, and thou regardest it not? Isa. 58.3.