A34674:238
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.
If a man be wise, he shall fail in that point, and it may be in nothing so much as in that, even in those things wherein he thinketh he walketh most wisely; and such an one will find most trials in point of his wisdom, and the like will be found in all other graces, and all to this end, to teach the Israel of God to know that no man liveth by his wisdom, nor by any thing in himself, but by Faith in Jesus Christ, whom God hath given unto his people, and who is only able to give new supplies of his spirit unto his servants, to act every gift which he hath given them.
If a man be wise, he shall faile in that point, and it may be in nothing so much as in that, even in those things wherein he thinketh he walketh most wisely; and such an one will find most tryalls in point of his wisedome, and the like will be found in all other graces, and all to this end, to teach the Israel of God to know that no man liveth by his wisdome, nor by any thing in himselfe, but by Faith in Jesus Christ, whom God hath given unto his people, and who is onely able to give new supplyes of his spirit unto his servants, to act every gift which he hath given them.
I might have mentioned the example of Sarah, a meek and a quiet godly spirited woman, subject and obedient to her Husband, and called him Lord, whose daughters you are while you do well, 1 Pet. 3.6. and yet you know, one of her greatest failings was in point of reverence to her Husband, Gen. 16.5. When she saw that she was despised, she said to her Husband, Thou dost me wrong, &c. ⟨p. 159⟩Where is the reverence of Sarah now? Will you have the daughters of Sarah to imitate her herein? What had her Husband done? There was no fault in him in this matter, she had no reason to tax him upon this point, it was her own Counsel, vers. 2. that he should go in to her maid, that I may have Children by her; therefore there was no colour of any just complaint on her part, yet see this meek spirited woman failed in the point of her meekness herein, and did express no greater failing all her life long, that we read of; she was weak in Faith once, but there was great reason for that, her womb was dead, and her Lord (as she called him) was old also: Nor doth the Angel so much blame her about it, but that action wherein she most failed, was in that grace wherein she most abounded. And though every grace of the Spirit be of great force when the Lord doth act and move it, yet let a man go forth in the strength of his greatest gifts, and if ever his heart fail him, it will be in them. Think not when you have done all you can, that you are worthy of any thing, but say that you are unprofitable