A34674:241
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 thus much of the second Use which Christians are to make of their Sanctification.
3 There is in the next place a point of Witness, which this Sanctification doth yield, and the Spirit of God with it; the water beareth witness to the blood, and the blood to the water, and the Spirit unto both, 1 John 5.6,7,8. A mans own Spirit beareth witness also, Rom. 8.16. And therefore as a witness of God unto our Faith, we may lawfully hear what it speaketh: But this is the life of a true Evidence, that all these gifts of God do not bear witness any further then a man seeth the Lord Jesus working them in him, and for him; for it is Faith that maketh all the graces of the Gospel active; and it is a condition so requisite, that unless our works be of Faith, and flow from it, they are not acceptable before God, Heb. 11.6. Therefore unless Faith carry ⟨p. 162⟩an end our works, they are not works of holiness, such as should bear witness to the soul; therefore the Apostle doth stir up the Corinthians unto this mainly, Examine your selves, whether you are in the faith, 2 Cor. 13.5. And if he do exhort them to Examination, it is in point of Faith, & therefore Reverend Forbes of Middleburgh (who hath written a Sermon upon that Text) saith well, That unless men find faith in their holiness, none of all their sanctification will become a sound witness of the grace of God unto them; but if Faith be found, then you shall see Jesus Christ accepting you, and breathing in you, except ye be reprobates.
3 There is in the next place a point of Witnesse, which this Sanctification doth yield, and the Spirit of God with it; the water beareth witnesse to the blood, and the blood to the water, and the Spirit unto both,