A34674:257
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.
Answ. In a word, The Lord draweth us unto his Son by his Spirit, and calleth, us as by his word, so by his Spirit also, and giveth us by his word and Spirit unto Jesus Christ. In this thing I shall speak no more unto you, than ⟨p. 175⟩what you have often heard, and I suppose long ago received; As that the Lord calleth his people out of their sins by the light of the Law, and by the Spirit of bondage; he setteth home the Law effectually unto the soul, and thereby draweth us from sin and from the world in some measure, that we have now no mind to those things which before we were full of delight in, whether they be sins against the Law, or sins against the Gospel: it is the Lords usual dealing by his Spirit to set home sins against both in so much that thereby we come to be afflicted with some kind of trembling and fear and torment about our spiritual estate. And thus it was with Saul (who afterwards was Paul) Acts 9.3,4,5,6. when Christ called unto him out of heaven, and challenged and convinced him of sin, he all trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? So it was with the Jailer, Acts 16.29. After the Lord had shaken his heart with an earth-quake (which is a sanction of the Law, and a ratification of it, as all Gods judgements are) he called for a light, and ⟨p. 176⟩sprang in, and came trembling to Paul and Silas. Thus the Lord draweth men out of themselves, and their sinful ways by a spirit of bondage, whereby they are convinced of sin, and desert of Gods wrath, are greatly and deeply afflicted with fear: concerning which the Apostle Paul saith, 2 Tim. 1.7. God hath not given us the Spirit of fear (or bondage) but of power, of love, and of a sound mind, &c. Such fear also the Apostle John speaketh of, 1 Joh. 4.18. when he saith, Perfect love casteth out fear, for fear hath torment; which cometh from the sense of a mans estate; whereby he is forced to cry out many times, and to say, woe worth my soul, that ever I was borne, for the Lord causeth the to possess all my sins, and presseth me down to the nethermost hell. This is one work of the Spirit of bondage, by which the Lord draweth the soul out of it self and sins, though of it self the spirit of fear goeth no further than to shake a mans carnal confidence; which is accompanied with Anguish and Torment,