A34674:269
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.
The third act or work followeth both these, as soon as ever the Lord hath given this self-denying spirit unto the soul, and hath made it like unto a bruised Reed, or like a Traveller that is out of his way, and willing to take any man by the hand that will lead him into his way again; when the soul is in such a frame, the Lord cometh with a third act of Reconcilement. The first work was of Conviction, the second of Prostration, the third of Reconciliation. This is the third work of the Father, though there is in all these works a concurrence of the whole Trinity, yet some are more proper unto each Person, as our Catechisms teach us, and we are not wont to scruple such expressions in them. God the Father created us, and we cannot expound it; but as God the Father created us at the first, so he doth again create you, or else if we acknowledge it in the one, and not in the other, we do wrong unto God, even to the Father. Well, he is then reconciled unto us, having given unto us the Spirit of his Son; & now he doth pronounce us reconciled unto him, this is the work which is spoken of Rom. 5.10. ⟨p. 191⟩and this is the work of God the Father, according to that was before alleged, 2 Cor. 5.19. God was in Christ reconciling the world, &c. Now there are two acts of God as fruits that follow hereupon, and both of them done at once upon the soul.
The third act or work followeth both these, as soone as ever the Lord hath given this selfe-denying spirit unto the soule, and hath made it like unto a bruised Reed, or like a Traveller that is out of his way, and willing to take any man by the hand that will lead him into his way againe; when the soule is in such a frame, the Lord cometh with a third act of Reconcilement. The first work was of Conviction, the second of Prostration, the third of Reconciliation. This is the third work of the Father, though there is in all these works a concurrence of the whole Trinity, yet some are more proper unto each Person, as our Catechismes teach us, and we are not wont to scruple such expressions in them. God the Father created us, and we cannot expound it; but as God the Father created us at the first, so he doth again create you, or else if we acknowledg it in the one, and not in the other, we do wrong unto God, even to the Father. Well, he is then reconciled unto us, having given unto us the Spirit of his Son; & now he doth pronounce us reconciled unto him, this is the work which is spoken of