A47489:109
The everlasting covenant, a sweet cordial for a drooping soul, or, The excellent nature…
The everlasting covenant, a sweet cordial for a drooping soul, or, The excellent nature of the covenant of grace opened in a sermon preached January the 29th, at the funeral of Mr. Henry Forty, late pastor of a Church of Christ, at Abingdon, in the county of Berks, who departed this life Jan. 25th 1692/3 and was interred at Southwark ... : to which is added, An elegy on the death of the said minister / by Benjamin Keach ...The everlasting covenant, a sweet cordial for a drooping soul, or, The excellent nature of the covenant of grace opened in a sermon preached January the 29th, at the funeral of Mr. Henry Forty, late pastor of a Church of Christ, at Abingdon, in the county of Berks, who departed this life Jan. 25th 1692/3 and was interr'd at Southwark ... : to which is added, An elegy on the death of the said minister / by Benjamine Keach ...
London: printed for H. Barnard, 1693
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.
2. 'Tis as it appears from hence, an Absolute, and not a Conditional Covenant: not if we do this and that, viz get a new Heart, and perform the Condition of Gospel-Holiness and Obedience, we shall have pardon and •e justified; no, but otherwise: He that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his Faith is counted for Righteousness, Rom. 4.5. all is freely of Grace through Christ's Merit, I will take away the Heart of Stone, and give them a Heart of Flesh, a new Heart I will give them, and • new Spirit I will put within them: I will be their God, and they shall be my People.
Now 'tis questioned, (saith Reverend Cotton,) whether the Promise wherein the Lord giveth himself, be Absolute or Conditional? Faith to receive Christ is ever upon an Absolute Promise. If you will say, it is a Promise to a Condition, what kind of Condition was it? There is no Condition before Faith, but a Condition of Misery, a lost Condition; or if a gracious Condition, it is a Condition subsequent, not pre-existent, no Condition before it, whereby a Man can close with Christ: and if it was a Condition after Faith unto which the Promise was made, then Faith was before; and thatsoever followeth Conversion, is no ground of Faith, but a fruit and Effect of it: therefore I say, our first coming to Christ cannot be upon a Conditional, but an Absolute Promise.
Now 'tis question'd, (saith Reverend Cotton,) whether the Promise wherein the Lord giveth himself, be Absolute or Conditional? Faith to receive Christ is ever upon an Absolute Promise. If you will say, it is a Promise to a Condition, what kind of Condition was it? There is no Condition before Faith, but a Condition of Misery, a lost Condition; or if a gracious Condition, it is a Condition subsequent, not pre-existant, no Condition before it, whereby a Man can close with Christ: and if it was a Condition after Faith unto which the Promise was made, then Faith was before; and thatsoever followeth Conversion, is no ground of Faith, but a fruit and Effect of it: therefore I say, our first coming to Christ cannot be upon a Conditional, but an Absolute Promise.