A59035:1167
The bowels of tender mercy sealed in the everlasting covenant wherein is set forth…
The bowels of tender mercy sealed in the everlasting covenant wherein is set forth the nature, conditions and excellencies of it, and how a sinner should do to enter into it, and the danger of refusing this covenant-relation : also the treasures of grace, blessings, comforts, promises and privileges that are comprised in the covenant of Gods free and rich mercy made in Jesus Christ with believers / by that faithful and reverend divine, Mr Obadiah Sedgwick ... ; perfected and intended for the press, therefore corrected and lately revised by himself, and published by his own manuscript ...The bowels of tender mercy sealed in the everlasting covenant wherein is set forth the nature, conditions and excellencies of it, and how a sinner should do to enter into it, and the danger of refusing this covenant-relation : also the treasures of grace, blessings, comforts, promises and priviledges that are comprized in the covenant of Gods free and rich mercy made in Jesus Christ with believers / by that faithful and reverend divine, Mr Obadiah Sedgwick ... ; perfected and intended for the press, therefore corrected and lately revised by himself, and published by his own manuscript ...
London: printed by Edward Mottershed for Adoniram Byfield, 1661
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.
4. All the good of the Covenant is dispensed in a right season; and this 1also shows that it is a well-ordered Covenant: when things are out of time, they are out of order. If Snow or Frost should come in the time of Harvest, this would be disorderly; and if physic should come when the person is dead, this would be disorderly. Things are well-ordered, when they come neither too soon, nor too late, but in the very season when we need them, and when they will do us good: And after this manner are all the dispensations of this Covenant; they are let out, and come in the very time a•d minute of our •eed. When a poor sinner knows not what to do, then doth Christ appear, and then doth mercy appear, and then doth help appear: Isa. 41. 17. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 2 Cor. 6. 2. He saith I have heard ⟨p. 130⟩thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee; when Davids heart was overwhelmed and ready to faint, then God took him up and comforted him: And when the Church was as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, then saith God, with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee; when Ephraim was ashamed, and even confounded, then saith God, My bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy on him; when Paul was pressed above measure, and his own strength was found insufficient against Satan's temptations, then he received an answer, my grace is sufficient for thee. O beloved! thus is the Covenant ordered that you shall have mercy in the fit time, and help in the best time, and deliverance in the best time, and answers to your prayers in the best time; though you have not your desires presently answered, yet your God is a gracious God, and therefore intends your good; and he is a wise God, and therefore knows the best time; and he is a faithful God, and therefore will lose no time.
4. All the good of the Covenant is dispensed in a right season; and this