A59035:1435
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.
Sol. True, and this is indeed a direct course to stand fast in the Covenant; but then consider, that this course will break the neck of that opinion which makes the lastingness of the Covenant to depend upon the sole power and pleasure of mans will.
Sol. True, and this is indeed a direct course to stand fast in the Covenant; but then consider, that this course will break the neck of that opinion which makes the lastingnesse of the Covenant to depend upon the sole power and pleasure of mans will.
For when you pray to God for his grace, and his strength, and his continued presence, that you may (thereby) continue with him in Covenant, you do herein deny your own power and sufficiency, and you do acknowledge that you are strong in his strength, and not in your own might; and consequently that the lastingness of the Covenant doth not depend on the power of the will, but upon the presence, and power, and assistance of his grace, and so fall in with us, that the Covenant is everlasting; not in respect of mans will, but in respect of Gods grace.
For when you pray to God for his grace, and his strength, and his continued presence, that you may (thereby) continue with him in Covenant, you do herein deny your own power and sufficiency, and you do acknowledge that you are strong in his strength, and not in your own might; and consequently that the lastingnesse of the Covenant doth not depend on the power of the will, but upon the presence, and power, and assistance of his grace, and so fall in with us, that the Covenant is everlasting; not in respect of mans will, but in respect of Gods grace.
4. I will add one consideration more; it is not possible (I speak ex hypothesi, 1