A66098:73
Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shown the connection…Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shewn the connexion…
Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shown the connection which there is between the promise, on God's part; and duty, on our part, in the covenant of grace as it was delivered in several sermons, preached in order to solemn renewing of covenant. By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England.Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shewn the connexion which there is between the promise, on God's part; and duty, on our part, in the covenant of grace as it was delivered in several sermons, preached in order to solemn renewing of covenant. By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England.
printed by James Glen for Samuel Sewall, 1682
Discourse › Pages 1-60: Covenant-Keeping the way to Blessedness.
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.
1. rThey have different Parties: In the one God and Christ are the two Parties, i. e. Christ Personal, or the Person of Jesus Christ God Man; but in the other God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost make the one Party, and Christ Mystical, i. e. Christ and His Church considered as One, do make the other: And that I here put Christ into both Parties is not to be wondered at, because He is Mediator, and Surety on both sides: Christ is looked upon in the first as a Peculiar Person Covenanting, in the other as a common Person in the Name of His Elect. Hence, in the first of these the People of God are not to be looked upon as Parties indenting, but as a Subject indented for; they do not Covenant to redeem themselves, but are the Matter of Christ's Redemption, and hence they are contained, not in the Condition, but in ⟨p. 21⟩the Promise of that Covenant, Isa. 53. 10. If he shall make His Soul an offering for Sin, There is the Condition, His Soul shall see His seed: There is the Promise; here therefore they lie in the Promise, and there Salvation is the wages of Christ's Obedience: but in the second they are indenting in Christ, and stand with Him under a Covenant-Condition: Text; and this will show us a satisfactory reason, why many Promises come absolutely to us, which are yet conditional Promises in the Covenant they belong to: ex. gr. The Promise of Converting, Healing, Leading, comes absolutely to the Elect, for they are converted without any previous Condition in them; nor can we justly suppose any previous Preparatory dispositions or qualifications, as Conditions ascertaining conversion: Hence that, 2 Tim. 2 13. If we believe not, He abideth true, He cannot deny Himself. i. e. His Promise made to Christ: But still if we refer this Promise to the right Covenant, it is conditional, and belongs to the Covenant of Redemption; where, for the obtaining of this benefit, Christ stood engaged to buy him out of the hand of the Law, and purchase and make payment for him of an inheritance among the Saints; and if Christ had not fulfilled the condition of that Covenant, no Elect Person had ever been converted: It was Christ that agreed for; yea, bought and paid for them first: