The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

8. Hence this Forgiveness is always connected with Faith and Repentance. There is great dust raised about the word Condition, and whether Faith and ⟨p. 224⟩Repentance be Conditional in the New Covenant• I know no danger in calling them so, if rightly understood; however, it is enough to say, that there is a close Connection between these, and the benefits contained in the New Covenant. I• grant, we may call them Benefits too, being fruits• of Gods Everlasting Love, and operations of his Spirit in and with the means, and things promised to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption, in• behalf of those whom he was to Die for. But in the New Covenant, they are acts of preventing Grace, and are not promised on any Condition• to us: all the offers of Spiritual Good are there made to Repenting and Believing: so that both the Invitations of the Gospel, and the Evangelical commands Published in it, require this of us, though not of our selves, but we must wait for them as a Gift from God: yet this is a great Truth, that there are no other Saving benefi• conferred on us without them, and there is a reciprocation in them, which is as much as is to be understood in calling them Conditions; viz. that without Faith and Repentance, there is no Forgiveness: if God giveth not this Grace, neither doth he the other, Acts 5. 31. and that whenever God bestow• these upon any, he together with it brings them into a State of Pardon: true Faith hath all Sal• vation secured to it, Heb 10. 39.

8. Hence this Forgiveness is always connected with Faith and Repentance. There is great dust raised about the word Condition, and whether Faith and ⟨p. 224⟩Repentance be Conditional in the New Covenant• I know no danger in calling them so, if rightly understood; however, it is enough to say, that there is a close Connexion between these, and the benefits contained in the New Covenant. I grant, we may call them Benefits too, being fruits of Gods Everlasting Love, and operations of his Spirit in and with the means, and things promised to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption, in behalf of those whom he was to Dy for. But in the New Covenant, they are acts of preventing Grace, and are not promised on any Condition to us: all the offers of Spiritual Good are there made to Repenting and Believing: so that both the Invitations of the Gospel, and the Evangelical commands Published in it, require this of us, though not of our selves, but we must wait for them as a Gift from God: yet this is a great Truth, that there are no other Saving benefi conferred on us without them, and there is a reciprocation in them, which is as much as is to be understood in calling them Conditions; viz. that without Faith and Repentance, there is no Forgiveness: if God giveth not this Grace, neither doth he the other,