Sixteen questions of serious and necessary consequence, propounded unto Mr. John Cotton of Boston…Sixteene questions of seriovs and necessary consequence, propounded unto Mr. John Cotton of Boston…

A man may give his Sanctification for an evident ground or Cause of his faith whereby he is justified, and yet sometimes not build his Justification upon his Sanctification, nor be under a Covenant of Works, but only sometimes go aside to a Covenant of Works: As in Case, when a man is truly justified and seeth it not, he doth then betake him to his Works for the hastening of his Assurance. As Abraham when he had long waited for the promised Seed, thought he was justified by believing the free Promise: yet, for the more speedy satisfying of his Faith and Hope, he turned aside to go into Hagar, (who was a Type of the Covenant of ⟨p. 11⟩Works) for the hastening of his sight and fruition of the promised Seed: So there be sundry Children of Abraham (even of his elect Seed) that having been driven out of their Sins by a Spirit of Bondage, and finding a need of Christ, and their own insufficiency and unworthiness to receive him: do therefore seek and wait for him (by the mighty Power of God) in every Ordinance and Duty. Such men are already truly justified (though it may be as yet they do not know so much) because this their seeking and waiting for Christ, in the Sense of their own Need & Emptiness and unworthiness, is a true Act of a lively justifying faith. But now if such souls, because God may tarry long, before they can see and feel Christ given to them, shall therefore seek Christ in their own Works of Sanctification, and in the Promises and Blessing given to such Works, and not finding such Works, can find no Peace nor Assurance: Such Souls, though they do not build their Justification upon their Sanctification, (for indeed they were truly justified before, while they depend on CHRIST for Righteousness, according to the free Promise of Grace, and so are truly under a Covenant of Grace) yet they go aside to a Covenant of Works (as unto Hagar) to bring forth to the sight of Christ (the seed of Promise) whom they so long waited for. The failing of such Souls is this, that they having Christ laid in their Hearts, as the Foundation of their Justification (though they know not so much.)