A80637:108
A treatise of the covenant of grace, as it is dispensed to the elect…
A treatise of the covenant of grace, as it is dispensed to the elect seed, effectually unto salvation. Being the substance of divers sermons preached upon Act. 7. 8. / by that eminently holy and judicious man of God, Mr. John Cotton, teacher of the church at Boston in N.E.
London: printed by Ja. Cottrel for John Allen, 1659
THE COVENANT OF GRACE, As it is Dispensed to the Elect Seed, effect… › Part 1-50
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.
3. Quest. Whether do we receive the Lord Jesus Christ in an absolute, or in a conditional Promise?
We know the Lord can convey himself in an Evangelical commandment, Answ. as well as in a promise; as we find it, Isa. 41.12. Fear thou not, worm Jacob, I will help thee, &c. He can also convey himself in a threatening unto the Devil; as unto our first parents he did convey himself, wrapping up a promise in it, as Gen. 3.15. I will put e••nity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel: and from hence the Lord gave them to suck a sweet and comfortable promise of his Free Grace: and when the like is conveyed ⟨p. 42⟩in a commandment, the Lord undertaketh to work that which he so commandeth: But now it is questioned, Whether the promise wherein the Lord giveth himself, be absolute, or conditional. Faith uniting us to Christ, it is ever upon an absolute promise; or a condition subsequent, not antecedent. If you will say it is a Promise to a Condition; What kind of condition was it? There is no condition before Faith; for then a man is out of the way of any gracious Blessing from heaven; no condition before it, whereby a man can close with Jesus Christ: and if it was a condition after Faith, unto which the promise was made, then Faith was there before; and whatsoever followeth conversion, is no ground of Faith, but a fruit and effect of it: therefore I say, our first coming on to Christ, cannot be upon a conditional, but upon an absolute Promise. If the Lord bear witness unto Justification, it is either absolute, or to Faith. If he come to bear witness unto a mans Sanctification, then the Lord doth it from some work or other of his Grace in them; as unto Abraham, Gen. 22.12. By this I know that thou fearest me, seeing thou-hast not with-held thy Son, thine only Son. It is true indeed, after a mans Justification is born witness unto from Grace, or from Faith, then Sanctification and Justification do mutually bear witness one to another: that is, when Justification is not wholly doubted of, but in part, then Sanctification is of use to witness; but not when Justification lieth wholly prostrate.