A80637:169
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 5-100
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.
The stony and thorny soil did hear the word with joy, and so those Hypocrites, Isai 59.2. did delight to approach ⟨p. 81⟩unto God: but what followed upon the delight which they took in God, and in holy Duties? it made them ready to expostulate with God, why he did not answer them according to their works: the delight which they found, did so fill their hearts with assurance of the grace of God, that they looked at their Duties as so many tokens of the love of God unto their souls; and then when men come to find more comfort in their obedience, then in the grace of God in Jesus Christ, it maketh them ready to expostulate with God, touching the worth of their own Righteousness, Isa. 57.10. Thou hast found the life of thine hand, therefore thou wast not grieved; as long as a man findeth life and comfort in his own duties and performances, what need can he see to be grieved for the want of Jesus Christ? or at the best, if he do grieve, and find his heart comforted in grieving and delighting in the course of humiliation, he then thinketh he hath no need of being farther solicitous about his spiritual estate. Thus we see plainly that the Law of God is of marvellous use in the days of the Gospel, of great use unto those that belong unto God, to break their hearts for sin, and to drive them to Jesus Christ; and for others, the disobedience of the Law, leaves them without excuse, that so disobey it; again, the obedience of it, and comfort in that obedience, doth harden the hearts of others from Jesus Christ.
The stony and thorny soyl did hear the word with joy, and so those Hypocrites, Isai 59.2. did delight to approach ⟨p. 81⟩unto God: but what followed upon the delight which they took in God, and in holy Duties? it made them ready to expostulate with God, why he did not answer them according to their works: the delight which they found, did so fill their hearts with assurance of the grace of God, that they looked at their Duties as so many tokens of the love of God unto their souls; and then when men come to find more comfort in their obedience, then in the grace of God in Jesus Christ, it maketh them ready to expostulate with God, touching the worth of their own Righteousness,