A80637:209
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 100-150
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. Trust not in any gifts that you have received for the performance of any duty, for it is not the strongest Christian that is able to put forth a good thought, 2 Cor. 3.5. But our sufficiency is of God. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing, Joh. 15.5. And the Apostle Paul cannot only not do any great matter by his own strength and grace, but nothing at all without Jesus Christ; and therefore he giveth us to understand, that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, Phil. 2.12. if therefore we have any new work to do, look to the Lord Jesus Christ afresh by Faith, that he may carry an end our works in us, and for us; otherwise it is not any strength or grace in us, that can produce any good work, word, or thought: And therefore (mind ⟨p. 112⟩you) the Apostle maketh it a Principle of Christian Religion, that The just man liveth by his Faith; and he often mentioneth it, Gal. 2.20. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God; where he putteth it into his own experience: why? did he not live by Love, and Patience, and Zeal? &c. yes truly, they were lively in him, if ever in any man, besides our blessed Saviour; and yet notwithstanding, he never attributed life to any of these gifts of his; but if he speak of his Life, he maketh this his Universal Life, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, and I am I am able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, Phil. 4.13. This is the true savour of a Christian spirit, that when gifts are at the highest, the heart is then at the lowest: 1 Cor. 15.9, 10. The Apostle Paul there acknowledgeth himself to be as one born out of due time; for (saith he) I am less then the least of the Apostles, not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God; I, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly then they all, yet not I, but the grace of God in me. This is truly spiritual sanctification, that when the soul is full of the Holy Ghost, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, yet he is like a man in great penury, as having nothing of himself: