A80637:352
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 200-250
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.
For Answer, Answ. He is called an earnest in two respects. 1. First, As he bindeth the bargain between God and the soul; he doth confirm all the promises of God to us, and fasteneth them upon our hearts, and settleth our hearts with an unmovable faith: God having given us his Spirit, doth give us all in him, for he bindeth our union with Christ, and our relation to the Father; the Covenant of Gods grace unto us, and us unto it; the Gospel to us, and us unto the Gospel.
2. Secondly, He is an earnest, as he is the first fruits of the payment: if a man give a pledge, he meaneth to take his pledge again: but if he gives money in earnest, he meaneth not to take that again, for it is part of the payment, and the whole is but a greater payment of the same kind: so in like manner, what is all our inheritance? surely a fullness of the fruition of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ, and of the blessed Spirit of God; this is all our inheritance that we look for in another world: Eph. 1.14. He is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory: here we have but a little portion of the Spirit, a little earnest-penny; but this little portion is an assurance unto us, that he will make it up, until we be able to receive no more.
2. Secondly, He is an earnest, as he is the first fruits of the payment: if a man give a pledge, he meaneth to take his pledge again: but if he gives money in earnest, he meaneth not to take that again, for it is part of the payment, and the whole is but a greater payment of the same kinde: so in like manner, what is all our inheritance? surely a fulness of the fruition of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ, and of the blessed Spirit of God; this is all our inheritance that we look for in another world: Eph. 1.14. He is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory: here we have but a little portion of the Spirit, a little earnest-peny; but this little portion is an assurance unto us, that he will make it up, until we be able to receive no more.