N00231:60
Returning unto God the great concernment of a covenant people. Or A sermon preached…
Returning unto God the great concernment of a covenant people. Or A sermon preached to the Second Church in Boston in New-England, March 17. 1679.80. when that church did solemnly and explicitly renew their covenant with God, and one with another. By Increase Mather teacher of that church. ; [Ten lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by John Foster, 1680
Returning unto God the great Concernment of a Covenant People.
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.
Object. 5. Some say, The Covenant is so strict, we shall make men afraid to join to the Church?
Object. 5. Some say, The Covenant is so strict, we shall make men afraid to joyn to the Church?
Answ. The Covenant is no stricter then God hath made it, who saith unto every one that hates to be Reformed, What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth? In the Covenant which we are about to Renew, there is nothing expressed but plain clear duties, required in the Gospel. They that are sincere will not be afraid of Church Communion, because they must be under obligation to practise according to the Scripture. And as for those that are not sincere, they are better out of the Church then in it. It was a mercy to the primitive Church, (m)when as those that were not true Believers no man durst join himself unto them. Act. 5. 13, 14. The fewer Hypocrites (who are loth to come up to the practice and power of godliness) in a Church, the better. Though such will creep in unawares, Jude. 4. yet we should not let them in, if we knew them to be such. Sincere Professors are Golden Members; and therefore to have Churches consist of such, as much as may be, is the way to have them continue Golden Candlesticks.
Answ. The Covenant is no stricter then God hath made it, who saith unto every one that hates to be Reformed, What hast thou to doe to take my Covenant into thy mouth? In the Covenant which we are about to Renew, there is nothing expressed but plain clear dutyes, required in the Gospel. They that are sincere will not be afraid of Church Communion, because they must be under obligation to practise according to the Scripture. And as for those that are not sincere, they are better out of the Church then in it. It was a mercy to the primitive Church, (m)