N00263:258
Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shown the connection…Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shewn the connexion…
Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shown the connection which there is between the promise, on God's part; and duty, on our part, in the covenant of grace: as it was delivered in several sermons, preached in order to solemn renewing of covenant. / By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Seven lines from Deuteronomy]Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shewn the connexion which there is between the promise, on God's part; and duty, on our part, in the covenant of grace: as it was delivered in several sermons, preached in order to solemn renewing of covenant. / By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Seven lines from Deuteronomy]
printed by James Glen, 1682
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. Let me prescribe some Scripture-Rules to the body of the Church, or Society of God's People: Would you be found and acknowledged to be a Society that keeps Covenant with God? Observe then these Directions.
1. Keep pure and entire all the Ordinances of God from corruption, either by Depravation or Innovation. The Oracles and Ordinances of God are committed to His Church as a great depositum, worthy of our utmost care and watchfulness: They are great things▪ they are the means of eternal Life; the Glory, as well as the Love of God is abundantly manifested in them to the Children of Men: They are the fat things of his house, Psal. 36.8.63.5. They are things by which, not only poor Man, but also (as sound Divines interpret that, Eph. 3.10.) Angels themselves are instructed in the precious mystery of Man's Salvation by Christ. And there is great reason why the People of God should keep them up in their purity, because the Visible Covenant-transactions between God and His People are therein upheld and continued. They are the means, both of our keeping Covenant with God, and by which also He conveys down to us the spiritual blessings thereof. Furthermore, if the Ordinances be corrupted, the streams by which we receive the Waters of Life are defiled, or obstructed, which cannot but be very dangerous to the Church of Christ, and will certainly expose many Souls to great hazards. And the more need have Men to look to it, inasmuch as the present times greatly labour of this disease, and thereby there are occasioned many and great temptations for the People of God to lose much ground, and give way to their own damage in compliance with the lusts of Men. Now there are two ways by which the Ordinances of Christ may be corrupted, and either of them is exceeding dangerous, and cannot ⟨p. 98⟩be admitted without our being guilty of breaking Covenant, viz.