N00263:268
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.
But know, and be assured, that if, to keep other men company, you go their pace, and slip aside into their irregularities, when God shall come to plead the controversy of His Covenant, you must not think it hard measure, if you be made then also to keep company with them: But if you lay out your lives by the straight Line of Scripture Truths, and not by the crooked line of such examples, God will remember you with favour in such a time, when it will be not only a safety, but a glory and a happiness so to be remembered: If you stand to your Covenant-oath against such Temptations, He will never fail of His Covenant-Promise.
But know, and be assured, that if, to keep other men company, you go their pace, and slip aside into their irregularities, when God shall come to plead the controversie of His Covenant, you must not think it hard measure, if you be made then also to keep company with them: But if you lay out your lives by the straight Line of Scripture Truths, and not by the crooked line of such examples, God will remember you with favour in such a time, when it will be not only a safety, but a glory and a happiness so to be remembred: If you stand to your Covenant-oath against such Temptations, He will never fail of His Covenant-Promise.
3. Make conscience of discharging your Covenant-duties one to another. Man is made a sociable Creature, and the main end of society is designed for the ⟨p. 105⟩bettering of the Estate of Mankind, by giving them opportunity to be mutually helpful each to other. And the particular end of Christian societies considered as such, is for the better promoting of spiritual good: This duty is a Covenant-engagement which you stand under, not only by virtue of a voluntary Promise plighte• explicitly and engaged in mutually, but by the will of Christ, it being a New Covenant-Command, Joh. 13.34. A New Command I give you, that you love one another. It is a Debt which you owe each to other for Christ's sake. Love is a very large and comprehensive-duty. Christians being bound up together in a society ought to express this Love by a sedulous endeavour to carry on the Glory of Jesus Christ, and forward the Salvation one of another. I shall compromise what I have to present as particular advice in this Case to two Heads.