N00263:363
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.
6. Trust not in your selves, or your own strength. In the first Covenant Man was to look upon and exercise his created Grace, though not without imploring Divine assistance and concurse: In the New-Covenant Man is utterly to disclaim himself, and deny all his own strength. The consideration of our own frailty and plain impotency to spiritual things were discouragement enough to our renewal of Covenant, If God expected, or we promised performance in our own strength. Though every Believer must acknowledge (with Paul) that of himself he can do nothing, yet is he neither to sit still and do nothing, or yet to renounce the Covenant of God, and engaging of himself to his service: Only he must carefully beware that he do not turn it into a Covenant of Works by being his own undertaker; lest whiles he pretends to renew, he ⟨p. 149⟩destroys the Covenant of Grace. It may seem a Paradox, but is an Evangelical truth, that a Christian must acknowledge that he can do nothing, and yet resolve, and bind himself to do all.
6. Trust not in your selves, or your own strength. In the first Covenant Man was to look upon and exercise his created Grace, though not without imploring Divine assistance and concurse: In the New-Covenant Man is utterly to disclaim himself, and deny all his own strength. The consideration of our own frailty and plain impotency to spiritual things were discouragement enough to our renewal of Covenant, If God expected, or we promised performance in our own strength. Though every Beleever must acknowledge (with Paul) that of himself he can do nothing, yet is he neither to sit still and do nothing, or yet to renounce the Covenant of God, and engaging of himself to his service: Only he must carefully beware that he do not turn it into a Covenant of Works by being his own undertaker; lest whiles he pretends to renew, he ⟨p. 149⟩destroyes the Covenant of Grace. It may seem a Paradox, but is an Evangelical truth, that a Christian must acknowledge that he can do nothing, and yet resolve, and bind himself to do all.