N00766:134
The everlasting Gospel. The Gospel of justification by the righteousness of God; as 'tis…
The everlasting Gospel. The Gospel of justification by the righteousness of God; as 'tis held and preached in the churches of New-England: expressed in a brief discourse on that important article; made at Boston in the year, 1699. / By Cotton Mather. ; And, asserted with the attestations, of several Reverend and eminent persons, now most considerable in those churches.The everlasting Gospel. The Gospel of justification by the righteousness of God; as 'tis held and preach'd in the churches of New-England: expressed in a brief discourse on that important article; made at Boston in the year, 1699. / By Cotton Mather. ; And, asserted with the attestations, of several Reverend and eminent persons, now most considerable in those churches.
Boston: printed by B. Green for Nicholas Buttolph, 1700
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
First, Your own Righteousness, is far from coming up to the Demands of God in His Holy Law; and God will not Annul, or Alter that Holy Law. It is the voice of Heaven unto us, in Gal. 2.16. By the works of the Law shall no Flesh be Justified: And in Rom. 3.20. By the Deeds of the Law, there shall no Flesh be Justified in the Sight of God. I have known some to Live in gross Immoralities; and yet they would say, Their Peace was made with God. Why so? They owe no man any Malice; they say. Poor Soul; Is this all thy Righteousness? Man, Thou ⟨p. 43⟩mayst go ten thousand times farther than this, and yet be altogether destitute of Righteousness after all. I tell you truly; As 'tis said, Job 20.6, 7. Though his Excellence mount up to the▪ Heavens, and his Head reach unto the Clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own Dung; Even so, Though you Lived like men in Heaven upon Earth, and though you Spoke with the Tongues of Angels, and Shed Rivers of Tears for your Sins, and poured out Prayers that should pierce the very Clouds more than Seven Times a day, and give all your Estates unto the poor, and your very Bodies unto the Fire: yea, though you were Prophets of God, and could Remove Mountains; Yet if you go to make any of This, your Justifying Righteousness, I earnestly testify unto you. The Holy God will abhor you after all, and at last make you the Abhorring of all Flesh. To speak in the Language of the Prophet, I will declare thy Righteousness and thy Works, for they shall not profit thee. Man, Thou art Condemned by the Law of God; Thou hast lost thy Ability to keep the Law: And if thou wert Able to keep it, would this make amends for thy former Breaches of it? No, would it not. Some indeed speak much, of Washing away their Sins by the Tears of Repentance: But it is an unsafe Speech; Mens Tears in this point, are but Soap and Nitre, which however multiplied, will never wash away their Sins. Yea, Though thou shouldest lie, like a glowing Iron in the Fires of Tophet, for a thousand Million Ages, it would not make a Compensation ⟨p. 44⟩unto the Great God, for the Smallest of thy Offences: God hath Sworn by His Holiness, that nothing but the Blood of His own Son shall make Him a compensation.