N00766:155
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. Remember, I beseech you, That the Moral Law, is to be Received by every Christian alive, as the Everlasting Rule of his Life. That Law which the God of Heaven Epitomized in the Ten Commandments, written by Himself on the famous Tables of Stone; 'tis a Law which all Christians are forever bound unto the Observation of It is a Caution, that our Lord Jesus Christ hath given us, in Matth 5.17. Think not that I am come to Destroy the Law And accordingly, both our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Apostles, often direct us unto the Law, as obliging us, to Love the Lord our God, and Love our Neighbours. When Moses went up to Receive the Two Tab•es, on which the Decalogue was written, he was attended with Joshua, when he Received the other Precepts, he was attended with Aaron and his Sons Might not this import, That the Decalogue was to be observed under the Gospel, in the Times of Jesus, as well as of Moses: The other Precepts […] during the Priest-hood of Aaron? It is well Expressed by Tertullian, Libertas in Christo non f•cit Innocentiae Injuriam, manet Lex gotta Piètatis. 'Tis not possible, That men should be se• free from ⟨p. 58⟩their Obligations to Glorify God. The ways in which we are to Glorify God are prescribed in the Moral Law. To Abolish this Law, would be to say, That men shall cease to be a Creature, and owe nothing to his Creator. Indeed, we have a Complete Righteousness in our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath Answered the Law for us. Yea, but for all This, in whatever we come short of Answering the Law our selves, we must Mourn for it as a Sin, and Loath and Judge our selves for it. Although we are, In Christ free from Condemnation, Yet upon our falling short of doing what is Enjoined in the Law, we must Condemn our selves, and Exclaim, O wretched man that I am! 'Tis true, the Law is, by the Accession of the Gospel, brought into some New Circumstances of Grace; but still, that Law is a Rule of Life unto us, and it will be in Force, till the very Heavens be no more. Is it not the Definition of Sin, in 1 Joh. 3.4. Sin is the Transgression of the Law. If we have no Law, we could have no Sin. But they that are Justified by the Righteousness of God, yet, alas, do fall into Sin every day: If we say, we have no Sin, the Truth is not in us: