N00766:97
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.
Hence tis said, in 1 Cor. 1.18. The Preaching of the Cross, is to them that Perish, Foolishness. A Sinner will count it Foolishness, for a man to venture himself wholly upon the Righteousness, of one who dyed upon a Cross, and who made a Righteousness for us by doing so. Tis the Almighty Spirit of God alone, who can do that Thing in Joh. 16.10. Convince the World of Righteousness, and Convince a man that the Righ•••usness of the Lord Jesus Christ will be sufficient for him.
Secondly, A Sinners Prejudice against being made Righteous, by the Righteousness of the Lord ••sus Christ, will never be removed, until Faith […] infused into his mind, by an Operation of God. ⟨p. 20⟩There is a Cursed Pride in the Hearts of men▪ and our Proud Hearts won't easily submit unto the way of being made Righteous, by th• Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This […] the Crime that a vast part of mankind is to be Indicted for; in Rom. 10 3. They have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God▪ The First Sin of man, was a setting up himse•• instead of God; and the Pride whereinto man has Damned himself, ever since disposeth him to Self-Exaltation. Unregenerate man has the Disposition of him, that said, Cae•um gratis non accepiam; I'l not have Heaven, except I may pay something for it my self. About the Heart of a Sinner, we may say, as in Isa. 16.6. We have heard of his Pride, He is very Proud: And there is nothing wherein it appears Prouder, than in affectations of Saving himself. That Hateful an Hellish Lust, of Spiritual Pride is marvellously gratified, by a Sinners opinion of making himself Righteous before God. But for a Sinner to cast himself upon the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, in a way where All Boasting is Excluded, alas, his Pride won't let him come to that. There is abundance of Submission and Self-denial, which in the many Changes of our Lives, we are put upon; but the Proud Heart of a Sinner will sooner Submit unto any Pennant whatsoever, than unto being made Righteous, by the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone and by none of his own. The Antipathy […] the Heart of man against it, cannot in an words be Livelily enough painted out. […]