N01347:39
A sermon preached by the Reverend, Mr. John Cotton, teacher of the First Church…
A sermon preached by the Reverend, Mr. John Cotton, teacher of the First Church in Boston in New-England. Delivered at Salem, 1636. : To which is prefixed, a retraction of his former opinion concerning baptism, uttered by him immediately preceding the sermon emitted. He dyed on the 23. day of December, 1652. Entering [sic] on the 68 year of his age. : [Seven lines from I Corinthians]A sermon preached by the Reverend, Mr. John Cotton, teacher of the First Church in Boston in New-England. Deliver'd at Salem, 1636. : To which is prefixed, a retraction of his former opinion concerning baptism, utter'd by him immediately preceeding the sermon emitted. He dyed on the 23. day of December, 1652. Entring [sic] on the 68 year of his age. : [Seven lines from I Corithians]
Boston: : s.n., Printed in the year, 1713
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.
Now for the Covenant that is Everlasting▪ we may observe therein also four acts of God towards his People.
First. Look as He prepareth the other by a Spirit of Bondage, so he doth prepare these for His Everlasting Covenant, by a Spirit of Poverty; and they are Poor and Afflicted in Spirit, in sense of their own Unworthiness & Insufficiency, that which the Lord doth wish to the other, Deut. 5.29. He worketh in these: Zeph. 3.12. There shall be brought home to Zion a Poor and an Afflicted People: He meaneth not in respect of their civil Estates, for there was not a feeble People amongst ⟨p. 13⟩them; but as they stood in their Spirits, they were empty, and as they thought destitute of God, and therefore should seek the Lord and his Face, and his Strength, like those that had lost both Church and Covenant; unto those the Lord will have an Eye, and He will dwell with men of a contrite Spirit, Isai. 57.15, 16. And therefore with a blessing unto these, the Lord Christ doth begin His Sermon in the Mount: Matt. 5.3. Blessed are the Poor in Spirit. He doth not only afflict them with a Spirit of Bondage; but when he cometh to make a Covenant of Grace, the People are insufficient to do all which the Lord requireth; and this is a Spirit of Poverty.
Secondly. When the Lord hath brought His People to be Poor in Spirit, He doth then Promise them.