N01347:76
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.
2. Now then, doth the Lord draw you to Christ, when you are broken in the sense of your own Sins, and of your own Righteousness? When you look at duties you are not able to do them, not able to hear or pray aright. If the Lord do thus draw you by his Everlasting Arm, He will put a Spirit into you, that will cause you to wait for Christ, and to wait for Him until He doth show Mercy upon you; and if you may but find Mercy at the last, you will be quiet and contented with it. And whilst you do with Patience & Constancy wait, you are drawn with Everlasting Love; now you have Christ in you, though you do not feel him: for as the Earth is hanged upon nothing, Job 26 7. So now there is a Place for Christ in the heart, when it is emptied of every thing besides; and such a man hath Christ, and is blessed, and the Covenant of ⟨p. 33⟩Grace is his, you may safely receive him into your Church fellowship; and tho' he do neither know Christ nor his Covenant to be his, yet he will wait for him, knowing there is none in Heaven but Him, or in Earth in comparison of Him. And you shall find such Meek in Spirit & Merciful, and Mourning for Sin: These kind of Christians will spring & grow, and will not profane the Covenant of God, nor the Covenant of the Church by any unmerciful Separation. Such neither stray on the right hand nor on the left; but when you do convince them, that they have Sinned against Christ and his Church, they will go & complain bitterly of all the wrong they have done to Christ, & his Church or Covenant, and Mourn for all the Profanation of his Name: and for the grief that they have put upon the Spirits of his Brethren; and these are true Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile. Now cometh the Son with his Personal work, (as he saith, Joh. 6.44. No man knows the Father but the Son, & be to whom the Son reveals him:) in which he doth show the Soul, that all this former work was the mighty Hand of God, whereby he hath drawn the Soul unto Jesus Christ, & afterwards doth assure and clear it unto the Soul in some measure, that this way is the way wherein God leadeth all his Elect Ones. Now where the Son leadeth, the Holy Ghost beginneth to work his proper work in the Soul, and Sealeth all this to the Soul; for the Soul will not rest in a weak ⟨p. 34⟩