A30345:156
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
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.
The answer is, the word reward sometimes doth import nothing, but an absolute and free gift of God, though no action went before to which recompense was due: as Gen. 30. 18. Leah saith, God hath given me my reward, because I have given my handmaid to my husband, Psal. 127. 4. Children are the Inheritance of the 1Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. There is a reward of a debt, such as is due to the workman for his labour upon desert: and a reward of grace, such as God giveth to them who labour in well-doing according to promise. A reward is given to the worker of free grace, but not for his work as the procuring or deserving cause. There is a relation of order and consequence betwixt the work and the reward, that the one goeth before and the other followeth, but not a proportion of equiparancie, price2 or degrees, that the one should match or purchase the other. A recompense is given to obedience, as comfort and solace to them that suffer for well-doing: but it is not given for their obedience, as wages to the labourer, or lands and possessions for the price paid in hand. Reward is sometimes called retribution: but in Scripture not only the reward of good or evil, but simply good or evil done is thereby signified, though nothing went before to deserve or procure it. Thou hast showed this day how thou hast dealt 3well with me. If I have rewarded evil▪ unto him that was at peace ⟨p. 58⟩with me. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with me. He hath 4not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities. Deal bountifully with thy servant. And if a benefit freely vouchsafed be called a retribution, the retribution promised and of grace conferred upon the workers of righteousness, doth not infer dignity or worth in the work rewarded. For when God doth perform his promise of mere grace, he is said to retribute, not that he oweth any thing to any man, or that he can receive any that hath the reason of a benefit, but because he doth good unto them according as of his rich grace he was pleased to promise. And if God be said to render or repay a reward, thence it will not follow, that good works can merit ought at the hands of God: for the word is of far larger signification, and imports no more sometimes, but to restore to one, that which was his own before; as