A47465:691
The display of glorious grace, or, The covenant of peace opened in fourteen sermons…
The display of glorious grace, or, The covenant of peace opened in fourteen sermons lately preached, in which the errors of the present day about reconciliation and justification are detected / by Benjamin Keach.
London: printed by S. Bridge, 1698
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.
3. After this Notion Christ might be, or might not be a Redeemer at all; our Peace might, or might not be made with God, because it wholly dependeth upon the Will of Man, Man's Will determines the Issue of the whole matter, not that Christ undertook to how our Wills, or reconcile us to God; no, but that we our selves must Answer the Condition of Repentance, Faith, Obedience, &c. or else all that Christ hath done is lost, and comes to nothing; and why might not all refuse to do this as well as some, who never will believe, &c.
Christ shall be a Redeemer, and make our Peace if we please; this puts a Bar to the Purchaser (as one observes) a Man can't in any good sense be called a Redeemer of such Persons out of Slavery, till the Persons perform ⟨p. 162⟩those Conditions, upon which he laid down the Price: As for Example, (saith he) I lay down an Hundred Pounds for the Redemption of a Person in Slavery, upon this Condition, that he yield to serve me Seven Years after; I must have his Consent before I can Redeem him; and therefore upon these Conditions I am certainly suspended from being a Redeemer; nay, and am no Redeemer of such Persons, if they refuse the Terms: So that for Christ to be an Universal Redeemer, is a Contradiction; for it is to be a Redeemer of all, if they please, but can be a Redeemer of none but of such that consented to the Terms proposed.
4. Besides, this casteth horrid Reproach upon the Son of God, as if he had done some great thing for us, in dying and making our Peace; when indeed, according to this Notion, he doth but deceive poor Creatures; for he has made their Peace and Redeemed them if they will but get out of Satan's Hands, and break his Chains and Bonds in pieces, and raise themselves from the Dead, and change their own Hearts, &c. whereas he knew we were no more able to do this, than to create a new World. Therefore, Brethren, pray observe; we affirm, that whatsoever Conditions were agreed upon in the Covenant of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ undertook to do and perform them all, both for us, and also in us; I will give them a new Heart,