A57966:125
The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace
The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace containing something of the nature of the covenant of works, the sovereignty of God, the extent of the death of Christ ... the covenant of grace ... of surety or redemption between the by Samuel Rutherford ...The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace containing something of the nature of the covenant of works, the soveraignty of God, the extent of the death of Christ ... the covenant of grace ... of surety or redemption between the by Samuel Rutherford ...
Edinburgh: printed by Andro Anderson for Robert Brown, 1655
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.
Ergo, by this ground the Lord doth nothing freely without himself, and so the Lord makes not the rain to fall, the tree to bud, the sea to ebb, the wind to blow, the fowls to flee, the fishes to swim, for the declaration of the Glory of his goodness, or his power, or his mercy, his holiness, with any freedom, but all these he must do for Glory to himself by necessity of nature, which Glory he loves as himself, for his Glory in all he doth without, he loveth by necessity of nature, as he loves himself saith the Author. And therefore as he cannot preserve the Glory of his Justice, but by punishing sin, and that by necessity of nature, so he cannot preserve the Glory of the rest of all his Attributes (which Glory also he loves as himself) but by doing all without himself in like manner by necessity of nature, which utterly destroys the liberty and freedom of God in all his works of Providence and Creation, and so God shall be a natural agent in all his works without himself,1 not a free agent in Creating and Redeeming. 4. The Scripture says, he works all things according to the counsel of his will, for his Glory, and therefore he intends not his own declarative Glory as he loves himself: For by necessity of nature he loves himself, and cannot but love himself. But he might, if so it had pleased him, never have intended to show forth his own Glory, and does not show it forth by necessity of nature as he loves himself. Yea he might never have created the world, never have acted without himself: For he was sufficient within himself and stood in need of no declarative Glory: Gen. 17.1. Acts 17.25. 5. Yea if by necessity of Justice, God cannot but punish sin, especially this justice shall carry him to follow the Law of Works without any Gospel moderation, which is that the same person that sins, and the same soul, Ezek. 18. and ⟨p. 32⟩no other,2 should die for sin: for all these. Thou shalt destroy all the workers of iniquity. Thou art of purer eyes then that thou can behold iniquity, and the like, are expressions of a pure legal proceeding in the Lord, against such as are out of Christ, under the Law, not under the Gospel, to wit, the workers of iniquity whom the Lord in justice shall punish in their person, not in their surety.