A57966:298
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.
2. It is free Grace that God will have hypocrites and real infidels to beget children to him that are internally in Covenant with him;1 and fills up the number of the Elect by Reprobate Parents who are instrumental to the in-coming in the world, and into the Visible Church, of many Heirs of Glory: and in so doing there is a Church right communicated from Reprobate Parents to their Children, that are Heirs of Glory.
2. It is free Grace that God will have hypocrites and real infidels to beget children to him that are internally in Covenant with him;1 and fills up the number of the Elect by Reprobate Parents who are instrumentall to the in-coming in the world, and into the Visible Church, of many Heirs of Glory: and in so doing there is a Church right communicated from Reprobate Parents to their Children, that are Heirs of Glory.
- 1Its grace that Reprobates are instrumental to the in-coming to the world and to the Visible Church of the heirs of glory.Its grace that Reprobats are instrumentall to the in-coming to the world and to the Visible Church of the heirs of glory.
3. External Covenanting goes before internal Covenanting, as the means before the end, and the cause before the effect: For ⟨p. 108⟩faith comes by hearing of a sent Preacher, Rom. 10.14. and the Preaching of the Gospel is a saving means of begetting a new heart and of a new spirit: Hence 1. All must be first externally in Covenant, before they can be internally and really in Covenant. 2. God is a God simply to some, and no more but a God to them in regard of outward Church privileges, as the Word, Seals, Protection, Peace, Hedge of Discipline, his planting and watering by a Ministry. But he is, to speak so, more then a God to others,