A57966:527
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.
6. Now to the Question, as the Law condemns not a man, but him who is first a sinner, and an heir of wrath by nature in the first Adam, for the Law is essentially just: So God justifies not a man, but the man who, by order of nature, is first by faith in CHRIST, Rom. 5.18. Therefore […] by the offence of one (judgement) came upon all men unto condemna•••n, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon a•l men (in Christ, as the other were in the first Adam) unto the justification of life: and so we must say, that all, ere they be justified, and before God impute faith to them, that is, Christs believed righteousness to be theirs, must have faith and so believe, and so be one with Christ. And this imputed righteousness is ours, because we believe, and not until we first believe, and the other imputation goes before faith: So the faith of Gods special mercy is two ways so called. 1. As it leaneth upon and apprehendeth God in Christ, for the obtaining of mercy and remission of sins, and imputed righteousness: So faith goes before justification, and we believe that our sins may be pardoned, and that our sins may not be imputed, and that we may be justified and freed from condemnation: so by the act of believing, righteousness is imputed to us. And thus justification and remission, i. e. relaxing of our persons from a state of eternal condemnation, as is meant, Rom. 8.1. are not the object of faith, but the effect and fruit of faith. 2. The faith of special mercy to me is considered as it apprehendeth and believeth,1 or rather feelingly knoweth special mercy, imputation of Christs righteousness now given to me, and as Christ hath payed a ransom for me, and satisfied justice for me, and so imputed righteousness and justification are the object of faith; Or rather the object of the sense of faith, which is most carefully to be observed. To answer Bellarmines unsolid Argument, we either believe remission of sins past, or to come, &c. But remission is liberation from punishment eternal or temporal, but justification is freedom from the fundamental ⟨p. 210⟩guilt-deserving punishment, and remission is a consequent thereof.