A57966:593
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. This cannot then be true (Christ by his dying for the Elect, merited and deserved, that God should be made Man for us) for this should be true also (by the blood of Christ, and by the redemption that is in Christ, God sent his Son in the flesh, and the Son took on him our nature, by the blood of the Covenant) nor can this be true (Christ merited by his death, that he should die for us) for so it should be true, that Christ by his blood shed his blood for us: Where as because he loved his Church freely, he gave himself for her. Eph. 5.15. Who loved me and gave himself for me, Gal. 2.20. Hence 1. though grace be the cause of grace, as because he of grace ordained us to glory, therefore of grace he calls, and because of free-grace he calls, of free-grace he carries on his work, and gives of grace, perseverance and glory. Yet there is a fountain-grace of election to glory, which hath no cause nor merit, not the merit of Christ for its cause; but is the cause of causes and of Christs merits. As one fire may produce another, but the element of fire was not produced by another element of fire, but by God in creation. And one Vine Tree brings forth another, but the first Vine Tree was created by the Lord only.
2. Conclus. Nor have we (to speak accurately) right to Christs satisfaction nor to his righteousness by faith.1 1. Because the Lords free-grace in laying our sins on Christ, Isa. 53.6. and his making him sin for us, 2 Cor. 5.21. does rather give the right to his satisfaction. God would have Christ to stand for so many chosen of ⟨p. 232⟩God upon the Cross, and for no other.