A57966:720
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. That he is the Surety also of the Covenant, is expressly said, Heb. 7.22. and the Mediator thereof, Heb. 8. Nor can it be said that the death of the Testator does properly give faith and authority to the Testament,1 for the authority and justice of the just or unjust will of the Testator, addeth unto, or diminisheth from the authority of the Testament; for the Testators will is the principal efficient cause of the Testament, the death of the man is only a necessary condition, by which the right of the Testator to these goods is transferred from him (who now being dead, needs them not) in to friends, to whom they are left in Legacy;2 and so death is but an antecedent condition of the right to the goods. 3. Christs dying to bear witness to his own Gospel is only the secondary end of his death, in so far as secondarily remission of sins is made known to us after the principal end of his death, to wit, reconciliation, remission, pardon, redemption, and life is purchased to us by way of merit: And sure the truth of pardon and redemption is hugely more confirmed and sealed by the whole company of the Martyrs, and made known to the sons of men, then by the death of one single man, Mary's Son: Nor does the Scripture ever commend Christs love to us in sealing the Gospel with his blood as the only way to life, or making this the most strong Argument to move us ⟨p. 284⟩to believe in God, and obey Christ, because Christ died for sinners, and rose again to make the Gospel true like, and worthy to be believed, as the Martyrs do: but love shined in this, that in dying we have redemption and forgiveness and life in his blood; And since Godly and sound believing Martyrs died for this end, especially to glorify God, and seal the truth, Joh. 21.19. Rev. 2.13. Mat. 10.32.