A57966:810
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.
But when Christ hath ended his work, and payed the price of Redemption, laid down his life for Pharaoh, Cain, for Egyptians, Syrians, Persians, Chaldeans, and all in whom ever was the breath of life; yet cannot the Lord promise to Christ that he shall ⟨p. 328⟩have any seed, or one redeemed one, nor can the Lord either promise or pay wages to Christ: For a promise, if sincere, is of things that are in our power to do, even among men. Can a King promise that to morrow he shall cause the wind for seventy days to come, blow out of the North-West? Its not in his power. Now Arminians, Socinians, and all of that Family teach, that God hath no forcible antecedent dominion to bow and determine the free-will of any one man:1 The Lord then no more can promise, nor give the reward of a seed to Christ, for his work of laying down his life for man, then he can engage that the Serpent (with reverence to our blessed Lord) shall see his seed. For when Christ hath wrought the same work, payed the same very ransom (as these Sophists teach) for millions that perish, through their own free-will, eternally: What seed hath he of them? Where is his wage? Were not all and every one of mankind promised in the Arminian Covenant, to be the gifted seed of Christ, upon condition that they should repent and believe? But Arminians deny that God doth promise faith, or that he is so Lord and Master of the free-will of any, as indeclinably and unsuperably he can make good his promise, and cause them believe and persevere therein to the end, and that is it by which they are his seed. Its but said in vain that God promises they shall be Christs gifted seed, providing they be willing to believe: that is but to say, the Lord promises all shall be his seed, providing they shall be his seed: For willing believing makes them his seed. 2. By this also the Lord promises what is in mens power to perform, and it might fall out that all and every one should do the like that multitudes do, who perish eternally, and so shall Christ do his work, and enjoy no seed at all.
But when Christ hath ended his work, and payed the price of Redemption, laid down his life for Pharaoh, Cain, for Aegyptians, Syrians, Persians, Chaldeans, and all in whom ever was the breath of life; yet cannot the Lord promise to Christ that he shall ⟨p. 328⟩