A57966:848
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.
Ans. Man is under a condition of believing, and tied to believe, so as the wrath of God abides upon him, he shall not see life, nor be justified, if he believe not, Joh. 3.18.36. Rom. 10.6, 7, 8, 9▪ (2.) Man is tied to no condition which he must […], say which, he can perform without the grace of God. For have he grace, or have he no grace (the Holy Lord (O if we could plead for him and his High Sovereignty) is debtor to no man) he is so obliged to believe as he sins against the Preached Covenant and forfeits his salvation, if he believe not▪ and so breaks the Covenant, but devils or men cannot make it• void, he may make it of no effect to himself he being an heir of damnation, but being a chosen vessel God shall work him to believe, and he makes it not void to himself. If it be said, that the New Covenant is without, any conditions whatsoever, upon mans pure: It says too much for the believers being under no debt, no obligation of conscience to believe, or to any duty, but as the Spirit their only Law leads them: And if the Spirit breath not upon them to forbear adultery, parricide sodomy, or to believe, pray, praise, hear, mourn for sin, as Peter, and David, they sin not, for sin is a transgression of the Law, And when the Spirit breaths not, acts not,1 there is no Law: and this is most •ilde. Where observe that •. Antinomians and Familists confound the efficient cause of our obedience, which is the Spirit of Grace, and the objective cause, which is the holy rule of the command, promise, or threatening. For though the Spirit be absent, and not given at all to men in the state of nature, yet do they sin in committing of Sodomy, and in not praying, for they are obliged not to sin, and commanded in the first Command to pray to a revealed God. I know Adam was not obliged before he sinned to pray to Jesus Christ Mediator, as Steven, Act. 7. prayed to him. The Spirit by grace, does help us to obey the command and the Law, but the Spirit is not the Law, nor rule of out obedience.