A57982:353
The trial & triumph of faithThe tryal & triumph of faith
The trial & triumph of faith: or, An exposition of the history of Christs dispossessing of the daughter of the woman of Canaan Delivered in sermons; in which are opened, the victory of faith; the condition of those that are tempted; the excellency of Jesus Christ and free-grace; and some special grounds and principles of libertinism and antinomian errors, discovered by Samuel Rutherfurd, professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews. Published by authority.The tryal & triumph of faith: or, An exposition of the history of Christs dispossessing of the daughter of the woman of Canaan Delivered in sermons; in which are opened, the victory of faith; the condition of those that are tempted; the excellency of Jesus Christ and free-grace; and some speciall grounds and principles of libertinisme and antinomian errors, discovered by Samuel Rutherfurd, professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews. Published by authority.
London: printed by John Field, 1652
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.
Positi. 2. The guilt of sin, and sin it self, are not one and the same thing,1 but far different things; that I may prove the point, let the terms be considered. There be two things in sin very considerable: 1. Macula, the blot, defilement, and blackness of sin; which, I conceive, is nothing but the absence and privation of that moral• rectitude, the want of that whiteness, innocency, and righteousness which the holy and clean Law of the Lord requireth to be in the actions, inclinations & powers of the soul of a reasonable creature.2 2. There is the guilt of sin; that is somewhat which issueth from this blot and blackness of sin; according to which the person is liable and obnoxious to eternal punishment: this is the debt of sin, the Law-obligation to satisfaction passive for sin; just as there be two things in debt, so these two are in sin: for when a man borroweth money, and profusely and lavishly spendeth it, this is unjustice against his brother, in matter of his goods, and a breach of the eighth Commandment: Again, this breach in relation to policy to the Magistrate, and the Law of the land, putteth this broken man under another relation, that he is formally a debtor, and so it is just, that he either pay the money, or suffer for this act of unjustice, ⟨p. 242⟩and satisfy the Law of the fifth Commandment: which is, that he satisfy the Law, and the Magistrate, the public Father, tutor of a wronged and oppressed brother. Now here be two things in debt:3 1. An unjust thing; a hurting of our brother in his goods: this is a blot, and a thing privatively contrary to justice. 2. A just thing, a guilt, a just debt, according to which it is most just, that the broken man either pay or suffer: Now these two, as all contraries do, Faciunt numerum, they make a number; as just and unjust must be two things, and two contrary things: I know there be cavils, and subtleties of School-men, touching the blot, or Macula peccati, and Reatus, the guilt of sin; but this is the naked truth which I have declared. Some say the blot of sin is that uncleanness of sin which is washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and this is nothing but the very guilt of sin, which is wholly removed in Justification. But I easily answer: The blot of sin hath divers relations, and these contrary one to another: As, 1.