A57982:505
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.
Mr. Den would teach us how love and hatred toward sinners doth consist.1 The Law (saith he) and the Gospel speak divers things, the one being the manifestation of Gods Justice, tells us what we are by nature; the other, the manifestation of Gods mercy, tells us what we are by Gods mercy in Jesus Christ. The Law curseth and condemneth the sinner, The Gospel blesseth and justifieth the ungodly. Ans. What is this else? But that which Mr Den and other Antinomians condemn in us? How can one and the same unchangeable God curse condemn, and so hate sinners, as to punish them eternally, and yet bless, justify, and love to eternal salvation their persons, except they teach the same very thing which we do? For the Law and the Gospel are no more contrary ⟨p. 402⟩one to another, then love to the persons of the Elect, and hatred and revenging justice to their sins:2 Mr. Den would further clear the point thus; What ever wrath the Law speaketh it is to the sinner under the Law, although the elect are sinners in the judgment of the Law, sense, reason, yea oftentimes conscience, yet having their sins translated into the Son of God (in whom they are elected) they are righteous in Christ the Mediator. Ans. The Law speaketh wrath in regard of its reign and dominion to death to the elect not yet converted,3 and to the reprobate without exception of persons: but it cannot speak wrath to the believer though he be one that daily sins, and is under the Law: that is, under the rule of the Law: now to be under the Law to Paul, Rom. 6. and 7. is to be under the damnation of the Law: in which regard believers are not under the Law, but under the sweet reign of pardoning grace, yet are they under the Law as a Tutor, a guide, a rule: and that the rule and reign of the Law are different is evident, 1. because the ruling power of the Law is an essential ingredient of the Law, without the which the Law is not the Law: the reign or damnation of the Law agreeth to the Law by accident, in so far as man is a sinner, which is a state accidental to the law. 2. The Law is a rule, and hath a proper guidance and tutorage over the confirmed Angels, and should have had over man if he had never sinned, but the Law can have no reign to death