N00556:149
The doctrine of the covenant of redemption. Wherein is laid the foundation of all…
The doctrine of the covenant of redemption. Wherein is laid the foundation of all our hopes and happiness. Briefly opened and improved. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Three lines from Psalms]
Boston: printed by Benj. Harris over against the Old-Meeting-House, 1693
Chapter 10: The necessity of this Covenant, in order to Mans Salvation.
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.
4. Whether there be a natural or absolute necessity, in regard of the Nature of Gods Justice and Holiness, that there should be a counterprice paid to make satisfaction for sin, in order to the sinners salvation, may be disputed, I know this assertion is by some defended against the Socinians, & as stiffly denied by other who are no Socinians, & suppose that there are other things in Scripture sufficient to confute them. That because God is naturally Holy & Just, therefore he must needs punish sin either in the Sinner, or in his Surety, seems not to be evident. To say that God could not by his absolute Lordship have Saved a Sinner without a Mediator, looks as if it laid him under a necessity beyond what the Scripture will warrant. It is true;
4. Whether there be a natural or absolute necessity, in regard of the Nature of Gods Justice and Holiness, that there should be a counterprice paid to make satisfaction for sin, in order to the sinners salvation, may be disputed, I know this assertion is by some defended against the Socianians, & as stifly denied by other who are no Socinians, & suppose that there are other things in Scripture sufficient to confute them. That because God is naturally Holy & Just, therefore he must needs punish sin either in the Sinner, or in his Surety, seems not to be evident. To say that God could not by his absolute Lordship have Saved a Sinner without a Mediator, looks as if it laid him under a necessity beyond what the Scripture will warrant. It is true;
1. That Holiness and Justice are Divine Essential Perfections. Every Attribute of God, is God displaying of himself to us after such a manner: and though these are manifold as they come to our understandings, yet they are in him one and the same undivided Being. They are the ⟨p. 70⟩things by which he maketh himself known to the Creature: and if he were not such an one in himself, they would be a false Representation, which is blasphemy to suppose. If there were no Creature to be the Subject of the Application of these, yet God would be, and is everlastingly Holy and Just: for if he will make himself appear to be so in his Works, it is because he is so in his Nature.