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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.
9. Hence we may seem to argue as strongly, that God Pardons Sin by necessity of nature, as well as Punisheth it. For surely he is gracious as well as Holy and Just; and then by consequence God could no more have avoided pardoning than punishing of Sin: but we are assured that his Grace proceeds according to his good pleasure, Rom. 9.18.21, 22. Besides, it is to be remarked that Gods Holiness appears in the Illustration of every one of his Attributes, and getting himself a Name thereby.
These considerations seem to have their weight. But it must be confessed that Gods Judgments are a great deep, and Sobriety becomes us in our enquiry into the grounds and causes of them. Sin is nothing less because God pardons it, and the necessity of the interposing of a Surety for the procuring of this pardon, will be built upon another sure Hypothesis, which the Scripture is full for, and this leads to the next thing, viz.
2. Positively; there is a Connex or Conditional Necessity of this Covenant, which ⟨p. 78⟩which we may take the account of in a few Conclusions.