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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.
1 He must be one that might be both God and Man in One Person. The nature of this Suretyship, having a reference to the Law of the first Covenant, required that he must be Man, because it was Man that had sinned, Heb. 2 14. The nature of the work to be done in this state of Suretyship, made it necessary that he should be God, as will appear in the following Considerations. Now, though the reason why this best suited the Second person in the Trinity, rather than any other, be abstruse to us, yet in the Economy of these affairs, it better became the Son than any of the other persons. It was meet that the Father should appoint the person, and that the Holy Ghost should finish this Affair, which is done in Application: but Redemption, which must Intervene, best suited the Order of personality, to be the Province of the Second Person.
1 He must be one that might be both God and Man in One Person. The nature of this Suretiship, having a reference to the Law of the first Covenant, required that he must be Man, because it was Man that had sinned, Heb. 2 14. The nature of the work to be done in this state of Suretiship, made it necessary that he should be God, as will appear in the following Considerations. Now, though the reason why this best suited the Second person in the Trinity, rather than any other, be abst••se to us, yet in the Oeconomy of these affairs, it better became the Son than any of the other persons. It was meet that the Father should appoint the person, and that the Holy Ghost should finish this Affair, which is done in Application: but Redemption, which must Intervene, best suited the Order of personality, to be the Province of the Second Person.
2. He must be one whose Obedience must be of equivalent worth to that of all those for whom he became a Surety, and whatever may be pleaded in point of Active Obedience, that that of a mere man might answer the Covenant; for the First Adams would have done, if he had stood, who was but a mere man: yet as to Passive Obedience or Suffering, Adam could not expiate his