N00556:226
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
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. That all these promises have their Conditions, and the performance of them, contained in the Covenant of Redemption. Hence it is that they are given in the Word of God, to be the discoveries of the great Efficacy of that Covenant, and to assure us of the certain and unfailing fulfilment of it: that no sin or unworthiness of the Creature, shall be able to obstruct it, how much soever they have done to throw blocks in the way, and to provoke God to reject them, yet it shall not prevent the breaking out of his grace in the Accomplishment thereof; because all that Gods Elect do or can do, to hinder their own Salvation, and bring wrath upon themselves, is taken care about, and full satisfaction is made for it in that Covenant by our ⟨p. 119⟩Surety: and hereupon do these Conclusions follow.
1. That those Promises are not of Universal Application. They do not engage God to all men universally: they are not made to Sinners as Sinners; i. e. none can challenge the application of them to themselves on that account, or for this reason, because they are Sinners. But they are confined to the Election of God, or to those who are comprehended in the Covenant of Redemption; and they only do obtain them, Rom. 11.7. The Election hath obtained. It is not for every one that reads these Promises, to confide and lot upon it, that they are made unto him, and to take them to be the ground of his Faith, and to conclude that by virtue of them, he shall be Saved. God only knows whom they belong to, before such time as there is a particular application made of them by his Spirit, Rom. 9.6.
1. That those Promises are not of Universal Application. They do not engage God to all men universally: they are not made to Sinners as Sinners; i. e. none can challenge the application of them to themselves on that account, or for this reason, because they are Sinners. But they are confined to the Election of God, or to those who are comprehended in the Covenant of Redemption; and they only do obtain them,