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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
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.
INFERENCE IV.
Here we see the True and proper ground or reason of the Justification of a sinner. This Article ha•h a great deal of Mystery in it, and many are lost in their Speculations about it, for want of a Clue to lead them through it. But the consideration of the Covenant o• Redemption, will clear this great Truth from all difficulties which men are perplexed with about it. The Justification of a sinner, though as it is conferred upon him in a way of Imputation, it is an act of Rich Grace; yet in it self it is a Law act, and ought to proceed according to Truth and Equity; it is a Scripture Assertion, Prov. 17.15. And the consideration of this oftentimes makes an awakened soul to stumble and hesitate: he is ready to say, shall not the Judge of the Earth do right? now I have sinned, I have transgressed the Law, and it can never cease to be a truth, that I have so done: how then shall God Pronounce me just, righteous, acquitted, who am a sinner. What Truth can there be in such a sentence? for my Faith cannot make the least satisfaction for my sins; and my obedience is imperfect, & if God should be strict to mark the ⟨p. 129⟩iniquity mixing with it, I could not stand: where then is the Righteousness of God, which is so much celebrated in Scripture, how doth he stand to his own Law, which saith that the sinner shall die? Now all these scruples will come to be fully taken off, and the Soul will be abundantly satisfied in the Contemplation of this Covenant. for;
Here we see the True and proper ground or reason of the Justification of a sinner. This Article ha•h a great deal of Mystery in it, and many are lost in their Speculations about it, for want of a Clue to lead them through it. But the consideration of the Covenant o Redemption, will clear this great Truth from all difficulties which men are peplexed with about it. The Justification of a sinner, though as it is conferred upon him in a way of Imputation, it is an act of Rich Grace; yet in it self it is a Law act, and ought to proceed according to Truth and Equity; it is a Scripture Assertion,