N00556:255
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.
1. It is a Thing that may be known. Although the Eternal Transaction between GOD the Father, and GOD the Son, be a Secret Hidden from the World, and no Man can have any particular ⟨p. 138⟩knowledge of it referring to himself, till he be made partakers in the special fruits of it: yet the Believer in regard of himself, may obtain a clear acquaintance with it: he may be able to discern and read it. There is a way Revealed in the Scripture whereby we may come to know what was contrived about us in the days of Eternity, and be assured that Jesus Christ hath paid the full Price of our Redemption: not only that he hath done so for some, but for us in particular. Were it not so, that Precept in, 2. Pet. 1.10. had been superfluous: yea all the Commands given us to Prove and Try our own State were vain: For unless our Trial Issue here we are still left at a loss. But there is a Promise made to the People of God that fear him, that He will show them His Covenant, Psal. 25.14. i. e. The Great secret of the Covenant of Redemption, shall be discovered to them, by making of them to know that God loved them with an Everlasting Love.
2 The foundation of all your Consolation is laid in this Covenant. All the Comfort of the Children of God resolves ultimately into this, that Christ ⟨p. 139⟩Loved us and gave himself for us: but this he did not do for all the world but only for a select company, whom his Father had given unto him, and these are they whom he Covenanted for before the world was made. If ever we be saved, it must be by the virtue and application of the satisfaction of Christ to us; this is applied to none but those whom he indented for, and was appointed by his Father to Redeem: so that if we would know whether our sins are Pardoned, and Justice be atoned to us, it must be by knowing that Christs death is become ours, and accepted for us: and the way to be satisfied in this, is by finding our names in that roll or list, which was entered in the record: of Heaven before time was: and till we come to understand this, how can we be free from the fears and terrors of the wrath to come!