N00556:69
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. This is (as hath already been observed) called a Covenant only by way of Analogy, as it is accommodated to our understanding; it being nothing else but that Article in the Decree, which concerns the Redemption of Man by Christ. There must therefore be such an Analogy observed in our conceptions of it, and it must be Interpreted by notions proper to a Covenant. Now, though the Father and the Son be one in Essence, and so have not two Wills, but one undivided; yet they are Two Persons, and as such, are conceived by us as consulting, deliberating and concluding about things: hence the Divine Persons are so represented, Gen. 1.26. and the reason of it is, because the things done are, to our manner of conception, the Fruits of Counsel. That there was not only a Divine Will in the Father sending, but also in the Son consenting to be sent by him, we must needs entertain; else we can have no rational and regular notion of a person sending, and of ⟨p. 27⟩a Person sent. Although these are but one Will, yet it comes under a distinct consideration by us, though the manner of it be above our conception.
1. This is (as hath already been observed) called a Covenant only by way of Analogy, as it is accommodated to our understanding; it being nothing else but that Article in the Decree, which concerns the Redemption of Man by Christ. There must therefore be such an Analogy observed in our conceptions of it, and it must be Interpreted by notions proper to a Covenant. Now, though the Father and the Son be one in Essence, and so have not two Wills, but one undivided; yet they are Two Persons, and as such, are conceived by us as consulting, deliberateing and concluding about things: hence the Divine Persons are so represented, Gen. 1.26. and the reason of it is, because the things done are, to our manner of conception, the Fruits of Counsel. That there was not only a Divine Will in the Father sending, but also in the Son consenting to be sent by him, we must needs entertain; else we can have no rational and regular notion of a person sending, and of ⟨p. 27⟩a Person sent. Although these are but one Will, yet it comes under a distinct consideration by us, though the manner of it be above our conception.