N00556:78
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 5: Of the Rise of this Covenant, or the Grounds of its being made.
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. That a Covenant is not a Natural but a voluntary act. In every Covenant there is a consent of the parties Covenanting, to the Articles upon which it is built. Now consent is performed by the Will: and therefore there was no natural necessity of any such Contract as this between these glorious Persons: so that it was Gods mee• good pleasure that gave ⟨p. 32⟩Being to it. The very thing about which it is concerned was arbitrary with God. There was no necessity lying upon him to save any of the race of fallen man, who had by their own fault destroyed themselves: and therefore there could be no necessity lying upon him to contrive and fix a way in which this salvation was to be brought about. God doth nothing necessarily but what he doth naturally all his other acts are free. Election is a voluntary thing. Eph. 1 5.
1. That a Covenant is not a Natural but a voluntary act. In every Covenant there is a consent of the parties Covenanting, to the Articles upon which it is built. Now consent is performed by the Will: and therefore there was no natural necessity of any such Contract as this between these glorious Persons: so that it was Gods mee• good pleasure that gave ⟨p. 32⟩Being to it. The very thing about which it is concerned was arbitrary with God. There was no necessity lying upon him to save any of the race of fallen man, who had by their own fault destroyed themselves: and therfore there could be no necessity lying upon him to contrive and fix a way in which this salvation was to be brought about. God doth nothing necessarily but what he doth naturally all his other acts are free. Election is a voluntary thing. Eph. 1 5.