Archive for October 16th, 2007
Definite atonement (sample):
1) The presumption and headiness of man would have set the cart before the horse ; but the everlasting truth hath appointed this order. Peter thought he would have jeoparded his life for Christ, and have redeemed the Redeemer: but Christ came to give his life for his sheep, of whom Peter was one. Now after that Christ died for those that be his, there is strength given in the hearts of such shepherds and sheep as be faithful, to suffer death for Christ s sake. “The Resurrection of Christ,” in The Writings and Translations of Miles Coverdale, 362.
Sins of the world:
1) HERE should we children of belief diligently ponder and consider, what Christ hath done for our sakes; namely, that he, when he had fulfilled his ministration committed to him of the Father, and now would offer up himself upon the cross for the sins of the world, and with his own death deliver mankind from the captivity of Satan, and from eternal death, declared, how he loved his own until the end, and with what desire he longed to eat the Easter lamb with his disciples, before he suffered. 1 Cor. v. Isai. liii. John i.: giving them thereby to understand, that he was the true paschal Lamb, which, being slain for us, should take away the sins of the world, that the figures of the old testament might be reduced into the truth; that like as the Jews, to whom with a prescribed ordinance it was commanded yearly to eat the Exod. xii. Easter lamb, did the same for a memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt; so we believers also might in the new testament have a remembrance and exercise of the gracious redemption, whereas we by his death are delivered from the power of darkness, of the devil, and of sin, and brought to eternal life.
And to the intent now that the remembrance of such excellent benefits, grace, and merits of the passion of Christ, might ever be fresh and new with his disciples and all believers, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he now would go unto death, and pay the ransom for the sins of all the world, he then did eat the Easter lamb with his disciples, to finish the shadow of the old testament; and that he might be remembered thereby, he instituted the bread and wine for a sacrament and memorial of his holy body and blood. Miles Coverdale, “The Passion of Christ,” in The Writings and Translations of Miles Coverdale, 211
2) For the death of Christ is our life. The earth quaked, the stones burst asunder. For the preaching of the death of the Son of God hath altered the whole world, and many hard stony hearts are moved to repentance, faith, and good works. But when the side of the dead body of Christ was opened with the spear, and the rock, as Zachary saith, was digged up, there ran out water and blood; declaring manifestly thereby, that unto us out of the death of blood Christ followeth life and purifying. For water cleanseth, in the blood is the life of man, and with the blood of Christ is all blood stanched; and now is Christ s blood only available, being sprinkled through faith in our hearts. This oblation and passion of Christ, the ransom for the sin of the whole world, was done in the eighteenth year of the empire of Tiberius, reckoning from the beginning of the world 4007 years, the 25th day of March. Miles Coverdale, “The Old Faith,” in The Writings and Translations of Miles Coverdale, 75-76.