Archive for May 18th, 2009
Mayhew:
Christ sent to redeem the world:
1) Now, if the Case be really such as has been now expressed, I would fain know what Kindness (if any at all) is showed to those that fail of Salvation: Or will it be said. That in the Revelation of a Way of Salvation by Jesus Christ, there Is no real Favor shown to any but those who shall eventually be saved? May we then tell those to whom we preach the Gospel, that unless they obtain eternal Life, God has shown them no real Kindness, in all that which has been done, of which we have an Account in the Gospel? Can we think that the maintaining of this would be to the Honor of divine Grace? For my Part, I cannot think that all that seeming Love which God manifests to Mankind, in sending his Son to redeem a sinful World, and setting up a Treaty of Peace among all those to whom the Gospel is preached, is no Kindness to such as are not eventually saved. Such an Opinion as this seems not to agree with such Texts as these which follow, viz. John 3. 16. 1 John 2. 2. and Chap. 4. 19. so Luk. 2. 10,11. 2 Cor. 5, 18-20, and many other Places. Experience Mayhew, Grace Defended in a Most Plea For an Important Truth; Namely, That the offer of Salvation made to Sinners in the Gospel comprises in it an Offer of the Grace given in Regeneration (Boston: Printed by B. Green, and Company, for D. Henchman, in Cornhil, 1744), 141. [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]
Man’s redemption:
1) 3) It further fallows, on the Hypothesis here insisted on. That our first Parents, and all their Posterity, did, by Means of the Interposition of a Mediator to redeem and save them, immediately become Subjects of his mediatorial Kingdom. Mankind had, ’till then, been held fast under a Covenant of Works, to be dealt with according to the Tenor of that Covenant; but now the Son of God, (having been appointed a Mediator from Eternity) was promised to be a Savior, in Gen. 3. 15. and so the Decree was declared, as in Psal. 2. 7, and his Undertaking this glorious Work revealed; and began to have its proper Efficacy, he being the Lamb virtually slain from the Foundation of the World. Not that Mankind were hereby immediately discharged from the Guilt of Sin, and entitled to eternal Life; for they remained still subject to the Penalty threatened in the broken Covenant of Works ‘till something might be farther done for them, pursuant to the mentioned Undertaking of the Redeemer. But what I intend, is, that they immediately became rightful Subjects of that Kingdom which the Son of God had, as Mediator, committed to him. and which he was afterwards to deliver up to his Father, as in 1 Cor. 15. 24. It was by paying the Price of Man’s Redemption, that our Lord obtained such a Right to rule and govern all those, by his Laws and Ordinances, who are the Objects of his Purchase: And all the Laws given to Mankind since the Fall, are properly the Laws of the Mediator, by him given to them, the Price of whole Redemption he undertook to pay, and in due Time did so, according to his Covenant with his Father: And according to these Laws of his, he actually governs the World, blessing and rewarding the Obedient, and punishing the Disobedient, as is in the holy Scriptures abundantly declared. As for the Covenant of Works, that being once broken, Mankind stood in no other Relation to it than this, that they must undergo the Punishment threatened in it, unless in some Way consistent with the Tenor of it, they might obtain a Discharge there from. God never after the Fall of Adam, proposed the Covenant of Works to sinful Men, as a Way in which they might obtain eternal Life; though he has sometimes given them a Representation or the Nature and Tenor of that Covenant, that he might convince them how impassible it Is to obtain Happiness by Obedience to it, as in Gal 3. 10–12. Yet sincere Obedience to the moral Law is required in the new Covenant and is, according to the Nature and. Tenor of it, necessary to Man’s Happiness: Rev, 22.14.
4) It is obvious, on the Hypothesis. for which I plead, That all. Adam’s Off-spring are brought into the World in a salvable Condition. In such a Condition, I mean, as that, in a Way consistent with divine Justice, and the Tenor of the first Covenant, they may be eternally saved. Nor do I intend this in such a Sense only, as wherein the same may be verified concerning sinful Mankind, before (if I may so speak) a Ransom was found for them, because it was in the Power of God to find out and provide a Way for their salvation; which, if he could not have done, no Sinner could ever have been saved.