The covenant was not merely a contract, but a consultation between the three persons of the Trinity. Cawdrey, preacher of the word at Billing in Northamptonshire, in The Works of John Owen, ed. Owen's use of free will was rooted in the sovereign will of the Trinitarian God.
But Perkins distinguished grace before the fall from justification by grace by faith, which was the defining characteristic of the covenant of grace. Christ had no need to earn anything for himself.76 This was the essence of the covenant of grace. Reformed theologians used the covenant of salvation (or pactum salutis) as the eternal foundation of the covenant of grace.
For more on the historical origins of the Covenant of Redemption, see Fesko, The Covenant of Redemption, 29-46. Reformed theologians explained that the basis of the covenant of redemption was the agreement between the Father and the Son. In addition to laying the foundation of the covenant of salvation, Reformed theologians spoke of divine justice.
Based on the foundation of the covenant of redemption, the Son represented humanity and served as mediator between God and man. Reformed theologians, the old and new covenants are "only a different administration" of the covenant of grace. Although part of the covenant of grace, the Sinai covenant did not share the same substance as the new covenant.
PREDESTINATION
Supralapsarians taught that God's decrees of election and condemnation followed logically from the decree of the Fall. Infralapsarians taught that God's decrees of election and condemnation logically succeeded the decree of the Fall. To compensate for the loss, the university authorities sought Arminius to fill one of the vacancies.
Another view was that of the Lutherans, who taught that God chose some for His salvation. At the top of the table is the triune God as the fundamental source of decree. In the bilateral view of the covenant of grace, the covenant between God and man implied mutual, voluntary interaction.
In the Canons of Dort, the Reformed theologians directly rejected every point of the Remonstrants and gave their position accordingly. In this work, Tyacke argued that Arminianism was the direct cause of the Civil War rather than Puritanism. 98 Nicholas Tyacke, “Puritanism, Arminianism, and Counter-Revolution,” in Origins of the English Civil War, ed.
114 William Pemble, "Discourse on the Providence of God," in The Works of That Learned Minister of God's Holy Word, Mr. 119 Thomas Goodwin, Commentary on the First Chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, in The Works of Thomas Goodwin, vol. 165 John Owen, The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance Explained and Confirmed, in The Works of John Owen, 11:13.
They prepared the draft of the Declaration of Faith and Order, or the Savoy Declaration (SDF). One factor Owen considered was the immutable nature of God: since God was immutable, so were his promises in the covenant. Both Westminster and Savoy theologians affirmed the importance of the covenant of grace in perseverance (WCF 17.2; SDF 17.2).
The agreement of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit from all eternity was intimately connected with the covenant. This was because God revealed the order of the cooperative work of the Trinity through the incarnate Mediator in the covenant.
DIVINE AGENCY
7 Philip Dixon, Nice and Hot Disputes: The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventeenth Century (London: T & T Clark, 2003), 40. The degree of the subversion may vary, but both Arminians and Socinians undermined the Trinity. Babcock, "A Changing of the Christian God: The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventeenth Century," Interpretation.
He argues that “the only immediate special action of the Son's person upon human nature was its acceptance into existence with. 94 Thomas Goodwin, The Work of the Holy Ghost in Our Salvation, in The Works of Thomas Goodwin, ed. In this context, Owen explained the role of each member of the Trinity in redemption.
Moore, “The Extent of the Atonement: English Hypothetical Universalism versus Particular Redemption,” in Drawn into Controversie, ed. It was not an extensive work on the Holy Spirit, but Owen addressed the Spirit in relation to Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Owen's Socinian opponent, John Biddle, argued that Christ was inferior to the Father because of the office of servant.
While the Socinians denied the person of the Holy Spirit, as if he were simply an energy force, Owen maintained the orthodox view. As Owen confirmed the person of the Holy Spirit, he also confirmed the impotence of man in the things of God. 155 Robert Letham, "John Owen's Doctrine of the Trinity in its Catholic Context," in The Ashgate Research Companion to John Owen's Theology, ed.
Owen did not mention the Holy Spirit as a member of the covenant, but this was not negligence. For Owen, Scripture informed the faithful that "the Holy Spirit rules in and over the church of God."169 Regarding the church, Owen made two points about the person of the Spirit. 168 Dale Arden Stover, "The Pneumatology of John Owen: A Study of the Role of the Holy Spirit in Relation to Shape of a Theology" (PhD diss., McGill University, 1967), 29.
