Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n faith_n justify_v salvation_n 3,033 5 8.0315 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A31174 Salvation laid on its right foundation, or, The free grace of God prov'd to be the only ground of, and to have the alone stroke in, the matter of our salvation being the sum of two sermons / preach'd to a county auditory by an admirer of grace, and the freeness of it. R. C. 1698 (1698) Wing C113A; ESTC R34781 22,006 33

There are 7 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

By Grace are ye saved through Faith That is as I told you in the Explication of the words by Christ believed on or Faith on Christ for you must always take it with the object we are not to place Righteousness in our Act of believing for by our believing we add nothing to our justifying Righteousness but do only apply it as wholly derived from Christ alone John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life We are not to take up our Standing partly in the Act of Faith and partly in the Object of faith making up as a Holy Man now with the Lord was wont to say a Righteousness partly from our selves and partly from Christ But we are by Faith to go out of our selves unto Christ for our whole sole and Justifying Righteousness The Scripture does not ascribe our Justification to the Act but wholly to the Object of Faith not to our believing but to Christ believed c. Now Faith being thus taken with the Object we may hence note by way of Doctrine or Observation That the Free Grace of God and Faith may stand together They don't one take away the other Faith hath been always Requisite as the the Instrument to apprehend and take Christ our Righteousnoss that so we might in God's sight be Justified This as the Apostle tells us the Scripture plainly holds forth 〈◊〉 12. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe And it is said God so loved the World that he hath given his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should have Everlasting Life 〈◊〉 16. Where we see Faith to be brought in as the Instrument without which neither the Promise can be appropriated nor Salvation attained When the Jaylor cryed Sirs what must I do to be saved You hear what Answer is given to the Question Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 30 And therefore as the Righteousness of Christ hath been bestowed upon Men so it is true That Faith hath been all along appointed as the Receiver thereof Faith as one well notes is our Modus Habendi it is the Way and Means by which we come to have God and Christ and an Interest in Salvation by Grace We cannot have the Son but by Faith nor be in Christ but by believing but here some may object what I have already said namely That the grace of God cannot stand with any thing in man how then may such say can it stand with Faith I answer It is true that the grace of God does not brook any thing inherent in man and of man and yet notwithstanding may well agree with faith for faith is not of man no not in man by nature for says the Apostle all men have not faith 2 Thes 3.2 but it is only in Renewed Men and Women and in them as a gift of meer grace 2dly Faith does not justifie as it is an inherent quality in us but as it apprehends Christ Jesus the Redeemer 1 Cor. 3.30 who is made of God to us Wisdom and Righteousness and Purity God does not justifie us because of any antecedent act of Faith we have lying by us and which we could produce as a price as it were and a meritorious means of our Justification God justifies us by working Faith in us and therefore the Apostle says it is of faith Rom. 4.16 that it might be of grace thus you see that Faith is not at all prejudicial to the free grace of God And this is not the only Reason because that faith is given of grace for then all the gifts of the Holy Ghost might come likewise into the Article of Justification For 3dly Faith receives only and shews to God that righteousness of Christ which God hath given ond only for that thing received and not for the receiving that it seeks to be justified Oh that these great Truths which are the fundamental Points in our Religion were more advanced by Ministers and admired by Hearers 4thly Faith receiving Christ stands with the free grace of God because it is of Grace that the believing soul laying hold on Christ is justified for the Law knows not this Righteousness but bids us bring one of our own it is therefore of the Lords grace that we have faith to lay hold on the Righteousness of his Son so that it is clear that the free grace of God and faith may stand together hence by way of Use it is so that free grace and faith may stand together and that faith is tho' not our righteousness yet of singular use and excellency in that it apprehends the righteousness of Christ and for that righteousness seeks to be justified Oh then magnifie and adore the free grace of God for this gift if it had not been for faith Christ and our souls would have never met we had never tasted any preciousness in him nor have been led out in desires after him Oh therefore be bowing your selves before the Lord for the gift of Faith bestowed on you tho withheld from others But 2dly Seeing faith tho it be instrumental yet it is not causal in the matter of our Justification let this reprove those who would put in claim for justification on account of their faith as if that were materially or influentially causal of Justification Faith it self as it is the Believers Act comes under the notion of a work it may be necessary therefore to consider what part it is that faith holds in this matter lest whiles we exclude works as inconsistent with grace I mean as a procuring cause of our Salvation we make a work of faith it is the Office or Work of Faith to make the soul live wholly on the fulness of another and to get emptied of it self to apprehend that righteousness by which grace justifies therefore such are highly reproveable who presume upon coming to God with price in their hand they never truly received the gift of Faith for that comes empty handed to God and leads the soul to God as a forlorn worthless Creature looking for justification and salvation from nothing on this side the free grace of God True faith moulds the soul into the frame of spirit old Jacob was when he cried Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies it bows down under a sence of its own nothingness which is fixed upon Christ's fulness But 3dly It is so that faith though not causal is very instrumental in the matter of justification and salvation Oh then as ever you would suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations ●sa 66.11 as ever you would see any beauty or loveliness in faith or reap comfort and satisfaction by the abundance of faith beg earnestly that God would strenghen your faith imitate the man in the Gospel who cried Lord I believe Mark 9.23 help my unbelief q. d. Lord I cannot
hold it my faith will fail if thou put me not under thine everlasting Arms. You know reflection upon sin and sinful practises oft raises a very great Storm in the Soul Now as ever you 'd have this Tempest becalm'd be frequently entreating God to strengthen your faith whereby you may couragiously confide in the wise and faithful conduct of our skilful Pilot the Lord Jesus who himself steers at Helm that he may as he has undertaken set us safe a shore in the Haven of Eternal Happiness By grace are we saved through faith Hence I note that God's grace does so save that first we must be true Believers it is Believers alone that partake of grace grace and faith must not be severed in the matter of salvation God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believed on him they and no other are to have everlasting life Look as in the Covenant of the Law do this and live no deed no life so in this Covenant of the Gospel wherein the Lord promises for Christ to pardon sin to justifie to accept to eternal life here it may be said no faith no portion in the promises of God in the grace of God in Christ Jesus for look as Plaisters unapplied so is Christ unbelieved on God doth so save us sinners in our selves that first he makes us through Christ applied righteous and worthy of salvation worthy in regard of his just acceptation seeing that the Lord doth so justifie us of grace that we are also made just in the Redemption we learn to view and contemplate on that admirable Mistery of Reconciling Justice and Mercy in Christ here we see how Gods Justice and Mercy accord in one First There is all Justice in respect of Christ whose Soul felt the Indignation of God in that extremity that his Body touched therewith sweat as it were great drops of Blood who was wrackt and broken even with cruel Torments by the hand of God for our sins Phil. 2.8 and was humbled even to that death of the Cross 2dly There is all Mercy to us it is Mercy High Rich Mercy that the satisfaction of Christ should be ours that all he did should be accounted as done by our selves and then Oh what Rich Mercy is it that Christ the satisfier should be given and bestowed upon us this is Mercy with a witness our Souls may cry Oh the heighth and depth of this matchless Mercy but I pass on By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves hence I note that nothing which we are or do does merit our salvation or is a cause procuring it unto us The Apostle counts all his indwelling Righteousness Phil. 3.7 8. conformable to the Law Dross and Dung that which was not fit to be trusted in nor accounted of Oh what can this Righteousness do which is in us as Water in a muddy Channel you must needs confess there is little power in that to work salvation which if the strength of God should not for his mercies sake uphold it would be quenched uncessantly we have nothing in us to merit salvation the best of our performances being attended with a great deal of sin and weakness Here some will object and say If nothing of ours can merit or procure salvation for us why then does God promise life everlasting to works as if ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live if ye sow to the spirit ye shall reap of the spirit life everlasting I Answer There are some Conditions simply conditional that may very well stand with grace First Such are those Conditions wherein men only intreating we promise and undertake to do a matter or bestow a kindness on them as go with me to such a Place and you shall partake of such Pleasures or Profits or come to me such a day I will give you such a sum of mony where is Merit in this case A Beggars receiving an Alms argues no merit in the Receiver but meer grace in the Donor We count that he who only receives a Benefit he doth nothing for it it comes freely Indeed he doth somthing naturally in receiving but nothing morally by way of merit for the thing received But Secondly There are other Conditions which have the Reason of a Meritorious Cause as when Men don 't only intreat or desire but deserve upon Contract what is promised as do my work well and I will pay you faithfully Of this kind are these Cenditions contain'd in the Law Do this and live As for those in the Gospel they are only bare and simple Conditions which deserve nothing yet must intercede and precede the bestowing of Eternal Life Again some Object That Life Everlasting is a Reward and that Rewards are deserved I answer All Rewards are not due upon nor given for Desert there is a Reward given by Grace for the Apostle says To him that worketh the Reward is counted not of Grace but of Debt Intimating that some often receive very Liberal Rewards only upon the Free Grace and Favour of the Giver and a Reward of Grace imports thus much that what Reward Men have of God even upon the Account of their best Services it is but a Gratuity no Debt upon Desert But it may be further objected That which is given according to Works is deserved by Works therefore so is Eternal Life I answer That indeed which is given according to Works as the meritorious Causes thereof that may well be said to be deserved by Works but now Eternal Life is not so given but is bestowed according to Works as they are Testimonies of our Faith whereby we rest and rely alone on Christ for Life and Salvation and for whose sake only believed on they expect Eternal Life From these Objections we learn to see the Pride and Arrogance of Mankind who when they come to deal with God would have a Value put upon their own Performances we would have a Value put upon every thing upon our Coming upon our Asking upon our Believing As if Christ was beholding to us for our accepting of him So naturally fond are we of resting upon any thing that looks like our own Performances Ah Sirs how little a hole will Self-Righteousness creep in How fain would we have somewhat whereof to Glory But Vse 2. Secondly Hence we also learn to see how our Religion magnifies the Grace of God and debases Man to manifest Tokens of the true Religion For that Religion which sincerely defends the Grace of God and only rejoyces in the Advancement of that not in the setting up the Works of prov'd Man so pernicious to the Glory of God which pulls down the Pharisaical Feathers wherewith Men pride themselves and so exalt Grace and the Freeness of it as not daring to thrust in any thing of their own whereby to lessen his Glory but willingly ascribing all to his Free Grace and Undeserved Favour This only is the true Religion
XXI Salvation laid on its Right Foundation OR The Free Grace of God prov'd to be the only ground of and to have the alone stroke in the matter of our Salvation Being the Sum of Two SERMONS Preach'd to a Country AUDITORY By an Admirer of Grace and the Freeness of it 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began Titus 3.5 Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us Dei gratia non erit gratia ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo Aug. de pec Orig. l. 2. c. 24. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by R. Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in Warwick-lane 1698. To his much Honoured and his very good Friends Capt. William Thompson Esq AND TO Madam Katherina his Pious Consort Salvation Much Honoured in our Lord THE great Acquaintance You have with Honour for and Delight in the Truths treated upon in the Subsequent Tract strongly inclined me to this Dedication I have no Design in publishing these Labours of Courting the Applause of any nor Recovering the Esteem I once had among some I have Learned Rom ● to My own Master I stand or fall That which engaged me in the Work was a desire to put to my poor help in hand for the clearing up and magnifying of that Glorious Weighty and Soul-Refreshing Doctrine of Salvation by Grace which of late has been so strangely o're clouded by the Mists and Fogs the Legalists have Raised I confess I have all Reasons in my self to bow down under a sense of my Inability for so great a Work But as one who desires to be found Faithful I cannot but endeavour an Improvement of my One Talent and should be much Raised in my Spirits if God should incline others to Imploy their Five in a Work so necessary at this day in which the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace is Contemned and greatly Aspersed not only to the great Debilitating but indeed Amazement of the Honourers of this Glorious Truth though indeed the Wonder is somewhat lessened when we consider That Every Man is an Arminian born i. e. such he is by nature and therefore greatly in love with himself and fond of his own Improvements and so stifly bent to a Covenant of Works that it is no easie matter to draw him off from priding himself with the Pharasaical Feathers of his own Performances ● 65 5. ●ke 18.11 Stand by for I am holier than thou is a Distemper somewhat Epidemical and God I thank thee I am not as other Men are has strangely seized the generality of Mankind the folly of which they shall readily acknowledge when set on the other side of Eternity for then those Justiciaries who have magnified Man and presumed to exalt him at so high a rate shall then freely own that Man fallen is poor blind wretched and naked and at enmity with all that is truly good and that he is never more remote and far off from God than whiles in high thoughts of himself glorying in his own Understanding Strength Worthiness and freedom of Will which the stroaking himself with makes him proud and presumptuous I say this they shall then own and the admirers of free distinguishing Grace would count it hall joy to see God convincing them of it now Arminianism is a dangerous bottom and the more because it is so agreeable with corrupt Nature it being natural to Men to think that if they be saved it must be by their own Merits and Worthiness not from the free special distinguishing grace of God and 't is that which Arminianism brings Men to at last for if God have not laid the Foundation of their Salvation on the bottom of free Grace then they with what Helps they had common to them that are saved and to them that perish do make themselves to differ and how God dishonouring a Principle this is let our Enemies themselves consider it is no less than a robbing God of his Glory which he has declared 〈◊〉 2.8 He will not give to another to which end it is the Apostle bars and shuts out the desert of Works from being causes of Salvation 〈◊〉 9. Not of Works least any Man should boast clearly intimating that nothing which we do doe's merit our Salvation or is a cause procuring it unto us Thus Sir and Madam I am persuaded you have learned Christ God having by his Servants fed You with the finest of the Wheat and happily placed You in Your relation to a Church where You are blest with the Sound of the true Shibboleth the Strength that God in his rich mercy is pleased yet to 〈◊〉 to your Worthy Pastor being greatly imployed in magnifying the freeness of God's Grace and debasing proud Man and all his empty performances a Work which not only He but all of an Evangelical Cast delight in and Rejoyce to be promoters of well knowing that as this is what they now own and preach so it is what they shall Triumph in in the Great Day when such as have Exalted Grace and the Freeness of it shall be Exalted by it when on the contrary such as have Exalted empty Man so as to detract or lessen the Glory of God which is all in all in the matter of Man's Salvation shall hang down their heads with shame and confusion of Face and be Rejected as Friends to Antichrist and Preachers of Popish yea Devilish Doctrine for no better is that which puts Men upon seeing most in the Creature and least in the Creator who is God blessed for ever more I 'll not detain You any longer in the Porch only to hint that it might have been thought necessary by some that I should have given the World some account of those Graces which so eminently shine in each of You a Theam so copious that I should sooner want Words than Matter but being well acquainted how little You delight in it and how every way unfit I am for it I shall wave Encomiums of Praise to bow my knees in Prayer that God in the riches of his grace would more and more enable each of You to put the hopes of Your Salvation out of your Selves upon that which God hath done for you in Christ and fling your selves by Faith into the meritorious Arms of the Lord Jesus adoring that grace by which you have hope of being made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Now that our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through grace may comfort your Hearts and establish you in every good Word and Work shall be the earnest desire of him who is for the temporal and eternal Happiness of You and Yours SIR and MADAM Your
people by Christ Gentiles as well as Jews In the Third Chapter he recapitulates or repeats his Doctrine to the Church of Ephesus begging that they may have the sense use and comfort of it in those troublesom times into which the Churches were soon cast In the Three last Chapters he exhorts them to all holy Duties as best suiting with that holy Doctrine he had delivered and if in these Church-rending Times this blessed Apostle were consulted withal as such a famous Oracle deserves we should be more free from that Soul destroying Errour of Arminianism on the one hand and from that Spirit of Prophaneness which turns the grace of God into Wantonness on the other hand In this Chapter of the Text the Apostle shews first what we are by nature 〈◊〉 3. ● 5. ● 3.2 scil dead in Trespasses and Sins Secondly What we are by grace that is saved as Firebrands pluck't out of the burning snatch'd or delivered out of a State of Nature and placed or set over into the Kingdom of Grace Thirdly Here is what Grace makes viz. fruitful in good Works By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God The Apostle having in the aforegoing Verses shewed the Ephesians now quickned in Christ what they were by nature and giving every one of them to understand withal that God did only thus for the manifestation of the glory of his rich grace supposing that they would thus conclude if God hath done all for us out of our selves in Christ if there is nothing but his rich grace that may glory then it seems all our Salvation is of grace This conclusion the Apostle readily grants and lays down this Apostolical Doctrine more at large so as he pulls down every thing which would advance it self against this great truth of God and this he does by laying down the true causes of our Salvation positively in this 8th verse By Grace are ye saved Secondly By rejecting in the Verse following the false supposed Causes negatively not of Works we shall give you the Explication of the Words and so come to a Doctrinal Observation By Grace are ye saved Grace is put sometimes for the Favour of God sometimes for the Effect of God's Favour in us when the Apostle says Not I but the grace of God in me Here it is to be understood of the rich grace in God out of us which only stands in love good-will and kindness in Christ and Works and the new Creature which is the life of Grace are afterwards executed Now the favour of God is Two-fold First a more common and inferiour Grace Secondly a more special rich Grace not Grace derived from the Law but Rich Gospel Grace in which the New Testament with all the Benefits of it have their Foundation We are Saved there is a double Salvation for Man God is the Saviour of all He Saves Man and Beast but He is in an especial manner the Saviour of them that Believe Now this Salvation is to be considered two Ways either as begun or compleat Now He speaks roundly and fully of our Salvation from beginning to the ending as the Context clears against all Exception By Grace are ye Saved through Faith Faith is considered two Ways the one absolutely in it self as a Virtue and a Radical Virtue the other in Relation to Christ Thus we are here to understand it Faith on Christ Christ now believed on and Faith which is through Him are equipotent of equal Force taken both as one Faith therefore notes Christ applied in us by Belief these two you may see ranked under Grace as which can only stand with it Rom. 3.24 we are Justified freely by His Grace The Apostle comes to prevent the Corruption of Man thus surmising that if we are to be Saved by Faith then something is to be given to us why because we of our own free will Believed no tho of Faith yet you can't challenge any thing because it is not from any strength in you by which you Believed but the Lord He bestowed this upon you He drawed you or you could never have Believed and therefore the Apostle adds it is the Gift of God Whatsoever we can do it is not to be trusted upon nor rejoyced in because it is of God and this is your bounden Duty Ver. ● as being Created to this very purpose That which we are not of our selves we must not boast our selves as deserving the same but our Salvation is not of our selves it is of God Whatsoever you are you are it of God His Grace makes you to differ and therefore we have no Cause or Matter to trust upon or rejoyce in not of your selves not by reason of any desert of Graces in us or good Works that come from us as is Confirmed in the Verse following Ver. 9. So then what we may collect and gather by way of Doctrine or Observation is this Doct. That the Free Grace of God or God's Free Favour is the Ground of our Salvation and the Reasons why God will Save his by meer Free Grace and undeserved Favour are these Rea. 1. First That in the Ages to come He might shew the exceeding Riches of His Grace in His Kindness towards us through Christ Jesus and that this is the very Reason the Apostle himself produces to Confirm the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace clearly appears by comparing the fifth Verse with the Seventh God Saves His by meer Free Grace and undeserved Favour because He will make way for the Manifestation of the exeeeding Riches of his Grace to after Generations Which Grace would have lain hid and never have been admired and esteemed if we were to be Saved either in whole or in part by our own Performances if the Saints as a Holy Man of God was wont to say were not Saved by Free Grace by meer Grace and nothing else they would make but poor Musick in Heaven for they would be ready to ascribe the Praise due to the Riches of God's Grace to their own good Works and look upon their Performances as their Saviours they would look upon what they have done as the procuring Cause that brought them thither and then you may easily imagine their would be but cold Singing before the Throne of God but little setting forth of the Riches of his Grace to lay Salvation upon any other Basis besides the Free Grace and Favour of God would be to frustrate the principal end of Man's Salvation namely the Glory of God's Grace which Attribute of all the rest he will not have Eclipsed nor Intrenched upon 't is so Divinely Sacred as not to admit the least Humane touch for which very Cause the Lord hath so contrived that blessed Design of his Glory That all boasting is shut out and no Flesh suffered to Glory in his Presence But if any thing in the Creature be intituled to the Causalty of Salvation Cor. 1. Flesh will
glory and instead of excluding Man's boasting Grace it self will be excluded which is far from a Glorifying of it as is plain from Rom. 11.6 So that this is one Reason why God will Save His by Free Grace and undeserved Favour because He will make way for the Manifestation of the Riches of his Grace to after Generations that they may be Admirers of it and rely upon it Secondly A Second Reason why God will Save His by meer Free Grace and undeserved Favour is because He will utterly Exclude Works Grace and Works being Inconsistent in the Cause of Salvation the Scripture is very wary and cautelous of admitting any thing as a Co-Partner with Grace in this Matter the design of which is to take us off from Leaning on the Graces in us or good Works that come from us and that God takes this way in Saving His People is very clear and evident from that Weighty and Soul-Refreshing Scripture 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath Saved and Called us with an Holy Calling n t according to our Works but according to his Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began Whence it doth undeniably appear That it is not from any thing in us but God's Favour which doth work all for us Now that this may shine the clearer let us consider the difference between the Covenant of the Law and of the Gospel For the First there was the Grace of God in this that He would stoop so low as to Contract a Covenant with Man of Righteousness and Life when a l that Man could do were Offices due for that which he had already received in his Creation But first this Covenant was not stricken or made up in a Mediator Secondly this Covenant was not to be performed for any other but for the Righteousness which should have been found in our selves Thirdly we should in this Covenant have procured the Blessings of God unto our selves so that though there was Grace in a large Sense that God would enter into Covenant when He was not 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 consider that in the Gifts inherent in us by Creation 〈◊〉 founded that for our Righteousness and Works we should have had the things covenanted applied that we should then have procured these things Here is Grace that God entered into Covenant but it is not Rich Free Grace because Man if He had stood might have challenged his Justification and Life as a Debt due for his performances not as a meer gift from Grace But now the Lord does all of Grace For First The Foundation of our Righteousness and Life he hath made out of us in his Son Jesus Christ Secondly The Lord for his Christ apprehended by us performs all things not for any thing in us but for his Christ He does not make us procurers of those things but in Christ does himself prepare them for us that our Rejoycing might be in him In this there is Grace yea and Rich Gospel Grace that God doth covenant in the Mediator that He bestows his Precious Son upon us and reveals him to us and does for him make us partakers of Righteousness and Life Here is Grace othergates Grace than that under the Law for that required inherent Righteousness as that which alone could Justify us This Rich Grace Pelagians Arminians Free-willers c. are strangers too they are unacquainted with the Grace of the New Covenant for this is not that Rich Grace because God having pardoned our Sins does give us the graces of His Spirit that we might be Righteous and Live for if this were all that we are saved And First of Grace because God undeservedly hath given those Graces which makes us Righteous and deserve Salvation Then Adam thus standing might be saved by Grace because those deservings were given him of the Grace of God So that the point is very clear that God in the Riches of his Free Grace and Favour doth justify us 2.11 The Grace of God bringing Salvation unto all Men hath appeared So that the meer Grace of God not excited by any works but working of its own accord hath the whole stroke in the matter of our salvation and this is what was well known in the time of the Old Testament The Lord having declared himself a God Gracious to whom he would be Gracious Exod. 33.19 and God will thus save his in a way of excluding works because his Glory is most dear unto him He has said Isa 42.8 He will not give it to another God will have no Co-partner with him in the work of salvation he hares and abhors that Arrogance and Impudence in Man in going about to Intrude something of his own so be sharers with him in that Great work and therefore God doth so save us to the barring and shuting out of Works and so work in the business of our Salvation that Man may have no matter of rejoycing out of God Who doth all this work in himself out of man that whoso rejoyceth might rejoyce in the Lord according to that of the Apostle He that Glorieth let him Glory in the Lord. Notwithstanding 1 Cor. 1. ult all which we readily joyn with and bow before the Apostles assertion That they which believe Tit. 3.8 ought to maintain good works Grace does not exclude works in the way of salvation only when they are brought in as Co partners or joynt causers thereof and in this case they are to be wholly excluded Grace being the true and only cause of our salvation and works if right and truly good will always be ready to own their Original and to keep in their own place where also they will appear most amiable and be most serviceable But Thirdly a third Reason Rea. 3d. why God will save his by meer Free Grace and undeserved favour why Free Grace is the ground of their salvation Is because it could not consist with the wisdom and goodness of God to found the salvation of his People on a failable bottom which it must be said to be if dependent on any thing besides his unchangeable Grace and Love for whatever it was that salvation had being from by that also it must be maintained What then would have become of it if built on that Goodness Which is as the Morning Cloud and early dew H●● 6.4 God therefore build it 〈◊〉 a firmer Foundation Viz. His own Free Grace 〈◊〉 the Creatures Goodness even whilst in a State of Perfection to be too sickle and slight a thing to build so great a work upon Fourthly a Fourth Reason Why Free Grace is the ground of our salvation or why God will save his by meer grace and undeserved favour Is because such is the Nature and Substance of the Covenant of Grace to give freely without being moved from any thing in Man All that God does for those he will save is for his Names sake which Name is recorded in Exod. 34.5 and 6. The Lord God
unworthy of this salvation whereof it hath pleased God in the Riches of his Grace to esteem us worthy therefore let it be your work to Rely upon and Rejoyce in this Grace and Favour against all the Suggestions of Satan and your own Heart touching your Weakness and Vnworthiness and let not these ore whelm you but rather plead them as the occasions by which Grace will be manifested and shew it self to be what it is Thus did Paul who when speaking of Christ's dying for sinners says 2 Tim. 1.1 of whom I am chief Thus David Psal 25.1 Luke 15.1 in begging the pardon of his sins says for they are great Thus the Prodigal I have sinned against Heaven and before thee Here is no mention of any Worthiness or Towardliness in them above others No there is none of this Stuff in any of their Pleas they quit all that to rely on Free Grace and meer Mercy they knew that to look for Salvation from any thing on this side that would be to forsake a Living Fountain and rest on a Cistern a broken Cistern and feeding themselves with Dreams and Fancies which when they a woke would leave them hardly bestead and hungry and therefore would by no means sit down under the shadow of that Gourd Vse 3. Thirdly Is it so thao we are saved by Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then by way of Exhortation be stirred up to Two Things First To be Adorers of it And Secondly Endeavour a walking suitable to it And First Is it so that we are saved by meer Grace Then magnifie and adore the Matchless Love of God in the discovery of his rich Grace to any of your Souls It is rich mercy that God would not betrust us with salvation in our own keeping but has laid it on the sure Foundation of his own Grace but the mercy is heightned and so might our Praise in that God has not only done thus for us but also revealed it to us Oh! The heighth and depth of this Love that what has been hid from Ages and is at this day hid from Millions of Souls should be revealed to such worthless Creatures that others should be left groping in their Natural Darkness seeking for help and find none And that God should make our way so clear is a mercy we can never admire enough Alas Had we a Thousand Hearts and every heart cut into Ten Thousand Peices and every peice capable of Admiring and Adoring this Love it were all too little But then Secondly As we must be adorers of it so we must endeavour a walking suitable to it where we Read That the Grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared unto all Men We see what Lesson it teaches 〈◊〉 2.11.12 That denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Beware of turning the Grace of God into wantonness when Ministers Preached up the Riches of Gods Grace don't think it is to bolster you in your Sins but that by a Sense of the Riches of Gods Grace your hearts might be drawn out to walk worthy of it unto all pleasing as the Apostle expresses it Pos 1.10 If it have not this effect then hear your dreadful Doom that thou art yet in the Gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity And have as the Apostle told Simon Magus Neither Lot nor part in this matter 〈◊〉 8.21.23 Tho salvation is made sure to us by Grace Yet self-denial and duely walking is what we must press after as the matter of our Imployment in this Life and as that which clears up our further hopes of salvation by Grace in another And altho we are saved by Grace yet let us not sin that Grace may abound Let us take heed of that for that would be a horrid conclusion To take encouragement to sin from the Freeness of Gods Grace would be a ba●e requital Salvation by Grace requires another Guess kind of requital than this a requital of the highest Love Gratitude and Obedience that can be manifested Any Ingenious Spirit must needs confess that it is highly base and ingrate to requite Evil for Good seeing we are saved by rich free Grace and meer Mercy Let the Apostles Exhortation to the Romans prevail with you I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercies of God Rom. 1● that you present your bodies a Living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service Oh! be intreated by that matchless mercy of Free Grace that you don't trample upon God's Love but seeing we have such Promises of Life and Salvation by Grace be Honouring of it in a walking suitable to it Oh who would Abuse Love by taking Liberty from the Freeness of God's Grace to sin Who among you is not ready to blame Judas for betraying so good a Master And who would not abhor the Conspiracy of such a Subject whose Life his Prince hath spared of meer Grace The Prophet Ezra argues thus with the People Ezra ● after their Deliverance out of Bondage Seeing that our God hath punished us less than our Iniquities deserve should we again break thy Commandments Let us Reason thus with our own Souls seeing God in the Riches of his Grace is inclined to save such a worthless Creature as I am and to bring me to the Glory and Dignity of Saints and Angels shall I go on to sin against such Endearing Love as this Some says an Holy Man of God please themselves with a strange kind of Doctrine such as never entred into the mind of God That seeing they are saved by Grace they may live as they list in Rebellion to God and Godliness following Iniquity with greediness and yet go to Heaven Certainly had God opened such a Gap to Wickedness He could never have justly complained of the Deluge of Impiety that overflows the World Far be it from the Holy God whose Purity abhors Impiety to allow such Licentiousness No no God's Aim in the Large Discoveries of his Grace is to make you and I and every Soul in Love with it and to fall down in highest Adoration before it For when the Soul is truly made sensible of the Free Grace of God in Christ it makes that Soul cry out in Joseph's Language Gen. 39 9. Oh how shall this Soul thus saved by Grace dare to sin against the God of all Grace Oh that this might be the continual Frame of our Souls that the God of Grace may have no Cause to complain of us as of Israel Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord O Foolish People and unwise Salvation laid on its Right Foundation SERMON II. EPH. II. 8. For by Grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God HAving finished the former part of the Text wherein we have proved the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace we come to see the way God takes in conveying this Salvation down to us through Faith
and this is what we now own and Preach and shall Triumph in in the great Day ●se 3. But Thirdly seeing it is so that Works are no way a procuring Cause of our Salvation then hence le ts be exhorted to renounce all our good Duties whatsoever our Praying Weeping Fasting let 's no way sacrifice to our own Net but reject all those in regard of resting on them as Causes of our Salvation It is not of our selves says the Apostle no nor of any we can do in the 9th of Deuteronomy 4. and there the Lord strictly charges the Children of Israel concerning this very thing Say not in thine Heart for my Righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess the Land The Lord abhors the naming our Righteousness before him as a Cause of our Salvation he 'll have us pass all over to the Free Grace of God in Christ confessing all our Righteousnesses to be as filthy Rags and esteeming them as Dross and Dung to win Christ desiring with the Apostle To be found 〈◊〉 3.9 not having our own Righteousness which is of God by Faith By Grace are ye saved thro Faith and that not of your selves It is the Gift of God we are now come to the last Clause it is the Gift of God Hence note by way of Doctrine that Salvation is matter of Free Gift not desert Christ's Language to his Disciples is a Confirmation of the Point Fear not ●ke 12.32 little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you a Kingdom He does not say they were to have it upon desert but the Father out of his Grace and good Pleasure would bestow it as a Gift Eternal Life is the Gift of God Rom. 6. ult it were horrid and desperately sinful to think God gives us Heaven in a way of Exchange for our good Works the Scripture shews that the Word Gift is properly taken for a Bequeathing without the Desert of any thing in us or good Works that can come from us nothing more Free than Gift And thus let us look upon our Salvation as the Free Gift of God by way of Use is it so that Salvation is bestowed not upon our desert but as a Gift of Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then hence we learn to what we must betake our selves namely to the Riches of God's Free Grace we are to rely upon this and for ever discard and cashier that Groundless and Blindfold Opinion of Salvation Job 9.15 partly by Grace and partly by Works imitating Holy Job who says Tho he were Righteous he would not answer God and would plead it but make such Supplication to his Judge Oh! that Free Grace were more exalted and proud Man and his empty Performances more debased Secondly Seeing Salvation is bestowed not upon desert but as a Gift of Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then take heed what you hear and how beware of those Teachets and Doctrines that tend to justle out Christ and Grace to make room for Self-Righteousness in the matter of our Justification and Salvation who would have you work for Life still to work for Salvation is to work for Life Beware that you are not Imposed upon by such as would turn the Gospel into Law But then lastly Seeing Salvation is bestowed not upon Desert but as a Gift of Free Grace then let such as have closed with this Truth sit down and take the comfort of it Sun your selves in the Light of this Grace Eat your Bread Rom. 5.5 and drink your Wine or Water with a merry Heart Since God hath accepted you since his Grace and Love hath been shed abroad in your Hearts Are you in the number of those who are Wise and Noble according to the Flesh then as one fitted with an holy Amazement admire that the great God to whom you are no more than others your Consorts that are left and who commonly choosest the base and foolish to magnifie his Grace should thus go out of his way Cor. 1.27 to call in you to tast of this Heavenly Banquet of his Free Grace and undeserved Favour And if you are a Man of low degree poor weak foolish and of no account among Men even as one that is not and hath the Lord regarded you in your low Estate and magnified you by revealing the Freeness of his Grace unto your Soul Hath He drawn you to tast of his Free Grace and to see your Salvation by it Hath He taken you from the Dunghil to set you among Princes even the Princes of the World to come This is that Exaltation the Poor should always Rejoyce in What though you are in low Estate now ●●m 1.9 and others swim in Streams of Honour and worldly greatness What though you are Chastened every Morning yet think not you are hardly dealt with Remember your good things are to come they are growing in the other World and your Harvest is hastening on a pace What though the Skies be red and lowring God has his Bow in the Cloud set there as a sure Sign between Him and you What though the Billows of Troubles and Temptations go over your heads you shall not be Deluged by them By Free Grace you are hedged about and Walled up to Heaven in this Free Grace and undeserved Favour Let us Exult and Triumph yea let all the Sons of God Shout for Joy FINIS ERRATA Notwithstanding the Authors Attendance upon the Press these Errata's have escaped which be pleased to Correct with your Pen In the Dedication l. 1 for his r. the p. 15 l. 7 for so r. to p. 17 l. 5 for Communion r. common ib. l. 27 r. Men these 16 l. 34 for that r. your p. 19 l. 5 r. sheweth mercy p. 20 l. 1 after so r. that ib. l. 11 for might r. ought