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 Hâ—â— 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
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 â— 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 â— 65 5. â—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
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 baâ—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. 1â— 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 â— 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