and that is Grace 2. The Way or Means of our being made actual Partakers of this Salvation of Grace and that is through Faith To explicate the Terms First What is meant by Grace There are several Acceptations of this word Grace but two most notable 1. It is sometime taken for Gods free Favour and good Will 2. And sometimes for the Effects of it in us But here it is meant in the first Sence the free Favour good Will or good Pleasure of God Here are several Words in this Text and Context that do all express the impulsive moving Cause of our Salvation and every one hath something peculiar in it the more fully to set forth the free Favour gracious Pleasure and good Will of God in the Business of the Salvation of Sinners 1. Here is Love and great or much Love which Notes a great or ardent Desire and Affection to any Thing or Person and such as the Person loving doth rest or take pleasure in and so some derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is expressed Zeph. 3. 17. He will rest in his Love 2. Here is Mercy and rich Mercy that Notes Gods great Pity and Compassion towards those that are miserable God loves the Angels and is gracious to the Angels but he is not said to be merciful to them because they never were miserable 3. Again here is Grace and exceeding Riches of Grace and that Notes the freeness of Gods Love and Kindness whereby he doth Things freely without merit or desert Grace doth all gratis without any precedent Debt or Obligation 2. Are saved some say that is inchoate and so would limit it to Justification But other learned Expositors as Zanch. Simpli and Beza say here is intended not only Justification but whole and compleat Salvation as is manifest from the whole Context in ver 7. of the former Chapter he saith we have forgiveness of Sin in which is included Justification and that of Grace And then Chap. 2. ver 1 5. There he speaks of Sanctification and adds that this was by Grace and now again in the Text he saith For by Grace ye are saved quasi dicat all the steps and degrees of Salvation from the beginning to the end from first to last is of Grace Through Faith or by Means of Faith Faith being the means dispositive Condition Qualification or Instrument of our receiving or being actually Partakers of it And that not of your Selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is some Difference amongst Expositors what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth refer to some think to the whole Sentence quasi dicat and this that you are saved is not of your Selves but rather I should think with other Expositors that it doth refer to Faith that is the immediate antecedent Ye are saved by Grace through Faith and this Faith hoc ipsum this very Thing is not of your selves Doct. I. That the principal Efficient and first moving Cause of a Sinners Salvation from first to last is the free Grace of God Doct. II. That we receive and partake of Salvation of Grace through Faith or by means of Faith Doct. III. That Salvation being through Faith doth not hinder or oppugn its being of Grace for Faith it self is of Grace or the Gift of God which is the same nay Faith is so far from being opposite to Grace or making it to be less of Grace that the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be by Grace This great Work of the Salvation of Sinners the Scripture sometimes ascribes to God the Father thus he is called God our Saviour and it is God that Justifies And sometimes to Christ the Mediator therefore was his Name called Jesus a Saviour because he shall save his People from their Sins and again sometime we are said to be saved by Grace as in the Text and elsewhere and sometime by Faith as Christ said to that Woman Thy Faith hath saved Thee and the Apostle to the Jaylor Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy House You see the Scripture useth these several forms of speaking in the Matter of Salvation God saves us and Christ saves us and we are saved by Grace and saved by Faith and every one of these have a distinct Notion in the business of Salvation and yet not one opposite to another but one subordinate to another and all do admirably Consent and Agree and do not in the least interfere or clash When God is said to be our Saviour that Notes that he is the first Fountain and Original the principal Author and efficient Cause of it And when we are said to be saved by Mercy or Grace that shews us what was the first internal moving Cause that it is his own free Favour or good Will without any Merit or Desert in the Sinner And when Christ is called our Saviour and said to save us that shews the principal medium the meritorious Cause through or for whose sake God vouchsafes his Mercy and Grace and the blessed Effects of it to us thus the very Words before the Text and Tit. 3. 6. Again when Faith is said to save us that Notes the qualifying Condition or receptive Disposition whereby we are made qualified disposed and meet subjects of the Salvation that Gods free Grace doth give and Christs Merit hath purchased for us It is the principal Efficient first moving Cause of a Sinners Salvation that I shall speak to from this Text which from first to last is the free Grace of God Which Grace that we may the better see understand what a State we are all in by the fall and that is in this Context dead in Sin legally and spiritually Dead Legally Dead or as it is in other Terms under the Curse Children of Wrath. And spiritually Dead or Dead in Sin dead to God and Holiness and all spiritual and saving good having no more Inclination or Disposition to any spiritual and gracious Acts than there is in a Dead-man to the Actions or Comforts of Life again Dead in sin as fast bound chained and inslaved under the Power of fleshly vicious and sinful Dispositions and habits as a Dead-man is by Death from ever rising by his own Power such are we in a spiritual Sence If we have what is our due that is Death Eternal Death but if we be saved that is of Grace and Favour It is God that is the principal Author and Efficient of Salvation But if you ask what moved him to it why he would so concern himself for the Recovery and Salvation of lost and miserable Sinners Why it was only his own Grace and free Favour that moved him to it Consider Salvation in all the Parts of it in all the Degrees and Steps that lead to it from first to last and you shall see that Grace doth all 1. It was of his Grace that he gave his Son to be our Saviour the Scripture
his Wisdom for since he had with infinite Wisdom and Counsel made a Law for the Government of his Creatures with a Penalty annexed in case of Disobedience how could it stand with his Wisdom to suffer the Contempt and Violation of it and of his own Authority therein to go altogether unpunished What to have his Law trampled upon and as it were made void assoon as made if he should suffer this to go unpunished he would seem to disregard his own Law in the Sanction of it as much as his Creature had done the Precept of it Again should he suffer the Violation of of his Law to go altogether unpunished would it not seem as if he now saw Reason to alter his Mind since he saw good not to exact that Punishment he had denounced 2. And if he should have exacted no Punishment or Satisfaction for Sin there would lye a great Impeachment against his Justice and Wisdom together for either Sin did deserve Punishment and as great a Punishment as was threatened or it did not deserve it If it did not deserve it then it was unjust to enact it in the Law But if it did deserve it as no doubt it did then upon the entrance of Sin Justice must necessarily require that either the Punishment threatened or an equivalent and such as shall be full Satisfaction be exacted And here observe that though a Creditor may freely forgive a Debt that is owing to him without Injustice yet a Governour in many Cases connot forgive a Criminal without Injustice because Punishments are in some Cases absolutely necessary for the keeping up a due Reverence and Regard of the Governour and of his Laws And likewise for the good of the Common-wealth the preserving of due Order and the securing of the Lives and Properties of the Subjects why God is here to be considered as the righteous Governour of the World 3. And there would lye an Impeachment against his Truth and Veracity too for having threatened such a Punishment for the Violation of his Law would not his Veracity be called into Question if none was exacted 4. And from all these there would arise a great inconveniency and disorder in the future Government of the World for Men would hence take occasion to imbolden themselves in Sin and flatter themselves with Hopes of Impunity in it for they might thus Reason if God did once without any Satisfaction shew mercy to his sinning Creatures and that contrary to the Sentence of his own Law then why may he not do so again And if it be not inconsistent with his Nature and governing Justice to let one Sin go unpunished and that such a one as did quantum in se spoil the design of his works assoon as made then why not another and another and so Men would be incouraged to Hope that notwithstanding all the threatenings of Gods Law that yet they might have Peace though they did walk on in the ways of their own Hearts Nay and it would lay a Foundation for Men to distrust and be suspicious of the certainty and stability of his Promise too for if God do disregard the threatning of his Law then why not the Promise too and so both the stability of his Promise and the awe and terrour of his Threats would be mightily shaken at once the wicked imboldened and hardened in Sin with Hopes of Impunity notwithstanding all his Threats And the Comforts and Confidence of the Righteous weakened notwithstanding all his Promises These and many more such like great inconveniencies and disorders would necessarily have followed if Sin should have been pardoned and Sinners saved without a Satisfaction to the Justice of God These Things are necessary to understand the Reason and Use of Christs Sufferings 2. And now here comes in the Necessity and Reason of Christ Sufferings not that God was so delighted with the Blood and Sufferings of Christ meerly considered as Sufferings that he would sell his great Benefits to us for the Blood of his innocent Son nor to incline God to be merciful that was before averse to it No but since he was propense to shew Mercy he might in this way do it without any prejudice to his other Perfections because in the Death and Sufferings of Christ there is a sufficient salvo for the Honour of his Law and Government and of his Wisdom Holiness and Justice so that now his Mercy and Kindness is exercised in pardoning of guilty Sinners without any Impeachment of the Honour of his other Perfections he can now be just as well as merciful in Pardoning and holy as well as pitiful and kind in Sparing And his rich and free Grace in pardoning and saving Sinners in this way doth thus appear 1. In that this way for the Satisfaction of his own Justice and for the vindicating the Honour of his Law and Government was of his own finding out and provideing the Scripture every where attributes the contrivance of Redemption to God himself Job 33. 24. I have found a ransome God did out of his own Treasure provide for the Satisfaction of his own Justice the giving of Christ to be our Redeemer was the Fruit of his free self-moving Love and Grace Joh. 3. 16. God so love the World that he gave his Son 2. His Grace appears in accepting of what Christ did and suffered for us so as thereupon and for the sake of Christ to Pardon and Acquit us when we beleive in him for though the Suffering of Christ were abundantly sufficient to make Satisfaction yet it is of the free Grace of God to accept them on our behalf for in that very Thing there is a Relaxation of the Law for that did threaten every Offendor in his own Person and none else 3. Nay here seems to be a more abundant Grace and Love in giving Pardon and Salvation through Christ then if he had given it as a meer Act of Dominion and Favour without any Satisfaction to his Justice For you see that the Sufferings of Christ was not to purchase Gods Love of Goodwill to us for that was Antecedent to the Sufferings of Christ and the moving Cause of his giving Christ but the true Reason of Christs Sufferings is that the Honour of his Law and Government and of all his Perfections might be secured and provided for in the exercise of his Grace and pardoning Mercy towards us Now that he should give his only begotten and dearly beloved Son to be so humbled and abased to undergo such Shame and Misery and Death for us this was of all others the highest Instance and Demonstration of his Grace and Love to us it was impossible that he should be merciful at a dearer Rate or shew his Love and Kindness in a more stupendious Way We have a story of Zaleucus King of Locris that when his own Son was found to have transgressed a Law that threatened the loss of both Eyes to the Offendor the King resolves to execute the Law to
every where Attributes it to the Love of God to lost Sinners that he gave his Son Jesus Christ to be their Saviour John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Rom. 5. 8. God commended his Love to us in that while we were Sinners Christ dyed for us Heb. 2. 9. But we see Jesus that by the Grace of God he should taste Death for every Man this Grace and Favour of God in providing us a Saviour is exprest in all those Scriptures that speak of God giving his Son and sending him into the World to be a Saviour and a Propitiation for our Sins Gal 4. 4. But when the God sent his Son made of a Woman c. 1 John 4. 9 10. And this providing and giving a Saviour for us can be put upon no other account but the free Grace and Favour of God towards us for we deserved that God should have sent an Executioner from Heaven to execute the just Penalty of his broken Law upon us As he sent an Angel to destroy the first-born of Egypt and into the Camp of Assyria that slew one hundred fourscore and five thousand Men in one Night I say we might rather have expected that God should have sent an Executioner of his Wrath amongst us and not a Saviour to save us from it If God had dealt with us in Justice according to our Deserts we had then been as the fallen Angels are bound in Chains of Darkness without Hope or Possibility of Deliverance it is only his Grace and free Favour that makes all the Difference that there is betwixt us and them 2. It was of his Grace that in Christ and for the sake of Christ he hath made and offered to us a New Covenant a better Covenant that offers Pardon and Life and Salvation upon easier Terms than the first Covenant did hence it is called by way of Distinction and Eminence the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel of the Grace of God 1. Partly because free Grace hath the principal Hand and Stroke in the making of it hence the Covenant is called by the Name of Mercy it self Mic. 7. 20. God might had he so pleased have dealt with us upon the Terms of the old broken Covenant and since we had violated the Precept he might with rigour have executed the Threatning Justice deals with Men according to Desert but it is Grace that gives that which is not due 2. It is fitly called the Covenant of Grace partly because of the abundant Riches of Gods Grace that it doth reveal and make known to the World the Infinite Power and Wisdom of God was gloriously Displayed in the Creation his Righteousness and Holiness the exact Justice and Purity of his Nature in the Perfection of his Law but the Rich and Abundant Grace and Mercy of God was not made known to the World at least not so gloriously but by the New Covenant Tit. 2. 11. 3. Again it is fitly called the Covenant of Grace because of the gracious Effects of it or the great free Favours and Blessings that it confers upon all that are under it and interested in it it Pardons those that are guilty of the Violation of the first Covenant it forgives the Debt of Punishment that the first Covenant did exact it justifies and acquits those that the first doth condemn it saves those that by the first were Sentenced to Everlasting Destruction It is Gods Instrument whereby he gives many great unspeakable and undeserved Blessings and Priviledges to miserable and lost Sinners as a King doth by his Charter grant many Priviledges and Immunities to a Corporation Why so the New Covenant is Gods Charter of Grace whereby he gives the great and invaluable Priviledges of Pardon and Peace with God Justification Adoption Eternal Glory and Happiness to Sinners that are altogether undeserving of these Things nay that by the first Covenant deserve the contrary It is a Covenant of Grace because the Grace Favour and Good-will of God doth freely give all the Benefits and Priviledges that it doth contain and doth confer upon the Children of Men. 4. Again it is a Covenant of Grace as it promiseth and gives Grace to perform whatsoever it requires as a Condition of its subsequent Benefits 3. It is of meer Grace that any are elected and chosen to obtain Salvation by Christ. And this is the Spring of all that special Mercy that some of the lost Children of Men receive more than others That there is a Christ a Saviour given to the lost World a new and better Covenant made and offered to undone Sinners for their Acceptance this is Grace and rich Grace vouchsafed to the humane kind in general which is not done to the fallen Angels We Children of Men have a Saviour provided and given for us when they have none we are through the Grace of God in Christ under a better Covenant than that we broke while they are held strictly bound to the Terms of their broken Covenant But now Election that is a more special and distinguishing Grace still this is a Grace vouchsafed to some of the Children of Men and not unto others That there is an Election whereby God from Eternity doth pick and choose some from amongst the rest of Mankind whom he will actually bring to Salvation by Christ in the way and means that he hath appointed in the Gospel cannot be denied without manifest Violence to the Scriptures and this is meerly of his Grace and good Pleasure Eph. 1. 5 6. Rom. 11. 5 6. Grace is the sole Spring of this Election it is not out of any foresight of Merit or Desert in those that he chooses any more than in those that he passeth by He did not choose any to Life and Salvation because he foresaw that they would believe or more readily comply with the Gospel Offer and Call than others as some say No God did not choose any because he foresaw that they would believe or be more Holy and Obedient than others but that he might make them so Eph. 1. 4. Rom. 8. 29. What he saith of the the whole Nation of the Israelites is true of every Elect Soul Deut. 7. 7 8. But here take Notice that though God doth of rich Grace and the meer good pleasure of his Will choose some to life and not out of a foresight of their Faith or Holiness or good Improvements yet it doth not therefore follow that he doth of his meer Will and Pleasure decree to damn any without any consideration of their Sin and Demerit for there is a vast difference betwixt these two Election to Life and Salvation and ordaining to Wrath and Perdition for in the one viz. That execution of his Wrath and Justice he acts as a righteous Governour and deals with Men according to his Laws that he gave them for their rule but in the other he acts as a gracious Benefactor and free dispencer of his own Gifts and so may