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
save that from Contempt and yet withal to shew Mercy and Kindness to his Son and that by this means he consented to have one of his own Eyes put out to save one of his Sons Eyes now will not all acknowledge that herein he shewed his Love to his Son more than if he had freely remitted the whole Penalty Why thus it is here God hath shewed his Grace and Love to us much more in giving his Son and saving of us through his Satisfaction than if he had done it as a meer Act of Dominion and Favour So much in Answer to the first Objection Obj. 2. How is Salvation by Grace since it is only by or through Faith and not without it since such a Condition Disposition or Qualification is necessary to our actual receiving or partaking of it Ans. 1. Grace and Faith are not inconsistent not opposite or contrary one to another so that it may be and is nevertheless of Grace though it be only through Faith and not without it for Faith is no procuring meriting or deserving Cause of Salvation only a necessary Disposition to our receiving of it viz. that which makes us duely qualified and disposed Subjects as the Sun Communicates its Light freely but the Window-shuts must be removed before it can inlighten our House and Dwelling and as the taking away of the Window-shuts is no Cause of the Suns-light only it removes that which did hinder its shining into our House so it is in this Case Faith is but like the unstoping of the Window the removing that which did hinder the healing and saving Beams of Grace from shining into our Souls 2. Faith as to the most vital and essential Act of it which is the Consent or Choice of the Heart and Will is but a hearty thankful Acceptance of the Gift of Grace according to its proper Nature and Use for when you do heartily and sincerely Consent to take Christ for all the ends and uses that he is offered to you for in the Gospel then are you Believers indeed and Christ and Salvation is yours in Right and Title when you thankfully accept of Christ to save you from Sin as well as from the evil Consequents and Miseries that follow it then Christ is yours and Salvation is yours in Title now I hope a Gift is nevertheless free though it be given to none but those that are willing to receive it yea and to those only that will heartily and thankfully receive it If the King Pardon a Traytor on Condition that he will thankfully Accept it and Promise to Rebel no more but become a Loyal Subject I hope he Pardons freely though upon such a Condition if you give any thing to the Poor on this Condition that they reach forth their Hand to receive what you give and be thankful to you for it would you not reckon that you give freely and nevertheless freely though you require that they should thankfully receive your Alms Why thus is our Salvation of Grace though it be only through Faith and not without it for Faith is but our hearty thankful receiving of the Gift according to its Nature and Use. Obj. But it may possibly be objected against this that many carnal and ungodly Men would gladly accept of Salvation and yet they are not therefore saved nor have any Right or Title to it Ans. Take notice that I say that Faith is but a hearty thankful accepting of the Gift according to its proper Nature and Use and is any carnal and ungodly Man while such heartily willing and desirous to accept it so No he is not nor can he be while he remains carnal and ungodly But you will say He is willing to accept of Salvation Yea no doubt but what sort of Salvation Not the Salvation of the Gospel not that Salvation that is Purchased and Offered by Christ. At most he desires only a part but not the whole of it he would be saved from Hell but he would not be saved from Sin he abhors and loaths that part of Salvation as much as he doth wish for and desire the other No doubt there are none but would be saved from the Miseries of the Damned from Everlasting Burnings and Chains of Darkness but there are Thousands that would not be saved from their vain carnal earthly sensual and selfish Disposition of Mind and Heart Alas All that we can do we cannot perswade Men to this we cannot by all manner of Arguments and Intreaties prevail with Men to be willing to be saved from these And Salvation from these and such like evil and carnal Dispositions is a great and Principal Part of the Salvation of the Gospel Again There are many that are willing to accept of Christ but how Not wholly and intirely as he is offered in the Gospel they would have him to Pardon them but not to rule overthem they would have him to save them from the Guilt of Sin and the Curse for Sin but not from the Power and Dominion of it They would with all their hearts have him to make them happy but not to make them holy not to conform them to the Image of God No in this respect they hate him as much as they desire him in other respects they would have Christ to be to them a Hiding Place from the Wind a Refuge and Shelter from the Storms of Wrath but they would not not have him as a Physician to heal their diseased Souls of their inordinate love of Self and the World and Creature-comforts of their Sensuality and Selfishness Thus when it comes to be examined it will be found that there is not a carnal Man in the World that is truely willing and desirous of Salvation in the true and full sence of it 3. Faith it self is the Gift of God though it be but a hearty thankful acceptance of the Gift according to it 's proper Nature and Use yet such is the Pravity and Corruption of our Nature such is the Carnality Earthliness Sensuality of our Dispositions naturally that we should never consent to this unless Gods special Grace did incline and perswade us to it Did not God give us Faith we should never have it All the Intreaties Promises Threatenings of the Gospel would never perswade our hearts to it without the special Grace of God all the Arguments taken from God or our Selves from Life and Death Heaven and Hell everlasting happiness or misery would never prevail with the carnal corrupt Heart of Man to believe without the powerful efficacious Grace of God This is clear from many express Testimonies of Scripture the Text saith it is not of our selves it is the Gift of God Phil. 1. 29. unto you it is given to beleive in him Isa. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and then follows as a reason of it to whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed Now tho God give Salvation to none but Believers yet since Faith it self is his Gift too that
and the Glory of his Grace is the great Aim and Design of his redeeming and recovering Work Eph. 1. 6. To the Praise of the Glory of his Grace c. Take heed then that you do not rob Grace of any of its Glory We are very prone to ascribe to our selves as it is said of the Atheist tho' he doth not speak out with his Tongue yet he saith in his Heart there is no God So though we speak not out yet we are apt to have such Thoughts in our Hearts as if God did see something more or better in us than in others as if we were better disposed and prepared for Grace than others or that we were more serious diligent and industrious in the use of Means than others or that God did foresee that we would bring more Glory to him than others that we are prone to such self ascribing Thoughts doth appear by that Caution that is given to Israel Deut. 9. 4. speak not in thine Heart saying for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land c. It is likely before your Conversion you was more serious diligent and industrious in the use of Means than many others but it was a more common Grace that made you so that brought you to that Grace gave you that first in order to his bestowing of his more special and excellent Gifts upon you O! therefore see to it that you rub every filing of this Gold off from your own Fingers and let Grace have the Glory of all that it has wrought in you say not I but the Grace of God that was with me and therefore not unto us not unto us but to thy Name be the Praise As the Moon shines not by its own but a borrowed Light so there is nothing excellent in you above others no holy heavenly Inclination or Disposition in you but what is a Gift of Grace to you Your breathing after God is an Effect of his breathing upon you first Say then with the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 9. 10. I am not worthy to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the the Church but by the Grace of God I am what I am So say you I was a carnal dead Sinner but by the Grace of God I am alive I was a lover of Pleasures more than a Lover of God but by the Grace of God my carnal earthly Heart is in some measure sanctified and changed and turned towards God and Holiness and Heaven I was foolish and disobedient and slighted Christ and his saving Benefits as much as any others but by the Grace of God my hard Heart is somewhat softened my Stuborness and Resistance over come my Enmity taken away my aversness to Christ in some measure turned into a desiring loving and seeking of him 3. Are we saved by Grace and hath Grace begun a saving Work upon you then walk thankfully too Every Benefit calls for thankfulness and then much more saving Benefits which are the greatest of all others Has Grace made you to differ from others that are still in the Gaul of Bitterness and the Bond of Iniquity Nay has Grace made you to differ so much from your Selves from what you sometime were and should you not be thankful for it Has Grace brought you out of Darkness into a marvelous Light brought you out of a state of Bondage and Slavery to the Devil and Sin into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Of Dead has made you alive of strangers has made you nigh to God of Enemies hath reconciled you to him and made you his adopted Children of cursed condemned ones has brought you into a state of Pardon and Justification Oh! what Reason have you to be thankful Let your Tongues and your Lives to continually speak your thankfulness for such and so great Mercy Say then with the Psalmist Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits c. Psalm 103. 1 2 3 4. And that you may be excited to Thankfulness consider these Things 1. Consider the greatness of this Mercy of all the Mercies that God bestows upon the Children of Men saving Mercies are the greatest and the best if Grace has saved you or given you such Things as do accompany Salvation that is more than all other Blessings laid together Indeed all Gods Mercies are great considering how undeserving we are of them but saving Mercy is like the Sun among the other Planets that outshines all the rest and darkens their Glory when it comes into view 1. When Grace saves us that is a greater Benefit than Creation it self as the Redemption of the World by Christ is a greater Work and doth discover more of the Wisdom Power Love and goodness of God to Mankind than the Creation of the World And the making of any Soul actually a Partaker of saving Benefits is a greater Gift than the giving of it a Being in Creation Now consider do you not think your selves greatly obliged to bless God for your Beings that he made you something that were nothing That he made you Men and Women and not Toads or Serpents Surely if you Love your selves if you value your Lives and Beings or any of your Creature-Comforts and Injoyments Then you must needs bless God that made you what you are out of nothing Ah! but how much more should you bless God that of his special Grace and Love hath translated you from Darkness to Light from Death to Life from Slavery to Liberty from Wrath and Curses to Favour and Blessedness for to be under these evils was worse than to be nothing and these Blessings are better than meer natural Life and Being without them Alas What good would your Creation have done you since the Fall without sanctifying and saving Grace it would but make you capable of greater Misery Better a thousand Times never to have been Born than to be a Vessel of Gods Wrath and a Companion of Devils and damned Fiends in Everlasting Burnings 2. When Grace saves you it doth unspeakably more for you than the bestowing of all the outward Blessings of this Life upon you Health Riches Honour and Friends with other Injoyments and Comforts of this Life are great Mercies but they are unspeakably short of renewing and saving Grace you that have healthful and comely Bodies when you look upon any decriped maimed deformed monstrous Persons do you not admire the goodness of God that hath not made you such but is it not worse to have blind deformed monstrous Souls than to have such Bodies and is it not a greater Mercy to have your deformed Souls beautified and made comely with the Divine Image than to have comely Bodies The same may be said of Riches and all other worldly Injoyments All external and worldly Injoyments are but for a while and alas How little a while too When you come to Dye what becomes of bodily Strength and Beauty of worldly Honours Riches and Friends Alas when you are