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
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 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
gracious and merciful To be gracious is to do well to one that deserves ill and if otherwise it wou'd be but after the Covenant of Works or first Covenant which yet was not faulty or defective in it self for it gave a Sufficiency to obtain the Benefits proposed by it which if they had used and improved as they might there would not have needed a Second but the Lord foreknowing the Creatures Mutability and consequently what need there would be of another Kind of Power and Grace than that Adam was Created with did therefore resolve of a Second which in Scripture is called Tit. 1.2 The hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot Lye promised before the World began It is styled The Covenant of Grace not only as designing the Glory of his Grace in the saving of Men but as giving freely and of Meer Grace and Favour whatever must bring about that salvation for where else can lie the difference between the Two Covenants It cannot be in respect of the Duties injoyned by either for Faith and Repentance are much more above the Compass of Natural Power than to forbear the Forbidden Tree but the differ noe lies in this that the New Covenant consists of better Promises And this Excellency lies in the free and absolute Engagement of God himself to invest his covenanted ones with all things conducing to the Blessedness held forth That is to give to them and work in them whatever he in this Covenant requires of them The Law shews us our Duty but does not give strength to perform it The Covenant of Grace does both by writing the Law in the Heart The Covenant of Grace runs not upon Conditional or failable Terms I will if ye will but Absolute and Sovereign I will and ye shall And further this Covenant Gives salvation not upon your Ingenious complyance with what it prescribes or better Improvement of what you have in Communion with others Such claims and pretensions the Lord disallows and often cautions against but of Grace that all our Hope might be in God and the Riches of his Grace This being the nature and Substance of the Covenant of Grace is a sufficient Reason Why God will save his by meer Free Grace and Vndeserved favour The uses of the point are several First It is so that we are saved by meer Free Grace and undeserved favour Then this Confutes the Error of Arminians Free Willers c. In holding a Concurrence of our works Whereas it is evident That if our Justification be of Grace then there can be no room for any Inherent Holiness or works of ours to make up or Concur with it For the Apostle makes a flat Opposition between Grace and Works otherwise Grace were no Grace Rom. 11. they are so opposite that like Fire and Water they expel each other and as one says Grace is no more to be Accounted Grace unless it be every way most Free. By Grace is meant The free favour of God who is not moved by any thing without himself But what he does he does freely without respect to Mens desert Nay their undesert rather is an expedient consideration in this Act of Grace By Works we are to understand All that self Righteousness Goodness or whatever else is performable by Men there Viz Grace and Works he proves as Inconsistent as Contraries can be Grace and Works have always clashed To him that worketh the reward Rom. 4.4 is reckoned not of Grace but of Debt The setting up of the one is the deposing of the other it 's dangerous daubing with things unmixable and thus are Grace and Works in no wise to be mingled If you take in any part tho never so little of your own performances as necessary to that being justified you forfeit the whole benefit of Gospel Grace By Grace are ye saved is the Language of the Text and in Rom. 3.24 It is said We are justified freely by his Grace which word freely is very Emphatical and is especially taken up in three Cases First When a Man does a thing without hope of the least profit Secondly When a Man does a thing rashly or inconsiderately but this sense is not proper here Thirdly When a Man doth a thing undeservedly nothing moving him thereunto but much which might lead him to the contrary and thus it is here to be understood For when there was nothing in us which might procure it Nay much which might Exasperate the Lord against us even then he saved us freely of his Grace zek 16.6 When we were in our Blood then he said Live and even then resolved to make us Eternally happy and that against the Natural bent of our own will leaving us to admire that his Love should be fixed on such as we Crying out What are we and what is our Fathers House Sam. 7.18 that God should bring us hitherto And how is it That thou hast manifested thy self to us and not unto the World John 14.22 Secondly By way of Consolation Is it so that we are saved by meer Free Grace and undeserved Favour Then this affords matter of great Comfort and Consolation to true Believers for if our Salvation be of meer Grace and depends not on any Worth or Holiness in us why should we fear Indeed if we were to be saved by what we have done then we might be in daily despair and indeed utterly despair Alas what are we unclean Wretches that we should be of any worth in God's sight 〈◊〉 25.5 6. before whom the Stars are unclean Yea the Stars are unclean in his sight How much less Man that is a Worm and the Son of Man which is a Worm Alas what are the best Performances of such poor Creatures 〈◊〉 15.15 when it is said The Heavens are not clean in his sight Nay He charges his Angels with Folly 〈◊〉 4.8 How much more Abominable and Filthy is Man which drinketh up Iniquity like water as at the 16th of the 15th of Job Oh! what is our Holiness but as a Menstruous Clout and our Righteousness not Righteousness in this or that Act but our Righteousnesies all of them and the best of them are but as silthy Rags But now seeing it is not of him that willeth Isa 64.6 nor of him that runneth but in God that sheweth we may boldly accept and confidently trust in this Free Grace of God Rom. 7.16 We are to bear our selves upon it altho as of our selves we are unworthy of it For why should we put away this Rich Grace held forth and offered to us Why should we not chearfully embrace it and rejoyce in it especially since it hath appeared unto all and God without respect of Persons makes tender of it to the poor base despised ones of the World as well as to the Rich Mighty and Noble And let it be observed That it is not a true Humility but a sottish Pride to put away and Judge our selves
and this is what we now own and Preach and shall Triumph in in the great Day â—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 â—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 â—â—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
most humble Supplicant at the Throne of Grace R.C. Jan. xxix 1698. A Word to the Admirers of Free Grace especially those who were hearers of these Sermons Dear Friends ONE would think the Doctrine of Free Grace is so Illustrious in Scripture as not to be spoken against but seeing it meets with great opposition from the Arminian Party who are desirous not only to be Teachers but Thunderers of the Law understanding not what they say nor whereof they affirm especially when they charge Antinomianism upon the Preachers of Free Grace who are so far from being Enemies to the Law that it may be easily made appear they are better Friends to it than our Opponents who instead of yeilding a full and perfect Obedience to the Law put it off with Lame Imperfect Performances when the Admirers of Free Grace are for having it satisfied to the full in that they plead the compleat and plenary satisfaction made by their Elder Brother the Lord Jesus 〈◊〉 1. The Opposition I say the Doctrine of Free Grace meets with was a means to Midwife these Sermons into the world which otherwise would have been buried in Oblivion the Author retaining a deep sense of his Inability for such a work as also the great discouragement he at present lies under having of late been toss'd upon the blustring Waves and Billows of Envy and Reproach which Storm was so violent and tempestuous one Wave beating in upon the Neck of another that his sinking Spirits are scarce recover'd in which Storm he 'll not tell you now how sorely he was shot at by some nor how Indecorously he was dealt with by others seeing it may be said of all these Storms as of Julian's Persecution Nubecula cito Transitura they 'll soon be blown over and then follows a perpetual Calm This short Night of Sorrow will produce such a bright and lasting Morning of Joy as will never suffer Eclipse more in which you 'll see many Heirs of Grace in Heaven whom you thought hardly sit to live upon the Earth And a matchless mercy it is that God sees not as Man sees Man looks at the outward Appearance the Worthiness and Towardliness in us above others but God looks upon us as cloathed in the Righteousness of his own Son which he of his Free Grace hath bemantled us with and wrapt us in The Design of the ensuing Discourse is to magnify God's Grace and the Freeness of it and to prove we are saved wholly by Grace from first to last our Election Redemption Conversion all is from special Discriminating distinguishing Grace we have not the least thing to Glory in as if we had made our selves to differ from those that Perish But we must wonder here and to all Eternity in Heaven that we should find Grace in the sight of the Lord. In handling the point I have endeavoured the avoiding all Rhetorical Flourishes as no way Condecent to a Truth so weighty and misterious in it self and in this it is masticated and prepared for the more unintelligible Reader The Author hopes those many Reflections cast upon him which were exhal'd out of the Bog of Ignorance and Malice will not prejudice those to whom he is known against the Truths treated upon in the following Tract because Published by him and also that his real weaknesses which he humbly acknowledges to have been not a few Will no ways Impede the chearful Embracing of and closing in with the Soul-Refreshing Truths laid down in the following Discourse He is sensible it has been his Lot to have his Actions viewed with the Green Spectacles of prejudice and you know through a Green Glass every thing appears Green and he also knows it is the Easiest thing of a Thousand for a malicious mind to soyle the Glory of the bravest and most beautiful Actions with ill and wrong Interpretations And it were well if both Ministers and People would Learn more tenderly to handle the Reputation of one another it being like a white Ball which sully's by being tost from hand to hand professors themselves being in this case too well acquainted with Addition and Multiplication And where is that Man which does not sometimes such Actions as he would not have discretion scan Integrity it self would not be aw'd by a blabbing spy It is therefore to be wisht that Men in all their Commerce would make appeals to their own Consciences would I have this measure meeted out to my own Soul And Oh! That Men would abhor speaking that of another which they would not have another speak of them or Condemn that in any one which we would not but have pardoned in our selves And Oh! know if that Man or Woman you defame be a Child of God you must expect to pay dearly for it What says God to Aaron and Miriam Saints 〈◊〉 12.8 Were you not afraid to speak against my Servant Moses seeing they were not Miriam suffers sorely for it Ver. 9.10 And so shall those who upon the Malicious Instigation of a Viperine Brood or their own base Hearts deride Reproach or disgrace any of the Members of Christ For most dangerous it is to Rake in those sores which the Blood of Christ hath healed The Author would not have dwelt so long upon what is so disgressive from the matter contained in the subsequent Tract had he not been sorely pounded in the morter of Reproach In which State he through Grace being free from that Gun-Powder Spirit which every little spark blows up has pressed after having a heart fraught full of Holy Magnanimity and Heavenly Greatness which walks so high as to slight and disregard the Frowns of Honoured Insolency and to Trample upon the Scorns and Taunts of Dunghill Malice still keeping on his way of admiring Free Grace and Relying upon it To conclude the Sermons you are presented with might have been more Polite and Accurate had the Author designed the Accumulating any praise to himself which he being no ways Ambitious of offers them to you as they are begging that for you which he often does for himself even that your Souls may be gathered to that People who have a Principle and Heart given them of God 〈◊〉 15. to say to Eternity Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the Praise of the hopes of our Salvation R. C. Salvation laid on its Right Foundation SERMON I. EPH. II. 8. For by Grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God AS this Great and Blessed Apostle was Eminently carried forth in Magnifying the Riches of God's Free Grace in all his Epistles so was he in a Superlative manner in this to the Ephesians which in general may be called by the Apostle's own Direction his Knowledge in the Mystery of Christ Chap. 3 Ver 4. In the Two First Chapters he discourses of Election the foundation of every Believers happiness shewing the freeness of God's grace in saving his