declare wherein the true notion and nature thereof doth consist viz. in turning unto God Repent and turn unto God the latter phrase is exegetical declaring the sense of the former To repent is to turn unto God which supposeth an aversion from God as the antecedent condition and posture of every penitent sinner And so much is signified by the name of a sinner Sin being nothing else but an aversion or turning away from God So that Repentance being the same thing with Conversion in Scripture-sense is a relative word having a double tearm of relation à quo ad quem from which and to which The latter is expressed by the Apostle in the forementioned words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent and turn unto God From whence it is called Repentance towards or unto God Act. 20.21 The former is signified by the same Apostle He. 6.1 Repentance from dead works that is from sinful works called dead works because they are the acts of a man Spiritually dead and destitute of Spiritual and Divine life These two things make up the intire signification of repentance viz. turning from sin as sin that is all known sin unto God that is unto the universal duty of obedience unto his will most fully and plainly expressed by the words of the Prophet Ezek. 18.21 But if the wicked man will turn from all his sin which he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die This I take to be one of the plainest and compleatest descriptions of Repentance which is to be found in Scripture Wherein the same general duty is otherwise set forth in great variety of expression As to rent the heart to circumcise the foreskin of the heart to abhor our selves to cease to do evil and learn to do well To crucifie the old man and the flesh to mortifie the deeds of the body to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to put off the old man and put on the new to cleanse our hands and purifie our hearts to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world c. Wherunto the general termes of Regeneration Sanctification and the new Creature are materially equivalent These and many other expressions there are of the same general duty all of them signifying an essiectuall change of the whole man inward and out ward beginning in the mind or understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which all humane affections and actions are governed from whence both Greek and Latin names are derived which primarily and properly signifie a change of the mind or intellectual part of the soul but are understood practically as before I shewed cencerning Faith and Knolwedg in Scripture-sense Thus is Repentance expressed by the Apostle to be a renewing in the spirit of the mind Eph. 4.2 3. Rom. 12.2 a transformation of a man by the renewing of the mind putting off the old man with his deeds Col. 3.10 and putting on the new man which is renewed in knowledg These expressions with other like do signifie this work of conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to begin in Repentance or the understanding the ruling faculty in a man the prime recipient of all grace which therfore is sometimes called light Eph. 5.8 Heb. 6.4 illumination and inlightning as on the contrary sin is termed darkness very frequently Repentance comprehending the whole work of grace is begun in the mind but hath its most proper effect and seat in the Will as sin also hath It is the effectual habitual conversion of the Will that makes out a true Repentance that being the only faculty which is capable of command and most directly and immediatly obliged to obey having also the power of commanding the affections and actions of the whole man And upon this account it is that Sorrow for and Confession of sin do sometimes signifie a true Repentance having the promise of pardon annexed to them because where they are sincere they do infer such a change in the Wil as amounts to Repentance For a true godly sorrow for sin as offensive to God and repugnant to his just and holy Will cannot be separated from a real purpose of forsaking the sin Because it is impossible for a man to be sincerely sorry for that which the Will allows either as already done or to be done hereafter And therefore also such confession of sin as proceeds from a godly sorrow doth necessarily imply a conversion or change of the Will which if it be so radicated and fixed as will prove effectual upon the trial which God only knows is nothing less than a true Repentance begun in the Heart But this may seem more than enough to have been spoken by way of Explication of so ordinary a Point whereunto therefore I shall add no more in this place but this one advertisement to apply it to my Text That seeing Repentance is a work of absolute necessity to Salvation whosoever desires to work out his own salvation must be careful to work out his Repentance which is done only by bringing forth fruits or works worthy of repentance which can be no other than the works of a holy life Seeing the work of Repentance can only be said to be begun by godly sorrow and confession of sin and that only when those things are joyned with a firm and sincere purpose of reformation it is evident that the entire duty can no otherwise be wrought out than by a constant and faithful performance of that godly purpose Having now laid down from Scripture the nature of Repentance I come to the Answer of the Objection before mentioned consisting of two Branches 1. That the urged necessity of obedience to the commandments as part of the condition of the New covenant destroies the distinction of it from the Old making both of them to in these general terms of Do this and live And the consequence of this is 2. That the burthen hereby laid upon Christians is intolerable in as much as the keeping of the Commandments is a yoak too heavy for the shoulders of lapsed nature though strengthened by grace My answer to this Objection shall be grounded upon the Doctrin of Repentance as that is no other than a peculiar precept and priviledg of the New Covenant Repentance as hath been shewn in the compleate sense of the word and extent of the duty requires obedience to the commandments as Faith also doth but not the same obedience which the Law requireth I say therefore that repentance is a precept of the second Covenant and not of the first a precept of the Gospel not of the Law as such For to repent supposeth Sin which by the condition of the first Covenant supposed to be made with man-kind in his innocency is indispensably excluded Repentance cannot become a duty till
to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity viz. to all Men as well 〈◊〉 Strangers and Enemies as Brethren to distinguish it from brotherly kindness or kindness to the Brethren that is to all Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore the rather Bretheren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an Entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Where note these three things 1. That to give diligence to make our Calling and Election sure is the same thing as to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling For Calling and Election do signifie the free Grace and Mercy of God whereby Christians are called and elected to the state of Salvation by him that hath given unto us all things that pertain to Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and Vertue vers 3. Life and Godliness Glory and Vertue are the things that comprehend the full sense of the word Salvation first declared as it signifies The being saved from our Sins that is from the power and practice of Sin as well as from the guilt and punishment thereof And to give diligence to make our Calling and Election sure is to take care that this Grace by which we are Called and Elected may prove effectual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firm and permanent and that we may obtain the benefit which was designed us thereby 2. The Direction given by the Apostle to this end is to add to our Faith Vertue c. that is to apply our selves with all diligence to the constant practice of all these Vertues and to labour for a proficiencie in them If these things be in you and abound and if ye do these things c. which agrees with the interposition of those words in the Vulgar Latin and some ancient Greek Copies vers 10. Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by good Works to make your Calling and Election sure Our Calling and Election is to be made sure that is firm and effectual by good Works in the practice of the above-named Vertues And this is to work out our own Salvation 3. This Direction is urged with an Argument drawn from the assured success in the use thereof in those words If ye do these things ye shall never fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For so an Entrance shall be ministred or afforded unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ The latter words do plainly shew that the assurance of our Calling and Election 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressed vers 10. doth not referr only if at all in this place to that certitude of the Subject as it is ordinarily called that is to our being assured or confident that we are Called and Elected or to our acquiring a certain Plerophorie of faith or hope that we are at present in the favour of God and in a state of Salvation but signifies also and rather a certainty of the Object that is that our Calling and Election shall be and remain firm and effectual See Rom. 4.16 and 15.8 unto our entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of Christ which certitude ariseth from the performance of the conditions of the Promise of entrance into that Kingdom A second Text of like general direction to this end is in Tit. 2. v. 11 12 13. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation to all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath appeared or hath appeared to all men For the Greek words are indifferent to either Reading teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed Hope c. Where we are taught by the grace of God that bringeth Salvation that is by the Gospel what manner of Conversation is required of them that look to be partakers of this blessed hope of Salvation to wit that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts not indulging themselves in any known Sin against first or second Table they should live soberly in reference to themselves and their own Bodies in all temperance and chastity and righteously towards all others in all acts of Justice and Charity and Godly to God-ward in all Piety and Holiness of inward and outward worship both private and publick Hereunto agrees that of S. John 1 Joh. 3.2 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure And a compleat paraphrase of that Text we have in the words of S. Paul 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Salvation is promised in the Gospel under condition of sanctification 2 Thes 2.13 And is therefore no otherwise to be wrought out than by a through cleansing of our selves from all kinds and degrees of pollution both of Soul and body as far as is possible and labouring to perfect holiness in the fear of God I shall mention but one Text more by way of general Direction what a Christian should do to work out his own Salvation and that shall be from the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.58 Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. The word therefore referrs to the precedent discourse that takes up the whole chapter containing an ample confirmation and explication of that grand Article of Christian Faith viz. the Resurrection of the Faithfull to Everlasting life and the final accomplishment of their Salvation from sin and death The truth of which Doctrine to him that believes it affords an argument abundantly sufficient to perswade and incourage him to all that may be necessary or profitable to the attaining unto this blessed estate wherein his labour will be so fully recompenced And therefore together with this argument from the certainty of the reward the Apostle concludes his discourse with special directions how it is to be attained shewing 1. What that work is which is to be done to this end 2. How it is to be persued viz. with all constancy and diligence 1. He sheweth what that work is which is to be done by him that looketh for this reward It must be the work of the Lord and what 's that our Saviour hath told us in the Text before quoted Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent But this
11.6 4.4 then it is no more of Grace otherwise Work is no more Work Now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt 1. The Answer to the Objection from these Texts is clearly suggested in the last of them wherein the strength of the Objection chiefly lies to wit in the specification First of this Gift or Grace by the relative term of a Reward And secondly of the Work as being such as makes the Reward to be of Debt 1. Thus Grace is termed a Reward as it is also called in other Texts The Reward of the Inheitrance And the Recompence of the Reward Rev. 22.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.18 3.24 Heb. 11.26 My Reward is with me to give to wery man according as his Work shall be A Reward cannot be without respect to some Work A free Gift may be without any Condition but not such a one as is reckon'd for a Reward Whereas therefore the Apostle saith To him that worketh the Reward is not reckon'd of Grace but of Debt He cannot be understood to speak of all manner of Work without contradiction to himself in the term of a Reward but of such only as is inconsistent with Free Grace that is Meritorious Work and such as makes the Reward to be a due debt But no such work can be done by a Creature Though God may oblige himself in point of Truth to his Creature by his free Promise yet he can never be obliged by it in point of Justice by any Work of his Creature to any Reward much less to such an one as is so infinitely disproportionable to any possibility of their Works Because all that can be done by a Creature in conformity to God's Will that is all the good that can be done by him is a due Debt to the Creator But where the Work is a Debt the Reward if any be given can be none Besides it is absurd to think that any man can be bound to reward his own Works But every good Work is the Effect of God's grace For it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure So that this Condition of Evangelical Works doth not evacuate the freedom of God's grace nor yet diminish it but rather advance it Seeing those Works as well as the Reward are the Effects of his grace 2. But how little moment there is in this Objection must needs appear to him that first believes that which no body but an Atheist or an Epicurean will deny viz. that there is no temporal Salvation of the Body Life Health or any other good thing in this World but is also the gift of God And secondly considers what necessity there is of humane industry care and pains to the obtainment of some at least of these Gifts And this Answer if it be duly adverted will suffice to solve an other Objection against the necessity of Working in order to Salvation drawn from 2. Object the Doctrine of Predestination Because that Salvation which the Text speaks of is not only a free Gift of God but such a one as is given to none but them to whom it is predestinated And to them it is so certain as can never fail without the frustration of the Divine Decrees What need then of our sollicitude or labour to work it out Is it our part to take care that God be not deceived in his Providence or disappointed in his Decrees They that make this Objection Answer shall need no other Answer than that which they shall be able to make to themselves in reference to the following Questions 1. Whether they do believe that any kind of temporal bodily salvation or any other worldly good thing is given to any but them to whom it is predestinated Or which is all one whether God's Decrees do not extend as well to things Temporal as to eternal Secondly supposing they do What need is there of any work or care of man's for any end or purpose whatsoever What need so much toil of the Husbandman to plow and sow and mannure his ground seeing his Crop if he shall have any is predestinate What need any working for meat drink or rayment Nay what need of Meat Rayment Physick what need of Eating or Drinking in order to the presevation of life or health what needs any care or defence to preserve the body from the most imminent danger that can be seeing that all preservation of life and health is decreed by God The answer which any sober man can make to himself as to these questions will fully suffice to discharge his mind from the temptation of this old Objection Seeing he cannot but understand that it may be altogether as true that no body is predestinate to Salvation but he that indeavours to work it out with fear and trembling as it is that no body is predestinate to live in bodily health and safety but he that eats and drinks and avoids such things as would necessarily destroy his life And that the certainty of the End doth not take away but rather inferre the necessity of the Means 3. The third Motive may be taken from the equity and reasonableness of this work There is nothing required of us in order to the obtainment of this great Salvation but what as reasonable men we must conclude to be altogether just and indispensably necessary To believe in the Son of God after that he hath been sufficiently declared to be so by all reasonable evidences obey Him to whom all power in Heaven and Earth is given and whom God hath made Lord of quick and dead To repent of and to forsake all known sin To deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world To love God with all the heart and all the soul and all the might and our neighbours as our selves To do to others as we would they should do to us These and whatever other Christian duty is required as part of the condition of Salvation are things so apparently just and reasonable as will admit of no colour of exception against them Let us but examine what those things are which are required of us to render us capable of Salvation and judg Which of them we could wish with any face of reason to have been abated Would we be saved by Christ without believing in him without acknowledging him for a Saviour without any dependence upon him Would we have the Son of God to be sent from Heaven on purpose to preach the Gospel of Salvation to us and our selves not bound to believe on him Or would we be bound to believe his Doctrine to be the Will of God but not be obliged to practise it Would we believe in him for a Saviour and have liberty to reject him as a Lord Would we that he should have nothing to do to exact any service or obedience from us that hath bought us with the price
2.11.17 c. And to quote no more Texts in so evident a matter whosoever understands what this work is cannot be ignorant of the difficultie thereof Wherein so many strong lusts of the flesh are to be mortified the Old man to be crucified Self to be denied the Cross to be taken up So many duties to God Our selves and our Neighbours to be diligently performed An infinite number of temptations impediments and snares must be overcome even as many as can be raised or laid by the wit and malice of the Devell by all the variety of worldly things both good and bad that may be desired or feared to the prejudice of this designe and by al lthe men that we converse with in the world The evil examples inticements discouragements and seducement of bad men The errors infirmities and scandalous miscarriages of good men There is scarce any person or thing in the world that we can have to do withall but may minister some kind of temptation to divert us from the strictness of a holy life But to all those difficulties that can be created to us from without the greatest addition is given by our Selves from our own manifold imperfections infirmities corruptions and carnal dispositions comprehended under the general name of the flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the thing that ye would Gal. 5.17 By all which considerations it is abundantly evident that this saving work is full of difficultie and therefore not to be finished without great diligence Neither ought it to be a wonder that such an immense reward as that of an eternal felicity should be charged with so much difficultie as is enough to exercise the best of our diligence it being Proverbiably true amongst men that all excellent things are difficult to obtain and if they were not so they would be of no such esteem A cheap and easie Victory gives not so much joy as a difficult one So undoubtedly the difficulties that we meet withall in the way of Salvation being overcome by the Grace of God will much advance the joy of that victory and render us capable of greater degrees of glory than otherwise we should be That glory as it is promised in Scripture being to be dispensed by way of reward will bear proportion to the labour and difficultie of the work not as meritorious in a strict sense but as the effect and exercise of Divine grace For glory is the Crown of grace not as that signifies a gift habit or infused quality but as it works or is exercised in us by the co-operation of our own wills effectually assisted thereby Hence it is that both Scripture and Catholick sense of the Church doth attribute a special eminent degree of glory to Martyrs above other ordinary Saints I say ordinary Saints conceiving there will be as great a distinction of Saints as Scripture intimates there is of Angels As in the Catholick Church here below there is a plebs or vulgus a populacy and a Nobless Some * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 17.11 more noble than others in the perfection of holiness Some Heroes such as Enoch and Elias Ahraham and David Peter and Paul and their collegues So will it be in the Kingdom of Heaven One Starre will differ from anothr in glory And though Infants and Ideots baptized especially will be saved yet it is not probable that their glory will be equal to that of other Saints who had less of Innocency but more of vertue in their Lives And upon this account it is justly desirable that Infants Baptized may live to adult years though therehy they cannot but incurre some hazard of that salvation whereof they were for that state secured by their Baptism as including the whole of the condition or qualification required in them not only that they may glorifie God here which is the end of our Being and therefore ought to be desired but also that themselves may be qualified for a further degree of glory than their baptismal grace never proved or excercised can be concluded to give them Upon the same reason I suppose it not to be the interest of Christians to desire to get to Heaven with the least difficultie that may be Not only because thereby we shall glorifie God so much the lesse by how much the less the excercise and trial of our love and obedience shall be But also because by that means also the state and degree of our future glory and happiness may be abated and that for ought we know to all eternity This consideration may afford great incouragement and consolation to Christians against the special and extraordinary difficulties that they may meet withall in the way of Salvation above others Namely that all their labour of love will be undoubtedly considered in the free and bountifull reward But now against all the difficulties and impediments that are to be mett with in this great work we have also this further comfort and incouragement viz. That as we have many sorts of temptations many lets impediments and difficulties to passe through in this business so have we as many and indeed more variety of helps aids succours assistances and incouragements towards our inabling to go through withall The means of graâ—e are more various and more potent than the motives to sin For in opposition to the three generall principles and causes of temptation the Flesh the World and the Devil we have more than so many counterforces strengths auxiliaries and motives to withstand those temptations As for instance to incounter the Flesh and corrupt nature every Christian hath the promised assistance of the Spirit and grace of God For the spirit lusteth against the flesh Besides to oppose the inordinate lust of carnal affections and passions every man hath the faculties of Reason and Conscience which if they be not rejected or neglected will do him some service in this spiritual warfarre Against the temptations of the World that is of the things of the World good or evil by way of desire or fear a man hath if he believes the Scripture first the same kind of things of both sorts to confront his temptations in the Promises of Blessings in this Life to him that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts will live soberly righteously and godly in this present World For Godliness hath the promise of this Life and in the Threatnings of all sorts of Punishments in this World to him that doth not so And secondly he hath besides this the things of an other World both good and evil to desire and fear infinitely greater than any thing wherewith he is liable to be tempted in this World Then against temptations from the men of the World of all sorts we have also the Exhortations Counsels Admonitions and Examples of good men together with the Prayers of the whole Church to strengthen our patience excite and
first Question viz. What this Salvation means And the summe of the Answer collected from divers Descriptions thereof in Scripture amounted to this That it could signifie no less than first a Deliverance from the greatest Evil and secondly an Obtainment of the highest Perfection of Happiness that the nature of man is capable of And this I call an infinite Concernment without an Hyperbole because in the extension of it it is no less as being Eternal in both parts a deliverance from Everlasting Death unto an Eternal Life Now it being perfectly reasonable that the intention of mens Affections should be proportionable to the real value of their Objects it follows that that solicitude care which the Text requires though it cannot so much exceed that which we have for other things as the worth of the Object doth because we have no Capacity of such an Excess yet that it should really and effectually surpass all other Cares And if it doth not so it must needs be either because men do not Consider the Value of it or because they do not believe the truth of it There are I fear not a few pretending Christians that to save themselves the trouble and the care of working out this Salvation do reject the Faith of it To dis-ingage themselves from the bonds of Religion especially the Christian which indeed is the strictest will needs perswade themselves It is but a politick Fiction a mere Invention a handsome Philosophical Fable imposed upon mens Credulity to keep them civil by the common Engines of Hope and Fear They hold it to be against their Interest in this Life to believe there is any other though it be not safe to deny it in this part of the World From such persons I shall turn away leaving them to the Conviction which they will only admit viz. that of their own Senses in another World Their own senses I say because our Saviour hath told me that no other will move them If one should come from the Dead to tell them what he had seen or felt there they would not be perswaded Luk. 16.31 For they have not Moses and the Prophets only but all the Apostles and Evangelists and all the Martyrs together with an infinite number of Miracles witness'd with as much Evidence as any matter of Fact is capable of to perswade their belief And if all this be insufficient I am not so vain as to hope to give them any better Evidences of the Truth But have reason to pass them by with the Censure of the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.8 As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith The Motive which I am urging to perswade men to the work which the Text requires supposeth their belief of this Salvation and needs nothing to make it effectual but a serious Consideration of the transcendent excellency and necessity of this Design above any other The matter that is put to issue the question in short is Whether we desire to live for ever in Glory and Happiness with Christ and his holy Angels in Heaven or have our Portion with Devils and Reprobates in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone the place of utter Darkness where there is nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Now were there no more than a mere possibility or probability at most of these Events to a man without any convincing Evidence of their certainty yet were it extreamly unreasonable to neglect them especially when as the means requisite to the securing them are so inconsiderable in comparison of the value and importance of the ends and otherwise so highly valuable in themselves To him therefore that hath any Doubts arising in his mind about the truth of those things which the Gospel declareth concerning the Judgment to come Hell and Heaven and is thereby tempted to neglect them I shall only propound by way of Advice towards his rescue from such a fatal hazard these three Questions to be deliberated upon before he abandons himself to such a desperate Course 1. Whether there be any impossibility in the substance of these Doctrines that there is another Life after this with a General Judgment to come upon all men that there are Eternal Rewards and Punishments for men in that future Life proportion'd to the Actions of this Life Can it be demonstrated that the futurity of these Events doth import Contradiction to any known Verities 2. Is there no probabilitie of the truth of them Do not all the Testimonies and Arguments that have been alledged for their confirmation with the general consent of almost all the Nations of the World as well Heathens as Christians amount to so much as a probability of the truth of them And if they be possible and in any degree probable doth it not follow that they may be true And then my third Question that I would advise such a doubtful person seriously to consider of is no more but this What if they should prove true And if after these Considerations he can be so desperate as to continue in the neglect of these Events without any care to provide for them and can arrest his mind with Hester's Resolution If I perish I oerish Who can help it So much for the first Motive The second is from the necessity of man's Working to the obtainment of this End which is a thing not to be had or hoped for without Seeking Labouring Working Striving Not a thing that comes by Fate or Fortune or by any absolute inconditional Decree All the hopes we can have of this happiness are grounded upon the Promises of the Gospel and those limited by the Conditions which have been before declared in the Explication of this Work There is no Promise of Salvation to be found in Scripture wherein some or other of those Conditions are not expressed and all the rest understood Or if there be any semblance of an absolute Promise it ought certainly to be interpreted by the Conditional by which it is limited For What if it can be found in Scripture that God hath said He will save some to wit a certain number of Elect Persons without mention of any Character by which they may be distinguished That sure is a Prediction rather than a Promise or if we will call it a Promise yet it can never be capable of any Application to a particular person in such indefinite terms nor till it be explicated and determin'd by some conditional Promise But against this necessity of working for Salvation it may be objected that Salvation is a gift of free grace Rom. 6.23 The * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gift of God is Eternal Life Therefore it is called the Grace of Life 1 Pet. 3.7 By Grace ye are saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 2.8 And if by Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works Rom.