Crown of Life 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8 11. Give Diligence to add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge c. for so an entrance shall be ministred unto you into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour And those Threats on the other Hand to those that do not Persevere Heb. 10. 38. If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him Heb. 12. 14. And Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. What I shall say to the last Point of Doctrine viz. That Salvation being thro' Faith doth not hinder or oppugn its being of Grace shall be in answering three Questions or Objections that may be made against its being of Grace Quest. 1. How is our Salvation of Grace since it is not without the Merit and Satisfaction of Christ But before I come directly to Answer this I must Premise something for the better Understanding of this Matter which is this That the Scripture speaking of the Salvation of Sinners as it doth assert that it is of Grace so we frequently meet with this Phrase that it is through Faith and elsewhere most frequently that it is thro' Christ. It is of Grace through Faith saith the Text 2 Tim. 3. 15. Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus Heb. 6. 12. Who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises And elsewhere we find that Salvation and all the Parts of it are said to be through Christ Rom. 3. 24. Through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Eph. 1. 7. Redemption through his Blood Tit. 3. 5 6. But according to his Mercy he saved us which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour in these and many other Scriptures you may observe that Grace Mercy or Love as it is a Love of Benevolence or Good-will is at the Head or Top of all which is Gods gracious Free Propension and Inclination to do good to us to Pardon and Save us this you see is at the Head of all and before all but the Effects and Fruits of it is said to be given to us sometimes through Christ through his Blood and through his Redemption and sometimes through Faith and yet these hinder not its being of Grace 1. Salvation is through Christ with respect to God giving and bestowing of it that he may give such great and undeserved Mercies and Benefits to Sinners in a way becoming himself becoming of his Wisdom Holiness and Justice which could not be if they were given absolutely without respect to the Redemption and Satisfaction of Christ. 2. And it is said to be through Faith with respect to our receiving and being made actual Partakers of these Benefits of Pardon Life and Salvation We must receive these great and undeserved Benefits through Faith and partake of them only by Faith that we may in our very partaking of them honour both the Father and the Son both our Supream Rector and Redeemer that is we must receive and partake of them in such a way wherein we shall acknowledge admire and adore the Love and Mercy the Wisdom Holiness and Justice of God the Father Together with the Love Grace Condescension and Kindness of our Saviour and Redeemer God gives Salvation through Christ and his Redemption that he may give as becomes himself so as becomes an infinitely Wise Holy and Just Governour and we must receive or partake of it only through Faith that we may receive it as becomes our selves that is as becomes miserable guilty lost and undone Sinners we must receive the Salvation of Grace in such a way wherein our very receiving is an acknowledgment that our selves are nothing and that God and Christ is all that even when we receive a Pardon we shall at the same time yea in the same Act acknowledge that we deserve to be condemned and that Gods Grace freely bestows all upon us for the sake of the Redemption and Satisfaction of Christ so much in the general and which will afford Light for the solving of the following Questions or Objections Obj. 1. How is our Salvation of Grace and of such free Grace when it is not without the Merit and Satisfaction of Christ when so great a Price as the Life and Blood of the Son of God was exacted by God and paid by Christ for the Purchase of it Ans. The Socinians will easily answer this in their way for they say that our Pardon and Salvation is meerly an Act of Dominion and Favour and not procured by the Sufferings of Christ as a Punishment and Satisfaction for our Sins For they say that Christs Sufferings was no Punishment for our Sin nor any proper Satisfaction to Divine Justice and that our Sin was no antecedent inpulsive Cause of Christs Suffering nor his Sufferings any meritorious Cause of our Pardon or Salvation But this cannot be admitted without subverting the whole Gospel and destroying the very Foundations of the Christian Religion for this makes the whole Mediation Death and Sufferings of Christ to be in vain or of very little use for they assign but little if any thing more to the Death of Christ then what may be attributed to the Death and Sufferings of the Martyrs This therefore must be acknowledged that the Death and Sufferings of Christ were a Punishment for our Sins a proper Satisfaction to Divine Justice a price of our Redemption and yet that our Pardon and Salvation is of Grace notwithstanding For the right Understanding of which it is necessary to shew 1. How or in what Relation God is chiefly to be considered in this business of the Redemption and Salvation of Sinners 2. What is the Reason and Use of Christs Sufferings 1. God in the Business of Redemption is to be considered principally as the supream Ruler and Governour of the World infinitely Wise Holy and Just who was greatly offended and provoked by Sin and his Law and Government slighted dispised and trampled upon by Sinners and yet of his own infinitely good and gracious Nature was propense and inclined to shew Pity and Mercy yea to deliver and save his miserable Creatures that had made themselves so by their Sin and Apostalie But this could not be effected without some way or medium whereby the Honour of God's Law and of his Wisdom Justice and Holiness as the righteous Governour of the World shall be secured and preserved for God can do nothing unjustly nothing unwisely or unholily but should he of meer Grace and Favour without any Punishment of Sin or a sufficient Satisfaction to his Justice have pardoned the Sin of Man there would have lain great Imputations against his Wisdom and Holiness his Truth and Justice and such inconveniences as would have reproached if not subverted his Government It may not be amiss to give you alight touch of this for I design to not insist upon it so largely as it might be 1. If God should have pardoned and saved Sinners without a Satisfaction this would have reflected upon
plead the end of your Creation which was that you might serve him your Maker in a pleasing and acceptable manner go to him then and plead this Can you not say Lord thou hast shewed me that the very end of my Being is that I might please and serve thee which in this corrupt and depraved state I am in I can never do without thy renewing and sanctifying Grace O that as thou hast magnified thy Power in making of me out of nothing so let thy Grace be magnified in recovering a lost and undone Creature in reconciling an apostate Creature to thy self deny not the help of thy Grace to recover a depraved corrupted Creature that would fain answer the end of his Being that would fain be capable of that Work and Service thou madest him for Lord I would fain fill up the place in thy Creation that thou hast set me in and not be an unprofitable Drone or a useless Burden in it 3. Your may plead your own Misery as Ps. 79. 8. Let thy tender Mercy prevent us for we are brought very low While Persons are under the Means of Grace and Salvation Misery is a good Argument to plead with a gracious and merciful God plead then your Misery with God say Lord I am a lost Creature an undone Creature laiden with Guilt and Sin and like to be lost and undone for ever if thy Mercy pity not if thy Grace do not help and save me in time my Misery is such that none can help or save me but thou and if thou save not I must perish for ever Say tho as I am an Apostate sinner I am a most deserving object of thy Wrath yet as I am a miserable lost creature here is a fit object for thee to glorifie thy Grace and Mercy upon Will it not be the Glory of thy Mercy to Pity and Help the miserable and will it not be the Glory of thy Grace to save such as deserve thy Wrath 4. You may plead your own weakness and inability to help or save your selves that you can do nothing without him nothing that will be to any purpose or that will be of any avail to Salvation without his special Grace Say Lord I have destroyed my self I confess but in thy Grace alone is all my Hope and Help thou knowest that I have such an hard Heart that none but thou can soften such an Iron Sinew in my Will that none but thou can bend such a carnal corrupt earthly Temper and Disposition that none but thou can renew and change it O let thy Mercy Pity and thy own Grace move thee to help a miserable lost Creature that has no help in himself or in any other besides thee 5. You may plead the very End and Design of Redemption which was the Glory of his free Grace and Mercy in the recovery and Salvation of miserable and lost Sinners Say Lord didst not thou contrive the Work of Redemption and send thy Son into the World and deliver him up to Death for this very End and Design that thy Grace together with other of thy Perfections might be glorious in pardoning justifying sanctifying and saving of depraved guilty and lost Sinners Now behold here a miserable lost Child of Adam didst thou not send thy Son that thy Grace might be glorified in the Salvation of such and will not thy Grace be as glorious in saving of me as of any other O be not Angry with the Prayer stop not thine Ears against the cries of thy poor lost Creature that begs but for such things as are suitable and agreeable to thy own gracious Design Thus you see what Arguments all may use with God 5. If it be by Grace that we are saved then if you would partake of it's saving Influences this directs you to lye in the way of it that is exhibite the greatest Seriousness Diligence Earnestness in the Use of Gods appointed Means that possibly you can for as Grace gives all freely and chooses it 's own Objects upon whom it will bestow it's Gifts so it chooses and appoints it 's own Way and Means wherein and whereby it will communitate it's saving fruits and Effects to Men and these are the Word and Ordinances and Duties of Holiness and Worship Hence the Gospel is called the Gospel of the Grace of God and the Ordinances of Worship are called the Means of Grace not only because the Grace of God is therein revealed and made known but also because it is thereby in the serious diligent and reverend Use of them communicated and bestowed upon carnal blind and dead Sinners for the inlightening sanctifying and saving them therefore here you must lie and wait for it as the impotent Man did at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the Motion of the Waters There was a healing Vertue communicated but it was by those Waters and no others So Grace doth communicate it's healing sanctifying and saving Virtue but it is by it's own chosen and appointed Means and no other As it is the influence and blessing of Heaven that give us the Fruits of the Earth but this only by blessing Mans Labour and Industry in Plowing and Sowing and never without it so it is here Carnal Hearts are apt to draw a quite contrary Conclusion from hence and to say if it be Grace that saves us then we have the less if any thing to do our selves But you see the contray Inference to this of theirs is clear viz. that we should not do the less our selves but rather the more because Grace saves us as the Apostle saith Work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling for it is God that Works in you both to will and to do A strange Inference some would think and yet it is very clear as you may see in other things the Husbandman when the season fits him doth bestir himself the more in plowing and sowing and gathering in the Fruits of the Earth because he knows he hath not the Season in his own Power and all his Labor and Industry without that will signifie nothing at all so here if it be Grace that must save us if ever we be saved Then you have great Reason to bestir your selves in using the Means wherein Grace communicates it self 6. If Grace saves us then as you must use the Means that are of it's appointing so you must use then dependently with an Eye to Grace for its Blessing upon them to make them successful Grace is too little eyed too little sought unto too little depended on in the Use of Means and therefore the Success is for the most part accordingly Persons in hearing the Word eye Men that are Instruments but eye not God and his Grace which is the Life and Soul of all Ordinances Persons eye Men and not God depend more upon Mens Parts and Abilities than upon Gods Grace and Blessing and therefore they find in Ordinances what a Man can do and no more And what is that Why a
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
by his Grace Ver. 32. How shall he not with him freely give us all Things And to this Sence do some expound that Scripture John 1. 16. Of his fulness have we received Grace for Grace that is Grace for Graces sake indeed there is nothing that we receive from God all things that tend to Salvtion the Principle the Degrees of it and Salvation it self at last but as to the Thing it self it is altogether a Free Gift of God to us though as to the Order of confering some of Gods Gifts do require a preceding Disposition and Qualification in the Subject which is also a Gift of Grace too 2. The Grace whereby we are saved is a large and an abundant Grace thus the Scripture doth not only call it Grace but abundance of Grace Rom. 5. 17. Yea and exceeding abundant 1 Tim. 1. 14. The word abundant is supra modum not a short narrow scanty Grace but a Grace that overflows and exceeds all Measure a Grace that cannot be measured or fully comprehended whose Dimensions cannot be founded or fathomed and so likewise it is called Riches of Grace Eph. 1. 7. Nay exceeding Riches of Grace Eph. 2. 7. Now Riches you know speaks great Plenty Largeness Fulness and Abundance of the Things that we speak of and it is rich and abundant Grace considered either as it is in God or as to the Fruits and Effects of it as bestowed upon us This Grace of God is an everspringing and over flowing Fountain-Grace nay an Ocean Grace that hath neither Banks nor Bottom as doth appear 1. From the great unworthiness and very ill deserving of those that are the Objects of it alas we were not small Offenders but such as had provoked dishonoured and contemned God in a very high manner we were not only Sinners but lothsome Sinners such as his Holy Eyes could not but abhor not only lothsome Sinners but Enemies and that is worse still it is less for a Man to shew kindness to an unworthy unlovely Person than to a to a mortal Enemy nay we were not only Enemies but stubborn Enemies proud contemptuous Enemies that neither did seek nor desire his Favour now the worse those are that are the Objects of his Grace the more abundant is that Grace that extends it self to them It is less in the King to extend his Favour to an ordinary Malefactor than if he should do it to a profest Enemy to his Crown and Dignity and it is less to shew Favour to Enemies that sue and intreat for it than to contemptuous Enemies that seem to scorn and slight it Why such were we all when Gods Grace and Favour first shone upon us O! the superabundant Riches of Grace 2. The abundant Riches of Grace doth appear from the number and greatness of our wants and miseries that it supplies and of our Sins that it Pardons and Forgives Alas if it was not a rich and abundant Grace our slights and neglects of it our resistings and strivings against it our unworthy carriage under it our repeated sinning after Pardon received our violating the Obligations even of Mercy and Grace it self our often breaking our solemn Vows and Promises of new and better Obedience So that had it not been an exceeding abundant Grace it had been wearied and tired out before this Time as God saith of the old World when he saw that the wickedness of Man was exceeding great it is said That it repented him that he had made Man and it grieved him at his very Heart Gen. 6. 6. So were not his Grace towards us an exceeding abundant Grace our many Provocations Frowardness and ill Returns would have made him repent before now that ever his Grace did take in hand to recover and save such untractable froward and ungrateful Wretches as we 3. This Grace of God whereby we are saved is a wise Grace too a Grace that in the Dispensation of it or the bestowing of its Fruits and Effects upon us doth discover and manifest the unsearchable Depths of Gods Wisdom as well as of his Love and Goodness Eph. 1. 7 8. According to the Riches of his Grace wherein he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence Here you see that it is Grace and rich Grace that is the rise and spring of all that lost and undone Sinners do receive from God and in this Grace God abounds towards us but it is in all Wisdom and Prudence now I conceive the meaning to be this that though it be free Grace and Favour in God that is the Spring of all that we receive yet an infinite and unsearchable Wisdom doth order direct and appoint the way and manner of its being communicated and bestowed upon us Grace saves us but Wisdom dispences it in such a way and order as doth most exalt the Glory of the Divine Majesty and that not only of some but of all his Perfections and yet so as that the Creature is most strongly obliged and ingaged to his Duty too viz. to the greatest Subjection to God and dependance upon him Grace doth all in the business of Salvation and yet in such an Order and Method that Man is not left to his own Will to live as he list n◠nor allowed or indulged in Sloth and Carelesness in Negligence or Indifferency But contrarily is obliged more strongly then ever to the closest adherence to God and Obedience to his Commands here is the Wisdom of Grace that while it doth all and we can do nothing without it and the whole Glory of our Salvation must be ascribed to Grace and nothing to our selves yet our Obligations to Duty are not the less but the greater while Grace saves us freely yet it obligeth us to the greatest seriousness and diligence in working out our own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Yea to strive and fight and run and give all Diligence to make our Calling and Election sure The Wisdom of Grace might be shewed at large both in the Impetration and the Application of Salvation as in reconciling the Justice and Mercy of God and the Honour of God as Rector and of his violated Law together with the Impunity and Happiness of the Sinner And in the Application in making God and Christ to be all in all in the business of our Salvation and yet in such a wise way and order that Mans Duty in seeking and praying and waiting Yea and that in the closest Attendance upon God in the use of his appointed Means and in the Duties of Holiness and Obedience is not vacated or made needless thereby but contrarily is more strongly inforced than it could have been any other way There are too many look only at the freeness of Grace and never consider the Wisdom of it whereas this is the Thing that most of all fills the Angels with wonder Eph. 3. 16. Might be known the manifold Wisdom of God 1 Pet. 1. 12. Which Things the Angels desire to look into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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