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
and that is Grace 2. The Way or Means of our being made actual Partakers of this Salvation of Grace and that is through Faith To explicate the Terms First What is meant by Grace There are several Acceptations of this word Grace but two most notable 1. It is sometime taken for Gods free Favour and good Will 2. And sometimes for the Effects of it in us But here it is meant in the first Sence the free Favour good Will or good Pleasure of God Here are several Words in this Text and Context that do all express the impulsive moving Cause of our Salvation and every one hath something peculiar in it the more fully to set forth the free Favour gracious Pleasure and good Will of God in the Business of the Salvation of Sinners 1. Here is Love and great or much Love which Notes a great or ardent Desire and Affection to any Thing or Person and such as the Person loving doth rest or take pleasure in and so some derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is expressed Zeph. 3. 17. He will rest in his Love 2. Here is Mercy and rich Mercy that Notes Gods great Pity and Compassion towards those that are miserable God loves the Angels and is gracious to the Angels but he is not said to be merciful to them because they never were miserable 3. Again here is Grace and exceeding Riches of Grace and that Notes the freeness of Gods Love and Kindness whereby he doth Things freely without merit or desert Grace doth all gratis without any precedent Debt or Obligation 2. Are saved some say that is inchoate and so would limit it to Justification But other learned Expositors as Zanch. Simpli and Beza say here is intended not only Justification but whole and compleat Salvation as is manifest from the whole Context in ver 7. of the former Chapter he saith we have forgiveness of Sin in which is included Justification and that of Grace And then Chap. 2. ver 1 5. There he speaks of Sanctification and adds that this was by Grace and now again in the Text he saith For by Grace ye are saved quasi dicat all the steps and degrees of Salvation from the beginning to the end from first to last is of Grace Through Faith or by Means of Faith Faith being the means dispositive Condition Qualification or Instrument of our receiving or being actually Partakers of it And that not of your Selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is some Difference amongst Expositors what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth refer to some think to the whole Sentence quasi dicat and this that you are saved is not of your Selves but rather I should think with other Expositors that it doth refer to Faith that is the immediate antecedent Ye are saved by Grace through Faith and this Faith hoc ipsum this very Thing is not of your selves Doct. I. That the principal Efficient and first moving Cause of a Sinners Salvation from first to last is the free Grace of God Doct. II. That we receive and partake of Salvation of Grace through Faith or by means of Faith Doct. III. That Salvation being through Faith doth not hinder or oppugn its being of Grace for Faith it self is of Grace or the Gift of God which is the same nay Faith is so far from being opposite to Grace or making it to be less of Grace that the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be by Grace This great Work of the Salvation of Sinners the Scripture sometimes ascribes to God the Father thus he is called God our Saviour and it is God that Justifies And sometimes to Christ the Mediator therefore was his Name called Jesus a Saviour because he shall save his People from their Sins and again sometime we are said to be saved by Grace as in the Text and elsewhere and sometime by Faith as Christ said to that Woman Thy Faith hath saved Thee and the Apostle to the Jaylor Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy House You see the Scripture useth these several forms of speaking in the Matter of Salvation God saves us and Christ saves us and we are saved by Grace and saved by Faith and every one of these have a distinct Notion in the business of Salvation and yet not one opposite to another but one subordinate to another and all do admirably Consent and Agree and do not in the least interfere or clash When God is said to be our Saviour that Notes that he is the first Fountain and Original the principal Author and efficient Cause of it And when we are said to be saved by Mercy or Grace that shews us what was the first internal moving Cause that it is his own free Favour or good Will without any Merit or Desert in the Sinner And when Christ is called our Saviour and said to save us that shews the principal medium the meritorious Cause through or for whose sake God vouchsafes his Mercy and Grace and the blessed Effects of it to us thus the very Words before the Text and Tit. 3. 6. Again when Faith is said to save us that Notes the qualifying Condition or receptive Disposition whereby we are made qualified disposed and meet subjects of the Salvation that Gods free Grace doth give and Christs Merit hath purchased for us It is the principal Efficient first moving Cause of a Sinners Salvation that I shall speak to from this Text which from first to last is the free Grace of God Which Grace that we may the better see understand what a State we are all in by the fall and that is in this Context dead in Sin legally and spiritually Dead Legally Dead or as it is in other Terms under the Curse Children of Wrath. And spiritually Dead or Dead in Sin dead to God and Holiness and all spiritual and saving good having no more Inclination or Disposition to any spiritual and gracious Acts than there is in a Dead-man to the Actions or Comforts of Life again Dead in sin as fast bound chained and inslaved under the Power of fleshly vicious and sinful Dispositions and habits as a Dead-man is by Death from ever rising by his own Power such are we in a spiritual Sence If we have what is our due that is Death Eternal Death but if we be saved that is of Grace and Favour It is God that is the principal Author and Efficient of Salvation But if you ask what moved him to it why he would so concern himself for the Recovery and Salvation of lost and miserable Sinners Why it was only his own Grace and free Favour that moved him to it Consider Salvation in all the Parts of it in all the Degrees and Steps that lead to it from first to last and you shall see that Grace doth all 1. It was of his Grace that he gave his Son to be our Saviour the Scripture
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
his Wisdom for since he had with infinite Wisdom and Counsel made a Law for the Government of his Creatures with a Penalty annexed in case of Disobedience how could it stand with his Wisdom to suffer the Contempt and Violation of it and of his own Authority therein to go altogether unpunished What to have his Law trampled upon and as it were made void assoon as made if he should suffer this to go unpunished he would seem to disregard his own Law in the Sanction of it as much as his Creature had done the Precept of it Again should he suffer the Violation of of his Law to go altogether unpunished would it not seem as if he now saw Reason to alter his Mind since he saw good not to exact that Punishment he had denounced 2. And if he should have exacted no Punishment or Satisfaction for Sin there would lye a great Impeachment against his Justice and Wisdom together for either Sin did deserve Punishment and as great a Punishment as was threatened or it did not deserve it If it did not deserve it then it was unjust to enact it in the Law But if it did deserve it as no doubt it did then upon the entrance of Sin Justice must necessarily require that either the Punishment threatened or an equivalent and such as shall be full Satisfaction be exacted And here observe that though a Creditor may freely forgive a Debt that is owing to him without Injustice yet a Governour in many Cases connot forgive a Criminal without Injustice because Punishments are in some Cases absolutely necessary for the keeping up a due Reverence and Regard of the Governour and of his Laws And likewise for the good of the Common-wealth the preserving of due Order and the securing of the Lives and Properties of the Subjects why God is here to be considered as the righteous Governour of the World 3. And there would lye an Impeachment against his Truth and Veracity too for having threatened such a Punishment for the Violation of his Law would not his Veracity be called into Question if none was exacted 4. And from all these there would arise a great inconveniency and disorder in the future Government of the World for Men would hence take occasion to imbolden themselves in Sin and flatter themselves with Hopes of Impunity in it for they might thus Reason if God did once without any Satisfaction shew mercy to his sinning Creatures and that contrary to the Sentence of his own Law then why may he not do so again And if it be not inconsistent with his Nature and governing Justice to let one Sin go unpunished and that such a one as did quantum in se spoil the design of his works assoon as made then why not another and another and so Men would be incouraged to Hope that notwithstanding all the threatenings of Gods Law that yet they might have Peace though they did walk on in the ways of their own Hearts Nay and it would lay a Foundation for Men to distrust and be suspicious of the certainty and stability of his Promise too for if God do disregard the threatning of his Law then why not the Promise too and so both the stability of his Promise and the awe and terrour of his Threats would be mightily shaken at once the wicked imboldened and hardened in Sin with Hopes of Impunity notwithstanding all his Threats And the Comforts and Confidence of the Righteous weakened notwithstanding all his Promises These and many more such like great inconveniencies and disorders would necessarily have followed if Sin should have been pardoned and Sinners saved without a Satisfaction to the Justice of God These Things are necessary to understand the Reason and Use of Christs Sufferings 2. And now here comes in the Necessity and Reason of Christ Sufferings not that God was so delighted with the Blood and Sufferings of Christ meerly considered as Sufferings that he would sell his great Benefits to us for the Blood of his innocent Son nor to incline God to be merciful that was before averse to it No but since he was propense to shew Mercy he might in this way do it without any prejudice to his other Perfections because in the Death and Sufferings of Christ there is a sufficient salvo for the Honour of his Law and Government and of his Wisdom Holiness and Justice so that now his Mercy and Kindness is exercised in pardoning of guilty Sinners without any Impeachment of the Honour of his other Perfections he can now be just as well as merciful in Pardoning and holy as well as pitiful and kind in Sparing And his rich and free Grace in pardoning and saving Sinners in this way doth thus appear 1. In that this way for the Satisfaction of his own Justice and for the vindicating the Honour of his Law and Government was of his own finding out and provideing the Scripture every where attributes the contrivance of Redemption to God himself Job 33. 24. I have found a ransome God did out of his own Treasure provide for the Satisfaction of his own Justice the giving of Christ to be our Redeemer was the Fruit of his free self-moving Love and Grace Joh. 3. 16. God so love the World that he gave his Son 2. His Grace appears in accepting of what Christ did and suffered for us so as thereupon and for the sake of Christ to Pardon and Acquit us when we beleive in him for though the Suffering of Christ were abundantly sufficient to make Satisfaction yet it is of the free Grace of God to accept them on our behalf for in that very Thing there is a Relaxation of the Law for that did threaten every Offendor in his own Person and none else 3. Nay here seems to be a more abundant Grace and Love in giving Pardon and Salvation through Christ then if he had given it as a meer Act of Dominion and Favour without any Satisfaction to his Justice For you see that the Sufferings of Christ was not to purchase Gods Love of Goodwill to us for that was Antecedent to the Sufferings of Christ and the moving Cause of his giving Christ but the true Reason of Christs Sufferings is that the Honour of his Law and Government and of all his Perfections might be secured and provided for in the exercise of his Grace and pardoning Mercy towards us Now that he should give his only begotten and dearly beloved Son to be so humbled and abased to undergo such Shame and Misery and Death for us this was of all others the highest Instance and Demonstration of his Grace and Love to us it was impossible that he should be merciful at a dearer Rate or shew his Love and Kindness in a more stupendious Way We have a story of Zaleucus King of Locris that when his own Son was found to have transgressed a Law that threatened the loss of both Eyes to the Offendor the King resolves to execute the Law to