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Chap. 4.

tisfaction for fin, that it might be allowed? Did he vindicate his broken Law at fo high a rate, that it might be more broken, and that with Impunity? 'Tis utterly impoffible: thofe Sufferings of Christ which did witness Gods hatred of Sin, could not open a gap to it: the Surety did not sweat, pray, bleed, and dye under Wrath, that the impenitent finner might be spared. O how profane and blafphemous is fuch a thought, which makes the great Redeemer a Patron of iniquity! He came to fave us from our fins, not in them; to redeem from iniquity, not to encourage it; What then? where is thy hope, O impenitent finner? Is it in Gods Mercy? As infinite as it is, it will not let out a drop to the impenitent, neither indeed can it do fo, unless, which is impoffible, one Attribute can cross another; Mercy can reproach Holiness or Juftice. Believe it, Salvation it self cannot fave thee in thy fins: Is it in Chrift and his Merits ? He is the Saviour of the Body, but thou art out of it. He is the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him: but thou art a Rebel. May Christ be divided? Canft thou have a part in his Priestly office, who art in Arms daily against his Kingly? Shall the Promifes comfort thee, who cafteft off the Righteous Commands? It cannot be. What Concord hath Christ with Belial? How ill-fuited are an hard heart and a bleeding Saviour? How canft thou truft in that Jefus, whom thou defpifeft, and crucifiest afresh by thy Rebellions? or depend on his Merits, when thou livest in enmity against his Divine Spirit and Life? These are meer inconfiftencies. Thy cafe, while

thou

thou art in thy fins, is very forlorn and defpe- Chap. 4. rate. God will be a confuming fire to thee; thy self must be as dry ftubble before him; every luft will be a never-dying worm; thy foul will furiously reflect upon it felf for its prodigious folly; abufed Mercy will turn into fury. Chrift, the great Saviour, will doom thee to perdition; fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempeft will be rained down upon thee, and that for ever. If then thou haft any fear of God, or love to thy felf, caft away thy tranfgreffions, and return to him, that thou mayeft escape the Wrath to come, and enjoy the pure beatitudes which are in Heaven.

CHAP.

70 Chap. 5.

CHAP. V.

Gods Love and Mercy manifefted, in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might, and in giving his Son for us. The Socinian objection (That if God loved us, he was not angry) answered. The earliness and freeness of Gods Love in giving his Son. The greatness of the Gift. The manner how he was given. The perfons for whom. The evils removed, and the good procured by it. The excellent Evangelical" terms built upon it. These are ease and fure. The Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to ftir up our Love towards God and Man.

HA

AVING fpoken of Gods Juftice, I now proceed to his Love, Mercy, and Grace. These are eminently afcribed to him in Scripture: He is love it felf, 1 John 4. 16. essentially fuch. He is the Father of mercies, 2 Cor. 1. 3. Mercy is his off-fpring and joy. He is the God of all grace, I Pet. 5. 10. The fountain of it is in him, and all Graces in the Creature iffue from thence. Love communicates good to the Creature. Mercy communicates it to the Creature in mifery. Grace communicates it to a Creature, though unworthy. All the drops and * measures of goodness in the Creature, are from Love:: when the good is fuited to the mifery of the Creature, 'tis Mercy; when it exceeds defert, and as it were triumphs over unworthiness, 'tis Grace in afpecial manner. I fhall not discourse of these diftinctly, but, as the ufage in Scripture is, promifcu-

ously ;..

oufly; these are in a very signal manner manifested Chap. 5. in Chrift. So admirable a Glass is he, that not only Wisdom, Holiness, and Justice are reprefented in him; but Love, Mercy and Grace also. In these it is that this wonderful Oeconomy terminates. Wisdom laid the plot, Holiness and Justice appeared in our Saviours Paffion, but the Center of all is Grace and Mercy. These are highly exalted in the Reconciliation and Salvation of Men.

The first appearance of these stands in this, That God did not ftand upon the first terms, upon the Old Covenant of Works: God made Adam a very knowing and righteous Creature, he gave him excellent Laws, Moral ones infcribed in his heart; and over and above, one pofitive Law in the Tree of knowledg: He entred into a Covenant with him, as the head and root of all mankind; the terms were, That all his Pofterity should stand or fall in him. He tranfgreffed the Command of God, and so Sin and Death came upon all the humane World. Here God might have stood upon the firft terms; he was not bound to make new ones, but might have stood upon the old, and profecuted them to the utter ruin of all Mankind. This is plain by these Confiderations.

1. The Laws given by God to Adam were such, as became God to give, and Adam to receive, very juft and righteous. The Moral Ones were congruous to his holy Faculties, and conducible to his Happinefs: they were interwoven into his very rational Powers, and Obedience might have come forth in the eafiness of his Holy Principles. The pofitive one was a just one. God, who made Man Lord of

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the

Chap. 5.

the lower World, might well except one Tree, as a token of his Supreme Soveraignty, when the thing forbidden was not a thing in it felf evil, but indifferent. Gods Authority appears the more Sacred, and Mans Obedience would have been the more pure; the Tree, as lovely to the eyes, was a fit curb to the fenfitive appetite. And as a Tree of knowledg was a just restraint to intellectual curiofity, the prohibition of fuch a Tree was an excellent Item to man to look to both faculties; the terms were juft, not only as to himself, but as to his pofterity. Had not God made them, he would never have told us, that all finned in one; and that by one, judgment came upon all, Rom. 5. 12, & 18. Which, without fuch terms, would have been impoffible; and if he made them, it was no lefs impoffible that they should be unjust. Adam, was the root and head of Mankind; we were in him naturally as latent in his loins, and legally as comprised within the Covenant. His Person was the fountain of ours, and his Will the representative of ours. The thing therefore was equal: unjust Laws should be abrogated; but in this cafe, the Laws and Terms being Righteous, God might have stood strictly upon them.

2. Adam having holy Powers, fufficient for Obedience, was bound to keep them with all diligence: that, which was formally fpoken to the Church in Thyatira, Hold fast that which thou haft, Rev. 2. 25. was virtually spoken to Adam: Nature dictates, that Duty fhould be returned where benefits are received. The Law of fidelity requires, that a Trustee should keep the depofitum. God intrufted man with excellent endowments; but if he will by his tranfgref

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