Chap. 9. fhould live futably to it. Had we had but one fingle creation, we had been eternally bound to ferve and glorifie God; but when he fets to his hand the fecond time, to create us again in Chrift Jefus unto good works, how fhould our lives answer thereunto! When in the horrible Earthquake at Antioch the Emperor Trajanus was drawn out of the ruines, it was a very great obligation upon him to ferve and honour God who fo fignally delivered him; how much greater obligation lyes upon us, who are drawn by an act of grace out of the ruines of the fall? How fhould we live in a juft decorum to that Divine nature which we are made partakers of! We fhould ftill be bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, and fhewing forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Again, be cause the reliques of corruption are still remaining even in the regenerate, we should ever be upon our fpiritual watch; we fhould fet guards within and without, that fin may not creep in by the ports of fense, nor rise up out of the deep of the heart. When a temptation approaches to us, we should fay as an holy man did, Auferte ignem, adhuc enim paleas habeo; Take away the fire, yet I have chaff within. If a Jonah fall into a pet against God; if a David wallow in adultery and blood; if a Peter deny his Lord with a curfe, What may not we do! The remnants of Original fin in us, fhould make us keep a watch over our hearts, and ponder the path of our feet. Our fleth is an Eve, a Tempter within us; nay, a kind of Devil, as an Ancient fpeaks, Nemo fibi de Suo palpet, quifque fibi Satan eft.

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CHAP. X.

Touching Grace. The fountain of it Gods love. The Streams fupernatural gifts. The center Heaven. Its freeness, in that all perish not in the fall; Original fin meriting death, and Chrift being a free gift. Its freeness in chufing a Church to God. Election not of all; no Legislative act, but a singling out of fome to life in an infallible way, and meerly of Grace. Its freeness in the external and internal Call. The diftindion between the two Calls. The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces; with the manner of their production, as to actual believing and willing; with the proofs of it, as to perfeverance in faith and holiness. The Habits of Grace defecti-ble in themselves, but not in their dependence.

AVING fpoken of Original Sin, I shall next confider of Grace, which heals that deadly wound. Grace, in the primary notion of it, is the Love and Good-will of God towards finners; and in a fecondary sense, it is those saving-gifts which are derived from that Love. These are called Graces, be-cause they lye in mans heart, as beams of that eternal Grace which is in Gods; and tend to that Glory in Heaven which is Grace confummate. Gods will goes foremost, and works those Graces in mans, which make him meet for eternal happiness. The fountain of Grace is the free-love of God; the ftreams of it are fupernatural gifts in men; the center of it is the glory of Heaven. These things fhew us the true notion of Grace.

1. The

Chap. 10. 1. The Fountain of Grace is Gods free Love, which moves it felf, and gratuitously flows out in fpiritual bleffings; these illue out of love, and that is a motive to it self. Emphatical is that of the Apoftle, If by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwife grace is no more grace: but if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work, Rom. 11. 6. It is effential to Grace to be gratuitous; unless it be fo, it lofes its nature. Upon this account Pelagius, that Enemy of Grace, but for his counterfeit Recantation, had had in the Palestine Council a juft Anathema for that saying, Gratiam dari fecundum merita, That Grace was given according to Auft. Hyp. 1.3. merits or works. When the Pelagians faid, Quia ego prior volui, Deus voluit, Because I first willed, therefore God willed; Saint Auftin tells them, That they brought in Merit, that Grace was then no longer Grace: In omni opere fancto, faith he, prior eft voluntas Dei, pofterior liberi arbitrii; In every holy work Si vel tantil- Gods will is firft in order, and then mans. Without lum boni a this order, Grace cannot be Grace, nor God God. Deo non eft, If he be not the Fountain of all good, if the leaft jam non omnis boni effec- good start up and anticipate his will, he is not, as betor eft, eoq; comes him, the origine of all good. The Fountain nec Deus. Bu- of Grace must therefore be in his Love.

cer.

2. The streams of it are Supernatural Gifts. It's true, natural benefits are in some sense grace; but this is not the noted acception of the word in Scripture. This acception was but Pallium Pelagianorum, the Pelagians cloak under which they hid their HeAuft. Epift. refie. Hence, when that queftion was asked, What that Grace was which Pelagians thought was given without any precedent merits? Answer was made,

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That

That it was the humane nature, in which we were Chap. 10. made; for before we were, we could not merit a being. Thus they confounded Grace and Nature together; but the gifts of Grace are above the fphear of Nature, and altogether undue to it. Indeed in Innocency righteoufnefs was natural to man, not that it was a principle of Nature, or an emanation from thence; but that it was neceffary and due to that Integrity, which God would fet up the human nature in. God would make man very good, and how that could be without righteousness, I know not. Moral goodness, is that which is proper to a reasonable creature; neither can it be wanting, but there will be a maim in the creature. There was in man an Union of rational powers, in which he had communion with Angels; and fenfitive, in which he had commynion with Beafts. This Union could not be made in

a perfect orderly manner, unless the fenfitive powers, being the more ignoble, were fubjected to the rational, being the more excellent faculties; that subjection could not be without a righteoufnefs. This is the rectitude and harmony of humane nature: without it all the parts and powers of the Soul must needs jangle into confufion. God would have man to ferve and obey him in a perfect manner; And how could this be without a principle of holy love? Which way should there be actual righteousness without original? Without an internal rectitude, man could not love God, as he ought, amore amicitia, with a love of friendship, for his own fake; and without fuch a love, referring all to God and his glory, all mans acts, a primo ad ultimum, must needs be fin. God would fet before a man a most glorious end, the happiness of the beatifical vifion: And how should man

Ii

ever

Chap. 10. ever arrive at it without righteousness? Or want that righteousness which qualifies for it?Such a want would fet him below the moft contemptible creatures;none of which are destitute of that furniture, which is requifite for the reaching of their ends.In all these respects,righteousness was natural, and in a fort due unto man in Innocency. But after mans fall and forfeiture of Original righteousness, saving gifts are altogether fupernatural; not only as being above the power of nature, but as being totally undue to it. To the state of Innocency,righteousness was in a sense due; but to the state of Corruption, there was nothing due but wrath.

3. The center of it is the Glory of Heaven; Grace prepares a Kingdom for Believers. Hence God bids them, come and inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the World, Matt.25.34; it prepares them for the Kingdom. Hence that of the Apostle, Giving thanks to the father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the faints in light, Col. 1. 12. The first rife of Grace, is in the bofom of eternal love; the appearance of it in men, is in fupernatural gifts: the period and center of it, is in the Glory of Heaven.

Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our confideration; the freenefs of Grace, and the Divine efficacy of it.

First, The freeness of Grace is to be confidered, and that in two or three particulars.

1. It is of Free-Grace, that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall: That there is a poffibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam. When the Angels finned but one fin, God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever: Might he not in justice have dealt fo with fallen men? He

was