We have therefore here before us to confider three things, of which if we can by God's affiftance give a clear and fatisfactory Account, it will be of excellent Use both to the compofing the Differences, which have so much divided the Church of Christ, and also to the directing Ourselves in the fure Way, how by a True Faith and Willing Obedience we may attain to the End of Our Hopes, even the Salvation of Our Souls: and all this To the Praife of the Glory of his Grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, Ephef. 1.6.

I. The first of these is Grace, By which We are fav'd.

II. The second is Faith, Through which We are fav'd.

III. The third is Good Works, of which We are not, but without which we cannot be fav'd.

I. Firft By Grace are ye Sav'd. The Truth of which Propofition to deny, is to deny the whole Gospel expressly called by St.Paul Acts 20. 24, 32. the Gospel of the Grace of God, and the Word of his Grace.

But this Word Grace has feveral fignifications in Scripture, yet all of them, or at leaft as many of them as can any way reP4

late

late to the Text we have in hand, may be reduc'd to these two.

Ift. First God's undeserved Love and Favour to Mankind.

2dly. Secondly the gracious Effects of that Love and Favour, The gifts flowing from it.

Or briefly, In Gratiam Dantem & in Gratiam Datam, The Grace that Gives or the Grace that is Given, that is, the Grace that is in God from all Eternity, and in time from him Reveal'd in the Covenant of the Gofpel, or That Grace which he for ever continues to communicate to Man, thereby ex citing him by Faith to Accept, and by Obedience to Perform the Conditions of that Covenant,

ft. The first of these, the Grace that is in God, is no other than God Himself, confider'd as freely willing from all Eternity first the Being and then the Well-being of all his Creatures. For as there is nothing in God which is not God, fince He is a Being purely fimple and uncompounded, We may fafely fay that this Grace, the inexhauftible Fountain of all Derivative Goodness, diffufed thro' the whole Creation, is his very Nature, his Effence, his Adorable Self; which is no more than St. John fays, when he tells us, that God is Love. Nay, among the wifer Heathens

them

themselves we may trace fome footsteps, and discover at a diftance fome glimmering Rays of this glorious Truth, which forc'd fo noble an Expreffion as This from one of their Philofophers, who had no Light but that of Reafon and Nature, that alluding to the Fabulous Transforma tions of their fancy'd God, when he defign'd to make the World, Transform'd himself into Love. What but Love and a defire of Communicating his Own Goodness could move God, who from all Eternity was Happy in Himself, who neither stood in need, or was capable of receiving any addition of Bliss or Glory from any Creature, to produce out of nothing, either Angels or Men to be partakers of his Over-flowing Fullness? and to command into Being, this admirable Frame of Heaven and Earth for their Ufe and Enjoyment? All this must be allow'd to have been from the free and unbounded Grace of God.

But it is not of this Undeserved Favour of God in making us after his Own Image, tho' that is just matter of Adoration and Praise, but the more ftupendous Love in renewing. us from what we had made Curselves,that the Grace mention'd in my Text,is to be underftood. TheGrace, not by which we are Created, but theGrace by which we are Sav'd. For we are to take Notice, that there are two

forts

forts of Grace (or rather Grace conversant about two forts of Objects) in God. The One Gimply Beneficent, the other Merciful too. The first of these, which is Purely Beneficent,, is that which God had from Everlafting in himself towards the Creature,even before his being fo, when he had yet no Existence but in the Eternal Wisdom of Him, who calleth things that are not as tho' · they were, Rom. 4. 17. For from his Grace, as well as to his Glory, and for his pleasure all things are and were Created, or which he in time exercis'd to the Creature actually produc'd into Being, and still remaining Innocent and therefore Happy. The Other which is more than barely Beneficent, including Mercy as well as Love, is That which God makes use of towards the Creature finful, and confequently Miferable. For all the Good that the Almighty Goodnefs affords the most Pure and most Holy, the Brightest and Perfecteft Being in Earth or Heaven is of free Grace, fince He owes them Nothing of all that He gives, and They on the contrary Owe wholly and entirely to Him whatsoever they receive. That which plac'd the Angels in Heaven, that admits them to fo near access to his Perfon and the full Contemplation of his Glory, that maintains them in their Original In tegrity, and honours them with the Con

fidence

fidence of his secrets, and the immediate Execution of his Commands, is nothing elfe but Grace, fince nothing without himself could oblige him to raise those Blessed Spirits to that height and excellence of Glory, which renders them the first and most noble Intelligences of the whole Creation. That which made Man but little Lower than the Angels, and Crown'd him with Glory and Honour, that by which God feated Adam in Paradife, and gave him Dominion over the Works of his Hands, that which conftituted him his Reprefentative, and made him as it were a Vifible God upón Earth, was meer Grace, fince it was in God's Power and wholly at his free difpofal, whether he would at all produce him out of Nothing, or if he were pleas'd to do fo far, whether he would raife him to fo great Dignity, or place him in the Rank even of the meaneft of those Creatures which he put under his Feet. And fhould Adam have perfever❜d in that original Righteoufnefs wherein he was Created, yet all the Happiness he would have then poffefs'd, would have been nothing elfe but Grace, fince he ow'd not only all he had, but all that he was, to God, and could receive nothing from Him, but as a Gift from his undeferved Bounty. But ftill this would not have been Mercy, fince Man never having offended God, God could have

had