PAG. This answer doth not fatisfy my demand, concerning the justice of God's proceedings, in the cafe mentioned; for I remember, amongst the rules of his own law, this is one; "Not to do evil, that good may come of it:" neither will it excufe him, fhould a man commit theft with a pure intention to expend all his gettings this way, to the glory of God, in alms and pious ufes. Dio. God makes laws not to bind himself, but his creature.* PAG. Grant this: yet if he doth not confer a strength upon his creature proportionable to that burden of duty which he lays upon it, his impofitions will be grievous and intolerable; and this is an oppreffion which Chrift himself thought fit to condemn in the Pharifees, where he faith, "They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not touch them with one of their fingers."+ Dio. You must know, that God "is not obliged to his creature: he acts all things both in mercy, or otherwise; according to the dictates of his abfolute, sovereign, and uncontrolable will." PAG. Though God hath no fuperior, to whofe laws he fhould be fubje&t; yet, in a fort, he is a law unto himself ;§ inafmuch as he is tied by an intrinsical rectitude, neither to caufe, nor to will any thing, but what is confonant to the rules of his own wifdom: that wisdom dictates him to be the chief good, chiefly to be beloved, and that nothing is to be procured contrary to fuch a goodness. From this rule and dictate God fbould diffent, if, of himfelf, he fhould predetermine any man. to the hatred and contempt of his goodnefs. True, his great Hereupon Huld. Zuing. faith, When God makes an angel or a man a tranfgreffor, he himself doth not tranfgrefs, because he doth not break a law. In Ser. de Prov. cap. v. & vi. Matth. xxiii 4. Luke xi. 46. Mr. Bagh. Pract. Difc. p. 2. Sce Lactant. lib. IV. cap. xxiii. nefs nefs is fo tranfcendant, he can be accountable unto none; yet "if he be unrighteous, how then fhall he judge the world? Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"* This is fpoken of deftroying the righteous with the wicked; and it will hold allo in withdrawing grace from the innocent, that they may fall into deftruction; which certainly is punitive, and a fad act of judgment, whereof an innocent creature is not the proper object. But fince we are returned to speak of the New Covenant, I pray inform me, how that can be filed a covenant of grace, in refpect of the reprobates ? and in what fenfe their condition. is better under this, than it was in a ftate of innocency? Dro. Under this covenant, faith Dr. Twifs,t men are called upon to believe; and promised, that upon their faith, they fhall obtain the grace of remiffion of fins and falvation; and these graces may be faid to be offered unto all, upon condition of faith, though faith itself, in no congruity, can be faid to be offered; but as for fuafion and exhortation unto faith, this grace the reprobates, in the church of God, are partakers of, as well as God's elect: and I conceive, for these confiderations, this covenant may not unfitly be called a covenant of grace, in refpe&t of them. A [To be continued.] SERMON [By the Rev. VALENTINE NALSON, M. A.] WE PROV. xxiii. 26. [Continued from page 516.] E are not only bound in justice to give our hearts to When man had deferted the fervice of his rightful Master, and fold himfelf for a flave to his grand enemy, the original *Rom. iii. 6. Gen. xviii. 25, + Ubi fupra, p. 28. Mr. Baxter's Pref. to Grot. Rel. Se&t. g. yaitor, traitor, tyrant and ufurper; that is, when man by disobeying the commands of God, and by obeying the will of the Devil, had put himself in the power of the Devil: it pleafed the infinite goodness of God to redeem mau from this miferable bondage, and to pay a moft ineftimable price for his ransom; God purchased the poffeffion of mankind, as the fcripture exprefly declares, with his own blood, A&ts xx. 28. Are we not bound then to give God his own? Is it not the highest injury to rob him of, and detain him from thofe hearts, that love, affection, duty and obedience, which he bought, and the purchase of which coft him his life? For in effect to give our heart away, to give ourselves up to the world, to the honours, riches, and pleasures of it under fuch circumstances, is not barely to be guilty of injuftice towards the Son of God, but to be guilty of death; for he that robs him of that which coft him his life, robs him of his life; he that robs him of that for which he fhed his blood, robs him of his blood: as he that robs a man of a thing that coft him a thousand pounds, really robs him of a thousand pounds. We caufe the blood of the Son of God, as to us, to be spilt in vain, we take away his life and give him nothing for it: whereas, so transcendent is his love and goodness, would we but in return give our hearts to him, he would think his life well beftowed, and the price of his blood well laid out; and moreover, give us his own heart in exchange for ours, which reminds me of the fecond obligation we lie under, to give our hearts to God, viz. that of gratitude. 2. All the good, the kindneffes, and benefits that are done to us, do in the very nature of things require us, and lay an indifpenfable obligation upon us, to make fome kind of return; they are called, and are obligations, i. e. debts, and ought in justice fome way or other to be repayed: and this is a notion fo natural to mankind, and the fense of it fo deeply imprinted on their minds, that whoever acts contrary to it is accounted unnatural, and feems a monster to the rest of the species. If If the kindness be done by an equal, it requires at least an equivalent; if by an inferior, it requires a return of greater value: but if our benefactor be so much our fuperior as to need no return, and the favours he confers upon us so great, as to exceed our power of making a fuitable one; yet something we ought to do, to fhew our gratitude for his obligations. And if there be any little thing we have, which he expreffes his value for, especially, if he condefcends to ask it of us, the leaft we can do is chearfully and thankfully to offer fuch a trifle in return for fo many and great favours: and he that fhould refuse to do this, would justly be accounted the most brutifh of the human race. How much more horrid monfters of ingratitude then are we, if we refufe to give our hearts to God? To God who made us, who preferved us, who died for us, in order to sanctify and glorify us! Is not this the fupreme benefactor, who gives to all life, and breath, and all things? Acts xvii, 25. Did he not make all things for us, and us for himself? Does he not give us all things richly to enjoy? 1 Tim. vi. 17. Did he not give us to ourselves, and then give all things to us, and after this give himself for us, that at last he might give himself to us? Did he not give us this body of ours, which is fo wonderfully made, Pfal. cxxxix. 14. and fet the celeftial jewel of our living and immortal foul within it? and does he not still hold our foul in life, Pfal. Ixvi. 9. and continually preferve us? and fhould we not without the fupport of his omnipotent hand fink into our primitive nothing? Are not all the comforts and conveniencies of this life, the profufion of that bountiful hand which opens itself, and fills all things living with plenteousness? Pfal. cxlv. 16. [old tranflation.] and befides all the benefits he has actually conferred upon us in this life, has he not prepared an eternity of unknown happiness and glory for us in the life to come? Are we not also obliged to him for the means of grace, as well as the hope of glory? Did he not shed his blood, even to the very laft drop, for the atonement of our fins, and VOL. XIV. 4 B to to reconcile us to himself? and does he not continually offer us his holy Spirit to fanctify our fouls, and make them fit for the eternal enjoyment of himfelf? Does he not continually give us opportunities of drawing near to him in his holy ordi nances here, to prepare us for being moft intimately united to him for ever hereafter ? And shall we receive all, our being, life, fouls, bodies, fpirits, and all their powers and faculties, all that we are, have, can do, or enjoy; fhall we, 1 fay, receive all, and return nothing? Shall we never think and say with the royal Pfalmift, Pfal. cxvi. 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that he hath done unto me? And though God is fo infinitely felf-fufficient, that he ftands in need of nothing else, and all that we can give him is nothing to him; fo infinitely high, that all our goods cannot extend unto him; Pfal. xvi. 2. fo infinitely glorious and happy in himself, that he can receive no addition by all that all his creatures put together can render unto him; and his benefits to us fo many and infinitely great, that our beings, and all that we are and have, are infinitely short of a fufficient return: yet gratitude will not fuffer us to think ourfelves difcharged of all obligation, because we are not able to pay the whole debt. No, if there be any thing of all that we have received, of all that we have or are, that our great benefactor seems to have a liking to, and inclination for, furely we fhall willingly prefent him with that. But this he has not left us to guefs at; but he has exprefsly declared what he likes, and what he would have us give him in return, nay, and Has condefcended fo far as to ask it of us, faying, My fon, give me thine heart. Now, if we deny so small a requeft to fo great a perfon; if we refufe fo fmall a return to fo great a benefactor; if we will not give our heart, love, affection, and duty to God our Maker, preferver, redeemer and fanctifier; but will give up ourfelves to the vain and empty, the fordid enjoyments of this wicked ་ |