2. Among the recompenses of God, that which comes from grace is only mentioned. The great God in recompenses is not only a rewarder of them that seek him, but a revenger of them that hate him ; but his vengeance and punishment is not propounded as so necessary to our first faith, to him that comes to God so much as his reward. Why does he instance in this part of providence ? Partly, because God delights to manifest himself to the world in acts of grace rather tlian in acts of judgment — ' Mercy pleaseth him,' Micah. vii. 18. Goodness and grace are natural to God. Anger, and wrath, and vindictive justice suppose our sin ; they are extoi'ted from him. And therefore if we would have a right notion of God, next to the being of God we must believe his goodness. From the beginning of time until now the usual acts of God's providence are the effluxes and emanations of his good- ness. What hath the world been but a great theatre, upon which mercy hath been acting a part almost these six thousand years ? His mercy is over all his works, and therefore God is called the ' Father of mercies,' 2 Cor. i. 3, not the Father of justice. When he proclaimeth his name, we hear first of his mercy, and still more of his mercy : Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, ' The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, long- snfrering, and abundant in goodness and truth,' and justice is brougiit in to prevent the abuse of mercy, and to invite men to take hold of it. And then, partly, because this is an encouragement to bring in them to God who else would run away from him because of his terrors and his own natural bondage, as Adam ran into the bushes. Though there be amiable excellences in the nature of God, yet the naked contemplation of these cannot allay our natural fears, nor quench our natural enmity against God, but rather increase them. As good qualities in a judge will never draw the prisoner's heart to affect him ; to tell the prisoner that his judge is a grave, comely person, of profound knowledge, of excellent speech, a strict observer of the law ; but he is a, judge, and so his heart stands off from him. And so it is between us and God :
VeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 15^
though we should tell men of the perfections of God's nature, j'et as lono- as the guilty sinner retlects upon him as his judge, he stands aloof from God. Tlie wrath of God is like a flaming sword ready drawn and hrau- dished to keep us from him ; his justice makes us stand at a distance : Rom. i. 32, ' Knowing the judgment of God, that they that do such things are worthy of death ;' but his goodness, and readiness to reward, that is the motive to draw in our hearts to liim. Christians, all this is spoken that we might have a right notion of God in himself. CEcolam- padius, when he was preaching to children, first he tells them, Tliere is a God, and then saith he, If you would know what God is, you must not conceive of him by pictures that you have seen. Do jou know what mercy, lenity, patience, bountifulness, goodness is ? — that is God. You must believe there is a God, and then you must see what he is ; he is a God merciful, gracious, ready to reward and do good. This doth draw in the heart of a creature to him. As Luther saith, this is the whole design of the scripture, to represent God in such a manner, as bountiful and ready to do good to his creatures that come to him.
3. This grace is expressed by the word ' reward.' It is a metaphor taken from hired servants : Mat. xx. 8, ' Call the labourers, and give them — ixiadov — their hire.' Now some go upon this word as if here they had a clear foundation for the merit of the creature from the two words /iio-^o? and airohoai^, of which the word in the text is compounded, but vainly ; for work and reward are relatives indeed, but not merit and reward. God is a rewarder, but how ? out of his own bounty, and the liberality of his grace, not out of our merit and desert. You shall see the word is taken in scripture sometimes for any fruit and issue or our pains, so it be gi-ateful to us, though no way deserved by us, as that vainglory men seek for in the world : Mat. vi. 2. it is said, 'Tliey have their reward/ Xo man can say they deserve it, but it was the reward aimed at and chosen by them. Anything we look at as the fruit of our pains is called the reward. And sometimes any fruit of the divine grace : as Ps. cxxvii. 3, ' Lo. children are an heritage from the Lord ; and the fruit of the womb is his reward,' that is, his gracious gift ; and so /j.ia6o<; and %a/3i9, reward and grace, are all one, and pro- miscuously used ; as Mat. v. 46, what is there, ' What reward have you ? ' in Luke vi. 32, it is %a/9i?, ' What grace, or what thank have you ? ' So God is said to reward those whom he remembers out of mere mercy and bounty ; his reward is worth the seeking after ; not that our work is meritorious and worthy of that reward. Well then, the re- ward of grace is understood ; fxtaOo^ hath more relation to God's promise than the work. Indeed it stands upon two feet, upon God's promise and upon Christ's merit. We have a reward, which by virtue of Christ's merit, and God's promise we may expect ; but as to us, it is freely bestowed upon us. The apostle plainly shows this distinction of a reward of debt and a reward of grace : Rom. iv. 4, ' To him that worketh,' that is, he that will establish his own righteousness or works for justification — to him ' is the reward reckoned, not of grace, but of debt' He intimates plainly there is a reward Kara x^P^^> according to grace. Once more it is called, Col. iii. 24, ' The reward of the inheritance ; such as proceedeth not from the worth of the work, but from God's free grace. If the reward be a servile work, the inheritance