[1.] God. His glorious excellences show that nothing but his grace could incline him to do good to the creatures. I shall single out a few.
(1.) His self-sufficiency. He stood in no need of. us, having an in- finite contentment and happiness in himself, to which we cannot make any addition ; for infiniteness cannot be increased, and if it could, how by us who are so far beneath God ? Job xxxv. 6-8. ■ Look unto the heavens, and see, and behold the clouds which are higher than thou. If thou sinnest, what dost thou against him ? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what dost thou unto him ? thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the son of man ;' but what is it to God, who is above our benefits and injuries? Our sins, like darts or arrows shot up into the air, fall upon our own heads ; and
348 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. [SER. XVL
our duties, like incense, may refresh the standers-by ; but this sweet cloud vanisheth before it can reach heaven, or is gone out of our sight. Man cannot reach the most high God, either with his good or evil. Among men one hath need of another. The world is upheld, as the stones in an arch, by a combination of interests ; the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. The prince needeth the peasant^ as the peasant needeth the prince ; but God hath no need of us, who hath such infinite satisfaction in himself. He is avev$er)s, ' He is not worshipped with men's hands, as if he needed anything that man can do/ Acts xvii. 25. We need his blessing, but he doth not need our service to support his being and dignity. When Christ was in the state of humiliation, he was subject to wants as we are. When they loosed the foal, they were to answer, ' The Lord hath need of him,' Mat. xxi. 3. But surely God needeth not the being of man or angel, else why did he not make the world sooner, that he might be sooner happy ? therefore nothing but love and grace could engage him to take this way to bring about our supreme and final happiness.
(2.) His liberty, freedom, and power over his own actions, by reason of his sovereign and independent will ; therefore, if he will show mercy to sinners, what inclineth him but the pleasure of his goodness and most free grace ? If God did not what he did for us out of grace, it must be out of necessity of nature, or from some superior command and law ; but neither of these can be supposed in God.
(1st.) Not by necessity of nature, as fire burneth or water floweth ; it can do no otherwise. It was the error of Aristotle to say that the first cause acted out of servile necessity, and that he must needs do what he doth. This conceit is a blasphemy, and lessens our obligations to God. No ; God is a free agent, who ' worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will,' Eph. i. 11 ; that is, according to his most wise and free purpose. Being sovereign lord of all his actions, he might have left us remediless in everlasting misery ; birt according to his own heart, he hath done us good. The salvation of sinners is opus liberi consilii, the work of free choice ; he might have done or not done it, but grace cast the scales.
(Zly) Not any external law; for who can be above God, to prescribe him such a law ? Man is a subordinate creature ; his duty is measured out to him by a rule, and he must give an account ; but God is supreme, his will is his rule ; he loveth because he loveth, and doth all because it pleaseth him.
(3.) His supremacy and majesty, as he is the first cause of all things : Bom. xi. 35, ' Who hath first given to him ? and it shall be given to him again.' The apostle challengeth all the world to come and enter their action against God. If they can plead any debt or obligation they have laid upon him, he undertaketh that man shall be satisfied. No ; they can never prove it ; therefore he cutteth off all pretence by an argument : ' All things are of him, and through him, and to him/ The cause oweth nothing to the effect, but the effect all to the cause. Now God is the supreme cause of all things, both in nature and grace. The sea hath nothing from the rivers, though they all return thither : but the rivers all from the sea. Or the fountain oweth nothing to the stream, but the stream all to the fountain. The sun oweth nothing to
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the beam, but the beam hath its whole being from the sun. God is not indebted to us for our holiness and righteousness, but we owe all to him, for we have all from him : Job xli. 11, ' Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him ? ' Men have a conceit upon their hearts, as if God were obliged to them some way or other, and bound to requite them. No, God was never prevented by a good turn, that might put him in debt to his creatures. Thus you see it is more for the honour of God that our salvation all along should be carried as a free gift. Acts of free grace are more for the honour of superiors than acts of debt and duty. He is aforehand with us, and beginneth with us, and not we with him; for that which is highest in order of being must be highest also in order of working. All cometh from his grace and bounty to us.