Do you aright consider the nature of this matter? The Scripture proposeth it as an object of eternal admiration: " So God loved the world;" " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us" first. Live in this admiration, and do your utmost, in your several capacities, to prevail with your friends, relations, acquaint- ance, to hearken after this great treaty of peace with God, whose terms we shall nextly consider, as before in general they were ex- pressed.
Secondly, The terms provided for you, and proposed unto you, are equal, holy, righteous, yea, pleasant and easy, Hos. ii. 18, 19. They are not such as a cursed, guilty sinner might justly expect, but such as are meet for an infinitely good and gracious God to propose ; — not suited to the wisdom of man, but full of the "wisdom of God," 2 Cor. ii. 6, 7. The poor, convinced wretch thinking of dealing with God, Micah vi. 6, 7, rolls in his mind what terms he is like to meet withal; and fixes on the most dreadful, difficult, and impossible that can be imagmed. " If," saith he, "any thing be done with this great and most high God, it must be by ' rivers,' ' thousands,' and ' ten thousands,' children, 'first-born;' whatever is dreadful and terrible to nature, whatever is impossible for me to perform, that is it which he looks for." But the matter is quite otherwise. The terms are wholly of another nature : it is a way of mere mercy, a way of free forgiveness. The apostle lays it down, Rom. iii. 21-26. It is a way of propitiation, of pardon, of forgiveness in the blood of Christ ; the terais are, the ac- ceptance of the forgiveness that we have described. Who would not think, now, that the whole world would run in to be made partakers of these terms, willingly accepting of them? But it proves for the most part quite otherwise. Men like not this way, of all others. " It had been something," says Naaman, " if the jirophet had come and done so and so; but this, ' Go wash, and be clean,' I do not like it; I am but deluded." Men think within themselves, that had it been some great thing that was required of them that they might be saved, they would with all speed address themselves thereunto ; but to come to God by Christ, to be freely forgiven, without more ado, they like it not. Some rigid, austere penances, some compensatory obedience, some satisfactory mortification or purgatory, had been a more likely way. This of mere pardon in and by the cross, it is but folly, 1 Cor. i. 18, 20. " I had rather," saith the Jew, " have it ' as it were by the works of the law,' Rom. ix. 32, x. 3. This way of grace and forgiveness I like not." So say others also; so practise others every
Ver.4.] EXHORTATIONS UNTO BELIEVING FORGIVENESS. 525
day. Either this way is wholly rejected, or it is mended by some additions; which with God is all one with the rejection of it.
Here multitudes of souls deceive themselves and perish. I knovr not whether it be more difficult to persuade an unconvinced person to think of any terms, or a convinced person to accept of these. Let men say what they will, and pretend what they please, yet prac- tically they like not this way of forgiveness. I shall therefore offer some subservient considerations, tending to the furtherance of your souls in the acceptance of the terms proposed : —
1. This is the way, these are the terms of God's oivn choosing; he found out this way, he established it himself He did it when all was lost and undone. He did it, not upon our desire, request, or proposal, but merely of his own accord ; and why should we contend with him about it ? If God will have us saved in a way of mere mercy and forgiveness, if his wisdom and sovereignty be in it, shall we oppose him, and say we like it not? Yet this is the language of unbelief, Rom. x. 3. Many poor creatures have disputed it with God, until at length, being overpowered as it were by the Spirit, [they] have said, " If it must be so, and God will save us by mercy and grace, let it be so; we yield ourselves to his will;" and yet throughout their disputes dreamed of nothing but that their own unworthiness only kept them from closing with the promise of the gospel.
Of this nature was that way of Satan whereby he deceived our first parents of their interest in the covenant of works. " The terms of it," saith he, " as apprehended by you, are unequal. ' Yea, hath God said. Ye shall eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ye shall not eat, lest ye die?' Come; 'ye shall not die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then 3^our eyes shall be opened." There is no proportion between the dis- obedience and the threatening; the issue cannot be such as is feared." And by these means he ruined them. Thus, also, he proceeds to de- prive souls of their interest in the covenant of grace, whereunto they are invited : " The terms of it are unequal, how can any man believe them? There is no proportion between the obedience and the pro- mise. To have pardon, forgiveness, life, and a blessed eternity, on believing ! — who can rest in it?" And here lies a consphacy between Satan and unbelief, against the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, and sovereignty of God. The poison of this deceit lies in this, that neither the righteousness nor the mercy of God is of that infiniteness as in- deed they are. The apostle, to remove this fond imagination, calls us to the pleasure of God: 1 Cor. i. 21, " It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching," — that is, by the gospel preached, which they esteemed foolishness, — " to save them that believe." He suffered men, indeed, to make trial of other ways ; and v/hen theii* insufficiency for the ends