2. How dear must Christ be to every true pe- nitent !
[A certain kind and degree of repentance may arise from fear : but that which is spiritual and saving, partakes richly of love. Nothing advances it so much as a sight of the love of Christ in dying for usm. Now exactly as a sense of the Sa- viour's love causes us to lothe ourselves, so does a sense of our own vileness cause us to admire him. Let not any imagine that self-lothing will lead us to despondency : the viler we see ourselves to be, the more will Christ be exalted and magnified in our eyes. Our vileness, as well as our weakness, will only illustrate the riches of his grace, and render him unspeakably precious to our souls.]
m Zech. xii. 10.
god's mercies not given for our merits.
Ezek. xxxvi. 32. Not for your sokes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you : be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, 0 house of Israel.
THERE is not any gift, whether of nature or of grace, from which the pride of man will not take occasion to exalt itself. But the design of God in his Gospel is, to counteract this propensity, and to make his creatures sensible of their obligations to him, and their entire dependence upon him. Hence, having declared, in the preceding context, what he intended to do for his Church and people, he parti- cularly cautions them not to imagine, that he was influenced by any goodness which he saw in them ; or that, after having received his blessings, they would have any thing to boast of : for to their latest hour they would have in themselves cause for nothing but shame and confusion.
From this caution the following observations natu- rally arise :
I. God, in imparting his blessings to us, has not respect to any good in us —
There is not in us any thing meritorious, to which he can have respect —
1119.] god's mercies not given for our merits. 445
[Let our actions be weighed in the balance of the sanc- tuary, and every one of them will be found wanting. If we had done all that is required of us, we should still be only un- profitable servants a. But we have not done all ; nor have we done any part as we ought : and therefore instead of having any merit whereon to found a claim of blessings from God, we have need of mercy and forgiveness for our very best actions13.]
Nor would it consist with his honour to make our goodness the ground of dispensing his favours —
[Whatever the measure of our goodness were, if it were considered in any degree as founding a claim for the Divine blessing, or as inducing God to impart his benefits to us, it would instantly become a ground of glorying before God. The possessor of that goodness might ascribe to himself some por- tion of the honour, instead of giving the glory of his salvation to God alone. But this would be to subvert the whole design of the Gospel, which is, to exclude boasting0, and not to give God's glory to another.]
Experience alone sufficiently shews that God is influenced by no such motive —
[If God had respect to any thing that is good in us, the most moral people would always be stirred up to embrace the Gospel, and the most profligate be left to reject it. But this is by no means the case : yea, the very reverse is more generally true, namely, that " publicans and harlots enter into the king- dom, before the more decent Scribes, or self-righteous Phari- sees d." God is indeed sometimes said to do things for the sake of Abraham, David, and others : but it was not for their right- eousness' sake, considered as meritorious, that God vouchsafed blessings to them or their posterity ; but either to testify his love to obedience, or to manifest the immutability of his counsel e.]