THE SAINT'S REST. .45 against our merit, and against our long endeavouring our own ruin. What an astonishing thought it will be, to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and receivings ! between the state we should have been in, and the state we are in ! to look down upon hell, and see the vast difference that grace hath made between us and them ! to see the inheritance there which we were born to, so different from that which we are adopted to ! What pangs of love will it cause within us to think, "Yonder was the place that sin would have brought me to, but this is it that Christ bath brought me to ! Yonder, death was the wages of my sin, but this eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord !(c) Who made me to differ ?(d) Had I not now been in those flames, if I had my own way, and been let alone to my own will ? Should I not have lingered in Sodom, till the flames had seized on me, if God had not in mercy brought me out ?"(e) Doubtless this will be our everlasting admiration, that so rich a crown should fit the head of so vile a sinner ! that such high ad- vancement, and such long unfruitfulness, and un- kindness, can be the state of the same person ! and that such vile rebellions can conclude in such most precious joys ! But no thanks to us, nor to any of our duties and labours, much less to our neglects and laziness. We know to whom the praise is due, and must be given for ever. Indeed to this very end it was, that infinite Wisdom cast the whole design of man's sal- vation into this mould of purchase and freeness, that the love and joy of man might be perfected, and the honour of grace most highly advanced ; that the thought of merit might neither cloud the one, nor obstruct the other; and that on these two hinges the gate of heaven might turn. So then let DESERVED be written on the door of hell; but on the door of heaven and life, THE FREE GIFT. § 5. (3) This rest is peculiar to saints, belongs to no other of all the sons of men. If all Egypt had been (c) Rom. vi. 23. (d) ï Cor. iv. 7. (e) Gen. xix. 16.
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