34° The twelfth Sign PART III. to accept of freeGrace, Ifai. 55, Ho,every one that thir/leth ! come ye to the Waters : ..4nd he that bath no Money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy Wine and Milk, without Money and without Price : Even there, in the Continuation of the fame Invitation, the Sinners forfa- king his wicked Practice is fpoken of as neceffary to the obtaining Mercy : Verfe 7, Let the l lickedfsrfake his If'ay, and the unrighteous Man his noughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have !Mercy upon him, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon. So the Riches of divine Grace, in the Juftification of Sinners, is jet forth, with the Necefty of holy Practice, Ifai. i. 15, &c. G1 /afh ye, make you clean ; put away the Evil ofyour Doings, from before mine Eyes : Ceafe to do evil, learn to do well ; feek judgment, relieve the Oppreffed, judge the Fatherlefs, pleadfor the Widow : Come now, let us Reafon to- gether, faith the Lord, tho' your Sins be as Scarlet, theyJhall be as white as Snow ; tho' they be red like Crimfon, they Jhall be as H/aol. And in that moft folemn Invitation of Wifdom, Prov. 9, after it is repre- fented what great Provifion is made, and how that all Things were ready, the Houfe built, the Beafts killed, the Wine mingled, and the Table furnifhed, and the Meff'engers fent forth to invite the Gueffs ; then we have the free Invitation, Ver. 4, 5, 6, 14hofo is Simple, let him turn in hither ; asfor him that wanteth Under/landing, (i. e. has no Righteoufnefs) Jhefaith to him, Come, eat of my Bread, and drink of the Wine which I have mingled : But then in the next Breath it follows, Forfake the Foolifh, and live, and go in the Way of Underfiand ing : As tho' forfaking Sin, and going in the Way of Holinefs, were necefllary in order to Life. So that the Freenefs of Grace, and the NeceI ity of holy Practice, which are thus from Time to Time join'd together in Scripture, are not inconfiffent one with another. Nor does it at all diminifh the Honour and Importance of Faith, that the Exercifs and Effects of Faith in Practice, fhould be e(Ieem'd the chief Signs of it ; any more than it leffens the Importance of Life, that Action and Motion are efleemed the chief Signs of that. So that in what has been Paid of the Importance of holy Practice, as the main Sign of Sincerity ; there is nothing legal, nothing deroga- tory to the Freedom and Sovereignty of Gofpel Grace, nothing in the leaft Clafhing with the Gofpel Doctrine of Juf$ification by Faith alone, without the Works of the Law, nothing in the leaff tending to leffen the Glory of the Mediator, and our Dependance on his Righteoufnefs, nothing infringing on the fpecial Prerogatives of Faith in the Affair of our Salvation, nothing in any wife detracting from the Glory of God and his Mercy, or exalting Man, or diminifhing his Dependance and Obligation. So that if any are againff fuck an Importance of holy Pratffice as has been fpoken of, it muff be only from a fenfelefs Averfion to theLetters and Sound of the WordWorks ; when there is no Reafon in the World to be given for it, but what may
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