AND GOSliEL4tOLINESS EXPLAINED. 223 and punishment; yet there is none between our obedience and oursalvation; and therefore eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. vi. 23. God therefore requires nothing at our hands under this no- tion or consideration; nor is it possible, that inour con- dition, any such thing should be required of us. For whatever we can do is due before-hand upon other ac- counts, and so can have no prospect to merit what is to come. Who can merit by doing his duty? Our Sa- viour doth so plainly prove the contrary, as none can further doubt of it than of his truth and authority, Luke xvii. t0. Nor can we do any thing that is acceptable to him, but what is wrought in us by his grace. And this overthrows the whole nature of merit, which re- quires, that that be every way our own, whereby we would deserve somewhat else at the hands of another, and not his more than ours. Neither is there any pro- portion between our duties and the reward of the eter- nal enjoyment of God. For, besides, that they are all weak, imperfect, and tainted with sin, so that no one of them is able to make good its own station, for any end or purpose in the strictness of divine justice, they altogether come infinitely short of the desert of an eter- nal reward by any rule of divine justice. And if any say, that this merit of our works depends not on, nor is measured by strict justice, but wholly by the gracious condescensionof God, who hath appointed and promis- ed so to reward them; I answer in the first place, that this perfectly overthrows the whole nature of merit; for the nature of merit consists entirely and absolutely in this, that to him that worked', the reward is reckoned of debt, andnot of grace, Rom. iv. 4. And these two are contrary and inconsistent; ,r for what is by grace, " is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more r, grace; and what is of works, is no more of grace, " otherwise work is no more work," Rom. xi. 6. And those who go about to found a merit of ours in the grace of God do endeavour to unite and reconcile those things which God bath everlastingly separated and op- posed. And I say, Secondly, That although God doth freely, graciously, and bountifully reward our duties of obedience, and upon the account of his covenant and promise, he is said to be, and he is righteous in his so doing, yet he every where declares, that what he so doth is an act of mere grace in himself, that bath not respect unto any thing, but only the interposition and S mediation of Jesus Christ. In this sense God, in the gospel, requireth of us nothing at all. (4.) Much less doth he require of any, that they should do such things as being no waynecessary unto that obedience which themselves personally owe unto him, may yet, by their supererogation therein, redound to the advantage and benefit of others. This monstrotts fiction, whichbath out-done all the I'harisaism of the Jews, we are engaged for to the Church of Rome, as a pretence given to the piety, or rather a covering of the impiety of their votaries. But seeing, on the one hand, that they are themselves, who pretend to these works, but flesh, and so cannot on'theirown account, bejusti- fied in the sight of God; so it is extreme pride, and cursed selfconfidence, for them to undertake to help others by the merit of those works whose worth they stand not in need of; concerning which it will be one day said unto them, Who kath required these things at your hands? But now, whereas God requireth none of these things of us, nothing with respect unto any of these ends, such is the perverseness of our minds, by nature, that many think that God requireth nothingelse of us, or nothing of us, but with respect untó one or other of these ends; nor can they, in their hearts, con- ceive why they should perform any one duty towards God, unless it be with some kind of regard unto these things. If they may do any thing whereby they may make some recompense for their sins that are past, at least in their own minds and consciences, if any thing whereby they may procure an acceptance with God, and the approbation of their state and condition, they have something which as they suppose, may quicken and animate their endeavours. Without these consid- erations, holy obedience is unto them a thing lifeless and useless. Others will labour and take pains, both in ways of outward mortification, and profuse munificence in any way of superstitious charity, whilst they are per- suaded, or can persuade themselves, that they shall merit eternal life and salvation thereby, without much being beholden to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Yea, all that bath the face or pretence of religion in the Papacy, consists in a supposition, that all which God requireth of us, he doth it with respect unto these ends, of atonement, justification, merit, and supererogation. Hereunto do they apply all that remains of the ordin- ances of God amongst them, and all their own inven. 26
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