246 FORGIVENESS OF SIN. reignty be in it, shall we oppose him and say we like it not ? Yet this is the language of unbelief. Rom. 10 : 3, 4. 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 they dreamed of nothing but that their own unworthiness merely kept them from closing with the promise of the Gospel. Thus Satan deceived our first parents, and deprived them of their interest in the covenant of works. The terms of it, saith he, as apprehended by you, are un- equal. " 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, " you shall not die, for God doth know, in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened." As if he had said, there is noproportion between the disobedience and the threat- ening : the issue cannot be such as is feared. And by these means he ruined them. Thus also he proceeds to deprive souls of their interest in the covenant of grace, to which they are invited. The terms of it, he says, are unequal, how can any man believe them 1 There is no proportion between the obedience and the promise. To have pardon, forgiveness, life, and a blessed eternity, on believing, who can rest in it 1 And here lies a con- spiracy between Satan and unbelief, against the wis- dom, goodness, love, grace and sovereignty of God. The poison of this deceit lies in representing that neither the righteousness nor the mercy of God is infi- nite, as indeed they are. The apostle, to remove this unbelief, calls us to the pleasure of God : " It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching," 1 Cor. 1 : 21, that is by the Gospel preached, which they esteemed fool- ishness, to save believers. He suffered men, indeed, to make trial of other ways; and when their insufficiency
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