ners, when they fincerely repent and a- SER M mend, have good and reasonable Grounds, IV. from the confideration of God's natural Perfections, to hope for Mercy and Compaffion at his hands: Yet neither to Sinners is God under any obligation of Justice, to restore them upon their Repentance to the fame State of Favour as if they had never finned; nor even to the most innocent and perfectly Sinless Creatures, (if any fuch there were,) is he under Any natural obligation to confer Immortality, and an eternal Kingdom of Glory. All, that Juice in That cafe requires, is to diftinguish them according to their Deferts, in That rank of the Creation wherein their natural Capacities placed them, and for fuch a Space of Time as the original good pleasure of the Creator allotted them. The Being which God freely gave, he may at any time, without any injustice, take away: And no Creature, even without confideration of Sin, has any more claim of Right to continue for ever, or even for any limited time, to be exalted above the natural improvement of its original capacities, than it had any Right to be created VOL. II.

G

Before

IV.

SERM. Before it was, or to have been made in any Higher Species of Creatures. Eternal Life therefore, or the Kingdom of Heaven, is the Gift of God; not due to Mankind by Nature; not a Claim of Right; no, not even if they had continued Innocent; much lefs, to returning Sinners; but 'tis the Gift, the Free Gift of God, originally in the State of Innocence; and to Penitents still much more, is it merely a Free Gift, in and through Chrift. That which is born of the Flesh, is Flesh; and has no title, no claim of Right, naturally, to the Spiritual Kingdom of God. But the Father has appointed unto his Son Jefus Christ a Kingdom, and I, fays our Lord to his Difciples, appoint unto You a Kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto Me: That wbofoever overcometh, (that is, whofoever prevails over the finful Temptations of the World,) may fit down with me in My Throne, even, as I also overcame, and am fat down with my Father in His Throne. By Nature, we are only in general the Creatures of the Almighty, and the Works of his Hands. By Sin, we were become Objects of his Wrath and Difpleasure. By obeying the gracious Terms of the Gospel

of

of Chrift, we are not only restored again S ER M. to the Favour of God, as of a merciful IV. and tender Father; but our nature is moreover exalted by him to fome fimilitude with His, who was in a fingular manner the Son of God, and yet condefcended to become our Elder Brother, by being made in the likeness of Men. He voluntarily became himself, the Son of Man ; and as many as received him, to them gave he Power that They Should become the Sons of God. He has received them as Joint Heirs with himself, in his Father's Kingdom; and God, even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has begotten them again (as St Peter expreffes it) unto a lively hope, (that is, unto the Hope of eternal Life,) by the refurrection of Chrift from the dead. hath caused them to be conformed to the Image of his Son, that he might be the First-born among Many Brethren. for this caufe, faith St Paul, Heb. ii. 11. Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren. Nay, the fame Apoftle, in a most elegant and lively manner, carrying the fame figure of Speech ftill higher, Eph. v. 30: We are members, fays he, of his Bo

G 2

He

And

dy,

SERM.dy, of his Flesh, and of his Bones. Thofe IV. who never had the Knowledge of the

Gofpel, are God's children by creation; in fuch a Sense as St Luke fays of Adam, that he was the Son of God. And with regard to Thefe, the Judge of the whole Earth will do what is Right, and with Equity fhall be judge the Nations. But as to his Free Gifts, he is ftill always at liberty to do what he pleases with his own; and in That Kingdom which he has appointed to his Son Jefus Chrift, he may appoint whom he himself thinks fit to fit on his right hand and on his left. He may bave mercy on whom be will have mercy, and compaffion on whom be will have compaffion. The meaning is; not, that God will act arbitrarily and without Reason; as fome have abfurdly understood thefe words: But that He, and He only, is the competent, proper, and unerring Judge, upon what Perfons, and on what Conditions, 'tis fit for him to beftow his Favours. And in and through Chrift, he may give power, upon what Terms and Conditions he pleases, to fuch as fhall attain to thofe Conditions, to become in a peculiar manner the Chil

dren

dren of God; and if Children, then Heirs ; SER M. Heirs of God, and Joint Heirs with Christ.

IT remains, in the

3d and laft place, THAT I confider in what fenfe the Apostle here affirms, that the Spirit of God, the Spirit itself, beareth witness with Our Spirit, if we be good Chriftians, that thefe Characters do truly belong to us. For the clearer explication of which affertion, I obferve

ift, THAT nothing can be more abfurd, nothing can be more contrary to the whole Tenour of the Gofpel, than the Notions of those Men, who take their own Enthufiafiick imaginations to be the Teftimony of the Spirit of God. Such perfons judge not of the Tree, by its Fruit; They compare not the Course of their Lives, with the Rule of God's Commandments; They judge not of their being fpiritual perfons, or having the Spirit of Chrift, by their practice of thofe Virtues, which the Scripture calls bringing forth. the Fruits of the Spirit: But they have a ftrong, confident Conceit, that they are the elect, the chofen people of God; and the mere ftrength of this groundless imagination, they apprehend to be the Spirit of God G 3 bearing

IV.