The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32…

ANSWER.

1. The Question is not, with God, what you have been, but what you are? God takes men as they then are, and not as they were. 2. It is a dangerous thing to object the greatness of your Guilt against Gods mercy and Christs Merits! Do you think Christs satisfaction is not sufficient? or that he dyed for small sins and not for great? Do you not know that he hath made satisfaction for all, and will pardon all, and hath given out the pardon of all in his Covenant, and that to all men, on Condition they will Accept Christ to pardon and heal them in his own way? Hath God made it his great design in the work of mans Redemption, ⟨p. 453⟩to make his Love and Mercy as Honourable and wonderful, as he did his Power in the work of Creation? and will you after all this oppose the greatness of your sins against the greatness of this Mercy and Satisfaction? why, you may as well think your self to be such a one that God could not or did not Make you, as to think your sins so great that Christ could not or did not satisfy for them, or will not pardon them, if you Repent and Believe in him. 3. And for Worthiness, I pray you observe: There is a twofold Worthiness & Righteousness. There is a Legal Worthiness and Righteousness, which consisteth in a perfect obedience, which is the performance of the Conditions of the Law of Pure Nature and Works. This no man hath but Christ: and if you look after this Righteousness or Worthiness in your self, then do you depart from Christ, and make him to have dyed and satisfied in vain; you are a Jew and not a Christian, and are one of those that Paul so much disputeth against, that would be Justified by the Law. Nay you must not to much as once imagine that all your own Works can be any part of this Legal Righteousness or Worthiness to you. Only Christs Satisfaction and Merit is in stead of this our Legal Righteousness and Worthiness. God never gave Christ and Mercy to any but the unworthy in this ⟨p. 454⟩sense: If you know not your self to be unworthy and unrighteous in the sense of the Law of Works, you cannot know what Christs Righteousness is. Did Christ come to save any but sinners, and such as were lost? what need you a Saviour, if you were not Condemned? and how come you to be condemned if you were not unrighteous and unworthy. But then 2.