The saints treasury being sundry sermons preached in London /

And further, there is such an infinite distance between God and us, that there can be no coming together; and that not so much in regard of Gods excellency in himself, and our meanness, that we are such poor low creatures, as in regard of the infiniteness of his holiness, and our uncleanness and sinfulness, this makes the distance.

And further, there is such an infinite distance between God and us, that there can be no coming together; and that not so much in regard of Gods excellency in himselfe, and our meanesse, that we are such poor low creatures, as in regard of the infinitenesse of his holinesse, and our uncleanesse and sinfulnesse, this makes the distance.

Besides, there is the strength of the law; the curse of the law is upon every soul naturally, and that stops: there was never vessel stopped closer to be kept from having a drop of liquor poured into it, then the curse of the law is close upon every soul, to keep mercy from it, so far as God looks upon it merely in its naturals, and not through his Son.

Besides, there is the strength of the law; the curse of the law is upon every soul naturally, and that stops: there was never vessel stopt closer to be kept from having a drop of liquor poured into it, then the curse of the law is close upon every soul, to keep mercy from it, so farre as God looks upon it meerly in its naturals, and not through his Son.

Then there are the cries of infinite Justice against men, which must have satisfaction: and till Justice be satisfied mercy stirs not, unless it be in a way of providing satisfaction unto Justice: so that put these together, the breach of the first covenant, the distance between God and man in regard of Gods holiness and mans sinfulness, the power of the curse of the law upon man, and the cries of divine Justice, that will never be quiet till it hath received satisfaction: these things being rightly apprehended, we may come to see that we are far off from receiving mercy from God, though he be an infinite fountain of mercy, except there be some strange way of conveying it to us. We know, according to Gods dealing with the fallen Angels, there is no way of conveying mercy to them, but they are left to perish for ever: if the thousands of Angels that fell from God should be thousands of thousands of years crying out for mercy, they could not obtain one drop: why? because there is no mediator between God and them; and it would have been our case with them, had there not been a mediator between God and us. Many think