A discourse of the saving grace of God

Nay, since it is not Grace, it is not Mercy indeed; no Mercy that the Lord will own, or Sinners can have any advantage by: It is Affection of their own, not that Divine Excellency which he glories in, and glorifies upon lost Sinners: For that which saves Sinners is free Mercy, and free Mercy is nothing but Grace. So that if we be saved without Grace, we are saved without Mercy too, that which is so indeed; and if they have no Salvation for Sinners, but that which is without Grace and free Mercy, they leave them none at all.

That they admit of no free Mercy, no Grace in God for Sinners, appears, in that they make his first Purpose of Love (the Decree, which comprises all the Mercy he had from Eternity for particular Persons) to have its rise from Faith or Works foreseen. He foresees, that when it is left to the Free-will, to the choice of all; these will of themselves, without Divine determining Power, Believe and Love him; others will not; and therefore he will Love, and purposes to Save these, and not others: And so he loves them not freely, but because they Oblige him: He Loves them, i. e. He Purposes to Save them, because they Love him first. Thus that which God foresees in Man, is the Condition of the Mercy and Favour he intends; and such a Condition, as is indeed the Cause, the Motive, and in the ancient sense of the Word, the Merit of his Favour and Mercy: And so they leave no free Mercy in God for Sinners; and Sinners being capable of no Mercy at all, but what is free, they leave in him no Mercy at all for them. This is, in the Apostles sense, Gal. 5. 4. to fall from Grace, to deny, to renounce all Grace, all free Mercy of God which the Gospel discovers. ⟨p. 99⟩The Doctrine of Free-will obliges them to disclaim all the Mercy of God, by which any Sinner can be saved.

That they admit of no free Mercy, no Grace in God for Sinners, appears, in that they make his first Purpose of Love (the Decree, which comprizes all the Mercy he had from Eternity for particular Persons) to have its rise from Faith or Works foreseen. He foresees, that when it is left to the Free-will, to the choice of all; these will of themselves, without Divine determining Power, Believe and Love him; others will not; and therefore he will Love, and purposes to Save these, and not others: And so he loves them not freely, but because they Oblige him: He Loves them, i. e. He Purposes to Save them, because they Love him first. Thus that which God foresees in Man, is the Condition of the Mercy and Favour he intends; and such a Condition, as is indeed the Cause, the Motive, and in the ancient sense of the Word, the Merit of his Favour and Mercy: And so they leave no free Mercy in God for Sinners; and Sinners being capable of no Mercy at all, but what is free, they leave in him no Mercy at all for them. This is, in the Apostles sense,