A discourse of the saving grace of God

1. Meritorious Conditions, when the Condition is presumed to deserve what is Promised: There is no such Condition of Salvation as this, but in the proud Fancies of Presumptuous Sinners. For, 1. There must be a Disproportion between that which is procured, and the Condition that deserves it: It is of Favour, not of Merit, if the promised Blessing exceed the worth of the Condition. To make this plain; suppose the worth of a days Work be twelve Pence, a Man Promises another a thousand Crowns for a days Labour; it cannot in any reason be imagined that his days Labour deserves so much; if he receive so much, he has it of Favour not of Merit. Now the Disproportion is far greater betwixt Salvation, and all that is required of us in order thereto: Sufferings for Christ are more considerable on this account than holy Actings; but all the Sufferings of this Life, such as those of the Apostle and the Primitive Christians, bear not the sleightest Proportion to the Glory Promised, Rom. 8. 18. there is no Proportion betwixt ⟨p. 138⟩them; the Glory offered does infinitely exceed them; it is the Eternal Enjoyment of God himself; and between that which is finite and infinite there is no Proportion, 2 Cor. 4. 17. If Glory were Promised on these Terms, as it seems to be, 2 Tim. 2. 12. yet Suffering would be far from Deserving the Crown; there is no correspondent worth in them to so vast a Crown. Merit quite excludes Grace; for tha• which is deserved is due in Justice, it is a just Debt; but that which is of Debt, is not, cannot be of Grace, if the Apostle understood these things, Rom. 4. 4. He makes a plain Opposition between Grace and Debt. And therefore, if by the Performance of any Condition we can deserve Salvation, it will be of Debt, and we must expunge the Text, and conclude we are not saved by Grace.

1. Meritorious Conditions, when the Condition is presumed to deserve what is Promised: There is no such Condition of Salvation as this, but in the proud Fancies of Presumptuous Sinners. For, 1. There must be a Disproportion between that which is procured, and the Condition that deserves it: It is of Favour, not of Merit, if the promised Blessing exceed the worth of the Condition. To make this plain; suppose the worth of a days Work be twelve Pence, a Man Promises another a thousand Crowns for a days Labour; it cannot in any reason be imagined that his days Labour deserves so much; if he receive so much, he has it of Favour not of Merit. Now the Disproportion is far greater betwixt Salvation, and all that is required of us in order thereto: Sufferings for Christ are more considerable on this account than holy Actings; but all the Sufferings of this Life, such as those of the Apostle and the Primitive Christians, bear not the sleightest Proportion to the Glory Promised,