Of free justification

And there is nothing that God more requires, than this: Whose Nature, or rather Mercy is such, that he delights not in any thing more, than in a humble Heart and a broken Spirit, as the Psalmist declares: ¹He saveth such as are of a contrite Spirit. And in the Prophet Isaiah, God testifies of himself, that he is the high and lofty one that inhabiteth ⟨p. 367⟩Eternity, and dwells in the high and Holy place, and also with him that is humble and of a contrite Spirit, to comfort the humble Spirit, and to revive the Heart of the contrite ones. And for that cause he calls aloud in the Gospel, and offers his kind invitations chiefly to such as labour, and are heavy laden, that they may come unto him, and be eased.

1. 1Psal. 34. Isa. 57.

What is coming to Christ, but believing? What is it to be eased or refreshed, but to be justified? Though indeed he calls all, and despises none, that come ¹to him: Yet so it comes to pass for the most part, that none come to Christ as they ought, unless they be pressed and burdened under the sense of their Sin and Misery. And again, that Heavenly Physician is seldom sent unto any others, but such: As the Prophet bears witness, who making a particular description of those, to whom Christ was to be sent, he sets before us the meek, the broken in Heart, the Captives, the Prisoners, the Mourners in Zion, them that are walking in Darkness, and sitting in the shadow of Death, &c. And the Psalmist speaks much to the ²same purpose,