A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

Secondly, Justifying and pardoning Grace, though it be free, yet is it limited to the performance of certain Conditions, without which God never bestows it upon any, and they are two, Faith and Repentance. And these Graces God bestows upon whom he pleaseth, without any foregoing Conditions. Faith in Christ it is the freest gift that ever God bestowed upon any, except that Christ on whom we believe. But pardon of sin ⟨p. 20⟩is restrained to Faith and Repentance as the Conditions of it; nor is it ever obtained without them. These two things the Scripture doth abundantly confirm to us. Whoever believeth on him, shall obtain remission of sins, Acts 10.43. Repent, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts 3.19. Whoever believes on him, there Faith is made the Condition of Pardon. Repent, that your sins may be blotted out; there Repentance is made the Condition of Pardon. These two particulars correspond with the two-fold Covenant of Grace God made with Man: His absolute Covenant, wherein he promiseth the first Converting Grace; this Covenant now is independent from any Conditions, a Copy of which we have in Ezek. 36.26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will cause you to walk in my Statutes, and you shall keep my Judgments, and do them. And then there is God's Conditional Covenant of Grace, wherein he promiseth Salvation only upon the foregoing Conditions of Faith and Repentance, this we have, Mark 16.16. He that believeth shall be saved.

Thus I have stated the great Question concerning the free Grace of God. The first Sanctifying Grace of God is so free as to exclude all Conditions; but the Justifying and Pardoning Grace of God is limited to the Conditions of Faith and Repentance; and both Sanctifying and Justifying Grace are freely bestowed without any Merit of ours, but not without respect to the Merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath purchased them at the highest rate, even with his own most precious Blood.