A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the…

Did Man, fallen Man, deserve this Love, this Favour, who was become an Enemy to God? Was there any thing in Man that could be a Motive to move the Almighty to enter into this Covenant, to save so vile a Creature, such a poor and despicable a Creature as Man became by his Sins, the Visage of his very Soul being now loathsome, deformed, and abominable in the sight of God, God's holy Image being utterly defaced, and all his Beauty gone, being besmeared and covered all over with noisome Filthiness ⟨p. 150⟩and Pollution, filled with Enmity and Hatred against God; dethroning his blessed Creator, and setting up the Devil in his Place; subjecting himself to that implacable Enemy of his, and casting off his most holy and gracious Sovereign from whence he received his Breath and Being.

Did Man, fallen Man, deserve this Love, this Favour, who was become an Enemy to God? Was there any thing in Man that could be a Motive to move the Almighty to enter into this Covenant, to save so vile a Creature, such a poor and despicable a Creature as Man became by his Sins, the Visage of his very Soul being now loathsom, deformed, and abominable in the sight of God, God's holy Image being utterly defaced, and all his Beauty gone, being besmeared and covered all over with noisom Filthiness ⟨p. 150⟩and Pollution, filled with Enmity and Hatred against God; dethroning his blessed Creator, and setting up the Devil in his Place; subjecting himself to that implacable Enemy of his, and casting off his most holy and gracious Sovereign from whence he received his Breath and Being.

Nay, and in respect of God himself, it must needs appear to be wholly of Grace; could Redemption of Man add any thing to the essential Glory of God? Did he stand in need of Man to make him more happy or glorious in himself, who being an independent Being, had been eternally happy in the Enjoyment of himself, had Man never been made, or had he left him under Wrath and Misery? Or was he obliged to save us, and that he might do it, to send his own Son to die, and be made a Curse for us? Or could he not have created other Creatures to have showed forth his glorious Perfections? Or why might he not have sent his Son to have taken hold of the Nature of Angels to have redeemed them, (who were his Creatures as well as fallen Man, and more glorious too than Man before they fell) and let Man have perished for ever, and not have entered into such a Covenant of Grace with his own Son on his Behalf?