A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

(2.) Another sort of Men that wrong Grace, are those that refuse Grace out of legal Dejection. Many poor Creatures are so vile in their own Eyes, that they think it impossible they should ever find Favour in God's Eyes. O but consider, cannot the Riches of Grace save? when God shall set himself on purpose to glorify Grace to the full, cannot it make thee accepted? Wherefore doth God bring Creatures to see their Unworthiness, but that Grace might be the more glorious? Grace would not be so much Grace, if the Creature were not so unworthy; therefore you should be glad you have your Hearts at that Advantage, to be sensible of your own Vileness: It is a wrong to Grace if you do not fly to it; you straiten the Riches, and darken the Glory of it; it is as if an Emperor's Revenue could not discharge a Beggar's Debt. Our Ephah is full, brim-full, but God's Mercy is over-full. You can speak of Sins, and the Scripture speaketh of Mercy: Hast thou but one Blessing, O my Father? saith Esau, Gen. 27.38. So, hath God but one Mercy? Grace is a Treasure that cannot be spent, an Ocean ever full, and ever flowing. Where Sin hath abounded, Grace did much more abound, Rom. 5.20. There cannot be so much in Sin, but there is more in Grace. The Apostle makes new-coined words when he is to speak of the abundance of Grace, [Greek or Hebrew], and [Greek or Hebrew]. The Prodigal could say, There is Bread enough in my Father's House: Luke 15.17. How many hired Servants in my Father's House have Bread enough, and to spare? There is Grace enough in God. If we perish, it is not for want of Mercy, but for want of Faith. Why should we then put away this Grace that is revealed to us, yea, offered to us? If it were to be procured by any thing in us, we might despair. Take heed of slighting the Grace of God, it is God's Treasure; so far as you lessen Grace, you make God a poor God. Mark that Expression, Ephes. 2.4. God who is rich in Mercy. God is Lord of all things, but he counts nothing to be his Treasure but his Goodness and Mercy. He doth not say, rich in Power, though he is able to do beyond what we can ask or think; nor rich in Justice, though he be Righteous in all his Ways, and Just in all his Works; nor doth he say, rich in Creatures, though his are the Cattle of a thousand Hills, but rich in Mercy.