A practical exposition on the 130th Psalm

Of this nature was that way of Satan whereby he deceived our first Parents of their Interest in the Covenant of works; the terms of it, saith he, as apprehended by you, are unequal. Yea, hath God said, ye shall eat of every Tree of the Garden, but of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, ye shall not eat, lest ye die; come, you shall not dye, for God doth know in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened. There is no proportion between the disobedience and the threatening. The Issue ⟨p. 256⟩cannot be such as is feared. And by these means he ruined them. Thus also he proceeds to deprive Souls of their Interest in the Covenant of Grace, whereunto they are invited. The Terms of it are unequal, how can any man believe them? There is no proportion between the Obedience and the Promise. To have pardon, forgiveness, life, and blessed Eternity on believing, who can rest in it? And here lies a conspiracy between Satan and unbelief, against the Wisdom, Goodness, Love, Grace and Sovereignty of God. The poison of this deceit lies in this; that neither the Righteousness, nor the Mercy of God is of that infiniteness, as indeed they are. The Apostle to remove this fond imagination, calls us to the pleasure of God, 1 Cor. 1. 27. It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching, that is by the Gospel preached, which they esteemed foolishness, to save Believers. He suffered men indeed to make trial of other ways; and when their insufficiency for the Ends men proposed to themselves was sufficiently manifested, it pleased him to reveal his way. And what are we, that we should contend about it with him? This Rejection of the way of personal Righteousness, and choosing the way of Grace and Forgiveness, God asserts, Jerem. 31. 31, 32, 33, 34. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers: (in which Administration of the Covenant as far as it had respect unto Typical mercies, much depended on their personal obedience) But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after these days, saith the Lord,—I will put my Laws, &c. and I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sins no more. Let then this way stand, and the way of mans Wisdom and self Righteousness perish for ever.