The fountain opened, or, The great gospel privilege of having Christ exhibited to sinful…The fountain opened, or, The great gospel priviledge of having Christ exhibited to sinfull…

5. Way was made unto t••s by that sin and •• •••ness that man had contracted to himself. It is certain, that the abounding of sin, made the way for the abounding of this Grace, Rom. 5. 20. Man indeed, had he kept his pri•itive integrity, would have been a subject of Gods Grace; every thing that he received from God would have been a free favour: but Grace is wonderfully enlarged in and by the Salvation which is provided for and afforded to fallen and sinful man: and as to Mercy▪ in the strict sense of it, man was not a subject ••xtly capable of it, till sin had made him so; he was not miserable, nor was there any distress upon him which called for succour ⟨p. 72⟩and compassion. It was sin that hurled him▪ into all his inconveniences, and those mischiefs that now lie upon him, and have hi• in pursuit. We are therefore acquainted ho• this came about, Rom. 5. 12. By one man […] came into the world, and death by sin. […] now, when man is brought into such a state he is a subject fit for Grace and Mercy to work upon, and erect to themselves trophies of honour and glory, in doing for him, by raising him out of that forlorn condition, and bestowing upon him the contrary blessedness. Not as if this miserable estate which man ha•• by his own folly brought himself into, laid any obligation upon God to work for him i• this way; for it indeed exposed him to his ju•• indignation: but only that it laid open an Object that needed it, and upon which, if h• saw meet, he might exert those Attributes of his to the highest, and thereby bring to himself a Tribute of everlasting praise. When therefore Paul had mentioned how notable a subject he had been of this, he could not bu shut up the discourse of it with that Doxology,