A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

The next Point is from that elause [the mercy] The ¹ground of our waiting and looking for eternal life is Gods mercy, not for any works and merits of ours, we cannot challenge it as a debt: sin and death are as work and wages, but eternal life is a donative, Rom. 6. 23. eternal life is not the wages of obedience, as damnation is the wageso• sin; why: wherein lieth the difference? I answer, wicked men stand upon their own bottom, but Christ hath obtained this privilege for us: Wicked works are ours, and they are merely evil, the good that we do is imperfect, and Gods grace hath the main stroke, so that we are rewarded, rather according to what we have received, then what we have done; a servant is under a covenant of obedience, and •radeth with his masters estate, he doth but his duty, he deserveth something: we are bound to do good, and forbidden to sin; when we do what is forbidden, we deserve punishment; but when we do what is commanded, we do not deserve the reward, because we are bound, and because we have all from Gods grace: as you must pray for eternal life, so must you look for eternal life; if you should say give me Heaven for I deserve it; natural conscience would blush at the immodesty of such a request; 'tis as great an absurdity when you make your own works the ground of your hope, for in prayer our desires and hopes are put into language, and made more explicit; so that which is our plea in prayer, must be the ground of our claim in point of confidence, unless we mean to complement with God.

The next Point is from that elause [the mercy] The ¹ground of our waiting and looking for eternal life is Gods mercy, not for any works and merits of ours, we cannot challenge it as a debt: sin and death are as work and wages, but eternal life is a donative, Rom. 6. 23. eternal life is not the wages of obedience, as damnation is the wageso• sin; why: wherein lyeth the difference? I answer, wicked men stand upon their own bottom, but Christ hath obtained this priviledge for us: Wicked works are ours, and they are meerly evil, the good that we do is imprfect, and Gods grace hath the main stroak, so that we are rewarded, rather according to what we have received, then what we have done; a servant is under a covenant of obed ence, and radeth with his masters estate, he doth but his duty, he deserveth something: we are bound to do good, and forbidden to sin; when we do what is forbidden, we deserve punishment; but when we do what is commanded, we do not deserve the reward, because we are bound, and because we have all from Gods grace: as you must pray for eternal life, so must you look for eternal life; if you should say give me Heaven for I deserve it; natural conscience would blush at the immodesty of such a request; 'tis as great an absurdity when you make your own works the ground of your hope, for in prayer our desires and hopes are put into language, and made more explicite; so that which is our plea in prayer, must be the ground of our claim in point of confidence, unless we mean to complement with God.