The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ

In opening this argument, we shall consider,

First the foundation that he builds it upon, and then the force of the consequence.

1. The foundation that he builds this argument on is, That God had such love to sinners, as to send his Son to dye for them: this was an act of wonderful love: it was great love in Christ to come to dye, and great love in the Father to send him to dye: this was more than man could hope for when he had sinned, it was quite beyond his expectation; this was such compassion as could enter into the heart of none but God himself to contrive: if the thoughts of holy, ⟨p. 72⟩Angels had been asked, they would have thought it too great a mercy to have been bestowed on sinful man: they were wonderfully affected with it when it came to pass, Luke 21 13, 14. there suddenly was with the angels a great multitude of the Heavenly Host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will towards man: indeed in this affair, God acted principally from a love to his own glory, that he might in this way manifest that mystery of the Trinity, and his glorious attributes, yet this does not derogate from the greatness of Gods love in sending his Son to dye: mans corrupt reason is ready to entertain diminutive thoughts of the compassions of God in this thing: sometimes the heart reasons that God did it for his own glory, but he could have glorified himself in mans ruin: or he might have glorified his grace towards the Angels that fell, and not towards man: and certainly if God did it for his glory, men do very ill to entertain any thoughts that do diminish from the glory of God: sometimes the heart reasons, that it would have been hard measure for God to have left mankind to have perished without providing a way of salvation: seeing we came sinners into the world, but it was upon no such account that God did it, he was not conscious of any wrong in his dealings to man: his dispensation towards mankind in punishing of them with the loss of his image for their sin in Adam, and in imputing the sin of Adam, is equal and righteous,