Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…

But this don't at all help the Case; for this is to ascribe as much to our Obedience, as if we ascribed Salvation to it directly, without the Intervention of Christ's Righteousness: For it would be as great a Thing for God to give us Christ, and his Satisfaction and Righteousness, in Reward for our Obedience, as to give us Heaven immediately; it would be as great a Reward, and as great a Testimony of respect to our Obedience. And if God gives as great a Thing as Salvation, for our Obedience, why could he not as well give Salvation it self directly? And then there would have been no need of Christ's Righteousness. And indeed if God gives us Christ, or an Interest in him, properly in reward of our Obedience, he does really give us Salvation in reward for our Obedience; for the former implies the latter; yea it implies it as the greater implies the less. So that indeed it exalts our Virtue and Obedience more, to suppose that God gives us Christ in reward of that Virtue and Obedience, than if he should give Salvation without Christ.

But this don't at all help the Case; for this is to ascribe as much to our Obedience, as if we ascribed Salvation to it directly, without the Intervention of Christ's Righteousness: For it would be as great a Thing for God to give us Christ, and his Satisfaction and Righteousness, in Reward for our Obedience, as to give us Heaven immediately; it would be as great a Reward, and as great a Testimony of respect to our Obedience. And if God gives as great a Thing as Salvation, for our Obedience, why could he not as well give Salvation it self directly? And then there would have been no need of Christ's Righteousness. And indeed if God gives us Christ, or an Interest in him, properly in reward of our Obedience, he does really give us Salvation in reward for our Obedience; for the former implies the latter; yea it implies it as the greater implies the less. So that indeed it exalts our Vertue and Obedience more, to suppose that God gives us Christ in reward of that Vertue and Obedience, than if he should give Salvation without Christ.

The Thing that the Scripture guards, and militates against, is our imagining that 'tis our own Goodness, Virtue, or Excellency, that instates us in God's Acceptance and Favour. But to suppose that God gives us an Interest in Christ in Reward for our Virtue, is as great an Argument that it instates us in God's Favour, as if he bestowed a title to eternal Life, as it's direct reward. If God gives us an Interest in Christ, as a reward of our Obedience, it will then follow, that we are instated in God's Acceptance and Favour by our own Obedience, antecedent to our having an Interest in Christ. For a rewarding any one's Excellency, ever-more supposes Favour and Acceptance on the Account of that Excellency: It is the very Notion of a reward, that it is a good Thing, bestowed in Testimony of respect and Favour for the Virtue or Excellency rewarded. So that it is not by Virtue of our Interest in Christ and his Merits, that we first come into Favour with God, according to this Scheme; for we are in God's Favour before we have any Interest in those Merits; in that we have an Interest in those Merits given as a Fruit of God's Favour for our own Virtue. If our Interest in Christ be the Fruit of God's Favour, then it can't be the Ground of it. If God did not accept us, and had no Favour for us, for our own Excellency, he never would bestow so great a Reward upon us, as a Right in Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness. So that such a Scheme destroys it self, for it supposes that Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness are necessary for us to recommend us to the Favour of God; and yet supposes that we have God's Favour and Acceptance before we have Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness, and have these given as a Fruit of God's Favour