through those things that God hath given it; as of Gifts, either to Preach or Pray, or great Works, or the like, which will afluredly come to nought as fure as God is in Heaven; if no better Faith and ground of Faith be found out for thy Soul favingly to reft upon.

As to the fecond Cause of the Objection, which runs to this Effect, God loves Men upon the account of their believing; I anfwer, That God loves Men before they believe, he loves them, he calls them, and gives them Faith to believe. But God, who is rich in Grace with his great love, wherewith he loved us, (When? when we believed, or before?) even when we were dead in our Sins (and fo, far off from Believers) hath quickned us together with Chrift (by Grace ye are faved) Eph. 2. 4, 5

Now alfo, I fuppofe that thou wilt fay in thy Heart, I would you would fhew us then, what is faving Faith; which thing it may be I may touch upon a while hence, in the next thing that I am. to speak unto: O they that have that, are fafe indeed!

The Second Thing.

THE

'HE Second thing that I am to fpeak unto, is this, Who they are that are actually brought into this free and unchangeable Grace ;" and also bow they are brought in.

Anfw. Indeed now we are come to the Pinch of the whole Difcoufe; and if God do but help me to run rightly thorough this, as I do verily believe he will, I may do thee, Reader, good, and bring Glory to my God.

The

The Question containeth these two Branches, Firft, Who are brought in: Secondly, How they are brought in: The Firft is quickly answered: Chrift Jefus came into the World to fave Sinners, Jewish Sinners, Gentile Sinners, old Sinners, young Sinners, great Sinners, the chiefeft of Sinners, Tim. 1. 14, 15. Rom. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10. 1.Cor. 6. 9, 10. Mat. 21. 31. Publicans and Harlots; that is, Whores, Cheaters and Exactors, fhall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. For I came not (faith Chrift) to call the Righteous, but Sinner to Repentance, Mark 2. 17.

A Sinner in the Scripture is described in general to be a Tranfgreflor of the Law, 1 John 3. 4. Whosoever committeth Sin, tranfgreffeth the Law; for Sin is the Tranfgreffion of the Law.

But particularly, they are defcribed in a more particular way, as Firft, Such as in whom dwelleth the Devil, Ephef. 2. 2, 3. Secondly, Such as will do the Service of him, John 8. 44. Thirdly, Such as are Enemies to God, Col.1. 21. Fourthly, Such as are (1 Cor. 6. 9, 10. 2 Chron: 33. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, &c. Acts 9. 1, 2, 3, 1 Tim. 1. 14, 15, 16. Acts 19. 19. Acts 2. 36, 37.) Drunkards, Whoremafters, Lyars, perjured Perfons, Covetous, Revilers, Extortioners, Fornicators, Swearers, poffeffed with Devils, Thieves, Idolaters, Witches, Sorcerers, Conjurers, Murderers, and the like; thefe are Sinners, and fuch Sinners, that God hath prepared Heaven, Happiness, pardon of Sin, and an Inheritance of God, with Chrift, with Saints, with Angels, if they do come in and accept of Grace, as I might prove at large; for God's Grace is fo great, that if they do come. to him by Chrift, prefently all is forgiven them; therefore never object, that thy Sins are too great

to be pardoned; but come tafe and fee how good the Lord is to any whosoever come unto him.

The fecond thing is, How are these brought into this everlasting Covenant of Grace?

2. Anfu. When God doth

Come to the in Deed and in Truth, bring Touchftone, Sinner. in a Sinner into this moft blefled Covenant (for so it is) he usually goeth this way.

Firft, He flays or kills the Party to all Things befides himself, and his Son Jefus Christ, and the Comforts of the Spirit.

For the clearing of this, I fhall fhew you, Fift, With what God kills: Secondly, How God kills; And, Thirdly, To what God kills thofe, whom he makes alive in Jefus Chrift.

For the First, When God brings Sinners into the Covenant of Grace, he doth first kill them with the Covenant of Works, which is the Moral Law, or Ten Commandments. This is Paul's Doctrine, and alfo Paul's Experience. It is his Doctrine where he faith, The Miniftration of Death engraven in Stones, the Miniftration of Condemnation (which is the Law, in that Place called the Letter) kills 2 Cor. 3. 6, 7, 8, 9. The Letter (faith he) killeth,

or the Law or the Miniftration of Death which in another place is called a Sound of Words, Heb, 12. 19. because they have no Life in them, but rather Death and Damnation, through our Inability to fulfil them (Rom. 8. 3.) doth kill 2 Cor. 6.

Secondly, It is his Experience, where he faith, I was alive once (that is, to my own Things, Phil. 3. 7, 8, 9, 10.) without the Law (that is, before God did ftrike him dead by it) but when the Commandment came (that is, to do and exercise its right Office on me, which was to kill me, then)

Sin revived and I died, (and I was killed) and the Commandment (or the Law) which was ordained to Se unto Life, I found to be unto Death: For Sin aking Occafion by the Commandment, deceived me, and thereby flew me, Rom. 7. 9, 10, 11. And indeed to speak my own Experience, together with the Experience of all the Saints, they can Seal with me to this, more or less.

Quest. But how doth God kill with this Law or Čovenant?

Anfw. First, By opening to the Soul the Spirituality of it; The Law is Spiritual (faith he) but I am Carnal, fold under Sin, Rom. 7. 14. Now the Spirituality of the Law is discovered this way.

First, By fhewing to the Soul, that every finful Thought is a Sin against it. I Sinner, when the Law doth come Home indeed upon thy Soul in the Spirituality of it, it will difcover fuch Things to thee to be Sins, that now thou lookest over, and regardeft not; that is a remarkable Saying of Paul, when he faith, Sin revived and I died; Sin revived, faith he, as if he had faid, those things that before I did not value nor regard, but looked upon them to be Trifles, to be dead and forgotten; but when the Law was faftned on my Soul, it did fo raise them from the Dead, call them to mind, fo mufter them before my Face, and put fuch Strength into them, that I was over-mastered by them, by the Guilt of them. Sin revived, by the Commandment, or my Sins had mighty Strength, Life, and abundance of Force upon me, because of that; infomuch, that it killed me, Mat. 5. 28.

Secondly, It fheweth that every fuch Sin deferveth eternal Damnation. (Friends, I doubt

there

there be but few of you that have seen the fpirituality of the Law of Works, but this is one thing in which it discovereth its Spirituality, and this is the proper Work of the Law.

Thirdly, God with a Discovery of this doth alfo difcover his own divine and infinite Justice, (of which the Law is a Description) which backs what is discovered by the Law; and that by dif covering of its Purity and Holiness, to be fo Divine, fo Pure, fo Upright, and fo far off from winking at the leaft Sin, that he doth by that Law, without any Favour, condemn the Sinner for that Sin, Gal. 3. 10. Now when he hath brought the Soul into this Præmunire, into this Puzzle; Then,

2. He fheweth to the Soul the Nature and Condition of the Law, as to its dealing with, or for bearing of the Sinner, that hath finned against it: which is to pafs an eternal Curfe upon both Soul and Body, of the Party fo offending, faying to him, Curfed be the Man, that continueth not in every thing that is written in the Book of the Law to do it: For, faith the Law, this is my proper Work, First, to fhew thee thy Sins, and when I have done that, then in the next Place to condemn thee for them, and that without all Remedy, as from me, or any thing within my Bounds; for I am not to fave any, to pardon any, nay, not to favour any in the leaft thing that have finned against me: For God did not fend me to make alive, but to difcover Sin, and to condemn for the fame. Now fo foon as this is presented to the Confcience, in the next Place, the Law alfo by this Law doth fhew that now there is no righteous Acts according to the Tenor of that Covenant that can reprieve him, or take off from all