they cannot say, Lord, if thou hadst sent to us, to Reveal
to us thy Mercy, and the danger of our sin. The danger
of your sin, may God say: Did not I send those to you
that did Preach, that nothing but the Heart Blood
of my Son, could pacifie for your sin. Could there have
been any thing more to reveal the evil of your sin, than
this was? O now you have no Excuse at all for your sin.Fifthly, Another Reason is this, which is one of the
chief: That the Lord might cause all those hereby that
do not entertain the Gospel, to see the Freeness of His
Grace towards them. A poor Soul that the Lord is
pleased to work upon by the Gospel, hath no cause to
attribute any thing to himself: There are others, and
such a Multitude of People, more Learned than I, and
Men and Women that had greater parts than I, they had
the Gospel preached to them, and they do not see those
things that the Lord hath Revealed to me: I can tell no
Reason of this Difference, only Free-grace. And cer∣tainly,
Those People whom God is pleased to make the
Gospel effectual, upon the hearing of this Point, and
seeing how it is Verified in the Examples of others; O
they have cause to Cry out, Grace, Grace, to the Lord.
What is there in me rather than others; as Proud, and
Stout, and Vile Hearts as any; and we see the Gospel is
rejected by them: and what reason is it that it is not so
with me? John 14. 22. It's a speech of Judas, (not of
him that betrayed Christ) Lord, How is it that thou Re∣vealest
thy Self unto us, and not unto the World? Lord,
We cannot devise how it should be, that thou shouldst
Manifest thy Self to us, and not unto the World: We
see that the World rejects Thee: O this is, that we may
have the more Cause to Bless the Name of God here, and
to Magnifie His Free-grace to all Eternity afterwards.0
|