Book III
The free grace of God, as declared and proposed in the covenant, is the object of faith. Of the soul s applying itself unto the free grace of God, and
treating with it for its salvation. That the absolute declarations of this
free grace, or the absolute promises of the gospel, are the object of faith of recumbence, or adherence. That election-grace, and the immutability of God s counsel, as indefinitely proposed in the promises, are also the object of faith. How the believing soul may consider and regard God s absolute decree of election.
CHAPTER I.
How the soul may for its salvation treat with the free grace of God as declared
in the covenant.
I SHALL first discourse of a soul s treating with the free grace of God as it
is proposed to us in the covenant of grace, before I consider what kind of promises they are which are the object of our faith. There is a great cry ing up of free grace, as that which, in the way of believing, men s souls
rely upon ; but they who have traversed the paths of it, so as to arrive at a free and familiar intercourse therewith, find it exceedingly difficult, until God guides them into it by a straight and direct line. And there are many dangerous mistakes in the application of our souls unto it in the seeking of
it. I shall therefore treat of it in a way of giving directions about it.
(1.) We must lay hold on free grace according as it is set forth in the covenant of grace. The covenant you have at large in Jer. xxxi., and in Ezek. xxxvi., cited in Heb. viii. Now the covenant of grace is but the pure resolutions of grace in the heart of God, put into written promises. It is a translating of the pure grace in the heart of God, and purposes thereof, into promises, into indefinite promises, not naming the persons to whom they are designed
: they are expressions of purposes as they lay in his heart. Men think it an easy thing to deal with the grace of God for
salvation, and that they need no directions and teachings, for God, say they, is merciful in his nature ; he is a merciful God, and it is but going to him for mercy, &c. But the free grace of the purposes of God, as it is set forth in the covenant, is a further thing than a declaration that God is merciful in his nature ; and a man needs teaching how to treat with free grace, as
it is in God s heart, set forth in the promises, in the immediate and abso lute promises
: 2 Thes. iii. 5, The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. He speaks of that love which is in the heart of God himself towards us : rightly to go to, and close with, and lay hold on that grace, needs direction, and that from God. The Lord, says he, direct your hearts into the love of God ! He speaks to those that already had been
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 195
in some measure acquainted with that love. All of you whom God saves, one piece of the indenture of his covenant is, that he will teach you to know him. To know him in what ? To know him in the pardon of your sins, and how to obtain it at his hands ; for so it follows,
* I will forgive their
sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more. And to know how to
deal with the grace of God for pardon of sin upon grace s own terms, for
this men s souls need direction in. The Lord direct your hearts into
the love of God !
I shall shew you some of God s teachings. You shall be all, says he,
* taught of God ; taught of God in his free grace. When free grace comes
to teach the heart to treat with grace, it teacheth it, 1. To renounce all self, or else free grace will have nothing to do with
you. From the very first purpose free grace had to save man, it laid that
for a foundation, that the salvation should not be of works, but according to the purpose of his grace given us before the world was, 2 Tim. i. 9. There you have it purely set down as it was in God s heart. And the holy
apostle, when he speaks of grace, and of our being saved by grace, he still
puts in this negative, not of works, as the opposite of grace, Eom.
xi. 5-7. And whereas faith is required wherewith to close with that grace, Eph. ii. 8,
* By faith you are saved, through grace, it is the gift of God, a man must renounce all power in himself to believe, and all helps to
believe, but what are drawn from the pure grace of God : Hosea xiv. 2. See there God s instructions :
* Take with you words, says he, and turn
to the Lord, and say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us gra
ciously, &c. Here you have free grace (as free grace) instructing and
teaching men that would turn to God, how to apply themselves unto it. It
* Receive us graciously. I will love them, says he, freely, ver. 5. Now he teacheth you upon his own terms how you must deal with his grace. And that it is upon his own terms, it is clear by this ; for he bids them take these words in their mouth. So that it is a sure way to know how to treat with the free grace of God. It must be done with a renunciation of all that is opposite to it, and which will spoil the treaty, and enervate and make it void. Accord
is a treaty of free grace s here that is recorded,
ingly they say, Asshur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, &c. Asshur shall not save us. He expresseth it in Old Testament language under
the figure of a temporal deliverance. We will not (say they) call in the
help of Asshur, nor think to ride upon horses. You must be helpless, you must not think to deal with free grace on horseback, for you shall not pre vail so ; no, nor on foot neither, for
* it is not in him that willeth, or that
runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy, Rom. ix. 16. And so the close
is here, It is not our hands in which we trust; we will not say, the work of
* With thee the fatherless find
our hands shall save us ; but how then ?
mercy : as if he had said, The strengthless, the helpless, the utterly deso
late of all helps by means, but only the free grace of God and Christ, the
fatherless, shall find mercy. For the soul to give up itself to the graciousness of grace to accept it, to receive it graciously, to give up itself to the
efficacy and power of free grace to work what it will, with renunciation of
all else, this is the first lesson free grace teacheth, when a man will come
to have salvation by it. I will not meddle with you else, says God ; lay that for the foundation of your treaty, or my grace shall not treat with you at all. What is free grace ? God tells you in these words, I will love them freely. What is grace ? It is love : I will love them freely, says God ; and all their backslidings shall be no discouragement to me. Now
196 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III.
you see God bids you take words ; he hath put the substance and efficacy of those words into your mouths, and they are his own terms. I have oft
said, If a soul would but go and take the very words (understanding them) as they are recorded where the covenant of grace was penned (Jer. xxxi.
33, 34, and the like in Ezek. xxxvi., I will give a new heart : and in Jer.
xxxii. 40, I will put my fear into your hearts, and you shall not depart from me ; this is pure absolute grace). If a man should take these words
that God hath put into his mouth, and use them, or the effect of them, to
God, saying, Lord, I present them to thee, and beseech thee to make them
good to my poor soul, and should seek God day and night, the Lord would own and accept that poor soul.
2. God teacheth the soul to treat with the grace of God in the free
sovereignty of it. There is the grace of God s nature, which you read of
in Exod. xxxiv., The Lord God, gracious and merciful, &c. The 33d
chapter was a preface unto what follows in the 34th chapter concerning the proclaiming his name ; and, saith God,
* I will proclaim my name
before thee ; and I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful, and I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious. This is a plain declaration that
that grace of salvation he would not shew to anybody. It is a limitation :
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will be merciful, &c. ; I
will have freedom, and exercise dominion in doing of it. Are you to treat
with grace ? You are to treat with this same declaration I will be
gracious, &c., and I will be merciful to, &c. and you are to apply
yourselves to the sovereignty of it. This is to treat free grace upon its own terms. When a poor soul sees itself lost, and comes to God, to the
free grace of God, he doth not come on horseback, nor on foot neither, but he falls flat down at the throne and sovereignty of God :
* He will be
gracious to whom he will be gracious, &c. He hath to do with this same
will of the great God, and the soul acknowledgeth that he is absolutely
free, and that he may choose whether to do it to me or any such poor unworthy wretch as I am ; he may if he please not shew me any mercy
* Whom he will he hardens, as the apostle saith, Rom. ix. And I am a
poor creature, says he, and I lay down myself at thy feet; if thou wilt be
merciful, here I am ; I throw myself upon thee, thou mayest give me up to hardness. If souls come thus nakedly to him, he then hath a dominion,
to cast them off, as fully as to accept them. If thou comest thus nakedly to him, thou hast nothing to ingratiate his grace but his own grace, which he shews to whom he will ; and that will hath a will :
* I will be gracious because I will be gracious. Because mercy pleaseth him, and mercy and
grace hath taken thy heart, poor creature, thou comest to him to cast it
that way. The absolute freeness and dominion of grace is the glory of it, and God will have our hearts brought to seek it, as it lies in his heart. God loves to have it acknowledged, at one time or other, by every soul he
saves. Though I dare not say that there is an absolute necessity of such
a disposition of soul, yet to be sure when the soul thus applies itself in
treating with grace, there is true faith and dependence on God. There is not only an acknowledging that God may refuse me if he please, but the
soul says, If thou hast no pleasure in me, here I am ; my will is made
subject as well as my understanding, it must be thine own pleasure purely must cast it on me; this is faith of submission. And yet withal thinks the
soul, Who knows but he may be merciful, and merciful to me ? And that
keeps it at the throne of grace, and will not let it go away.
3. Free grace loves to be treated according to the fulness of its own free-
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 197
ness, and the extent of its own freeness. The meaning is, it is absolutely
as free to God to save any sort of sinner, one as another, it is as indifferent
to him to save out of any condition. So that put what case you will, put what condition you will, free grace hath a freedom to extend itself to it.
* I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful as for
It is not only said,
the person, but there is a nobleness of liberality, so that there is no sort
of sin (the sin against the Holy Ghost excepted) but may be pardoned, no
sort of condition be it poor, weak, contemptible, what you will but a man may be saved in it. Now, when the soul sees this, he honours free
grace mightily ; he comes not to be accepted because he hath fewer sins,
that were to derogate from grace, nor is he discouraged because of the
abundance of sin; no, for there is an amplitude in this grace, Rom. iii.
22-24. As to the point of being saved by grace, grace knows no differ
ence ; so for thy outward condition, be it what it will, there is no condition
any one is in but one or other have been in it and saved ; for God is no
accepter of persons, but is rich to all that call upon him. Now, to have
a soul possessed with the thoughts of the freeness of his grace, and to
treat with God accordingly, this honours his grace, and this God loves, and
this he delights in.
4. We must treat with this grace as that which is absolute, unchange
able, irreversible, where it is once pitched. If I in seeking God can find
this grace of God to own me and embrace me while I seek it, then what
do I come to ? To a state of irreversible grace, of grace that will carry on
the work, that will undertake all for me, that is faithful, and will do it. What says God ? Ps. Ixxxix. 32, 33,
< Though they break my laws, I
will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. You have it also in Isaiah liv. 10, With ever
lasting kindness will I have mercy on thee. The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee. Noah s waters may as soon overflow to cover the earth, as thy sins over
flow thy heart. When the soul shall thus have the amplitude of grace, of
grace past, present, and to come before it, and turns itself round about, and sees no end, Oh, says the soul, that my heart may be the subject of
! that I may come under the dominion and protection of this
this grace
! For this grace will do the business, it will do it thoroughly ; it
grace
.answers all my objections, makes provisos for them; it satisfies all the
desires that I have or can have. Now, suppose that God yet carries it
concealed towards thee, yet thou art happy if he fires thy heart with this
grace, and causeth thy soul to seek after it, and teacheth thy heart to
come to God, and to spread all these properties of his grace before him,
whereby he saves men, and thy heart is strengthened to plead that God
would cast them upon thyself, and thou canst by the hour relate between
him and thee how by this grace thou desirest to be saved, and by no other.
Though thou hearest of other ways, of free-will grace, where God moves
but leaves thee to will, yet if thou hadst ten thousand souls thou wouldst
not venture one that way. Dost thou heartily say to God, Lord, I,
had rather go upon this way of free grace than upon that way of free-wili
grace, though offered to all ? Oh save me this way
! Lord, I have no
thing to return, but I shall render the calves of my lips ; I shall adore
thee and bless thee. Oh that there should be such purposes of grace, and
that they should thus take my heart ; I am resolved to be saved no way if
not saved this way, and by this grace. To be thus taught and instructed,
198 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III.
you had need have the Lord direct your hearts, 2 Thes. iii. 5. In the original it is to direct by a right line ; it is an emphatical expression to
signify such a direction as that they shall not go about, but go straight and immediately unto the heart of God and love of God.
What do men do? They come with their conditions to ingratiate them selves with God when they come to treat with grace, which is to bring to grace what should ingratiate their souls to it. We use to say, God s grace is a preventing grace, preventing what is in man ; but by this way men would prevent the grace of God, and be aforehand with it. Do not go round about, but go by a right line, and venture thyself, though thou knowest not whether thou beest the person or no, and lie at God s feet. To bring conditions whereby thy faith should be raised to free grace is not agreeable to the mind of grace. The truth is, you will find free grace will say to your souls, I will not be thus dealt withal.
Obj. Would you have us use no endeavours, means ? &c. Ans. This I said is so remote from it, as nothing is more. In Noah s instance, though God said to him, Thou hast found grace in my sight, yet he prepared an ark. And in Philip, ii. ]2, 13, we are commanded to work out our salvation ; for it is God that worketh, &c. But how work out our own salvation ? We are to use those endeavours which we have power to use, in subordination to the grace of God, that works the will and deed, and we are to wait in the use of means, renouncing all we do as to any purpose of ingratiating ourselves with God, yet we are to use these means in subordination to God, that works the will and the deed.
Obj. But would you have a man treat free grace thus, and leave out holiness ?
Am. God forbid ; for if you seek the grace of God in truth, and as it is in itself, and in the heart of God, then if your heart know the grace of God in truth, it will teach you to be holy, and to make gracious returns to God again
: Titus ii. 11, 12, The grace of God hath appeared, &c., teaching us to deny all ungodliness, &c. It is spoken of the gospel and doctrine of it which thus teacheth you. But if God the Father do instruct your heart, and make known to you his free grace as it is in his heart and draws you to depend upon it, wholly upon it, if so be you have learnt from the Father what it is for God to be gracious, and how he is gracious to a poor soul (or as it is in John vi. 45, if you have learnt of the Father ), you will be taught to be holy, yea, it is part of your indenture when you come to plead the covenant of grace. The grace of God is the greatest teacher of holiness that ever was : says God in that covenant of grace, Jer.
xxxi., I will write my law in their heart. Of all laws else he will write the supreme law which free grace hath to write. What is that ? To have the grace in God answered with grace in you ; to have your hearts ingenu ously wrought upon to comply with his grace, and not to abuse it : Col.
i, 6, If you have known the grace of God in truth, &c. There is a true knowledge of the grace of God, and there is a counterfeit one ; but if it be true, it teacheth all holiness, it stamps a frame of heart upon you, it teacheth you how to apply yourselves to grace in its kind, and therefore to return grace for grace and love for love. It is the law of the thing, it is the law of nature to love those that love you, and on whose love you depend.^ It is the law of pure nature, and it is the pure law of grace: 1 John ii. 4, He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his command ments, is a liar; that is, doth not know God. Not know him ! In what? Do not know him in his love, ver. 13, 15. For it is the love of the Father
CHAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 199
he speaks of. I tell you, no man seeks grace in this manner I speak of,
but he professeth to God and his own soul that he would not be saved by
that grace unless it wrought holiness in him. It is part of the indenture
he draws with God. I acknowledge that to be made holy simply upon the
sight of the pure grace of God, it is a high and spiritual thing, and our
hearts are carnal. The law is holy and spiritual, the terms of free grace
are holy and spiritual, and we poor wretches are carnal and sold under sin,
and cannot come off to the motives thereof, to be acted by it continually.
It is true, but yet when the soul lay at God s feet to obtain it, and
humbled itself, that soul thereby kept on a plea for holiness as well as for
grace, and doth obtain it, and hath it wrought in his soul. He that hath
the love of this world, hath not the Father s, 1 John ii. 15. A man whose
heart is taken with the grace of God to be saved by it, if he loves the
world inordinately, or more than God, the love of the Father is not in him,
he knows it not ; but of a gracious soul the apostle saith, Bom. vi. 14,
Sin shall not have dominion, for grace shall break the dominion of sin.
Those cursed men, Jude 4, turned the grace of God into wantonness (they were Simon Magus s followers, and the devil was his master), and what
did they profess ? That a man was saved wholly by grace, do what he
would, and that was the grace of the Father. Oh how doth the apostle fly
out against these men, and follow them with all the curses that God brought
upon wicked men in the Old Testament, and upon the angels that fell ! Men that have nothing but self-righteousness in them to be wrought upon,
they wonder to hear that the grace of God should work a man above him
self, to love God above himself, that a man should be taken with free grace, and not abuse it; for the nature of self-love is to run away with free grace, and be unthankful. But what is the grace we speak of, as it is in the heart
of a Christian ? If self-love only, it were the worst direction ever was given
to teach self-love to serve its turn, and to run away with salvation, and let
self do as it pleaseth. But the doctrine of free grace which we profess to
salvation, is a principle of love to God above a man s self; there is that at
the bottom. If it be so, then the more pure and clear you can bring this
grace in the heart of God towards a poor soul, you move that man so much
the more, you boil up grace to a height. If there be love and grace in the
soul, and that grace be prevailing, it will work answerably, it will make
the grace of God its greatest interest, because it is God s. We profess
this is the principle of grace, and therefore to teach men thus to follow
the grace of God is to teach them that principle that must be put into
them by the Holy Ghost.
CHAPTEB II.
What high regards the faith of the apostle Paul had to the free grace of God
the Father as the object of it. How he magnifies and celebrates this free
grace discovered to his apprehensions and thoughts.
I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. I TIMOTHY I. 13, 14.
The Holy Ghost hath declared Paul a pattern in his conversion to those
that are after to believe, 1 Tim. i. 16, and as a pattern of encouragement
200 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III.
and hopes to the greatest of sinners that were to come after him, to believe. And so likewise in the very work of conversion he is proposed as an
example also unto them, although he indeed at first attained unto that
perfection therein which other converts are growing up unto in their whole
lives. But yet the seeds of the whole being sown, and foundations laid in
their first work, they are springing up to a full growth throughout their whole lives. As every child that comes into the world by ordinary gene ration hath the same parts essential to mankind, both of the inwards of bowels and ventricles of the head, in a less size and proportion than Adam
had, who was made a man of full stature by an extraordinary way of
creation, and therefore had all in the full proportions of a man grown up to perfection, and also each part acting in their full vigour and activity from the first ; so is it here, every convert receives all the same principles of faith and love at first, only the actings and increase thereof do in many things grow up into an actual energy, and yet so as at the first those prin
ciples do necessarily so far act in all converts as is requisite to put them into a state of life and salvation. And this, in the point of the actings of
faith upon God and Christ for justification and salvation, is in a special manner seen ; some men s spirits being more intensely carried out unto God the Father for grace and mercy, others more unto Christ Jesus for his
righteousness, although whilst they act faith more npon the one or the
other, they yet implicitly take in the other, whilst they look more on God s
grace and mercy, yet so as they regard it in and through Christ, and
c contra.
But our great convert here, in this narration of his conversion, is pro pounded unto us as an high example of faith drawn forth in an intense manner unto each, both the grace of God and Christ, in the most abound
ing workings of it. In the book of the Acts, we find an historical relation of the outward circumstances and manner of his conversion, twice related by himself. In this Epistle to Timothy, he acquaints us with the most intimate working, impressions, and sentiments of his spirit, and what
principally his heart was taken up about at the time thereof, the sense whereof he retained unto that day; and these especially he utters in
* And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. He had begun to give solemn thanks to Christ (the great donor and endower of all gifts unto men, Eph. iv.), ver. 12, for putting him into that office and dignity of the apostleship, and
ver. 14 :
* And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, says he, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
this from the time of his conversion.
putting me into the ministry, which blessing he greateneth from the con sideration of his having formerly been so great a blasphemer of Christ, and a persecutor of his new created Christian church, and professors of him :
* was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and
ver. 13, Who, says he,
injurious. But then, in the middle of that ver. 14, he proceeds more
particularly to magnify the mercy and grace of his conversion for the sal vation of his own soul, without which, though the grace of apostleship might have saved others, yet himself had proved a castaway, as was the case of Judas ; that therefore is the great mercy which he centres in the
following verses, and therein first (as I take it, and humbly submit it,
together with this my analysis of the whole paragraph to ver. 18) he
predicates the grace and mercy of God the Father shewn to him in and
through Jesus Christ ; But I was bemercied, says he, or was endowed with mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our
CHAP. II. J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 201
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Then, secondly, he magnifieth Jesus Christ for his mercy also in coming into the world to save him, the chief of sinners ; ver. 15, 16, This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I
obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffer
ing, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. And then, lastly, he shuts up the whole with this solemn
doxology, or giving glory to God the Father : ver. 17, Now, unto the
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. And when he enters upon this narrative of his conversion, he at first
useth a word somewhat uncouth, whereby to express the mercy of it, a word whereof in the English tongue we cannot give the full and proper force in one word (which the Greek itself is), I was bemercied (if we
may so speak), misericordia donatus* endowed with mercy, encompassed with mercy. It is a like word unto that spoken to to the blessed virgin, Luke i. 28, xg^ag/rw/Aevjj, gracioused, or one whom God s singular grace owned, embraced; and so here says the apostle, I was mercified, endowed
with mercy, I had nothing but mercy, and was all over mercy. There was
not only nothing of merit, but no fitness or any disposition in me towards
it to make way for it, but the contrary ; only there was a capacity, a possi
* because I did
bility left of having mercy bestowed upon me (that was all),
it ignorantly, says he, and in unbelief; which imports that if he had
pursued those injuriousnesses, and persecuted Christ and his saints, having
first had a conviction of sight that accompany those actings, they had been
that unpardonable sin, and would have rendered him incapable of all grace and mercy. And he useth this word this first time (for it is after also) in
relation to God the Father s mercy then vouchsafed in calling him by
grace (as he elsewhere says, Gal. i. 17, speaking of the Father), which
proceeded from his electing love, grace, and mercy towards him, which
* When it pleased God, who had separated me from the womb ; (that that is an election-
there, Gal. i., you have also expressed in those words,
phrase, see ^Estius on the words, and others). And this^separation of him had ordered all things all along from the womb about him, and in his
course of life before his conversion had taken care to keep and prevent from falling into that unpardonable sin, upon the very brink of the pit whereof he had at last walked. And then called me by his grace, says he there ; the wonderful mercy of which he here also, narrating his con
version, celebrates ; and indeed our first calling, as it is the breaking forth
of election -grace and mercy, so it bears the image and pattern of it. I was
then bemercied (says he), drenched, and covered all over with the abundant
mercies thereof. It was poured forth upon my soul by wholesale, and on the sudden, and at once. This was the execution of election ; and
this first mention of this word I in my interpretation refer to God the
Father s grace, to whom both calling and election are everywhere peculiarly attributed.
Now, observe how he again repeats the same word (for he useth it twice on this occasion and in this place, for he delighted in it and in the very
thinking of it), and inserts it when Christ s part at his conversion comes to
be related ; ver. 15, 16, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I * See Beza s reason against the ordinary translation.
202 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III.
am. chief. Hovvbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus
Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Now in this verse 14 he proceeds to magnify this grace of God the Father, discovered at and in his conversion, with the highest elogy and epithets that could be given it and the grace of our Lord, says he, was super abundant, and together therewith to acquaint us with the principal in ward workings of his heart, and most intimate exercises and actings of his own spirit towards that superabundant grace that shined on him at his first
conversion ; and to declare with what entertainment or acceptation (as his word is, ver. 15) he received that, and took in that grace then discovered, he adds these words, With faith and love, which is in Jesus Christ, which are the two graces that answer, by way of return and reception, unto
the grace of God when discovered, and are exercised about, and act there
upon. He speaks not here of the work of his first humiliation for sin, which is the first work in all true conversions (though he hints that he had
deep and thorough impressions that way, in saying, ver. 15, me, the
chiefest of sinners ), but here he omits it, and mentions only the work of
faith and love, the principal object directly acted upon being the free grace of God. And to set forth these actings of his soul thereupon I take to be
his principal scope in this verse. The chiefest question about this inter
* and the grace of our Lord, unto God the Father, because the title our Lord is more frequently given to
pretation is my referring those words,
Christ, in distinction from the Father, and is given unto Christ in ver. 12
afore, and also Christ is only mentioned in ver. 15, 16 afterward. 1 find some interpreters, as Calvin and others,* on this 14th verse call it the
grace of God, without the mention of Christ here ; and some others say
gratia Dei in Christo, the grace of God in Christ, which still denotes the
grace of God, though in and through Christ. And many of those that
* the grace of God,
carry the words to Christ, yet ever and anon put in also
and, as it were, could not forbear but to do it. But the reasons of my
interpretation, which will also serve to solve the objection, are,
1. Because grace is most frequently ascribed to the Father in the point of justification and salvation (which is the thing he speaks of here, as ver. 15 shews), and that in distinction from Christ, as out of Rom. v. and chap,
iii. may be observed ; though also it is sometimes given to Christ, yet most
usually, I say, unto the Father ; even as the title of our Lord is sometimes
given the Father, though more commonly to Christ, which solveth part of
the objection. But besides, to speak more close to the point, those other
places wherein Paul gives the account of his conversion, which I call
parallels to this, and therefore argue from them as such, he still entitleth
the grace thereof unto the Father. Thus Gal. i. 15, 16, But when it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen. And the very same you find, 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10,
* For I am the
least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am : and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly than they all : yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
2. There did always rise up to me, in the reading of this scripture, a
distinction, implied in the verse itself, of Jesus Christ from him whom he * Calvin, Dickson, Illyricus.
CHAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 203
calls our Lord, to whom the grace is ascribed. The grace of our Lord,
says he, was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. That last clause, and love which is in Jesus Christ, speaks of
Christ as of another person from our Lord spoken of afore. He says not, and love unto Jesus Christ, but in Jesus Christ, noting that love of his
to have been borne to some other person in and through Christ. And if
so, then unto whom more properly than unto that person of whom he had
immediately before spoken, and whose grace, he says, had been so abound
ing to him ? Which person must be the Father, if a person distinct from
Christ; and so he speaks of a love returned unto him in and through
Christ, for his grace shewn him in Christ, as all the Father s grace is said
to be, who hath chosen us in Christ.
3. Though he from thence runs the rest of his discourse upon Jesus
Christ in the two following verses, 15, 16, magnifying him for his hand and mercy shewn in his conversion, yet in the conclusion he issues all in
giving glory to God the Father, ver. 17, and as one not having words to
set forth that grace any further, he chooseth to break off, and falls to
adoring God the Father : Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Wherein he speaks in the usual style of doxologies given to God the Father
upon such solemn occasions. Thus in the same Epistle we have it, chap.
vi. 15, 16, Who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, or can see : to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. Wherein this honour and praise
is given to God the Father distinct from Christ, as by the comparing the
last words of the verse afore it appears. Now this glory, thus solemnly
given in this first chapter, all acknowledge to refer to the grace of his con
version before related, and so to signify him to have been the person whose
infinitely abounding grace had done all this for him. He had begun to thank Jesus Christ, ver. 12, but he ends with glory to the Father; and in
reason, that being the grand and solemn conclusion of this his narrative,
it may well be thought that an express mention of the Father his grace therein should be found somewhere in the premises ; and where else if not
in these words of ver. 14 ? for all the rest did run wholly upon Christ.
Yea, and if it be not there, then that of the mercy of God the Father is
wholly left out, unless argued by way of inference, in this narrative of the
greatest conversion that ever was in the world ; and also that when he sets
himself to celebrate the grace towards him shewn therein in words so high, as superabundant, &c., the like to which are not anywhere else to be found, unless in that Rom. v. 20, vftsgefsgiffaevesv y %
?> and there it is appa
rently spoken of the grace of the Father, in distinction from, though in
conjunction with, Christ and his righteousness, as verse the last and those
afore shew. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, iwrtg8*-Xsowx<, it flowed over, or issued forth with an abundancy, yea, overplus ; so in Rom. v. ; it overfilled Paul, and ran over and over, as more than enough. He compares himself to a vessel (and we are styled vessels of mercy and
grace, Rom. ix.), into which, on a sudden, were poured forth from above
spouts and floods by wholesale, that not only filled it brimful, but to a
running over on every side. Yea, he speaks as if the windows of heaven, the flood-gates thereof, even of the heart of God, filled with that infinite
treasury of love and grace towards him, had been set open, and had poured down the streams thereof into his soul.
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK III.
The next inquiry may be, in what manner it is he intends that this grace of God had so superabounded, whether in the way of effects, that is, in so stupendous a work of converting so prodigious a sinner unto God, in im
planting in his soul the principles of faith and love, and of the whole new
creature, in one so confirmed and hardened in unbelief, and so resolute in such a violent fury against Christ and his saints ; so that the abundance of that grace was demonstrated in so mighty and wonderful effects (which is
all, or the main that interpreters here take notice of, as wherein this superabounding grace was seen), or whether withal he intends not to speak apprehensive, that is, in respect of the discovery of that grace itself, as it was and had been borne towards him in the heart of God, and now broke forth upon his soul in and to his own apprehensions. To this query I answer,
1st, That it is true that the superabundancy of God s grace must needs have been discovered to him in so great and wonderful a change and work wrought upon him, for it was unparalleled grace to work it, and there was a just ground for him to adore it as he doth. Yet, 2dly, In the knowledge of it barely by such effects, the cause itself remains hidden, and might still not have been known in itself, no other wise than in what is different from itself, for so the effects are from their causes ; and such a knowledge is but secondary. And, 3dly, It would not have been said that the grace of the Lord had been
over-full, or more than enough, in respect of the works of faith and love, for the works thereof themselves were yet imperfect in him ; but we may say of the grace as it is in God s heart, and as it is apprehended and laid hold on by us, by immediate faith, that so indeed it superabounds, both as to what it hath wrought, and in all which it hath undertaken to work for us ; and this is infinite, and stretcheth itself, and extendeth to all eternity. And this grace, thus taken in as it was by Paul (that chosen vessel, Acts ix.), might well be deemed to be infinitely more than he could take in, and so to overflow, as hath been said.
But further, we may know that there is a flowing of the grace and love that is in God himself to men s souls in manifestation made by itself, and of itself, which the apostle calls a shedding abroad the love of God into the heart by the Spirit, Eom. v., and it is one after-fruit of faith which many attain to. There is a taste of the pure unmixed sweetness in and of the grace of God, as it comes from out of his own heart, and is immediately conveyed through those breasts of consolation, the absolute promises whereof even new-born babes do oft partake
: 1 Pet. ii. 3, As new-born babes desire the sincere milk, &c., if so be you have tasted that the Lord
is gracious. Which surely this our apostle (if ever any) had at this his very infancy of regeneration ; and that was it, and the experience thereof was it that drew him here to declare that the grace of our Lord was super abundant ; not re ipsa only, as it resides in God s heart unknown to us, nor as demonstrated only by those gracious effects it had wrought in him, but apprehensive, or in his own apprehensions and sentiments of it ; and in that sense it is he especially utters this here. He saw and laid hold of, and took in, that fulness of the grace of God borne towards him, and as it now was, and had been, from everlasting; a grace which was over-full, as his word is, that is, as to his own thoughts and comprehensions. What he prayed for the Ephesians, that they might comprehend with all saints, the
height, the breadth, length, and depth of God s grace towards them, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, the same himself found
CHAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 205
in his measure, in the glorious sight, sense, and taste of this superabounding
* sufficient (as 2 Cor. xii. 9), but more
grace, which he found was not only
than enough for his turn ; and, to be sure, more than enough for his soul
to take in. It came upon his spirit as a mighty sea, which had neither
shore nor bottom. He saw there was an infinity of it, which he was no more able to take in into his comprehension, no more than a narrow vessel
is able to take into itself the main ocean ; and in this respect it is he
terms it such abundant grace. To conclude ; in a word, it is objective
spoken, as to the grace itself, as it was presented unto him for the object of his faith, but apprehensive as to his soul, and not efficienter only, that is, as an efficient cause of that work of faith God had wrought upon his heart, unto which most would needs narrow it. It was not a mere reflection upon the operation of the grace of faith and love, as in his heart, but a far more
enlarged contemplation and admiration of the height and depth of the
grace itself as it was in God s heart, now manifesting itself unto him, how
superabundantly and how greatly he was beloved (as the angel says of
Daniel), or how abundantly he was graciously accepted by God in his
beloved, as in Eph, i. 6. And the grace in God himself was its own
reporter of it. Paul first had seen how sin had abounded in himself, the
chiefest of sinners (ver. 15), and then that that grace borne in God s heart
to pardon, love, and accept him, had abounded much more for the pardon of it ; and grace, as justifying him without anything in himself, was the
object his heart was now taken up withal at his conversion.