ed, when I awake, with thy likeness. Grace teaches those in whom it is, to expect and lay up their treasure in heaven; and where the treasure is, the heart will be alfo, aspiring after it, and presfing towards it, as their only quieting felicity and reft.

(4.) Grace will iffue in heaven. The foul prepared and marked out for glory, and tending to it, fhall, in the appointed feason, be crowned with it. Grace here, is glory begun; and God will not forfake the work of his own hands, but perfect it in the day of Jefus Chrift. The great preparations made above, and within, shall not be made in vain. For every foul, made partaker of grace, there is a manfion made ready in glory. Our Lord, who came from heaven, and was well acquainted with it, affures us of this, and that this was the errand on which he afcended thither. In my Father's house are many manfions; if it were not fo, I would have told

you: Ι go to prepare a place for you. And if I go away, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be alfo, John xiv. 2, 3. As many as follow him in the regeneration, fhall be enthroned, and reign with him. The heavenly inheritance is referved for them, and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto falvation.

This is the first thing that speaks the excellency of grace, its having fo much of heaven in

it.

2. The neceffity of grace is a further evidence of its value.

Without

Without grace we cannot please God upon earth, nor be admitted to the enjoyment of him in heaven; as into the New Jerufalem there entereth nothing that defileth. Without grace we are unfit for the work of life, and must be eternally miserable at the end of it; as hell is the doleful refidence awaiting gracelefs fouls. Nothing can fupply the want of grace, or stand us in stead without it. This is the principal thing, and whatever else we can gain that leaves us deftitute of this, we are notwithstanding loft.

It is grace that crowns all outward mercies, and speaks and makes them mercies indeed; and nothing but this can fweeten afflictions, and make our heaviest croffes light. The foul that no grace, has no intereft in Chrift, and fo no hope of pardon or juftification thro' him; for they that are pardoned in his blood, are fuch as are also fanctified by his fpirit. God indeed, is faid to justify the ungodly, but not those that continue fo: if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Whatever claim others may make to him from external profeffion, it will avail them nothing for he will fay to the workers of iniquity, Depart from me, I know you not. They that are without grace, are unlike to God, loathfome in his fight, under the dominion of fin, led captive by Satan, veffels of wrath fitted for destruction, and in danger every moment of being fealed up under it.

This is the deplorable ftate of all by nature: If any are fet free, it must be by grace. So neceffary is this to all that are faved, that to make way for it, the Son of God affumed our nature,

and

and fubmitted to the bittereft fufferings and death. He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works: as by the nature of the thing, as well as the conftitution of heaven, impure fouls cannot fee or be happy in an holy God. The heirs of heaven must first become the excellent of the earth, or they can never come there. Likenefs and love to God are abfolutely neceffary to all that would dwell with him. God is light, and dwells in it, and unconverted finners are darkness; and what communion hath light with darkness? To be in heaven is to be with Chrift; but graceless fouls are enemies to him: and what concord hath Chrift with Belial? In a word, without regeneration there is no falvation. Sanctification is neceffary to heaven, and an effential qualification for entering into it. Our Lord over and over, in the most folemn manner declares this: Verily, verily, I fay unto you, except a man be born again, be cannot fee the kingdom of God, John iii.

3, 5.

If that which is abfolutely neceffary be valuable, grace is fo.

3. The excellency of grace may be argued, from the happy distinction it makes in them. As it diftinguishes thofe in whom it is wrought, From fallen angels,

From the reft of mankind, and

From their former felves.

(1.) From fallen angels. With whatever moral amiable qualities and perfections they were at firft endowed, upon their leaving their own habitation,

bitation, and rebelling against God, they loft their excellency, and of bright and beautiful creatures, are now become most abominable, enemies to God, and to all that is good; filled with evil, and as it were turned into it. Hence the. devil. is called the evil and the wicked one: he is deftitute of grace, and irrecoverably excluded the regions of glory, being reserved in chains of darknefs to the judgment of the great day. This is the cafe of those fallen spirits.

But at how wide and happy a distance are they set from them who are made partakers of grace? Whilft God fpared not the angels that finned, but left them to be monuments of his wrath, gracious fouls have a Saviour provided for them; the fanctifying Spirit has been, and is ftill at work in them; heaven is fet open before them, whither they are tending, and where none of those spirits that kept not their first eftate therein, can ever come.

Grace diftinguishes from fallen angels.

(2.) From the rest of mankind. We read of fome redeemed from among men, Rev. xiv. 4. All the chofen of God are fo; and being effectually called, and renewed by grace, they are a peculiar people. There are none like them in all the world.

In their natural ftate, whilft lying among the children of wrath, this was God's voice to them by the gofpel, Come out from among them, and be ye feparate, faith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my fons and daughters, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. To this they VOL. II. M

are

are enabled unfeignedly to anfwer, Lo we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. After this they are no longer of the world, as others are; though they remain for a time in it.

The apostle speaks thus of faints indeed, We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickednefs, 1 John v. 19. And again, We have received, not the fpirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, 1 Cor. ii. 12. By this Spirit they are not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of their minds and fo walk not according to the courfe of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of difobedience; but have their conversation in heaven, as being under the conduct of the Spirit that came from thence.

;

Their former companions may wonder that they run not with them to the fame excefs of riot; but the reafon is within them: grace hath taken poffeffion of their hearts, and by a power going along with the gospel difcovery of falvation, they are taught to deny all ungodliness and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, righteously and godly in this prefent evil world. As being become truly wife, their way is above to depart from hell beneath: and what numbers foever they meet crowding the rod to deftruction, they will not follow a multitude to do evil; but in the midst of a common degeneracy, will make the word their rule, and afk the way to Sion with their faces thitherward.

Holy fouls are fuch in whom God has made good that promife, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. A new

heart