[130] Matthew x, 8.
§ 4. If it were only for nothing, and without our merit, the wonder were great; but it is moreover against our merit, and against our long endeavoring our own ruin. What an astonishing thought it will be, to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and receivings! Between the state we should have been in, and the state we are in! To look down upon hell, and see the vast difference that grace hath made betwixt us and them! To see the inheritance there, which we were born to, so different from that which we are adopted to! What pangs of love will it cause within us, to think, "yonder was the place that sin would have brought me to, but this is it that Christ hath brought me to! Yonder death was the wages of my sin, but this eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord![131] Who made me to differ?[132] Had I not now been in those flames, if I had had my own way, and been let alone to my own will? Should I not have lingered in Sodom, till the flames had seized on me, if God had not in mercy brought me out?"[133] Doubtless this will be our everlasting admiration, that so rich a crown should fit the head of so vile a sinner! That such high advancement, and such long unfruitfulness and unkindness, can be the state of the same person! And that such vile rebellions can conclude in such most precious joys! But no thanks to us, nor to any of our duties and labors, much less to our neglects and laziness; we know to whom the praise is due, and must be given for ever. Indeed to this very end it was that infinite Wisdom cast the whole design of man's salvation into this mould of purchase and freeness, that the love and joy of man might be perfected, and the honor of grace most highly advanced; that the thought of merit might neither cloud the one, nor obstruct the other? and that on these two hinges the gate of heaven might turn. So then let DESERVED be written on the door of hell, but on the door of heaven and life, THE FREE GIFT.
[131] Romans vi, 23.
[132] 1 Corinthians iv, 7.
[133] Genesis xix, 16.
§ 5. (3.) This rest is peculiar to saints, belongs to no other of all the sons of men. If all Egypt had been light, the Israelites would not have had the less; but to enjoy that light alone, while their neighbors lived in thick darkness, must make them more sensible of their privilege. Distinguishing mercy affects more than any mercy. If Pharaoh had passed as safely as Israel, the Red Sea would have been less remembered. If the rest of the world had not been drowned, and the rest of Sodom and Gomorrah not burned, the saving of Noah had been no wonder, nor Lot's deliverance so much talked of. When one is enlightened, and another left in darkness; one reformed, and another by his lust enslaved; it makes the saints cry out, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?[134] When the prophet is sent to one widow only of all that were in Israel, and to cleanse one Naaman of all the lepers,[135] the mercy is more observable. That will sure be a day of passionate sense on both sides, when there shall be two in one bed, and two in the field, the one taken, and the other left.[136] The saints shall look down upon the burning lake, and in the sense of their own happiness, and in the approbation of God's just proceedings, they shall rejoice and sing, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which wast, art, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.[137]
[134] John xiv, 22.
[135] Luke iv, 25-27.
[136] Luke xvii, 34, 36.
[137] Revelation xvi, 5.