and gross darkness the people, it may be said, the Lord hath arisen upon
them, and his glory hath been seen upon them: For whatever others,
whose understanding is yet darkened, and they alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of
their hearts, imagine of the gospel-grace, and however they discern
nothing of the heavenly and spiritual glory of the grace of God; yet
they, being delivered or cast into the form and mould of the doctrine of
the gospel which they have obeyed from the heart, through the powerful
and irresistible efficacy of the mighty grace of God, have seen such an
alluring excellency in that gracious contrivance of infinite wisdom, to
set forth the unparallelableness of the pure grace of God, and are daily
seeing more and more of the graciousness and wisdom of that heavenly
invention, in its adequate suitableness to all their necessities, that
as they cannot but admire and commend the riches of that grace that
interlineth every sentence of the gospel, and the greatness of that love
that hath made such a completely broad plaister to cover all their sores
and wounds; so the longer they live, and the more they drink of this
pure fountain of heavenly nectar; and the more their necessities press
them to a taking on of new obligations, because of new supplies from
this ocean of grace, the more they are made to admire the wisdom and
goodness of the Author; and the more they are made to fall in love with
to delight, and lose themselves in the thoughts of this incomprehensible
grace of God; yea, and to long to be there, where they shall be in
better case to contemplate, and have more wit to wonder at, and better
dexterity to prize, and a stronger head to muse upon, and a more
enlarged heart to praise for this boundless and endless treasure of the
grace of God, with which they are enriched, through Jesus Christ. Sure,
if we be not thus enamoured and ravished with it, it is because we are
yet standing without, or, at most, upon the threshold and border of this
grace; were we once got within the jurisdiction of grace, and had