§ 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. [Footnote 131] Romans vi, 23. [Footnote 132] 1 Corinthians iv, 7. [Footnote 133] Genesis xix, 16.