able. Now, as we have received from God, we should fhew it to others. The Apoftle ufeth this as an argument why we should relieve thofe that are in mifery and want, becaufe we have had fuch experience of the mercy and love of God to us; 1 John iii. 16. 17. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. But whofo hath this world's good, and feeth his brother have need, &c. how dwelleth the love of God in him? That man hath no fenfe of the mercy of God abiding upon his heart, that is not merciful to his brother. And it is an argument why we fhould forgive one another; Eph. iv. 32. Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's fake hath forgiven you. Eph. v. 1. Be ye there"fore followers of God, as dear children. Col. iii. 12. 13. Put on therefore (as the elect of God, holy and beloved) bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-fuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Chrift forgave you, fo alfo do ye. And we continually ftand in need of mercy both from God and man. We are liable one to another, and in the change of human affairs, we may be all fubject to one another by turns, and ftand in need of one another's pity and compaffion; and we muft expect, that, with what meafure we mete to others, with the fame it fhall be measured to us again. To reftrain the cruelties, and check the infolencies of men, God hath so ordered, in his providence, that very often, in this world, mens cruelties return upon their own heads, and their violent dealings upon their own pates. Bajazet meets with Tamerlane. But if men were not thus liable to one another, we all stand in need of mercy from God. If we be merciful to others in fuffering, and forgive them that have injured us, God will be fo to us, he will pardon our fins to us: Prov. xvi, 6. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged. 2 Sam. xxii. 26. With the merciful thou wilt fhew thyfelf merciful. Prov. xiv. 21. He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. Prov. xxi. 21. He that followerh after righteoufnefs and mercy, findeth life. Matth. vi. 14. If ye forgive men their trefpaffes, your heavenly Fa F 2 ther ther will alfo forgive you. But, on the other hand, if we be malicious and revengeful, and implacable to those that have offended vs, and inexorable to those who defire to be received to favour, and cruel to those who lie at our mercy, hard-hearted to them that are in neceffity; what can we expect, but that the mercy of God will leave us, that he will forget to be gracious, and fhut up in anger his tender mercy? Matth. vi. 15. If ye forgive not men their trefpaffes, neither will your Father forgive your trefpaffes. That is a dreadful paffage, St. James ii. 13. He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath fhewed no mercy. How angry is the Lord with the fervant who was fo inexorable to his fellow-fervant, after he had forgiven him so great a debt, as you find in the parable, Matth. xviii. 24. He owedhim ten thousand talents, and, upon his fubmiffion and entreaty to have patience with him, he was moved with compaffion, and loofed him, and forgave him all but no fooner had this favour been done to him by his Lord, but, going forth, he meets his fellow-fervant, who owed him a small, inconfiderable debt, an hundred pence; he lays hands on him, and takes him by the throat, and roundly demands payment of him: he falls down at his feet, and ufeth the fame form of fupplication that he had ufed to his Lord; but he rejects his requeft, and puts him in prifon. Now, what faith the Lord to him? ver. 32. 33. 34. O thou wicked fervant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou defiredft me: Shouldeft not thou alfo have had compaffion on thy fellowfervant, even as I had pity on thee? And bis Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. Now, what application doth our Saviour make of this? ver. 35. So likewife fhall my heavenly Father do alfo unto you, if ye, from your hearts, forgive not every one his brother their trefpaffes. God's readiness to forgive us, fhould be a powerful motive and argument to us to forgive others. The greatest injuries that we can suffer from men, if we compare them to the fins that we commit against God, they bear no proportion to them, neither in weight nor number; they are but as an hundred pence to ten thousand talents. If we would be like God, we fhould forgive the great elt eft injuries; he pardoneth our fins, though they be exceeding great; many injuries, though offences be renewed, and provocations multiplied: for fo God doth to us; He pardoneth iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin, Exod. xxxiv. 7. Îfa. lv. 7. He will have mercy, he will abun dantly pardon. We would not have God only to forgive us feven times, but feventy times feven, as often as we offend him; fo fhould we forgive our brother. And we should not be backward to this work; God is ready to forgive us, Neh. ix. 17. And we fhould do it heartily; not only in word, when we retain malice in our hearts, and while we fay we forgive, carry on a fecret defign in our hearts of revenging ourselves when we have opportunity: but we fhould, from our hearts, forgive every one; for fo God doth to us, who, when he forgives us, cafts our iniquities behind his back, and throws them into the bottom of the fea, and blots out our tranfgreffion, fo as to remember our iniquity no more. If we do not thus, every time we put up the petition to God, Forgive us our trefpaffes, as we forgive them that trefpafs against us, we do not pray for mercy, but for judgment; we invoke his wrath, and do not put up a prayer, but a dreadful imprecation against ourselves; we pronounce the fentence of our own condemnation, and importune God not to forgive us. Ufe 4. If the mercy of God be fo great, this may comfort us against despair. Sinners are apt to be dejected, when they confider their unworthiness, the nature and number of their fins, and the many heavy aggravations of them; they are apt to fay, with Cain, that their fin is greater than can be forgiven. But do not look only upon thy fins, but upon the mercies of God. Thou canst not be too fenfible of the evil of fin, and of the defert of it; but whilst we aggravate our fins, we must not leffen the mercies of God. When we confider the multitude of our fins, we must confider alfo the multitude of God's tender mercies: we have been great finners, and God is of great mercy; we have multiplied our provocations, and he multiplies to pardon. Do but thou put thyself in a capacity of mercy, by repenting of thy fins, and forfaking of them, and thou F 3 haft haft no reason to doubt but the mercy of God will receive thee; If we confess our fins, he is merciful and faithful to forgive them. If we had offended man, as we have done God, we might defpair of pardon; but it is God, and not man, that we have to deal with; and his ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts: but as the heavens are high above the earth, fo are his ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts.. We cannot be more injurious to God, than by hard thoughts of him, as if fury were in him, and, when we have provoked him, he were not to be appeased and reconciled to us. We difparage the goodness and truth. of God, when we diftrust those gracious declarations which he has made of his mercy and goodness; if we do not think that he doth heartily pity and compaffionate finners, and really defire their happiness. Doth not he condefcend fo low, as to represent himself afflicted for the miseries of men, and to rejoice in the converfion of a finner? And fhall not we believe that he is in good earnest? Doth Chrift weep over impenitent finners, because they will not know the things of their peace! And canft thou think he will not pardon thee, upon thy repentance? Is he grieved that men will undo. themselves, and will not be faved? And canft thou think that, he is unwilling to forgive? We cannot honour and glorify God more, than by entertaining great thoughts of his mercy. As we are faid to glorify God by our repentance, because thereby we acknowledge. God's holiness and juftice; fo we glorify him by believing his mercy, because we conceive a right opinion of his goodness and truth; we set to our feal, that God! is merciful and true; Pfal. cxlvii. 1.1. it is faid, that God takes pleafure in them that hope in his mercy, As he delights in mercy, fo in our acknowledgments of it;. that finners fhould conceive great hopes of it, and beJieve him to be what he is. Provided thou doft fubmit to the terms of God's mercy, thou haft no reason to defpair of it and he that thinks that his fins are more, or greater than the mercy of God can pardon, must think that there may be more evil in the creature than there is goodness in God. Ufe : Ufe 5. By way of caution against the presumptuous finner. If there be any that trefpafs upon the goodness of God, and prefume to encourage themselves in fin, upon the hopes of his mercy; let fuch know, that God is juft, as well as merciful. A God of all mercy is an idol, fuch a God as men fet up in their own imagina tions, but not the true God, whom the fcriptures defcribe to fuch perfons the fcripture defcribes him after another manner; Nah. i. 2. God is jealous; the Lord. revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adverfaries, and referveth wrath for his enemies.. If any man abufe the mercy of God, to the strengthening of himself in his own wickednefs, and bless himself in his heart, faying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, and add drunkenness to thirft; the Lord will not fpare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy fhall fmoak against that man, and all the curfes that are written in this book fall lie upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven, Deut. xxix. 19. 20. Though it be the nature of God to be merciful, yet the exercise of his mercy is regulated by his wisdom he will not be merciful to thofe that defpife his mercy, to those that abuse it, to thofe that are refolved to go on in their fins to tempt his mercy, and make bold to say, let us fin, that grace may abound. God defigns his mercy for those that are prepared to receive it; Ifa. lv..7. Let the wicked forfake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. The mercy of God is an enemy to fin, as well as his juftice; and it is no where offered to countenance fin, but to convert the finner; and is not intended to encourage our impenitency, but our repentance. God hath no where. faid that he will be merciful to thofe, who, upon the fcore of his mercy, are bold with him, and prefume to offend him; but the mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear him, and keep his covenant, and remember his commandments to do them. There is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared, but not that he may be defpifed and affronted. This is to contradict the very end of God's mercy, which is, to lead us to repentance, to en gage |