upon themselves so that well might the Psalmist ask that Question Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge But their folly and unreasonableness is not so great but their perverseness and disingenuity is greater To sin because God is long-suffering is to be evil because he is good and to provoke him because he spares us it is to strive with God and to contend with his goodness as if we were resolved to try the utmost length of his Patience and because God is loth to punish therefore to urge and importune him to that which is so contrary to his Inclination II. This may serve to convince Men of the great evil and danger of thus abusing the long-suffering of God It is a provocation of the highest nature because it is to trample upon his dearest Attributes those which he most delights and glories in his Goodness and Mercy for the long-suffering of God is his Goodness to the guilty and his Mercy to those who deserve to be miserable Nothing makes our ruin more certain more speedy and more intollerable than the abuse of God's Goodness and Patience After God had born long with that rebellious People the Children of Israel and notwithstanding all their murmurings all their infidelity and impenitency had spared them ten times at last he sets his Seal to their ruin Heb. 3.8 9. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness When your Fathers proved me and saw my works forty years This was a high provocation indeed to harden their hearts under the Patience and long-suffering of God after forty Years tryal and experience of it v. 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They are a people that do err in their hearts for they have not known my ways And what was the issue of all this Upon this God takes up a fixt resolution to bear no longer with them but to cut them off from the Blessings he had promised to bestow upon them He sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not or as the word may be rendred to them that were disobedient that is to them who went on in their rebellion against him after he had suffered their manners forty years And as the abuse of God's Patience renders our destruction more certain so more speedy and more intollerable We think that because God suffers long he will suffer always and because punishment is delayed therefore it will never come but it will come the sooner for this So our Lord tells us Luke 12. When the servant said His Lord delayed his coming the Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looks not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites None so like to be surprised by the Judgment of God as those who trespass so boldly upon his Patience III. To perswade us to make a right use of the Patience and long-suffering of God and to comply with the merciful end and design of God therein 1. It is the design of God's long-suffering to give us a space of repentance Were it not that God had this design and reasonable expectation from us he would not reprieve a sinner for one moment but would execute Judgment upon him so soon as ever he had offended This our Saviour declares to us by the Parable of the Fig-tree Luke 13.6 Were it not that God expects from us the fruit of repentance he would cut us down and not suffer us to cumber the ground after he had waited three years seeking fruit and finding none he spares it one year more to see if it would bear fruit 2. The long-suffering of God is a great encouragement to repentance We see by his Patience that he is not ready to take advantage against us that he spares us when we offend is a very good sign that he will forgive us if we repent Thus natural Light would reason and so the King of Nineveh a Heathen reasons Who can tell if God will turn and repent But we are fully assured of this by the gracious declarations of the Gospel and the way of pardon and forgiveness which is therein establisht through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ who was made a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Therefore the long-suffering of God should be a powerful argument to us to break off our sins by repentance For this is the End of God's Patience He is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked should turn from his way and live God every where expresseth a vehement desire and earnest expectation of our repentance and conversion Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved And Chap. 13.27 Woe unto thee Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be He who is so patient as to the punishment of our sins is almost impatient of our repentance for them Wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be And can we stand out against his earnest desire of our happiness whom we have so often and so long provoked to make us miserable Let us then return into our selves and think seriously what our case and condition is how we have lived and how long the Patience of God hath suffered our manners and waited for our repentance and how inevitable and intollerable the misery of those must be who live and dye in the contempt and abuse of it let us heartily repent of our wicked lives and say What have we done How careless have we been of our own happiness and what pains have we taken to undo our selves Let us speedily set about this Work because we do not know how long the Patience of God may last and the opportunities of our Salvation be continued to us This day of God's Grace and Patience will have an end therefore as the Prophet exhorts Isa 55.6 Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Now God graciously invites Sinners to come to him and is ready to receive them nay if they do but move towards him he is ready to go forth and meet them half way but the time will come when he will bid them depart from him when they shall cry Lord Lord open unto us and the door of mercy shall be shut against them All the while thou delayest this necessary work thou venturest thy immortal Soul and puttest thy eternal Salvation upon a desperate hazard and should God snatch thee suddenly away in an impenitent state what would become of thee Thou art yet in the way and God is yet reconcileable but Death is not far off and perhaps
misery or liable to it that is that are in danger of it or have deserved it 'T is mercy to prevent the misery that we are liable to and which may befal us tho' it be not actually upon us 'T is mercy to defer the misery that we deserve or mitigate it and this is properly patience and forbearance 'T is mercy to relieve those that are in misery to support or comfort them 'T is mercy to remit the misery we deserve and by pardon and forgiveness to remove and take away the obligation to punishment Thus the mercy of God is usually in Scripture set forth to us by the affection of pity and compassion which is an affection that causeth a sensible commotion and disturbance in us upon the apprehension of some great Evil that lies upon another or hangs over him Hence it is that God is said in Scripture to be grieved and afflicted for the miseries of Men his bowels are said to sound and his heart to turn within him But tho' God is pleased in this manner to set forth his mercy and tenderness towards us yet we must take heed how we cloath the Divine Nature with the Infirmities of human Passions We must not measure the Perfection of God by the Expressions of his condescention and because he stoops to our weakness level him to our Infirmities When God is said to pity us we must take away the imperfection of this Passion the commotion and disturbance of it and not imagine any such thing in God but we are to conceive that the mercy and compassion of God without producing the disquiet do produce the Effects of the most sensible pity Secondly That this Perfection belongs to God All the Arguments that I used to prove the goodness of God from the acknowledgment of natural Light and from Scripture and Reason serve to prove that he is merciful because the mercy of God is an eminent Branch of his goodness I will only produce some of those many Texts of Scripture which attribute this Perfection to God Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful Deut. 4.31 The Lord thy God is a merciful God 2 Chron. 30.9 The Lord your God is gracious and merciful Neh. 9.17 Ready to pardon gracious and merciful Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy Psal 62.12 Vnto thee O Lord belongeth mercy Psal 103.8 Merciful and gracious Psal 130.7 With the Lord there is mercy And so Jer. 3.12 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 Luke 6.36 Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful The Scripture speaks of this as most natural to him 2 Cor. 1.3 he is called the Father of mercies But when he punisheth he doth as it were relinquish his Nature and do a strange work The Lord will wait that he may be gracious Isa 30.18 God passeth by opportunities of punishing but his mercy takes opportunity to display it self he waits to be gracious To afflict or punish is a Work that God is unwilling to that he takes no pleasure in Lam. 3.33 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men But mercy is a Work that he delights in Mic. 7.18 He delighteth in mercy When God shews mercy he does it with pleasure and delight he is said to rejoyce over his people to do them good Those Attributes that declare God's goodness as when he is said to be gracious or merciful and long-suffering they shew what God is in himself and delights to be those which declare his wrath and severity shew what he is upon provocation and the occasion of sin not what he chuseth to be but what we do as it were compel and necessitate him to be Thirdly For the degree of it that God is a God of great mercy The Scripture doth delight to advance the mercy of God and does use great variety of Expression to magnifie it It speaks of the greatness of his mercy Numb 14.19 According to the greatness of his mercy 2 Sam. 24.14 Let me fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great 'T is call'd an abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1.3 According to his abundant mercy Psal 103.8 he is said to be plenteous in mercy and rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 Psal 5.7 he speaks of the multitude of God's mercies and of the variety of them Neh. 9.18 In thy manifold mercies thou forsookest them not So many are they that we are said to be surrounded and campassed about on every side with them Psal 103.4 Who crowneth us with loving kindness and tender mercies And yet further to set forth the greatness of them the Scripture useth all dimensions Heighth Psal 57.10 Thy mercy is great unto the Heavens Nay higher yet Psal 108.4 Thy mercy is great above the heavens For the latitude and extent of it 't is as large as the Earth and extends to all the Creatures in it Psal 109.64 The earth is full of thy mercy Psal 145.8 His tender mercies are over all his works For the length or duration and continuance of it Exod. 34.7 Laying up mercy in store for thousands of generations one after another Nay it is of a longer continuance Psal 118. 't is several times repeated That his mercy endureth for ever And to shew the intense degree of this affection of mercy or pity the Scripture useth several emphatical Expressions to set it forth to us The Scripture speaks of the tender mercies of God Psal 25.6 Remember O Lord thy tender mercies Yea of the multitude of these Psal 51.1 According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Jam. 5.11 The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy They are called God's Bowels which are the tenderest parts and apt to yern and stir in us when any affections of love and pity are excited Is 63.15 Where is the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies are they restrained Luke 1.78 Through the tender mercy of our God So it is in our Translation but if we render it from the Original 't is through the bowels of the mercies of our God How doth God condescend in those pathetical Expressions which he useth concerning his People Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim mine heart is turned within me and my repentings are kindled together Nay to express his tender sense of our miseries and sufferings he is represented as being afflicted with us and bearing a part in our sufferings Isa 63.9 In all their afflictions he was afflicted The compassions of God are compared to the tenderest affections among Men to that of a Father towards his Children Psal 103.13 As a father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Nay to the compassions of a Mother towards her Infant Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea she may 't is possible tho' most unlikely but tho' a Mother may turn unnatural yet God cannot be unmerciful In short
the desert of our sins 'T is mercy that comforts and supports us under any of those Evils that lye upon us and that rescues and delivers us from them Which way so ever we look we are encompassed with the mercies of God they compass us about on every side we are crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies 'T is mercy that feeds us and cloaths us and that preserves us But above all we should thankfully acknowledge and admire the pardoning mercy of God Ps 103.1 2 3. where David does as it were muster up the mercies of God and make a Catalogue of them he sets the pardoning mercy in the front Bless ye the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities If we look into our selves and consider our own temper and disposition how void of pity and bowels we are how cruel and hard hearted and insolent and revengeful if we look abroad into the World and see how full the earth is of the habitations of cruelty we shall admire the mercy of God more and think our selves more beholden to it How many things must concur to make our hearts tender and melt our spirits and stir our bowels to make us pitiful and compassionate We seldom pity any unless they be actually in misery nor all such neither unless the misery they lye under be very great nor then neither unless the person that suffers be nearly related and we be someways concerned in his sufferings yea many times not then neither upon a generous account but as we are someways obliged by interest and self-love and a dear regard to our selves when we have suffered the like our selves and have learnt to pity others by our own Sufferings or when in danger and probability to be in the like condition our selves so many motives and obligations are necessary to awaken and stir up this affection in us But God is merciful and pitiful to us out of the mere goodness of his Nature for few of these motives and considerations can have any place in him This affection of pity and tenderness is stirred up in God by the mere presence of the Object without any other inducement The mercy of God many times doth not stay till we be actually miserable but looks forward a great way and pities us at a great distance and prevents our misery God doth not only pity us in great Calamities but considers those lesser Evils that are upon us God is merciful to us when we have deserved all the Evils that are upon us and far greater when we are less than the least of all his mercies when we deserved all the misery that is upon us and have with violent hands pulled it upon our own heads and have been the authors and procurers of it to our selves Tho' God in respect of his Nature be at an infinite distance from us yet his mercy is near to us and he cannot possibly have any self-interest in it The Divine Nature is not liable to want or injury or suffering he is secure of his own happiness and fullness and can neither wish the inlargement nor fear the impairment of his Estate he can never stand in need of pity or relief from us or any other and yet he pities us Now if we consider the vast difference of this affection in God and us how tender his mercies are and how sensible his bowels and yet we who have so many arguments to move us to pity how hard our hearts are and how unapt to relent as if we were born of the rock and were the off-spring of the nether milstone sure when we duly consider this we cannot but admire the mercy of God How cruel are we to Creatures below us with how little remorse can we kill a Flea or tread upon a Worm partly because we are secure that they cannot hurt us nor revenge themselves upon us and partly because they are so despicable in our Eyes and so far below us that they do not fall under the consideration of our Pity Look upward proud Man and take notice of him who is above thee thou didst not make the Creatures below thee as God did there 's but a finite distance between thee and the meanest Creatures but there 's an infinite distance between thee and God Man is a Name of Dignity when we compare our selves with other Creatures but compared to God we are Worms and not Men yea we are nothing yea less than nothing and vanity How great then is the Mercy of God which regards us who are so far below him which takes into Consideration such inconsiderable nothings as we are we may say with David Ps 8.4 Lord What is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him And with Job 7.17 What is Man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine Heart upon him And then how hard do we find it to forgive those who have injured us if any one have offended or provoked us how hard are we to be reconciled How mindful of an Injury How do anger and revenge boyl within us How do we upbraid Men with their faults What vile and low Submission do we require of them before we will receive them into Favour and grant them Peace And if we forgive once we think that is much but if an offence and provocation be renewed often we are inexorable Even the Disciples of our Saviour after he had so emphatically taught them Forgiveness in the Petition in the Lord's Prayer yet they had very narrow Spirits as to this Matth. 18.21 Peter comes to him and asks him How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times He thought that was much And yet we have great obligations to Pardoning and Forgiving others because we are obnoxious to God and one another we shall many times stand in need of Pardon from God and Men and it may be our own case and when it is we are too apt to be very indulgent to our selves and conceive good hopes of the Mercy of others we would have our ignorance and inadvertencies and mistakes and all occasions and temptations and provocations considered and when we have done amiss upon Submission and Acknowledgment of our Fault we would be received into Favour but God who is not at all liable to us how ready is he to Forgive If we confess our Sins to him he is merciful to Forgive he Pardons freely and such are the condescentions of his Mercy tho' he be the party offended yet he offers Pardon to us and beseeches us to be reconcil'd if we do but come towards him he runs to meet us as in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15.20 What reason have we then thankfully to acknowledge and admire the Mercy of God to us Vse 2. The great mercy of God to us should
and dispersion of them at the destruction of Jerusalem These and the like instances of God's severity seem to call in question his goodness Against these severe and dreadful Instances of God's severity it might be a sufficient vindication of his goodness to say in general that they were all upon great and high Provocations most of them after long patience and forbearance and with a great mixture of mercy and a declared readiness in in God to have prevented or removed them upon repentance all which are great Instances of the goodness of God But yet for the clearer manifestation of the Divine Goodness I shall consider them particularly and as briefly as I can 1. As for the transgression of our first Parents and the dismal consequences of it to all their Posterity This is a great depth and tho the Scripture mentions it yet it speaks but little of it and in matters of mere Revelation we must not attempt to be wise above what is written Thus much is plain that it was an act of high and wilful Disobedience to a very plain and easie Command and that in the punishment of it God mitigated the extremity of the Sentence which was present death by granting our first Parents the Reprieve of almost a thousand Years and as to the consequences of it to their Posterity God did not upon this provocation abandon his care of Mankind and tho he removed them out of that happy state and place in which Man was created yet he gave them a tolerable condition and accommodations upon Earth and which is certainly the most glorious Instance of Divine Goodness that ever was he was pleased to make the fall and misery of Man the happy occasion of sending his Son in our Nature for the recovery and advancement of it to a much happier and better condition than that from which we fell So the Apostle tells us at large Rom. 5. That the Grace of God by Jesus Christ hath redounded much more to our benefit and advantage than the sin and disobedience of our first Parents did to our prejudice 2. For the general Deluge tho it look very severe yet if we consider it well we may plainly discern much of goodness in it It was upon great provocation by the universal corruption and depravation of Mankind The earth was filled with violence and all flesh had corrupted its ways the wickedness of Man was great upon the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually which is not a description of original sin but of the actual and improved wickedness of Mankind and yet when the wickedness of Men was come to this height God gave them fair warning before he brought this Calamity upon them when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah for the space of an hundred and twenty Years at last when nothing would reclaim them and almost the whole race of Mankind were become so very bad that it is said it repented the Lord that he had made Man upon the earth and it grieved him at his heart when things were thus extremely bad and like to continue so God in pity to Mankind and to put a stop to their growing wickedness and guilt swept them away all at once from the face of the Earth except one Family which he had preserved from this Contagion to be a new Seminary of Mankind and as the Heathen Poet expresseth it Mundi melioris origo the source and original of a better Race 3. For that terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Fire and Brimstone from Heaven it was not brought upon them till the cry of their sin was great and gone up to Heaven till by their unnatural Lusts they had provoked supernatural Vengeance And it is very remarkable to what low terms God was pleased to condescend to Abraham for the sparing of them if in those five Cities there had been found but ten righteous persons he would not have destroyed them for those ten 's sake So that we may say with the Apostle Behold the goodness and severity of God! Here was wonderful goodness mixt with this great severity 4. For the extirpation of the Canaanites by the express command of God which hath such an appearance of severity it is to be consider'd that this Vengeance was not executed upon them till they were grown ripe for it God spared them for above four hundred Years for so long their growing Impiety is taken notice of Gen. 18.28 where it is said That the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full God did not proceed to cut them off till their case was desperate past all hopes of recovery till the land was defiled with abominations and surcharged with wickedness to that degree as to spue out its Inhabitants as is expresly said Levit. 18.28 When they were arrived to this pitch it was no mercy to them to spare them any longer to heap up more guilt and misery to themselves Fifthly and Lastly As for the great Calamities which God brought upon the Jews especially in their final ruin and dispersion at the destruction of Jerusalem not to insist upon the known History of their multiplied Rebellions and Provocations of their despiteful usage of God's Prophets whom he sent to warn them of his Judgments and to call them to Repentance of their obstinate refusal to receive Correction and to be brought to amendment by any means that God could use for all which Provocations he at last delivered them into their Enemies hands to carry them away Captive not to insist upon this I shall only consider their final destruction by the Romans which tho' it be dreadfully severe beyond any Example of History yet the Provocation was proportionable for this Vengeance did not come upon them till they had as it were extorted it by the most obstinate impenitency and unbelief in rejecting the Counsel of God against themselves and resisting such means as would have brought Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah to repentance till they had despised the Doctrine of Life and Salvation delivered to them by the Son of God and confirmed from Heaven by the clearest and greatest Miracles and by wicked hands had crucified and slain the Son of God and the Saviour of the World Nay even after this greatest of sins that ever was committed God waited for their Repentance forty Years to see if in that time they would be brought to a sense of their sins and to know the things which belonged to their peace And no wonder if after such provocations and so much patience and so obstinate an impenitency the goodness of God at last gave way to his justice and wrath came upon them to the utmost So that all these Instances rightly considered are rather commendations of the Divine Goodness than just and reasonable objections against it and notwithstanding the severity of them it is evident that God is good from the primary inclinations of his nature and severe only
stir up in us shame and sorrow for Sin The Judgments of God may break us but the consideration of God's Mercy should rather melt and dissolve us into Tears Luke 7.47 The Woman that washed Christ's Feet with her Tears and wiped them with her Hair the account that our Saviour gives of the great Affection that she expressed to him was she Loved much because much was forgiven her and she grieved much because much was forgiven her Especially we should sorrow for those Sins which have been committed by us after God's Mercies received Mercies after Sins should touch our Hearts and make us relent It should grieve us that we should offend and provoke a God so Gracious and Merciful so slow to anger and so ready to forgive But Sin against Mercies and after we have received them is attended with one of the greatest Aggravations of Sin And as Mercy raises the guilt of our Sins so it should raise our sorrow for them No Consideration is more apt to work upon human Nature than that of kindness and the greater Mercy has been shewed to us the greater our sins and the greater cause of sorrow for them contraries do illustrate and set off one another in the great Goodness and Mercy of God to us we see the great Evil of our Sins against him Every Sin has the Nature of Rebellion and Disobedience but sins against Mercy have Ingratitude in them When ever we break the Laws of God we rebel against our Soveraign but as we sin against the Mercies of God we injure our Benefactor This makes our sin to be horrid and astonishing Isa 1.2 Hear O heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me All the Mercies of God are aggravations of our sins 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And Nathan said to David thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee king over Israel and delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Isreal and of Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight God reckons up all his Mercies and from them aggravates David's sin 1 Kings 11.9 He takes notice of all the unkind returns that we make to his Mercy and 't is the worst temper in the World not to be wrought upon by kindness not to be melted by Mercy no greater evidence of a wicked Heart than that the Mercies of God have no effect upon it Esay 26.10 Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Vse 3. Let us imitate the merciful Nature of God This branch of God's goodness is very proper for our imitation The general Exhortation of our Saviour Matt. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect is more particularly expressed by St. Luke Luke 6.30 Be ye therefore merciful as your Father which is in heaven is merciful Men affect to make Images and impossible Representations of God but as Seneca saith Crede Deòs cùm propitii essent fictiles fuisse We may draw this Image and likeness of God we may be gracious and merciful as he is Christ who was the express image of his Father his whole life and undertaking was a continued work of mercy he went about doing good to the Souls of Men by Preaching the Gospel to them and to the Bodies of Men in healing all manner of Diseases There is nothing that he recommends more to us in his Gospel than this Spirit and Temper Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy How many Parables doth he use to set forth the mercy of God to us with a design to draw us to the imitation of it The Parable of the Prodigal of the good Samaritan of the Servant to whom he forgave 10000 Talents We should imitate God in this in being tender and compassionate to those that are in misery This is a piece of natural indispensable Religion to which positive and instituted Religion must give way Amos 6.6 I desired mercy and not sacrifice which is twice cited and used by our Saviour Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O Man what it is that the Lord thy God requires of thee to do justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is always one part of the description of a good Man that he is apt to pity the miseries and necessities of others Psal 37.26 He is ever merciful and lendeth He is far from cruelty not only to Men but even to the brute Creatures Prov. 12.10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast There is nothing more contrary to the nature of God than a cruel and savage disposition not to be affected with the miseries and sufferings of others how unlike is this to the father of mercies and the God of consolation When we can see Cruelty exercised and our Bowels not be stirred within us nor our hearts be pricked how unlike is this to God who is very pitiful and of tender mercies But to rejoyce at the miseries of others this is inhumane and barbarous Hear how God threatens Edom for rejoycing at the miseries of his Brother Jacob Obadiah 10 11 12 13 14. But to delight to make others miserable and to aggravate their sufferings this is devilish this is the temper of Hell and the very spirit of the Destroyer It becomes Man above all other Creatures to be merciful who hath had such ample and happy experience of God's mercy to him and doth still continually stand in need of mercy from God God hath been very merciful to us Had it not been for the tender Mercies of God to us we had all of us long since been miserable Now as we have receiv'd mercy from God we should shew it to others The Apostle useth this as an Argument why we should relieve those that are in misery and want because we have had such experience of the mercy and love of God to us 1 John 3.16 17. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us But whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother have need c. how dwelleth the love of God in him That Man hath no sense of the mercy of God abiding upon his Heart that is not merciful to his Brother And 't is an Argument why we should forgive one another Eph. 4.32 Be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Chap. 5.1 Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children Col. 3.12 13. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against
to be what it is and it would much abate the duty of the Creature we could not have that assurance of his promise and that security of the recompence of the next life if the continuance of his Being who should be the dispenser of them were uncertain Now these Absurdities and inconveniences following from the denyal of this Perfection to God is sufficient evidence that it belongs to him for I told you the Perfections of God cannot be proved by way of demonstration but only by way of conviction by shewing the Absurdity of the contrary II. From Scripture and Divine Revelation There are innumerable places to this purpose which speak of the Eternity of God Directly and by Consequence By Consequence those words 2 Peter 3.8 One day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day which words however Interpreters have troubled themselves about them being afraid of a contradiction in them yet the plain meaning of them is this that such is the infinite duration of God that all measures of time bear no proportion to it for that this is the plain meaning appears by this 90 Psalm out of which they are cited for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night that is as the time past as a few hours slept away for that is the meaning of a watch in the night that is as nothing now St. Peter's conversion of the words one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day only signifies this that the longest duration of time is so inconsiderable to God that it is as the shortest that is bears no proportion to the Eternity of God But Directly the Scripture frequently mentions this attribute He 's called the everlasting God Gen. 21.33 The Eternal God Deut. 33.27 and which is to the same purpose he that inhabiteth Eternity Isa 57.15 And this as it is attributed to him in respect of his Being so in respect of all his other Perfections Psal 103.17 the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting Rom. 1. 20. his eternal power 1 Tim. 1.17 the King eternal Those Doxologies which the Scripture useth are but acknowledgments of this Attribute Blessed be the Lord for ever and ever Neh. 9.5 To whom be glory and honour and dominion for ever and ever Gal. 1.5 and in many other places Hither we may refer all those places which speak of him as without beginning Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting Mich. 5.2 Whose goings forth have been from everlasting Hab. 1.12 Art not thou from everlasting O Lord And those which speak of the perpetual continuance of his duration Psal 102.24 25 26 27. Thy years are throughout all generations of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment and as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end And those which speak of him as the first and the last Isa 43.10 Before me there was no God formed neither shall there be any after me I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God And to mention no more those which speak of his Being as coexistent to all difference of time past present and to come Rev. 1.8 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come Thirdly I shall from hence draw I. Some Doctrinal Corollaries II. Some Practical Inferences I. Doctrinal Corollaries that you may see how the Perfections of God depend one upon another and may be deduced one from another 1. Corol. From the Eternity of God we may infer that he is of himself That which always is can have nothing before it to be a cause of its Being 2. Corol. We may hence infer the necessity of his Being 'T is necessary every thing should be when it is now that which is always is absolutely necessary because always so 3. Corol. The Immutability of the Divine Nature for being always he is necessarily and being necessarily he cannot but be what he is a change of his Being is as impossible as a cessation Therefore the Psalmist puts his Immutability and Eternity together Psal 102.27 But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end II. By way of Practical Inference or Application 1. The consideration of God's Eternity may serve for the support of our Faith This Moses here useth as a ground of his Faith Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth c. Psal 62.8 Trust in him at all times ye people His Immensity is an Argument why all should trust in him he is a present help to all and why they should trust in him at all times his Eternity is an Argument Deut. 33.27 The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms There are two Attributes which are the proper Objects of our Faith and Confidence God's Goodness and his Power both these are Eternal the goodness of the Lord endureth for ever as it is frequently in the Psalms And his Power is Eternal the Apostle speaks of his Eternal Power as well as Godhead Rom. 1.20 Isa 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Isa 40.28 The everlasting God the Lord the creatour of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary We cannot trust in men because there is nothing in man to be a Foundation of our Confidence his good will towards us may change his Power may faint and he may grow weary or if these continue yet they that have a mind and a power to help us themselves may fail therefore the Psalmist useth this consideration of mens mortality to take us off from confidence in man Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Isa 2.22 Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of The greatest of the Sons of Men are but lying refuges to the everlasting God they are but broken reeds to the rock of Ages And this may support our Faith not only in reference to our own condition for the future but in reference to our posterity and the condition of God's Church to the end of the World When we die we may leave ours and the Church in his hands who lives for ever and reigns for ever The enemies of God's Church and those who have the most malicious designs against it what ever share they may have in the affairs of the World they can but domineer for a while
are above the understanding of any of his Creatures it is only his own infinite understanding that can frame a perfect Idea of his own Perfection God knows himself his own understanding commprehends his own Perfections But he is Incomprehensible to his Creatures Indeed there is nothing more obvious than God for he is not far from every one of us in him we live and move and have our Being there need no great search to find out that there is a God An eternal power and Deity are clearly seen in the things which are made as the Apostle tells us but the manner of the Being and Proproperties and Perfections of this God these cannot be comprehended by a finite understanding I shall prove the Doctrine and then apply it First For the proof of it I will attempt it these three ways I. By way of instance or induction of particulars II. By way of conviction III. By giving the clear reason of it I. By way of instance And I shall give you instances both on the part of the Object and of the Subject or the persons who are capable of knowing God in any degree 1. On the part of the Object The Nature of God the Excellency and Perfection of God the Works and Ways of God are above our thoughts and apprehensions The Nature of God it is vast and infinite Job 36.26 God is great and we know him not Job 37. 23. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out Psal 145.3 His greatness is unsearchable The Excellencies and Perfections of God his Immensity 2 Chron. 2.6 The heaven of heavens cannot contain him The Eternity of his duration from everlasting to everlasting he is God We cannot imagine any limits of his presence nor bounds of his duration The infiniteness of his knowledge Psal 147.5 his understanding is infinite When we think of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God our best way is to fall into admiration Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Where the Scripture speaks of those Perfections of God which the Creatures do in some measure and degree partake of as his Goodness and Power and Wisdom and Holiness and Immortality it attributes them in such a peculiar and Divine manner to God as doth exclude and shut out the Creature from any claim or share or title to them Matt. 19.16 17. Why Call'st thou me good there 's none good but one that is God 1 Tim. 6.15 16. Who is the blessed and only potentate who only hath immortality 1 Tim. 1.17 The only wise God Rev. 15.4 For thou only art holy In so inconceivable a manner doth God possess these Perfections which he Communicates and we can only understand them as he Communicates them and not as he possesses them so that when we consider any of these Divine Perfections we must not frame Notions of them contrary to what they are in the Creature nor must we limit them by what they are in the Creature but say the Goodness and the Wisdom of God are all this which is in the Creature and much more which I am not able to comprehend the transcendent degree and the singularity of these Divine Perfections which are communicable is beyond what we are able to conceive The Works of God they are likewise unsearchable the Works of Creation and of Redemption Job 5.9 Which doth great things and unsearchable marvelous things past finding out And then he instanceth in the Works of God Job 26.14 Lo these are part of his ways But how little a portion is heard of him and the thunder of his voice who can understand So that he tells us expresly we cannot find out the Works of God we do but know part of them The question which he puts Job 37.16 Dost thou know the wondrous works of him that is perfect in knowledge can only be answered by the words of the Psalmist Psal 104.24 O Lord how wonderful are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all The work of Redemption In this there shines forth such Wisdom Mercy and Love as our understandings cannot reach this work is called the Wisdom of God in a mystery hidden Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 2.7 The Mercy and Grace and Love of it is called the riches of Gods mercy the exceeding riches of his grace Eph. 2.4 7. Now Riches is when you cannot tell the utmost of them pauperis est numerare Eph. 3.18 19. That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge When we have the largest apprehensions of this love so that we think we comprehend it and know it it passeth knowledge yea the Effects of God's Power and Love which he manifests in believers are unspeakable for he is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think according to the power which worketh in us Eph. 3.20 The Peace which guards their souls passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 Those Joys which fill their hearts are not to be expressed 1 Pet. 1.8 We read of Joy unspeakable and full of glory The Happiness which they hope for is inconceivable 't is that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entred into the heart of man which God hath laid up for us The Ways of God's Providence they are not to be traced Psal 77.19 Thy way is in the sea and thy paths in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known Eccles 3.11 No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end We are but of yesterday and know nothing When we look upon Gods Providence we take a part from the whole and consider it by it self without relation to the whole series of his Dispensation we cannot see the whole of God's Providence at one view and never see from the beginning of the Works of God to the end therefore our knowledge of them must needs be very imperfect and full of mistakes and false judgments of things we cannot by our petty and short-sighted designs judge of the Works of God and the Designs of Providence for our ways are not as his ways nor our thoughts as his thoughts but as the heavens are high above the earth so are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts Isa 55.8 9. The ways of God's Mercy Psal 103. As the heavens are high above the earth so great is God's mercy Psal 139.17 18. How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them If I should count them they are more in number than the sand And the ways of God's Judgments the severity and greatness of his Judgment is not known Psal 90. Who knoweth the power of thy anger And who may stand before thee when thou art angry And the Reasons of his Judgments are unsearchable Psal 36.6 Thy Judgments are a great deep Rom. 11.35 How
and have been preserved by him and cannot subsist one moment without the continued influence of the Power and Goodness which first called us out of nothing He is the Author of all the good and the Fountain of all those Blessing which for the present we enjoy and for the future hope for When he made us at first he designed us for Happiness and when we by our sin and wilful mascarriage fell short of the Happiness which he design'd us for he sent his Son into the World for our recovery and gave his life for the Ransom of our Souls He hath not only admitted us into a new Covenant wherein he hath promised pardon and eternal life to us but he hath also purchased these Blessings for us by the most endearing price the blood of his own Son and hath saved us in such a manner as may justly astonish us Upon these Considerations we should awaken our selves to the praise of God and with the holy Psalmist call up our Spirits and summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to assist us in this Work Psal 103.1 2 3 4. c. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies 't is he that satisfies our Souls with good things and crowneth us with tender mercies and loving hindness that hath promised Eternal Life and Happiness to us and must confer and bestow this upon us Therefore our Souls and all that is within us should bless his holy name 2. If God be the first Cause that is orders all things that befall us and by his Providence disposeth of all our concernments this should teach us with patience and quietness to submit to all Events to all evils and afflictions that come upon us as being disposed by his wise Providence and coming from him We are apt to attribute all things to the next and immediate Agent and to look no higher than Second Causes not considering that all the motions of Natural Causes are directly subordinate to the first Cause and all the actions of free Creatures are under the Government of God's wise Providence so that nothing happens to us besides the design and intention of God And methinks this is one particular Excellency of the style of the Scripture above all other Books that the constant Phrase of the Sacred Dialect is to attribute all Events excepting sins only to God so that every one that reads it cannot but take notice that it is wrote with a more attentive consideration of God than any other Book as appears by those frequent and express acknowledgments of God as the Cause of all Events so that what in other Writers would be said to be done by this or that Person is ascribed to God Therefore it is so often said that the Lord did this and that stirr'd up such an Enemy brought such a Judgment And we shall find that holy men in Scripture make excellent use of this consideration to argue themselves into patience and contentedness in every condition So Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good So Job he did not so consider the Sabeans and Chaldeans who had carried away his Oxen and his Camels and slain his Servants nor the Wind which had thrown down his House and kill'd his Sons and his Daughters but he looks up to God the great Governour and Disposer of all these Events The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. So David Psal 39.9 I was dumb and spake not a word because thou Lord didst it So our Blessed Saviour when he was ready to suffer he did not consider the malice of the Jews which was the cause of his death but looks to a higher hand the cup which my father gives me to drink shall not I drink it He that looks upon all things as coming from second Causes and does not eye the first Cause the good and wise Governour will be apt to take offence at every cross and unwelcome accident Men are apt to be angry when one flings Water upon them as they pass in the Streets but no man is offended if he is wet by Rain from Heaven When we look upon Evils as coming only from men we are apt to be impatient and know not how to bear them but we should look upon all things as under the Government and disposal of the first Cause and the Circumstances of every condition as allotted to us by the wise Providence of God this Consideration that it is the hand of God and that he hath done it would still all the murmurings of our Spirits As when a Seditious Multitude is in an uproar the presence of a grave and venerable person will hush the noise and quell the tumult so if we would but represent God as present to all actions and governing and disposing all Events this would still and appease our Spirits when they are ready to riot and mutiny against any of his Dispensations Vse the Second If God be the last End of all let us make him our last End and refer all our Actions to his glory This is that which is due to him as he is the first Cause and therefore he does most reasonably require it of us And herein likewise the Scripture doth excel all other Books that is doth more frequently and expresly mind us of this End and calls upon us to propose it to our selves as our ultimate aim and design We should love him as our chief End Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Thus to love God is that which in the language of the Schools is loving God as our Chief End So likewise the Apostle requires that we should refer all the Actions of our lives to this End 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God that we should glorifie him in our souls and in our bodies which are his He is the Author of all the powers that we have and therefore we should use them for him we do all by him and therefore we should do all to him And that we may the better understand our selves as to this duty I shall endeavour to give satisfaction to a Question or two which may arise about it First Whether an actual intention of God's Glory be necessary to make every Action that we do good and acceptable to God Answ 1. It is necessary that the glory of God either Formally or Virtually should be the ultimate end and scope of our lives and all our Actions otherwise they will be defective in that which in moral Actions is most considerable and that is the End If a man should keep all