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 most Reverend D r. IOHN TILLOTSON late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Remaining DISCOURSES ON THE Attributes of God viz. His Goodness His Mercy His Patience His Long-suffering His Power His Spirituality His Immensity His Eternity His Incomprehensibleness God the first Cause and last End By the Most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Being The SEVENTH VOLUME Published from the Originals By Ralph Barker D. D. Chaplain to his Grace LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard 1700. THE CONTENTS SERMON I II III IV. The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works Page 1 25 51 81. SERMON V. The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy p. 145. SERMON VI VII The Patience of God 2 Pet. III. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance p. 143 179. SERMON VIII IX The Long-suffering of God ECCLES VIII 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil p. 193 239. SERMON X. The Power of God PSAL. LXII 11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God p. 265. SERMON XI The Spirituality of the Divine Nature JOHN IV. 2 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth p. 299. SERMON XII The Immensity of the Divine Nature PSAL. CXXXIX 7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me p. 331 SERMON XIII The Eternity of God PSALM XC 2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God p. 355 SERMON XIV The Incomprehensibleness of God JOB XI 7 Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection p. 377 SERMON XV. God the first Cause and last End ROM XI 36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen p. 403 SERMON I. Vol. VII The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works THE Subject which I have now proposed to treat of is certainly one of the Greatest and Noblest Arguments in the World the Goodness of God the Highest and most Glorious Perfection of the best and most Excellent of Beings than which nothing deserves more to be considered by us nor ought in Reason to affect us more The Goodness of God is the cause and the continuance of our Beings the Foundation of our Hopes and the Fountain of our Happiness our greatest comfort and our fairest Example the chief Object of our love and praise and admiration the joy and rejoycing of our hearts and therefore the Meditation and Discourse of it must needs be pleasant and delightful to us the great difficulty will be to confine our selves upon so copious an Argument and to set bounds to that which is of so vast an extent the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Which words are an Argument which the divine Plalmist useth to stir up himself and others to the praise of God At the 3. v. he tells us that the Lord is great and greatly to be praised and he gives the reason of this v. 8. and 9. from those Properties and Perfections of the Divine Nature which declare his Goodness the Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works where you have the Goodness of God declared together with the amplitude and extent of it in respect of the Objects of it the Lord is good to all In the handling of this Argument I shall do these four things First Consider what is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God Secondly Shew that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the Effects and the Extent of it Fourthly Answer some Objections which may seem to contradict and bring in question the Goodness of God First What is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God There is a dry Metaphysical Notion of Goodness which only signifies the Being and essential properties of a thing but this is a good word ill bestowed for in this sense every thing that hath Being even the Devil himself is good And there is a Moral Notion of Goodness and that is twofold 1. More general in opposition to all Moral evil and imperfection which we call sin and vice and so the Justice and Truth and Holiness of God are in this sense his Goodness But there is 2. Another Notion of Moral Goodness which is more particular and restrained and then it denotes a particular Virtue in opposition to a particular Vice and this is the proper and usual acceptation of the word Goodness and the best description I can give of it is this that it is a certain propension and disposition of mind whereby a person is enclined to desire and procure the happiness of others and it is best understood by its contrary which is an envious disposition a contracted and narrow Spirit which would confine happiness to it self and grudgeth that others should partake of it or share in it or a malicious and mischievous temper which delights in the harms of others and to procure trouble and mischief to them To communicate and lay out our selves for the good of others is Goodness and and so the Apostle explains doing good by communicating to others who are in misery or want Heb. 13.16 but to do good and to communicate forget not The Jews made a distinction between a righteous and a good man to which the Apostle alludes Rom. 5.7 scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man one would even dare to die The righteous man was he that did no wrong to others and the good man he who was not only not injurious to others but kind and beneficial to them So that Goodness is a readiness and disposition to communicate the good and happiness which we enjoy and to be willing others should partake of it This is the Notion of Goodness among men and 't is the same in God only with this difference that God is originally and transcendently good but the Creatures are the best of them but imperfectly good
another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love We cannot in any thing resemble God more than in goodness and kindness and mercy and in a readiness to forgive those who have been injurious to us and to be reconciled to them Let us then often contemplate this Perfection of God and represent it to our Minds that by the frequent contemplation of it we may be transformed into the Image of the Divine Goodness Is God so good to his Creatures with how much greater reason should we be so to our fellow Creatures Is God good to us let us imitate his universal goodness by endeavouring the good of Mankind and as much as in us lies of the whole Creation of God What God is to us and what we would have him still be to us that let us be to others We are infinitely beholding to this Perfection of God for all that we are and for all that we enjoy and for all that we expect and therefore we have all the reason in the World to admire and imitate it Let this pattern of the Divine Goodness be continually before us that we may be still fashioning our selves in the temper of our Minds and in the actions of our Lives to a likeness and conformity to it Lastly The consideration of the Divine goodness should excite our praise and thankfulness This is a great Duty to the performance whereof we should summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls as the holy Psalmist does Psal 103. 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 And we should invite all others to the same Work as the same devout Psalmist frequently does Psal 106. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And Psal 107. O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of Men And we had need to be often call'd upon to this Duty to which we have a peculiar backwardness Necessity drives us to Prayer and sends us to God for the supply of our wants but Praise and Thanksgiving is a Duty which depends upon our gratitude and ingenuity and nothing sooner wears off than the sense of Kindness and Benefits We are very apt to forget the blessings of God not so much from a bad Memory as from a bad Nature to forget the greatest blessings the continuance whereof should continually put us in mind of them the blessings of our Beings So God complains of his People Deut. 32. Of the God that formed thee thou hast been unmindful the dignity and excellency of our Beings above all the Creatures of this visible World Job 35.10 11. None saith Where is God my Maker who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven the daily comforts and blessings of our Lives which we can continually receive without almost ever looking up to the Hand that gives them So God complains by the Prophet Hosea 2.8 9. She knew not that I gave her corn and wine and oyl and multiplied her gold and silver And is it not shameful to see how at the most plentiful Tables the giving of God Thanks is almost grown out of fashion as if Men were ashamed to own from whence these Blessings came When thanks is all God expects from us can we not afford to give him that Do ye thus requite the Lord foolish people and unwise It is just with God to take away his Blessings from us if we deny him this easie tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving It is a sign Men are unfit for Heaven when they are backward to that which is the proper Work and Imployment of the blessed Spirits above Therefore as ever we hope to come thither let us begin this Work here and inure our selves to that which will be the great business of all Eternity Let us with the four and twenty Elders in the Revelation fall down before him that sits on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast our crowns before the throne that is cast our selves and ascribe all glory to God Saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast made all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created To him therefore the infinite and inexhaustible fountain of goodness the father of mercies and the God of all consolation who gave us such excellent Beings having made made us little lower than the Angels and crowned us with glory and honour who hath been pleased to stamp upon us the image of his own goodness and thereby made us partakers of a divine nature communicating to us not only of the effects of his goodness but in some measure and degree of the perfection it self to him who gives us all things richly to enjoy which pertain to life and godliness and hath made such abundant provision not only for our comfort and convenience in this present life but for our unspeakable happiness to all eternity to him who designed this happiness to us from all eternity and whose mercy and goodness to us endures for ever who when by willful transgressions and disobedience we had plunged our selves into a state of sin and misery and had forfeited that happiness which we were designed to was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it by sending his only Son to take our nature with the miseries and infirmities of it to live among us and to die for us in a word to him who is infinitely good to us not only contrary to our deserts but beyond our hopes who renews his mercy upon us every morning and is patient tho' we provoke him every day who preserves and provides for us and spares us continually who is always willing always watchful and never weary to do us good to him be all glory and honour adoration and praise love and obedience now and for ever SERMON V. Vol. VII The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long suffering and of great Mercy I Have considered God's Goodness in general There are two eminent Branches of it his Patience and Mercy The Patience of God is his goodness to them that are guilty in deferring or moderating their deserved punishment the Mercy of God is his goodness to them that are or may be miserable 'T is the last of these two I design to discourse of at this time in doing which I shall inquire First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God Secondly Shew you that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the degree of it that God is of great Mercy First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God I told you it is his goodness to them that are in
the Scripture doth every where magnifie the mercy of God and speak of it with all possible advantage as if the Divine Nature which doth in all Perfections excel all others did in this excel it self The Scripture speaks of it as if God was wholly taken up with it as if it was his constant Exercise and Employment so that in comparison of it he doth hardly display any other excellency Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy as if in this World God had a design to advance his mercy above his other Attributes The mercy of God is now in the Throne this is the day of mercy and God doth display it many times with a seeming dishonour to his other Attributes his Justice and Holiness and Truth His Justice This makes Job complain of the long life and prosperity of the wicked Job 41.7 Wherefore do the wicked live yea become old c. His Holiness This makes the Prophet expostulate with God Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue c. And the Truth of God This makes Jonah complain as if God's mercies were such as did make some reflection upon his truth Jon. 4.2 But that we may have more distinct apprehensions of the greatness and number of God's mercies I will distribute them into kinds and rank them under several Heads 'T is mercy to prevent those evils and miseries that we are liable to 'T is mercy to defer those evils that we have deserved or to mitigate them 'T is mercy to support and comfort us when misery is upon us 'T is mercy to deliver us from them But the greatest mercy of all is to remit the evil and misery we have deserved by pardon and forgiveness to remove and take away the obligation to punishment so that the mercy of God may be reduced to these five Heads I. Preventing Mercy Many evils and miseries which we are liable to God prevents them at a great distance and when they are coming towards us he stops them or turns them another way The merciful Providence of God and those invisible guards which protect us do divert many evils from us which fall upon others We seldom take notice of God's preventing mercy we are not apt to be sensible how great a mercy it is to be freed from those straits and necessities those pains and diseases of Body those inward racks and horrours which others are pressed withal and labour under When any evil or misery is upon us would we not reckon it a mercy to be rescued and delivered from it And is it not a greater mercy that we never felt it Does not that Man owe more to his Physician who prevents his sickness and distemper than he who after the weakness and languishing the pains and tortures of several Months is at length cured by him II. Forbearing mercy And this is the patience of God which consists in the deferring or moderating of our deserved punishment Hence it is that slow to anger and of great mercy do so often go together But this I shall speak to hereafter in some particular Discourses III. Comforting mercy 2 Cor. 1.3 The father of mercies and the God of all Comfort The Scripture represents God as very merciful in comforting and supporting those that are afflicted and cast down hence are those expressions of putting his arms under us bearing us up speaking comfortably visiting us with his loving kindness which signifie God's merciful regard to those who are in misery and distress IV. His relieving mercy in supplying those that are in want and delivering those that are in trouble God doth many times exercise Men with troubles and afflictions with a very gracious and merciful design to prevent greater Evils which Men would otherwise bring upon themselves Afflictions are a merciful invention of Heaven to do us that good which nothing else can they awaken us to a sense of God and of our selves to a consideration of the evil of our ways they make us to take notice of God to seek him and enquire after him God doth as it were by Afflictions throw Men upon their backs to make them look up to Heaven Hos 5.15 In their affliction they will seek me early Psal 78.34 When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God But God does not delight in this he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men When afflictions have accomplished their work and obtained their end upon us God is very ready to remove them and command deliverance for us Isa 54.7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer V. Pardoning mercy And here the greatness and fullness of God's mercy appears because our sins are great Psal 78.38 Being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity And the multitude of God's mercies because our sins are many Psal 51.1 Have mercy on me O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Exod. 34.7 He is said to pardon iniquity transgression and sin How many fold are his mercies to forgive all our sins of what kind so ever The mercy of God to us in pardoning our sins is matter of astonishment and admiration Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity But especially if we consider by what means our pardon is procured by transferring our guilt upon the most innocent person the Son of God and making him to bear our iniquities and to suffer the wrath of God which was due to us The admirable contrivance of God's mercy appears in this dispensation this shews the riches of his grace that he should be at so much cost to purchase our pardon Not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of his own Son Eph. 1.6 7. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Having dispatch'd the three particulars I propos'd to be spoken to I shall shew what Use we ought to make of this Divine Attribute Vse 1. We ought with thankfulness to acknowledge and admire the great mercy of God to us Let us view it in all its dimensions the heighth and length and breadth of it in all the variety and kinds of it the preventing mercy of God to many of us Those miseries that lye upon others 't is mercy to us that we escaped them 'T is mercy that spares us It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed and because his compassions fail not 'T is mercy that mitigates our punishment and makes it fall below
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
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
any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And we continually stand in need of mercy both from God and Man We are lyable one to another and in the change of human Affairs we may be all subject to one another by turns and stand in need of one anothers pity and compassion and we must expect that with what measure we mete to others with the same it shall be measured to us again To restrain the Cruelties and check the Insolencies of Men God has so order'd 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 a 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 suffering and forgiving them that have injured us God will be so to us he will pardon our sins to us Prov. 16.5 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged 2. Sam. 22.26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Prov. 14.21 He that hath mercy on the poor happy is he Prov. 21.21 He that followeth after mercy findeth life Matth. 6.14 If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you But on the other hand if we be malicious and revengeful and implacable to those that have offended us and inexorable to those who desire to be received to favour and cruel to those who lye at our mercy hard hearted to them that are in necessity what can we expect but that the mercy of God will leave us that he will forget to be gracious and shut up in anger his tender mercy Mat. 6.15 If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses That is a dreadful passage S. James 2.13 He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy How angry is the Lord with the Servant who was so inexorable to his fellow Servant after he had forgiven him so great a debt as you find in the Parable Mat. 18.24 He owed him ten thousand Talents and upon his submission and intreaty to have patience with him he was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him all but no sooner had this favour been done to him by his Lord but going forth he meets his fellow Servant who owed him a small inconsiderable 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 useth the same form of supplication that he had used to his Lord but he rejects his request and puts him in Prison Now what saith the Lord to him v. 32 33 34. O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all the debt because thou desiredst me Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee And the Lord was wroth and deliver'd him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Now what application doth our Saviour make of this v. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses God's readiness to forgive us should 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 sins 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 should forgive the greatest Injuries he pardoneth our sins tho' they be exceeding great many Injuries tho' offences be renewed and provocations multiplied for so God doth to us He pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin Ex. 34.7 Is 55.7 He will have mercy he will abundantly pardon We would not have God only to forgive us seven times but seventy seven times as often as we offend him so should we forgive our Brother And we should not be backward to this Work God is ready to forgive us Neh. 9.17 And we should do it heartily not only in word when we retain malice in our hearts and while we say we forgive carry on a secret design in our hearts of revenging our selves when we have opportunity but we should from our hearts forgive every one for so God doth to us who when he forgives us casts our iniquities behind his back and throws them into the bottom of the sea and blots out our transgression so as to remember our iniquity no more If we do not do thus every time we put up the Petition to God Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass 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 our selves we pronounce the Sentence of our own Condemnation and importune God not to forgive us Vse 4. If the mercy of God be so great this may comfort us against Despair Sinners are apt to be dejected when they consider their unworthiness the nature and number of their Sins and the many heavy aggravations of them they are apt to say with Cain That their sin is greater than can be forgiven But do not look only upon thy sins but upon the mercies of God Thou canst not be too sensible of the evil of sin and of the desert of it but whilst we aggravate our sins we must not lessen the mercies of God When we consider the multitude of our sins we must consider also the multitude of God's tender mercies we have been great sinners and God is of great mercy we have multiplied our provocations and he multiplies to pardon Do but thou put thy self in a capacity of mercy by repenting of thy sins and forsaking of them and thou hast no reason to doubt but the mercy of God will receive thee If we confess our sins he is merciful and faithful to forgive them If we had offended Man as we have done God we might despair 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 so 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 disparage the Goodness and Truth of God when we distrust those gracious declarations which he has made of his mercy and goodness if we do not think that he doth heartily pity and compassionate sinners and really dedesire their happiness Doth not he condescend so low as to represent himself afflicted for the miseries of Men and to rejoyce in the conversion of a Sinner and shall not we believe that he is in
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
adversity as his only support and present help in time of trouble And this is a sure Indication that these men after all their endeavours to impose upon themselves have not been able wholly to extinguish in their Minds the belief of God and his Goodness nay it is a sign that at the bottom of their Hearts they have a firm perswasion of his goodness when after all their insolent defiance of him they have the Confidence to apply themselves to him for mercy and help in time of need and therefore our Hearts ought to rise with indignation against those who go about to perswade the belief of a thing so prejudicial to our Interest to take away the Light of our eyes and the Breath of our nostrils and to rob us of all the Comfort and Support which the belief of an infinite Power conducted by infinite Wisdom and Goodness is apt to afford to Mankind II. We should take great care of perverting and abusing this great goodness by vain Confidence and Presumption This is a Provocation of an high Nature which the Scripture calls turning the grace of God into wantonness making that an encouragement to Sin which is one of the strongest Arguments in the world against it God is infinitely good and merciful but we must not therefore think that he is fond and indulgent to our faults but on the contrary because he is good he cannot but hate evil So the Scripture every where tells us that He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity that the face of the Lord is against them that do evil he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him the foolish shall not stand in his fight he hateth all the workers of iniquity He is ready to shew Mercy to those who are qualified for it by Repentance and resolution of a better Course but as long as we continue impenitent God is implacable and will deal with us according to the tenor of his Laws and the desert of our Doings Despair is a great Sin but Presumption is a greater Despair doubts of the goodness of God but Presumption abuseth it Despair disbelieves but Presumption perverts the best thing in the world to a quite contrary purpose from what it was intended III. The consideration of God's goodness is a mighty comfort and relief to our Minds under all our Fears and Troubles Great are the Fears and Jealousies of many devout Minds concerning God's Love to them and their everlasting Condition which are commonly founded in one of these two causes a melancholy Temper or mistaken Notions and Apprehensions of God and very often these two meet together and hinder the cure and removal of one another Melancholy as it is an effect of bodily temper is a Disease not to be cured by Reason and Argument but by Physick and Time but the mistakes which men have entertained concerning God if they be not set on and heightned by Melancholy as many times they are may be rectified by a true representation of the goodness of God confirmed by Reason and Scripture Many good Men have had very hard and injurious Thoughts of God instill'd into them from Doctrines too commonly taught and received as if he did not sincerely desire the happiness of his Creatures but had from all Eternity decreed to make the greatest part of Mankind with a secret purpose and design to make them miserable and consequently were not serious and in good earnest in his Invitations and Exhortations of Sinners to Repentance and it is no wonder if such Jealousies as these concerning God make Men doubtful whether God love them and very scrupulous and anxious about their everlasting condition I have already told you that these harsh Doctrines have no manner of Foundation either in Reason or Scripture that God earnestly desires our Happiness and affords us sufficient Means to that End that he bears a more hearty good will to us than any Man does to his Friend or any Father upon Earth ever did to his dearest Child in comparison of which the greatest Affection of Men to those whom they love best is but as the drop of the Bucket as the very small dust upon the Balance If we have right apprehensions of God's goodness we can have no temptation to despair of his kind and merciful Intentions to us provided we be but careful of our Duty to him and do sincerely repent and forsake our Sins Plainer Declarations no words can make than those we meet with in the holy Scriptures That God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live that he would have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth that he is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy that if the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return unto the Lord he will have mercy and will abundantly pardon As for outward Calamities and Afflictions the consideration of God's goodness is a firm ground of consolation to us giving us assurance that God will either prevent them by his Providence or support us under them or rescue us out of them or turn them to our greater good and happiness in this World or the next St. Paul speaks of it as the firm belief and perswasion of all good Men that in the issue all their Afflictions should prove to their advantage We know says he that all things shall work together for good to them that love God and one of the greatest Evidences of our love to God is a firm belief and perswasion of his goodness if we believe his goodness we cannot but love him and if we love him all things shall work together for our good And this is a great Cordial to those who are under grievous Persecutions and Sufferings This Sermon was preach'd before the late happy Revolution which is the case of our Brethren in a neighbour Nation and may come to be ours God knows how soon But tho' the malice of Men be great and backt with a power not to be control'd by any visible means and therefore likely to continue yet the goodness of God is greater than the malice of Men and of a longer duration and continuance And thus David comforted himself when he was persecuted by Saul Psal 52.1 Why boasteth thou thy self in mischief O mighty man the goodness of God endureth continually The Persecution which Saul raised against him was very powerful and lasted a long time but he comforts himself with this that the goodness of God endures for ever IV. The consideration of God's goodness is a powerful motive and argument to several Duties 1. To the love of God And this is the most proper and natural effect and operation of the goodness of God upon our Minds Several of
good earnest Doth Christ weep over impenitent Sinners because they will not know the things of their peace and canst thou think he will not pardon thee upon thy repentance Is he grieved that Men will undo themselves and will not be saved and canst thou think that he is unwilling to forgive We cannot honour and glorifie God more than by entertaining great thoughts of his Mercy As we are said to glorifie God by our repentance because thereby we acknowledge God's holiness and justice so we glorifie him by believing his mercy because we conceive a right opinion of his goodness and truth we set to our Seal that God is merciful and true Psal 147.11 't is said That God taketh pleasure in them that hope in his mercy As he delights in mercy so in our acknowledgments of it that Sinners should conceive great hopes of it and believe him to be what he is Provided thou dost submit to the terms of God's mercy thou hast no reason to despair of it and he that thinks that his sins 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 Vse 5. By way of Caution against the presumptuous Sinner If there be any that trespass upon the goodness of God and presume to encourage themselves in sin upon the hopes of his mercy let such know that God is just as well as merciful A God all of mercy is an Idol such a God as Men set up in their own imaginations but not the true God whom the Scriptures describe To such persons the Scripture describes him after another manner Nah. 1.2 God is jealous the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and reserveth wrath for his enemies If any Man abuse the mercy of God to the strengthning of himself in his own wickedness and bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho' I walk in the imagination of my own heart and add drunkeness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lye upon him and he will blot out his name from under heaven Deut. 29.19 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 those that despise his mercy to those that abuse it to those that are resolved to go on in their sins to tempt his mercy and make bold to say Let us sin that grace may abound God designs his mercy for those that are prepared to receive it Is 55.7 Let the wicked forsake 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 sin as well as his justice and 't is no where offer'd to countenance sin but to convert the sinner and is not intended to encourage our impenitency but our repentance God hath no where said that he will be merciful to those who upon the score of his mercy are bold with him and presume 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 despised and affronted This is to contradict the very end of God's mercy which is to lead us to repentance to engage us to leave our sins not to encourage us to continue in them Take heed then of abusing the mercy of God we cannot provoke the justice of God more than by presuming upon his mercy This is the time of God's mercy use this opportunity if thou neglectest it a day of justice and vengeance is coming Rom. 2.4 5. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance And treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Now is the manifestation of God's mercy but there is a time a coming when the righteous Judgment of God will be revealed against those who abuse his mercy not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance To think that the goodness of God was intended for any other end than to take us off from sin is a gross and affected ignorance that will ruin us and they who draw any conclusion from the mercy of God which may harden them in their sins they are such as the Prophet speaks of Is 27.11 A people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not save them and he that formed them will have no mercy on them Mercy it self will rejoyce in the ruin of those that abuse it and it will aggravate their Condemnation There is no person towards whom God will be more severely just than toward such The justice of God exasperated and set on by his injured and abused mercy like a Razor set in Oyl will have the keener edge and be the sharper for its smoothness Those that have made the mercy of God their Enemy must expect the worst his justice can do unto them SERMON VI. Vol VII The Patience of God 2 PET. III. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some Men count slackness but is long-suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance IN the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle puts the Christians to whom he writes in mind of the Predictions of the ancient Prophets and of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour concerning the general Judgment of the World which by many and perhaps by the Apostles themselves had been thought to be very near and that it would presently follow the destruction of Jerusalem but he tells them that before that there would arise a certain Sect or sort of Men that would deride the expectation of a future Judgment designing probably the Carpocratians a branch of that large Sect of the Gnosticks of whom St. Austin expressly says That they denied the Resurrection and consequently a future Judgment These St. Peter calls Scoffers v. 3 4. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Declaration in general whether it be by way of Promise or Threatning What is become of that Declaration of Christ so frequently repeated in the Gospel concerning his coming to Judgment For since the Fathers fell asleep or saving that the Fathers are fallen asleep except only that Men die and one Generation succeeds another all things continue as they were from the creation of the world that is the World continues still as it was from the
Perfection of the Divine Nature and essentially belongs to it it is a principal branch of God's goodness which is the highest and most glorious Perfection of all other and therefore we always find it in Scripture in the company of God's milder and sweeter Attributes When God would give the most perfect description of himself and as he says to Moses make all his glory to pass before us he usually does it by those Attributes which declare his Goodness and Patience is always one of them Exod. 34.6 The Lord passed by before Moses and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth Psal 86.15 But thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gracious long suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth Psal 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy And the same you find Psal 145.8 Jonah 4.2 Joel 2.13 Sometimes indeed you find a severer Attribute added to these as that he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 But 't is always put in the last place to declare to us that God's goodness and mercy and patience are his first and primary Perfections and it is only when these fail and have no effect upon us but are abused by us to the encouragement of our selves in an impenitent course that his Justice takes place Nay even among Men it is esteemed a Perfection to be able to forbear and to restrain our anger Passion is impotency and folly but Patience is power and wisdom Prov. 14.29 He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly but he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to wrath is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that conquereth a city Rom. 12.21 Be not overcome of Evil but overcome Evil with good To be impatient is to be overcome but to forbear anger and revenge is a victory Patience is an argument of great power and command of our selves and therefore God himself who is the most powerful Being is slow to anger and of infinite patience and nothing doth more declare the Power of God than his Patience that when he is provoked by such vile and despicable Creatures as we are he can withhold his hand from destroying us This is the argument which Moses useth Numb 14.17 18. that the Power of God doth so eminently appear in his patience And now I pray thee let the power of my Lord be great as he hath spoken saying the Lord is gracious and long-suffering And yet Power where it is not restrained by wisdom and goodness is a great temptation to anger because where there is Power there is something to back it and make it good And therefore the Psalmist doth recommend and set off the Patience of God from the consideration of his Power Psal 7.11 God is strong and patient God is provoked every day God is strong and therefore patient or he is infinitely patient notwithstanding his Almighty Power to revenge the daily provocations of his Creatures Among Men anger and weakness commonly go together but they are ill matched as is excellently observed by the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 10.18 Pride was not made for man nor furious anger for him that is born of a woman So that anger and impatience is every where unreasonable Where there is Power impatience is below it and a thing too mean for Omnipotency and where there wants Power anger is above it it is too much for a weak and impotent Creature to be angry Where there is Power anger is needless and of no use and where there is no Power it is vain and to no purpose So that Patience is every where a Perfection both in God and Man I proceed to the III. Thing I proposed which was to give some proof and demonstration of the great patience and long-suffering of God to Mankind And this will evidently appear if we consider these two things 1. How Men deal with God 2. How notwithstanding this God deals with them 1. How Men deal with God Every day we highly offend and provoke him we grieve and weary him with our Iniquities as the Expression is in the Prophet Isa 43.24 Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Every sin that we commit is an affront to the Divine Majesty and a contempt of his Authority By denying submission to his Laws we question his Omnipresence and say Doth God see and is there knowledge in the most high Or if we acknowledge his Omnipresence and that he regards what we do the provocation is still the greater because then we affront him to his face we dare his Justice and challenge his Omnipotency and provoke the Lord to jealousie as if we were stronger than he Is not God patient when the whole world lies in wickedness and the earth is overspread with violence and is full of the habitations of cruelty when he who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and is so highly offended at the sins of Men hath yet the patience to look upon them that deal treacherously and to hold his peace when the wicked persecutes and devours the man that is more righteous than he when even that part of the World which professeth the Name of God and Christ do by their vile and obominable lives blaspheme that holy and glorious name whereby they are called Every moment God hath greater injuries done to him and more affronts put upon him than were ever offered to all the Sons of Men and surely provocations are tryals of patience especially when they are so numerous and so heinous for if offences rise according to the dignity of the person injured and the meanness of him that doth the injury then no offences are so great as those that are committed by Men against God no affronts like to those which are offered to the Divine Majesty by the continual provocations of his Creatures And is not this an argument of God's patience that the glorious Majesty of Heaven should bear such multiplied indignities from such vile Worms that he who is the Former of all things should endure his own Creatures to rebel against him and the work of his hands to strike at him that he who is our great Benefactor should put up such affronts from those who depend upon his bounty and are maintained at his charge that he in whose hands our breath is should suffer Men to breath out Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies against him Surely these prove the patience of God to purpose and are equally tryals and arguments of it 2. The Patience of God will further appear if we consider how notwithstanding all this God deals with us He is patient to the whole World in that he doth not turn us out of Being and turn the wicked together into hell with all the nations that forget God He is patient to the greatest part of
in especially if these hopes be given them by a grave Man of whose Piety and Judgment they have a venerable opinion When Men have the Sentence of death in themselves as all wicked livers must have they are naturally apt to be overjoy'd at the unexpected news of a Pardon To speak my mind freely in this matter I have no great opinion of that extraordinary comfort and confidence which some have upon a sudden repentance for great and flagrant crimes because I cannot discern any sufficient ground for it I think great humility and dejection of mind and a doubtful apprehension of their condition next almost to despair of it would much better become them because their case is really so very doubtful in it self There is great reason for the repentance of such persons and it becomes them well but I see very little reason for their great comfort and confidence nor does it become their circumstances and condition Let them excercise as deep a repentance as is possible and bring forth all the fruits meet for it that are possible in so short a time let them humble themselves before God and pray incessantly to him day and night for mercy make all the reparation they can for the injuries they have done by confession and acknowledgment and by making satisfaction to the parties injured if it be in their power by giving Alms to the Poor by warning others and endeavouring to reclaim them to a better mind and course of life and for the rest humbly commit themselves to the mercy of God in Jesus Christ let them imitate as near as they can the behaviour of the penitent Thief the only Example the Scripture hath left us of a late repentance that proved effectual who gave the greatest testimony that could be of a penitent sorrow for his sins and of his Faith in the Saviour of the World by a generous and couragious owning of him in the midst of his disgrace and suffering when even his own Disciples had denyed and forsaken him but we do not find in him any signs of extraordinary comfort much less of confidence but he humbly commended himself to the mercy and goodness of his Saviour saying Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom SERMON IX Vol. VII The Long-suffering of God ECCLES VIII 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil I Have considered how apt Men are to abuse the long-suffering of God to the hardening and encouraging of themselves in sin and whence this comes to pass where I considered the several false conclusions which Sinners draw from the delay of Punishment as if there were no God or Providence or difference of good and evil or else as is more commonly pretended that Sin is not so great an Evil and that God is not so highly offended at it or that God is not so severe as he is represented that the punishment of sin is not so certain or however it is at a distance and may be prevented by a future repentance all which I have spoken fully to and endeavoured to shew the fallacy and unreasonableness of them I shall now proceed to the Third and last thing I propounded which was to answer an Objection to which this Discourse may seem liable and that is this If the long-suffering of God be the occasion of Men's hardness and impenitency then why is God so patient to Sinners when they are so prone to abuse his Goodness and Patience And how is it goodness in God to forbear Sinners so long when this forbearance of his is so apt to minister to them an occasion of their further mischief and greater ruine It should seem according to this that it would be much greater Mercy to the greatest part of Sinners not to be patient toward them at all but instantly upon the first occasion and provocation to cut them off and so to put a stop to their wickedness and to hinder them from making themselves more miserable by increasing their guilt and treasuring up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath This is the Objection and because it seems to be of some weight I shall endeavour to return a satisfactory answer to it in these following particulars And I. I ask the Sinner if he will stand to this Art thou serious and wouldest thou in good earnest have God to deal thus with thee to take the very first advantage to destroy thee or turn thee into Hell and to make thee miserable beyond all hopes of recovery Consider of it again Dost thou think it desirable that God should deal thus with thee and let fly his Judgments upon thee so soon as ever thou hast sinned If not why do Men trifle and make an Objection against the long-suffering of God which they would be very loth should be made good upon them II. It is likewise to be considered that the long-suffering of God toward Sinners is not a total forbearance it is usually so mixt with Afflictions and Judgments of one kind or other upon our selves or others as to be a sufficient warning to us if we would consider and lay it to heart to sin no more lest a worse thing come upon us lest that Judgment which we saw inflicted upon others come home to us And is not this great goodness to warn us when he might destroy us to leave room for a retreat when he might put our case past remedy All this time of God's Patience he threatens Sinners to awaken them out of their security he punisheth them gently that we may have no ground to hope for impunity he makes Examples of some in a more severe and remarkable manner that others may hear and fear and be afraid to commit the like sins lest the like punishment overtake them he whips some Offenders before our Eyes to shew us what sin deserves and what we also may justly expect if we do the same things and will nothing be a warning to us but our own sufferings Nay God doth usually send some Judgment or other upon every Sinner in this life he lets him feel the Rod that he may know that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against him He exerciseth Men with many afflictions and crosses and disappointments which their own consciences tell them are the just recompences of their deeds and by these lighter strokes he gives us a merciful warning to avoid his heavier blows when Mercy alone will not work upon us and win us but being fed to the full we grow wanton and foolish he administers Physick to us by affliction and by adversity endeavours to bring us to consideration and a sober mind and many have been cured this way and the Judgments of God have done them that good which his Mercies and Blessings could not for God would save us any way by his Mercy or by his Judgment by Sickness or by Health
by Plenty or by Want by what we desire or by what we dread so desirous is he of our repentance and happiness that he leaves no method unattempted that may probably do us good he strikes upon every Passion in the Heart of Man he works upon our Love by his Goodness upon our Hopes by his Promises and upon our Fears first by his Threatnings and if they be not effectual then by his Judgments he tries every Affection and takes hold of it if by any means he may draw us to himself and will nothing warn us but what will ruine us and render our case desperate and past hope And if any Sinner be free from outward Afflictions and Sufferings yet sin never fails to carry its own Punishment along with it there is a secret Sting and Worm a divine Nemesis and Revenge that is bred in the Bowels of every Sin and makes it a heavy Punishment to it self the Conscience of a Sinner doth frequently torment him and his Guilt haunts and dogs him where-ever he goes for when ever a Man commits a known and willful sin he drinks down Poison which tho' it may work slowly yet it will give him many a Gripe and if no means be used to expel it will destroy him at last So that the long-suffering of God is wisely ordered and there is such a mixture of Judgment in it as is sufficient to awaken Sinners and much more apt to deter them from sin than to encourage them to go on and continue in it III. Nothing is farther from the intention of God than to harden Men by his long-suffering This the Scripture most expresly declares 2 Pet. 3.9 He is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He hath a very gracious and merciful design in his Patience towards Sinners and is therefore good that he may make us so and that we may cease to do evil The event of God's long-suffering may by our own fault and abuse of it prove our ruin but the design and intention of it is our repentance He winks at the sins of men saith the Son of Syrach that they may repent He passeth them by and does not take speedy Vengeance upon Sinners for them that they may have time to repent of them and to make their peace with him while they are yet in the way Nay his long-suffering doth not only give space for Repentance but is a great argument and encouragement to it That he is so loth to surprize Sinners that he gives them the liberty of second thoughts time to reflect upon themselves to consider what they have done and to retract it by repentance is a sufficient intimation that he hath no mind to ruin us that he desires not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live And should not this goodness of his make us sorry that we have offended him Doth it not naturally lead and invite us to repentance What other interpretation can we make of his Patience what other use in reason should we make of it but to repent and return that we may be saved IV. There is nothing in the long-suffering of God that is in truth any ground of encouragement to Men in any evil course the proper and natural tendency of God's goodness is to lead men to repentance and by repentance to bring them to happiness Rom. 2.4 Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and patience and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance This St. Peter with relation to these very words of St. Paul interprets leading to salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation as our beloved brother Paul also hath written unto you Now where did St. Paul write so unless in this Text Not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance 'T is not only great ignorance and a very gross mistake to think that it is the design and intention of God's Patience and long-suffering to encourage Men in sin but likewise to think that in the nature of the thing goodness can have any tendency to make Men evil not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance V. That through the long-suffering of God Sinners are hardned in their evil ways is wholly to be ascribed to their abuse of God's goodness 't is neither the End and Intention nor the proper and natural Effect of the thing but the accidental Event of it through our own fault And is this any real Objection against the long-suffering of God May not God be patient tho' Sinners be impenitent May not he be good tho' we be so foolish as to make an ill use of his goodness Because Men are apt to abuse the Mercies and Favours of God is it therefore a fault in him to bestow them upon us Is it not enough for us to abuse them but will we challenge God also of unkindness in giving them May not God use wise and fitting means for our recovery because we are so foolish as not to make a wise use of them And must he be charged with our ruin because he seeks by all means to prevent it Is it not enough to be injurious to our selves but will we be unthankful to God also When God hath laid out the riches of his goodness and patience upon Sinners will they challenge him as accessory to their ruin As if a foolish Heir that hath prodigally wasted the fair Estate that was left him should be so far from blaming himself as to charge his Father with undoing him Are these the best returns which the infinite Mercy and Patience of God hath deserved from us Do we thus requite the Lord foolish people and unwise God's Patience would save Sinners but they ruin themselves by their abuse of it let the blame then lie where it is due and let God have the glory of his Goodness tho' Men refuse the benefit and advantage of it VI. And Lastly But because this Objection pincheth hardest in one point viz. That God certainly fore-sees that a great many will abuse his long-suffering to the increasing of their Guilt and the aggravating of their Condemnation and how is his long-suffering any Mercy and Goodness to those who he certainly fore-knows will in the event be so much the more miserable for having had so much Patience extended to them Therefore for a full answer I desire these six things may be considered 1. That God designs this life for the tryal of our Obedience that according as we behave our selves he might reward or punish us in another World 2. That there could be no tryal of our Obedience nor any capacity of Rewards and Punishments but upon the supposition of freedom and liberty that is that we do not do what we do upon force and necessity but upon free choice 3. That God by virtue of the infinite Perfection of his Knowledge does
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