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
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
wisdom or goodness of God to make a Creature of such a frame as to be capable of having its obedience tryed in order to the reward of it which could not be unless such a Creature were made mutable and by the good or bad use of its liberty capable of obeying or disobeying the Laws of his Creator for where there is no possibility of sinning there can be no tryal of our Virtue and Obedience and nothing but Virtue and Obedience are capable of reward The goodness of God towards us is sufficiently vindicated in that he made us capable of happiness and gave us sufficient direction and power for the attaining of that end and it does in no wise contradict his goodness that he does not by his Omnipotency interpose to prevent our sin for this had been to alter the nature of things and not to let Man be the Creature he made him capable of reward or punishment according to the good or bad use of his own free choice It is sufficient that God made Man good at first tho mutable and that he had a power to have continued so tho he wilfully determined himself to evil this acquits the goodness of God that he made Man upright but he found out to himself many inventions 2. If there had not been such an order and rank of Creatures as had been in their nature mutable there had been no place for the manifestation of God's goodness in a way of mercy and patience so that tho God be not the Author of the sins of Men yet in case of their willful transgression and disobedience the goodness of God hath a fair opportunity of discovering it self in his patience and long-suffering to Sinners and in his merciful care and provision for their recovery out of that miserable state And this may suffice for answer to the first Objection if God be so good whence then comes evil The Second Objection against the Goodness of God is from the Doctrine of absolute reprobation by which I mean the decreeing the greatest part of Mankind to eternal misery and torment without any consideration or respect to their sin and fault This seems not only notoriously to contradict the Notion of infinite Goodness but to be utterly inconsistent with the least measure and degree of Goodness Indeed if by reprobation were only meant that God in his own infinite Knowledge foresees the sins and wickedness of Men and hath from all eternity determined in himself what in his Word he hath so plainly declared that he will punish impenitent Sinners with everlasting destruction or if by reprobation be meant that God hath not elected all Mankind that is absolutely decreed to bring them infallibly to Salvation neither of these Notions of reprobation is any ways inconsistent with the goodness of God for he may foresee the wickedness of Men and determine to punish it without any impeachment of his goodness He may be very good to all and yet not equally and in the same degree if God please to bring any infallibly to Salvation this is transcendent goodness but if he put all others into a capacity of it and use all necessary and fitting means to make them happy and after all this any fall short of happiness through their own wilful fault and obstinacy these Men are evil and cruel to themselves but God hath been very good and merciful to them But if by reprobation be meant either that God hath decreed without respect to the sins of Men their absolute ruin and misery or that he hath decreed that they shall inevitably sin and perish it cannot be denied but that such a reprobation as this doth clearly overthrow all possible Notion of goodness I have told you that the true and only Notion of goodness in God is this that it is a propension and disposition of the Divine Nature to communicate Being and Happiness to his Creatures But surely nothing can be more plainly contrary to a disposition to make them happy than an absolute decree and a peremptory resolution to make them miserable God is infinitely better than the best of Men and yet none can possibly think that Man a good Man who should absolutely resolve to disinherit and destroy his Children without the foresight and consideration of any fault to be committed by them We may talk of the Goodness of God But it is not an easie matter to devise to say any thing worse than this of the Devil But it is said reprobation is an act of soveraignty in God and therefore not to be measured by the common rules of goodness But it is contrary to goodness and plainly inconsistent with it and we must not attribute such a soveraignty to God as contradicts his goodness for if the soveraignty of God may break in at pleasure upon his other Attributes then it signifies nothing to say that God is good and wise and just if his soveraignty may at any time act contrary to these Perfections Now if the Doctrine of absolute reprobation and the goodness of God cannot possibly stand together the Question is Which of them ought to give way to the other What St. Paul determines in another case concerning the truth and fidelity of God will equally hold concerning his goodness Let God be good and every Man a lyar The Doctrine of absolute reprobation is no part of the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures that ever I could find and there 's the Rule of our Faith If some great Divines have held this Doctrine not in opposition to the goodness of God but hoping they might be reconciled together let them do it if they can but if they cannot rather let the Schools of the greatest Divines be call'd in question than the goodness of God which next to his Being is the greatest and clearest truth in the world Thirdly It is farther objected that the eternal punishment of Men for temporal Faults seems hard to be reconciled with that excess of Goodness which we suppose to be in God This Objection I have fully answer'd in a Discourse upon S. Matth. 25.46 and therefore shall proceed to the Fourth and last Objection against the goodness of God from sundry Instances of God's severity to Mankind in those great Calamities which by the Providence of God have in several Ages either befaln Mankind in general or particular Nations And here I shall confine my self to Scripture Instances as being most known and most certain and remarkable or at least equally remarkable with any that are to be met with in any other History such are the early and universal degeneracy of all Mankind by the sin and transgression of our first Parents the destruction of the World by a general deluge the sudden and terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them by Fire and Brimstone from Heaven the cruel extirpation of the Canaanites by the express command of God and lastly the great Calamities which befel the Jewish Nation especially the final ruin
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
and by derivation from God who is the fountain and original of goodness which is the meaning of our Saviour Luke 18.19 when he says there is none good save one that is God But tho' the degrees of Goodness in God and the Creatures be infinitely unequal and that Goodness which is in us be so small and inconsiderable that compared with the Goodness of God it does not deserve that name yet the essential Notion of Goodness in both must be the same else when the Scripture speaks of the Goodness of God we could not know the meaning of it and if we do not at all understand what it is for God to be good it is all one to us for ought we know whether he be good or not for he may be so and we never the better for it if we do not know what Goodness in God is and consequently when he is so and when not Besides that the Goodness of God is very frequently in Scripture propounded to our imitation but it is impossible for us to imitate that which we do not understand what it is from whence it is certain that the goodness which we are to endeavour after is the same that is in God because in this we are commanded to imitate the Perfection of God that is to be good and merciful as he is according to the rate and condition of Creatures and so far as we whose Natures are imperfect are capable of resembling the Divine Goodness Thus much for the Notion of goodness in God it is a propension and disposition in the Divine Nature to communicate being and happiness to his Creatures Secondly I shall endeavour to shew in the next place that this Perfection of Goodness belongs to God and that from these three heads I. From the Acknowledgments of Natural Light II. From the Testimony of Scripture and Divine Revelation And III. From the Perfection of the Divine Nature I. From the Acknowledgments of Natural Light The generality of the Heathen agree in it and there is hardly any Perfection of God more universally acknowledged by them I always except the Sect of the Epicureans who attribute nothing but Eternity and Happiness to the Divine Nature and yet if they would have considered it Happiness without Goodness is impossible I do not find that they do expresly deny this Perfection to God or that they ascribe to him the contrary but they clearly take away all the Evidence and Arguments of the Divine Goodness for they supposed God to be an immortal and happy Being that enjoyed himself and had no regard to any thing without himself that neither gave Being to other things nor concerned himself in the happiness or misery of any of them so that their Notion of a Deity was in truth the proper Notion of an idle Being that is called God and neither does good nor evil But setting aside this atheistical Sect the rest of the Heathen did unanimously affirm and believe the Goodness of God and this was the great foundation of their Religion and all their Prayers to God and Praises of him did necessarily suppose a perswasion of the Divine Goodness Whosoever prays to God must have a perswasion or good hopes of his readiness to do him good and to praise God is to acknowledge that he hath received good from him Seneca hath an excellent passage to this purpose He says he that denies the Goodness of God does not surely consider the infinite number of Prayers that with hands lifted up to Heaven are put up to God both in private and publick which certainly would not be nor is it credible that all Mankind should conspire in this madness of putting up their Supplications to deaf and impotent Deities if they did not believe that the Gods were so good as to confer benefits upon those who prayed to them But we need not to infer their belief of God's Goodness from the acts of their devotion nothing being more common among them than expresly to attribute this Perfection of Goodness to him and among the Divine Titles this always had the preeminence both among the Greeks and Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus optimus maximus was their constant stile and in our Language the name of God seems to have been given him from his Goodness I might produce innumerable passages out of the Heathen Authers to this purpose but I shall only mention that remarkable one out of Seneca primus deorum cultus est deos credere deinde reddere illis majestatem suam reddere bonitatem sine quâ nulla majestas The first act of Worship is to believe the Being of God and the next to ascribe Majesty or greatness to him and to ascribe Goodness without which there can be no Greatness II. From the testimony of Scripture and Divine Revelation I shall mention but a few of those many Texts of Scripture which declare to us the Goodness of God Exod. 34.6 where God makes his Name known to Moses the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful long suffering abundant in goodness and truth Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive Psal 119.68 Thou art good and dost good And that which is so often repeated in the Book of Psalms O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good and his mercy endureth for ever Our blessed Saviour attributes this Perfection to God in so peculiar and transcendent a manner as if it were incommunicable Luke 18.19 There is none good save one that is God The meaning is that no Creature is capable of it in that excellent and transcendent degree in which the Divine Nature is possest of it To the same purpose are those innumerable Testimonies of Scripture which declare God to be gracious and merciful and long suffering for these are but several Branches of his Goodness his Grace is the freeness of his Goodness to those who have not deserved it his Mercy is his Goodness to those who are in misery his Patience is his Goodness to those who are guilty in deferring the Punishment due to them III. The Goodness of God may likewise be argued from the Perfection of the Divine Nature these two ways 1. Goodness is the chief of all Perfections and therefore it belongs to God 2. There are some Footsteps of it in the Creatures and therefore it is much more eminently in God 1. Goodness is the highest Perfection and therefore it must needs belong to God who is the most perfect of Beings Knowledge and Power are great Perfections but separated from Goodness they would be great Imperfections nothing but craft and violence An Angel may have Knowledge and Power in a great degree but yet for all that be a Devil Goodness is so great and necessary a Perfection that without it there can be no other it gives Perfection to all other excellencies take away this and the greatest excellencies in any other kind would be but the greatest imperfections And therefore our Saviour speaks of the
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 People of Israel walk contrary to me and if ye will not be reformed by all these things I will punish you yet seven times more And v. 27. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins At first God's Justice accuseth Sinners but after a long time of Patience his Mercy comes in against us and instead of staying his hand adds weight to his blows Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction They upon whom the Patience of God hath no good effect are vessels of wrath preapred and fitted for destruction If ever God display his wrath and make his anger known he will do it in the most severe manner upon those who have despised and abused his Patience for these in a more peculiar manner do treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God To conclude Let us all take a review of our lives and consider how long the Patience of God hath waited upon us and born with us with some twenty forty perhaps sixty Years and longer Do we not remember how God spared us in such a danger when we gave our selves for lost and how he recovered us in such a sickness when the Physician gave us up for gone and what use we made of this Patience and long-suffering of God towards us It is the worst temper in the World not to be melted by kindness not to be obliged by benefits not to be tamed by gentle usage He that is not wrought upon neither by the patience of his Mercy nor by the patience of his Judgments his case is desperate and past remedy Consider this all ye that forget God left his Patience turn into Fury for God is not slack as some men count slackness but long-suffering to sinners not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance SERMON VIII 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 NOthing is more evident than that the world lies in wickedness and that iniquity every where abounds and yet nothing is more certain than that God will not acquit the guilty and let sin go unpunished All Men excepting those who have offer'd notorious violence to the light of their own Minds and have put the candle of the Lord which is in them under a bushel do believe that there is a God in the World to whose holy Nature and Will sin is perfectly contrary who loves righteousness and hates iniquity that his eyes are upon the ways of man and he seeth all his goings that there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves All Men except those whose Consciences are seared as it were with a hot Iron are convinc'd of the difference of good and evil and that it is not all one whether men serve God or serve him not do well or live wickedly Every Man from his inward Sense and Experience is satisfied of his own Liberty and that God lays upon Men no necessity of sinning but that when ever we do amiss it is our own act and we chuse to do so and so far is he from giving the least countenance to sin that he hath given all imaginable discouragement to it by the most severe and terrible threatnings such as one would think sufficient to deter Men for ever from it and to drive it out of the World and to make his Threatnings the more awful and effectual his Providence hath not been wanting to give remarkable Instances of his Justice and Severity upon notorious Offenders even in this life and yet for all this Men do and will sin nay they are zealously set and bent upon it Now here is the wonder what it is that gives sinners such heart and makes them so resolute and undaunted in so dangerous a course Solomon gives us this account of it because the Punishments and Judgments of God follow the sins of Men so slowly and are long before they overtake the sinner Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil The scope of the wise Man's discourse is this That by reason of God's forbearance and long-suffering toward sinners in this life 't is not so easie to discern the difference between them and other Men this life is the day of God's Patience but the next will be a day of retribution and recompence Now because God doth defer and moderate the punishment of sinners in this World and reserve the weight of his Judgments to the next because through the long-suffering of God many great sinners live and dye without any remarkable testimony of God's wrath and displeasure against them therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set in them to do evil If we render the Text word for word from the Original it runs thus Because nothing is done as a recompence to an evil work therefore the hearts of the sons of men are full in them to do evil that is because Men are not opposed and contradicted in their evil ways because Divine Justice doth not presently check and controul sinners because sentence is not immediately past upon them and judgment executed therefore the heart of the sons of men is full in them to do evil that is therefore Men grow bold and presumptuous in sin for the Hebrew word which we render is fully set in them we find Esth 7.5 where Ahashuerus says concerning Haman Who is he and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so Whose heart was full to do so Fervet in iis cor filiorum hominum so some render it the hearts of men boil with wickedness are so full of it that it works over Men are resolute in an evil course their hearts are strengthened and hardened in them to do evil so others translate the words The Translation of the LXX is very emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heart of the sons of men is fully perswaded and assured to do evil All these Translations agree in the main scope and sense viz. That sinners are very apt to presume upon the long-suffering of God and to abuse it to the hardning and encouraging of themselves in their evil ways In the handling of this I shall First Briefly shew that it is so Secondly Whence this comes to pass and upon what pretences and colours of reason Men encourage themselves in sin from the Patience of God Thirdly I shall endeavour to answer an Objection about this matter First That Men are very apt to abuse the long-suffering of God to the encouraging and hardning of themselves in an evil course the experience of
There is nothing of a rash and ungoverned Passion in the wise and just God Every sin indeed kindles his anger and provokes his displeasure against us and by our repeated and continued Offences we still add Fuel to his Wrath but it doth not of necessity instantly break forth like a consuming fire and a devouring flame The holy and righteous Nature of God makes him necessarily offended and displeased with the sins of Men but as to the manifestation of his Wrath and the effects of his Anger his Wisdom and Goodness do regulate and determine the proper time and circumstances of Punishment 3. From the Patience of God and the delay of punishment Men are apt to conclude that God is not so severe in his Nature as he is commonly represented 'T is true he hath declared his displeasure against sin and threaten'd it with dreadful punishments which he may do in great wisdom to keep the World in awe and order but great things are likewise spoken of his Mercy and of the wonderful delight he takes in the exercise of his Mercy so that notwithstanding all the threatnings which are denounced against sin it is to be hoped that when Sentence comes to be past and Judgment to be executed God will remember mercy in the midst of judgment and that mercy will triumph over judgment and that as now his Patience stays his hand and turns away his wrath so at the last the milder Attributes of his Goodness and Mercy will interpose and moderate the rigor and severity of his Justice and of this his great Patience and long-suffering towards Sinners for the present seems to be some kind of pledge and earnest he that is so slow to anger and so loth to execute punishment may probably be prevail'd upon by his own Pity and Goodness to remit it at the last and this is the more credible because it is granted on all hands that no person is obliged to execute his threatnings as he is to make good his promises he that promiseth passeth a right to another but he that threatneth keeps the right and power of doing what he pleaseth in his own hands I shall speak a little more fully to this because it is almost incredible how much Men bear up themselves upon vain and groundless hopes of the boundless Mercy of God and bless themselves in their hearts saying They shall have peace tho' they walk in the imagination of their hearts to add drunkenness to thirst that is tho' they still persist in their Vices and add one degree of sin to another Now for answer to this 1. Let it be granted that a bare threatning does not necessarily infer the certainty of the event and that the thing threatned shall infallibly come to pass no person is obliged to perform his threatnings as he is his promises the threatnings of God declare what sin deserves and what the sinner may justly expect if he continue impenitent and incorrigible But then we are to take notice that repentance is the only condition that is implyed in the threatnings of God and will effectually hinder the execution of them Jer. 18.7 8 9 10. At what instant I speak says God concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it if it do evil in my sight and obey not my voice then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them Now if when God hath promised to do good to a People sin will hinder the blessing promised and bring down Judgments upon them much more when it is particularly threatned But as to the case of final impenitency and unbelief God that he might strengthen his threatnings hath added a sign of immutability to them having confirmed them with an Oath I have sworn saith the Lord that they shall not enter into my rest which tho' it was spoken to the unbelieving Jews the Apostle to the Hebrews applys it to final unbelief and impenitency under the Gospel of which the infidelity of the Israelites was a Type and Figure Now tho' God may remit of his threatnings yet his Oath is a plain declaration that he will not because it signifies the firm and immutable determination of his Will and thereby puts an end to all doubts and controversies concerning the fulfilling of his threatnings 2. It is certainly much the wisest and safest way to believe the threatnings of God in the strictness and rigour of them unless there be some tacite condition evidently implyed in them because if we do not believe them and the thing prove otherwise the consequence of our mistake is fatal and dreadful 'T is true indeed that God by his threatnings did intend to keep sinners in awe and to deter them from sin but if he had any where revealed that he would not be rigorous in the execution of these threatnings such a revelation would quite take off the edge and terror of them and contradict the end and design of them for threatnings signifie very little but upon this supposition that in all probability they will be executed and if this be true it is the greatest madness and folly in the World to run the hazard of it 3. As for those large declarations which the Scripture makes of the boundless Mercy of God to Sinners we are to limit them as the Scripture hath done to the time and season of mercy which is this life and while we are in the way This is the day of mercy and salvation and when this life is ended the opportunities of Grace and Mercy are past and the day of recompence and vengeance will begin Now God tries us and offers Mercy to us but if we obstinately refuse it Judgment will take hold of us And then we must limit the Mercy of God to the conditions upon which he offers it which are repentance for sins past and sincere obedience for the future but if Men continue obstinate and impenitent and encourage themselves in sin from the Mercy and Patience of God this is not a case that admits of Mercy but on the contrary his Justice will triumph in the ruin and destruction of those who instead of embracing the offers of his Mercy do despise and abuse them He will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear comes when their fear comes as desolation and their destruction as a whirl-wind when distress and anguish cometh upon them then they may call upon him but he will not answer they may seek him early but they shall not find him If we despise the riches of God's goodness and long-suffering and forbearance he knows how to handle us and will do it to purpose with the froward he will shew himself froward and
will be in a more especial manner severe towards those who take encouragement from his Mercy to disbelieve and despise his threatnings And this God hath as plainly told us as words can express any thing Deut. 29.19 20. And if it come to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho' I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven What ever right and power God hath reserved to himself about the execution of his threatnings he hath plainly declared that of all others those who encourage themselves in a sinful course from the hopes of God's Mercy notwithstanding his threatnings shall find no favour and mercy at his hand whatever he may remit of his threatnings to others he will certainly not spare those who believe so largely concerning the Mercy of God not with a mind to submit to the terms of it but to presume so much the more upon it 4. God hath not been wanting to shew some remarkable Instances of his severity towards Sinners in this World As he is pleased sometimes to give good Men some fore-tastes of Heaven and earnests of their future happiness so likewise by some present stroke to let Sinners feel what they are to expect hereafter some sparks of Hell do now and then fall upon the Consciences of Sinners That fear which is sometimes kindled in Men's Consciences in this life that horrible anguish and those unspeakable terrors which some Sinners have had experience of in this World may serve to forewarn us of the wrath which is to come and to convince us of the reality of those expressions of the Torments of Hell by the worm that dies not and the fire that is not quenched That miraculous Deluge which swallowed up the old World that Hell which was rained down from Heaven in those terrible showers of Fire and Brimstone to consume Sodom and Gomorrah the Earth opening her mouth upon Corah and his seditious company to let them down as it were quick into Hell these and many other remarkable Judgments of God in several Ages upon particular Persons and upon Cities and Nations may satisfie us in some measure of the severity of God against sin and be as it were Pledges to assure Sinners of the insupportable Misery and Torments of the next Life 5. The Argument is much stronger the other way that because the punishment of Sinners is delayed so long therefore it will be much heavier and severer when it comes that the wrath of God is growing all this while and as we fill up the measure of our sins he fills the vials of his wrath Rom. 2.5 And according to thy hard and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God God now keeps in his dis-pleasure but all the while we go on in an impenitent course the wrath of God is continually increasing and will at last be manifested by the righteous Judgment of God upon Sinners God now exerciseth and displayeth his milder Attributes his Goodness and Mercy and Patience but these will not always hold out there is a dreadful day a coming wherein as the Apostle speaks God will shew his wrath and make his power known after he hath endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction All this long time of God's patience and forbearance his wrath is kindling and he is whetting his glittering sword and making sharp his arrows and this long preparation doth portend a much more dreadful Execution so that we should reason thus from the long-suffering of God God bears with us and spares us at present and keeps in his anger therefore if we go on to provoke him time will come when he will not spare but his anger will flame forth and his jealousie smoak against us This is but reasonable to expect that they who in this World forsake their own mercies the mercy of God in the next should forsake them 4. Another false conclusion which Men draw from the delay of punishment is that because it is delayed therefore it is not so certain the Sinner escapes for the present and tho' he have some misgivings and fearful apprehensions of the future yet he hopes his fears may be greater than his danger 'T is true indeed we are not so certain of the misery of wicked Men in another World as if it were present and we lay groaning under the weight of it such a certainty as this would not only leave no place for doubting but even for that which we properly and strictly call Faith for faith is the evidence of things not seen But sure we have other Faculties besides Sense to judge of things by we may be sufficiently certain of many things which are neither present nor sensible of many things past and future upon good ground and testimony we are sure that we were born and yet we have no remembrance of it we are certain that we shall dye tho' we never had the experience of it Things may be certain in their causes as well as in their present existence if the causes be certain The truth of God who hath declared these things to us is an abundant ground of assurance to us tho' they be at a great distance The certainty of things is not shaken by our wavering belief concerning them Besides the very light of Nature and the common Reason of Mankind hath always made a contrary inference from the long-suffering of God and the delay of present punishment Tho' Men are apt to think that because Judgment is deferr'd therefore it is not certain yet the very light of Nature hath taught Men to reason otherwise that because God is so patient to Sinners in this life therefore there will a time come when they shall be punisht that because this life is a time of tryal and forbearance therefore there shall be another state after this life which shall be a season of recompences And by this argument chiefly it was that the wisest of the Heathen satisfied themselves concerning another state after this life and answer'd the troublesome Objection against the Providence of God from the unequal administration of things in this World so visible in the afflictions and sufferings of good Men and the prosperity of the wicked viz. That there would be another state that would adjust all these matters and set them streight when good and bad Men should receive the full recompence of their deeds The 5 th and last false conclusion which Men draw from the long-suffering of God and the delay of Punishment is this that it is however probably at some distance and
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
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