own guilt, than reflection on that forbearance of a patient God, which did not doom him to inftant and deferved deftruction, but spared him to hear the glad tidings of peace. Thus the unspeakable grace of God in the gospel opens the springs of penitential forrow, and makes them flow more fweetly indeed, but more freely, and more copiously than before. You may obferve the ftrong picture of penitence and love, which is drawn with inimitable beauty by the evangelift Luke, ch. vii. 37, 38. “And "behold a woman in the city, which was a finner, when "The knew that Jefus fat at meat in the Pharifee's house, brought an alabaster-box of ointment, and flood at his "feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet "with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, "and kiffed his feet, and anointed them with the oint"ment." Was it not in grace and mercy that the fuffering Saviour looked upon Peter, which immediately confounded him? Luke xxii. 61, 62. "And the Lord turn"ed, and looked upon Peter; and Peter remembered the "word of the Lord, how he had faid unto him, Before the "cock crow, thou fhalt deny me thrice. And Peter went "out, and wept bitterly." What is it elfe that is fented by the prophet as having fo ftrong an effect upon the believer in producing penitential forrow, but the love of our Redeemer? Zech. xii. 10. "And I will pour upon "the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerufa"lem, the spirit of grace and of fupplications, and they "fhall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they "fhall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only fon, "and fhall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bit"terness for his firft-born." repre 2. Forgiveness with God tends to increase our fear and reverence of him, from the manner in which, and the condition on which it is bestowed. Every circumftance in this difpenfation of divine mercy is calculated to abase the finner, and leave him nothing whereof to glory before God. Forgiveness is always declared to be an act of fovereign grace, If. xliii. 25. " I, even I am he that blotteth "out thy tranfgreffions for mine own fake, and will not "remember thy fins." We are many times cautioned against imputing to ourselves, or our own merit, what is merely the effect of divine mercy. If the fcripture is read with care, there will be obferved many paffages which car. ry this inftruction in them, to beware of taking merit to ourfelves from the divine goodness, or any effect or expref fion of it: Deut. ix. 4, 5. " Speak not thou in thine heart, "after that the Lord thy God hath caft them out from be "fore thee, faying, For my righteousness the Lord hath "brought me in to poffefs this land: but for the wicked"ness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from "before thee. Not for thy righteoufnefs, or for the up"rightness of thine heart, doft thou go to poffefs their land; "but for the wickednefs of these nations the Lord thy God "doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may "perform the word which the Lord fware unto thy fathers, "Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob." Ezek. xxxvi. 21, 22. "But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of "Ifrael had profaned among the heathen, whither they Therefore fay unto the houfe of Ifrael, Thus "faith the Lord God, I do not this for your fakes, O house "of Ifrael, but for mine holy name's fake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went." "went. 66 It is probably alfo with this view, if we may prefume to offer an opinion on fo deep a fubject, that the objects of fpecial mercy are fometimes chofen from among the most criminal, even the chief of finners. Does not this forbid, in the ftrongeft terms, every man to harbor the leaft thought, as if by his own righteoufnefs, or being comparatively lefs wicked than others, he had been intitled to the divine favor: Rom, ix. 15.-18. "For he faith to Mo fes, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and "I will have compaffion on whom I will have compaffion. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that "runneth, but of God that fheweth mercy. For the fcrip-"ture faith unto Pharaoh, Even for this fame purpose "have I raised thee up, that I might fhew my power in "thee, and that my name might be declared throughout "all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he "will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." But the circumstances on which we are called chiefly to fix our attention, is, that forgivenefs is beftowed only through the blood of Chrift. It is freely and gracioufly bestowed upon the finner, but was dearly and hardly purchafed by the furety. This is no new or unufual fubject in this congregation. But Oh! my brethren, that we could in fome measure apprehend its infinite importance. Think, I beseech you, on the holinefs and juftice of God, as they fhine in the fufferings and crofs of Chrift: that a righteous God required full fatisfaction for fin; that "the "Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all;" that "it pleafed the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to grief. Are not the majesty and purity of God fet forth in this tranfaction, in the most clear and legible, nay in the most awful and terrible characters? for they are written in blood. Is the Lord to be praised for his mercy? and is he not alfo to be feared for his juftice? May we not, or rather muft we not, fay, "If fuch things were done in the 66. green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" If God faw it neceffary to lay fuch a load of wrath upon the Holy One, when standing in the room of finners, what fhall be the condition of the impenitent tranfgreffors, who fhall lie under it forever? We may well adopt the words of Mofes to the children of Ifrael, Deut xxviii. 58, 59. "If thou " wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are "written in this book, that thou mayft fear this glorious "and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; then "the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the "plagues of thy feed, even great plagues, and of long "continuance, and fore fickneffes, and of long continu 66 ance." Do you not now, my brethren, fee much propriety, as well as inftruction, in this language, "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayft be feared?" The expreffion indeed is not fingular in the holy Scripture, even in the sense now illuftrated. It is certainly on the fame fubject the Pfalmift is fpeaking, when he fays, Pf. xl. iii. "And he hath put a new fong in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many fhall fee it, and fear, and fhal! truft in the Lord." As alfo the prophet Hofea, ch. iii. 5. “Afterward shall the children of Ifrael return, and seek 46 "the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear "the Lord, and his goodness in the latter days." III. I proceed now to make fome practical improve. ment of what hath been faid. And, 1. From what hath been faid, you may learn, that none can understand, embrace, or esteem the mercy of God, but: those who are convinced of their fin and mifery. Mercy can be of benefit only to the guilty; mercy can be be ftowed only on the guilty; and therefore all that can be faid in illuftration of the divine mercy, all that can be faid in commendation of the divine mercy, will be efteemed. as idle tales by those who do not know themselves to be guilty. Hence the negligence and unconcern with which; the gospel is received. Very many of those to whom it is addrefled are infenfible of their danger. The employments of the world ingrofs their time; the enjoyments of the world poffefs their affections: an eternal, unchangeable. ftate is fuppofed at too great a distance to require, their at tention. I beseech you, my brethren, to confider, that the time of your trial is wafting apace. Let the commence-, ment of another feafon * put you in mind of its speedy paffage, and persuade you to look forward to the day of death or judgment, when all offers of mercy, and exhortations to repentance, fhall ceafe, and when, though there may be forgiveness with God to all the proper objects of it in his extenfive dominion, yet there fhall be no forgive. nefs for you. 2. From what hath been faid you may obferve, that the publication of divine mercy, that the illuftration of the riches of divine grace in the gofpel, hath not the least tendency to leffen our fenfe of the evil of fin, or the obligation we lie under to obedience: on the contrary, it ferves greatly to improve both the one and the other. When we endeavor to bring confolation to the broken in heart; when we fet before them the tender mercies of our God, and the infinite compaffion of the Saviour; when we press them to hearken to the invitations of the gofpel; when.. we encourage them to reft their falvation upon it, and to Preached at the beginning of the year. be at peace; this only ferves to excite their indignation against fin, and perfuade them to fly from it, to bring them to the obedience of children, and fhed abroad the love of God in their hearts. 3. From what hath been faid, you may fee the differ ence between a real and fcriptural difcovery of forgivenefs with God, and that careless security which arises from a presumptuous reliance on his general mercy. The one prevents conviction, the other produces it. The general and common plea of God's mercy, keeps the finner at eafe as he is; but a real and fcriptural difcovery of forgive ness with God, heals the broken in heart, and at the fame time increases their sense of the evil of fin, and their abhorrence of every approach to it. Prefumption, and fuch views of God's mercy as are taken by the secure, arife entirely from the extenuation of fin. The language of their hearts is, "Surely this is not fo great a matter, but God's mercy will forgive it." If you will either seriously examine yourselves, or obferve, with fome attention, the difcourfe of careless worldly perfons, you will perceive this very clearly. They comfort themselves with the thoughts of their little comparative guilt, rather than of the certainty and greatness of divine mercy. "I may perhaps," fays one of them," have been guilty of fuch or fuch fins; but I am fure I never did foor "fo," or perhaps as fome others who immediately occur to their minds as greater finners than themselves. I can. not help mentioning to you the faying of a prince of our own country towards the clofe of life, who had been a remarkable libertine in his younger years: "I cannot "think," fays he "hat God will be fo hard as to damn "a man for taking a little pleasure out of the cominon "road." In oppofition to this, the true penitent fees more than ever his inexcufable guilt as a finner, but hopes for forgiveness from God, as the effect of his own infinite grace, and the accomplishment of his promife in the gofpel. He gives the whole glory of it to him and never thinks of dimi VOL. I. * K. Charles II. to Bishop Burnet.. |