Let us then often contemplate this perfection of God, and reprefent it to our minds, that, by the frequent contemplation of it, we may be transformed into the image of the divine goodnefs. Is God fo good to his creatures? With how much greater réafon fhould we be fo to our fellow-creatures? Is God good to us? Let us imitate his univerfal 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 ftill be to us, that let us be to others. We are infinitely beholden 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 reafon in the world to admire and imitate it. Let this pattern of the divine goodnefs be continually before us, that we may be ftill fashioning ourselves in the temper of our minds, and in the actions of our lives, to a likenefs and conformity to it.

Lastly, The confideration of the divine goodness fhould excite our praise and thankfulness: this is a great duty, to the performance whereof we should fummon all the powers and faculties of our fouls; as the holy Pfalmift does, Pfal. ciii. 1. 2. Bless the Lord, O my foul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.. Bless the Lord, O my foul, and forget not all his benefits. And we fhould invite all others to the fame work, as the fame devout Pfalmift frequently does; Pfal. cvi. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. And, Pfal. cvii. 8. Oh, that men would praife the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

And we had need to be often called upon to this duty, to which we have a peculiar backwardnefs. Neceflity* drives us to prayer, and fends us to God for the fupply of our wants; but praise and thanksgiving is a duty which depends upon our gratitude and ingenuity; and nothing fooner wears off, than the fenfe of kindness and benefits. We are very apt to forget the bleffings of God, not fo much from a bad memory, as from a bad nature; to forget the greatest bleflings, the continuance whereof fhould continually put us in mind of them, the bleffings of our beings. So God complains

of

of his people, Deut. xxxii. 18. Of the God that formed thee thou hast been unmindful: The dignity and excellency of our being, above all the creatures of this visible world; Job xxxv. 10. 11. None faith, where is God my maker, who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wifer than the fowls of heaven? The daily comforts and bleffings 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 Hofea, chap. ii. 8. She knew not that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her filver and gold. And is it not shameful to fee 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 unwife? It is juft with God to take away his bleffings from us, if we deny him this easy tribute of praise and thanksgiving.

It is a fign men are unfit for heaven, when they are backward to that which is the proper work and employment of the blessed spirits above: therefore, as ever we hope to come thither, let us begin this work here, and inure ourselves to that which will be the great bufinefs of all eternity: let us, with the four and twenty elders in the Revelation, fall down before him that fits on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and caft our crowns before the throne; (that is, caft ourselves) and ascribe all glory to God, faying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast made all things, and for thy pleafure they are, and were created:

To him therefore, the infinite and inexhaustible fountain of goodness, the Father of mercies, and the God of all confolation, who gave us fuch excellent beings, having made us little lower than the angels, and crowned us with glory and honour, who hath been pleafed to ftamp 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 goodnefs, but in

VOL. VII.

E

fome

fome measure and degree, of the perfection itself; to him, who gives us all things richly to enjoy, which pertain to life and godliness, and hath made fuch abundant provifion not only for our comfort and convenience in this prefent life, but for our unfpeakable happiness to all eternity; to him, who defigned this happinefs to us from all eternity, and whofe mercy and goodnefs to us endures for ever, who, when by wilful tranfgreffions and difobedience we had plunged ourselves into a state of fin and mifery, and had forfeited that happiness which we were defigned to, was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it, by fending his only Son to take our nature, with the miferies 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, though we provoke him every day, who preferves and provides for us, and fpares 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, how and for ever.

SERMON

The mercy of God.

CXLVII.

I

NUMB. XIV. 18.

The Lord is long-fuffering, and of great mercy.

Have confidered 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 deferved punishment: the mercy of God is his goodness to them that are, or may be miferable. It is the laft of these two I defign to difcourfe of at this time; in doing of which, I fhall enquire,

1. What

1. What we are to understand by the mercy of God. 2. Shew you, that this perfection belongs to God. 3. Confider 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 mifery, or liable to it; that is, that are in danger of it, or have deferved it. It is mercy, to prevent the mifery that we are liable to, and which may befal us, though it be not actually upon us. It is mercy, to defer the mifery that we deferve, or mitigate it; and this is, properly, patience and forbearance. It is mercy, to relieve thofe that are in mifery, to fupport or comfort them. It is mercy, to remit the mifery we deserve, and, by pardon and forgiveness, to remove and take away the obligation to punishment.

Thus the mercy of God is ufually, in fcripture, fet forth to us, by the affection of pity and compassion; which is an affection that caufeth a fenfible commo. tion and disturbance in us, upon the apprehenfion of fome great evil that lies upon another, or bangs over him. Hence it is that God is faid, in fcripture, to be grieved and afflicted for the miseries of men; his bowels are faid to found, and his heart to turn within him. But though God is pleafed in this manner to fet forth his mercy and tenderness towards us, yet we must take heed how we clothe the divine nature with the infirmities of human paffions. We must not meafure the perfection of God by the expreffions of his condefcenfion; and, because he stoops to our weakness, level him to our infirmities. When God is faid to pity us, we must take away the imperfection of this paffion, the commotion and difturbance of it, and not imagine any fuch thing in God; but we are to conceive, that the mercy and compaffion of God, without producing the difquiet, do produce the effects of the moft fenfible pity.

Secondly, That this perfection belongs to God.

All the arguments that I used to prove the goodness of God, from the acknowledgment of natural light, and from fcripture and reason, serve to prove that he is merciful; because the mercy of God is an eminent branch

of his goodness. I will only produce fome of thofe many texts of fcripture which attribute this perfection to God. Exod. xxxiv. 6. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Deut. iv. 31. The Lord thy God is a merciful God. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 9. The Lord your God is gracious and merciful. Neh. ix. 17. Ready to pardon, gracious and merciful. Pfal. xxv. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy. Pfal. Ixii. 12. Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. Pfal. ciii. 8. Merciful and gracious. Pfal. cxxx. 7. With the Lord there is mercy. And fo, Jer. iii. 12. Joel ii. 13. Jonah iv. 2. Luke vi. 36. Be ye therefore merciful, as your father alfo is merciful. The fcripture fpeaks of this as moft natural to him; 2 Cor. i. 3. he is called the father of mercies. But when he punisheth, he doth, as it were, relinquish his nature, and do a strange work. The Lord will wait, that he may be gracious, Ila. xxx. 18. God paffeth by opportunities of punifhing, but his mercy takes opportunity to difplay itfelf: He waits to be gracious. To afflict or punish, is a work that God is unwilling to, that he takes no pleafure in; Lam. iii. 33. He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. But mercy is a work that he delights in; Micah vii. 18. He delighteth in mercy. When God fhews mercy, he does it with pleafure and delight; he is faid to rejoice over his people, to do them good. Thofe attributes that declare God's goodnefs, as when he is faid to be gracious, or merciful, and long-fuffering, they fhew what God is in himself, and delights to be: thofe which declare his wrath and feverity, fhew what he is upon provocation, and the occafion of fin; not what he chufeth to be, but what we do, as it were, compel and neceffitate him to be.

Thirdly, For the degree of it; that God is a God of great mercy.

The fcripture doth delight to advance the mercy of God, and does ufe great variety of expreffion to magnify it: it speaks of the greatness of his mercy; Numb. xiv. 19. According unto the greatness of thy mercy. 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great. It is called an abundant mercy; Pet. i. 3. According to his abundant mercy.

Pfal