must understand all the difficulties of Quantity and whether it consist of Divisibles or Indivisibles and must understand the differences of Matter and the reason why he can bite one sort of Matter with his Teeth but can make no impression upon another and how the parts of matter hang together and the like There is a more general indistinct apprehension of things which is sufficient to govern our Actions though we do not understand all the Niceties and Philosophy of them But if our Author can find such subtilties in those plain matters which are taught Children in the Church-Catechism which are objections that will indifferently lie against the plainest Instructions what does he think of those sublime matters of the Eternal Decrees and Counsels of God Election and Reprobation and such-like Mysteries which are so familiarly thrust into Catechisms What subtilty is required in Children to understand these deep Points and to comprehend the subtil and artificial Schemes of Orthodoxy This is much like another Cavil against the intelligibleness of our Union with Christ I am sure says our Author that our Union with Christ is an Union No doubt Sir and if it be so it cannot be very easie to be understood because the Metaphysical notion of Union is as difficult as any other transcendental term Why then let the Metaphysicians dispute it out but for all that I can easily understand and I believe any one else can what it is to be related to Christ as Subjects are to their Prince and Disciples to their Master and Wives to their Husbands c. This is enough to give the Reader a taste of our Authors Skill and should I add any more it might bring my own discretion into question for next to making foolish and cavilling Objections it is an argument of a very little Wit to answer them And therefore to proceed Dr. Owen observes that I have writ against his Book which was writ and published near twenty years since I confess I do not well understand the force of this Objection unless he imagine that his Book is now grown venerable for its antiquity but where-ever the force of it lies I am sure it answers another grand Objection against me which is so often repeated that I am a Young Man a defect which time will mend and which Industry will supply However I suppose the Doctor was not very old twenty years ago and it argu'd some Modesty in the young Man rather to attack a Book writ by the Doctor when he was a young Man too than rudely to assault his Writings of a later date which may be presumed to be the effects of a more mature Judgement and riper years and I hope this consideration will plead my excuse with him for not undertaking that task which he has so kindly allotted me right or wrong to answer all his late voluminous Treatises which I think I may as soon be perswaded to do as to read them that magnificent Title of Exercitations which used to be prefixed before some learned Discourses invited me to take a little taste of them till I found my self mistaken and deceived with some jejune or trite Observations which has so put me out of conceit with flattering Titles that I shall never again believe the Titles of Books or Chapters for his sake But this Book has had the approbation of as Learned and Holy Persons it may be as any the Doctor knows living in England or out of it who owning the Truth contained in it have highly avowed its Usefulness and are ready yet so to do I fear that either the Doctor 's Acquaintance with Learned and Holy Men is not very great or that this is not true for I cannot conceive how very holy men should so approve a Book which is so little a Friend to Holiness or that learned men should be pleased with such loose and inconsequent Reasonings but let that be as it will I am sure there are as learned and as holy men who do as little approve it unless the Doctor thinks that Learning and Holiness are confined to his own Party or that the approbation of his Writings is the only sure test of Mens Learning and Holiness But the great charge of all which runs thorow his whole Book is that I have mis-represented his words and perverted his sense which sometimes he attributes to ignorance sometimes to malice sometimes he calls it an impudent falshood sometimes flagitiously false and shows very great Skill at varying phrases which he is much better at than at writing Controversies Whether this Charge be true or not shall be examined particularly as far as I can reduce the several particulars of this Charge into any order But to abate the wonder a little I must inform my Reader that this is Dr. Owen's way of answering Books to deny those Doctrines which he dares not own or cannot vindicate I am not the first who have been charged with such falsifications Mr. Baxter was taxed with it long since in a whole Book written for that very purpose intitled Of the Death of Christ and of Iustification the Doctrine concerning them formerly deliverd vindicated from the Animadversions of Mr. R. B. where this grave man is corrected as magisterially as if he had been such another Stripling as my self Towards the conclusion of that Discourse I meet with a very excellent Prayer If I must engage again in the like kind I shall pray That He from whom are all my supplies would give me a real humble frame of heart that I may have no need with many pretences and a multitude of good words to make a cloak for a Spirit breaking frequently thorow all with sad discoveries of Pride and Passion and to keep me from all magisterial insolence pharisaical supercilious self-conceitedness contempt of others and every thing that is contrary to the Rule whereby I ought to walk It is great pity that Forms of Prayer are not lawful for this is too good a Prayer to be used but once in a mans life which I doubt is one reason why we see no better effects of it in the Doctors Writings But there is a heavier Charge than all this behind which is frequently hinted by Doctor Owen and more expresly managed by Mr. Ferguson who in his Preface tells his Readers That I treat the sacred Writers with as much contempt as I do T. W. and Burlesque the Scripture no less than others have done Virgil's Poems This would be a terrible Adversary were he as good at his proofs as he is bold and daring in his Charge This is a crime of a very high nature to burlesque Scripture and the foulness of the imputation might justly have provoked a tamer man than my self did not his weak and ridiculous proofs more deserve contempt than any serious resentment He waves the proof of this in his Preface but in his second Chapter where he entertains his Readers with a tedious impertinent Discourse about Metaphors and
Paul tells us The works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such-like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. v. 19 20 21. I say must these and such-like places which so expresly denounce the wrath of God against all wickedness and impieties be expounded with this limitation that this shall be the portion of such men unless they be united to Christ and thereby sheltered from the wrath of God as a Wife under covert is secured from all Arrests at Law But as soon as any man hath got into Christ let him be what he will he is redeem'd from the curse of the Law and made an Heir of Eternal Life And does not this effectually evacuate all the Threatnings of the Gospel and set up the Person of Christ as a Refuge and Sanctuary for the Ungodly and make the Grace of Christs Person a Dispensation from his own Laws and Threatnings I am sure the Apostle understood not this limitation as is plain from what he adds vers 24. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And in Rom. viii 1. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus and that we might not mistake him he expresly tells us whom he means who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit This is essential to our Union to Christ and to entitle us to the Grace of the Gospel And it is not enough to say that Christ will save none but those who do live very holy lives because there is no reason for this saying for if men are united to Christ before they are holy their very Union to Christ gives them a title to eternal Life and this can never be reconciled with the antecedent necessity of Holiness which the Gospel inculcates not only to qualifie us for actual Salvation but to give us a right to it and therefore I had good reason to reject this notion of Union unless I would renounce the whole Gospel I reject such a notion of Union as makes it impossible for any man to â—â—ow either how to get into Christ or whether he be in Christ or not and I think every man who values the salvation of his soul or the peace and comfort of his own mind hath reason to reject this too I reject such a notion of Sanctification as makes it impossible to distinguish a sanctified from an unsanctified state I reject such a notion of Christs love to us as represents it too like a fond and foolish passion as respects the very Person without regard to any Qualifications in him whether he be a fit object of love or not which is so great an imperfection in humane love that I cannot imagine it to be the perfection of a Divine Love And I reject such a notion of the immutability of Christs love as sin it self cannot alter which is contrary to all the Declarations of his Gospel and inconsistent with the Holiness and Purity of his Nature I reject such a notion of our love to Christ as excludes all respect to the infinite love of Christ and those numerous Benefits we receive by him which the Scripture assigns as the true reason of our love to Christ. I reject such a notion of love to Christ as excludes all regard to our own Happiness and Salvation by him and must make us contented to be damned and eternally separated from him which is not only impossible to humane Nature but contrary to the Principles of Christianity I reject such a notion of our love to Christ as opposes our Love to Christ to our Duty and Obedience to him which is the most proper and natural expression of our love of him such a love as consists only in some flights of fancy and imagination in admiring and valuing the Person of Iesus Christ and in preferring him above all Legal Righteousness and blamelesness of Conversation and Duties upon Conviction and in using all Duties and Ordinances only to have us over to Christ for Righteousness and Salvation and whatever we need for this is no better than to set up the Person of Christ in opposition to his Laws and Religion This is a short and plain account of the whole Doctrine and Design of my late Discourse and the more I consider it the less reason I see to repent of my Undertaking The Doctrines I have professedly taught are the most necessary and useful Doctrines of Christianity and so plain and evident that a younger man than my self may defend them against the oldest Sophister And the Doctrines that I have opposed are as certainly false as the other are true That such Doctrines have been taught I have made it sufficiently evident already by the express Testimonies of some late Writers and because Doctor Owen is unwilling to own the Charge as far as he is concerned in it I must be forced to make it good in vindication of my own Honesty and that is all the trouble which he has given me Only I would desire the Reader to observe that since the Doctor disowns the Charge he renounces such Doctrines too and that was all I designed I have no personal quarrel with any man and should be glad to find them more Orthodox than their express words would ever suffer me yet to believe they are though I fear much that upon Examination it will appear that I understood them too well and that the Doctor is not willing to recant those Doctrines which he would seem to disown There is some reason to suspect this because he is not willing to declare his sense in plain words but endeavours to avoid the blow by jugling and sophistical Arts as will appear in what follows CHAP. II. Containing an ANSWER to some Popular Exceptions NExt to no Adversary the most desirable thing is to have a fair and ingenuous one but this must never be expected where men serve a Faction which makes them try all ways not to discover what is true but how they may palliate their mistakes and maintain their Authority and Reputation It is my unhappiness to fall into such mens hands who wanting better Weapons to defend their Cause return to their old childish tricks of flinging stones and dirt I am not so well skilled at this sport as to venture to engage with them nor shall I envy them such a Victory which will cost them some time and trouble to make themselves clean again There are several familiar Topicks of Reproach which such men use when they dare not directly engage in the Dispute They have a peculiar Gift of discerning thoughts and intentions and there never was any Book writ which they could not answer but it was writ with a very ill design Thus the Doctor would
by him I am charged with deriding all trust and dependence on Christ for the performance of his Promises or the influences of his Grace and because I reject their proof of this from St. Paul's trusting in God in the faithful discharge of his Apostolical Office notwithstanding all the Persecutions he suffered from Jews and Heathens 2 Tim. 1. 12. I am accused of involving the Scripture in the same condemnation and bringing St. Paul himself under the same imputation Certainly these men think themselves all Apostles and that they expound the Scriptures with as infallible a Spirit as first indited them for otherwise they would not be so impudent as to charge every man who laughs at their ridiculous applications of Scripture-phrases with deriding the Scriptures and the holy Spirit And yet this is the true Reason of all this noise and out-cry about burlesquing the Scripture for he directs his Readers to page 62 63 c. of my Book for an example of my sacrilegious abuse of the words of Scripture to make my Readers sport and to render my Adversaries ridiculous and whoever consults the place will only find a Scheme of their Divinity expressed in their own canting phrases without any Art to make it look ridiculously but only a true and naked representation of it and though I cannot deny that it is a famous Example of burlesquing the Scripture yet Mr. Ferguson ought to have laid the Saddle upon the right Horses back and then I doubt his own dear Friends must suffer under this Imputation There is nothing I more heartily designed than to rescue the Scripture from such Abuses as appears from what I immediately added That the whole Mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature not of Fanaticism as he cites my words purposely to create the greater odium which is very familiar with him and agreeable enough to the purity of his Christian Morals consists in wresting metaphorical and allusive expressions to a proper sense When the Scripture describes the Profession of Christianity a sincere Belief and Obedience to the Gospel by having Christ and being in Christ and coming to him and receiving him these men expound these phrases to a proper and natural sense to signifie I know not what unintelligible Union and spiritual Progress and Closure of the Soul with him an Union of Persons instead of an Agreement in Faith and Manners If this be to burlesque Scripture to deliver it from the Freaks of an Enthusiastick Fancy and to expound it to a plain and easie sense such as is agreeable to the Understandings of men and worthy of the Spirit of God I acknowledge the Charge and am afraid my Adversaries will never be guilty of that Crime Thus when I shew how convincingly these men prove their darling Opinions from a fanciful Exposition of Scripture-Metaphors and Types and Figures and among the rest observe how many pretty Resemblances of Christ Mr. Watson has discover'd in the brazen Serpent wherein Mr. Ferguson himself acknowledges he has prevaricated I am charged with deriding the Type it self and making scornful Reflections upon the main scope and design of the comparison T. W. among other things tells us that as the Serpent was lifted up to be look'd upon by the stung Israelites which looking implied a secret hope they had of cure so if we do but look on Christ fiducially we shall be cured of our sins by which comparison he would prove that because the Israelites were miraculously cured only by looking upon the brazen Serpent that therefore there is nothing more required of us to be cured of our Sins but only looking fiducially on Christ that is confidently hoping to be saved by him this Mr. Ferguson says is parallel to the words of our Saviour and the true intendment and meaning of them Iohn iii. 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And now I will acknowledge that I have done very ill in ranking this comparison of T. W's among the rest of his Prevarications if Mr. Ferguson can prove that this believing signifies no more than this fiducial looking on Christ which I am sure he can never prove except it be in Mr. Watson's way What he adds about Mr. Tho. Vincent is sufficiently answered already and shall be considered in another place This is the sum of his Charge against me for burlesquing Scripture in which I cannot think he was serious but only said this because he must say something and had nothing wiser to say Or as it is with some scolding people who wanting wit to make proper and sudden Repartees chuse rather than to say nothing to say the same things which were said to them though the impropriety of the application and the dullness of it serve only to make mirth for the by-standers This I perceive is Mr. Ferguson's peculiar Talent and to give him his due he is very dexterous at it as will appear in two or three instances more of a like narure I charge some of the Nonconformists for I never thought them all guilty of it with perverting the Scripture by expounding allusive and metaphorical expressions to a proper sense Mr. Ferguson dares not deny this Charge for the matter of fact is too evident but he shews great Skill in retorting it and gives several instances how I pervert Scripture in the same manner Thus he tells his Readers That whereas other Expositors of Scripture have expounded Christs being called The Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. i. 3. in a plain and proper sense and have accordingly argued from it for the Deity of Christ against the Socinians Mr. Sherlock by Christs being stiled the Brightness of his Fathers Glory c. understands no more but those Discoveries which Christ hath made of God being as true a Representation of the Divine Nature and Will as any Picture is of the Person it represents When he says I understand no more by it he expresly contradicts my own words which are these Upon which account too as well as with respect to his Divine Nature he is called the brightness of his Fathers glory c. So that I acknowledge that Christ is called the brightness of his Fathers glory as well with respect to his Divine Nature as to the glorious Revelations of his Will and for Mr. Ferguson to say I do not and upon that account to insinuate so foul a Charge as Socinianism others would have called a wilful and malicious lye But suppose the worst that I had expounded Christs being called the brightness of his Fathers Glory c. only with respect to those glorious Discoveries he hath made of God he might have said it had been a false and dangerous and Socinian Exposition or what he pleased but it is a very unhappy
no where taught to draw from such Premises which makes an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ a new way of discovering Divine Truths distinct from the Revelations of the Gospel and if this be once acknowledged to be a good way of reasoning men may as well draw such Conclusions as are no where to be found in Scripture as those which are By the same Argument the Doctor proves what the desert of Sin is the demerit of Sin is such that it is altogether impossible that God should pass by any the least unpunished How does this appear Why from the Person who suffered for it who was the only Son of God and if God would have done it for any passed by sin unpunished he would have done it in reference to his only Son but he spared him not The sum of which Argument is this that because God would not spare his only Son after he had determined that he should die as a Sacrifice for sin therefore he could not spare him and therefore the demerit of Sin is such that it is impossible God should suffer it to go unpunished which is indeed a pretty Argument but whether it be true or false it is no Scripture Argument and therefore may serve for another instance of this new way of reasoning from the knowledge of Christ. This may suffice at present to make good my Charge that the Doctor sets up an acquaintance with the Person of Christ as a new medium of saving knowledge distinct from the Revelations of the Gospel from whence we may clearly and savingly learn those Divine Truths which though they are pretended to be contained in the Gospel yet are not clearly and savingly to be learnt thence without this knowledge of the Person of Christ the plain meaning of which is that men must first reason from what Christ hath done and suffered and thence form their Notions and Theories of Religion and then it is very hard if they cannot find some obscure ambiguous or metaphorical expressions in Scripture to countenance such conceits But this Book of Communion out of which I have transcribed these passages was writ near twenty years since and therefore to do the Doctor all the right we can let us consider whether in his later Writings he hath expressed himself more cautiously in this matter In his second Volume on the Hebrews a Book of a very late date p. 20. I find this observation A diligent attentive consideration of the Person Offices and Work of Iesus Christ is the most effectual means to free the Souls of men from all entanglements of errors and darkness and to keep them constant in the profession of the truth This is the very same Doctrine we had before that we must learn Divine Truths which is much the same with being delivered from errors and darkness by a knowledge of the Person and Offices of Christ For the explaining of this he tells us there must be a diligent searching into the Word wherein Christ is revealed to us The Scriptures reveal him declare him testifie of him to this end are they to be searched that we may learn and know what they so declare and testifie Thus far it is very well and would men confine their knowledge of Christ and Divine Truths to the Revelation of the Gospel it would be an infallible preservative against all Error But I do not so well understand what he adds towards the conclusion of that Discourse Unto him Christ and the knowledge of him is all our study of the Scripture to be referred and the reason why some in the perusal of it have no more light profit or advantage is because they have no more respect unto Christ in their enquiry If he be once out of our eye in searching the Scripture we know not what we do nor whither we go no more than doth the Mariner at Sea without regard to the Pole-star Truths to be believed are like Believers themselves all their life power and order consist in their relation to Christ separated from him they are dead and useless This is very profound and Mysterious we must search the Scriptures to know Christ and the knowledge of Christ must direct us in expounding the Scripture as the Pole-star does the Mariner to steer a safe and direct Course We must consider all Truths in their relation to Christ which gives life and power and order to them I wish the Doctor had given us some examples of this for I confess I cannot understand it In p. 23. he tells us But here lies the root of mens failings in this matter They seek for truth of themselves and of other men but not of Christ what they can find out by their own endeavours what other men instruct them in or impose upon them that they receive few have that faith love and humility are given up to that diligent contemplation of the Lord Christ and his Excellencies which are required in those who diligently wait for his Law so as to learn the truth of him So that it seems by eying Jesus Christ in searching the Scriptures he means a diligent contemplation of the Lord Christ and his Excellencies which will be a safer guide to all true saving knowledge than all other enquiries whatsoever so that still we must learn all Sacred Truths from the knowledge of Christ's Person and Excellencies And indeed this he expresly tells us in the same Page All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ and therefore from him alone to be received and in him alone to be learned In the due consideration of the Lord Christ are these Treasures opened unto us There is not the least line of truth how far soever it may be extended and how small soever it may at length appear but the springs of it lie in the Person of Christ and then we learn it aright when we learn it in the spring or as it is in him Eph. 4. 21. which when we have done we may safely trace it down and follow it to its utmost extent If there be any sense to be made of this Discourse it must be this that we must learn all Divine Truths from a consideration of the Lord Christ his Person and Excellencies c. because the Springs of all truth lie in the Person of Christ and without such a serious consideration of the Person of Christ to direct and steer our Course the study of the Gospel will avail us nothing That it is to no great purpose to understand Gospel Truths unless we can find out the springs and the Center of them in the Person of Christ He that looks upon Gospel truths as Sporades as scattered up and down independently one of another who sees not the Root Center and Knot of them in Iesus Christ it is most probable that when he goes about to gather them for his use he will also take up things quite of another nature But it may be we may understand the Doctor better if
Man with the Mystery of the Love Grace and Truth of God therein as revealed and declared in the Scripture This comprehends all those Revelations which immediately concern the Person of Christ as his Nature Offices Mediation and all the benefits which flow from them the Mystery of the Love Grace and Truth of God therein And then he adds That without such a knowledge of the Person of Christ as this which contains all we can know and all that is revealed in the Gospel concerning Christ There is no true useful saving knowledge of any other Mysteries of the Gospel to be attained This indeed is very warily said and like a right Sophister set aside all the saving Mysteries of the Gospel which concern the Person and Offices and Mediation of Christ and then there are no other saving Mysteries to be discovered or at least no saving knowledge of any other Mysteries because he knew very well that no Christian could own any saving knowledge when he had laid aside the knowledge of Christ And yet in this saying he craftily insinuates too that there are some other saving Mysteries which are to be discovered when we are first acquainted with Christ and he should have done well to have told me what they are and how they may be discovered since my Living or my Christianity lay at stake and I am not very good at guessing but since he has here concealed this secret we must learn what it is from his former Writings and then whatever danger there be in it I must needs say that this acquaintance with the Person of Christ is a very ill way of expounding Scripture or of learning Gospel-Mysteries as being that which different men may use to different purposes as I shewed in my former Discourse and from whence some men draw such Conclusions as do quite evacuate the ends and design of the Gospel This is sufficient to vindicate my self from those imputations of Falshood and Calumny which occur almost in every Page of the Doctors Answer but I shall not dismiss this subject thus but shall first shew you that there is such a way of reasoning from the knowledge of Christ's Person now in great vogue among some late Writers and what Arguments I reject upon that score as weak or fallacious And secondly discourse something more particularly concerning this way of reasoning As for the first I have given instances enough of this nature in my former Discourse which were so plain and evident that I thought the bare mentioning of them was sufficient to convince any man from what Principles such Arguments and Conclusions were deduced But because I find that my Adversaries are willing to take no notice of the chief design for which those passages were alleadged but to fall into some collateral Disputes I must be forced more expresly to state the matter in debate and reduce it to another form and method The Question then between us is plainly this Whether any Persons pretend to learn or prove the great Principles of their Religion from an Acquaintance with the Nature Person Offices of Christ distinct from the Revelations of the Gospel In my former Discourse I asserted that they deduced such Doctrines from the knowledge of Christ as are no where expresly contained in Scripture and I doubt not but that will appear true upon a particular examination of such Doctrines as they have or shall fall in my way but let the Doctrines be true or false the present dispute is whether they make the knowledge of Christs Person a new medium of saving knowledge from whence we may learn the greater deeper and more saving Mysteries of Religion distinct from the Revelations of the Gospel And that they do so is plain from this that most of the Arguments from whence they deduce and by which they prove their most darling and mysterious Notions are wholly owing to an acquaintance with Christs Person and are no where exprest in Scripture I have already given two instances of this in his way of proving the naturalness of vindictive justice to God and the desert and demerit of sin and shall now add some more The Doctor proves from the Deity of Christ as I observed in my former Discourse the endless bottomless boundless grace and compassion that is in him mercy enough for the greatest the eldest the slubbornest transgressor the infiniteness of Grace with respect to the Spring or Fountain the Deity of Christ will answer all our Objections What is our finite guilt before it How comes this guilt to be finite now When we are so often told that the demerit of every sin is infinite as being committed against an infinite God and requiring an infinite satisfaction for its Atonement Shew me the Sinner that can spread his iniquity to the dimensions if I may so say of this Grace I am glad to hear the Doctor put so fair a sense on these words and to declare to the World that he designed no more in it than to invite all sorts of sinners though under the most discouraging qualifications to come unto Christ for Grace and Mercy by Faith and Repentance Though any man who reads that long Discourse about an endless bottomless boundless Grace and Compassion in Christ such an infinite Grace as makes nothing of our finite guilt as all the sins in the world cannot equal its dimensions without one word of Faith or Repentance or a new life to qualifie us for this mercy especially if withal he understood what a great Patron the Doctor is of the necessity of holiness and obedience to qualifie us for Gods mercy as appears from what I have already discoursed above would not easily have guessed this to have been his meaning And whoever writes a Book which cannot be understood without a Commentary ought not to complain that he is mistaken nor charge his Readers upon that account with ignorance falshood or calumny Though for my part I shall be very well contented he should write another Book consisting of little else than those mild and gentle imputations of falshood and calumny so he will but recant or at least handsomly palliate those doctrines which otherwise may encourage bad men continuing so to lay claim to such a boundless and bottomless mercy But my present business is to observe how the Doctor proves that there is such a boundless bottomless Grace in Christ and his Argument is taken from his Divine Nature which is infinite For when the Conduit of his humanity is inseparably united to the infinite inexhausted fonntain of the Deity who can look into the depths thereof if now there be Grace enough for sinners in an all sufficient God it is in Christ. This is a plain instance of this way of reasoning from an acquaintance with Christ with his Divine nature which the Scripture no where teaches and which is weak and fallacious For though the Divine Nature be infinite yet the exercise of mercy and compassion is regulated by wisdom