his Glory by any of his Creatures in any of his works which he doth to or for them is a truth not to be questioned but the wayes in which he will be a saver and no loser are to be commended to the management of his own infinite wisdom which doubtless will not fail in the execution and though he may for a while seem to be on the losing hand whiles men are running on the score with him and meditating nothing of payment yet if we can let God alone till his day and time of reckoning with men he will then make it to appear that he will be glorified in all the Pharaoh's and wicked men of this world whom he hath raised up and suffered at present to abuse his manifold mercies to their own ruine and were it not that God knows how to get his penny worths out of them he would never credit them so far as he doth God will be glorified in Zidon as well as in Zion 2. But God seems by this to be an encourager of wickedness and promoter of mans vile designs Is not this to put a Sword in a mad-mans hand that he may destroy himself therewithal And if God hateth sin why would he thus give men advantage to sin against him Ans The wisdom of God in ordering of althings according to his own counsels is not for us mortals to call in question God hath other Attributes besides his Justice to make known and they are his bounty patience goodness long sufferance and this he can do upon the vessels of wrath and thereby makes way for the glorious manifestation of his Justice upon them that are not led to repentance by it but abuse his goodness Rom. 2. 4 5. Neither doth God by this encourage sin since by his holy Law which is man's rule and a discovery of his righteous Judgment he strictly forbids and severely denounceth threatnings against all sin Neither is God's bounty the moral cause of promoting of sin but hath argument in it to prompt men to holiness and obedience but it is man's corrupt heart abusing it to such ends whereas an holy heart is encouraged by all God's benefits to study his Glory and praise Psal 116. 12. And yet God may righteously leave man to follow his own wicked heart and so to misimprove all his beneficence to his own just condemnation yea he may raise up Pharaoh to that very end Exod. 9. 16. But I come to the Reasons of the Doctrine which will serve further to clear the truth from imputation and they are taken from the ends which God design in thus doing which though they are at present secret in regard of the individual persons who are thus left till God of his Providence shall be pleased to make more full and clear discovery of them yet in themselves they are alwayes one of these two for all Gods dealings with mankind do ultimately center in the one or the other viz. either 1. That thus way may be made for the more illustrious manifestation of revenging Justice in the destruction of sinners They are thus made vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9. 22. Where much is given there is much expected The more that men have abused the more wrath awaits them Doubtless a man of great parts and understanding hath more to account with God for than a fool the rich and wealthy man then the poor a Magistrate or a Minister then a private Man The more advantage Men have put into their hands to serve God withal the more they have to answer for you may see what endictments God draws up against Babylon Isa 14. Tyrus Ezek 27. which had the advantage of other Nations of worldly pomp and wisdom For such God hath wonderful plagues This patience and goodness as they are largely displayed before such at the present so they by mens abusing of them open a way for the more notable executions of Justice 2. That he may prepare a way to make his Grace notably appear to be Grace the truth is Gods wayes are very mysterious and past mans finding out and oftentimes when we may have reason justly to fear that such a sinner is mounted on Horse-back to run the swifter to his own utter ruine yet even then God hath gracious designs in all this God sometimes allows a sinner a long Tedder and lets him run to the end of it and then pulls him back God suffers him to lay a scene for his own ruine and then displayes his riches of his grace in saving him from it when he hath used all possible means utterly to have undone himself Manasseth in the old and Paul in the New-Testament stand for eminent examples of this and the latter of these speaks thus of it 1 Tim. 1. 13 14. Who was before a blasphemer c. But I obtained mercy c. and the grace of our Lord Jesus was exceeding abundant c. USE 1. To teach us not too much to bless our selves in our enjoyment of outward favours God's love is not from hence to be positively concluded It is the wise mans observation Eccl. 9. begin No man knows love or hatred by all that is before him And yet there is nothing more common than for men to be be proud and self conceited in these things whereas they are indeed nothing else but some of the offals of God's favours which he can spare to the swine of the world and often throws out to them in a plentiful measure Things common to the Elect and Reprobate are not just matter of boasting if you have all these blessings and are wicked in the enjoyment of them you are not happy but miserable in that enjoyment USE 2. It may also teach us not to grudge at or envy wicked men for their great parts and large estates or whatever other worldly blessings they enjoy in a more liberal measure than other men and the more we ought to beware of this inasmuch as good men have sometimes been prone to be envious at these things Psal 73. begin Yea the Prophet had a mind to have impleaded God about it Jer. 12. 1. If God leave them to themselves they will but abuse and foolishly squander them away and then you know the more Talents any have received the more are to be reckoned for and if he fared so ill that did but hide his one in a napkin what account shall he be called to that squanders many away upon his lust and dishonours God with them It would have been better for such men if they had been the veryest fools and the most obscure persons in the world And as you have less of these things so you have the less to reckon for besides this will not hinder your happiness in the end but if you have the grace to be faithfull in a little you shall surely enter into your Lords joy USE 3. It may afford encouragement not to despare of unregenerate men although they may at present be left to
this is the moving cause of all the mercy which he shews to a Sinner 1 That God is a God of Compassion appears 1. Because it belongs to his Attributes Exod. 34. 6 7. merciful and gracious forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Hence his People ascribe this title to him Psal 86. 15. But thou oh Lord art a God full of compassion 2. Because his works declare him to be so his works of providence towards his visible Covenant people evince it Psal 78. 37. But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not His works of special favour towards his Elect in pardoning their Sins and accepting of them to be his Children do more notably confirm it 2. That this is the moving cause of alâ— the mercy which he shews to a sinner will appear 1. From the nature of God He is the first mover to his own actions and cannot possibly be moved by any thing out of himself Hence man's pity and God's differ in respect of the the moving cause Man hath such an affection habitually but it lyes still till an object excite it but God is otherwise it moves it self That which moves in us hath the respect of a cause and that which is a cause is in nature before the effect but the good will of God to man whence all his compassion flowes was from Eternity Jer. 31. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore in loving kindness have I called thee 2. God renders this is a reason of all his mercy towards his Creatures When he speaks of pitying and relieving them he reduceth it to our good-wil and mercyful nature Jer. 3. 12 13. Hos 11. 9. Rom. 9. 15. Psal 78. 38. 3. Because there is nothing in the Creature can be rendred as a sufficient moving cause of his compassion towards it 1. Not the Creatures misery in it self For 1. The sinners misery is not a fortuitous thing or befalling an innocent person but it is the just penalty of his sin inflicted by God himself and that according to the equity of an holy and just Law Lam. 3. 39. A man for the punishment of his sin 2. Then must God be equally moved to compassion to all sinners who are alike miserable and alike need succour and then why are not all saved That compassion which saves one could as well save another but there are but some sharers in this saving compassion others suffer his rigour Rom. 11. 7. The Elect obtained it the rest were blinded 2. Not their legal convictions and tenors and confessions and softly walkings c i. e. No preparatory work For 1. The Son was for all them a great way off when his Father pittied him 2. There are that Call and God will not hear that seek him early and shall not find him Prov. 1 28 3. Not legal Repentance and Reformation turning from many sinful practises and doing many things For these are nothing but sin Esau repented and wept but it profited him not Heb. 12 17 Herod's reformation engaged not God to him In summ God's compassion is according to his will and that is absolutely free nor to be regenerated by the creature Rom 9 16 with 18 4. Because God's design in the Salvation of a sinner is the manifestation of his Grace which grace discovers it self in shewing him compassion Now this grace of God hath described its subjects from eternity and therein distinguishing Grace is made to appear when it falls upon a subject that hath nothing in it to engage him nor could of it self do any thing in the least to move him USE 1. Here we see how far the name and term of merit is a stranger from Gospel language and what care we ought to take that we do not entertain any thoughts of it God is no debter to his creatures except voluntarily as it was free to him to make them so also to assign them their end and use and it is certain that he designed or appointed no creature to any use but withal compleatly furnished it for that end and if through its own default that be lost it can claim no restitution at Gods hands hence let no man think that his misery should be a sufficient ground to engage Gods mercy to him no nor his acknowledgment of his sin and misery neither for if we stand at the tribunal of Justice unto which merit is properly reckoned it doth not deserve pardon for a delinquent to fall down at the Judges feet confess his fault and beg that it may be past by and not imputed to him if the Law condemns him and he stands guilty before the Bar it is only a free pardon that can acquit him Now though an humane Judge may be moved by the submiss and lamentable expressions of a justly condemned person yet God is capable of no such impressions but if he intends a soul good he puts this very frame into him and then accepts him in this way though not for this carriage but in all this there is not any room or occasion to speak of merit USE 2. Learn hence also not to be discouraged from going to God in the sense of your own misery Though you are altogether unworthy and have nothing of your own to plead with him which deserves to impetrate his mercy yet you see here that his own compassion leads him to be merciful and that the object which it hath chosen to express it self unto is miserable sinners such as are every way miserable helpless and hopeless creatures And if thou knowest findest and feelest thy self to be such an one there is no reason to be discouraged thou art one of such whom God hath chosen to express his compassion upon and he who knows thy condition if he will can have mercy on thee Such as are helpless he is ready to help Isa 63. 5. USE 3. It may be a ground of wonderful encouragement to poor sinners to go to God and to wait upon him for mercy to consider that God is a God of compassion and that this compassion is the originial of all the good which the creature receives 1. To consider that he is a God of compassion We have heard say they That the Kings of Israel are merciful Kings He is a God that delights to exalt and magnifie himself by those titles of Merciful Gracious Compassionate c. His bowels stir towards and he pitties dying sinners and therefore he comes to their Graves and bids them live The commendation of a pitiful and a compassionate nature in a prince wilbring in rebels apace to come and throw themselves upon his mercy sue for a pardon who if they knew him to be pityless and inexorable would run utmost adventures as those that know they can but dy and can hope for no better by submission 2. To consider that this compassion is the root and spring of the mercy he shews Hence we may silence all uprising of heart and discouraging temptations
strengthens the other He hates Sin because he loves God c. Now the setting those affections on work and moving them to their proper object implies a sanctified change in them and no other reason can be given of their so acting 4. The affections being hand-maids of the will hence a change in them implies a change in the will and evidenceth that that is turned it signifies that the heart is altered from what it was for the will exerts it self in and by the affections When therefore we see a man truly to hate Sin and love God we know that his will is set fixed his choise is certainly made and where the will is changed there is conversion wrought where the soul hath indeed chosen God there is saving grace David therefore asserts his grace from this evidence Psal 73. 25. 5. Repentance is the exercise of the grace of Sanctification It is practical holiness which consists in this to be going from Sin to God Sanctification hath two parts in it Mortification and Vivification Repentance comprehends them both brings them in to use and continues them in practice Now Sanctification is a benefit of the new Covenant and a fruit of conversion one of the things for which Christ is given to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. and is wrought at conversion as hath been cleared Reas 2. Because as in Conversion the soul receives a principle and power of acting repentance so by this effect of God's wonderful love there are given to the soul abundant advantages for the helping forward the more kindly exercises of it The truth is all Evangelical motives to it are hence derived For 1. Converting grace makes sin appear in its own colours The sun-light of saving grace makes Sin look more ugly than ever Beauty and deformity are not discerned in the dark the candle-light of common conviction made but obscure discoveries Now he sees it Sin before he did not he had two discoveries of it before viz. 1. That it was displeasing to God his Law being against it 2. That it was a procuring cause of misery by reason of the curse These two he saw in the Glass of the Law But now grace discovers Sin to him 1. As contrary to the nature of God opposite to his holiness Hab. 1. 13. 2. Hence to be in it self an odious thing and that separate from the hell that follows He now sees the beauty of grace and that shews him the deformity of Sin 2. God's love manifested in Conversion discovers Sin under divers aggravations which before were not seen 1. That it was against that God who had loved him with an everlasting love Jer. 31. 3. 2. Against Jesus Christ who had shed his blood for his redemption from hell 3. Against the Holy Ghost that had so often striven with him had waited so long and left not till he had turned him and now sin appears sinful which before appeared only sorrowful USE 1. For information 1. We have here a note of distinction between a legal and a saving Repentance The Scripture makes mention of both it tells us of Ahab's repentance as well as of David's It puts one name upon things vastly different and if we would know how to distinguish them here is it to be discerned The one is effected by a spirit of Bondage the other by the spirit of Adoption the one is produced by teâ—â—ours the other by love the one confesseth 〈◊〉 Sin vomits up his morsels takes upon him a profession of holiness driven to it by the dismal reflexions of his own Conscience and apprehensions of the wrath to come the other is taken into embraces of amity confirmed with a kiss of favour and by this his heart is melted into Godly sorrow in his fathers arms he bemoans himself The truly broken heart is an heart broken with love 2. Here we see when is the genuine season of godly sorrow and the reason why a soul that is newly converted is so full of bitterness complaints and self accusations If a soul do not repent and bitterly mourn for Sin now when shall he before he could not in heaven there will be no room for it God the father the great Husband man of his Vineyard deals in great skil with the soul For having broken up the fallow ground of the heart and sown the seed of grace in it he now sends seasonable showres upon it to water the ridges thereof that it may be made to bring forth a plentiful Harvest Psalm 126. 5. When should showers more seasonably fall on the ground than when the seed is cast in Hence 1. They mistake themselves greatly who think that after Conversion the soul should do nothing but rejoyce as if there were now no room â—â—r sorrow for Sin and self abasement because their Sin is pardoned Whereas what doth more break an ingenious heart than the pardoning of so great offence and receiving him to favour after such grievous provocations God therefore when he hath made large promises of what he will do for his People tells us what shall be the fruit of this love of his Ezek 36. 31. Then shall you remember your evil wayes and loath your selves 2. Let it be for caution to such as are newly converted though now they are and ought to be in bitterness for Sin and to mourn for it before God yet have a care of giving Satan advantage thereby to weaken your faith and undermine the consolation arising from your interest in this grace Godly sorrow humility repentance are so to be exercised as to be helpful to the strengthening and not become impediments to the exercise of and activity of faith Hence make that the great incentive to Godly sorrow viz. the consideration that is against that God that loved you let Divine love be set against Sin and that will help both Faith and Repentance 3. Let others beware of irregular applications to such as are mourning for Sin and full of sorrow by reason of it Do not take pains to dry up those tears be not troubled at them but rejoyce It is a very pleasant sight an heart-comforting fight to see any truly mourning for Sin to give wise relief against despair is prudence but rather help and encourage godly sorrow Though fair weather be pleasant yet showers may be more suitable and make the earth more fertile Paul repents not to have been instrumental to so good a work 2 Cor. 7. 9 10. 3. Here we see a reason why those that have tasted most of the love of God and manifestations of his grace to their souls are most low and vile in their eyes The reason is because the more a soul hath had experience of the wonderful undeserved love of God it feels the more sensible convictions of its own unworthiness and vileness God's large expressions to David made him reflect upon himself and lay himself very low 2 Sam. 7. 18 19. If you are indeed truly converted and have received the grace of God you shall find