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A61618 A sermon preached at White-Hall, February the 19th, 1685/6 being the first Friday in Lent / by Edw. Stillingfleet ... Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1681 (1681) Wing S5658; ESTC R18636 15,433 36

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towards him as to design to reduce him from his Evil Ways And this every Father finds in himself towards a disobedient Son while he hates his evil Courses yet he would make use of the best Methods to bring him to himself and to his Duty And upon this is grounded that Love and Kindness of God towards Mankind in sending his Son to be our Saviour and all the Promises and Invitations which are made to Sinners in the Doctrine of the Gospel 3. It is very agreeable to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness for God to shew himself full of Pity and Compassion towards Penitent Sinners i. e. so as to forgive them their former Sins and to receive them into his Favour For Pity and Compassion in God is to be judged not according to the inward Motions we find in our selves but according to these Two things 1. A readiness to doe Good to his Creatures according to their Necessities Which being in general is his Bounty and Goodness but considered with Respect to the Persons of Sinners it is his Clemency or readiness to forgive and with Respect to the Punishment they deserve by their Sins it is his Mercy and Pity Which in us is Aegritudo ex Miseriâ alterius and therefore called Misericordia because the Heart is touched with the Sense of another's Misery but we are not so to apprehend it in God but that such is the Goodness of God towards Repenting Sinners that he is as willing to shew Mercy as they are to Repent 2. God's Pity and Compassion lies in the proper Effects of it which here in the Case of the Prodigal were passing by his former Extravagances and receiving him into as much Favour as if he had not gone astray This is my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found Those who think they stand not in need of so much Pardoning Mercy as others do are apt to repine at the Favour shew'd to great Sinners when they Repent And therefore the Elder Brother could not bear the expressing so much kindness towards such a disobedient Son though now a Penitent But that there is nothing disagreeing to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness in such Compassion towards Penitent Sinners will more fully appear if we consider 1. That God is not bound to deal with Sinners according to the utmost Rigour and Severity of his Justice Because he is under no fatal Necessity no Superiour Law and therefore may act freely in the forgiving Offenders as seems best to his Infinite Wisdom The whole Race of Mankind is a perpetual Evidence that God doth not Act according to the Strictness of his Justice for if he had dealt with them after their Sins or rewarded them according to their Iniquities their Spirits would have failed before him and the Souls which he had made they had been long since destroy'd from the face of the Earth and not suffer'd to continue in their Provocations But God hath not onely forborn Sinners long when he might justly have punished them but he gives them many real Blessings and Comforts of Life freely and bountifully Now if God deal so Mercifully with Sinners while they continue such is there not greater Reason to suppose he will be far more so when they cease to be such 2. A Penitent Sinner doth what in him lies to vindicate God's Honour I do not say he can make satisfaction to Divine Justice for that is impossible for him to doe and God hath provided for that by his own Son whom he hath made a Propitiation for the Sins of the World But a true Penitent takes all the Shame and Dishonour to himself he clears the Justice of God's Government and the Equity of his Laws and owns himself guilty of unspeakable Folly in his Disobedience O how justly saith he might God have taken me away in the midst of my Sins when my Conscience checked me for my Sins and yet I had no heart to repent of them When I could not but see my danger and yet was unwilling to come out of it I can never be sufficiently thankfull for so great a Mercy as his bringing me to my Self hath been I had gon on in the same secure stupid senseless condition that others lie in if he had not throughly awaken'd me and roused me out of my Impenitent State How dreadfull had my Condition for ever been if my first awakening had been in the Flames of Hell Nothing but Infinite Goodness and Patience would have waited so long for the Repentance of such an Offender as I have been I have sinned so often that I am ashamed to think of the Number of my Transgressions so deeply that I am confounded at the thoughts of them so foolishly that I am unworthy to be called thy Son who have acted so unlike thy Children so the Prodigal Son here speaks to his Father And if thou wouldst admit me but to the meanest Condition of thy Servants I shall ever esteem it as the greatest privilege of my Life and endeavour to serve Thee for the future though in the lowest Capacity Thus the Repenting Prodigal goes on v. 19. And in a sutable manner every true Penitent behaves himself towards God with great Humility and a deep Sense of his own unworthiness and is thereby rendred more capable of Divine favour For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble And therefore it is very agreeable to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness to shew pity towards a truly Humble and Penitent Sinner For a broken and contrite heart he will not despise 3. If God were not so full of Compassion to Penitent Sinners there would have been no lncouragement for Sinners to Repent but they must have sunk into everlasting Despair For if God should forgive none that sin then all Mankind must be condemned to Eternal Misery for all have sinned and there is not a Just Man upon Earth who sinneth not and so the best and worst and all sorts of Sinners must here suffer together which would have taken away all the Notion of any such thing as Mercy and Clemency in God towards Mankind But if we set bounds to it as to some particular kinds and degrees of sinning we limit that which is Infinite we determine what we know not viz. how far God's Mercy doth extend we destroy the Power of Divine Grace in Changing and Reforming the Worst of Men. But the Scripture hath recorded some remarkable Instances of great Sinners who have been great Penitents and upon that have been pardon'd such as Manasses and some others that no Penitent Sinner might be discouraged in the Work of Repentance For a True Penitent searching to the bottom and setting all his Sins before him with their several Aggravations can be kept from Despair by nothing less than the Infinite Mercy of God to those who truly Repent 4. Because there is nothing so provoking in Sin as obstinate Impenitency and Continuance in it It is true God hates all