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Extent of Grace.

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When he had told them how dirtily they had dealt with him, and would have made him a very slave to their corrupt humours; at the conclusion, when they, nor no creature else, but would have expected fireballs of wrath to be flung in their faces, and that God should have dipped his pen in gall, and have writ their mittimus to hell, he dips it in honey, and crosses the debt; I, even I, am he, that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins, ver. 25. Could there be any thing of merit here, when the criminal instead of favour could expect nothing but severity, there being nothing but demerit in him?

It is so free, that the mercy we abuse, the name we have profaned, the name, of which we have deserved wrath, opens its mouth with pleas for us: But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen whither they went, Ezek. 36. 21. Not for their sakes. It should be wholly free for he repeats their profaning of his name four times. This name he would sanctify, i. e. glorify. How? In cleansing them from their filthiness, ver. 25. His name, while it pleads for them, mentions their demerits, that grace might appear to be grace indeed; and triumph in its own freeness. Our sins against him cannot deserve more than our sufferings for him; and even they are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed, Rom. 8. 18.

3. Extent of his grace. The mercy of God is called his riches, and exceeding riches of grace. Now as there is no end of his holiness, which is his honour; neither any limits set to his power: so there is no end of his grace, which is his wealth; no end of his mines; therefore the foulest and greatest sinners are the fittest for Christ to manifest the abundant riches of his graces upon; for it must needs argue a more vast estate to remit great debts, and many thousands of talents, than to forgive some fewer shillings, or pence; than to pardon some smaller sins in men of a

more unstained conversation. If it were not for turning and pardoning mountainous sinners, we should not know so much of God's estate. We should not know how rich he were, or what he were worth. He He pardons iniquities for his name's sake: and who can spell all the letters of his name, and turn over all the leaves in the book of mercy? who shall say to his grace, as he does to the sea, hitherto shalt thou go, and no further?

Men's

As the heavens are of a vast extension, which like a great circle encompass the earth, which lies in the middle like a little atom, in comparison of that vast body of air and æther; so are our sins to the extent of God's mercy; For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts, Isa. 55. 9. sins are innumerable, yet they are but cyphers to the vast sums of grace which are every day expended; because they are finite, but mercy is infinite; so that all sins in the world put together, cannot be of so large an extent as mercy; because being every one of them finite, if all laid together cannot amount to infinite.

The gospel is intitled good will to men; to all sorts of men; with iniquities, transgressions, and sins, of all sorts and sizes. God hath stores of mercy lying by him. His exchequer is never empty; Keeps mercy for thousands, Exod. 34. 7, in a readiness to deal it upon thousand millions of sins, as well as millions of persons. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all that were before, have not wasted it: and if God were to proclaim his name again, it is the same still, for his name as well as his essence is unchangeable. His grace is no more tied to one sin, than it is to one person: he has mercy on whom he will, and his grace can pardon what sins he will; therefore he tells them, Isa. 55. 7, that he would multiply pardons; he will have mercy to suit every sin of thine, and a salve for every sore though thy sin has its heights, and depths, yet he will heap mercy upon mercy, till he makes it

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God's gracious Compassion.

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to overtop thy sin. He will be as good at his merciful arithmetic, as thou hast been at thy sinful, if thou dost sincerely repent and reform. Though thou multiply thy sins by thousands, where repentance goes. before, remission of sin follows without limitation; when Christ gives the one, he is sure to second it with the other. Though aggravating circumstances be never so many, yet he will multiply his mercies as fast as thou canst the sins thou hast committed.

He hath a cleansing virtue, and a pardoning grace, for all iniquities and transgressions, And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me: and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. Jer. 33. 8. It is three times repeated, to shew that his mercy should be as large as their sin, though there was not a more sinful nation upon the earth than they were. His justifying and sanctifying grace should have as vast an extension; for he would both pardon and cleanse them. Why? ver. 9. That it might be a name of joy and praise, and an honour to him before all the nations of the earth.

It is so great, that self-righteous persons murmur at it, that such swines should be preferred before them. As the eldest son was angry that his father should lavish out his kindness upon the prodigal, more than upon himself, Luke 15. 28.

4. Compassion of his grace. The formal nature of mercy is tenderness, and the natural effect of it is relief. The more miserable the object, the more compassionate human mercy is, and the more forward to assist. Now that mercy which in man is a quality, in God is a nature. How would the infinite tenderness of his nature be discovered, if there were no objects to draw it forth? It would not be known to be mercy, unless it were shed abroad; nor to be tender mercy, unless it relieved great and oppressing miseries. For mercy is a quality in man

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that cannot keep at home, and be stowed under a lock and key in a man's own breast. Much less in God, in whom it is a nature. Now the greater the disease, the greater is that compassion discovered to be, wherewith God is so fully stored.

If

As his end in letting the devil pour out so many afflictions upon Job, was to shew his pity and tender mercy in relieving him; You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, James 5. 11: so in permitting the devil to draw his elect to so many sins, it is the same end he drives at. And he is more pitiful, to help men under sin, than under affliction; because the guilt of one sin is a greater misery than the burden of a thousand crosses. forgiveness be a part of tenderness in man, it is also so in God, who is set, Eph. 4. 32, as a pattern of the compassion we are to shew to others. And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. The lower a man is brought, the more tender is that mercy that relieves him; Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low, Psal. 79. 8. To visit them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to pardon their sins, is called mercy with this epithet of tender; Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, Luke 1. 77, 78, 79. is indeed, when he visits the most forlorn sinners.

And so it

5. Sincerity and pleasure of his grace. Ordinary pardon proceeds from his delight in mercy; Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy, Mic. 7. 18. Therefore the more of his grace he lays out upon any one, the more excess of delight he hath in it; because it is a larger effect of that grace. If he were not sincere in it, he would never mention men's sins, which would scare them

Pleasure of God's Grace.

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from him, rather than allure them to him. If he were not sincere, he would never change the heart of an enemy, and shew kindness to him in the very act of enmity; for the first act of grace upon us is quite against our wills. And man is so far from being active in it, that he is contrary to it. In primo actionis, it is thus with a man, though not in primo actu; for in the first act of conversion, man is willing, though not in the first moment of that act. But for God to bestow his grace upon us against our wills, and when he can expect no suitable recompence from us, evidences the purity of his affection; that when he endured so many contradictions of sinners against himself, day by day, yet he is resolved to have them, and does seize upon them, though they struggle and fly in his face, and provoke him to fling them off.

It is so much his delight, that it is called by the very name of his glory; The glory of the Lord shall follow thee, Isa. 58. 8, i. e. the mercy of the Lord should follow them at the very heels. And when they call, it should answer them; and when they cry, he would, like a watchful guardian servant, cry out, Here I am. So that he never lets a great sinner, when changed into a penitent, wait long for mercy; though he sometimes lets them wait long for a sense of it. This mercy is never so delightful to him, as when it is most glorious; and it is most glorious, when it takes hold of the worst sinners. For such black spots which mercy wears upon its face, makes it appear more beautiful.

Christ does not care for staying where he has not opportunities to do great cures, suitable to the vastness of his power, Mark 6. 5. When he was in his own country, he could do no great work there, but only laid his hands upon a few sick people. He had not a suitable employment for that glorious power of working miracles. So when men come to Christ with lighter guilt, he has but an under opportunity given him, and with a kind of disadvantage, to manifest

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