is Man that thou shouldest magnifie him, on him! And then how hard do we find it to forgive those who have injured us? if any one have offended, or provoked us; how hard are we to be reconciled? How mindful of an Injury? How do anger and revenge boyl within us? How do we upbraid Men with their faults? What vile and low Submiffion do we require of them, before we will receive them into Favour, and grant them Peace? And if we forgive once, we think that is much; but if an offence and provocation be renewed often, we are inexorable. Even the Difciples of our Saviour, after he had fo emphatically taught them Forgiveness, in the Petition in the Lord's Prayer, yet they had very narrow Spirits as to this; Matth. 18. 21. Peter comes to him, and asks him, How often fball my brother fin against me, and I forgive him? till feven times? He thought that was much: And yet we have great obligations to Pardoning and Forgiving others, because we are obnoxious to God and and one another, we fhall many Vol. VII times ftand in need of Pardon from God and Men; and it may be our own cafe, and when it is, we are too apt to be very indulgent to our felves, and conceive good hopes of the Mercy of others; we would have our ignorance, and inadvertencies, and mistakes, and all occafions and temptations and provocations confidered; and when we have done amifs, upon Submiffion and Acknowledgment of our Fault, we would be received into Favour: but God who is not at all liable to us, how ready is he to Forgive! If we confess our Sins to him, he is merciful to Forgive; he Pardons freely; and fuch are the condefcentions of his Mercy, tho' he be the party offended, yet he offers Pardon to us, and befeeches us to be reconcil'd; if we do but come towards him, he runs to meet us, as in the Parable of the Prodigal, Luke 15. 20. What reafon have we then thankfully to acknowledge and admire the Mercy of God to us ? A Ve 2. The great mercy of God to us, fhould ftir up in us fhame and forrow forrow for Sin. The Judgments of God may break us; but the confideration of God's Mercy fhould rather melt and diffolve us into Tears, Luke 7. 47. The Woman that washed Chrift's Feet with her Tears, and wiped them with her Hair, the account that our Saviour gives of the great Affection that fhe expreffed to him, was, he Loved much, because much was forgiven her; and fhe grieved much, because much was forgiven her. Efpecially we fhould forrow for thofe Sins, which have been* committed by us after God's Mercies received. Mercies after Sins fhould touch our Hearts, and make us relent. It fhould grieve us that we fhould offend and provoke a God fo Gracious and Merciful, fo flow to anger, and fo ready to forgive : But Sin against Mercies, and after we have received them, is attended with one of the greatest Aggravations of Sin. And as Mercy raises the guilt of our Sins, fo it fhould raife our forrow for them. No Confideration is more apt to work upon human Nature, than that of kindness, Vol. VII kindness, and the greater Mercy has Vol. VII been fhewed to us, the greater our fins, and the greater caufe of forrow for them; contraries do illuftrate, and fet off one another; in the great Goodness and Mercy of God to us, we fee the great Evil of our Sins against him. Every Sin has the Nature of Re- . bellion and Difobedience; but fins against Mercy have Ingratitude in them. When ever we break the Laws of God, we rebel against our Soveraign; but as we fin against the Mercies of God, we injure our Benefactor. This makes our fin to be horrid, and aftonishing, Ifa., 1. 2. Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! I bave nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. All the Mercies of God are aggravations of our fins, 2 Sam. 12. 7, 8, 9. And Nathan said to David, thus faith the Lord God of If rael, I anointed thee king over Ifrael, and delivered thee out of the hands of Saul, and I gave thee thy masters house, and thy mafters wives into thy bofom, and gave thee the house of Ifreal, and of Judah, and if that had been too · little, little, I would moreover have given thee fuch and fuch things. Where- Vol. VIL fore hast thou defpifed the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his fight? God reckons up all his Mercies, and from them aggravates David's fin; 1 Kings 11.9. He takes notice of all the unkind returns that we make to his Mercy; and 'tis the worft temper in the World not to be wrought upon by kindness, not to be melted by Mercy; no greater evidence of a wicked Heart, than that the Mercies of God have no effect upon it; Efay 26. 10. Let favour be fhewn to the wicked; yet will he not learn righteousness. Be Ve 3. Let us imitate the merci. ful Nature of God. This branch of God's goodness is very proper for our imitation. The general Exhortation of our Saviour, Matt. 5. 48. ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, is more particularly expreffed by St. Luke, Luke 6. 30. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father which is in heaven is merciful. Men affect to make Images, and impoffible Reprefentations of God; but as Seneca faith, Crede Deos, |