EVIDENCES OF FORGIVENESS. 195 This, therefore, he did also in the rewards and punish - mentsthat heannexed unto the law of obedience that he had prescribed. To manifest his remunerative justice, he promised a reward in a way of bounty, of which the angels that sinned not were made partakers; and in the penalty threatened, which sinning angels and men incur- red, he revealed his vindictive. justice in a why of se- verity. So are all these properties of God made known by their effects, and so is God glorified in them. But after all this, are there no other properties of his nature, divine excellences, that cannot be separated from his being, which by noneof these means are so much as once intimated to be inhim l It is evident that there are; such are mercy, grace, patience, long - suffering, compassion, and the like : concerning which, observe, That where there are no objects of them, they cannot be declared or exercised. As God's power or wisdom could not be manifest if there were no objects of them, no more can his grace or mercy. If none ever stand in need of them; they can never be exercised, and conse- quently never be known. Therefore they are not reveal - ed, , either by the creation of all things, or by the law or its sanction, or by the law written in our hearts. For all these suppose no objects of grace and mercy.. It is sinners only, and such as have madethemsèlves miser- able by sin, towards whom they canbe exercised. Again, there are no excellences óf God's nature more expressive of divine goodness, loveliness and beauty, than these of -mercy, grace, long-suffering and pa- tience ; and therefore there is nothing in which God so requires our likeness to him, in our conformity to his image, as in these, namely, mercy, grace and readiness to forgive: and the contrary frame in any he doth of all, things most abhor : " They shall have judgment with- out mercy, who showed no mercy." Therefore it is certain that God will be glorified in the manifestation of these properties of his nature.
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