The tif of the Lam: 373 not as etreati4ll id him,yet as operative towards us,is not Ab /olute but Conditi email , And grounded upon the fup- pofition of mans finne. Thirdly, his mercy is unfearch- able in the price which procured it ; He himfelfe was to humble and empty himfelfe,that he might Phew made. His mercy was to be purchafed by his ownemerit ; but his juftice was provoked by the merit of finne onely. Fourthly,Glory which is the fruit of Mercy is more ex- cellent in a few then wrath and vengeance is in many ; as one bagge full of gold may be more valuable then tenne offilver.Ifa man fhould füppofethat Gods mercy and jufiice, being equally infinite and glorious in him- felfe, should therefore have the fame equall proportion obferved in the difpenfation & revealing ofthem to the world ; we might not therehence conclude, that that proportion fhould be Arithmetical', that mercy fhould be extended to as many, as feveritie. But rather as in the paiment of a fumme of mony in two equal portions, whereof one is in gold, the other in filver,though there be an equality in the fummes, yet not in the pieces by which they are paide : fo, in as much as Glory being the communicating ofGods owne bleffed Vifion, Pretence, Love, and everlafling Society, is farre more honourable and excellent then wrath, therefore the difpenfation of his mercy in that amongfi a few may be exaaly pro- portionable to the revelatió of his juftice amongif very many more in the other. Suppofe we a Prince, upon the jut{ condemnation ofa hundred malcfaacrs,fhould profeífe, that as in his owne royal' breft mercy and Iu- flice were equally poifed and temper'd, fo he would ob- ferve an equall proportion of them both towards that number of malefadors,furing his juf}ice to códemne, and his mercy to fpare jufa fo many as might preferve his Attributes in aquilibrio,tha the one might not over- weigh the other: Certainely in this cafe there would be more mercy infaving tenne out of favour, then in puni.. B b 3 thing
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