Serle. XCIV. Zehe Mercy ofGod. 705 Having difpatch'd the three particulars I propos'd to be fpoken to, I Ihall thew what Ufe we ought to make of this Divine Attribute. Ufe t. We ought with thankfulnefs to acknowledge and admire the great mercy of God to us. Let us view it in all its dimenfions ; the heighth, and length, and breadth of it : in all the variety and kinds of it ; the preventing mercy of God to many ofus. Thofe miferies that lie upon others, 'tis mercy to us that we efca- ped them. 'Tis Mercy that fpares us. It isoftheLord's mercies thatware not confumëd, andbecaufe hiscompagionsfail not.'Tis mercy that mitigates our punifhment,andmakes it fall below the defert of our fins. 'Tis mercy that comforts and fupports us under any of thofe Evils that lie upon us, and that refcues and delivers us from them. Which way foever we look, we are encompaffed with the mercies of God ; they compaß us about on every fide, we are crowned with loving-kindne# and tender mercies. 'Tis mercy that feeds us, and cloaths us, and that preferves us. But above all, we fhould thankfully acknowledgeand admire the pardoning mercy of God ; Pfal. 103. I, s, 3. where Daviddoes as it were mutter up the mercies of God, and make a Catalogue of them, he lets the pardoning mercy in the front, Bleßye the Lord, 0 my Soul, and all that is within me praife his holyName. Bldg the Lord, 0 my Soul, andforget not all his benefits ; whoforgiveth all thy iniquities. If we look into our felves, and confider our own temper and difpofition, how void of pity and bowels we are, how cruel, and hard-hearted, and infolent, and revengeful ; if we look abroad into the World, and fee how full the earth is of the habitations of cruelty; we (hall admire the mercy of God more, and think our felves more beholden to it. How many things muff concur to make our hearts tender and melt our fpirits, and ttir our bowels, to make us pitiful and compaf- tionate ? We feldom pity any unlefs they be a&ually in mifery nor all fuch nei- ther, unlefs the mifery they lye under be very great ; nor then neither, unlefs the Perfon that fullers be nearly related, and we be fomeways concerned in his Sufferings ; yea, many times not then neither, upon a generous account, but as we are tomewaysobliged by Interest and feltlove, and a dear regard to our felves, when we have fuffered the like our felves, and we have learn'd to pity others by ourown Sufferings, or when in danger an probability to be in the like condition our felves fo many Motives and Obligations are neceffary to awaken and f}ir up this affe&ion in us. But God is merciful and pitiful to us out of the mere Goodnefs of his Nature ; for few of thefe Motives and Confiderations can have any place in him. This affe&ion of pity and tendernefs is flirted up in God by, the mere prefenceof the Obje&, without any other inducement. The-mercy of God many times doth not flay till we be a&ually miferable ; but looks forward a great way, and pities us at a great diflance, and prevents our mifery. God doth not only pity us in great Calamities ; but confiders thofe letter Evils that are up, on us. God is merciful.to us, when we have deferved all the Evils that are upon us, and far greater, when we are left than the leaf! of all his mercies, when we deferved all the mifery that is upon us, and 'have with violent hands pulled it upon our own heads, and have been theAuthors and Procurers of it to our felves. Tho' God, in refpe& of his Nature, be at an infinite diftance from us, yet his Mercy is near to us, and he cannot poffibly have any Self-intereft in. it. The Divine Nature is not liable to want, or injury, or fuffering ; he is fecure of his own Happinefs and Fulnefs, and can neither with the enlargement nor fear the impairment of his Ettate ; he can never Rand in need of pity or relief from us or any other; and yet he pities us. Now if we confider the vaft difference of this affe&ion in God and us, how tender his Mercies are, and how fenfible his. Bowels ; and yet we who have fo many Arguments to move us to pity, how hard our Hearts are, and how unapt to relent, as if we were born of the Rock, and were the Offpring of the nether Milfione ; lure when we duly confider this, we cannot but admire the mercy of God. How cruel are we to Creatures below us ! with how little remorfe can we kill a Flea, or tread upon a Worm ? partly becaufe we are fecure that they can- Xxxx not
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