ISRAEL’S HOPE ENCOURAGED; (continued 2)

4. Therefore hope makes the man, be the trials what they will, to keep still close to the way and path of God. ‘My foot,’ said hoping Job, ‘hath held his steps, his way have I kept and not declined, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips’ (Job 23:11,12). And again, ‘Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way: though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death’ (Psa 44:18,19). But how came they thus patiently to endure? Why, they by hope put patience and prayer into exercise. They knew that their God was as it were but asleep, and that in his time he would arise for their help; and when he did arise he would certainly deliver. Thus is this psalm applied by Paul (Rom 8).

[Third.] There is also inferred from this exhortation, that the hope of those that are not Israelites is not esteemed of God. ‘Let Israel hope.’ The words are exclusive, shutting out the rest. He doth not say, Let Amalek hope, let Babylon, or the Babylonians hope; but even in and by this exhortation shutteth out both the rest and their hope from his acceptance. This being concluded, it follows, that some may hope and not be the better for their hope. ‘The hypocrite’s hope shall perish’ (Job 8:13); their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost (11:20). ‘For what is the hope of the hypocrite?’ (27:8). Again, ‘The hope of unjust men perisheth’ (Prov 11:7). There is a hope that perisheth, both it and he that hoped with it together. The reasons are,

1. Because it floweth not from faith and experience, but rather from conceit and presumption. Hope, as I have told you, if it be right, cometh of faith, and is brought forth by experience: but the hope now under consideration is alone, and has no right original, and therefore not regarded. It is not the hope of God, but the hope of man; that is, it is not the hope of God’s working, but the hope that standeth in natural abilities. ‘Thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth, and thou destroyest the hope of man’ (Job 14:19). Whatsoever in religious matters is but of a carnal and earthly existence, must be washed away, when the overflowing scourge shall at the end pass over the world (Isa 28:17-19).

2. Because the Lord’s mercy is not the object of it. The worldly man makes gold, or an arm of flesh his hope; that is, the object of it, and so he despiseth God (Job 31:24; Jer 3:23). Or if he be a religious hypocrite, his hope terminates in his own doings: he trusteth, or hopeth, in himself, that he is righteous (Luke 18:9). All these things are abhorred of God, nor can he, with honour to his name, or in a compliance with his own eternal designs, give any countenance to such a hope as this.

3. This hope has no good effect on the heart and mind of him that hath it. It purifieth not the soul, it only holds fast a lie, and keeps a man in a circuit, at an infinite distance from waiting upon God.

4. This hope busieth all the powers of the soul about things that are of the world, or about those false objects on which it is pitched; even as the spider diligently worketh in her web—unto which also this hope is compared—in vain. This hope will bring that man that has it, and exercises it, to heaven, when leviathan is pulled out of the sea with a hook; or when his jaw is bored through with a thorn: but as he that thinks to do this, hopeth in vain; so, even so, will the hope of the other be as unsuccessful; ‘So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure’ (Job 8:13-15, 41:1-9). This is the hope that is not esteemed of God, nor the persons that have it, preferred by him a whit before their own dung (Job 20:4-8).

[Fourth.] There is also inferred from these words, That Israel himself is subject to swerve in his soul about the object of hope. For this text is to him as a command and grant, so an instruction by which he is to be informed, how and upon whom to set his hope. That Israel is apt to swerve as to the object of his hope, is evident, for that so much ado is made by the prophets to keep him upon his God; in that so many laws and statutes are made to direct him to set his hope in God: and also by his own confession (Psa 78:7; Jer 3:23-25; Lam 4:17). The fears also and the murmurings and the faintings that attend the godly in this life, do put the truth of this inference out of doubt. It is true, the apostle said, that he had the sentence of death in himself, that he might not trust or hope in himself, but in God that raiseth the dead. But this was an high pitch; Israel is not always here; there are many things that hinder. (1.) The imperfection of our graces. There is no grace perfected in the godly. Now it is incident to things defective, to be wanting in their course. Faith is not perfect; and hence the sensible Christian feels what follows: love is not perfect, and we see what follows; and so of hope and every other grace; their imperfection makes them stagger. 2. Israel is not yet beyond temptations. There is a deal to attend him with temptations, and he has a soul so disabled by sin, that at all times he cannot fix on God that made him, but is apt to be turned aside to lying vanities: the very thing that Jonah was ensnared with (2:8).

3. The promising helps that seem to be in other things, are great hindrances to a steady fixing, by hope, on God; there are good frames of heart, enlargements in duties, with other the like, that have through the darkness, and the legality of our spirits been great hindrances to Israel. Not that their natural tendency is to turn us aside; but our corrupt reason getting the upper hand, and bearing the stroke in judgment, converts our minds and consciences to the making of wrong conclusions upon them. 4. Besides, as the mind and conscience, by reason, is oft deluded to draw these wrong conclusions upon our good frames of heart, to the removing of our hope from the right object unto them; so by like reason, are we turned by unwholesome doctrines, and a carnal understanding of the Word, to the very same thing: ‘cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water,’ Israel, even God’s people, are apt to make unto themselves to the forsaking of their God (Jer 2:11-13).

Thus have I gone through the first part of the text, which consists of an exhortation to hope in the Lord. And have showed you, 1. The matter contained therein. 2. Something of the reason of the manner of the phrase. 3. And have drawn, as you see, some inferences from it.

[SECOND. THE REASON URGED TO ENFORCE THE EXHORTATION.]

I now come to the second part of the text, which is a reason urged to enforce the exhortation, ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord.’ Why? ‘For with the Lord there is mercy.’ There is the reason, let him hope, for there is mercy; let him hope in the Lord, for with him there is mercy. The reason is full and suitable. For what is the ground of despair, but a conceit that sin has shut the soul out of all interest in happiness? and what is the reason of that, but a persuasion that there is no help for him in God? Besides, could God do all but show mercy, yet the belief of that ability would not be a reason sufficient to encourage the soul to hope in God. For the block SIN, which cannot be removed but by mercy, still lies in the way. The reason therefore is full and suitable, having naturally an enforcement in it, to the exhortation. And,

First. To touch upon the reason in a way general, and then [Second] to come to it more particularly. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,’ mercy to be bestowed, mercy designed to be bestowed.

1. Mercy to be bestowed. This must be the meaning. What if a man has never so much gold or silver, or food, or raiment: yet if he has none to communicate, what is the distressed, or those in want, the better? What if there be mercy with God, yet if he has none to bestow, what force is there in the exhortation, or what shall Israel, if he hopeth, be the better. But God has mercy to bestow, to give. ‘He saith on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David’ (Acts 13:34). And again, ‘The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus’ (2 Tim 1:16). Now then, here lies the encouragement. The Lord has mercy to give; he has not given away ALL his mercy; his mercy is not clean gone for ever (Psa 77:8). He has mercy yet to give away, yet to bestow upon his Israel. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy.’

2. As there is with God mercy to be bestowed, so there is mercy designed to be bestowed or given to Israel. Some men lay by what they mean to give away, and put that in a bag by itself, saying, This I design to give away, this I purpose to bestow upon the poor. Thus God; he designeth mercy for his people (Dan 9:4). Hence the mercy that God’s Israel are said to be partakers of, is a mercy kept for them. And ‘thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor,’ and laid up for them (Psa 68:10). This is excellent and is true, ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for there is with him mercy,’ kept, prepared, and laid up for them! (Psa 61:7). When God designs the bestowing of mercy, we may well hope to be partakers (Psa 31:19). The poor will go merrily to weddings and funerals, and hope for an alms all the way they go, when they come to understand that there is so much kept, prepared, and laid up for them by the bridegroom, &c.[18] But ‘He keepeth mercy for thousands!’ (Exo 34:7).

3. As God has mercies to bestow, and as he has designed to bestow them, so those mercies are no fragments or the leavings of others: but mercies that are full and complete to do for thee, what thou wantest, wouldst have, or canst desire. As I may so say, God has his bags that were never yet untied, never yet broken up, but laid by him through a thousand generations, for those that he commands to hope in his mercy. As Samuel kept the shoulder for Saul, and as God brake up that decreed place for the sea, so hath he set apart, and will break up his mercy for his people: mercy and grace that he gave us before we had a being, is the mercy designed for Israel (2 Tim 1:9). Whole mercies are allotted to us; however, mercy sufficient (1 Sam 9:23-24; Job 38:10). But to be a little more distinct.

[Second, particularly.] I find that the goodness of God to his people is diversely expressed in his word: sometimes by the word grace; sometimes by the word love; and sometimes by the word mercy; even as our badness against him is called iniquity, transgression, and sin. When it is expressed by that word ‘grace,’ then it is to show that what he doth is of his princely will, his royal bounty, and sovereign pleasure. When it is expressed by that word ‘love,’ then it is to show us that his affection was and is in what he doth, and that he doth what he doth for us, with complacency and delight. But when it is set forth to us under the notion of ‘mercy,’ then it bespeaks us to be in a state both wretched and miserable, and that his bowels and compassions yearn over us in this our fearful plight. Now, the Holy Ghost chooseth—as it should seem—in this place, to present us with that goodness that is in God’s heart towards us, rather under the term of mercy; for that, as I said before, it so presenteth us with our misery, and his pity and compassion; and because it best pleaseth us when we apprehend God in Christ as one that has the love of compassion and pity for us. Hence we are often presented with God’s goodness to us to cause us to hope, under the name of pity and compassion. ‘In his pity he redeemed them,’ and ‘like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him’ (Isa 63:9; Psa 103:13). ‘The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy,’ he also is gracious and ‘full of compassion’ (James 5:11; Psa 78:38). ‘Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion,’ and thy ‘compassions fail not’ (Psa 86:15, 111:4; Lam 3:22).

The words being thus briefly touched upon, I shall come to treat of two things. FIRST, more distinctly, I shall show you what kind of mercy is with the Lord, as a reason to encourage Israel to hope. SECONDLY, And then shall show what is to be inferred from this reason, ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy.’

[FIRST, The kind of mercy that Israel is to hope for.]

First, ‘With him there is TENDER MERCY, and therefore let Israel hope’ (Psa 25:6, 103:4, 119:156). Tender mercy is mercy in mercy, and that which Israel of old had in high estimation, cried much for, and chose that God would deal with their souls by that. ‘Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me,’ said David, and ‘according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions’ (Psa 40:11, 51:1). And again, ‘Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live’ (Psa 119:77). Now of this sort of mercies God has a great many, a multitude to bestow upon his people. And they are thus mentioned by the word, to cause us to hope in him. And is not this alluring, is not this enticing to the Israel of God to hope, when the object of their hope is a God ‘very pitiful, and of tender mercy?’ Yea, a God whose tender mercies are great and many. There are two things that this word tender mercy importeth. 1. The first is, that sin will put a believer, if he giveth way thereto, into a very miserable condition. 2. That God would have them hope, that though sin may have brought any of them into this condition, the Lord will restore them with much pity and compassion. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord,’ for with the Lord there is mercy, tender mercy.

1. For the first of these, That sin will put a believer, if he gives way thereto, into a very miserable condition, and that upon a double account. (1.) For that it will bring him into fears of damnation. (2.) In that it will make his soul to be much pained under those fears.

We will wave the first, and come to the second of these. The pains that guilt will make, when it wounds the conscience, none knows but those to whom sin is applied by the Spirit of God, in the law. Yet all may read of it in the experience of the godly; where this pain is compared to a wound in the flesh, to fire in the bones, to the putting of bones out of joint, and the breaking of them asunder (Psa 38:3,5,7,8, 102:3, 22:14; Lam 1:13, 3:4). He that knows what wounds and broken bones are, knows them to be painful things. And he that knows what misery sin will bring the soul into with its guilt, will conclude the one comes no whit short of the other. But now he that hath these wounds, and also these broken bones, the very thoughts of a man that can cure, and of a bonesetter, will make him afraid, yea, quake for fear; especially if he knows that though he has skill, he has a hard heart, and fingers that are like iron. He that handleth a wound, had need have fingers like feathers or down; to be sure the patient wisheth they were! Tenderness is a thing of great worth to such; and such men are much inquired after by such; yea, their tenderness is an invitation to such to seek after them. And the thing is true in spirituals (Isa 42:3). Wherefore David cried, as I said before, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God! according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions’ (Psa 51:1). O handle me tenderly, Lord, handle me tenderly, cried David. O cure me, I beseech thee, and do it with thy tender mercy.

Now, answerable to this, the Lord is set forth to Israel, as one with whom is mercy, consequently tender mercy. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is tender mercy. God therefore would have the wounded and bruised, and those whose pains may be compared to the pains and pangs of broken bones, to hope that he will restore them with much pity and compassion, or as you have it before, in pity and tender mercy. See how he promiseth to do it by the prophet. ‘A bruised reed shall he not break; and the smoking flax shall he not quench’ (Isa 42:3). See how tender he is in the action. ‘When he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him’ (Luke 10:33-35). Every circumstance is full of tenderness and compassion. See also how angry he maketh himself with those of his servants that handle the wounded or diseased without this tenderness; and how he catcheth them out of their hand, with a purpose to deal more gently with them himself. ‘The diseased,’ saith he, ‘have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick; neither have ye bound up that which was broken; neither have ye brought again that which was driven away; neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them; therefore, ye shepherds, hear the words of the Lord: I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick’ (Eze 34:4,7,15,16). Here is encouragement to hope, even according to the reason urged: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy,’ tender mercy. Second. As with him is mercy tender, so there is with him mercy that is GREAT, for with him is great mercy. ‘The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy’ (Num 14:18). When tenderness accompanies want of skill, the defect is great; but when tenderness and great skill meet together, such a surgeon is a brave accomplished man. Besides, some are more plagued with the sense of the greatness of their sins than others are; the devil having placed or fixed the great sting there. These are driven by the greatness of sin into despairing thoughts, hotter than fire: these have the greatness of their sin betwixt God and them, like a great mountain; yea, they are like a cloud that darkeneth the sun and air.[19] This man stands under Cain’s gibbet, and has the halter of Judas, to his own thinking, fastened about his neck.

And now, cries, he, ‘GREAT mercy or NO mercy; for little mercy will do me no good’; such a poor creature thus expostulateth the case with God, ‘Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee?’ (Psa 88:10). Lord, I have destroyed myself, can I live? My sins are more than the sands, can I live? Lord, every one of them are sins of the first rate, of the biggest size, of the blackest line, can I live? I never read that expression but once in all the whole Bible; ‘For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great’ (Psa 25:11). Not that there was but one man in Israel that had committed great iniquities, but because men that have so done, have rather inclined to despair, than to an argument so against the wind. If he had said, Pardon, for they are little, his reason had carried reason in it; but when he saith, Pardon, for they are great, he seems to stand like a man alone. This is the common language, ‘if our transgressions be upon us, and we pine away in them, How should we then live?’ (Eze 33:10). Or thus, ‘Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off for our parts’ (Eze 37:11). Wherefore to such as these, good wishes, tender fingers, and compassion, without GREAT mercy, can do nothing. But behold, O thou man of Israel, thou talkest of great sins; answerable to this, the Scripture speaks of great mercy; and thy great sins are but the sins of a man, but these great mercies are the mercies of a God; yea, and thou art exhorted, even because there is mercy with him, therefore to trust thy soul with him, ‘let Israel trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy,’ great mercy. This therefore is a truth of singular consolation, that mercy is with the Lord, that tender mercy is with him, that great mercy is with him, both TENDER and GREAT. What would man have more? But,

Third. As great mercy is with the Lord to encourage us to hope, so this mercy that is great, is RICH. ‘God is rich in mercy’ (Eph 2:4). There is riches of goodness and riches of grace with him (Rom 2:4; Eph 1:7). Things may be great in quantity, and little of value; but the mercy of God is not so. We use to prize small things when great worth is in them; even a diamond as little as a pea, is preferred before a pebble, though as big as a camel. Why, here is rich mercy, sinner; here is mercy that is rich and full of virtue! a drop of it will cure a kingdom. ‘Ah! but how much is there of it?’ says the sinner. O, abundance, abundance! for so saith the text—‘Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his’ rich ‘mercies are great’ (2 Sam 24:14). Some things are so rich, and of such virtue, that if they do but touch a man, if they do but come nigh a man, if a man doth but look upon them, they have a present operation upon him; but the very mentioning of mercy, yea, a very thought of it, has sometimes had that virtue in it as to cure a sin-sick soul. Here is virtuous mercy!

Indeed mercy, the best of mercies, are little worth to a self-righteous man, or a sinner fast asleep; we must not, therefore, make our esteems of mercy according to the judgment of the secure and heedless man, but according to the verdict of the Word; nay, though the awakened sinner, he that roareth for mercy all day long, by reason of the disquietness of his heart is the likeliest among sinful flesh, or as likely as another, to set a suitable estimate upon mercy; yet his verdict is not always to pass in this matter. None can know the riches of mercy to the full, but he that perfectly knoweth the evil of sin, the justice of God, all the errors of man, the torments of hell, and the sorrows that the Lord Jesus underwent, when mercy made him a reconciler of sinners to God. But this can be known by none but the God whose mercy it is. This is the pearl of great price.

The richness of mercy is seen in several things. It can save from sin, from great sin, from all sin (Titus 3:5; Matt 15:22,28). It can save a soul from the devil, from all devils (Matt 17:15,18). It can save a soul from hell, from all hells (Psa 116:3,5,6). It can hold us up in the midst of all weaknesses (Psa 94:18). It can deliver from eternal judgment (Rom 9:23). Yea, what is it that we have, or shall need, that this virtuous mercy cannot do for us: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord: for which the Lord is RICH mercy,’ mercy full of virtue, and that can do great things.

Fourth. As the mercies that are with the Lord are tender, great, and rich, so there is a MULTITUDE of them, and they are called ‘manifold,’ there is a multitude of these rich and virtuous mercies (Psa 69:13; Rev 9:19). By multitude, I understand mercies of every sort or kind; mercies for this, and mercies for the other malady; mercies for every sickness, a salve for every sore. Some things that are rich and very full of virtue, have yet their excellency extending itself but to one, or two, or three things for help; and this is their leanness in the midst of their excellencies. But it is not thus with the mercy of God. Some things that are rich and virtuous, are yet so only but at certain seasons; for there are times in which they can do nothing. But it is not so with this tender, great, and rich mercy of God. There are some things, though rich, that are sparingly made use of. But it is not so with this mercy of God. There is a multitude of them; so if one will not another will. There is a multitude of them; so one or other of them is always in their season. There is a multitude of them; and therefore it must not be supposed that God is niggardly as to the communicating of them.

As they are called a multitude, so they are called mercies manifold. There is no single flower in God’s gospel-garden, they are all double and treble; there is a wheel within a wheel, a blessing within a blessing, in all the mercies of God. Manifold; a man cannot receive one, but he receives many, many folded up, one within another. For instance,

1. If a man receiveth Christ, who is called God’s tender mercy; why, he shall find in him all the promises, pardons, justifications, righteousnesses, and redemptions, that are requisite to make him stand clear before the justice of the law, in the sight of God, from sin (Luke 1:76-79; 1 Cor 1:30; Eph 4:32; 2 Cor 1:20).

2. If a man receive the Spirit, he shall have as folded up in that, for this is the first unfolding itself, many, very many mercies (Ezra 1:4). He shall have the graces, the teachings, the sanctifications, the comforts, and the supports of the Spirit: When he saith in one place, ‘He will give the Spirit,’ he calleth that in another place, ‘the good things’ of God (Luke 11:13; Matt 7:11).

3. If a man receive the mercy of the resurrection of the body, and God’s people shall assuredly receive that in its time, what a bundle of mercies will be received, as wrapt up in that? He will receive perfection, immortality, heaven, and glory; and what is folded up in these things, who can tell?

I name but these three, for many more might be added, to show you the plenteousness, as well as the virtuousness of the tender, great, and rich mercy of God. A multitude! There is converting mercy, there is preserving mercy, there is glorifying mercy: and how many mercies are folded up in every one of these mercies, none but God can tell. A multitude! There are mercies for the faithful followers of Christ, for those of his that backslide from him, and also for those that suffer for him; and what mercies will by these be found folded up in their mercies, they will better know when they come to heaven. A multitude of preventing mercies in afflictions, in disappointments, in cross providences, there are with God: and what mercies are folded up in these afflicting mercies, in these disappointing mercies, and in these merciful cross providences, must rest in the bosom of him to be revealed, who only is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. A multitude of common mercies; of every day’s mercies, of every night’s mercies, of mercies in relations, of mercies in food and raiment, and of mercies in what of these things there is; and who can number them? David said, He daily was loaded with God’s benefits. And I believe, if, as we are bound, we should at all times return God thanks for all particular mercies, particularly, it would be a burden intolerable, and would kill us out of hand! (Psa 68:19). And all this is written, that Israel might hope in the Lord: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy.’

Fifth. As the mercies that are with the Lord are tender, great, rich, a multitude, and manifold; so they are mercies that DIMINISH NOT in the using, but that rather increase in the exercising of them. Hence it is said, grace aboundeth, and hath abounded unto many; and that God is able to make all grace abound towards us (Rom 5:15; 2 Cor 9:8; Eph 1:7,8). The grace of forgiveness I mean, wherein he hath abounded towards us. Now, to abound, is to flow, to multiply, to increase, to greaten, to be more and more; and of this nature is the mercy that is with the Lord; mercy that will abound and increase in the using. Hence he is said to pardon abundantly, to pardon and multiply to pardon: and, again, to exercise loving-kindness; to exercise it, that is, to draw it out to the length; to make the best advantage and improvement of every grain and quality of it (Isa 55:7; Jer 9;24). ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth’ (Exo 34:6).

Mercy to a man under guilt, and fear of hell-fire, seems as a little, shrunk-up, or shrivelled thing; there appears no quantity in it. There is mercy, said Cain, but there is not enough; and he died under that conceit (Gen 4:13). Nor is it as to judgment and thought many times much better with the Israel of God. But behold when God sets mercy to work, it is like the cloud that at first was but like a man’s hand, it increaseth until it hath covered the face of heaven. Many have found it thus, yea they have found it thus in their distress (1 Kings 18:41-44). Paul has this expression, ‘The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant,’ that is, increased towards me exceedingly (1 Tim 1:13-15). And this is the cause of that change of thoughts that is wrought at last in the hearts of the tempted; at first they doubt, at last they hope; at first they despair, at last they rejoice; at first they quake, while they imagine how great their sins are, and how little the grace of God is; but at last they see such a greatness, such a largeness, such an abundance of increase, in this multiplying mercy of God, that with gladness of heart, for their first thoughts, they call themselves fools, and venture their souls, the next world, and their interest in it, upon this mercy of God.

I tell you, Sirs, you must not trust your own apprehensions nor judgments with the mercy of God; you do not know how he can cause it to abound; that which seems to be short and shrunk up to you, he can draw out, and cause to abound exceedingly. There is a breadth, and length, and depth, and height therein, when God will please to open it; that for the infiniteness can swallow up not only all thy sins, but all thy thoughts and imaginations, and that can also drown thee at last. ‘Now unto him that is able,’ ‘as to mercy,’ ‘to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen!’ (Eph 3:20,21). This, therefore, is a wonderful thing, and shall be wondered at to all eternity; that that river of mercy, that at first did seem to be but ankle deep, should so rise, and rise, and rise, that at last it became ‘waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over!’ (Eze 47:3-5). Now all this is written, that Israel might hope. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy.’

Sixth. As there are with God mercies, tender, great, rich, a multitude, and mercy that abounds; so to encourage us to trust in him, there is mercy to COMPASS US ROUND ABOUT. ‘Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about’ (Psa 32:10). This is, therefore, the lot of the Israel of God, that they shall, they trusting in their God, be compassed with mercy round about. This is mercy to do for us in this world, that we may arrive safely in that world which is to come. Another text saith, ‘For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield’ (Psa 5:12). As with a shield. This compassing of them, therefore, is, to the end they may be defended and guarded from them that seek their hurt. When Elisha was in danger, by reason of the army of the Syrians, ‘behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, round about him,’ to deliver him (2 Kings 6:15-17). Round about on every side; or as David hath it, ‘Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side’ (Psa 71:21). ‘I will encamp about mine house,’ saith God, ‘because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and him that returneth’ (Zech 9:1).

This, therefore, is the reason why, notwithstanding all our weaknesses, and also the rage of Satan, we are kept and preserved in a wicked world; we are compassed round about. Hence, when God asked Satan concerning holy Job, he answered, ‘Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?’ (Job 1:10). I cannot come at him; thou compassest him, and keepest me out. By this, then, is that scripture opened, ‘Thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance’ (Psa 32:7). And, indeed, it would be comely, if we, instead of doubting and despairing, did sing in the ways of the Lord: have we not cause thus to do, when the Lord is round about us with sword and shield, watching for us against the enemy, that he may deliver us from their hand? (Jer 31:12).

This also is the reason why nothing can come at us, but that it may do us good. If the mercy of God is round about us, about us on every side; then no evil thing can by any means come at us, but it must come through this mercy, and so must be seasoned with it, and must have its deadly poison, by it, taken away. Hence Paul, understanding this, saith, ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God’ (Rom 8:28). But how can that be, did they not come to us through the very sides of mercy? and how could they come to us so, since Satan pryeth to wound us deadly in every, or in some private place, if mercy did not compass us round about, round about as with a shield? He went round about Job, to see by what hog-hole he might get at him, that he might smite him under the fifth rib.[20] But, behold, he found he was hedged out round about; wherefore he could not come at him but through the sides of mercy; and, therefore, what he did to him must be for good. Even thus also shall it be in conclusion with all the wrath of our enemies, when they have done what they can; by the mercy of God, we shall be made to stand. ‘Why boasteth thou thyself in mischief,’ said David, ‘O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually’ (Psa 52:1). And that will sanctify to me whatever thou doest against me! This, therefore, is another singular encouragement to Israel to hope in the Lord; for that there is with him mercy to compass us round about.

Here is, I say, room for hope, and for the exercise thereof; when we feel ourselves after the worst manner assaulted. ‘Wherefore should I fear,’ said David, ‘in the day of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?’ (Psa 49:5). Wherefore? Why now there is all the reason in the world to fear the day of evil is come upon thee, and the iniquity of thy heels doth compass thee about. The hand of God is upon thee, and thy sins, which are the cause, stand round about thee, to give in evidence against thee; and therefore thou must fear. No, saith David, that is not a sufficient reason; he that trusteth in the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about. Here is ground also to pray in faith, as David, saying, ‘Keep me as the apple of the eye, hid me under the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about’ (Psa 17:8,9).

Seventh. As all this tender, great, rich, much abounding mercy, compasseth us about; so that we may hope in the God of our mercy, it is said this mercy IS TO FOLLOW US. ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’ (Psa 23:6). It shall follow me, go with me, and be near me, in all the way that I go (Psa 32:8). There are these six things to be gathered out of this text, for the further support of our hope.

1. It shall follow us to guide us in the way. I will guide thee with mine eye, says God, that is, in the way that thou shalt go. The way of man to the next world, is like the way from Egypt to Canaan, a way not to be wound out but by the pillar of a cloud by day, and a flame of fire by night; that is, with the Word and Spirit. ‘Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory’ (Psa 73:24). Thou shalt guide me from the first step to the last that I shall take in this my pilgrimage: Goodness and mercy shall follow me.

2. As God in mercy will guide, so by the same he will uphold our goings in his paths. We are weak, wherefore though the path we go in were never so plain, yet we are apt to stumble and fall. But ‘when I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up’ (Psa 94:18). Wherefore we should always turn our hope into prayer, and say, Lord, ‘hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not’ (Psa 17:5). Be not moved; let mercy follow me.

3. As the God of our mercy has mercy to guide us, and uphold us; so by the same will he instruct us when we are at a loss, at a stand. ‘I led Israel about,’ says God, ‘I instructed him, and kept him as the apple of mine eye’ (Deut 32:10). I say we are often at a loss; David said, after all his brave sayings, in Psalm 119, ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant’ (v 176). Indeed a Christian is not so often out of the way, as he is at a stand therein, and knows not what to do. But here also is his mercy as to that. ‘Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left’ (Isa 30:21). Mercy follows for this.

4. Mercy shall follow to carry thee when thou art faint. We have many fainting and sinking fits as we go. ‘He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom,’ or upon eagles’ wings (Isa 40:11). He made Israel to ride on the high places of the earth, and made him to suck honey out of the rock (Deut 32:13).

5. Mercy shall follow us, to take us up when we are fallen, and to heal us of those wounds that we have caught by our falls. ‘The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down’ (Psa 145:14). And again: ‘The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down; the Lord loveth the righteous’ (Psa 146:8). Or, as we have it in another place, ‘The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand’ (Psa 37:23,24). Here is mercy for a hoping Israelite; and yet this is not all.

6. Mercy shall follow us to pardon our sins as they are committed. For though by the act of justification, we are for ever secured from a state of condemnation; yet as we are children, we need forgiveness daily, and have need to pray, ‘Our Father, forgive us our trespasses.’ Now, that we may have daily forgiveness for our daily sins and trespasses, mercy and goodness must follow us; or as Moses has it, ‘And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord! let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance’ (Exo 34:9). Join to this that prayer of his, which you find in Numbers: ‘Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now,’ or hitherto (Num 14:17-19). How many times, think you, did Israel stand in need of pardon, from Egypt, until they came to Canaan? Even so many times wilt thou need pardon from the day of thy conversion to the day of death; to the which God will follow Israel, that he may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Eighth. As all this tender, great, rich, abounding, compassing mercy, shall follow Israel to do him good; so shall it do him EVERY GOOD TURN, in delivering of him from every judgment that by sin he hath laid himself obnoxious to, with rejoicing. For ‘mercy rejoiceth against judgment’ (James 2:13). That is, applying it to the mercy of God towards his, it rejoiceth in delivering us form the judgments that we have deserved; yea, it delivereth us from all our woes with rejoicing. In the margin it is ‘glorieth’; it glorieth in doing this great thing for us. I have thought, considering how often I have procured judgments and destructions to myself, that God would be weary of pardoning, or else that he would pardon with grudging. But the Word said, ‘He fainteth not nor is weary’ (Isa 40;28). ‘I will rejoice over them to do them good,—with my whole heart, and with my whole soul’ (Jer 32:41). This doing of us good with rejoicing, this saving of us from deserved judgments with rejoicing, this getting the victory over our destructions for us, with rejoicing; O! it is a marvellous thing! ‘O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory’; the victory for us (Psa 98:1). And as Paul said, ‘We are more than conquerors through him’ (Rom 8:37); and this he did with triumph and rejoicing (Col 2:15). The heart is seen oft-times, more in the manner than in the act that is acted; more in the manner of doing than in doing of the thing. The wickedness of the heart of Moab was more seen in the manner of action than in the words that he spake against Israel. ‘For since thou spakest [of] against him thou skippedst for joy’ (Jer 48:27). So Edom rejoiced at the calamity of his brother; he looked on it and rejoiced: and in his rejoicing appeared the badness of his heart, and the great spite that he had against his brother Jacob (Oba 10:14).

Now, my brethren, I beseech you consider, that God hath not only showed you mercy, but hath done it with rejoicing. Mercy doth not only follow you, but it follows you with rejoicing: yea, it doth not only prevent your ruin, by our repeated transgressions procured, but it doth it with rejoicing. Here is the very heart of mercy seen, in that it rejoiceth against judgment. Like unto this is that in Zephaniah: ‘The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty: he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing’ (Zeph 3:17,18).

There are many things that show with what an heart mercy is of God extended, as is afore described, to Israel for his salvation; but this, that it acteth with rejoicing, that it saveth with rejoicing, and gets the victory over judgment with rejoicing! is a wonderful one, and one that should be taken notice of by Israel, for his encouragement to hope. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him there is mercy,’ tender, great, rich, multiplying mercy, mercy that compasseth us about, that goeth with us all the way, and mercy that rejoiceth to overcome every judgment that seeketh our destruction, as we go toward our Father’s house and kingdom!

It is said in the Word, God delighteth 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’ (Micah 7:18). Here then is a reason of the rejoicing of mercy against judgment. Why, mercy is God’s delight; or, as another hath it, ‘Mercy pleaseth thee.’ What a man delights in, that he will set on foot, and that he will seek to manage, that he will promote, and that he will glory in the success and prosperity of. Why, the text saith, God delighteth in mercy: nor do I believe, how odious soever the comparison may seem to be, that ever man delighteth more in sin, than God hath delighted in showing mercy. Has man given himself for sin? God has given his Son for us, that he might show us mercy (John 3:16). Has man lain at wait for opportunities for sin? God has waited to be gracious, that he might have mercy upon us (Isa 30:10). Has man, that he might enjoy his sin, brought himself to a morsel of bread? Why Christ, Lord of all, that he might make room for mercy, made himself the poorest man (Luke 9:58; 2 Cor 8:9). Has man, when he has found his sin, pursued it with all his heart? Why God, when he sets a showing mercy, shows it with rejoicing, for he delighteth in mercy.

Here also you may see the reason why all God’s paths are mercy and truth to his (Psa 25:10). I have observed that what a man loveth he will accustom himself unto, whether it be fishing, hunting, or the like. These are his ways, his course, the paths wherein he spends his life, and therefore he is seldom found out of one or another of them. ‘Now,’ saith David, ‘all the paths of the Lord are mercy’ (Psa 25:10). He is never out of them: for wherever he is, still he is coming towards his Israel in one or other of these paths, stepping steps of mercy. Hence again it is that you find that at the end of every judgment there is mercy; and that God in the midst of this remembers that (Habb 2:3). Yea, judgment is in mercy; and were it not for that, judgment should never overtake his people (1 Cor 11:32). Wherefore let Israel hope in the Lord, seeing with him is all this mercy.

Ninth. Besides all this, the mercy that is with God, and that is an encouragement to Israel to hope in him, IS EVERLASTING: ‘The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him’ (Psa 103:17). From everlasting to everlasting; that is more, more than I said. Well,

1. Then from everlasting; that is, from before the world began; so then, things that are, and are to be hereafter, are to be managed according to those measures that God in mercy took for his people then. Hence it is said, that he has blessed us according as he chose us in Christ, before the world began; that is, according to those measures and grants that were by mercy allotted to us then (Eph 1:4). According to that other saying, ‘according to his mercy he saved us,’ that is, according as mercy had allotted for us before the world began (Titus 3:5). ‘According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began’ (2 Tim 1:9). This is mercy from everlasting, and is the ground and bottom of all dispensations that have been, are, or are to come to his people. And now, though it would be too great a step to a side, to treat of all those mercies that of necessity will be found to stand upon that which is called mercy from everlasting, yet it will be to our purpose, and agreeable to our method, to conclude that mercy to everlasting stands upon that; even as vocation, justification, preservation, and glorification, standeth upon our being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Rom 8:29,30). Here then is the mercy that is with God and that should encourage Israel to hope. The mercy that has concerned itself with them, is mercy from everlasting. Nor may it be thought that a few quarrels of some brain-sick fellows will put God upon taking new measures for his people; what foundation has been laid for his, before he laid the foundation of the world, shall stand; for that it was laid in Christ by virtue of mercy: that is, from everlasting (Rom 9:11). The old laws, which are the Magna Charta, the sole basis of the government of a kingdom, may not be cast away for the pet that is taken by every little gentleman against them.[21] We have indeed some professors that take a great pet against that foundation of salvation, that the mercy that is from everlasting has laid; but since the kingdom, government, and glory of Christ is wrapped up in it, and since the calling, justification, perseverance, and glorification of his elect, which are called his body and fulness, is wrapt up therein, it may not be laid aside nor despised, nor quarrelled against by any, without danger of damnation.

Here then is the mercy with which Israel is concerned, and which is with God as an encouragement to them that should hope, to hope in him. It is mercy from everlasting; it is mercy of an ancient date; it is mercy in the root of the thing. For it is from this mercy in the root of the thing. For it is from this mercy, this mercy from everlasting, that all, and all those sorts of mercies, of which we have discoursed before, do flow. It is from this that Christ the Saviour flows; this is it, from which that tender mercy, that great mercy, that rich mercy that aboundeth towards us, doth flow; and so of all the rest. Kind brings forth its kind; know the tree by his fruit; and God by his mercy in Christ; yea, and know what God was doing before he made the world, by what he has been doing ever since. And what has God been doing for and to his church from the beginning of the world, but extending to, and exercising loving-kindness and mercy for them? therefore he laid a foundation for this in mercy from everlasting.

2. But mercy from everlasting is but the beginning, and we have discoursed of those mercies that we have found in the bowels of this already, wherefore a word of that which is to everlasting also. ‘From everlasting to everlasting.’ Nothing can go beyond to everlasting; wherefore this, to everlasting, will see an end of all. The devil will tempt us, sin will assault us, men will persecute; but can they do it to everlasting? If not, then there is mercy to come to God’s people at last; even when all evils have done to us what they can. After the prophet had spoken of the inconceivable blessedness that God hath prepared for them that wait for him, he drops to present wrath, and the sin of God’s people in this life. This done, he mounts up again to the first, and saith, ‘in those is continuance’; that is, the things laid up for us are everlasting, and therefore ‘we shall be saved’ (Isa 64:4,5). How many things since the beginning have assaulted the world to destroy it, as wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, &c., and yet to this day it abideth. But what is the reason of that? Why, God liveth, upon whose word, and by whose decree it abideth. ‘He hath established the earth, and it abideth’; it standeth fast, and ‘cannot be moved’ (Psa 119:90, 93:1, 96:10). Why, my brethren, mercy liveth, mercy is everlasting; ‘His mercy endureth for ever!’ (Psa 136). And therefore the church of God liveth; and when all her enemies have done their all, this is the song that the church shall sing over them: ‘They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen, and stand upright!’ (Psa 20:8). Everlasting mercy, with everlasting arms, are underneath (Deut 33:27).

And as this shows the cause of the life of the church, notwithstanding her ghostly and bodily enemies, so it showeth the cause of her deliverance from her repeated sins. As God said of leviathan ‘I will not conceal his parts,’ &c. (Job 41:12). So it is very unbecoming of God’s people to conceal their sins and miscarriages, for it diminisheth this mercy of God. Let therefore sin be acknowledged, confessed, and not be hid nor dissembled; it is to the glory of mercy that we confess to God and one another what we are; still remembering this, but mercy is everlasting!

As this shows the reason of our life, and the continuance of that, notwithstanding our repeated sins, so it shows the cause of the receiving [or renewing] of our graces, from so many decays and sickness. For this mercy will live, last, and outlast, all things that are corruptible and hurtful unto Israel. Wherefore ‘let Israel hope in the Lord,’ for this reason, ‘for with the Lord there is mercy.’ 1. Tender mercy for us. 2. Great mercy for us. 3. Rich mercy. 4. Manifold mercy. 5. Abounding mercy towards us. 6. Compassing mercy wherewith we are surrounded. 7. Mercy to follow us wherever we go. 8. Mercy that rejoiceth against judgment. And, 9. Mercy that is from everlasting to everlasting. All these mercies are with God, to allure, to encourage, and uphold Israel in hope.

[SECOND. What is to be inferred from this reason.]

I come now to the second thing, which is to show what is to be inferred from this reason. And,

First. This, to be sure, is to be inferred, That Israel, as the child of God, is a pitiful thing of himself; one that is full of weaknesses, infirmities, and defects, should we speak nothing of his transgressions. He that is to be attended with so many mercies, absolutely necessary mercies, for there is not in these mercies one that can be spared, must needs be in himself a poor indigent creature. Should you see a child attended with so many engines to make him go, as the child of God is attended with mercies to make him stand, you would say, What an infirm, decrepit, helpless thing is this![22] Alas! I have here counted up mercies in number nine. If I had counted up nine hundred and ninety-nine, all had been the same, for the child of God would not have one to spare. The text saith, ‘The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy,’ and all little enough to preserve his Israel (Psa 119:64). Indeed, those that I have presented the reader with are the chief heads of mercies; or the head-mercies from which many others flow. But, however, were they but single mercies, they show with great evidence our deficiency; but being double, they show it much more.

Should it be said there is such a lord has a son, a poor decrepit thing; he is forced to wear things to strengthen his ancles, things to strengthen his knees, things to strengthen his loins, things to keep up his bowels, things to strengthen his shoulders, his neck, his hands, fingers; yea, he cannot speak but by the help of an engine, nor chew his food but by the help of an engine. What would you say? What would you think? Would you not say such a one is not worth the keeping, and that his father cannot look for any thing from him, but that he should live upon high charge and expense, as long as he liveth; besides all the trouble such an one is like to be of to others. Why this is the case: Israel is such an one, nay, a worse. He cannot live without tender mercy, without great mercy, without rich mercy, without manifold mercy and unless mercy abounds towards him. He cannot stand if mercy doth not compass him round about, nor go unless mercy follows him. Yea, if mercy that rejoiceth against judgment doth not continually flutter over him, the very moth will eat him up, and the canker will consume him (Job 4:19). Wherefore it is necessary to the making of Israel live and flourish, that everlasting mercy should be over his head, and everlasting mercy under his feet, with all the afore-mentioned mercies, and more in the bowels of it. But I say doth not this sufficiently show, had we but eyes to see it, what a sad and deplorable creature the child of God of himself is? O! this is not believed nor considered as it should. Vain man would be wise; sinful man would be holy; and poor, lame, infirm, helpless man, would be strong, and fain persuade others that he hath a sufficiency of himself. But I say, if it be so, what need all this mercy? If thou canst go lustily, what mean thy crutches? No, no, Israel, God’s Israel, when awake, stands astonished at his being surrounded with mercies, and cries out, ‘I am not worthy of the least [I am less than the least] of all thy mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant’ (Gen 32:10).

Second. This also showeth how sorely the enemies of Israel are bent to seek his destruction. The devil is, by way of eminency, called the enemy of God’s people: ‘the devil, your adversary’ (1 Peter 5:8). And this, that there are so many mercies employed about us, and all to bring us to the place which God hath appointed for us, doth demonstrate it. Should you see a man that was not to go from door to door, but he must be clad in a coat of mail, must have a helmet of brass upon his head, and for his life-guard not so few as a thousand men to wait upon him; would you not say, Surely this man has store of enemies at hand, surely this man goes continually in danger of his life? Why, this is the case, enemies lie in wait for poor Israel in every hole; he can neither eat, drink, wake, sleep, work, sit still, talk, be silent; worship his God in public or in private, but he is in danger of being stabbed, or being destroyed. Hence, as was said before, he is compassed about with mercy as with a shield (Micah 7:20). And again it is said concerning these, ‘God’s truth,’ his mercy, ‘shall be thy shield and buckler’ (Psa 91:4). And again, ‘He is a buckler to all them that trust in him’ (2 Sam 22:31). Yea, David being a man sensible of his own weakness, and of the rage and power of his enemies, cries out to his God to take hold of shield and buckler, and to stand up for his help (Psa 35:2). But what need these things be asserted, promised, or prayed for? if Israel had no enemies, or none but such, he could, as we say, make his party good with all. Alas, their cries, their tears, sighs, watchings, and outcries, at sundry times, make this, beyond all show of doubt, a truth.

If Solomon used to have about his bed no less than threescore of the valiantest of Israel, holding swords, and being expert in war, every one with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night—and yet these fears were only concerning men—what guard and safe-guard doth God’s poor people need, who are continually, both night and day, roared upon by the unmerciful fallen angels of hell! (Can 3:7,8). I will add, if it be but duly considered, all this guard and safeguard by mercy notwithstanding, how hardly this people do escape being destroyed for ever, yea, how with hearts broken, and loins broken, many of them with much difficulty get to the gates of heaven! it will be easily concluded, that her enemies are swifter than eagles, stronger than lions; and that they often overtake her between the straits.

To say nothing of the many thousands that dare not so much as once think of true religion, because of the power of the enemy which they behold, when alas! they see nobody but the very scarecrows which the devil hath set up for I count the persecutor of God’s people but the devil’s scarecrow, the old one himself lies quat—yet, I say, how are they frighted! how are they amazed! What a many of the enemies of religion have these folks seen today![23] yea, and they will as soon venture to run the hazard of hell-fire, as to be engaged by these enemies in this way. Why, God’s people are fain to go through them all, and yet no more able than the other to do it of themselves. They therefore are girded, compassed, and defended by this mercy, which is the true cause indeed of their godly perseverance.

Third. A third thing that I infer from these words is, What a loving God has Israel! ‘Truly God is good to Israel. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.’ A loving God, that should take this care of him, and bestow so many mercies upon him. Mercies of all sorts, for all cases, for all manner of relief and help against all manner of perils. What is man that God should so unweariedly attend upon him, and visit him every moment? Is he a second God? Is he God’s fellow? Is he of the highest order of the angels? or what is he? O! he is a flea, a worm, a dead dog, sinful dust and ashes; he comes up like a flower and is cut down, and what a thing is it that God should so much as open his eyes upon such a one! (1 Sam 26:20; Job 25:6, 45:2,3). But then, what a thing is it that God should magnify him, and that he should set his heart upon him! (Job 7:17). Yea, that he should take him into acquaintance with him, give his angels to be all ministering spirits for him! Yea, engage his mercy for him, his tender, great, manifold, and everlasting mercy for him, to compass him round withal, as with a shield, that nothing might work his ruin for ever and ever!

It may well be said, ‘God is love’! (1 John 4:16). Man may well say so, ‘O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy’ (Psa 107:1-3). If it be love for a fellow-creature to give a bit of bread, a coat, a cup of cold water, what shall we call this? when God, the great God, the former of all things, shall not only give an alms, an alms to an enemy, but shall rise up, take shield and buckler, and be a guard, a protection, a deliverer from all evil, until we come into his heavenly kingdom? This love is such as is not found on earth, nor to be paralleled among the creatures. None hopes this but one that is good. Nor does any believe as they should, that God doth love as these things declare he does. Our heart staggereth at the greatness of the thing, and who is it that has any reason left in him, and knows anything of what a wretched thing sin hath made him, that can without starting so much as hear of all this mercy! But,

Fourth. Another thing that I infer from these words is this, What ground is here to Israel to hope in the Lord! The Lord is not that broken reed of Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. God’s word is steadfast for ever, even the word by which we are here exhorted to hope. Nor shall we have cause to doubt of the cause of the exhortation to such a soul-quieting duty; for mercy is with the Lord: ‘Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king’ (Psa 149:2). For with the Lord there is mercy, wherewith to beautify the meek with salvation. What sayest thou, child of God? Has sin wounded, bruised thy soul, and broken thy bones? Why, with the Lord there is tender mercy. Art thou a sinner of the first rate, of the biggest size? Why, with the Lord there is great mercy for thee? Have thy sins corrupted thy wounds, and made them putrefy and stink? Why, with the Lord there is rich, that is, virtuous[24] mercy for thee. Art thy sins of diverse sorts? Why, here is a multitude of manifold mercies for thee. Dost thou see thyself surrounded with enemies? Why, with the Lord there is mercy to compass thee about withal. Is the way dangerous in which thou art to go? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy life. Doth iniquity prevail against thee? The mercy of this Lord aboundeth towards thee. Doth judgments for thy miscarriages overtake thee; There is with thy Lord mercy that rejoiceth to deliver thee from those judgments. What shall I say? There is mercy from everlasting to everlasting upon thee. What wouldst thou have? There is mercy underneath, mercy above, and mercy for thee on every side; therefore ‘let Israel hope in the Lord!’ I will add, it is the greatest unkindness thou canst return to the Lord to doubt this mercy notwithstanding. Why, what wilt thou make of God? Is there no truth nor trust to be put in him, notwithstanding all that he hath said? O the depravedness of man’s nature! Because he speaketh the truth, therefore we believe him not! (John 8:45). The odiousness of unbelief is manifest by this, yea, also the unreasonableness thereof. God is true, his Word is true; and to help us to hope in him, how many times has he fulfilled it to others, and that before our eyes? Hope then; it is good that a man should hope. Hope then; it pleases God that thou shouldest hope. Hope then to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto thee will surely come, with Christ thy Saviour.

Men that have given up themselves to their sins, hope to enjoy some benefit by them, though the curse of God, and his wrath, is revealed from heaven against them for it (Rom 1:18). And yet thou that hast given thyself to God by Christ, art afraid to hope in his mercy! For shame, hope, and do not thus dishonour thy God, would thine own soul, and set so bad an example to others. I know thou hast thy objections in a readiness to cast in my way, and were they made against doctrine, reason would that some notice should be taken of them; but since they are made against duty, duty urged from, and grounded upon, a word which is stedfast for ever, thou deservest to be blamed, and to be told, that of all sins that ever thou didst commit, thou now art managing the vilest, while thou art giving way to, and fortifying of, unbelief and mistrust, against this exhortation to hope, and against the reason for encouragement to the duty.

[THIRD. THE AMPLIFICATION OF THE REASON ‘TO HOPE IN THE LORD.’]

But I shall pass from this to the third thing found in the text, and that is the AMPLIFICATION of the reason. I told you that there were in the text these three things, I. An exhortation to the children of God to hope in the Lord: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord.’ II. A reason to enforce that exhortation, ‘For with the Lord there is mercy.’ III. An amplification of that reason, ‘And with him is plenteous redemption.’ I have gone through the two first, and shall now come to this last.

In these last words, which I call the Amplification of the reason, we have two things. FIRST. A more particular account of the nature of the mercy propounded for an encouragement to Israel to hope. SECOND. An account of the sufficiency of it. The nature of the mercy propounded, is expressed by that word ‘redemption.’ The sufficiency of it is expressed by that word ‘plenteous.’ ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.’

[FIRST. The nature of the mercy propounded.]

Redemption may be diversely taken, as shall be further showed anon; but forasmuch as the term here is made mention of indefinitely, without nominating of this or that part of redemption particularly, I shall speak to it in the general, with respect at least to the main heads thereof.

To redeem is to fetch back, by sufficient and suitable means, those at present in an enthralled, captivated, or an imprisoned condition; and there are two sorts of this redemption. First, Redemption by purchase. Second, Redemption by power. Redemption by purchase is from the cause of captivities. Redemption by power is from the effects.

First, If we speak of redemption by purchase, then three things present themselves to our consideration—I. The person redeeming. II. The nature of the price paid to redeem withal. III. The thing or state from which this redeemer with this price redeemeth.

[I. The Person redeeming.] The subject of this redemption, or person redeemed, is Israel, of him we have spoken before. For the person redeeming, it is Jesus of Nazareth; Jesus that was born at Bethlehem, at the time, and as the Scriptures relate (Matt 1; Luke 2). Now, with reference to his person, we have two things to inquire after. What this person was. How he addressed himself to this work.

1. What this person was. This Jesus was and is the natural and eternal Son of God Almighty, without beginning or end, from everlasting; the Creator and Upholder of the world (Prov 8; John 1; Heb 1).

2. How he addressed himself to the work of redeeming, take as follows. He became true man: for he was conceived through the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a maid, and in the fulness of time brought forth of her, true, real, natural man; I say, though not in the worst, yet in the best sense (Luke 2:31-35). Being thus brought forth without spot or blemish, he began to address himself to the work. (1.) By works preparatory, and then, (2.) By the act itself.

(1.) The works preparatory were as follow. He prepares himself a priestly robe, which was his own obediential righteousness; for without these holy garments he might not adventure to come into the presence of God to offer his gift (Rom 5:19; Exo 28:40, 40:13). Before he offered his gift for the people, he was to be himself sanctified to his office: and that—by blood—by prayers and tears (1 Peter 1:19). (a.) By blood; for before Aaron was to offer his sacrifice for the people, he must himself be sprinkled with blood (Exo 29:19-22). And because Jesus could not be sprinkled with the blood of beasts, therefore was he sprinkled with that of his own: not as Aaron was, upon the tip of his ear, and upon the tip of his toe; but from top to toe, from head to foot, his sweat was blood (Luke 22:44). So that from his agony in the garden to the place where he was to lay down the price of our redemption, he went as consecrated in his own blood. (b.) He offered also his sacrifice of strong crying and tears, as his drink-offering to God, as a sacrifice preparatory, not propitiatory, in pursuit of his office; not to purge his person (Heb 5:5-8). This is the person redeeming, and this was his preparation to the work.

(2.) The act itself. Now the redemption is often ascribed particularly to his blood; yet in general, the act of his redeeming of us must either more remotely or more nearly be reckoned from his whole suffering for us in the flesh; which suffering I take to begin at his agony, and was finished when he was raised again from the dead. By his flesh I understand his whole man, as distinguished from his Divine nature; and so that word doth comprehend his soul as well as his body, as by the 53rd of Isaiah appears. His soul after that manner which was proper to it; and his body after that manner which was proper to it.

[II. The nature of the price paid to redeem.] His sufferings began in his soul, some time before his body was touched, by virtue of which was his bloody sweat in his body. The sorrows of his soul began at the apprehension of what was coming from God, for our sakes, upon him; but the bloody sweat of his body was from that union it had with such a soul. His sufferings were from the hand of God, not of man; not by constraint, but of his own will (Lev 1:3; John 10:18); and they differ from ours in these six things. 1. His sufferings were by the rigour of the law; ours according to the tenor of the gospel (Gal 3:13; Heb 12:10). 2. His sufferings were from God’s hand immediately; ours by and through a Mediator (Isa 53:6; Heb 9:22). 3. God delighted himself in every stroke he gave him; he doth not willingly grieve nor afflict his people (Isa 53; Psa 103; Lam 3:33). 4. He suffereth as a common or public person; we for our own private offences (1 Cor 15:3; Lam 3:39). 5. He suffered to make amends to justice for the breach of a holy law; we to receive some small correction, and to be taught to amend our lives (Heb 9:26; Rom 10:3,4; Deut 8:5; 2 chron 6:27). 6. He was delivered from the nature of suffering by the merit of his person and sufferings; we from ours by the mercy of God through Christ (Acts 2:24; Eph 4:32, 5:2). Redemption, then, by a price, was this; the blood of Christ, which he willingly suffered to be spilt on the cross, before the face of God.

[III. The state from which this price redeemeth.] The cause of this price was our sins; by which we were justly delivered up to the curse, the devil, death, and hell; and should everlastingly have so continued, but that this price of redemption was for us paid. Hence it is said, Christ died for us. Christ died for our sins. Christ gave himself for our sins. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And that we are bought with this price. Now, in all this Christ respected the holiness of the law, and the worth of our souls; giving full satisfaction to the one, for the love that he bare to the other. And this has redeemed his people from sin and the curse, the cause of our captivity.

Second, But besides this, there is redemption by power, and that respecteth that, or those things, unto which we become not legally indebted by our transgression. There was that unto which we became legally indebted, and that was the justice and holiness of the law (Gen 2:17). Now from this, because God had said it, for his Word made it so, there could be no deliverance, but by a reverend and due respect to its command and demand, and an answer to every whit of what it would require; for not one tittle, not one jot or tittle of the law could fail (Matt 5:18). Jesus Christ, therefore, with respect to the law, that he might redeem us, paid a full and sufficient price of redemption; but as for these things that hold us captive, not for any injury we have done to them, but of power, tyranny, or the like; from them he redeemed us by power (Eph 4). Hence, when he had made satisfaction or amends for us to the law, he is said to ‘lead captivity captive, to spoil principalities and powers, and to make a show of them openly’ (Col 2). But to take captive, and to spoil, must be understood of what he did, not to the law, but to those others of our enemies from which we were to be redeemed, not by price but by power. And this second part of redemption is to be considered under a twofold head. 1. That these were overcome personally, in and by himself, for us. 2. That they shall be overcome also, in and by his church, through the power of his Spirit.

1. For the first, these were overcome personally, in and by himself for us; to wit, at his resurrection from the dead. For as by his death he made amends for our breach of the law, so by his resurrection he spoiled those other enemies, to wit, death, the devil, and the grave, &c., unto which we were subjected, not for any offence we had committed against them, but for our sin against the law; and men when they have answered to the justice of the law, are by law and power delivered from the prison. Christ therefore, by power, by his glorious power, did overcome the devil, hell, sin, and death, then when he arose and revived from his grave, and so got the victory over them, in and by himself, for us. For he engaging as a common or public person for us, did on our behalf what he did, both in his death and resurrection. So then, as he died for us, he rose for us; and as by his death he redeemed us from some, so by his resurrection from other, of our enemies. Only it must be considered, that this redemption, as to the fulness of it as yet, resides in his own person only, and is set out to his church as she has need thereof, and that orderly too. First, that part thereof which respecteth our redemption from the law; and then that part of it which respecteth our redemption from those other things. And although we are made partakers of redemption from the curse of the law in this life, so far forth as to be justified therefrom; and also as to the receiving of an earnest while here, of being wholly possessed of the glory of the next world hereafter; yet we neither are, nor shall be redeemed from all those things, which yet our head has, as head, got a complete and eternal victory over, until just before he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all; for ‘the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (1 Cor 15:26). Death, as it has hold upon us, for death as it had hold on our head, was destroyed, when he rose from the dead, but death, as we are subject to it, shall not be destroyed until we all and every one of us shall attain to the resurrection from the dead; a pledge of which we have by our spiritual resurrection, from a state of nature to a state of grace (Col 3:1-4). A promise of which we have in the word of the truth of the gospel; and an assurance of it we have by the resurrection of Christ from the dead (Eph 4:30; Luke 20:35; Acts 17:30,31). Wherefore let us hope!

Now, as to redemption from the law, and from those other things from which we are, and are to be redeemed with power; do but consider the different language which the Holy Ghost useth, with reference to our redemption from each.

When it speaketh of our redemption from the just curse of the law, which we have sufficiently deserved, it is said to be done, not by destroying, but by fulfilling the law. ‘Think not,’ says Christ, ‘that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled’ (Matt 5:17,18). For it became him, as our Redeemer, to fulfil all, and all manner of righteousness, by doing and suffering what justly should have been done or borne of us (Rom 8:3-5; Gal 3:13,14).

But now when our redemption from those other things is made mention of, the dialect is changed; for then we read, to the end we might be delivered from them, Christ was to destroy and abolish them (2 Tim 1:10); ‘that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,’ and so deliver (Heb 2:14). And again, ‘O death, I will be thy plagues! O grace, I will be thy destruction!’ (Hosea 13:14). And again, ‘that the body of sin might be destroyed’ (Rom 6:6); and I have the keys of hell and of death (Rev 1:18). Having thereby sufficiently declared that the power of it is destroyed as to Israel, who are the people concerned in this redemption.

2. They shall be overcome by his church through the power of his Spirit. Now, as was hinted before, the redemption is already obtained, and that completely, by the person of Christ for us (Heb 9:24), as it is written, ‘Having obtained eternal redemption for us’; yet these enemies, sin, death, the devil, hell, and the grave, are not so under the feet of his [saints] as he will put them, and as they shall be in conclusion under the feet of Christ (Heb 2:8,9). I say they are not; wherefore, as the text also concludeth, this redemption is with the Lord, and under our feet they shall be by the power of God towards us (2 Cor 13:4). And for this let Israel hope. The sum then is, God’s people have with the Lord redemption, and redemption in reversion; redemption, and redemption to come; all which is in the hand of the Lord for us, and of all we shall be possessed in his time. This is that called plenteous redemption. ‘For with him is plenteous redemption.’ A little therefore to touch upon the redemption that we have in reversion, or of the redemption yet to come.

(1.) There is yet much sin and many imperfections that cleave to our persons and to our performances, from which, though we be not yet in the most full sense delivered, yet this redemption is with our Lord, and we shall have it in his time; and in the meantime it is said, It shall not have dominion over us. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace’ (Rom 6:14). We are, by what Christ has done, taken from under the law, the curse; and must, by what Christ will do, be delivered from the very being of sin. ‘He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity’; that he might present us to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that we should be without blemish (Titus 2:13,14; Eph 5:25,27). That we are already without the being of sin, none but fools and madmen will assert; and that we shall never be delivered from it, none but such men will affirm neither. It remains then, that there is a redemption for Israel in reversion, and that from the being of sin. And of this it is that the text also discourseth, and for which let the godly hope.

(2.) We are not yet quite free from Satan’s assaulting of us, though our Head by himself, and that for us, has got a complete conquest over him; but the time is coming, and himself knows that it is but a little while to it, in which he shall forever be bruised under our feet. Be wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil, and the God of peace shall bruise, tread down Satan under your feet shortly (Rom 16:20). Some may think that this text will have a fulfilling in the ruin and downfall of Antichrist; and so it may; but yet it will never be wholly fulfilled, as long as Satan shall have any thing to do with one of the children of God. There is therefore a redemption in reversion for the children of God from Satan, which they are to hope for, because this redemption is with the Lord their Head, and that to manage and bring about for them. For he shall bruise him under their feet in his time.

(3.) There is yet belonging to the church of God a redemption from what remains of Antichrist, although as yet he is stronger than we, which I also call a redemption in reversion, for that it is yet to come, nor shall it be accomplished till the time appointed. In this redemption, not only saints, but truths will have a share; yea, and many also of the men that belong not to the kingdom of Christ and of God. This redemption God’s people are also to hope for, for it is with their Lord, and he has promised it to them, as the Scripture doth plentifully declare.

(4.) There is yet a redemption to come, which is called the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). Of this redemption we have both the earnest and the seal, to wit, the Spirit of God (Eph 1:14, 4:30). And because the time to it is long, therefore we are to wait for it; and because it will be that upon which all our blessedness will be let out to us, and we also let in to it, therefore we should be comforted at all the signs of the near approach thereof; ‘then,’ saith Christ, ‘look up and lift up your heads’ (Luke 21:28). The bodies of saints are called the purchased possession; possession, because the whole of all that shall be saved shall be for a temple or house for God to dwell in, in the heavens. A purchased possession, because the body, as well as the soul, is bought with the price of blood (1 Cor 6:14-20). But what then doth he mean by the redemption of this purchased possession? I answer, he meaneth the raising it up from the dead; ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death’ (Hosea 13:14). And then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’; that saying, that is this, and that in Isaiah, for they speak both the selfsame thing (1 Cor 15; Isa 25:8).

And this was signified by Moses, where he speaks of the year of jubilee, and of the redemption of the house that was sold in Israel, how of that year it should return to the owner (Lev 25). Our bodies of right are God’s, but sin still dwells in them; we have also sold and forfeited them to death and the grave, and so they will abide; but at the judgment day, that blessed jubilee, God will take our body, which originally is his, and will deliver it from the bondage of corruption, unto which, by our souls, through sin, it has been subjected; he will take it, I say, because it is his, both by creation and redemption, and will bring it to that perfect freedom that is only to be found in immortality and eternal life. And for this should Israel hope! From what hath been said to this first thing, it appears that the mercy that is with God for his people, as it is in general what has been described before, so it is redeeming mercy, or mercy that has with it the virtue of redemption; of the advantageousness of this mercy, we will further discourse by and by, but now we will look into the second thing, that from this amplification of the reason was propounded to be spoken to, to wit,

[SECOND. The sufficiency of this redemption.]

An account of the sufficiency of this redemption. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.’ The sufficiency or plenteousness of it may be spoken to, as it respecteth the many difficulties and dangers that by sin we have brought ourselves into; or as it respecteth the superabundant worth that is found therein, let the dangers attending us be what they will, though we should not be acquainted with the half or the hundredth part thereof.

To speak to it as it respecteth those particular difficulties and dangers that by sin we have brought ourselves unto; and that, First. By showing the suitableness of it. Second. By showing the sufficiency of the suitableness thereof.

First. The suitableness of it lieth in the fit application thereof to all the parts of thraldom and bondage. Have we sinned? Christ had our sins laid upon his back; yea, of God was made, that is, reputed, sin for us (Isa 53; 2 Cor 5:21). Were we under the curse of the law by reason of sin? Christ was made under the law, and bare the curse thereof to redeem (Gal 4:4, 3:13; Rom 3:24). Had sin set us at an indefinite distance from God? Christ has become, by the price of his redeeming blood, a reconciler of man to God again (Col 1:20). Were we by sin subject to death? Christ died the death to set us free therefrom (Rom 6:23). Had our sins betrayed us into and under Satan’s slavery? Christ has spoiled and destroyed this work, and made us free citizens of heaven (Acts 26:18; 2 Tim 2:26; Heb 2:14; Eph 2:19). Thus was our Redeemer made, as to those things, a suitable recoverer, taking all and missing nothing that stood in the way of our happiness; according to that a little below the text, ‘And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities,’ that is, from them, together with their evil fruits.

Second. Now as to the sufficiency that was in this suitableness, that is declared by his resurrection, by his ascension, by his exaltation to the right hand of God; that is also declared by God’s putting all things under his feet, and by giving of him to be head over all things for his redeemed’s sake. It is also further declared in that God now threateneth none but those that refuse to take Jesus for their Saviour, and for that he is resolved to make his foes his footstool. What are more natural consequences flowing from anything, than that by these things is the sufficiency of the suitableness of redemption by Christ proved? For all these things followed Christ, for, or because he humbled himself to the death of the cross, that he might become a Redeemer; therefore God raised him up, took him to his throne, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God by him (Phil 2).

But alas! what need we stand to prove the sun is light, the fire hot, the water wet? What was done by him was done by God, for he was true God; and what comparison can there be betwixt God and the creature, betwixt the worth of God’s acts, and the merit of the sin of poor man! And can death, or sin, or the grave hold us, when God saith, ‘Give up?’ Yea, where is that, or he, that shall call into question the superabounding sufficiency that is in the merit of Christ, when God continueth to discharge, day by day, yea, hourly, and every moment, sinners from their sin, and death, and hell, for the sake of the redemption that is obtained for us by Christ?