The grounds of this, why the Lord shows wonderful mercy to penitent sinners, whatever tlieir sins have been before, are —
[1.] The infiniteness of God's mercy, that can pardon all, even our greatest sins. We sin as men, but he pardons as a God : Hosea xi. 9, ' I am God, and not man ; thei'efore Ephraim is not destroyed.' It was well Ephraim had to do not with revengeful men, but with a pardoning God. God acts like himself in the exercise of his mercy. Sure an emperor's revenue can pay a beggar's debt. Surely so great and infinite mercy can pardon and absolve our obligation to punishment. Alas for us men ! it is tedious to think of forgiving seven times a day,
VeR. 31.] SERMONS UrON HEBREWS XT. 35
to forgive when still a man is perverse and multiplying his offences ; but to forgive seventy times seven, it breaks the back of all our patience ; but God will pardon like himself, after many and many offences.
[2.] The infiniteness of Christ's merit. Surely his blood can wash and cleanse out all these stains. An ocean can cleanse one nasty sink, be it ever so foul. ' The blood of Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,' 1 John i. 7.
[3.] The covenant of grace exempts no sin but the sin against the Holy Ghost : Mat. xii. 31, ' All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven imto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.' There is no sin but this one which hath not been forgiven, or may not be forgiven, in one person or another ; therefore, though they have fallen very foully, yet we should not despair of them.
[4.] The power of the Holy Ghost can change and sanctify the vilest heart, and can turn a dunghill into a bed of spices ; for nothing is too hard for the hand and power of God. He that made all things out of nothing, he can make a graceless heart to become gracious ; for what is too hard for the Almighty ? When the Lord speaks, all things are possible to God. He can make sometimes ' the last to be first,' Mat. xix. 39. He can make those that set out last for heaven to do more than an early professor ; indeed, they must be more earnestly diligent. When Celsus objected against Origen that Christianity was a sanctuary for flagitious persons, because of the large terms of the gospel, he made this answer — 'The gospel,' saithhe, 'is not merely a sanctuary to receive them, but it is an hospital to care them.' There is a mighty Spirit that can turn them from those sins, and change their hearts ; they come to it as to an hospital to cure them of their foul diseases, which no other physician can do but Christ.
Use. To check despair for ourselves or others.
First, For ourselves. There is a twofold despair — a raging and a sottish despair. Kaging despair is when we are filled with terror, and are afraid of the wrath of God, that we think we shall never be for- given, having daily offended him. Sottish despair is when we think of sin, and go on to plea.se our lusts.
1. This point serves to cure the raging despair. This is spoken of in Cain: Gen. iv. 13, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear;' and Judas, who said, Mat, xxvii, 4, 5, ' I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood ; and he cast down the thirty pieces in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.' To cure this raging despair, consider, if you have but a mind to return from your great and infamous sins, the Lord is more ready to receive and pardon you than j'ou can be to return. While the prodigal was yet a great way off, ' tlie father ran to meet him,' Luke xv. 20. And when David had fallen foully, and his conscience was full of trouble, Ps. xxxii. 5, ' I said I will confess mine iniquities unto the Lord, and thou for- gavest the iniquity of my sin.' When he did but conceive the purpose, the Lord renewed the pardon. Oh! do not stand aloof from a pardoning God; you have a sure and sufficient remedy before you in Christ Jesus, and in the covenant of grace. The Lord saves none as innocent, but
36 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. LXV.
he excepts none as penitent : Therefore to say, My sin is greater than can be forgiven, is to please the devil and cross God's design in the work of redemption. Is your disease so great that the physician of sonls cannot cure it ?
2. There is a sottish despair, when men are not much troubled for their sins, but think they shall never be converted, and be brought to love this strict, holy, and heavenly life, and so resolve to go on and make the best they can of a carnal course, and drive off all remorse of conscience. This is spoken of, Jer. xviii, 12, ' And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart;' and Jer. ii. 25, 'Thou sayest, There is no hope : No, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.' They think there is no possibility of their ever being reduced or reclaimed to a holy and heavenly life, and so past cure, past care ; and are resolved to live as they list : The case is desperate, say they, and I am at a point ; and thus they are resolved to continue, and go on in their evil course. These are obstinate in their infidelity and impenitency, and therefore they are worse than the former. Despairing fears are not so bad as these desperate resolutions, because they do not only doubt of God's mercy, but question his sovereignty, and refuse subjection to him, and despair of sanctification rather than pardon, and draw wilful rebellious conclusions from it. Oh ! do not cherish such a thought, nor yield to such despondency. God can turn and pardon you ; and though with men it is impossible, yet not with God.