That which Satan would use as an argument to drive us from God, we should use as a strong plea with him. Lord, the greater my sins are, the greater will be the glory of thy pardoning mercy. David, after his heinous sins, cries not for mercy, but for ' abundance of mercy ;' * according to the multitude of thy mercies, do away mine offences,' Ps. U. 1. His mercy is
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not only above his own works, but above ours too. If we could sin more than he could pardon, then we might have some reason to despair. Despair is a high point of atheism, it takes away God and Christ both at once. Judas, in betraying our Saviom-, was an occasion of his death as man, but in despairing he did what lay in him to take away his life as God.
When, therefore, conscience, joining with Satan, sets out the sin in its coloui's, labour thou by faith to set out God in his colours, infinite in mercy and lovingkindess. Here lies the art of a Christian ; it is divine rhetoric thus to persuade and set down the soul. Thy sins are great, but Adam's was greater, who being so newly advanced above all the creatures, and taken into so near an acquaintance with God, and having ability to persist in that condition if he would, yet willingly overthrew himself and all his whole posterity', by yielding to a temptation, which though high, as being pro- mised to be like unto God, yet such as he should and might have resisted. No sin we can commit, can be a sin of so tainting and spreading a nature ; yet, as he fell by distrust, so he was recovered by trusting, and so must we by relying on a second Adam, whose obedience and righteousness from thence reigns, Rom. v. 17, to the taking away not only of that one sin of Adam, and ours in him, but of all, and not only to the pardon of all sin, but to a right of everlasting life. The Lord thinks himself disparaged, when we have no higher thoughts of his mercy than of our sins, when we bring God dowTi to om* model, whenas ' the heavens are not so much higher than the earth, than his thoughts of love and goodness are above the thoughts of our unworthiness,' Isa. Iv. 9. It is a kind of taking away the Almighty to hmit his boundless mercy in Christ, within the narrow scantling* of our apprehension ; yet infidehty doth this, which should stu- up in us a loathing of it above all other sins. But this is Satan's fetch, f when once he hath brought us into sins against the law, then to bring us into sins of a higher natm-e, and deeper danger, even against the blessed gospel, that so there may be no remedy, but that mercy itself might condemn us.
Al Ithe aggravations that conscience, and Satan helping it, are able to raise sin imto, cannot rise to that degi'ee of infiniteness, that God's mercy in Christ is of. If there be a spring of sin in us, there is a spring of mercy in him, and a fountain open daily to wash ourselves in, Zech. xiii. 1. If we sin oft, let us do as St Paul, who prayed oft ' against the prick of the flesh,' 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8. If it be a de\dl of long continuance, yet fasting and prayer win drive him out at length. Mat. xvii. 21.
Nothing keeps the soul more down than sins of long continuance, because corruption of natm'e hath gotten such strength in them, as nature is added to natm'e, and custom doth so determine and sway the soul one way, that men think it impossible to recover themselves. They see one link of sin di'aw on another, all making a chain to fasten them to destruction. They think of necessity they must be damned, because custom hath bred a necessity of sinning in them, and conceive of the promise of mercy, as only made to such as turn from their sinful courses, in which they see themselves so hardened that they cannot repent.
Certain it is, the condition is most lamentable, that yielding unto sin brings men unto. Men are careful to prevent dangerous sicknesses of body, and the danger of law concerning their estates ; but seldom consider into "what a miserable plight their sins, which they so willingly give themselves up imto, will biing them. If they do not perish in then* sins, yet their yielding will bring them into such a doleful condition, that they would give * That is, ' small portion.' — G. t That is, ' artifice.' — G.
230 THE soul's conflict.
the whole •world, if they were possessors of it, to have their spirits at free- dom from this bondage and fear.
To such as bless themselves in an ill way upon hope of mercy, we dare not speak a word of comfort, because God doth not, but threatens his wrath shall bum to hell against them. Yet because while life continues there may be, as a space, so a place and grace for repentance, these must be dealt withal in such a manner, as they may be stayed and stopped in their dan- gerous courses ; there must be a stop before a turn.