Otherwise, if the mercy of God work the other way, hearken to thy doom, ' He that blesseth himself,' saith God by Moses, and saith, * These cm'ses shall not come to me,' he that blesseth himself and saith. Oh, all shall be well, God is merciful, &c., ' my wrath shall smoke against him,' Deut. xxix. 16, 20, and I wdll not be merciful to him that goes on in his sins. God will ' wound the hauy scalp of him that goes on in sin,' Ps. Ixviii. 21. As the apostle saith, he that abuseth the bounty and patience of God, that should lead him to repentance, ' he treasureth up wrath against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. The Scripture is never in any case more terrible than this way. In Isa. xxviii. 15, ' You have made a cove- nant with hell and death,' with God's judgments ; but hell and death hath not made a covenant with you. You make a covenant, and think you shall do well ; but God is terrible to such. His wrath shall smoke against such as make a covenant with his judgments, and treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.
Take heed. If the proclamation of mercy call thee not in, if thou stand out as a rebel and come not in, but go on still, then justice lays hold on thee, God's wrath shall smoke against thee, as we see in Prov. i. 26, ' I will laugh at youi' destruction,' speaking of those that would not come in • and as* it is in Isa. xxvii. 11, 'He that formed them and made them will have no mercy on them, nor shew them favour.' He will have no de- light in them. They are ignorant sots, and will not labom- to know God and his will, to do and obey it. ' He that made them will have no de- light in them, and he that fonned them will reject them.' It is a pitiful thing when God, that made them and fonned them in their mother's womb, whose creatures they are, shall have no delight in them ; when he that made them, his heart shall not pity them, Ezek, x\iii. 18, He that goes on in a course of sin presumptuously and doth not repent, God's eye shaJI not pity him, ' He that made him will have no delight in him.'
Therefore the apostle, because we are disposed and prone to abuse the goodness and longsuffering of God and the mercies of Christ, he saitb, ' Be not deceived, be not deceived ' (he oft presseth this), ' for neither the covetous nor licentious persons shall enter into heaven,' 1 Cor, vi, 10.^
Though God be merciful, if thou Hve in these sins, be not deceived,
* By a strange misprint, the words ' and as,' appear in the unmeaning form of ' Chidas,' in the folio. It is plain that ' and as' was intended by Sibbes. — G. VOL, III. 0
84 COMMENTAKY ON
thou slialt never enter into heaven. God will not be merciful to the most of those that even now live in the bosom of the church, because they make mercy a band to their sinful courses. God will harden him- self. He will not bless such. Ho hath no mercy for such. To such he is a God of vengeance.
His mercy is to such as are weary of their sinful courses. As I said, he is merciful, but so as ho is wise.
What prince will prostitute a pardon to one that is a rebel, and yet thinks himself a good subject all the while ? He is no rebel ; cares he for a pardon '? and shall he have a pardon when he cares not for it ? Those that are not humbled in the sight and sense of their sins, that think themselves in a good estate, they are rebels, that have not sued out their pardon. There is no mercy to them yet. ' He that made them will not pity them,' because they are ignorant, hardened wretches, that live in blasphemy, in swearing, in corrupt courses, in hardness of heart, that live in sins, that their own conscience and the conscience of others about them know that they are sins, devouring sins, that devour all their comfort ; and yet, notwithstanding, they dream of mercy. Mercy ! Hell is theii" por- tion, and not mercy, that make an idol of God.
Thus it is with us ; we are prone to presume upon God's mercy. I speak this that we should not surfeit of this sweet doctrine, that God is the ' Father of mercies.' He is so to repentant sinners, to those that believe. To those mercy is sweet. We know oil is above all liquors. God's mercy is above all his own works and above our sins. But what is the vessel for this oil ? This oil of mercy, it is put in broken vessels ; it is kept best there. A broken heart, a humble heart, receives and keeps mercy.
As for proud dispositions, as all sinners that go on in a course of sin, the psalmist terms them proud men ; he is a proud man that sets his ovra will against God's command. ' God resists the proud,' James iv. 6. It is the humble, yielding heart, that will be led and lured by God, that is a vessel to receive mercy. It must be a deep vessel, it must be a broken vessel, deep with humiliation, broken by contrition, that must receive mercy. And it must be a large vessel laid open, capable to receive mercy, and all mercy, not only pardoning mercy, but healing mercy, as I said out of that psalm, ' That forgiveth all thy sins, and healeth all thy transgres- sions,' Ps. ciii. 3.