This, I say, is an encouragement in general unto believers. We have, as I hope, upon unquestionable grounds, evinced that there is forgiveness with God ; which is the hinge on which turneth the issue of our eternal condition. Now this is like himself; such as becomes him; that answers the infinite perfections of his nature; that is exercised and given forth by him as God. We are apt to narrow and straiten it by our unbelief, and to render it unbecoming of him. He less dishonours God (or as little), who, being wholly under the power of the law, believes that there is no forgiveness with him, none to be obtained from him, or doth not believe it that so it is, or is so to be obtained, — for which he hath the voice and sentence of the law to countenance him, — than those who, being convinced of the principles and grounds of it before mentioned, and of the truth of the testimony given unto it, do yet, by straitening and narrowing
502 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM cxxx. [Ver.4.
of it, render it unworthy of him whose excellencies are all infinite, and Avhose ways on that account are incornjsrehensible. If, then, we resolve to treat with God about this matter (which is the business now in hand), let us do it as it becomes his greatness; that is, indeed, as the wants of our souls do require. Let us not entangle our own spirits by limiting his grace. The father of the child possessed with a devil, being in a great agony when he came to our Saviour, cries out, " If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us," Mark ix. 22. He would fain be delivered, but the matter was so gi'eat that he questioned whether the Lord Christ had either compassion or power enough for his relief And what did he ob- tain hereby? Nothing but the retarding of the cure of his child for a season ; for our Saviour holds him off until he had instructed him in this matter. Saith he, verse 23, " If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth ; " — " Mistake not ; if thy child be not cured, it is not for want of power or pity in me, but of faith in thee. My power is such as renders all things jDossible, so that they be believed." So it is with many who would desirously be made partakers of forgiveness. If it be possible, they would be pardoned ; but they do not see it possible. Why, where is the de- fect ? God hath no pardon for them, or such as they are ; and so it may be they come finally short of pardon. What! because God cannot pai'don them ? — it is not possible with him ? Not at all ; but because they cannot, they will not believe, that the forgiveness that is with him is such as that it would answer all the wants of their souls, because it answers the infinite largeness of his heart. And if this doth not wholly deprive them of pardon, yet it greatly -retards their peace and comfort. God doth not take it well to be limited by us in any thing, least of all in his grace. This he calls a temjjt- ing of him, a provoking temptation: Ps. Ixxviii. 41, " They turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." This he could not bear with. If there be any pardon with God, it is such as becomes himio give. When he pardons, he will "abundantly pardon." Go with your half-forgiveness, limited, conditional pardons, with resei-ves and limitations, unto the sons of men ; it may be it may become them, it is like themselves; — that of God is absolute and perfect, before which our sins are as a cloud before the east wind and the rising sun. Hence he is said to do this work with his whole heart and his whole squI, ^apl^sgdai, " freely," bountifully, largely to indulge and forgive unto us our sins, and " to cast them into the depths of the sea," Micah vii. 19, into a bottomless ocean, — an emblem of infinite mercy. Remember this, poor souls, wiien }■ on are to deal with God in this matter: " All things are possible unto them that do believe."
Ver.4.] PKOPERTIES OF DIVINE FOEGIVENESS. 503
Secondly, This forgiveness is in or with God, not only so as that we may aj^ply oiu'selves unto it if we will, for which he will not be offended with us, but so also as that he hath ijlaced his great glory in the declaration and communication of it; nor can we honour him more than by coming to him to be made partakers of it, and so to receive it from him. For the most part, we are, as it were, ready rather to steal forgiveness from God, than to receive from him as one that gives it freely and largely. We take it uj) and lay it down as though we would be glad to have it, so God did not, as it were, see us take it ; for we are afraid he is not willing we should have it indeed. We would steal this fire from heaven, and have a share in God's treasures and riches almost without his consent : at least, we think that we have it from him " ssgre," v\^ith much diffi- culty ; that it is rarely given, and scarcely obtained ; that he gives it out Exwv dszovri ys ^i/a-w, with a kind of univilling ivillingness, — as we sometimes give alms without cheerfulness ; and that he loseth so much by us as he givetli out in pardon. We are apt to think that we are very willing to have forgiveness, but that God is unwilling to bestow it, and that because he seems to be a loser by it, and to forego the glory of inflicting punishment for our sins ; which of all things we suppose he is most loath to part withal. And this is the ver}^ nature of unbelief. But indeed things are quite otherwise. He hath in this matter, through the Lord Christ, ordered all things in his dealings with sinners, " to the praise of the glory of his grace," Eph. i. G. His design in the whole mystery of the gospel is to make his grace glorious, or to exalt |)ardoning mercy. The great fruit and j)roduct of his gi-ace is forgiveness of sinners. This God will render himself glorious in and by. All the praise, glory, and worship that he designs from any in this world is to redound unto him by the way of this gi-ace, as we have proved at large before. For this cause spared he the world when sin first entered into it; for this cause did he provide a new covenant when the old was be- come unprofitable; for this cause did he send his Son into the Avorld. This hath he testified by all the evidences insisted on. Would he have lost the pi'aise of his grace, nothing hereof Avould have been done or brought about.