CHAPTER XI. Pardoning Mercy Granted Selectively
Chapter XI:
Pardoning Mercy Granted Selectively Further, Blessed is he that hath his iniquities forgiven, because it is a mercy that is given but to a little handful of the world, the whole world lies in wickedness, as carrion in a ditch, or as Prisoners under the chains of guilt of sin, and yet that God should pull some of these out, that lie as in a filthy Dungeon; this is a wonderful mercy. A Prince that hath many offenders, usually pardons the most, and executes the fewest; But God usually executes the most, and pardons fewest.
But how comes this to pass, seeing God is a God of more mercy than any Prince; how is it that a Prince should pardon most, and execute the fewest, and God do the contrary?
Answ. 1. Because the execution of many that are guilty, [Answ.
1] would be a troublesome and dangerous thing unto a Prince; he cannot do it when the most have offended: but God can easily execute thousands of thousands, and all with one word speaking.
Further, If a Prince should execute all that offend, he [Answ.
2] should have a want of his Subjects: But God wants not the creatures, he has no need of us: but a Prince may want his Subjects, and therefore if there be any way in the world to preserve them, and keep them in any way subject to him, the Prince will not destroy them.
Besides, the Prince executes the fewest, and saves the most; [Answ.
3] Because the execution of a few may be a means to bring others unto allegiance: But when God comes to execute Malefactors, the execution of some cannot be a means to work good on others, especially at the great day; 'tis true, in this world God is longsuffering, and executes a few, that it may be a means to work
good on others; But how is God said to be a God of rich and glorious mercy, and yet pardons very few, and executes most; for all the world have been in Treason against him: how is it that God pardons fewest and destroys most? I hope to give you very good reason and satisfaction, in showing you how the infinite glory of the mercy of God appears, and yet but few are pardoned; yea rather the more, because that few are pardoned: God would thereby manifest the more his glorious mercy.
1. It may well stand with the glorious riches of the mercy of God, that many are destroyed and yet but few pardoned; thus, Because that God would have a proportion between his Justice and Mercy ; you say, he would have a proportion, Is not be as merciful as he is just?
Then there must be as many pardoned as condemned. No, if God will observe a proportion between his mercy and justice, and that he will have his Justice appear as well as his Mercy, then more must be damned than saved; How does that appear? thus; Because the glory of God's Justice in damning twenty hundred, is not so much as the glory of his Mercy in saving two ; you may conceive it by what is ordinarily used among men: If the King save but two men that are
Malefactors, he magnifies his mercy as much in that as his justice if he hang up a hundred: so if God save but two, his mercy is as much magnified as his justice in damning twenty hundred, the reason is this; Because there is something in the creature that calls for God's justice, that requires that: But there is nothing in the creature, that requires his mercy ; when God manifests his justice, he does such a work as is due to the Creature; there is something in the Creature that challenges such a work from God: but when God comes to manifest mercy, there is nothing at all in us that should require such a work from God; no, his mercy is free, altogether from himself, 'tis his own work, and proceeds from his own hearts love, and nothing in us that may challenge it from him: Now seeing there is that in the Creature that challenges justice, and nothing at all that can require mercy; therefore if God show mercy but to a few, it is as great a glory to his mercy as it is to his justice, if he condemn a hundred; but if he should save as many as he condemns, the mercy of God would be
beyond all proportion to his justice, but because that cannot be, hence it is that few are saved and many damned.
Answer. 2. There are more damned than saved, because God would hereby manifest his mercy the more to thee that art saved ; by suffering so many others to perish: this is one end that God hath in it, that their destruction might set out the excellency of the glory of his grace to thee. When a Limner would draw a Scutcheon, or a Picture in Or, or any other curious colors, he lays the ground-work in black, and then the beauty of the other colors will thereby most appear: thou oh soul that hast thy sin pardoned, know that God lays the ground-work of thy mercy in the black dismal destruction of multitudes of ungodly sinners, he gives them their due, that that is their right; but the ultimate aim of God in it rises to this, that their destruction may make the brightness of his glorious grace appear the more gloriously to them that are saved; that the Saints whose sins
God hath pardoned, may in Heaven have this argument to praise his grace so much the more, because they are culled out of the mass and multitude of sinners that are damned; this will mightily inflame the hearts of Saints in giving God glory in Heaven, when they shall see so many thousands and millions of thousands cast down to eternal destruction; that God should do this to set off the riches of his grace to them: How will this inflame their hearts in giving God glory, and this God aims at as the top of his glory that he might have a company to be the eternal objects of the riches of his grace; and this shows the base and low account God hath of wicked men, that he lets them perish eternally, that he might magnify the glory of his grace to Saints; What an aggravation is it of the greatness of God's mercy to Saints, when he is content that so many thousands of others shall perish, that his mercy to them may more gloriously appear? As when a Prince hath a Child born, that he might show his honor to the Child in solemnizing the Christening of the Child; it may be thousands of Oxen and Sheep shall loose their lives in the solemnizing of the joy the Prince hath in his Child: If the Solemnity of the Joy the Prince hath in that little Infant may be the cause of thousands of creatures losing their lives, this shows the dear respect he hath to his Child, or