---- CHAPTER XI: That mercy and grace in God are properties of his divine being and glory.

---- CHAPTER XI: That mercy and grace in God are properties of his divine being and glory.

is holy in his being, as he is God. The like is to be understood of his being good, wise, merciful, &c.

CHAPTER XI

That mercy and grace in God are properties of his divine being and glory.

No other proof alleged but from the text, Exod. 34:6, 7.

I come now to the farther proofs of this assertion, that mercy and grace are properties of the divine nature. And I profess to allege no other (that I may shew this text to be a complete abundary of all

God's mercies) than what the text, either in the words themselves, or the aspect of them upon what went before, do afford the heads of, and foundations for; and I shall then call in the help but of such other scriptures, which as volunteers willingly offer themselves to assist in this cause, and verify and confirm each hereof, when first extracted out of the word.

The point to be proved is, that mercy and grace are glorious properties of the divine being or nature.

Arg. 1. The first argument is drawn from the true reference and strict correspondency this proclamation of God, merciful, &c., holds with the foregone transactions in the chapter before, Exod. 33, which lead on to it, which were Moses's request, God's answer and promise unto his request; and here in my text, God's performance according to his promise. These three are correspondent, one to the other. Observe we then, 1st, what it was Moses desired of God; and, 2dly, what God promised to gratify him in; and, 3dly, the thing which God did punctually perform. And, in my beginning with this first, I shall but keep to that method generally observed for the opening of a text, in discovering its occasion, coherence; and yet withal prove my assertion at once. In the 33d chapter, Moses had desired of God that he would shew him his face and glory; that is, his divine essence immediately, or his essential glory as it is in himself. This Moses aspired unto, ver. 18, 'I beseech thee, shew me thy glory;' but God tells him that this seeing his face, or the immediate vision of his

essence or being, none is capable of, and live, ver. 20, which yet leaves a room for hope that the frailties of this life being removed, a man may see God's face in that other life. But yet, in lieu thereof,

God, to gratify him, professes his gracious resolution to grant the privilege, as far as was possible for any mere man to partake of it and live; and to manifest his foresaid face and glory, and his being God, as far as was expressible, and might be represented unto man, and he live, in these words: ver. 19, 'And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' And the best interpretation of this is that which I find in Oleaster,* who paraphrasing those words of God' s, 'all my good,' that is, myself, says he, in whom is all that is good or excellent, or a perfection, shall pass before thee, and be made known by voice signifying it, 'I will proclaim my name,' &c., or by a vision of his, ver. 23, 'Thou shalt see my back parts,' representing it. And you heard how the names or attributes of God do signify truly and properly what is really the nature of God. So then

God's essential divine perfections are intended and promised by God, to be seen and proclaimed by such characters of words; or a name and attributes, as far as was possible, those perfections in himself to be by words expressed; yet so as still these words should be such as should represent what was in himself, or the divine nature, in truth and reality answering thereunto, as in my explication premised, chap. 6, I have shewn.

From whence I argue, that if these first and chief attributes proclaimed, viz., Jehovah, merciful, gracions, long-suffering, much in goodness and truth, had not served to signify that essential goodness which was in himself; or if there had not been that glory essentially in himself which these names were intended to signify, then God had neither gratified Moses to the utmost he was capacitated for, nor answered his desire to see his glory, as far as he was capable to see it, and live. For that there are some such other names and attributes of his in Scripture which do express his nature and essence, all do, and must acknowledge, as wisdom, holiness, &c.,

which are not here expressed; and therefore, if he doth it not in these here, professedly by himself proclaimed, and proclaimed as professedly to that very end and purpose, make his essence known; then nowhere else should he be thought or judged to do it; nay, he had done it in none, for he had professed beforehand he would do it in these, that he would proclaim his goodness and glory. And whereas there are (as was said) other attributes and epithets that would have set forth his divine being and glory, that he should name none of those, but, in lieu thereof, choose and single forth merciful, gracious, above all others, to express his glory by, argues that mercy is not only his nature, but the glory of it; at least, it must be acknowledged such as do signify what his nature is, as really and as properly as any other denomination whatsoever can do, or ever will do. Yea, he would, since he professeth to proclaim that name which should express his glory, rather have made choice of those other names that are essential, if those had not been such as much as any.

And this first argument is but as the porch or portal to the whole building.

Arg. 2. My second argument is from the very order and division which the words (as to the point of mercy) do naturally fall into; and this may well be taken for one proof of this assertion, a preliminary one, for I yet make but an entry to the text. For three things may be easily discerned distinct in this proclamation, and succeeding one the other in an orderly dependence one upon the other.

1. An inward, merciful, and gracious disposition to shew mercy, which is the root or spring, placed therefore in order the first:

'Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, much in goodness and truth.'

2. His blessed purposes and resolutions to bestow it, in these words:

'keeping mercy for thousands;' that is, reserving it in his intendments to bestow it, which are immanent acts in God, flowing from the former, kept and laid up in his own breast, and now uttered.

3. Extrinsecal, or outward works of mercy issuing from both: as 'pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin,' that being given as one instance (the most eminent), for all other of that sort, external mercies.

Whereof the sum is, 1st, he is merciful and gracious: that is his nature as he is Jehovah, Jehovah; 2dly, he fully resolveth to shew mercy: there is his heart; 3dly, he hath done it, and doth it, in pardoning every day: there is his wont and practice, as Moses upon it says: Numb, 14, 'Pardon as thou hast pardoned, from Egypt until now.' And by these three God sets himself out to be every way, and all sorts of ways, merciful.

And this general may serve instead of a more exact division of the words which others would give, and doth give some light to prove this head, if there were no other to follow; but this is but as the threshold or first entrance to the whole.

Arg. 3. Merciful effects are ascribed unto the mercy of God as the proper cause of them, and therefore the mercy attributed to God must be properly an inward principle in God, whence those effects do proceed. It is an approved maxim, and will approve itself, and carry itself thorugh the whole Scriptures, that as in the general all God's works are ascribed to God as God, Ps. 86:8, 10; so in particular every genuine attribute hath, for the glory of it, proper work attributed in a special eminency unto it as the special cause of that work. As the creation of the world is attributed to power, Rom. 1, and to wisdom,

Ps. 140:24, yea, and the greatness of his work is attributed to the greatness that is in himself, Ps. 86:10, and Ps. 145:3–6, as in like manner the goodness of them to the goodness that resides in him; and thus the performance of his promises is attributed to that essential truth that is in him, and are styled truth; the like must be allowed unto mercy, whilst we find the Scriptures attributing such and such works unto mercy in God as the proper cause of them.

Furthermore, the distinction of one essential attribute from another is, to our understanding, fetched from that special and proper

relation they have in Scripture given them unto their several objects and effects. Justice refers to a sinner as to be punished, mercy to a sinner to be forgiven, and are thereby distinguished as to us, who cannot conceive of their simple oneness as it is in God's divine being.* There is that really in God which answers to each and every one as so distinguished.

Now, that merciful effects are ascribed to the mercy of God, as the proper cause of them, as truly and as roundly as any other effects are to any other attributes whatever, is evident out of this text, to which, as for the groundwork of my proofs, I have limited myself; as also from other scriptures which confirm the same.

I. Out of this text.

1. It appears from God's own method. First, 'Jehovah, merciful,' &c., absolutely simply such is proclaimed; and then, 'a God that pardons iniquity.' The first is placed before as the principle or cause, the latter as the effect thereof.

2. It is evident by Moses his gloss upon the interpretation of it, Num.

14, where he first allegeth, as the foundation of his request, the two chief of these first five absolute abstract attributes, power and mercy, as the summary of the other: 'Let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast said, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy.' Thus as they are in God himself; and then he mentions those that speak the effects thereof, 'forgiving iniquity and transgression.' Which having premised, his petition is framed accordingly, verse 19, which he indites thus, 'Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.'

Now, compare we the one and the other together, and look as the words he cites of God's speech have two parts or clauses—1, the Lord, long-suffering and of great mercy, which are the abstract attributes;

2, pardoning iniquity, &c., that speak the effects—accordingly his application of them in his petition hath two parts or clauses

manifestly answering to and expounding those other two: 1, that phrase, 'according to his great mercy,' answereth and expoundeth these words, 'the Lord, long-suffering, great in mercy,' &c., as strongly pleading that according to that mercy he had thereby declared to be in himself and gracious nature as a principle of pardoning, he would please to pardon them; 2, his adding, 'As thou hast forgiven them all along from Egypt until now,' denoting matter of fact done and put forth by mercy, doth as pertinently expound that clause in God's own words cited by him, 'forgiving iniquity and transgression,' which in like manner also denoteth matter of fact as the effect of mercy. And put both together, and they fall into this true and genuine sense and meaning; as if he had said, According to that infinite mercy abounding in thy divine nature, who art Jehovah, God, merciful and long-suffering, &c., out of which, and according to which, thou hast de facto pardoned them hitherto, pardon them again now; which that it is the scope of God's words in my text, is the thing I am a-proving. So then in these words, 'the Lord, longsuffering, and of great mercy,' there is the cause first specified, or principle in God moving him, and which therefore Moses in the first place premiseth as his foundation to move God withal. Then in the other words, 'pardoning iniquity,' there is the effect promised, with this declaration of his nature, which flows from that inward blessed disposition or principle of mercifulness, which he sues unto, and implores that God would accordingly put forth in an actual pardoning of them. The first speaks mercy to be an attribute of his nature, for he clearly parallels it with his power, as an essential attribute: 'Let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, the Lord God of great mercy.' The second, of pardoning iniquity, speaks that effect flowing from that nature as an act of his will yet put forth, according to his nature, which those words of Moses, 'according to the greatness of thy mercy,' do sufficiently import. And it was Moses that first brought up this so happy expression in praying, 'according to thy mercy,' upon this occasion, and as extracted from those words, 'the Lord, long-suffering, merciful,' which was afterwards often used by David and the prophets as a ground of their seeking of pardon and mercy, and that

unto this very purpose and meaning in which I have now expounded it. For this of Moses was the original of it, and is the highest and utmost motive that can be used to God, to put forth all the mercies of his nature to succour us in all our distresses, and that according thereunto he would deal with us; which is enough and enough (as we say) for us to ask, or to support our faith in asking. And all these are at once seconded by Nehemiah, chap. 9:31, 'Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.' 1. There is the root or δύναμις of mercifulness in God himself, the efficient cause: 'for thou art a gracious and merciful God;' 2, there is the effects of that mercy: 'thou therefore forsookest them not;' and 3, there is the same mercy in his nature, and set out as the final cause moving him thereunto: 'for thy great mercy's sake.'

By David's application of the words of my text, I shewed in the foregoing chapter how David, rehearsing first these four attributes appertaining to mercy word for word, hath likewise by name cited

Moses, as out of whose writings he had them. And his method there is accordingly the same with this we have shewn was that of Moses.

First, abstractly to recite those attributes as the principles in him and the cause: Ps. 103:8, 'The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.' And then to bring in many of the outward effects of that mercy: ver. 9, 10, 'He will not always chide; neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.' And amongst others he introduceth that of pardoning iniquity, &c.: ver.

12, 'As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.'

Elsewhere and in other scriptures we find the same; and indeed other scriptures that speak about the mercies of God, speak but according to God's intent in these words, they being derivatives all from this. Now, when in Psalm 78:38 it is said, 'He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquities,' he plainly assigns the mercifulness in God to have been the cause* of his forgiving them,

and therefore mercy is most properly ascribed to God, and is in God.

And this speech of his there is but explicatory of these words here in the text. In like manner, in Psalm 86, after he had so earnestly sought for mercy at God's hands (as 'preserve my soul, save thy servant,' ver. 2; 'be merciful to me,' ver. 3), he foundeth all his petitions on this, 'For thou art good, and ready to forgive; plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.' He supplicates his good and merciful nature to move himself to put forth these acts of mercy towards him. Likewise Nehemiah, chap. 9:31, giving an account of God's gracious dealings with that people notwithstanding their sins,

'Nevertheless,' saith he, 'thou didst not forsake them, for thou art a gracious and merciful God.' That particle for, in this and those other places, doth undeniably testify that God being himself truly and properly merciful, from thence and according thereunto it is that he acteth graciously and compassionately towards us, as moved by and from a true principle and disposition in himself. Oh how perfectly contrary are these professed dictates of the Holy Ghost unto what some would elevate and dilute this attribute unto, viz., that he is only said to be gracious and merciful, &c., for or because he doth merciful things; whereas the Scripture style all along you see is, he doth merciful works for he is gracious and merciful.

Yea, further, to confirm this, it is so remote that God should be styled merciful in relation to his works of mercy, that his works of mercy have their denomination or name of mercies* (as frequently they have in the Scriptures, and in common use of speech) given them from that proper special relation they owe and bear unto the mercy that is in God, from whence they do proceed. And so they are not styled mercies because they respect us or our needs, the objects of them, but in respect to the merciful God, who is the original subject in whom mercy is, and he the Father and fountain of them. And as the effect ordinarily bears the name of its proper cause, as the child of the father, so those mercies bear their name of and from his mercy, who is more eminently styled the Father of them than of any other his works wrought by other attributes. And that which confirms this notion is, that in the case of other attributes, their

proper works or effects have their denomination from that attribute which is their cause, wherefore so in this. Thus Psalm 119:137, 138,

'Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.' There they are termed righteous and faithful judgments, as proceeding from his being a righteous and faithful God, and as from whose righteousness they proceed. In like manner also the works of his grace in us are termed grace, grace freely given, being the free impressions and fruits of the grace that is in himself. And indeed, in that elogium of him that he is the 'Father of mercies,' 2 Cor. 1:3, look as the word of mercies, οἰκτιρμῶν, doth import mercies bestowed, so Father of those mercies is spoken of God to a like purpose; as when the sun is said to be the father of lights (for unto the sun is that allusion of God in the apostle, James 1:17), the meaning is, that the sun hath first all light originally seated in itself, and so communicates all those lights and glory with which the moon, stars, and air are enlightened. Looking-glasses are arrayed and do borrow from that sun, and yet themselves are called lights. But how? Only by participation from it, the original light. And in the same respect is

God the Father of mercies, as he is also entitled the 'Father of glory' in Eph. 1:17. Which in like manner notes, 1st, that he is a glorious

God in himself—'the God of glory,' Acts 7:2—having an essential glory abiding in him, as light doth in the sun. And then, 2dly, that he disperseth glory to his saints and angels, as the Father of all their glory. And in and for the same reason he is magnified to be the 'fountain of life,' Ps. 36:9: 1, because he is the living God, and hath life in himself, as a fountain hath water first in itself; and, 2, that from thence he derives life to others in lesser streams. And answerably in the words of the apostle Paul, 2 Cor. 1:3, he is styled merciful, and the Father of mercies. These being the offspring of his mercy, do bear the name of mercy from God the Father of them.

It hath been sufficiently by all those foregoing passages of Scripture proved, that all outward effects of mercy are ascribed unto mercy, an attribute of God, as their cause and principle. I shall shut up this

argument with a further proof of this inference, that therefore there is an inward principle of mercy in God himself, which is that cause.

1. First, in reason. If the mercies of God be the cause, they must have a real being and existence afore all outward effects of mercy, and a greater than the effects, for it produceth them; and in whom or in what can that mercy have an existence or being, but in God himself, whose mercy alone, and greatness of mercy too, it is said to be? It is the mercy of God to which those effects are attributed, and therefore it is in God. And certainly did those merciful effects proceed from other principles in God more eminently than mercy, he would never give the honour away from them, and cry up his mercy so much as the principal cause; he would not give the honour to it if it were but a made attribute, and not real and genuine. And if that which I before laid at the entrance be true (as it is), viz., that genuine attributes have their proper effects attributed to them, in relation to which they are distinguished one from another as to our conceptions of them, it must then hold, that if all merciful effects are set over by the Scriptures unto the mercy of God as their proper cause (as hath been shewed), then mercy itself also is and must be as genuine and essential an attribute as any of the other. I hope the same plea for other attributes in this cause will be admitted and allowed in mercy's behalf; as, for instance, when it is said, 'the Lord is good, and doth good,' Ps. 119:68, here doing good, being the effect of his being good, and attributed thereunto as its proper cause, doth invincibly argue his being good to be an essential attribute in him, &c. Thus, in like manner, when it is said, 'God being merciful forgave their iniquities'

(which is the highest act of mercy), and divers others like to this that have been alleged, doth it not as aloud speak that God being first merciful in himself, doth out of that merciful disposition pardon and forgive sins? Again, when it is said, 'The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,' Ps. 11:7, hereby is imported that God first is himself righteous, which righteousness in this place is that integrity, rectitude, and uprightness of his nature, whereby he is wholly addicted, and disposed, and inclined unto holiness and righteousness, and then thence a suitable affection flows, he loveth

righteousness. Then surely on this other hand, when it is said God is merciful, and delighteth in mercy, that affection of delight ought to be interpreted to arise from an innate propitiousness unto merciful acts, as proceeding from a merciful inclination and disposition of heart, unto which to shew mercy is so naturally agreeable, as he delights in it; and therefore it is said, that above all he is known by it; that is, known how merciful in himself he is, even as when it is said he is known to be a just God by the judgments that he executes, Ps.

9:16.

And indeed, those and such like speeches up and down the Scriptures—'Shew us thy mercy, O Lord,' Ps. 85:7; thy mercy, that is, which is in thee, in thy heart and nature, lying of itself hid and latent there, unless and until thou puttest it forth in mercies towards us; and in Ps. 17:7, 'Shew thy wonderful loving-kindness,' or, as others read it, Mirifica misericordiam tuam, 'make wonderful thy mercy; thy mercy,' which is so wonderful in itself, and as it is in thee, therefore shew it and give demonstration of it by wonderful effects; to which corresponds that of Ps. 111:3, 5, 'His work is honourable and glorious; and his righteousness endureth for ever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion;' as also that in Eph. 2:7, to 'shew outwardly the exceeding riches of his grace' (namely, within himself),—and many the like phrases, I say, do evidence the point in hand. For so in the case of other attributes it is acknowledged, that to prove them to be essential such expressions do serve; as when of God's truth and uprightness it is said, Ps. 92:15, 'To shew the Lord is upright, and there is no unrighteousness in him.' So of his power, 'to make his power known,' Rom. 9:22. 'To shew himself strong,' 2 Chron. 16:9.

And this for the third argument, fetched from the relation of mercy in God as the cause, and mercies as the effect.

Arg. 4. That which gives a farther addition of strength unto the foregoing argument, and will withal grow up to a new one, is, that God hath placed and ranked this of merciful amongst other attributes, which must be acknowledged to be of his essence, and to

express what his nature is. And merciful being seated on this royal throne together with them, without any character or difference from them, yea, with the first of them, and with an height of greater eminency in some respects, how shall we otherwise understand it than that it is an attribute of the same kind, of equal rank and dignity, and of as high an alliance to the divine nature as they are of?

Here are in the text two attributes especially, or indeed four, which God hath seated on this high bench, and hath set MERCIFUL in equal royal state with them, next himself, Jehovah, God. First, the two; the one sitting on the right hand, the other on the left, of merciful placed in the midst, as on the throne between them. 1.

Strength, or power to assist and strengthen the hands of it; אל, El, indifferently signifies either strong or God (as is well known); I take both, as Junius throughout the whole Old Testament doth, everywhere translating it the 'strong God.' 2. There is on the left

GRACE, to quicken mercy in all its actings; so read the words thus, 'God, the strong, merciful, gracious.' 3. Unto which two are added goodness or kindness.* And 4. Truth. I might reckon in longsuffering as a fifth; but it is so apparently a sprig of mercy, or rather indeed but mercy itself stretched out at length, or continued (as waiting is but faith continued), that therefore I shut up that into mercy, and mention it not here as distinct.

But I do take in the other two, 'abundant in goodness and truth,' as distinct, and as importing inherent principles in God of goodness and truth, in which his nature doth abound; and although in our

English the word abundant would seem to carry the sound or report more toward actual kindness, and to God's performance of truth, yet the original word itself, and as it is by others translated, signifies as well much, ample, large, plenteous in goodness and truth, and is by our own translators, in Ps. 103:9, rendered 'plenteous in mercy'; and these words much, plenteous, &c., do in their connotation strike deeper, and reach unto the bottom, and express the mind and treasury in God's heart and nature, as it is stored with a plenteousness in all goodness and truth, and how out of that infinite

riches it is that in the outward dispensation he so abounds in goodness and truth. And that it is thus intended is undeniable; for, as the Lord is first good in himself, and out of that goodness doth good, as in Ps. 119:68, and like as he is essential truth first, who 'cannot lie,'

Titus 1:2; i.e., his nature is truth;* and then from out of that nature it is that having spoken once the word, he performeth truth, so for the same reason the ground why he is so much and so abundant in goodness and truth, dispensatorily or in actual execution, must be, that he is much in goodness and truth first in himself essentially.

That such exceeding abundance in the one is from the superabundancy of the other; and the reason is, because the degrees of much kindness and goodness in outward effects do as much depend and hold on the plenteousness of each of them in his nature, as simply his doing good in the least degree doth upon his being good, or no good at all would be done. The abounding therefore of goodness and truth in his nature must fundamentally be here understood as the spring, the overflowing of which causeth those high floods of each in his actings and dispensations. And goodness and kindness in any one who is such do most genuinely express nature in him, and what is natural to him, since by way of eminency we give such dispositions the style of 'good nature.' And so, seeing goodness and kindness are thus attributed to God, they speak nature in him also, or if you will, the goodness of his nature (as with reverence I may speak), the most of any attributes.

Upon these fore-mentioned accounts I may justly reckon upon four compeers which mercy here hath, and is every way equal with them, and with each of which I might vie on mercy's side, and plead it to be as natural as any of them. I reason from them now as they are placed altogether as fixed stars, all of them in this glorious constellation, declaring the glory of God, Ps. 19, and of the like brightness and equal magnitude; they are all merciful, and all alike formed up and cast in one and the same mould, that is, one and the same uniform kind of speech, and under that attributed alike to God, viz., such a form as was in the foregone argument, said to be, denoting inward, innate, inherent dispositions, which the four here for certain do,

under such a form, denote, and are all four in themselves such. And it is very hard to think and judge, that one alone of merciful, uttered in the same tenor, should be otherwise, that that alone should be adventitious. God is said to be good, and true, and the strong God, from that innate strength, goodness, and truth that is in himself, and not only from his doing good, &c. And why ought we not as well conceive him to be merciful (as it is here placed amongst these other) from an inherent inward merciful disposition in himself, and not in relation only to the merciful effects he doth, and every day brings forth? And God himself, who best knows himself, and how to speak of himself, having put no character of difference, who shall dare to make a difference? so vast a difference, as to affirm that merciful is but a made, artificial attribute, raised up merely from his outward works of mercy, as his style of being the Creator is from the works of his creation, without which he had not had the actual glory of that title; whenas those other that sit round about it here have the honour

(de jure, and of right) to be acknowledged absolutely, and de se, to be and to have been in him, whether he had ever acted according to them, yea or not.

And further, there may be added unto this that which I inserted, that merciful holds this its rank and place amongst them with so great an eminency. Search this and other scriptures; first, here in this it is placed with the first, and by Moses made the great dominator, together with power, which two he alone supplicates whilst he allegeth these words, Num. 14:17–19, they two being as eminently set up in the words; and, second, elsewhere the Scripture gives and bestows a richer and larger coat of arms upon mercy, than on any other attribute that is not akin to this. One word usually serves to express any other attribute; but what a multiplication and heaping up of words frequently is there to emblazon the glory of this! In the text here, there is 'merciful, gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in goodness,' which are in a manner all but various characters of mercy, and are much the same with mercy. However (as we say), they are of nearest kindred to it, and are therefore singled out and severed from

all the rest of the words that follow in the text, by the psalmist, Ps.

103:9.

Lastly, The Scripture loads mercy in God with titles of honour, and supperadded epithets of greatness, riches, glory, plenteousness, fulness, abundance, multitude, variety, manifold, eternity, everlastingness, unchangeableness, and what not. The like superattributions might be observed given to the outward effects of it, above what to the effects of other attributes. It would be therefore yet more strange, and beyond a possibility of imagination, that this so magnified an attribute, extolled (as we say) to the heavens, yea, above the heavens, yea, great above, and so far above the heavens,

Ps. 108:4, should in the end be but a similitudinary metaphorical attribute, ex similitudine effectûs, and after the manner of men only, and so to have in comparison but the shadow of an attribute, but in reality and truth infinitely below all other.

But there is in other scriptures that which brings in yet new and farther confirmation to this fourth argument, in that we find mercy not only naturally growing up in one bunch or cluster thus with these four (as in this one place), but that traversing the large garden of the Scriptures, we may besides frequently meet with each of those and mercy apart, and yet sometimes joined and sprouting forth as two flowers growing upon one sprig; that is, you may up and down espy mercy and power, and they two alone joined together in one stalk, then grace and mercy singly and alone on another. The like may be observed of mercy and goodness, as also of mercy and truth in other scriptures, and thus mercy and they are Σύμφυτοι; so that if we acknowledge any of these four, especially if we own all of them to be natural attributes in the Godhead, we cannot but own mercy to be so too; for we find both altogether with mercy (as here), and each

(elsewhere) to grow alike as a natural branch together with another, which to be sure is natural, that it must be too hard to think that in so multiplied a variation, mercy should still be but as an ingrafture by art, and should not naturally grow out of one and the same stock of the divine nature.

In this argument it holds that both juncta et singula juvant; we have argued in general from the conjunction of all together, and now we shall argue particularly from the singular and apart constellation of each with mercy. And as the conjunction of all, so the singular constellation of each with mercy so often will evidence it to be a fixed star indeed in this firmament.

1. Mercy and power (the two first in the text) are singly paired by Moses, when he hath occasion to allege these, God's own words,

Num. 14, 'Let the power of my Lord be great,' ver. 17; and pardon joined with it also, 'The Lord great in mercy, pardon according to the greatness of thy mercy.' He pairs these two and that for greatness alike equally; then are they pairs in kind and eminency, which is the particular we are arguing. Yea, and of the two he greatens mercy, for mercy hath the epithet great twice given it; the 'Lord of great mercy,' ver. 18; and again, 'According to the greatness of thy mercy,' ver. 19; and greatness in the latter is in the abstract given, but to power this title is given but once. The prophet David also sets these two alone together as most eminent in God: Ps. 62:11, 12, 'Power belongs to God: also unto thee, O God, belongeth mercy.' Look how power is

God's (as some read it), or belongs to him, and is with him; so and in like respects mercy is God's, and is with him. There is no difference at all put, and that is enough, for power is God's in that transcendent manner that it essentially belongs to him. And whereas power to be such in him might discourage, he therefore, for his own comfort, and of God's people, adds, 'To thee also mercy belongeth,' so to poise and balance it; which, if mercy were not every way equal to it, it would no ways poise his power, and so not have relieved souls that tremble at the power of 'the great and mighty dreadful God,' as Nehem. 9, where merciful is also joined. And this is not the first time they have been thus paired as by David; for David himself adds, 'For God hath spoken once, and twice have I heard this.' It is David's preface to those former words. And what will you say if this citation of his refers us and brings us back again to those very words, first, of God to Moses in my text, and then of Moses to God in this Num. 14, as that which from both he had heard of twice? Sure I am I find no reference

to any other, or any sense given by interpreters more probable or so proper. Now, that power is an essential attribute of the divine Being, there was none that ever yet denied it, it being so expressly entitled his 'eternal power and Godhead,' Rom. 1:20, and therefore no less must its compeer mercy be.

A second pair is mercy and grace, here placed next to merciful, gracious. You find these two alone singled out, and paired, as the two great letters of his name are, though many more are in it. First, when

God promised to Moses to proclaim this his name, he specifies but these two only: Ex. 33:19, 'I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' And how often elsewhere do you meet with these two in like single couples? I need not abound in instances, they are so many: Ps. 145:8, 'The Lord is gracious, and great in mercy;' moreover, Ps. 116:5, before cited. Likewise Neh. 9:31,

'Nevertheless for thy great mercy's sake, thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.'

Now, besides that as to the things themselves, grace and mercy are substantially one (for grace, considered in its distinction from mercy, what is it but love or favour simply considered, with a connotation of freeness in God, as not being obliged by any worth in the creature why he should be gracious?) The very definition of grace given by God himself is a love that is free, and that loveth freely. Thus, Hos.

14, 'Receive us graciously,' prays the church, ver. 2 (and it was God that put those words into her mouth, as in the same verse), and God answers, 'I will love them freely,' ver. 4, so explaining it. And that love in God is the root and ground of mercy, and mercy but love ampliated, or stretched out and enlarged to those he loves when they be in misery, I shall have a fairer occasion to demonstrate; and therefore, that if love and grace be an essential principle in God, then mercy must needs be also. Besides this way of proof (which I now waive), I insist only upon this at present, as that which is proper to what is now afore me, viz., that grace and mercy are compeers and

equals in every respect; and that, therefore, if gracious be an essential attribute, then merciful. Now, that grace is such, I urge this one argument, that God accounts his being gracious as the height and top of his glory, yea, and his being merciful to be so too. Give me leave to put a weight upon this. When, in general, it is said of God (as often) that he is a glorious God, that which this carries to every understanding is, that an infinity of surpassing glory is in himself, and proper to him as God, and essential to him, which glory it is required of us to glorify. In like manner, when, in particular, it is said of any attribute that it is his glory, and which we are also called upon to glorify him for, in the manifestation of it to us, there is necessarily, withal, imported therein an essential glory, which is the root whence that manifestation proceedeth, and which is therefore to be glorified by us, the proper glory of that particular attribute being the end of that manifestation. As when either in special it is said of grace, as Eph. 1:6, 'To the praise of the glory of his grace,' it is no less nor no other than when in general it is said, 'that we should be to the praise of his glory.' Surely as in the latter speech, ver. 12, 'To the praise of his glory,' by his glory to be praised is meant all the attributes, as power, wisdom, &c., the result and crown of all which is his glory, that are the causes of, and are manifested in our salvation, all which, both the attributes and this glory of them, must be acknowledged to be essential, and that answerably there is an essential glory of them in himself, which was and had been in him although he had never made any outward manifestation at all thereof. So in the former speech, ver. 6, his particular instance, the glory of his grace, must necessarily be understood, that his grace is glorious with the same kind of essential glory proper to it as the other, and to import this it is styled the glory of his grace. Some would have it, that by the glory of his grace to be praised should immediately and directly be meant the glorious manifestations of his grace, yet still there must be imported therewith and thereby an essential glory that is the glory manifested; and it must needs be so, for all manifestation is but of what is and hath being as the object of that manifestation, so as still we must resolve all into an essential glory that is at the bottom, and is the foundation; yea, and that intrinsecal glory of any attribute is

that which is the ultimate object of our praise when we are called upon to glorify it, the farthest mark, the terminus which we transmit our glorying of God in that respect unto, as that which we aim to praise and glorify, as indeed it is expressed, 'to the praise of the glory of his grace.' The aspirements and holy aims and reachings of godly souls in their giving glory to God, rest not in praising or in giving glory to the manifestation of his glory, although that be never so glorious, but by means and upon occasion thereof are carried out to and terminate in his essential glory itself, as that which is in their aims to give glory to. And indeed thereby only it is fulfilled, that 'he that glorieth, glorieth in the Lord,' as the apostle and prophet calls us to do, whilst both speak of mercy manifested, 1 Cor. 1:31, Jer. 9:24.

And indeed either none of those attributes of wisdom, power, &c., shewn in our salvation, that wear and have the title of his glory stamped upon them, are essential to him, or this of grace also must be so, which is styled his glory, κατʼ ἐξοχὴν, by way of eminency and singularity. The truth of these things that one place, Rom. 9:23, declares, 'that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.' Here is at first a manifestation of glory, in those words make known, and withal a riches of his glory which is manifest, whereby it is evident that glory must needs be understood to be different from that manifestation, be it never so glorious; for it is the thing that is manifested, and what can that be other than those riches of glory which he possesseth in himself, and makes known by communications and manifestations thereof on his saints, as it follows there; like as in that speech in the verse afore, verse 22, which in coherence is parallel to and yokes with this, 'God willing to make his power known;' that is, his power being an intrinsecal, essential attribute in himself, he manifests it, and makes it known; the like holds of his glory spoken of here. And the close of this is, that those riches of glory there do prove to be the glory of his grace and mercy in a special manner intended, and so bear the name of glory by way of eminency. This Æstius and others have observed; and my ground why specially mercy is intended is, because the saints, who are the vessels, or receptacles, or subjects unto whom these riches,

&c., are to be communicated and manifested in them, are in respect

unto this styled 'vessels of mercy.' The riches of the glory of mercy, then, are those which are the principal contributors, although the glory of all other attributes do likewise empty their streams into the same vessels, to fill them with glory. So then mercy stands every way equal with grace (an essential attribute), and that in glory, yea, in riches of glory, and therefore is of as high an alliance to God as that is. They are every way rated alike in God's books, the Scriptures; and God, who is an equal prizer and valuer, doth not set a deeper estimation or value than the real worth doth bear. As then I shewed afore, mercy and power were paired as equal for greatness, so mercy and grace we find to be equals. These two are for estate and riches equal, and are as peers for glory and honour too, and they are both alike God's riches and glory, by the valuation of which God shews what a rich and glorious God he is in himself. I conclude this, as I did the former, who then shall dare to say to rich mercy, to mercy which God accounts his glory (when withal he shall see it placed by God himself immediately, and bidden to sit there by him on the same throne with equal royalty with other so high-born essential attributes of mine), who then shall bid and say, Thou rich, and great, and glorious mercy, come off the seat thou sittest on, as too high for thee, and sit thou at the footstool of all these other?

For those other two attributes, goodness and truth, so much having been said of the former two, it is not necessary to enlarge on these; yet, to complete this confirmation, I shall add some things as to both.

A third pair is mercy and goodness. 'Merciful, and much or plenteous in goodness,' says the text; where, whether goodness imports (as in the general notion of it) a communicativeness of good things—'The Lord is good, and doth good,' Ps. 119:68, it being the innate property of goodness to be communicative—or whether more specially kindness, bounty, benignity be intended, as many translate the word here and elsewhere; however it be taken, it is singly paired with mercy.

1. As to goodness, how many psalms do begin with, and some also do begin and end with, 'The Lord is good, his mercy endures for ever.' I instance only in Ps. 118, whereof both the first and last verses have those words. It was the usual form of praising the Lord, to sing: 'The Lord is good, his mercy endures for ever,' Jer. 33:11, and had been prescribed unto the Levites, 1 Chron. 16:41. And though he is good to all his creatures, Ps. 145, yet here it is that goodness that extends itself to his Israel, as Ps. 73:1, which draws forth the goodness in his nature in the communications of it to its full length; and that is specially intended in this text, for it is that goodness which brings forth pardon of sins, saving mercies which the text speaks of, which two the psalmist puts together: Ps. 86:5, 'For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.'

2. And as his goodness and mercy are paired, so kindness (χρηστότης) and mercy: Titus 3:4, 'After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared.' And mercy is not far off them: for ver. 5, 'According to his mercy hath he saved us,' for indeed they are all but one. And again, Luke 6:35, 36, 'He is kind unto the unthankful, and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.' And to shut up this, you have both kindness and goodness joined and paired with mercy in Ps. 25:6, 7, 'Remember, O

Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy loving-kindnesses; for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.' These two import not barely his affording outward favours, which we call kindness, nor barely a doing kindness, as we use to say, or God's being good to us in benefits communicated; but they connotate withal a root that is in God's nature, from whence these outward kindnesses proceed. The Lord is first good in himself, and thence and therefore doth good; and in like manner he is of a kind heart and nature in himself first, and thence and therefore is kind to others, even to the evil and unthankful, as Luke 6:35, and the abundancy of his goodness and kindness in effects is from the amplitude and largeness of the goodness and

kindness in his own heart and nature, as I shewed in the beginning of this second confirmation, and as is evident from the 8th verse of that 25th Psalm now cited, it immediately following, 'the Lord is good and upright;' which as an essential principle in God, and the root of that mercy and kindness which he sued for, he resolveth ultimately his faith into, as Muis hath observed. And among men we use, by way of eminency, to express goodness in a person by good nature; and one that is kind in his outward deportment, we term him one of a kind heart and nature. And indeed kindness denotes an inward kind disposition more principally, and in the first place; even as when the Scripture denominates a man 'a liberal man,' it doth it principally from that noble, free, and large disposition of liberality in his spirit, whence liberal actions proceed, as Isa. 32:8, 'A liberal man' (such in himself) 'deviseth liberal things:' thus it is in kindness also. And in God, to whom these are thus attributed, it holds much more; goodness is so essential to him, as he alone is to be called good, as also that 'he alone is holy,' Rev. 15:4, which evidently imports he as God hath such and such an holiness and goodness in him as is proper to him alone, and transcendeth that goodness that is in creatures, and theirs is no goodness in comparison. And as he was essential holiness, and should have been so for ever, although he never had produced a work (who yet is holy in all his works he doth produce), so he was and had been essentially good, although he never had communicated a good thing to any creature. And if it be the nature of goodness to communicate itself, then it is the common voice of all mankind, as the common voice of the Scriptures too, that goodness is the nature of God. Now mercy is not only paired therewith, but it is indeed essentially all one with it. Mercy is but bonitas summè extensa, as the school speaks, it is but goodness extendible, an aptness or readiness in his goodness to extend itself to sinners, as well as to communicate good things to others that had not, nor have not sinned, which by creation God did. Mercy is but a promptitude to communicate so much further, viz., to sinners. Mercy is but goodness with a nevertheless, that is, though they are sinners, as Neh. 9:31.

And, indeed, as in the schoolmen's right apprehensions, they are but one and the same in God, so in the sense of the Scriptures also. Thus

his mercy to sinners is expressly styled his goodness: Rom. 11:22, 'towards thee goodness,' &c., which along after in the chapter doth bear the name of mercy, ver. 30–32, and chap. 12:1. And again, his mercy to sinners is in like manner termed kindness, as expressly,

Luke 6:35, 'He is kind to the evil and unthankful.' Ver. 36, 'Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.' To conclude this, mercy, goodness, kindness, are so near akin, and of one stock, that if one be essential to God, then must the other be also.

The last pair are truth and mercy: these two are alone thus yoked, one under the names either of truth or of faithfulness, the other of mercy or loving-kindness. And thus you meet with them so frequently in so many psalms as I scarce need particularise any, but might refer it either to the reader's remembrance, or adventure upon his advertency thereof, at his but turning over a few leaves, soon to find enough. I will instance but in one or two: Is God to be praised?

The height of praises is for his 'mercy and truth:' Ps. 108:3–5, 'I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth.' And you have these words over and over in two several psalms, Ps. 57:9–11. In Ps.

108 his mercy is magnified not only to the heavens, but as great 'above the heavens;' that is, to an infinity, as that which the heaven of heavens do not, cannot contain, as they do not God himself. And so it is an extolling of mercy by this, that it is an infinite, as God himself, in whom it is. And that which is translated 'the clouds,' which his truth is said to be exalted unto, are indeed the heavens, as two learned critics* have with vehemency contended for. And the 138th

Psalm hath not only joined them together for praise† (ver. 2, 'I will praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and thy truth'), but adds, 'for thou hast magnified thy word' (namely, as it sets forth those two attributes) 'above all thy name.' The greatest part of his word is taken up either with promises which loving-kindness or mercy made, or of the performance of them which truth effecteth; so then these two are to be magnified above all his other properties whatever; which two to

celebrate all nations are specially called upon to praise him for, Ps.

117:1, 2, which is interpreted to mean both Jews and Gentiles when converted; as the summary of the gospel, Rom. 15:8, 9, imports, and as Christ's ministry in the 40th Psalm (a psalm made up for Christ, if any other, see ver. 6–8) was foretold: ver. 10, 'I have not concealed thy loving-kindness, and thy truth, from the great congregation.' Or is God to be prayed unto for any kind of saving mercies, and the continuance of them? it follows, ver. 11 of that psalm, 'Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.' I need mention no more; paired we see they are equally: and of the two, if either be greater, it is his mercy, as to whomever, that will attentively consult those scriptures, it will appear.

Now that his truth is an essential attribute, none can deny that will read that scripture, 2 Tim. 2:13, 'He is faithful, and cannot deny himself.' It is himself; he is true in such a transcendent manner as no creatures can ever come to be partakers of. Which difference between him and them, in respect of truth, I take to be the adequate meaning of that Rom. 3:4, 'Let God be true, and every man a liar.' It is a vehement asseveration on God's behalf, as if he should say,

Although all men should be liars, yet God is truth, that is, there is a possibility for the most faithful plain-hearted man that ever was yet to become a liar (Adam and the angels that fell were created true and holy, but 'abode not in the truth'); but of God it is pronounced, that he is true in such unchangeable a manner, that it is 'impossible for him to lie,' Heb. 6:18, for his truth is his Godhead, and himself, and so is mercy.

Arg. 5. It is a common professed maxim among divines, that whatever is in God, is God himself. Quicquid est in Deo Deus est.

This in the utmost latitude of it I argue not now, for all internal acts are not God's.* But when we speak of such as are attributes abstractly given him, whereby to describe him; that these should express his being God, yea, his very Godhead, this is generally, and

must be adhered unto by us. And how this is to be understood and cautioned, I hope to shew afterward.

That this should hold true of mercy, long-suffering, &c., in a more eminent way of evidence, that which I shall now further observe out of this text, may, I hope, for the present serve to evince, which, if gained, doth afford a fifth strong argument, and meet to be brought the last for the shutting up of all.

I have so much considered and dilated within myself what should be the mystery of so vehement a triple or thrice recital of the substantial names of God, by themselves alone first, as 'Jehovah, Jehovah, God,' before these four or five attributed abstract names, 'merciful, gracious,' &c., which then do as entirely by themselves follow, I cannot but apprehend that some more than ordinary mystery must be in it, the like not being ordinary that I know of.

I know that it is put over to the importing the mystery of the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to shew they are all merciful, long-suffering, &c., and equally or alike such. And that is a great mystery indeed, and greatly for our faith and comfort. But then withal reflecting that these merciful three do possess and subsist in that one Godhead and simple divine essence, and that the attributes they have in common are the attributes of the Godhead, or of God himself as God, and so are theirs, because each of them is God, I came to this farther inquiry, Why should not this triple rehearsal of the names of God be intended to declare that God, as God, is merciful, long-suffering, &c., or that merciful, &c., are himself in the same, and in as true a sense as any other attribute is said to be in Scripture. In the substantial names 'Jehovah,' &c., he proclaims who, in the attributed names or properties he declares what that Jehovah is, as in which his Godhead and his being Jehovah consisteth, namely, in 'merciful, gracious,' &c., so as Jehovah, Jehovah, is these attributes, and reciprocally these attributes are Jehovah, Jehovah. In those his substantial names he speaks himself as at once by the great; in these attributed names or properties he unfolds himself, and

explicates himself by parcels, for the letting in of himself into our understandings, the bore of which is not large enough to take in the whole at once. Thus elsewhere we also find such conjoined to the being of God, though not with this triple mention of his name: 'O

Lord, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy,'

&c., Neh. 1:5. And Solomon before him thus speaks, 'Lord God, there is no God like thee, who keepest covenant and mercy,' 1 Kings 8:23.

And so for pardoning: 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?' &c., Micah 7:18. And though these, being acts, are not God or God himself, yet you see they are attributed as proper and peculiar to him as he is God, and do argue him to be God alone, and are such as, if he were not God, could not be acted by him; concerning which this rule is to be held, that therefore they necessarily proceed from the Godhead itself; and farther, must be ascribed unto those properties of the Godhead of the first sort, which in the Scriptures are held forth as the proper causes of such acts or effects, and so reductivè (as we say), must be resolved unto those attributes in God, their causes, which are the very Godhead. And in this sense here

Jehovah keeping mercy, and pardoning iniquity, as acts proper to Jehovah, are to be ascribed to Jehovah (as here), Jehovah merciful and gracious (that goes before), as divine properties in him, that are causes thereof, and as those that do immediately express his

Godhead, and are himself, as this triplication of the name of God prefixed imports. And thus considered and stated, both sorts do indeed come all to one. So, then, we may call them essential attributes, that imports his being God, and without which he were not God.

Nor need it here to stumble any, that 'pardoning sin,' &c., 'keeping mercy for thousands,' are also here attributed to him; but of them it must not be said that they are God; if he shall withal consider that there is this vast difference between those first abstract attributes immediately coming next to 'Jehovah, Jehovah,' and those other that follow, they being apparently acts in God, and from God, as his wonts and practices, whereof those five of the first rank are the causes, as was at large shewn in the argument. And yet even those acts speak

him to be God too in this respect, that they do necessarily suppose and involve his being God as God, as proper to him above,* as he is

God, or they would never proceed from him.

I begin with the first, that 'merciful,' &c., are one with Jehovah. And now I must call in the help of other parallel scriptures, both to confirm the thing itself, viz., that as other true and real attributes are one with Jehovah himself, or are himself, so mercy is, and that upon the same grounds; as also, by way of parallel, to justify that construction and collection I have made of this thrice repetition, and which I make the rise of this argument out of the text.

1. One attribute which is undeniably evident to be essential to and with Jehovah is truth and faithfulness, which is his Godhead and himself: Tit. 1:2, 'God that cannot lie;' that is, because he is God, or that truth is his Godhead, and his Godhead is truth. He were not God else; and he must cease, if otherwise, to be God: whereof the one can no more be than the other. Yea, and in terminis it is styled himself: 2

Tim. 2:13, 'If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: He cannot deny himself.' Why? For faithfulness is himself.

Now let us bring a parallel scripture speaking this very thing of God's being faithful as God, and expressing this in the like, yea, well-nigh the same equipage of language with this in Exodus 34, proclaiming

Jehovah God, merciful God. And the language being the same, and that being the intent of it there, it must be the same here. That scripture is Deut. 7:9, 'Know that the Lord thy God he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him.' Here is first a vehement indigitation of his being God, 'the Lord thy God he is God,' to the end that they might know that he was the faithful God, as God. He that is God, the Lord thy God, is faithful; that is, faithfulness is essential with his Godhead, that therefore they might surely build upon it as upon his Godhead itself. For why?

Faithfulness was he himself, and it is to the intent they might know him. Now, do we not hear God proclaiming himself in a like strain,

Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful, &c., and this to the same intent,

that they might know him, and know what a God he is, in and by these; yea, and truth or faithfulness being one of those very attributes that follow, 'much in truth,' as you have heard? This place, then, in Deut. 7:9, must refer unto that uttered before it in Exod. 34, and therefore may well serve to illustrate it, which this also confirms, that 'keeping mercy for thousands' here in Exodus very well accords with 'he keepeth mercy,' &c., in Deuteronomy. Now, then, after you have read over once more a second time that passage in Deuteronomy, 'Know that the Lord,' &c., and then that preface joined to 'the faithful God,' to shew that he is faithful as he is God, with those other said places pre-confirmed, then bring this of Exodus to it, 'Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful,' and the same construction and purpose will arise up out of it, that this God, as God, is a merciful, gracious God, in the same sense and intendment that 'the faithful

God' comes in in Deuteronomy, and after comes in here, 'much in truth;' and thus uttered to the same full intent and purpose, that we might know what a God God is.

And if the parallel of these two be not sufficient to evince the same, then take another passage in Psalm 86:15, 'But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious; long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.' He says not simply, Thou, Lord, art full of compassion, but manageth it with this reduplication, 'Thou, Lord, art a God full of compassion;' and so speaks no less than that, as he is

God, so he is merciful, &c., and that his Godhead is the substantial root and subject of his mercy. And that which adds farther confirmation is, that 'plenteous in truth' comes in, and is coupled with mercy. They are pairs, then, and pairs alike in this, that they are his being, and God himself both. This for the first, which at once gives strength to our argument and illustration to this place.

2. Holiness is argued to be God himself. And why? Because whereas in one place it is said 'he swore by himself, having no greater to swear by,' Heb. 6:13 (God will swear by no less than himself never), in another place it is, 'He swore by his holiness,' Ps. 89:35. And these two oaths were, as to the matter of them, of a kind, being set as seals

to the covenant of grace and mercy both. The first was given to Abraham, 'to perform the mercy promised,' Luke 1:72, 73; the second to David, and in his name and type, unto Christ, to ascertain 'the sure mercies' given him. And the like instance of the same forms of swearing is given in the case of verifying God's threatenings: Amos

4:2, 'The Lord sware by his holiness. And in chap. 6:8, 'The Lord hath sworn by himself.' So, then, his holiness is the Lord himself.

And we may add this reason, because he can swear by nothing less than himself, as the apostle affirms; and therefore swearing by his holiness, his holiness must be himself. The evidence on mercy's side, that it is himself, is equivalent; for whereas in some places it is said,

'Remember not the sins of my youth, according to thy mercies, and for thy goodness' sake,' Ps. 25:7; and Neh. 9:31, 'Nevertheless, for thy great mercy's sake, thou didst not consume them,' &c.; when God speaking the same in Isaiah 43:25, 'I, even I, am he' (that is, that Jehovah merciful) 'that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.' What in the one is 'for his goodness' sake,' and 'for thy great mercy's sake,' is 'for his own sake' in the other. So, then, goodness (as all must confess), yea, and mercy, are himself. You have it again in Daniel's prayer, chapter 9, and there both these conjoined are brought in together as explicatory the one of the other. In ver. 18, 19, 'We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, for thine own sake, O my God!' What in the very words before is 'for thy great mercies,' which is plainly 'for thy mercy's sake,' is in the next petition 'for thine own sake;' and you have these two picked out as scattered, one in one place, the other in another, and so brought together, and argued from.

I come now to a third proof. It is certain when we hear such and such effects as involve his being God, and which could not be done unless he were God, and do argue him God alone, that then those effects must proceed from the Godhead itself. And farther, unto what in the Godhead can we ascribe them, but such properties in the Godhead as in the Scriptures are held forth as proper to produce such or such effects? And whilst we say such or such a property in God did effect

such or such a thing, we may warrantably also say that his Godhead did it. The creation of the world is a mighty product of the Godhead, and argues him God alone: as Isaiah 44:24, 'I am the Lord that maketh all things.' And we must say that the Godhead did effect it, for 'he made them by himself.' Yet further, we find the making of them attributed peculiarly unto power and wisdom, as proper causes of such effects; and withal, that power of his to be styled his

Godhead, Rom. 1:20. So his wisdom also we find to be styled infinite, Ps. 147:5, which is equivalent as to say it is his Godhead, for that alone is infinite and without bounds. Now, in correspondency unto these, we find the effects of pardoning sin, &c., to involve his being

God, as that which could never be done if he were not God: Micah 7:18, 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, &c.? because he delighteth in mercy.' That speech, 'Who is a God like unto thee?' is still used to shew he is God alone, and that, as the great God, he doth such and such works,* which, if he were not God, he could not do: Ps. 86:8, 'Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O

Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works;' and ver. 10, 'For thou art great, and dost wondrous things, thou art God alone.'

Now, pardon of sin is a work of such wonder and greatness, as none ever more. And you see in that prophet how they stand aghast and wondering at him, as a God so great, as God alone, none like him, in that he can pardon sin. And if he were not so infinite a God, he could not do it; for sin and sins are infinite. It is his Godhead pardons sins, as well as his Godhead made the world. It is a truth, though ill intended by those that spake it: Mark 2:7, 'Who can forgive sins but God?' And had not Christ been God as well as man, he could not have done it then. Now, as other works of God have some special attribute in God as their more proper cause, and unto which those works are ascribed for the honour of that attribute; and from thence we rightly argue that they are his Godhead (as all those 'invisible things of God' the apostle terms his 'Godhead,' Rom. 1:20), so as the Godhead pardons sins; so read the Scriptures, and you find pardon attributed specially to mercy in God as its proper cause. I need cite no places.

And this is done for the glory of his mercy and grace. And certainly he would not instruct us to give this honour due to his Godhead, and

in which he, as God, is so highly concerned, if mercy were not his Godhead, as well as any other attribute is. He will not give his glory to what is not himself. We may as warrantably then say his mercy and Godhead, as the apostle doth his power and Godhead. And this as intending to make both one and the same; yea, and add his eternal mercy too, for that epithet is given to it, Ps. 25.

And when it is pleaded to God that he would pardon sins for his mercies' sake, Neh. 9:31, the plain meaning and resolution is this, for thy great mercies' sake, which are thyself, or which are in thyself.

And there is this farther reason to back this, and as strong as that before mentioned was for the former, that for his mercy's sake, or for the glorifying of thy mercy. This denotes God's utmost and most proper end for which he pardons and shews mercy, and withal, the highest motive by which he is moved to forgive, &c. And it is urged by these in their petitions as the most prevailing plea they could move God withal. Now that can be no less than himself, whose highest and supremest end is himself; and he is moved to acts of grace and pardon by nothing but what he is moved with in and from himself. And therefore, in that 43d of Isaiah, he holds up himself to their view, and himself alone: 'I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgression for mine own sake;' and we are sure it is mercy for which and by which he only is moved thereto within himself, and is himself. And truly doth not his thrice repeating there I, I, he, answer to his thrice repeating Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful? &c., Exod.

34:6.

Arg. 6. The four first attributes we meet with at the entrance in this divine proclamation, Exod. 34:6, do, in what is common to them all, prompt us with a sixth argument, that mercy and grace are essential properties of the divine nature.

1. The four attributes are, 'merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth.' But I reckon not that of truth in this enumeration, as likewise the psalmist doth not in his rehearsal of the words of this proclamation, Ps. 103:9, which is word for word

the same as to these first four. They are in the original in both places, though our translators have varied their translations of them there from what is here, yet without any material difference; for what there they have rendered 'plenteous in mercy' (which they have varied too in the margin, 'great in mercy,' according to the Hebrew), here they render 'abundant in goodness.' But the psalmist omitteth the mention of 'and in truth.' And the reason of that omission may be the same that mine is in stopping there, namely, because he takes those attributes that purely concern mercy, and are branches of it; whereas truth or faithfulness comes in here, not as being any way a branch of mercy, but as mercy's supervisor, or mercy's remembrancer, to see to it, that mercy does perform what God out of grace hath promised and declared; according to that memorandum of old Zacharias, deduced out of the three names of himself, his son John, and Elizabeth: Luke

1:72, 'To perform the mercy promised, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath,' &c.

2. That which I call common to all these four, from which I would deduce my argument, are two things. First, that the form of speech they are attributed to God in is nouns, not participles, which denotes them to be inherent dispositions, or properties in God, which set him forth ab intra, or by what are in him, the inwards of himself. The second is, that for the special kind of them, they are of those which divines style the virtues of the divine nature.

3. The argument from these, or either of them, riseth thus: 1st, That inherent dispositions in God are to be accounted his nature. 2dly,

And specially virtuous dispositions are so to be esteemed; and such mercy and grace are, and therefore are truly his nature.

There are two things then to be performed by me in handling this argument, which consists of two branches. (1.) To establish the proof of this one proposition, that these four names are attributed in such a form of speech as denotes them to be inherent dispositions, intrinsecal properties, that are truly in him. (2.) That for the special kind of them, they are among the virtues, or virtuous dispositions of

the divine nature of God. This proposition hath, as you see, two branches.

2dly. The second thing to be proved is the consequence inferred from them, viz., 1. That if they be inherent properties that then they are in and of the divine nature. 2. That if they be properly to be reckoned among the virtues of God, and so to be esteemed, that then much more they are in and of his divine nature. But all these being in their order joined and put together will make the argument complete.

My method shall be to handle the two branches of the proposition and the proof of them first, and then the two consequences and the proofs of them, whereof the first is a step to the proof of the latter, and both centre in one and the same reason of either.

1. As for the first branch of the proposition or hypothesis, it is the animadversion of that learned critic and literal expositor Genebrard, commenting upon the 8th or 9th verse of Ps. 103, which I even now cited, to shew that these four first attributes that set forth mercy are word for word in the original, the same with these four here. He beginning to expound this first word merciful, speaks on this wise of it, and the like of the rest. It is a noun, says he, not a participle, as also those that follow; because thereby is declared not the acts of God, but, as it were, an immoveable quality, or that which is perpetual in God. And then of the other three that follow, for the same reason he pronounceth the same of them: for these are properties, says he, that are innate in God; nor are they assumed by him contingently, according as circumstances are and give occasion.

Thus he. Wherein his argument lies not simply in this, that for the form or manner of speech they are nouns, which are not qualities, as great, immense, but taken conjunctly therewith, that the matter of the things attributed are qualities. And whereas Genebrard says that merciful denotes, as it were, an immoveable quality in God, his quasi is but to allay and qualify our apprehensions, that we should conceive of them with an infinite disproportion, as they are in God, and in us men. In us they are mere qualities, differing from the

essence of us, as accidents are from the subject they are in, but in the divine nature there are no accidents; and yet he is fain to make use of an assimilation to these of qualities, to convey their inherency, as of qualities, to our apprehensions, as the nearest notion to do it by; and that however they are immoveable principles in the divine nature, as inherent qualities use to be. This he absolutely affirms to be signified thereby; and so that mercy is and was permanently in his nature, whether he had ever purposed or shewn any act of mercy, yea or no, and not contingently attributed for that he acteth mercifully. And this difference he observed to be between such attributes that are expressed of God by way of nouns and quality-wise, which these are; and such as denote acts, by participles.

And this being thus explained, the foundation of the argument proceeds from the common use of speech, that when qualities are simply and absolutely attributed unto a person in the form of nouns, as that he is liberal, holy, devout, courageous, bold, and the like, that then, in the wonted acception of speech, men commonly understand, and readily conceive and apprehend, that he is a person of a liberal spirit, an holy and devotional soul, and so addicted inwardly, so or so disposed, inclined, and affected within himself; of such a temper, frame, and constitution of spirit, or a man of such inherent principles of heart inwardly moving him, swaying him to liberal and holy actions, and that these are his indoles, ingenium, his spirit, as the Scripture word is. And in like manner, God's intention, who makes use of our wonted language to make himself known unto us by, as in other his attributes is apparent, here analogously should be to describe himself in such attributions of speech as we use when we would set forth a person, who and what he is, and paint him forth by such qualities and dispositions as we know are in him. Thus God here, thereby signifying what properties are truly and really in himself, as far as possibly they are by words expressible to us. And as we when we have set out a man of such qualities, good or evil, we use to say, That is the man; so we may say, This is our God. And indeed,

God himself here doth say in terminis, fully as much as this of himself thrice over, 'Jehovah, Jehovah, El, God, God, God, merciful,

gracious,' &c., as if he had said, This is your God. And as for those other attributions given to God, purely after the manner of man, which the opposers would choke this truth with, they are expressed by words that denote acts only, and those but occasionally expressed: as that 'it grieved him,' 'it repented him,' and the like, as it is obvious to observe in these scriptures where they are used. But these are solemn names and denominations, whereby God purposely makes a description of himself what a God he is; and accordingly they do fully answer to this question, whenever it be demanded, Qualis deus sit, ac quis? who and what a God is he? as plainly, and directly, and absolutely, and in the like strain of speech, as any other of their fellow-attributes do; as when it is said, he is wise, and good, and almighty, these words are justly judged and acknowledged to signify what a God he is in his essence; and in like manner, these here to be a description of his nature, and that even such a God he is, set out by such characters as are given him ab intra, as our divines speak; that is, such as do declare what a God he is inwardly, that shew his very inwards to us. And those characters do express in reality that to be in his divine being which answers to all these (as I have opened it in the explication I premitted), it being a commonly received maxim among divines of all sorts: Deus dicitur quis, ac qualis est, ab eo quod natura est.

And for the close of this point we may affirm, that this his title of merciful, gracious, doth as roundly give and return an absolute answer to any such inquiry, What a God is he? as any other attribute whatsoever: Ps. 116:5, 'Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our

God is merciful.' This is the saints' vogue and saying of him, as here he speaks these of himself; and it is formed up so as it may serve to be an answer (as the apostle's word is), an account in readiness to be given to any stranger to religion who knows not God. If an heathen, suppose such as were in those times, or are now, should be inquisitive, and demand, What a God is your God? say this to him,

Our God is merciful; yea, our God is merciful, with an emphasis. And it is as if they had said, If any would know what our God is, let him know him by this, that if he have any internal perfection (who is all

perfections, good, holy, wise, gracious), he is as perfectly merciful as any of these. And (say I) if any such an one be not satisfied with the saints' plain verdict, given in upon their own knowledge, let them then hear and attend to what God himself says of himself, and take from his own mouth what he is: 'Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful and gracious.' He multiplies his substantial name thrice, as well as his attribute of mercy four times. And why, but because if God, as God, be to be known by anything, it is by these. The psalmist seems to vie with all other attributes whatsoever, yea, as it were outvies all other, with this of his being merciful, whilst he so vehemently speaks it, 'yea, our God is merciful.' He sets the crown upon the head thereof.

There was an additional branch in the supposition, that these attributes are the characters of virtues in the divine nature, or virtuous dispositions in God, which superadds unto the former, and is a farther step towards the proof of the consequences therefrom, which are to follow, viz., that therefore they are in and of his divine nature.

All perfections are in God, in all kinds of perfections whatsoever. The attributes of God are usually reduced by schoolmen, as well as our divines, to three heads.

1. Such as are utterly incommunicable to us creatures, as unchangeableness, infinity, eternity, ubiquity, or to be everywhere, and his divine glory. These are the absolute and metaphysical excellencies (as I may call them) of his divine entity.

2. There are also all super-excelling habilities that belong to and are found in intelligent creatures; as faculties of understanding, which the psalmist says is infinite, knowing all things, &c. So of a sovereign will, which doth whatever he pleaseth in the earth, and in the heavens.

3. All sorts of virtues belonging to either of these, perfectiones morales, all such as are not founded upon imperfection (as humility, self-denial, &c., are), and when I call them virtues, I mean all the excellencies of goodness, such as are holiness, righteousness, and mercy, and grace there; and truth also, which is mentioned here. God ought to be every way most perfect, say the schoolmen, not only in the perfections of entity, or of natural being, but in the eminency of goodness and virtue, in that kind of being also. Hence his royal titles among the heathens were Deus optimus maximus, a God that is most great in power and the absoluteness of being, and a God most good.

And the goodness therein meant was that virtuous goodness we speak of, whereby he is inwardly, and of himself, ready to do good to his creatures, according to that of the psalmist, 'The Lord is good, and doth good;' of which goodness, mercy and grace are the eminent branches, according to that of the psalmist, 'The Lord is good, and his mercy endureth for ever.' And therefore I rightly said that the virtuousness of mercy in Scripture language is the excellency of his goodness.

And let no man boggle at the word virtue, or deem it as a lowering of the Godhead to say he excels in virtues; for the Scriptures ascribe this to him in terminis, 1 Peter 2:9, where the apostle exhorts 'to shew forth the virtues' (so in the original) 'of him that called you.'

Observe, they are the virtues of him that calleth us, not our virtues that are in us that are called.

And by him that called us is meant not Christ only, and his virtues as man, but God the Father chiefly,* to whom our calling is there ascribed; as also in chap. 1:15, it had been by the same apostle, with the like exhortation, for there he says, 'As he that hath called you is holy, so be you holy,' &c., as children of your Father. Thus in like manner, though in other phrase but in substance the same, he entered his exhortation to all sorts of goodness, wherein we are to imitate him and be like him, shew forth the virtues of him that hath called you; that is, says Gerard, those attributes of God which in calling you he shewed forth. And particularly and to be sure the most

eminent is that which the apostle specially instanceth in, and in this, and in no other else; so in the following verse, 'which have now obtained mercy.' So as in effect this exhortation is all one with 'Be ye merciful,' because your God that called you is merciful; even as in the former exhortation he had said, 'Be holy, for I am holy;' holiness in God being the foundation of all those virtues in God, as well as in us, which the comparing of those verses shews; and the apostle also there enforceth from this, that we must be like our Father.

These virtues are to us poor creatures the especial attributes we praise God for, insomuch as the Holy Ghost records it for the title and name of praises, the word ἀρετὰς there used signifying at once both virtues and praises, as it is there translated; or else let those that boggle at the word virtues say of them, that in God they are the patterns, and samples, or ideas of what are called virtues in us; and it is enough to my purpose. And the reason why that is to be acknowledged is, that there is not, nor can be, any perfection which the creature partaketh of a likeness to God in, but it is and must be found after an infinitely more excelling manner in God, and the nature of God, than it is in the creature. Only take this in, that they are found in God after the manner of God, in us creatures after the mode or manner of creatures, with an infinite difference.

Observe how in the forming this argument I put in this limitation, there is no perfection in man, in which he partaketh of a likeness to God, but the perfection thereof is in God. And the reason of this my limitation is, because there are two sorts of gracious perfections in us, whereof some indeed are not in God, though in Christ they are found; as humility, lowliness of heart, submission of our wills. These are not by way of likeness to the like which correspond in God, but by way of applyings of the soul unto God, or by way of subjection of the creature to such other attributes in God as are incommunicable; as his sovereignty, greatness, absolute will, &c. And in that respect it is they are reckoned parts of the divine nature, because they give the greatest glory to the divine nature, in the way now specified. But as for such perfections as are said to bear a likeness with what is like

unto what is attributed unto God, of them all we may and must say, that there is no perfection of such in the creature but it is much more in God, which is the major or first proposition. And this doth in a more special manner hold true in such virtues or spiritual graces, in which we are said to be like him, and wherein he is expressly made our pattern in the Scriptures. And of those it must be acknowledged, that if they be properly in the creature, then they are more properly in God; of all which the holiness and purity of God's nature is the root, as being in himself first, and so becomes the first rule and measure of such virtues in us.

And that this is particularly true of this virtue of mercy (the thing in hand), those speeches of Christ, who came out of the bosom of the Father, and hath declared him both in his nature and in his will, do uncontrollably evince: Luke 6:27, 28, 'Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you;' and verse 35, 'Love your enemies, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind to the evil and the unthankful.' And in the close of all, verse 36, 'Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful:' as, that is, after the image of God, as Col. 3:10, 'Put on the new man, after the image of him that created him;' whereof mercy and love are in the 12th verse following mentioned to be an eminent piece: 'Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.' And then add those other speeches of our Lord in Mat. 5, which correspond with those recited out of Luke 6: Mat. 5:48, 'Be you perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' He speaks of the perfection of virtues', and specially of that of mercy; for unto works of mercy unto enemies, &c., he had particularly exhorted: ver. 44, 'But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.'

And this he exhorts to by the instance of God's mercy to the worst sinners: ver. 45, 'That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' And thereupon exhorts us to be perfect in that grace, upon this very ground, because

it is a perfection in God first, and originally in him, and that we have thereby the likeness of the perfection of our Father. This for the proof of the two branches of the proposition.

2. I come to the proof of the consequence in the second place proposed, from both, viz., that if these attributes do denote inherent dispositions, properties, or permanent qualities, and not acts only, especially such qualities as are virtues in God, that then they are of the divine nature itself. I put both into one, because the reason of either centres much in one, although the reason of the latter greatly adds force to the other.

And that reason will at once serve both for a proof of the consequence and also for a caution in this case, that whilst we are forced to use the term of qualities to express them by, to relieve our apprehensions of them (whereas indeed they are not such qualities as are in the creature, and yet denoting inherency and permanency of like properties in God, and not of acts only), they can he no other but his divine nature.

And the reason is founded on this, that in God there are no accidents (and such those in us creatures are) inherent or permanent in him; and therefore these attributes denoting properties, like to qualities in us that are inherent and permanent, they therefore can be no other than the divine nature itself; which is confirmed by the infinite difference that is and must be acknowledged to be between the creatures and God blessed for ever in this respect, that the inherent qualities in us men or angels, be they never so excellent, yet they differ from the substance or being of the persons in whom they are, as accidents do from their subject; and they are said to be added to perfect and adorn the subjects in which they reside. And although the most eminent of creature qualifications do vastly differ from the substances or essences they are in, yet there are some of them that so immediately flow from their substances, and are so proper and specifically peculiar to them, that if we should suppose they could be separate from that subject or person, the very nature and proper

being of that subject would withal cease to be what it was. It is an assured maxim, Proprietatum negatio est naturarum, deletio; as to deny the faculty of reason itself to be in one of mankind is to degrade a man as a man, and blot him quite out of the catalogue or roll of men, and to set him down a brute; of which it is said, Ps. 32, 'They want understanding.' So that commonly we allow the term of natural unto such properties, and call them essential, or belonging to the essence, although not the essence itself; but yet they rise to no higher dignities than of faculties and qualifying abilities, which are at best but accidents, though of another kind than ordinary accidents are of, and therefore called natural, because they are inbred, inlaid, and blended with the inward constitution and temper of the substance itself. But, on the contrary, when we speak of God, and say, that mercy is a property, and of his nature; our intentions, and God's also in so speaking, reach infinitely higher, and intend thereby that it is his very divine nature, as far as it is by words expressed to us; even as eternity and power are said to be his Godhead, Rom. 1:20. And the reason thereof is, because God, and the essential nature of God, is perfected by nothing but himself, and so not by anything differing from his own being; for then his Godhead, as he is God, should be imperfect, and needed something besides himself to add perfection and hability unto it, which the Scripture utterly denies of him: Acts

17, 'that he needeth not anything.' And therefore all such attributes, and this of merciful, being in tenor of speech given to him, after the manner of the attribution of inherent qualities, for our conception's sake, are to be understood to be his divine nature, in a transcendent manner, inconceivable by us.

Moreover, take in this for a second caution also, that when we call both these, or any like qualities in men or angels, as also these attributes in God, natural or nature in either, the word nature or natural must be taken and understood with an infinitely vast differing respect in the one and in the other; for these qualifications, thus said to be natural to us angels and men, are but at the best the shadow of what is substantially natural in God; and accordingly, that mercifulness which is in man is but the imperfect shim* of that

essential mercy which is in the divine being. And hence it is so far remote from God's being called merciful, righteous, after the manner of man (as those other attributes, the opposite instances, which are styled but ad similitudinem effectus), that to the contrary, these inherent qualities in man (take them in their perfection) are said to be 'after God,' Eph. 3:24. And therefore they are propriissimè, most properly in God first; yea, and in truth only in God (as goodness is said to be), and but similitudinarily, and by way of semblance, in man. And this by way of caution also.

But, 2dly, I urge this reason further, upon and from the account of that additional, viz., that mercy and grace are to be reckoned among the highest virtues that are in God. Now, true and perfect virtues are inherent in that person that deserves the style of virtuous, and if they be true, they are permanent, and constantly abiding in him; yea, and the perfection of them lies in the inward disposition and addictment of the mind as the root of the actings, or performing virtuous things, though they, as being the fruits thereof, have the name of mercy, and their due valuation; but still that inward principle of those actings much more and above all, so far as they have been inbred, and by nature found in any person, that is the height of their perfection. And therefore in God, if they be true and perfect virtues indeed, as they must be supposed to be, they must be all these, both inward dispositions, strong inclinations, propensions unto merciful acts, and seated in his nature, and to be his nature. And to be sure, God is not perfected (as man), or grows up in virtue by acquisition, or by the increase of habits that use to be acquired by use, practice, and exercise; this were to lower him infinitely yet more, so to affirm. And therefore, if virtues be at all in him, and these virtues (as we have proved them to be), then they must be acknowledged his divine nature, and his perfections by nature.

I shall cast in a coronis to all, and which will without contradiction confirm all that I have hitherto said in this third argument: it is those words which our Lord hath made the conclusion of his exhortation

unto us to be merciful, in that 5th of Matthew, last verse, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.'

1. You see here is a perfection attributed to God, which man is exhorted to imitate, 'Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.' God's perfection is the original pattern, and man's imitation that is to be the copy to that pattern; and God's perfection is to be understood after the manner wherein God is or ought to be understood to be perfect, as a God; or as the evangelist Luke upon that occasion entitles him 'the Highest,' and men, as men in their kind, as 'children of the Highest;' so in ver. 35. And he therefore speaks it of such a perfection in God as is of the highest kind of perfection proper and essential unto God. And to be sure, there are some attributes of his that are the essential perfections of his divine nature, and then this spoken of by Christ's own arguing is among them that are of the highest rank.

And, 2, it proves to be this so rich and precious attribute of mercy which Christ intended here, as appears both by the interpretation, that by comparing Christ's discourse about this of our being merciful in those two evangelists is apparently given of it. For whereas the one says, Mat. 5:48, 'Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,' the other says, Luke 6:36, 'Be ye merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful.' And each come in as the last close and conclusion of Christ's exhortation unto mercy in either place. So then mercy is one of the highest perfections that perfect him that is 'the Highest,' or the most perfect in all perfections.

3. This perfection of mercy must necessarily be understood to be intrinsecal to him, and so his nature. For nothing extrinsecal or outward to God can add any perfection to him. His own works, be they of mercy and never so excelling, add nothing to him; he was as perfect a God before he made the worlds as since. And what is it can be his perfection but what is and was then in himself and of himself? who of himself is the fulness of all being; and if anything added the least perfection to him, he must be said to be of himself and in

himself imperfect. And mercy being so plainly, expressly, in particular thus styled his perfection, it must be a property in himself and of himself, and without which he would not be so perfect as he is said to be; yea, we may upon this ground further say, that without it he were not God. Let the opposites bring all their deductions and wonted pleas to make void this so great a truth, and you will see them all melt before this speech, as wax when it comes unto the fire, and be confuted in every part thereof.

1st, They distinguish and say, God is merciful quoad effectus, in and for his doing works of mercy, and not because he is of a merciful nature and inward disposition of mercy.

(1.) Consider that man is here exhorted to be merciful, as God is; and though he in his exhortation mainly instanceth in works of mercy which man should perform, yet I demand, doth not the exhortation chiefly intend that men should be moved by an inward principle of mercy (compared therefore to bowels, which are called the inwards), that should move the heart to works of mercy? Col. 3:12, 'Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.' And when

Christ pronounceth that blessing upon their souls, Mat. 5, 'Blessed are the merciful,' &c., doth not the word ἐλεήμονες import inward mercy and pity more than outward? as Spanheim hath observed upon it. And if God were not in like manner filled with merciful dispositions moving thereto in his shewing mercy, why is his mercy set before them as the excellent pattern, when yet, according to them, it reacheth not to this, to be a pattern of inward mercy?

(2.) If God were not thus merciful ab intra, his inwards moving him thereto, do not they that affirm this make man more merciful than they would have God to be, seeing man is merciful with an inward affection of bowels, besides his works of mercy; but God should be merciful only quoad effectus, only because he doth acts of mercy without the affection or inward principle of mercy?

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