Of the Commandments
Exodus 20:6. Showing Mercy to Thousands, etc.
This is another argument against image-worship, because such as do not provoke God with their images, he is merciful to them, and will entail mercy upon their posterity, showing mercy to thousands.
1. Here is the golden scepter of God's mercy displayed. 2. The persons interested in God's mercy, such as love him and keep his commandments. 1. The golden scepter of God's mercy displayed, showing mercy to thousands. The Heathens thought they praised Jupiter enough, when they called him [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], Good and Great. Both these excellencies meet in God, majesty and mercy. Mercy is that innate propensness in God to do good to distressed sinners. God showing mercy, makes his Godhead appear full of glory. When Moses said to God, I beseech you show me your glory, I will (God says) show mercy (Exodus 33:19). His mercy is his glory. Mercy is the name by which God will be known (Exodus 34:6): The Lord passed by, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Mercy proceeds primarily and originally from God; he is called the Father of mercies (2 Corinthians 1:3), because he begets all those mercies and compassions which are in the creature. Our mercies compared with God's, are scarce so much as the drop to the ocean.
Quest. What are the qualifications?
Resp. 1. The spring of mercy which God shows, is free and spontaneous: to set up merit, is to destroy mercy; nothing can deserve mercy, or force it, we cannot deserve mercy, because of our enmity, nor force it; we may force God to punish us, not to love us (Hosea 14:4): I will love them freely. Every link in the golden chain of salvation is wrought and interwoven with free grace. Election is free (Ephesians 1:4): He has chosen us in him, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], according to the good pleasure of his will. Justification is free (Romans 3:24): Being justified freely by his grace. Say not then, I am unworthy, for mercy is free. If God should show mercy only to such as deserve it, he must show mercy to none at all.
2. The mercy God shows is powerful. How powerful is that mercy which softens a heart of stone? Mercy changed Mary Magdalene's heart, out of whom seven devils were cast. She who was an inflexible adamant, mercy made her a weeping penitent. God's mercy works sweetly, yet irresistibly; it allures, yet conquers. The law may terrify, mercy does mollify. Of what sovereign power and efficacy is that mercy which subdues the pride and enmity of the heart, and beats off those chains of sin in which the soul is held!
3. The mercy which God shows is superabundant (Exodus 34:6): Abundant in goodness, showing mercy to thousands. God visits iniquity only to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5), but he shows mercy to a thousand generations. The Lord has treasures of mercy lying by, therefore he is said to be plenteous in mercy (Psalm 86:5), and rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4). The vial of God's wrath does but drop, but the fountain of his mercy runs. The sun is not so full of light, as God is of love.
God has mercy, first, of all dimensions; he has depth of mercy, it reaches as low as sinners; and height of mercy, it reaches above the clouds.
Secondly, God has mercies of all seasons; mercies for the night, he gives sleep, indeed sometimes he gives a song in the night (Psalm 42:8), and he has mercies for the morning (Lamentations 3:23): His compassions are fresh every morning.
Thirdly, God has mercies for all sorts. Mercies for the poor (1 Samuel 2:8): He raises the poor out of the dust. Mercies for the prisoner (Psalm 69:33): He despises not his prisoners. Mercies for the dejected (Isaiah 54:8): In a little wrath I hid my face from you, but with great mercies will I gather you. God has old mercies (Psalm 25:6): Your mercies have been ever of old. And new mercies (Psalm 40:3): He has put a new song in my mouth. Every time we draw our breath, we suck in mercy; God has mercies under heaven, and those we taste of, and mercies in heaven, and those we hope for: thus God's mercy is superabundant.
4. The mercy God shows is abiding (Psalm 103:16): The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. God's anger to his children lasts but a while (Psalm 103:9), but his mercy lasts forever. God's mercy is not like the widow's oil, which ran a while and then ceased (2 Kings 4:6): overflowing, ever-flowing. God's mercy as it is without bounds, so without bottom (Psalm 136): His mercy endures forever. God never cuts off the entail of mercy from the elect.
Quest. 2. How many ways is God said to show mercy?
Resp. 1. We are all living monuments of God's mercy. God shows mercy to us in daily supplying us. First, he supplies us with health. Health is the sauce which makes our life relish sweeter. How would they prize this mercy, who are chained to a sick-bed? Secondly, God supplies us with provision (Genesis 48:15): The God who has fed me all my days. Mercy spreads our table, it carves us every bit of bread we eat; we never drink but in the golden cup of mercy.
2. God shows mercy in lengthening out our gospel liberties (1 Corinthians 16:9): [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉]; there are many adversaries; many would stop the waters of the sanctuary that they should not run: we enjoy the sweet seasons of grace, we hear joyful sounds, we see the goings of God in his sanctuary, we enjoy Sabbath after Sabbath; the manna of the Word yet falls about our tents, when in divers parts of the land they have no manna. Here is God showing mercy to us; he spins out our forfeited liberties.
3. God shows mercy to us in preventing many evils from invading us (Psalm 3:3): You, O Lord, are a shield for me. God has restrained the wrath of men, and been a screen between us and danger. When the destroying angel has been abroad, and shot his deadly arrow of pestilence, God has kept off the arrow that it has not come near us.
4. God shows mercy in delivering us (2 Timothy 4:17): And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, namely Nero. God has restored us from the grave. May we not write the writing of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9), when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness? When we thought the sun of our life had been setting, God has made it return to its former brightness.
5. God shows mercy in restraining us from sin: lusts within are worse than lions without. The greatest sign of God's anger is to give men up to their sins (Psalm 81:12): So I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts; let them sin themselves to hell. But God has laid the bridle of restraining grace upon us: As God said to Abimelech (Genesis 20:6), I withheld you from sinning against me. So God withheld us from those exorbitancies which might have made us a prey to Satan, and a terror to ourselves.
6. God shows mercy in guiding and directing us. Is it not a mercy for one that is out of the way, to have a guide? First, there is a providential guiding: God guides our affairs for us, chalks out a way he would have us walk in; he resolves our doubts, unties our knots, appoints the bounds of our habitation (Acts 17:26). Second, a spiritual guiding (Psalm 73:24): You shall guide me with your counsel. As Israel had a pillar of fire to go before them, so God guides us with the oracles of his word, and the conduct of his Spirit. He guides our head, keeps us from error, and he guides our feet, keeps us from scandal. O what mercy is it to have God to be our guide and pilot (Psalm 31:3): For your name's sake lead me and guide me.
7. God shows mercy in correcting us. God is angry in love; he smites that he may save. God's rod is not a rod of iron to break us, but a fatherly rod to humble us (Hebrews 12:10): He for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Either God will mortify some corruption, or exercise some grace. Is there not mercy in this? Every cross to a child of God is like Paul's crosswind, which though it broke the ship, it brought Paul to shore upon the broken pieces (Acts 27:44).
8. God shows mercy in pardoning us (Micah 7:18): Who is a God like you, that pardons iniquity? It is mercy to feed us, rich mercy to pardon us. This mercy is spun out of the bowels of free grace; this is enough to make a sick man well (Isaiah 33:24): The inhabitant shall not say I am sick, the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. Pardon of sin is a mercy of the first magnitude; God seals the sinner's pardon with a kiss. This made David put on his best clothes, and anoint himself; his child newly dead, and God had told him the sword should not depart from his house, yet now he falls anointing himself; the reason was, God had sent him his pardon by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12:13): The Lord has put away your sin. Pardon is the only fit remedy for a troubled conscience. What can give ease to a wounded spirit, but pardoning mercy? Offer him the honors and pleasures of the world, it is as if you bring flowers and music to one that is condemned.
Quest. How may I know my sins are pardoned?
Resp. Where God removes the guilt, he breaks the power of sin (Micah 7:19): He will have compassion, he will subdue our iniquities. With pardoning love God gives subduing grace.
9. God shows his mercy in sanctifying us (Leviticus 20:8): I am the Lord that sanctify you. This is the partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). God's Spirit is a Spirit of consecration; though it sanctifies us but in part, yet in every part (1 Thessalonians 5:23). This is such a mercy that God cannot give in anger; if we are sanctified, then we are elected (2 Thessalonians 2:13): God has chosen you to salvation through sanctification. This does disponere ad Coelum, it prepares for happiness, as the seed prepares for harvest. When the virgins had been anointed and perfumed, then they were to stand before the king (Esther 2:12). So when we have had the anointing of God, then we shall stand before the King of Heaven.
10. God shows mercy in hearing our prayers (Psalm 41:1): Have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. Is it not a favor when a man puts up a petition to the king, and has it granted? When we pray for pardon, adoption, the sense of God's love, to have God give a gracious answer, what a signal mercy is this? God may sometimes delay an answer, when he will not deny. You do not presently throw a musician money, because you love to hear his music. God loves the music of prayer, therefore does not presently let us hear from him; but in due season he will give an answer of peace. Psalm 66:20: Blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me. If God does not turn away our prayer, then he does not turn away his mercy.
11. God shows mercy in saving us (Titus 3:5): According to his mercy he saved us. This is the [illegible], the top stone of mercy, and it is laid in heaven. Now mercy displays itself in all its bright colors; now mercy is mercy indeed, when God shall perfectly refine us from all the lees and dregs of corruption. Our bodies shall be made like Christ's glorious body, and our souls like the angels. Saving mercy is crowning mercy. It is not only to be freed from hell, but enthroned in a kingdom. In this life we do rather desire God than enjoy him: but what rich mercy will it be, to be fully possessed of God, to see his smiling face, and to have God lay us in his bosom? This will fill us with joy unspeakable, and full of glory (Psalm 17:15): I shall be satisfied, when I awake with your likeness.
Use 1. As an argument against despair, see what a great encouragement here is to serve God; he shows mercy to thousands. Who would not be willing to serve a prince that is given to mercy and clemency? God is represented with a rainbow round about him (Revelation 4:3), an emblem of his mercy. Acts of severity are rather forced from God; justice is his strange work (Isaiah 28:21). Therefore the disciples, who are not said to wonder at other miracles of Christ, yet did wonder when the fig tree was cursed and withered, because it was not Christ's manner to put forth acts of severity. God is said to delight in mercy (Micah 7:18). Justice is God's left hand, mercy is his right hand: God uses his right hand most; he is more used to mercy than justice, pronior est Deus ad parcendum quam ad puniendum. God is said to be slow to anger (Psalm 103:8), but ready to forgive (Psalm 86:5). This may encourage us to serve God. What argument will prevail, if mercy will not? Were God all justice, it might frighten us from him, but his mercy may be a loadstone to draw us to him.
Use 2, Branch 1: Hope in God's mercies (Psalm 147:11). The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, and hope in his mercy. God counts it his glory to be scattering pardons among men.
Objection: But I have been a great sinner, and surely there is no mercy for me?
Response: No, not if you go on in sin, and are so resolved; but if you will break off your sins, the golden scepter of mercy shall be held forth to you (Isaiah 55:7). Let the wicked forsake his way, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And Christ's blood is a fountain set open for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). Mercy does more overflow in God, than sin in us; God's mercy can drown great sins, as the sea covers great rocks. Some of those Jews who had their hands imbued in Christ's blood, were saved by that blood: God loves to magnify his goodness, to display the trophies of free grace, and to set up his mercy above you, in spite of sin: Therefore hope in God's mercy.
Branch 2: If God shows mercy to thousands, labor to know that this mercy is for you (Psalm 59:17). He is the God of my mercy. A man that was ready to drown, saw a rainbow, said he, What am I the better, though God will not drown the world, if I drown? So what are we the better that God is merciful, if we perish? Let us labor to know God's special mercy is for us.
Question: How shall we know it belongs to us?
Response 1: If we put a high value and estimate upon God's mercy: God will not throw away his mercy on them that slight it; we prize health, but we prize adopting mercy above it. This is the diamond in the ring, it outshines all other comforts.
2. If we are fearers of God, we have a reverent awe upon us; we tremble at sin, and fly from it as Moses did from his rod turned into a serpent (Luke 1:50). His mercy is on them that fear him.
3. If we take sanctuary in God's mercy, we trust in it (Psalm 52:8). As a man is saved by catching hold of a cable. God's mercy is a great cable, let down from heaven to us; now taking fast hold on this cable by faith, we are saved (Psalm 52:8). I trust in the mercy of God forever. As a man trusts his life and goods in a garrison, so we trust our souls in God's mercy.
Question: What shall we do to get a share in God's special mercy?
Response 1: If we would have mercy, it must be through Christ; out of Christ no mercy is to be had. We read in the old law, First, None might come into the Holy of Holies where the mercy-seat stood, but the high priest; signifying, we have nothing to do with mercy, but through Christ our high priest. Secondly, the high priest might not come near the mercy-seat without blood (Leviticus 16:14), to show that we have no right to mercy, but through the expiatory sacrifice of Christ's blood. Thirdly, the high priest might not upon pain of death come near the mercy-seat without incense (Leviticus 16:13). No mercy from God without the incense of Christ's intercession. So that if we would have mercy, we must get a part in Christ. Mercy swims to us through Christ's blood.
2. If we would have mercy, we must pray for it (Psalm 85:7). Show us your mercy O Lord, and grant us your salvation (Psalm 25:16). Turn to me, and have mercy upon me. Lord put me not off with common mercy; give me not only mercy to feed and clothe me, but mercy to pardon me; not only sparing mercy, but saving mercy. Lord give me the cream of your mercies; let me have mercy and loving kindness (Psalm 103:4). Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy. Be earnest suitors for mercy; let your wants quicken your importunity: Then we pray most fervently, when we pray [reconstructed: most] feelingly.
