182 MERCY. "Mercy," as perhaps we need scarcely state, is an expressica particularly referring to God; and is that divine attribute by which relief is exercised and extended towards beings, who have become, by their guilt, exposed to punishment and misery. The language of the Apostle plainly and clearly implies, that, at a former period, he was existing in a state in which he required mercy, personally and for himself, that he might be saved from wretchedness and horror. And you observe, it is also clear, that although he refers to his own case, as involving some remarkable peculiarities, yet, in general circumstances, it was analagous and parallel to that of all mankind. That this is the true position of mankind, is what we have now positively to assert, and most earnestly to impress. There The universal need of mercy, it must be observed, is founded on a simple and solemn fact-universal danger as the consequence of universal sin. Men in every nation and through every age, are to be regarded in the light of sinners against God. Sin, you are aware, is the transgression of the divine law, as that law has been laid down for the moral government of the human heart and life. And when you look to the testimony of divine revelation, you will there perceive, that man is never noticed in reference to his lost estate, but as actually guilty in the sight of God, everywhere habitually involved in deep rebellion against the authority of the Universal Governor. We are reminded, for example, that "the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and no, not one." sinneth not." "The good man is perished, out of the earth; and there is none "Jews and Gentiles-they are all under sin." upright among men." is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Now, my brethren, exposure to punishment is the necessary consequence of the perpetration of sin; we are therefore reminded that God will, by no means, clear the guilty ;" and "that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." By the law of unerring equity and justice, men are condemned, men are under the curse, men are in peril of the woes and inflictions of the present time, as well as sinking under the final condemnation, by which they will be excluded from all peace, and dignity, and joy, and hope, and made the inheritors of torments, the intensity of which no imagination can conceive, and the duration of which no period can express. Such is the condition of the race to which we belong; and who can take a glance, for a single moment, at the condition of our species, without confessing how much there is need of mercy; and that if mercy pour not her delightful light, for the purpose of irradiating the gathering gloom, the shadows of that gloom must accumulate and continue, till they are consummated in "the blackness of darkness" for ever? My brethren, in the spirit of closest application you must now permit me to remind you, that you are in need of mercy yourselves. You may perhaps find no difficulty in acknowledging the general doctrine which has been expressed, and yet you may be guilty of denying that your own personal character and personal interests are involved in it. I therefore tell you, my hearers, as before God, and in the plainest terms that language can employ, that you are sinners, and that therefore you are in danger. You may perhaps be lovely, and amiable, and honourable, in the estimation of your fellow-mortals; and you may be perhaps wholly unsullied and unstained by those vices in which multitudes flagrantly and flagitiously indulge: but if it be sin to admit and cherish in the heart passions which are unholy and impure, are you not guilty? If it be sin not to love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength, are you not guilty? If it be sin not to render your high faculties and endowments practically and exclusively to his praise and his glory, are you not guilty? If it be sin to have neglected the great salvation, and to have refused to the divine realities of eternity the paramount and pre-eminent supremacy and government of the thoughts and the life—are you not guilty? It is, my hearers, to no purpose that you play the part of the sophist, that you avoid, that you qualify, that you object, and that you lay the flattering unction to your souls. Your consciences dare not-if they are not so seared and so perverted, that they cannot utter a single whisper of truth within you-dare not, in justice, deny the tremendous allegation, that you are guilty before God. My dear brethren, I state the fact most distinctly to every one now in the presence of God; and in the name of that God before whose tribunal, in a brief space of time, you will be called upon for judgment, I tell you, you are in need of mercy; and that, if you receive it not, you will be absolutely, eternally, and unchangeably undone. We will now observe, secondly, that GOD HAS PROVIDED A METHOD BY WHICH MEN MAY OBTAIN MERCY. The Apostle, you observe, states that he personally had obtained it; and the spirit of the text implies that that same blessing might easily be applied to others. This, my brethren, is an animating and a delightful truth indeed; a truth which it is the great object of all revelation distinctly to state and to impress; and a truth which is emphatically "glad tidings of great joy, to you and to all people." There are two facts with regard to the method of mercy, to which I have now to request your serious regard; by which I trust the whole matter will be faithfully and sufficiently explained. The first fact is, that mercy is provided through the atonement, and the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You observe that the Apostle, in immediate connexion with, and as an illustration of, the spirit of the text, beautifully exhibits in the subsequent verses the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour. This," says he, "is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners:" and then he states, in the following verse, how it is that the work of Christ becomes applicable to individual men; it is by "believing in him to life everlasting." The Son of God, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, was given in the fulness of time," that upon the cross of Calvary he might offer an atoning sacrifice for sin, the merit of which, when applied to his people through the appointed instrumentality of faith, should sanctify, should justify, and should save, in perfect consistency with the honour of that justice insulted by sin, and to the anathema of which, without satisfaction, man must always be exposed. You are aware, my brethren, how many times in the writings of the Apostle we have a distinct development of the doctrine of regeneration, to which your attention is now called.. We are told in one piace, that "God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself not puting their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." We are reminded again, that, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some will even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And again, that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man who doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith, speaketh this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from abcre:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is the word of faith which we preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The Apostle, for himself, you are aware, rushed (as it were) to the sacrifice of Christ, under the sense of his own need, as that upon which he would repose with absolute confidence of soul. The Apostle, on a memorable occasion, when he had been referring to the numerous privileges in which in former times he had boasted, and in which he had been accustomed to delight, exclaims, in elevated strains, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Behold, my brethren, the mode of mercy in the sacrifice of the Saviour. It was on him, when on the cross of Calvary, that there fell the fire that justice had lighted up to desolate when Adam fell it had run along the surface of the earth, finding fresh fuel in every folly, and in every crime, of man; and which, had it not been for the interposing power of his divine sacrifice, would have consumed the habitations of our race to ashes, and would have wrapped the universe in flames: and therefore, my brethren, that redemption and mercy are to be obtained through the sacrifice of Christ alone. Men may embrace other creeds if they will; they may resort to other refuges if they will; and they may institute other pleas if they will; but to be saved from the wrath that is to come, excepting by Him who died on the ignominious tree, is utterly impossible. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." "Neither is there any other name under heaven given among men, whereby they can be saved, but the name of Jesus." "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life." that believeth not shall be damned." "He Secondly, my brethren, connected with the mode of mercy, to which we now call your attention, is, that the mercy provided by atonement and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, is sufficient for the very vilest of our race. This, you remark, the Apostle argues from in consequence of circumstances in his own experience and history. "Christ Jesus," says he, "came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." And as, notwithstanding he was "the chief of sinners," he had yet been permitted to obtain mercy, the general conclusion intended to be established by him is, that there is mercy for the chief of sinners. It is, you observe, in this reference also, that in the fourth verse he says, "The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." It was also in this reference that in the sixteenth verse he says, " Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy"—and I request your special attention to the perpetuity of this passage-" I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." His pardon being received, although he had been, according to his own acknowledgment, so guilty and so vile, is to be regarded as a pattern, as a proof, and as a presage that there is no guilt which man can commit, in any age, or under any state of the world, that is to be regarded beyond the power of the atoning merit of Him who was crucified; and that whosoever no matter by what crimes and by what blasphemies he may have been branded-" that whosoever believeth on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ should be saved." The proof of this gracious and delightful truth is multiplied in many a page of the sacred Scriptures. Hear the language of ancient prophecy: "Who is this," says the prophet, "that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Hear the record of the Saviour himself in the days of his flesh: "The Son of man came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance;" "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Hear the record of his Apostle: He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin." "He is able to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by him." Remember, my brethren, all that is stated in the Sacred Word with regard to his divinity -remember all that is stated with regard to his mediation, as deriving its efficacy from that divinity. Every part of this Sacred Volume is one testimony of the omnipotence of mercy; one demonstration, that it is impossible for any who are found in the hands of Jesus, to be lost. Yea, my hearers, I tell you, doubt what you will, doubt not that Jesus is omnipotent to redeem. Doubt that the sun-beam must chase the shadows of the night, and pervade and gild the firmament with the radiant splendour of the day: doubt that the balmy and sweet spring will hush and succeed the wintry tempest, and summer put forth foliage to clothe creation with the garments of beauty and loveliness: doubt, if you will, any established ordinance of heaven, or the regular revolutions of the earth: but doubt not, I repeat, that Christ is almighty to redeem. Standing 186 upon the impregnable rock of his promises, I now proclaim, in all the gladness It It is to be observed, thirdly, as we proposed, that MERCY, WHEN OBTAINED BY MAN, MUST JUSTLY BE THE SUBJECT OF GRATEFUL ADMIRATION. "O wonder! I obtained is clear that the feelings of the Apostle in regard to the kindness of the Saviour towards him, were those of grateful astonishment. mercy; even I, the chief of sinners, even I obtained mercy! How marvellous the work-how worthy of eternal admiration and praise, that free and sovereign grace, by which I became what I am!" There have been, in every period of the world, many who have obtained mercy, who must have regarded their privilege with emotion similar to that of the great Apostle; and I trust there are many in this assembly who have obtained mercy (and I trust that multitudes will receive this mercy) who cannot do otherwise than express this emotion in its most ardent and fervent form. Yet, for the purpose of further impression, both on ourselves and their minds, we must notice several different reasons, in connexion with the great change before us, by which we have cause for grateful admiration and joy. And, first, this grateful admiration is properly excited in conten.plating the nature of the change itself. When we obtain mercy, we undergo a high and wondrous transformation, which, when we contemplate it, must excite grateful amazement in every sensitive and enlightened mind. What, my brethren, is that change? A change from alienation to friendship; a change from condemnation to justification; a change from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; a change from death to life; a change from a state of wrath and terror to a state of favour and of love. There are two or three cases in which the Apostle, in addressing different churches, reminds them of the nature of their change, in the spirit of contrast: and, for myself, I have never been able to read those sublime and beautiful statements, without tears of melting tenderness: let me commend them to your regard in the same spirit. Take the record of the Apostle which he presents to the Corinthian church, in 1 Corinthians, vi. 9-11: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, uor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Take, again, another statement which we find in Ephesians, ii., “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom, also, we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved |