order some graces that cannot be put into order without it: as
patience, meekness, silence, and long-suffering, and the like. These
are all in a day of trial out of place, order, and exercise, where hope
forbeareth to work. I never saw a distrusting man, a patient man, a
quiet man, a silent man, and a meek man, under the hand of God, except
he was ‘dead in sin’ at the time. But we are not now talking of such.
But now let a man hope in the Lord, and he presently concludes this
affliction is for my good, a sign God loves me, and that which will
work out for me a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
and so it puts the graces of the soul into order (Luke 21:19).
Wherefore patience, by which a man is bid to possess or keep his soul
under the cross, is called ‘the patience of hope’ (1 Thess 1:3). So in
another place, when he would have the church patient in tribulation,
and continue instant in prayer, he bids them ‘rejoice in hope,’ knowing
that the other could not be done without it (Rom 12:12).
3. God takes much delight in the exercise of hope, because it
construeth all God’s dispensations, at present, towards it, for the
best: ‘When he hath tried me I shall come forth like gold’ (Job 23:10).
This is the language of hope. God, saith the soul, is doing of me good,
making of me better, refining of my inward man. Take a professor that
is without hope, and either he suffereth affliction of pride and
ostentation, or else he picks a quarrel with God and throws up all. For
he thinks that God is about to undo him; but hope construeth all to the
best, and admits no such unruly passions to carry the man away.
4. Therefore hope makes the man, be the trials what they will, to keep
still close to the way and path of God. ‘My foot,’ said hoping Job,
‘hath held his steps, his way have I kept and not declined, neither
have I gone back from the commandment of his lips’ (Job 23:11,12). And
again, ‘Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined
from thy way: though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons,
and covered us with the shadow of death’ (Psa 44:18,19). But how came
they thus patiently to endure? Why, they by hope put patience and
prayer into exercise. They knew that their God was as it were but
asleep, and that in his time he would arise for their help; and when he
did arise he would certainly deliver. Thus is this psalm applied by
Paul (Rom 8).
[Third.] There is also inferred from this exhortation, that the hope of
those that are not Israelites is not esteemed of God. ‘Let Israel
hope.’ The words are exclusive, shutting out the rest. He doth not say,
Let Amalek hope, let Babylon, or the Babylonians hope; but even in and
by this exhortation shutteth out both the rest and their hope from his
acceptance. This being concluded, it follows, that some may hope and
not be the better for their hope. ‘The hypocrite’s hope shall perish’
(Job 8:13); their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost (11:20).
‘For what is the hope of the hypocrite?’ (27:8). Again, ‘The hope of
unjust men perisheth’ (Prov 11:7). There is a hope that perisheth, both
it and he that hoped with it together. The reasons are,
1. Because it floweth not from faith and experience, but rather from
conceit and presumption. Hope, as I have told you, if it be right,
cometh of faith, and is brought forth by experience: but the hope now
under consideration is alone, and has no right original, and therefore
not regarded. It is not the hope of God, but the hope of man; that is,
it is not the hope of God’s working, but the hope that standeth in
natural abilities. ‘Thou washest away the things which grow out of the
dust of the earth, and thou destroyest the hope of man’ (Job 14:19).
Whatsoever in religious matters is but of a carnal and earthly
existence, must be washed away, when the overflowing scourge shall at
the end pass over the world (Isa 28:17-19).
2. Because the Lord’s mercy is not the object of it. The worldly man
makes gold, or an arm of flesh his hope; that is, the object of it, and
so he despiseth God (Job 31:24; Jer 3:23). Or if he be a religious
hypocrite, his hope terminates in his own doings: he trusteth, or
hopeth, in himself, that he is righteous (Luke 18:9). All these things
are abhorred of God, nor can he, with honour to his name, or in a
compliance with his own eternal designs, give any countenance to such a
hope as this.
3. This hope has no good effect on the heart and mind of him that hath
it. It purifieth not the soul, it only holds fast a lie, and keeps a
man in a circuit, at an infinite distance from waiting upon God.
4. This hope busieth all the powers of the soul about things that are
of the world, or about those false objects on which it is pitched; even
as the spider diligently worketh in her web—unto which also this hope
is compared—in vain. This hope will bring that man that has it, and
exercises it, to heaven, when leviathan is pulled out of the sea with a
hook; or when his jaw is bored through with a thorn: but as he that
thinks to do this, hopeth in vain; so, even so, will the hope of the
other be as unsuccessful; ‘So are the paths of all that forget God, and
the hypocrite’s hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and
whose trust shall be a spider’s web. He shall lean upon his house, but
it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure’
(Job 8:13-15, 41:1-9). This is the hope that is not esteemed of God,
nor the persons that have it, preferred by him a whit before their own
dung (Job 20:4-8).
[Fourth.] There is also inferred from these words, That Israel himself
is subject to swerve in his soul about the object of hope. For this
text is to him as a command and grant, so an instruction by which he is
to be informed, how and upon whom to set his hope. That Israel is apt
to swerve as to the object of his hope, is evident, for that so much
ado is made by the prophets to keep him upon his God; in that so many
laws and statutes are made to direct him to set his hope in God: and
also by his own confession (Psa 78:7; Jer 3:23-25; Lam 4:17). The fears
also and the murmurings and the faintings that attend the godly in this
life, do put the truth of this inference out of doubt. It is true, the
apostle said, that he had the sentence of death in himself, that he
might not trust or hope in himself, but in God that raiseth the dead.
But this was an high pitch; Israel is not always here; there are many
things that hinder. (1.) The imperfection of our graces. There is no
grace perfected in the godly. Now it is incident to things defective,
to be wanting in their course. Faith is not perfect; and hence the
sensible Christian feels what follows: love is not perfect, and we see
what follows; and so of hope and every other grace; their imperfection
makes them stagger. 2. Israel is not yet beyond temptations. There is a
deal to attend him with temptations, and he has a soul so disabled by
sin, that at all times he cannot fix on God that made him, but is apt
to be turned aside to lying vanities: the very thing that Jonah was
ensnared with (2:8).
3. The promising helps that seem to be in other things, are great
hindrances to a steady fixing, by hope, on God; there are good frames
of heart, enlargements in duties, with other the like, that have
through the darkness, and the legality of our spirits been great
hindrances to Israel. Not that their natural tendency is to turn us
aside; but our corrupt reason getting the upper hand, and bearing the
stroke in judgment, converts our minds and consciences to the making of
wrong conclusions upon them. 4. Besides, as the mind and conscience, by
reason, is oft deluded to draw these wrong conclusions upon our good
frames of heart, to the removing of our hope from the right object unto
them; so by like reason, are we turned by unwholesome doctrines, and a
carnal understanding of the Word, to the very same thing: ‘cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water,’ Israel, even God’s people, are
apt to make unto themselves to the forsaking of their God (Jer
2:11-13).
Thus have I gone through the first part of the text, which consists of
an exhortation to hope in the Lord. And have showed you, 1. The matter
contained therein. 2. Something of the reason of the manner of the
phrase. 3. And have drawn, as you see, some inferences from it.
[SECOND. THE REASON URGED TO ENFORCE THE EXHORTATION.]
I now come to the second part of the text, which is a reason urged to
enforce the exhortation, ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord.’ Why? ‘For with
the Lord there is mercy.’ There is the reason, let him hope, for there
is mercy; let him hope in the Lord, for with him there is mercy. The
reason is full and suitable. For what is the ground of despair, but a
conceit that sin has shut the soul out of all interest in happiness?
and what is the reason of that, but a persuasion that there is no help
for him in God? Besides, could God do all but show mercy, yet the
belief of that ability would not be a reason sufficient to encourage
the soul to hope in God. For the block SIN, which cannot be removed but
by mercy, still lies in the way. The reason therefore is full and
suitable, having naturally an enforcement in it, to the exhortation.
And,
First. To touch upon the reason in a way general, and then [Second] to
come to it more particularly. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with
the Lord there is mercy,’ mercy to be bestowed, mercy designed to be
bestowed.
1. Mercy to be bestowed. This must be the meaning. What if a man has
never so much gold or silver, or food, or raiment: yet if he has none
to communicate, what is the distressed, or those in want, the better?
What if there be mercy with God, yet if he has none to bestow, what
force is there in the exhortation, or what shall Israel, if he hopeth,
be the better. But God has mercy to bestow, to give. ‘He saith on this
wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David’ (Acts 13:34). And
again, ‘The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus’ (2 Tim
1:16). Now then, here lies the encouragement. The Lord has mercy to
give; he has not given away ALL his mercy; his mercy is not clean gone
for ever (Psa 77:8). He has mercy yet to give away, yet to bestow upon
his Israel. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is
mercy.’
2. As there is with God mercy to be bestowed, so there is mercy
designed to be bestowed or given to Israel. Some men lay by what they
mean to give away, and put that in a bag by itself, saying, This I
design to give away, this I purpose to bestow upon the poor. Thus God;
he designeth mercy for his people (Dan 9:4). Hence the mercy that God’s
Israel are said to be partakers of, is a mercy kept for them. And
‘thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor,’ and laid up
for them (Psa 68:10). This is excellent and is true, ‘Let Israel hope
in the Lord, for there is with him mercy,’ kept, prepared, and laid up
for them! (Psa 61:7). When God designs the bestowing of mercy, we may
well hope to be partakers (Psa 31:19). The poor will go merrily to
weddings and funerals, and hope for an alms all the way they go, when
they come to understand that there is so much kept, prepared, and laid
up for them by the bridegroom, &c.[18] But ‘He keepeth mercy for
thousands!’ (Exo 34:7).
3. As God has mercies to bestow, and as he has designed to bestow them,
so those mercies are no fragments or the leavings of others: but
mercies that are full and complete to do for thee, what thou wantest,
wouldst have, or canst desire. As I may so say, God has his bags that
were never yet untied, never yet broken up, but laid by him through a
thousand generations, for those that he commands to hope in his mercy.
As Samuel kept the shoulder for Saul, and as God brake up that decreed
place for the sea, so hath he set apart, and will break up his mercy
for his people: mercy and grace that he gave us before we had a being,
is the mercy designed for Israel (2 Tim 1:9). Whole mercies are
allotted to us; however, mercy sufficient (1 Sam 9:23-24; Job 38:10).
But to be a little more distinct.
[Second, particularly.] I find that the goodness of God to his people
is diversely expressed in his word: sometimes by the word grace;
sometimes by the word love; and sometimes by the word mercy; even as
our badness against him is called iniquity, transgression, and sin.
When it is expressed by that word ‘grace,’ then it is to show that what
he doth is of his princely will, his royal bounty, and sovereign
pleasure. When it is expressed by that word ‘love,’ then it is to show
us that his affection was and is in what he doth, and that he doth what
he doth for us, with complacency and delight. But when it is set forth
to us under the notion of ‘mercy,’ then it bespeaks us to be in a state
both wretched and miserable, and that his bowels and compassions yearn
over us in this our fearful plight. Now, the Holy Ghost chooseth—as it
should seem—in this place, to present us with that goodness that is in
God’s heart towards us, rather under the term of mercy; for that, as I
said before, it so presenteth us with our misery, and his pity and
compassion; and because it best pleaseth us when we apprehend God in
Christ as one that has the love of compassion and pity for us. Hence we
are often presented with God’s goodness to us to cause us to hope,
under the name of pity and compassion. ‘In his pity he redeemed them,’
and ‘like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them
that fear him’ (Isa 63:9; Psa 103:13). ‘The Lord is very pitiful and of
tender mercy,’ he also is gracious and ‘full of compassion’ (James
5:11; Psa 78:38). ‘Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion,’ and thy
‘compassions fail not’ (Psa 86:15, 111:4; Lam 3:22).
The words being thus briefly touched upon, I shall come to treat of two
things. FIRST, more distinctly, I shall show you what kind of mercy is
with the Lord, as a reason to encourage Israel to hope. SECONDLY, And
then shall show what is to be inferred from this reason, ‘Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy.’
[FIRST, The kind of mercy that Israel is to hope for.]
First, ‘With him there is TENDER MERCY, and therefore let Israel hope’
(Psa 25:6, 103:4, 119:156). Tender mercy is mercy in mercy, and that
which Israel of old had in high estimation, cried much for, and chose
that God would deal with their souls by that. ‘Withhold not thou thy
tender mercies from me,’ said David, and ‘according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions’ (Psa 40:11, 51:1).
And again, ‘Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live’ (Psa
119:77). Now of this sort of mercies God has a great many, a multitude
to bestow upon his people. And they are thus mentioned by the word, to
cause us to hope in him. And is not this alluring, is not this enticing
to the Israel of God to hope, when the object of their hope is a God
‘very pitiful, and of tender mercy?’ Yea, a God whose tender mercies
are great and many. There are two things that this word tender mercy
importeth. 1. The first is, that sin will put a believer, if he giveth
way thereto, into a very miserable condition. 2. That God would have
them hope, that though sin may have brought any of them into this
condition, the Lord will restore them with much pity and compassion.
‘Let Israel hope in the Lord,’ for with the Lord there is mercy, tender
mercy.
1. For the first of these, That sin will put a believer, if he gives
way thereto, into a very miserable condition, and that upon a double
account. (1.) For that it will bring him into fears of damnation. (2.)
In that it will make his soul to be much pained under those fears.
We will wave the first, and come to the second of these. The pains that
guilt will make, when it wounds the conscience, none knows but those to
whom sin is applied by the Spirit of God, in the law. Yet all may read
of it in the experience of the godly; where this pain is compared to a
wound in the flesh, to fire in the bones, to the putting of bones out
of joint, and the breaking of them asunder (Psa 38:3,5,7,8, 102:3,
22:14; Lam 1:13, 3:4). He that knows what wounds and broken bones are,
knows them to be painful things. And he that knows what misery sin will
bring the soul into with its guilt, will conclude the one comes no whit
short of the other. But now he that hath these wounds, and also these
broken bones, the very thoughts of a man that can cure, and of a
bonesetter, will make him afraid, yea, quake for fear; especially if he
knows that though he has skill, he has a hard heart, and fingers that
are like iron. He that handleth a wound, had need have fingers like
feathers or down; to be sure the patient wisheth they were! Tenderness
is a thing of great worth to such; and such men are much inquired after
by such; yea, their tenderness is an invitation to such to seek after
them. And the thing is true in spirituals (Isa 42:3). Wherefore David
cried, as I said before, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God! according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions’ (Psa
51:1). O handle me tenderly, Lord, handle me tenderly, cried David. O
cure me, I beseech thee, and do it with thy tender mercy.
Now, answerable to this, the Lord is set forth to Israel, as one with
whom is mercy, consequently tender mercy. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is tender mercy. God therefore would have the
wounded and bruised, and those whose pains may be compared to the pains
and pangs of broken bones, to hope that he will restore them with much
pity and compassion, or as you have it before, in pity and tender
mercy. See how he promiseth to do it by the prophet. ‘A bruised reed
shall he not break; and the smoking flax shall he not quench’ (Isa
42:3). See how tender he is in the action. ‘When he saw him, he had
compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in
oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn,
and took care of him’ (Luke 10:33-35). Every circumstance is full of
tenderness and compassion. See also how angry he maketh himself with
those of his servants that handle the wounded or diseased without this
tenderness; and how he catcheth them out of their hand, with a purpose
to deal more gently with them himself. ‘The diseased,’ saith he, ‘have
ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick;
neither have ye bound up that which was broken; neither have ye brought
again that which was driven away; neither have ye sought that which was
lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them; therefore, ye
shepherds, hear the words of the Lord: I will feed my flock, and I will
cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was
lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that
which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick’ (Eze
34:4,7,15,16). Here is encouragement to hope, even according to the
reason urged: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is
mercy,’ tender mercy. Second. As with him is mercy tender, so there is
with him mercy that is GREAT, for with him is great mercy. ‘The Lord is
long-suffering, and of great mercy’ (Num 14:18). When tenderness
accompanies want of skill, the defect is great; but when tenderness and
great skill meet together, such a surgeon is a brave accomplished man.
Besides, some are more plagued with the sense of the greatness of their
sins than others are; the devil having placed or fixed the great sting
there. These are driven by the greatness of sin into despairing
thoughts, hotter than fire: these have the greatness of their sin
betwixt God and them, like a great mountain; yea, they are like a cloud
that darkeneth the sun and air.[19] This man stands under Cain’s
gibbet, and has the halter of Judas, to his own thinking, fastened
about his neck.
And now, cries, he, ‘GREAT mercy or NO mercy; for little mercy will do
me no good’; such a poor creature thus expostulateth the case with God,
‘Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise
thee?’ (Psa 88:10). Lord, I have destroyed myself, can I live? My sins
are more than the sands, can I live? Lord, every one of them are sins
of the first rate, of the biggest size, of the blackest line, can I
live? I never read that expression but once in all the whole Bible;
‘For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great’
(Psa 25:11). Not that there was but one man in Israel that had
committed great iniquities, but because men that have so done, have
rather inclined to despair, than to an argument so against the wind. If
he had said, Pardon, for they are little, his reason had carried reason
in it; but when he saith, Pardon, for they are great, he seems to stand
like a man alone. This is the common language, ‘if our transgressions
be upon us, and we pine away in them, How should we then live?’ (Eze
33:10). Or thus, ‘Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we are
cut off for our parts’ (Eze 37:11). Wherefore to such as these, good
wishes, tender fingers, and compassion, without GREAT mercy, can do
nothing. But behold, O thou man of Israel, thou talkest of great sins;
answerable to this, the Scripture speaks of great mercy; and thy great
sins are but the sins of a man, but these great mercies are the mercies
of a God; yea, and thou art exhorted, even because there is mercy with
him, therefore to trust thy soul with him, ‘let Israel trust in the
Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy,’ great mercy. This therefore is
a truth of singular consolation, that mercy is with the Lord, that
tender mercy is with him, that great mercy is with him, both TENDER and
GREAT. What would man have more? But,
Third. As great mercy is with the Lord to encourage us to hope, so this
mercy that is great, is RICH. ‘God is rich in mercy’ (Eph 2:4). There
is riches of goodness and riches of grace with him (Rom 2:4; Eph 1:7).
Things may be great in quantity, and little of value; but the mercy of
God is not so. We use to prize small things when great worth is in
them; even a diamond as little as a pea, is preferred before a pebble,
though as big as a camel. Why, here is rich mercy, sinner; here is
mercy that is rich and full of virtue! a drop of it will cure a
kingdom. ‘Ah! but how much is there of it?’ says the sinner. O,
abundance, abundance! for so saith the text—‘Let us fall now into the
hand of the Lord, for his’ rich ‘mercies are great’ (2 Sam 24:14). Some
things are so rich, and of such virtue, that if they do but touch a
man, if they do but come nigh a man, if a man doth but look upon them,
they have a present operation upon him; but the very mentioning of
mercy, yea, a very thought of it, has sometimes had that virtue in it
as to cure a sin-sick soul. Here is virtuous mercy!
Indeed mercy, the best of mercies, are little worth to a self-righteous
man, or a sinner fast asleep; we must not, therefore, make our esteems
of mercy according to the judgment of the secure and heedless man, but
according to the verdict of the Word; nay, though the awakened sinner,
he that roareth for mercy all day long, by reason of the disquietness
of his heart is the likeliest among sinful flesh, or as likely as
another, to set a suitable estimate upon mercy; yet his verdict is not
always to pass in this matter. None can know the riches of mercy to the
full, but he that perfectly knoweth the evil of sin, the justice of
God, all the errors of man, the torments of hell, and the sorrows that
the Lord Jesus underwent, when mercy made him a reconciler of sinners
to God. But this can be known by none but the God whose mercy it is.
This is the pearl of great price.
The richness of mercy is seen in several things. It can save from sin,
from great sin, from all sin (Titus 3:5; Matt 15:22,28). It can save a
soul from the devil, from all devils (Matt 17:15,18). It can save a
soul from hell, from all hells (Psa 116:3,5,6). It can hold us up in
the midst of all weaknesses (Psa 94:18). It can deliver from eternal
judgment (Rom 9:23). Yea, what is it that we have, or shall need, that
this virtuous mercy cannot do for us: ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord: for
which the Lord is RICH mercy,’ mercy full of virtue, and that can do
great things.
Fourth. As the mercies that are with the Lord are tender, great, and
rich, so there is a MULTITUDE of them, and they are called ‘manifold,’
there is a multitude of these rich and virtuous mercies (Psa 69:13; Rev
9:19). By multitude, I understand mercies of every sort or kind;
mercies for this, and mercies for the other malady; mercies for every
sickness, a salve for every sore. Some things that are rich and very
full of virtue, have yet their excellency extending itself but to one,
or two, or three things for help; and this is their leanness in the
midst of their excellencies. But it is not thus with the mercy of God.
Some things that are rich and virtuous, are yet so only but at certain
seasons; for there are times in which they can do nothing. But it is
not so with this tender, great, and rich mercy of God. There are some
things, though rich, that are sparingly made use of. But it is not so
with this mercy of God. There is a multitude of them; so if one will
not another will. There is a multitude of them; so one or other of them
is always in their season. There is a multitude of them; and therefore
it must not be supposed that God is niggardly as to the communicating
of them.