Sermons preached on several occasionsSermons preach'd on several occasions

First, Love is the clearest and most adequate Notion of the Deity; God is Love. Now Mercy is medicinal, healing, and recovering Love. The Object of it is the Miserable and Unworthy. In God's Moral Government, Mercy and Justice are the leading Attributes, and Mercy in its Exercise has the Supremacy: Mercy rejoices against Judgment. When our first Parents were cited to Judgment for their rebellious Sin, Mercy promised a Saviour before the Sentence was pronounced. God is styled the Father of Mercies; 'tis his natural Off-spring, the freest and most delightful Emanation from him. Judgment is his strange Work, that by Constraint he executes. He does not afflict willingly the Children of Men: God is more pleased to see the Fruits of his Mercy in his Creatures ⟨p. 330⟩restored to Happiness, than the Effects of his Justice in the Guilty and Miserable. To be inclined to do Evil and Hurt, is an Imperfection infinitely distant and opposite to the Divine Nature. The Lord God is a Sun: and as 'tis proper to it to enlighten, revive and refresh the World by its Operations and Influences; 'tis accidental to consume and destroy, and proceeds from the Imperfection of Things upon whom his Beams fall. Thus 'tis according to the Nature of God to dispense the liberal Effusions of his Goodness to the Creatures; if they feel the Effects of his Justice, 'tis for Sin that deserves it, and draws it forth into Exercise. Mercy is God's Glory: by Glory we understand the Lustre that results from the Perfection of Things, and is attractive and worthy of Admiration. There is Light in one Beam of the Sun; but Glory results ⟨p. 331⟩from the Union of all its Beams in their full Strength. Accordingly a double Glory belongs to God.

First, Love is the clearest and most adequate Notion of the Deity; God is Love. Now Mercy is medicinal, healing, and recovering Love. The Object of it is the Miserable and Unworthy. In God's Moral Government, Mercy and Justice are the leading Attributes, and Mercy in its Exercise has the Supremacy: Mercy rejoices against Judgment. When our first Parents were cited to Judgment for their rebellious Sin, Mercy promis'd a Saviour before the Sentence was pronounc'd. God is stiled the Father of Mercies; 'tis his natural Off-spring, the freest and most delightful Emanation from him. Judgment is his strange Work, that by Constraint he executes. He does not afflict willingly the Children of Men: God is more pleased to see the Fruits of his Mercy in his Creatures