A30582:174
Gospel remission, or, A treatise showing that true blessedness consists in pardon of sin…Gospel remission, or, A treatise shewing that true blessedness consists in pardon of sin…
Gospel remission, or, A treatise showing that true blessedness consists in pardon of sin wherein is discovered the many Gospel mysteries therein contained, the glorious effects proceeding from it, the great mistakes made about it, the true signs and symptoms of it, the way and means to obtain it / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being several sermons preached immediately after those of The evil of sin by the same author, and now published by Philip Nye ... [et al.]Gospel remission, or, A treatise shewing that true blessedness consists in pardon of sin wherein is discovered the many Gospel mysteries therein contained, the glorious effects proceeding from it, the great mistakes made about it, the true signs and symptomes of it, the way and means to obtain it / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being several sermons preached immediately after those of The evil of sin by the same author, and now published by Philip Nye ... [et al.]
London: printed for Dor. Newman, 1668
Gospel Remission. › Chapter 11: Of Pardoning Mercy being given to a few.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Besides, the Prince executes the fewest, and saves the most; Answ. 3 Because the execution of a few may be a means to bring others unto allegiance: But when God comes to execute Malefactors, the execution of some cannot be a means to work good on others, especially at the great day; 'tis true, in this world God is long-suffering, and executes a few, that it may be a means to work good on others; But how is God said to be a God of rich and glorious mercy, and yet pardons very few, and executes most; for all the world have been in Treason against him: how is it that God pardons fewest and destroys most? I hope to give you ⟨p. 72⟩very good reason and satisfaction, in showing you how the infinite glory of the mercy of God appears, and yet but few are pardoned; yea rather the more, because that few are pardoned: God would thereby manifest the more his glorious mercy.
Besides, the Prince executes the fewest, and saves the most; Answ. 3 Because the execution of a few may be a means to bring others unto allegiance: But when God comes to execute Malefactors, the execution of some cannot be a means to work good on others, especially at the great day; 'tis true, in this world God is long-suffering, and executes a few, that it may be a means to work good on others; But how is God said to be a God of rich and glorious mercy, and yet pardons very few, and executes most; for all the world have been in Treason against him: how is it that God pardons fewest and destroys most? I hope to give you ⟨p. 72⟩very good reason and satisfaction, in shewing you how the infinite glory of the mercy of God appears, and yet but few are pardoned; yea rather the more, because that few are pardoned: God would thereby manifest the more his glorious mercy.
1. It may well stand with the glorious riches of the mercy of God, that many are destroyed and yet but few pardoned; thus, Because that God would have a proportion between his Justice and Mercy; you say, he would have a proportion, Is not be as merciful as he is just? Then there must be as many pardoned as condemned. No, if God will observe a proportion between his mercy and justice, and that he will have his Justice appear as well as his Mercy, then more must be damned than saved; How does that appear? thus; Because the glory of Gods Justice in damning twenty hundred, is not so much as the glory of his Mercy in saving two; you may conceive it by what is ordinarily used among men: If the King save but two men that are Malefactors, he magnifies his mercy as much in that as his justice if he hang up a hundred: so if God save but two, his mercy is as much magnified as his justice in damning twenty hundred, the reason is this; Because there is something in the creature that calls for Gods justice, that requires that: But there is nothing in the creature, that requires his mercy; when God manifests his justice, he does such a work as is due to the Creature; there is something in the Creature that challenges such a work from God: but when God comes to manifest mercy, there is nothing at all in us that should require such a work from God; no, his mercy is free, altogether from himself, 'tis his own work, and proceeds from his own hearts love, and nothing in us that may challenge it from him: Now seeing there is that in the Creature that challenges justice, and nothing at all that can require mercy; therefore if God show mercy but to a few, it is as great a glory to his mercy as it is to his justice, if he condemn a hundred; but if he should save as many as he condemns, the mercy of God would be beyond all proportion to his justice, but because that cannot be, hence it is that few are saved and many damned.