Mercy, its place in the divine government

Front matter

The v>

IS w d| m

UNITED STATES ^ AMERICA.

Preface

As the sun in the heavens, even so the Supreme Example, mercy in Christ, shines in glory far above the Works and Ways of God ; and even above the Word of Divine Revelation. This Example is higher, brighter and more glorious than the Law of God revealed in any other way in which the law can be revealed. It is itself law, the very highest form of law ; and withal, admirably suited to man. For the Son of God in our nature going before us in the " fulfilment of all righteousness," carrying obedience to its very limit, becoming " obedient unto death," gives us a most affecting, a most perfect — a Divine Example of the way in which man may imitate God.

Studying the Supreme Example of Mercy, we soon discover that it teaches us not only that God is Merciful to Mankind, but that He is Merciful

4 PREFACE.

in Himself *; and that this, His Real Character, is signified in all that he doeth ; and that His Government is throughout merciful as well as righteous.

When we proceed to look closely into the Work of Christ, to consider just what it was that He did for us, we soon discover that His mercy to us consisted in the Satisfaction of Law, first, for us, by His Great Atonement; and then, by His Grace in us, bringing us into conformity to the Law of God. And from the study of the one Supreme Example of Mercy, we are led to see that all mercy, by whomsoever shown, must be in reality the " Imitation of Christ."

Carefully considering how, in the nature of the case, mercy, which in its entireness consists in satisfying law, can be dispensed unto moral beings, violators of law, having free will, and being responsible, it soon comes clearly into view that this can be, in divine mercy shown to man, or mercy by man to his fellow-man, never, either (a) against or (b) without the will or (c) without the act of those to whom the mercy is shown.

Confessedly in none of "His Goings" are the " clouds" and the "darkness" so impenetrable as in the matter of His Sovereignty in dealing

PREFACE. 5

with mankind under the present Dispensation of Mercy. What takes place between God Most High and man the sinner, when a soul is saved or lost ; saved by faith and penitence, or lost by unbelief and impenitence ; what takes place in the very centre of that Cyclonic Storm-cloud which hurls to perdition or lifts to glory ; perhaps not one of the angels in heaven may fully understand. Before the great mystery man may well stand with awe and deep humility. " He will have mercy on whom we will have mercy " "It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." But while the Clouds and Darkness arc round about Him, we can know assuredly that His dealings with each individual of our race, whatever be the result of these dealings, will reveal Him to be Merciful as well as Righteous ; we can know assuredly that He, operating in the awful, impenetrable darkness, is the same God whose infinite goodness is proclaimed in His word, displayed in His works, and witnessed by all in the whole course of His providence.

Contents

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

THE SUPREME EXAMPLE.

PAGE

Part I.— Mercy In Character And Government. Chapter I. Merciful To Mankind

Known to all as merciful. — Merciful to the redeemed. — Merciful to the race. — The sole grounds of condemnation. — Mercy accepted. — Mercy rejected. — Delay not that Christ might, but because he had interposed. — All to be judged for the manner in which they respond to that merciful approach which God makes to them. — Diversity of the divine dealings. — But this we meet everywhere. — Confidence in the divine goodness in dealing with each according to the light afforded. — His real character revealed. — Freedom and responsibility never for an instant removed ... 33

5 . CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Merciful In Himself

PAGE

Merciful to mankind, because merciful in himself. — Mercy and righteousness proclaimed in Scripture. — Goodness culminates in mercifulness. — The one supreme standard of goodness. — What may one moral being do in determining the will of another? — A most remarkable " Non-Sequitur."

— Infinite goodness must be shared by all ? — " Efficacious Grace." — Character and conduct, the condition of all good.

— Exclusion from goodness, never by the mere will of him who is infinitely good. — Divine dealing with angels, and with man before the fall. — Dealing with the fallen ... 46

Chapter III. The Real And The Whole Character

The real and the whole character revealed in dealing with other moral beings, fallen or unfallen. — Why many hesitate to ascribe mercifulness to God in dealing with all his creatures.

— In mercy righteousness declared, why not in justice, mercifulness ? — The problem of evil ; its proper place. — The divine character indicated in providence, as interpreted by our Lord. — Freedom and praiseworthiness of acts which proceed from the very nature of the being who acts. — Goodness apart from mercifulness not found on earth or in heaven. — The "must" and the "may"'' of the theologians.

— Virtue beyond what the divine law requires ? — Prerogative determines mercy. — If so, why not justice ? — Actions attributable to persons, not to attributes. — The dominant attribute, always dominant. — " That love which moves the

sun in heaven and all the stars " 62

Chapter IV. Merciful Government

Divine government righteous, beneficent, merciful. — In government by man, constitutional and legal provision for mercy. — No virtue too high to be exemplified by government. — Mercy a sovereign prerogative, not restricted. — Why rarely exercised. — The duty of the sovereign in the exercise of this prerogative, always specific and definite. — Divine mercy determined by the nature of God and the nature of the case 82

CONTENTS.

Part II. — Mercy By Satisfaction Of Law. Chapter I. Law Prevails

PAGE

Law prevails everywhere. — This observed by all. — It is the will of the lawgiver, and he changeth not. — Reason for change cannot spring up " de novo''' — The evangelical doctrine postulates the reign of law undisturbed. — It is free from the objection of "the philosophers." — Mercy shown, all the divine purposes accomplished without interference with law or with the free will of creatures . ■ 105

CHAPTER II.

SATISFACTION OF LAW.

Perfect mercy, not by suspension or mitigation, but by satisfaction of law. — This illustrated by mercy or forgiveness among men. — The forgiveness of debt, the type of the forgiveness of sin. — All that is done by Christ, for, in, and by his redeemed, whatever else it be, is truly satisfaction of law. — This the only mercy needed. — This insures all conceivable good. — The end secured, by means of the atonement, and by efficacious grace, the satisfaction of the divine law 116

CHAPTER III.

MERCY AND JUSTICE.

The " Fiat Justitia" — Redemption at once the utmost exemplification of justice and mercy. — Righteous government, human or divine, not therefore without mercy. — The divine perfections shown forth in dealing with all moral being. — The imitation of Christ in his supreme work of mercy, required of all under the divine law 137

CHAPTER IV.

FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION.

The study of mercy or forgiveness as observed among men. — Never without regard to the matter of satisfaction. — Minor objections considered ... 152

IO CONTENTS.

Part III. — Mercy In Its Administration. Chapter I. Untried Virtue

PAGE

Untried virtue purely imaginary. — In the genesis of virtue, trial. — In its nature it involves the not pleasing of self; the surrender of the will to the will of God. — Regard to the good of others. — Trial transformed into triumph, painless, joyous. — " Confirmation " is victory, by grace, gained and maintained 169

CHAPTER II.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

A universe superior to the actual ? — One wherein neither sin nor suffering entered or could enter. — A second choice, one in which all shall, in the end, be restored. — A thirdrate universe in which few shall be lost. — The fallacy, infinite goodness must be shared by all. — To be merciful is to insure the acceptance of mercy. — Creatures endowed with free will, and not the Creator who endowed them, responsible. — The determinative choice, blameworthy or praiseworthy. — Human responsibility. — Passive in beginning to live ? — Power or authority leave the will uninvaded.

— Made willing by the word. — Will to be insured against the possibility of error must be guided by perfect, that is, by infinite knowledge. — No finite will can be thus guided and determined. — " Confirmation," therefore, can be only by grace. — With us only by covenant relation to the glorious Lord. — Scripture plainly teaches this. — No act good in itself, or apart from good reasons and right ends.

— To " make willing," therefore, is to cause to perceive and act from good reasons and right ends. — God's will, in any way made known, we can be assured is supported by infinite reasons. — Without a divine commandment, an intimation in some way of the divine will, there can be no more than a mere probability of wise and right choice and action, 1S2

CONTENTS. I I

CHAPTER III.

PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL.

PAGE

The inscrutable may be the undeniable. — Divine determinations could not but seem to us predeterminations. — Man predetermines always according to the measure of his knowledge. — Rewards and punishments ; when provided ? — Emergencies. — Predeterminations in no way affect man's freedom or responsibility. — Nothing gained by assuming that divine decisions are reserved. — We have to do with a being who is omnipresent in the eternity, "even as he is omnipresent in the immensity 208

CHAPTER IV.

PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER.

All foreordained, yet provision for the answer of prayer. — " Before they call I will answer." — No need for a special philosophy. — Whatsoever shall be was provided for. — This includes every prayer. God " inhabiteth eternity," he is always present to all that is in eternity, as he is ever present to all that is in space. — This, not by perception. — Knoweth, not by perception, but by his presence unto or in the things or events known. — A type of the way in which God knoweth. — Mercies in answer to prayer. — Providence a perpetual revelation 221

IN THE

Divine Government,

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

THE SUPREME EXAMPLE.

The supreme example of goodness in the form of mercy as shown us in Christ, is an example and instance of goodness of which every other is a type and pattern. The greatest instance of goodness hath in it no element that is wholly wanting in the least instance. A drop of water from the sea lacks no one element that is to be found in the vast waters of the globe. A ray of light, the very slenderest, lacks no one element or property of that flood of light which fills interstellar space.

1. Goodness is one and the same in all beings, from the least to the greatest.

2. It is characteristic of all goodness that it terminates not on self, but on other beings.

3. The character and conduct of the M 6>M<?r beings" determines the form of the goodness.

4. Violators of law are the ones, the only ones toward whom goodness can take the form of mercy true and -proper.

5. Mercy consists in delivering from condemnation, and at the same time restoring to a state of righteousness or of perfect conformity to law.

6. Perfect mercy, the mercy needed, God alone can give; for he only — and, so far as we can judge, he only by the incarnation — could provide for the satisfaction of law and for the restoration of the fallen. This is alpha and omega, beginning and end of God's mercy to man. To this nothing could be imagined to be added.

7. In the very nature of the case mercy consists in the satisfaction of law ; for, when any being is able to render full and perfect satisfaction to that whole law under which he is, all conceivable good is assured to him by the very nature of law, and by the very character of God, and this as his right and due.

8. That the mercy -we may show to our fellowmen cannot be really like that which God showeth to us, must not be assumed. For any instance of the many ten thousands of merciful or charitable deeds which men are wont to perform, carefully studied, thoroughly analyzed, will yield, though in faint, infinitesimal proportion, the elements common to all mercy.

Thy neighbor lacketh food for his household, fuel and clothing to defend from the fierce wintry blast ; assuredly because somewhere in the past law has been violated. What is furnished, then, is with the view of relieving him from a portion of that aggregate of evil which threatens him, or is coming on him, by reason of the onward movement of law, or because there is law in the universe, and law that cannot be mocked. Now, pray, go on in that very direction in which thou hast taken one step. Do for thy suffering neighbor in all things and for all time what thou hast done in one small matter and for a very short time. Come between him and all the consequences of violated law, furnish him all that he needs, all strength and grace, so that in nothing shall he come short of conformity to law — thou art then his saviour. Thou shalt then have shown him all the mercy it is possible he could receive. His cup then runneth over.

Consider that this thy act of mercy could not but cost thee the surrender of that which was thine. Thou didst necessarily suffer the loss of that which was thine, and which was precious ; for, if it were not thine, or were not precious, there had been no mercy in the transaction. " Little or no suffering," it may be said, because thou didst give of thine abundance. If little suffering, then little mercy; if no suffering, then no mercy. Great mercy, utmost mercy — utmost possible to thee, if not utmost possible to be shown unto him — it could have been only if the surrender of thine own had been complete. Great or perfect mercy it could have been only provided thou hadst been rich — rich, not in goods and gold, but rich in all heroic and glorious virtues and powers, aye, rich in life ; and hadst thou given all, even life itself; that is, hadst thou had a life with " power to lay it down and take it again," l and hadst thou freely laid it down and taken it again for him, that he might not perish.

That this view can be fully sustained, that it can be demonstrated clearly to the satisfaction of any candid reasoner, so that it shall be to him no less clear than the multiplication table itself, I do not hesitate to affirm. The mighty significance of this no one can fail to see. Its bearing upon the great questions so long in debate, but which seem in these later days to come with special prominence before the whole world, is most manifest. For if all mercy be, and can be clearly shown to be, by satisfaction of law, no vestige of standing-ground is left for any but the purely evangelical or orthodox view of Christ's great redemptive work. The new theology, then, is in the face of the whole teaching of human history, as well as in the face of the whole volume of revelation as it has been understood in all the ages. And it is surely worthy of note, it surely ought to "give pause" to the advanced, and advancing, theologian to consider that sceptics understand the Bible to teach the system of doctrine known as evangelical or orthodox — the substitutionary sufferings of Christ — and not anyone of the modifications or diluted theories of the atonement.

Sheer above all other considerations rises the joy and gladness of the clear discovery that goodness is one ; and that God calleth us to be, now and here, imitators of him ; imitators of him in his supreme self-manifestation, in his grace to us. As interpreted by the angels, the " multitude of the heavenly host" 1 Christ's redemptive work, the supreme instance and example of goodness, teaches us, and doubtless all moral beings, a profound lesson regarding the very nature of virtue or goodness — its relation to all being, created or Uncreated.

Whatsoever is good, every instance and example of what is right, of what ought to be done, even the very least, hath for its end and aim even that same which was the end and aim of God's one supreme example, the redemptive work of Christ ; that is, ^glory to God and good-will" 2 to creatures. The vision of this uplifts, and fills with rapturous joy. Not on self terminates any act of virtue ; not on few ; not on many ; not on creatures. No ; it relateth to all being. And first of all to Him who is more and nearer and worthier, infinitely, than are any or all created beings. And goodness which acts God-ward takes the form of praise, service, worship, not because goodness acting God-ward is in itself different from goodness acting man-ward, or in any other direction, or toward anything that lives, any being that can be blest or made to enjoy, or can be an object of goodness, — but because of the nature and character of Him toward whom it goeth forth. Love to God is not separable in kind from love to man, as we are explicitly taught. Goodness — itself ever strictly, purely one and the same — takes form always according to the object unto which it addresses itself. Carry this up to the supreme question of the goodness of God in dealing with his creatures. Why must we hesitate? If our goodness necessarily, of itself, instantly taketh form which is determined solely by the object toward which it is addressed, why should we at all hesitate to regard this as the law of the going forth of all goodness f Why should we be at all perplexed at the exemplification of this in the outgoing and results of even infinite goodness in dealing with moral beings?

And may not we in this way get some gleam of light as we contemplate the diversity of the divine dealings with moral beings? May we not say that what the greatest culprits experience is what proceeds from goodness — and this not because goodness is hindered from its full manifestation of itself by reason of justice — and is terrible only because of the character and estate of those toward whom goodness is addressed?

" Clouds and darkness are round about him : righteousness and judgment the habitation of his throne." 1 " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." 2 Infinite goodness, not discriminative? but bestowed irrespective of character or conduct? i.e. Promises and blessings to " him that cometh," 3 and to him that cometh not? Mercy " compass round him that trusteth ?" 4 — and him that trusteth not? It is unscriptural, irrational, impossible. Mercy for "the chief of sinners?" Yes ; but only if the chief of sinners be truly penitent. "His penitence of grace?" Yes; yet he, the chief of sinners, must be, in point of fact, himself penitent ; and his being so, — even though it be of grace, — is praiseworthy, is rewardable, is rewarded. He, though operated on, influenced to the utmost by grace, is yet pleasing to God, and is rewarded; "returns to his house justified.'' Grace is not a device for dispensing with virtue in creatures. Grace must not be thought to render virtue impossible. Grace awakens, incites to activity, encourages from first to last — at first quite as well as afterwards ; at first quite as plainly as at

last — real and proper acts of virtue, praiseworthy and rewardable.

Not the dealings of Supreme Goodness, then, with creatures capable of sin and of virtue, but the existence of beings thus endowed and responsible is the real enigma, the hard problem. Creatures of this character existing, could not be wisely or rightly dealt with otherwise. Divine goodness could take no other form when dealing with beings thus constituted and thus acting. It is not justice, but God, infinite in all perfections, who condemns the wicked, the impenitent. There is, then, I submit, no question but this : How could it be that Infinite Goodness should call into being the universe which is? The other questions resolve themselves into this one ; and face to face with this one we must all stand, — unless we be content to think fitfully and fragmentarily and flippantly all our lives. And let no one hastily affirm that there is no gain in the resolution of all to this one final mystery. Is it no gain to see clearly that the universe, being constituted as it is, could be governed no otherwise than it is, even by any possible or imaginable goodness in the Supreme Ruler? Besides, what but mystery could be expected when we come to the question, " What sort of universe were the best?" " With whom took he counsel or who instructed him?" 1 " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations f " 2

The one mystery, the weightiest burden, which rests upon the spirit of man, confronted as he is with the vast aggregate of suffering in this life — foreshadowing as it does the possible extent and duration of suffering hereafter — is the thought that in dealing with the sufferers divine goodness does not seem to have shone forth in all its fulness. For, without some rational view — something approaching an explanation — it is well-nigh impossible to accept at their full value, and in their plain import, the words of Scripture : " The Lord is good to all: his tender mercies are over all his works" 2

But if, in the nature of the case, goodness, whether finite or infinite, must always take form according to the character and conduct of the object of goodness — whatever perplexity may arise from the existence, the extent or the duration of suffering — no shadow, no film of cloud remains to obscure the glory and brightness of

1 Is. xl. : 14. 2 Job xxxviii. : 4. 3 Ps. cxlv. : 9.

Divine Goodness. It is no small gain to see that it is Infinite Goodness that is dealing with all ; and that the difference of those dealings is owing to the character and conduct of those dealt with.

God is in this, as in all his ways 5 sovereign. " He giveth not account of any of his matters." l He " hath mercy on whom he will have mercy." 2 Yet man is ever held answerable — and at the peril of all hope — for his response to whatsoever God in his sovereignty doeth for or unto him. " Salvation is of the Lord." 3 Yet never except by concurrent praiseworthy choice and act on the part of him who is saved. And this praiseworthy choice and act must not be imagined to be (a) either not of him who is saved (b) or after ^ but when grace is put forth. For no one is made willing who does not himself will. No one is made willing who does not will synchronously with that agency which maketh him willing. The glory of that efficacious grace which maketh any one willing, is that he upon whom such grace operates himself doth both "will" and "do." 4 Divine sovereignty in this whole matter is so clearly

'Job xxxiii. : 13. 3 Jonah 11. : 9.

taught, doctrinally and historically, in scripture, so abundantly confirmed and illustrated in the whole history of redemption, and withal, so in accordance with God's way in. all his works, in the whole course of his providence, that it never should be for a moment questioned or lost sight of. And all attempts to frame our theology so as to relieve our minds from the awe-inspiring, face-to-face view of divine sovereignty, are alike presumptuous, unscriptural, and vain.

But while setting before us divine sovereignty, does not the Bible from beginning to end, and with equal emphasis, teach and press upon all, man's responsibility, ever setting before him " the way of life and the way of death " ; J and man's responsibility in the very matter of that obedience to the divine commandment, which is essential to salvation? " This is his commandment that ye believe." 2 And by what subtle process of reasoning can praiseworthiness and rewardableness be wholly taken from the first act of obedience, an act of obedience, too, which, in the nature of the case, is determinative of destiny? Language could not more clearly assert the blameworthiness of the rejecters of the mercy of God as it is offered to man, the blameworthiness of those " who obey not the gospel." ' Nor could there be more hearty commendation of those who obey, and accept divine grace.

Let it be clearly seen that every moral being in the universe is always clothed with real and unabated responsibility, — a responsibility all his own, shared by no being created or Uncreated — and that Infinite Goodness ever deals with each according to his free choice and act in the exercise of this responsibility — and let it not be overlooked that in grace this responsibility is not abridged or abated but increased and intensified — then man's present duty is pressed home upon him with utmost solemnity ; and God's dealing with man, so far as this matter is concerned, is not at all mysterious or appalling.

The greatness of God and the littleness of man, it is w 7 ell to keep ever in view. No one can be too much impressed with the infinite disparity. But if any one allow himself to fall from the clear recognition of man's freedom of will, man's being a moral person, by reason of his distance from the

Supreme, the Infinite, he is simply befogged. A moral person of the feeblest powers is a moral person as truly as one of the greatest. The smallness of a globe does not rob it of its character as a globe. The smallest globe lacks no property that pertains to the largest.

No error has been more prevalent or more fatal than the virtual denial of man's responsibility. The prevailing view of the average worldling is, that God our Creator, is in reality responsible for our well-being. The multitudes who neglect " the Great Salvation " ! it will ever be found have this for their abiding belief: "God made us and placed us in this world surrounded as we are with temptations ; and he will see to it that all shall be well with us in the end.'" And even the vast majority of those who give some attention to religion, have no proper sense of man's being in reality answerable to God, who sets before every one " life and good, and death and evil." 2 The full and clear view of this is seen only in the case of those who experience the great awakening. Besides this, multitudes holding to the scriptural doctrine of divine decrees and election, allow these to come between man and God, so that they never get a true view of man's accountability ; failing to see that there is no doctrine of the Bible which affords to man the slightest protection from the rays of the Sun of God's Holy Law, a Sun never for a moment eclipsed. No film of cloud intercepts his rays. This sky is always clear. This was so in man's estate of innocence. This is true of man under the whole dispensation of grace. This is not only true of all to whom the gospel comes ; it is true of the heathen who have not the gospel, for even they are " without excuse." 1

If we ask why there is this failure on the part of so many, to realize the solemn truth regarding man's responsibility, the answer is at hand — Man simply abuses the divine mercy, despises "the riches of his goodness," 2 not considering that all God has done in making man what he is, and placing him where he is, so far from detracting from, mightly increases his responsibility. "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" 3 That God should in reality hold man answerable, is in the estimation of many, so mysterious, so wonderful as to be incredible. But the wonder, the mystery, quite disappears whensoever one gets from under the clouds and mists which prevail — clouds and mists which too often gather and linger about some of the grandest and highest mountains in the whole range of revealed truth.

Perhaps the one view most difficult to gain a clear sight of, is the sejyai'ateness and loneliness of every moral being, from the least to the greatest. Dim consciousness of this comes at times even to a little child. But its profound significance few fairly behold. "I, now and forever separate from all else that is; I, a person — with all reverence, yet with all confidence — quite as truly as God himself — I, made in his image and after his likeness, clean and clear now and forever separated from, and not only uninvaded but uninvadable by the highest created beings — I, having to do with, and answerable to the King of the Universe, and only to any other because first unto him." And whoso thus " comes to himself" can hardly fail to have some promptings to " arise and go to his father." For he who learns to say " I," cannot stop till he has said "thou." And what "thou" can fill the place, can come into the holy of holies, the heart of hearts, can be to me all that I need, all that I crave? One by one, or in troops let them pass ; the great and the small ; I who am so little, need more, seek more than they can give, j more than they are. The "Thou" every soul searcheth for, " feeleth after," 1 is none other than the Infinite One. But One — "Whom have I in heaven but Thee " 2 — Each thinking being, himself one, for one Friend he pineth and searcheth ever, whether wisely and successfully or foolishly and in vain. In this search whatsoever he beholdeth, ever speaketh of the way : for of the One Infinite Maker and Ruler, all that is made and that is ruled is witness.