Christian Mercy Explained & Enforced 4

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IV. Let us now dwell upon the BLESSINGS with which mercy stands connected. "Blessed are the merciful—for they shall obtain mercy." If we considered this language as meaning no more than that the compassionate should, in their necessities, be the objects of pity to their fellow-creatures, we would assert no more than experience proves to be true. Who is so likely to receive the kind and merciful attentions of others, as he who in the days of his prosperity was a fountain of comfort to them? The public will hasten to such a man in the time of his distress, and attempt to discharge the obligations which he had conferred by his liberality. The tide of mercy which had flowed from his heart will return to him again, convincing him that "in such measure as we give to others, it shall be given back to us."

When we consider the vicissitudes of this changing world, and think how speedily we may be reduced to the circumstances of those who now depend for relief upon our benevolence, we surely ought to find in such a reflection no feeble inducement to the exercise of mercy. Never can the denial of pity affect the sufferer's heart with such exquisitely painful emotions—as when it seems to come in the way of severe, but righteous retribution, and reminds him of the hour when he closed his own ear to the tale of another's woe.

But the text has a higher meaning, and expresses a far richer and more comprehensive beatitude than this. They who show mercy to others upon Christian principles, shall themselves obtain mercy from God. Here it will be necessary for me to state a distinction which is something more than merely a difference in words; I mean the distinction between the 'meritorious cause' of a blessing, and an indispensable prerequisite to its possession. Anyone who has favors to distribute, may require as absolutely essential from everyone who would enjoy them, the performance of a condition which could in no sense be considered as a meritorious cause of the desired favor, because not at all equivalent to it.

In this sense, a merciful disposition to our fellow-creatures is the stipulated condition of our obtaining mercy from God—a prerequisite, but not the cause. It is not that for the sake of which we obtain mercy, but without which, God's mercy will be denied us. It bears the same relation to eternal happiness as holiness does (of which it is, indeed, a part); "without which no man shall see the Lord." The very mode of expression here employed utterly precludes the idea of pity to our fellow-creatures being the meritorious cause of the divine favor. It is said they shall obtain mercy, which would be a most inappropriate term in the case of merit. (The author feels great pleasure in quoting the sentiments of Mr. Hall on this subject, as most clearly expressing his own. "When the term 'conditions of salvation', or words of similar import, are employed, he wishes it once for all to be understood that he utterly disclaims the notion of meritorious conditions, and that he intends by that term only what is necessary in the established order of means—an absolute prerequisite, that without which another thing cannot take place.

When thus defined, to deny there are conditions of salvation, is not to approach to antinomianism merely, it is to fall into the gulf. It is nothing less than a repeal of all the sanctions of revelation, of all the principles of moral government. Let the idea of 'conditions of salvation', in the sense already explained, be steadily rejected along with the term, and the patrons of the worst of heresies will have nothing further to demand. That repentance, faith, and their fruits in a holy life, supposing life to be continued, are essential prerequisites to eternal happiness, is a doctrine inscribed as with a sunbeam in every page of revelation.")

That mercy which God exercises towards man, essentially includes the idea of guilt on the part of the latter. It is the compassion, not merely of the benefactor towards simple misery, but of a ruler towards that wretchedness which is the consequence of crime. Hence, when it is said, we shall obtain mercy—the possibility of merit is excluded. Merit appeals not to mercy, but to justice. If it is admitted that we have all deserved death by our sins, it is confessed that none of us can become entitled to life by any part of our conduct, since it is impossible for the same being to merit both punishment and pardon; indeed, the very idea of our 'meriting pardon' is an absurdity. No! If any sinner is saved, it must be by grace through faith. The most diffusive compassion, united with the most exemplary charity, forms no ground on which a transgressor can rest his hope of pardoning mercy.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" is the language of the gospel. This faith, however, produces suitablefruits, and one of its inseparable effects is a merciful disposition. Without this there can be no genuine belief of the gospel; where this exists, and compassion is exercised in obedience to the divine Word, in conformity to the divine example, and with a view to the divine glory, there shall the promise of the text be fulfilled—God will blot out the transgressions of such a man, restore him to his favor, pity him in all his distresses, and finally cause his miseries to end in that state where "he will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."

Without 'mercy to others' we have no more reason to expect it from God, than we have to hope for an entrance into heaven without that holiness which is its only preparative. While, on the other hand, in proportion as this disposition of 'mercy to others' prevails in the heart, we have at least one evidence of having obtained God's saving mercy. But by the aid of what rhetoric, sophistry, or delusion which the deceitfulness of the human heart may supply, can that man persuade himself that he has received grace from God, who knows, if he knows anything of himself, that 'pity' and 'mercy' is a stranger to his character? A lack of Christian mercy is a no less damning mark upon the soul than a lack of purity or honesty. Let such an unfeeling creature tremble, for he is hastening to take his station before a throne where he shall find judgment, but no mercy!

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