just, in inflicting punishment upon the guilty. But in reliev ing, pardoning, and saving the guilty from deserved punishment, he may be said to be merciful or gracious. Mercy always implies demerit or ill-desert in the object of it. No person can be the proper object of mercy, who does not deserve to be punished in point of justice. This was the very idea which Ben-hadad and his servants formed of mercy in the kings of Israel. They supposed the kings of Israel possessed the spirit of the God whom they professed to worship, and therefore merciful as the God of Israel was merciful; that is, ready to spare the lives of those who had forfeited their lives, if they penitently and submissively plead for pardoning mercy. These heathens viewed human mercy in this light; and the bare light of nature teaches every one to form the same idea of mercy in God, as a kind of gracious disposition, which prompts him to pardon, forgive, and save sinners from the punishment they deserve, when they penitently and properly pray for his sovereign mercy. I proceed,

II. To show what is implied in pleading for the sovereign mercy of God, with submission. If mercy has been justly described it is easy to see, that asking for it, always carries in it the idea of submission, which is not implied in asking for justice. Men may demand justice, but they must plead for mercy. The question now is, what is implied in pleading submissively for mercy at the hands of God. Here then I would observe,

1. To plead submissively for mercy before God, implies a desire to be freed from that everlasting punishment, which God has threatened to inflict upon sinners for their disobedience to his holy and righteous commands. He has told them, that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die;" that" the wages of sin is death;" and that "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." For those who are under such a sentence of condemnation to plead for mercy, is to express their desire, that they may be forever freed from this condemnation, and restored to the forfeited favor of God. And since they have heard by the gospel, that God is merciful, and can consistently forgive and save the guilty and ill-deserving, they may and ought to plead with him to show mercy. To escape misery and to enjoy happiness, is in its own nature desirable; and to escape eternal misery and to enjoy eternal happiness, is infinitely desirable and important. Sinners may, therefore, ardently desire and importunately plead for the great salvation which God has provided, and of which they stand in perishing need. And their pleading for mercy al

ways implies their sincere and ardent desires to be saved from the wrath to come. When Ben-hadad plead for mercy at the hands of Ahab, he said, "I pray thee, let me live." When sinners in Christ's day plead for mercy, they expressed their ardent desires for future and eternal life. Pleading always implies desire, and even strong desire, for we never plead for anything but what appears to us very precious and important. When temporal, or eternal life lies at stake, this is an object which men will fervently plead for, because it appears unspeakably precious and important. And when guilty, perishing sinners plead for eternal life before God, they cannot too ardently desire the inestimable blessing they implore. But,

2. To plead for this mercy submissively, implies a willingness to be denied the bestowment of it. To ask for mercy without being willing to be denied, is the same thing as to ask for justice. Mercy is in its own nature sovereign, and may be granted, or denied, as God sees best. This Ben-hadad significantly acknowledged, by putting sackcloth on his loins, and a rope on his head, when he went to plead for mercy before the king of Israel. Though he most ardently desired that Ahab would let him live; yet he voluntarily put his life into Ahab's hand, practically saying he might hang him up as a monument of justice, or spare his life as a monument of sovereign mercy. It belongs to God to have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will to destroy. Unless sinners see that they have broken the divine law, that they deserve to suffer the penalty which the law threatens, and that God would be just and amiable in executing the penalty upon them, they cannot ask for mercy, with submission. It would have been a solemn mockery for Ben-hadad, with sackcloth on his loins, and a rope on his head, to have said to Ahab, "I pray thee, let me live," if he had not meant to ask for mercy, and not for justice. And it would be still more absurd and criminal for sinners to plead for mercy before God, while they are determined to contend with the Almighty to all eternity, if he will not show them mercy. A sincere request to God for pardoning mercy, always implies a sincere submission to a denial. No sinner knows beforehand that God can consistently save him in particular, and therefore cannot know but that God is bound in wisdom as well as justice to deny his request; and if God be bound to deny his request, his very request implies a cordial submission to a denial. These two exercises of heart are not only consistent, but involve each other. A proper desire to receive any favor at the hand of God, implies a real willingnessto be denied. Our Saviour ardently prayed that the cup of

suffering on the cross might pass from him; but at the same time felt and said, "Father, not my will, but thine be done.” If it were consistent for Christ to plead thus with his Father, it is far more proper and consistent for sinners to plead for mercy at the hand of God, with entire submission to a denial. It is utterly impossible for any one to ask God for any favor submissively, without being willing that God either should grant or deny his request, as seems good in his sight. Such a willingness is essential to true submission. Having explained the nature of mercy, and the nature of submission, I proceed to the last thing proposed,

III. To show that penitent sinners always feel the propriety of asking for divine mercy submissively. Whether Ben-hadad pleaded for mercy at the hand of Ahab penitently or impenitently, submissively or unsubmissively; yet he significantly professed to be both penitent and submissive. He put on the badges of repentance, and the language of his plea was submissive: "I pray thee, let me live." He saw the propriety of asking for pardoning mercy penitently and submissively. He practically said to Ahab, to whom he had forfeited his life, “Here I am, a guilty, ill-deserving creature; death is my due, and mercy is my plea; kill me, or spare me, just as you see fit, and I will justify your conduct, though I may deplore my fate." Now, all penitent, guilty sinners stand in the same situation in respect to God, that Ben-hadad stood in respect to Ahab; and accordingly they feel the propriety of asking for mercy with absolute submission. For,

1. They know they deserve to die. This knowledge they always derive from genuine conviction and godly sorrow for sin. Neither careless nor merely awakened sinners have this experimental knowledge of their ill-desert. Though they know that they have disobeyed God, and that God has threatened to punish every act of disobedience with eternal death; yet they are not willing to believe that their disobedience deserves eternal punishment. But when the commandment comes, it carries conviction to their conscience that they deserve the death to which they are condemned. Hence,

2. They know that God-may justly give them the due reward of their deeds, and make them completely and forever miserable. Their mouths are stopped, and they stand guilty and self-condemned before God. They realize that they ought to judge and condemn themselves, as the divine law judges and condemns them; and to repent and pray penitently and submissively for pardoning mercy through faith in the divine Redeemer. Their consciences, in spite of their hearts, constrain

them to feel and say, that God would be amiable and glorious in banishing them from his blissful presence, and consigning them to a state of everlasting alienation and separation from holiness and happiness. Yet,

3. They know that God is infinitely merciful, and takes no pleasure in the death of sinners, but sincerely desires, simply considered, to make them the monuments of his pardoning mercy. This encourages them to plead for pardon and salvation. It was a belief in Ben-hadad, that the king of Israel was a merciful king, that prompted him to throw himself at his feet and plead for mercy. So it is the known mercy of God that encourages guilty, self-condemned, penitent sinners to prostrate themselves before God, and plead for forgiving grace. They know that they ought to desire deliverance from future and eternal misery, and the enjoyment of future and eternal happiness. And since they know that God can consistently bestow these rich blessings upon some of the guilty and perishing children of men, they know they ought sincerely and ardently to desire that he would make them the subjects of his rich, discriminating grace. They know it is their duty to pray for salvation through the mediation of Christ, for whose sake he can grant it consistently with his justice. But nevertheless,

4. They do not know whether the glory of God will require him to display his mercy, or his justice towards them in particular. They know that he has told them he determines to make some sinners vessels of his wrath, and some vessels of his mercy; or that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he pleases he will harden and destroy. It is impossible for any sinners to know, in the state of nature, whether God will make them vessels of mercy, or vessels of wrath. They know not what God's will is respecting their future and eternal state. This makes them sensible of the propriety of their praying for mercy in absolute submission to divine sovereignty. When they become true penitents they love God supremely, and regard his glory more than their own good. Of course they feel that they ought to pray penitently and submissively for that mercy which God has a right to deny, and which they ought to be willing he should deny, if his glory requires him to deny it. This is the dictate of the reason and conscience of every penitent sinner, who sees the nature of sin, and the glory of divine justice. If he should justify himself, his own mouth would condemn him; if he should plead for mercy without submission, he would be conscious to himself that he ought to be denied. Every true penitent knows in his own conscience that he ought to resign himself into the sover

eign hands of God, and pray for mercy with unreserved submission. The prodigal son became a penitent, and when he repented, he judged and condemned himself, and resolved to plead for his father's forgiveness with a truly submissive spirit. He spontaneously said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father, and I will say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." He freely acknowledged that he had entirely forfeited his father's favor, and presumed not to be asked to be restored to his former rank in his father's family. The publican that went up to the temple to pray, had the same sense of his guilt and unworthiness, and submissively cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I ask for mercy, not for justice. Justice would destroy me, and nothing but mercy can save me; and if this mercy be denied, I ought not, and will not complain. This was the sincere language of his true penitence and submission. The penitent malefactor is another instance, which discovers the dictates of reason and conscience, in respect to the proper manner of pleading for pardoning mercy. He first acknowledged the justice of his condemnation, and then turns to the suffering Saviour, and says, "Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." He seems to feel too guilty and unworthy to ask for mercy in plain terms, and only implicitly expresses a desire to be saved from the miseries of the damned, and admitted to the joys of the blessed. All penitent sinners know what justice is, and what mercy is, and how to plead for mercy instead of justice. Though they love both mercy and justice, yet they know the vast difference between these two attributes, and the different effects they produce. Their knowledge of justice gives them the knowledge of mercy, and their knowledge of both impresses on their minds the propriety of pleading for mercy, and of pleading for it with entire submission. They know that they ought to go to God as Ben-hadad went to Ahab, and first submit to justice, and then plead for mercy.

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IMPROVEMENT.

1. It appears from the nature of mercy and the nature of submission, that unconditional submission to God in the exercise of grace to the guilty, is one of the plainest doctrines and duties of the gospel. It is level to the lowest capacity. A heathen, or child may clearly understand it by the bare light of nature. Ben-hadad and his servants understood it, and pro