y good-will? I say,
the Lord answers thee in this name, I am "merciful," saith the Lord. If
thou be miserable, I am merciful as well as strong; if thou have sin and
misery, I have compassion and pity. My mercy may be a copy and pattern to
all men to learn it of me, even towards their own brethren, Luke vi. 36.
Therefore he is called "the father of mercies," 2 Cor. i. 3. _Misericors
est cui alterius miseria cordi est_. Mercy hath its very name from misery,
for it is no other thing than to lay another's misery to heart; not to
despise it, not to add to it, but to help it. It is a strong inclination
to succour the misery of sinners, therefore thou needest no other thing to
commend thee to him. Art thou miserable, and knowest it indeed? Then he is
merciful; and know that also, these two suit well.

Nay, but saith the convinced soul, I know not if he will be merciful to
me, for what am I? There is nothing in me to be regarded. I have nothing
to conciliate favour, and all that may procure hatred. But, saith the
Lord, I am "gracious," and dispense mercy freely, without respect to
condition or qualification. Say not, if I had such a measure of
humiliation as such a one,--if I loved him so much,--if I had so much godly
sorrow and repentance,--then, I think he would be merciful to me. Say not
so, for behold he is gracious. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy;
and there is no other cause, no motive to procure it; it comes from within
his own breast. It is not thy repentance will make him love thee, nor thy
hardness of heart will make him hate thee or obstruct the vent of his
grace towards thee. No! if it be grace, it is no more of works,--not works
in that way that thou imaginest. It is not of repentance, not of faith in
that sense thou conceivest; but it is freely, without the hire, without
the price of repentance or faith, because all those are but the free gifts
of grace. Thou wouldst have these graces to procure his favour, and to
make them the ground of thy believing in his promises, but grace is
without money. It immediately contracts with discovered misery, so that if
thou do discover in thyself misery and sin, though thou find nothing else,
yet do not cast away confidence, but so much the more address thyself to
mercy and grace, which do not seek repentance in thee, but bring
repentance and faith with them unto thee. Yet there is something in the
awakened conscience. I have gone on long in sin; I have been a
presumptuo