“Pardoning mercy” by Thomas Brooks

“Christ gives pardon of sin. And do you know what a mercy that is? Ask the troubled soul, ask the soul that knows what it is to lie under the wrath of the Almighty, and he will tell you that pardon of sin is a gift more worth than a thousand worlds.

Now that pardon of sin is a gift of God, you may see in Acts 5:31, ‘Him hath God exalted with His right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.’ (See also Acts 26:18). Ah, souls! of all mercies pardoning mercy is the most necessary mercy.

I may go to heaven without honours, and without riches, and without the smiles of creatures; but I can never go to heaven without pardoning mercy. A man may be great and graceless, he may be rich and miserable, he may be honourable and damnable, but he cannot be a pardoned soul, but he must be a very blessed soul (Ps. 32:1, 2).

It entitles souls to all blessedness, it puts the royal crown upon their heads. Of all mercies pardoning mercy is the most sweetening mercy; it is a choice jewel. It is a mercy that makes all other mercies to look like mercies, and taste like mercies, and work like mercies.

And the want of pardoning mercy takes off the glory and beauty of all a man’s mercies, and makes his life a very hell. Pardon of sin is a voluminous mercy, a mercy that has many, many precious mercies in the womb of it.

When you can number the sands of the sea, and tell the stars of heaven, then, and not till then, shall you be able to recount the mercies that attend pardoning mercy. He that has this mercy cannot be miserable, and he that wants it cannot be happy: get this and get all, miss this and miss all.

This is a gift conferred only upon Christ’s favourites: ‘Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee,’ (Matt. 9:2). No mercy will make a man everlastingly merry below pardoning mercy. He hath no reason to be sad that hath his pardon in his bosom, nor he hath no reason to be glad, who is upon the last step of the ladder, ready to be turned off without his pardon.”

–Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 3, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 106.