“If God treasures up our tears, how much more should we treasure up His mercies, just as lovers keep the love tokens of those they affect.
God hath a file for our prayers, so we should have the like for His answers.
He hath a book of remembrance to record our afflictions (Mal. 3:16). Why should not we, then, have a register for His gracious communications to us?
Remembrance is the chief work of a Christian.
The remembrance of sin to cause a self-abhorrency (Ezek. 20:43).
The remembrance of God for a deep humility (Ps. 77:3).
The remembrance of His name for keeping His law (Ps. 119:55).
The remembrance of His judgments of old for comfort in afflictions (Ps. 119:52).
The remembrance of mercy for the establishment of faith (Isa. 57:11).
They are to be remembered, because, they are the mercies of God.
They are dispensed out of the treasury of His goodness, wrought by the art of His wisdom, effected by the arm of His power.
There is as much tenderness in God as there was before. His power is more unquestionable with us than His goodness. We think His compassions come short of His ability.
We question more His will than His strength: (Matt. 8:2), ‘If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.’
You may be sure Christ will speak still the same language, ‘I will.’ ‘I will give thee spirituals and temporals, so far as are good for thee.’
His heart of mercy can no more be straitened than His arm is shortened; His compassions fail not, (Lam. 3:22).
God is a Father, a tender Father, surpassing in tenderness all natural affections.
No kind father doth ever tell his child, ‘I will do no more for you.’
The heavenly Father will not, who delights more in giving than we do in receiving.
God’s love is not as ours, a sudden passion, but a resolve from eternity.”
–Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse of Mercy Received,” in The Works of Stephen Charnock, Vol. 5 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1681/2010), 5: 207, 210.