me to expect pardon.' None have any caufe to complain; I long for the bleffing, it is dearer to me than all worlds; but my strong corruptions, and utter unworthinefs, render me incapable of ever enjoying it.' Nor have any occafion to fear left, after the comfortable enjoyment of the superlative privilege, they fhould forfeit it, and again come under condemnation and wrath.

What shall we then fay to these things? Shall ave continue in fin that grace may abound in a perfect par don? God forbid! So to act, would, if poflible, be worse than devilish, and more than damnable. Ra ther let the pardoned criminal fay; yes, he will fay with the warmest gratitude; Blefs the Lord, O my foul! and all that is within me, blefs his holy name. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy difeales; who redeemeth thy life from deftruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies..

Before I conclude this momentous part of my fubject, I will tranfcribe a few lines from a celebra ted author in the last century; celebrated, not more for his very fuperior learning, than for his great penetration in fpiritual things, and his experience in the chriftian life. Treating of divine forgiveness, he fays; The forgiveness that is with God, is fuch as

becomes hir, fuch as is fuitable to his greatnefs, • goodness, and all other excellencies of his nature; fuch as that therein he will be known to be GOD. What he fays concerning fome of the works of his providence, Beftill, and know that I am GOD; may be much more faid concerning this great effect of his grace; Still yourselves, and know that he is GOD. It is not like that narrow, difficult, halving, ⚫ and manacled forgivenefs, that is found amongst men, when any fuch thing is found amongst them;

• but

but it is full, free, bottomlefs, boundless, abfoluté fuch as becomes his nature and excellencies. It is, in a word, forgiveness that is with GOD, and bythe • exercife of which he will be known fo to be- If there be any pardon with God, it is fuch as becomes him to give. When he pardons, he will abundantly pardon. Go, with your half-forgiveness, condi tional pardons; with referves and limitations une to the fons of men. It may be, it may become them; it is like themselves. That of God is ab • folute and perfect; before which, our fins are as a cloud before the Eaft wind and the rifing fun. Hence he is faid to do this work with his whole heart and his whole foul; freely, bountifully, largely to indulge and forgive unto us our fins, and to caft them into the bottom of the fea. Remember this, poor fouls, when you are to deal with God in this matter.-If we let go the free pardon of fin, without refpect unto any thing in thofe that receive it, we renounce the gofpel. Pardon of ⚫ fin is not merited by antecedent duties, but is the ftrongeft obligation unto future duties. He that will not receive pardon, unless he can one way or • other deferve it, or make himself meet for it; or pretends to have received it, and finds not himself obliged to univerfal obedience by it, neither is nor fhall be partaker of it*."

Now, reader, what think you of this glorious par

* Dr. Owen, On the Hundred and Thirtieth Ffalm, p. 202, 227, and on Heb. viii. 12. This eminent writer loudly proclaims the charming truth. He no more feared this doctrine leading to licentioufnefs, than he valued the applaufe of the felf-fufficient Pharifee, or the felf-righteous moralift. He treats of a full, free, and final forgiveness, like one who knows its real value, experi ences its unatterable sweetness, and glories in it as his own privilege. He labours his noble fubject, and repeats the joyful truth.-Whereas, many of our modern preachers, who pretend

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don? Is it fuitable to your wants? Is it worthy of your acceptance? You are, perhaps, one of thofe Careless mortals that are at ease in their fins, and eagerly pursuing the tantalizing pleafures of this uncertain life. But can you be contented to live and die in utter ignorance of this forgiveness? Is pardon a bleffing of fmall importance, or have you no occafion for it? Sinned you have, condemned you are, and, without forgivenets, you die to eternity. Start, Oftart from your it upor! Your itate is dreadful, though not defperate, Your fins are upon you, the law of God curfes you, and you are in extreme danger of eternal damnation. You are tottering, as it were, on the brink of a dreadful precipice, and nodding on the verge of the burning lake. Can you fleep in your fins, can you reft in an unpardoned ftate, when it is all uncertainty whe ther the next hour may not tranfmit you into an eternal world; place you at the bar of God; and put you beyond the poffibility of relief? May divine grace forbid your continuing another moment in fuch an awful fituation! For, another moment, and your life may be gone; another moment, and your foul may be loft; and then your lois will be irreparable, inconceivable, and eternal.

Is my reader fenfible of his want, and longing for the matchlefs bleffing? Then look to the dying Jefus. Your iniquities, it is true, abound; but pardoning mercy, through his atonement, fuperabounds. Be of good cheer: take encouragement : for the fayour you fo earnestly defire is a tree gift. to reverence the Doctor's memory, admire his profound learning, and, in a general way, a plau his judgment, when handling te lane ubject, either di ectly contradict him, or whisper the grand truth in faint accents, as if they queioned the certainty of what they would feem to affirm, or were apprehensive of fome pernicious confequences attending it.

Bleffed

Bleffed be God for the amazing mercy! Such are the methods of grace, and fuch is the nature of this forgiveness, that as your eternal falvation is bound up in the enjoyment of it, fo the everlafting honour of Jehovah is unspeakably advanced by freely be ftowing it. There is no reafon, therefore, that you should stand at a trembling distance, as if there were no fuch favour for you; but with boldness you may look for it, in a way of grace through the blood of Christ, and truth itself has moft folemnly declared that you shall not be disappointed.

Are you comfortably acquainted with the pardoning goodness of God? having much forgiven, you fhould love much. The remembrance of a blefling fo immenfely rich, the sense of a favour fo extreme❤ ly high, fhould enlarge your heart with all holy affections toward the Lord Redeemer; fhould ani mate all your devotional fervices; fhould cause you to compailionate your offending brother, in forgiving him his hundred pence, confidering that God has forgiven you ten thousand talents, and make you zealous of every good work. This forgiveness, far from being an incentive to vice, will bias your affections on the fide of virtue; will caufe you to love God as infinitely holy, and to abhor fin, as a direct oppofition to his im naculate purity and revealed will. Yes, a fenfe of pardon, when warm on your mind, will work in you godly forrow for all fin; for the latent corruptions of your heart, no less than the open tranfgreflions of your life; and will caufe you to confefs them before God with fhame and grief..-Such are the genuine effects of divine forgiveness. These fruits will neceffarily appear, in fome degree: and he who profeffes to know the pardon of his tranfgreffions, but does not forgive his offending brother, d lives under the dominon of fin, is a liar and the ch is not in him.

CHAP. VI.

Of Grace, as it reigns in our Juftification.

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HE doctrine of justification makes a very diftinguished figure in that religion which is from above, and is a capital article of that faith which was once delivered to the faints. Far from being a merely fpeculative point, it spreads its influence through the whole body of divinity, runs through all chriftian experience, and operates in every part of practical godlinefs. Such is its grand importance, that a mistake about it has a malignant efficacy, and is attended with a long train of dangerous confequences.--Nor can this appear ftrange, when it is confidered, that the doctrine of justification is no other than the way of a finner's acceptance with God. Being of fuch peculiar moment, it is infeparably connected with many other evangelical truths; the harmony and beauty of which we cannot behold, while this is mifunderstood. Till this appears in its glory, they will be involved in darknefs. It is, if any thing may be fo called, a fundamental article; and certainly requires our most serious confideration*.

* Let it be carefully obferved by the reader, that though I here treat upon juftification as diftinct from pardon; yet I am fully perfuaded that they are bleflings which cannot be fepa-, rated. For he who is pardoned is juftified, and he who is juftified is alfo pardoned. It is readily allowed that their is, in various refpects, a great resemblance between the two bleflings. They are both gifts of grace; both vouchfafed to the fame perfon, at the fame time; and both are communicated through the

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