Evidences of Forgiveness

That we may be enabled to settle our persuasion of forgiveness in God, I proceed to adduce unquestionable evidences of this gospel truth, on which the soul may rest.

That which may be known of God is of two kinds: first, his natural attributes his omnipotence, eternity, holiness, &c. These are revealed in his works, and may be discovered by the light of nature. Rom. 1: 19, 20.

Secondly; the free acts of his will and power, or his free eternal purposes, with the temporal dispensations that flow from them, which include his forgiveness, all which can be known only by special revelation. For

There is in the heart of man 7io inbred notion of the acts of God’s will. Forgiveness is not revealed by the light of nature; flesh and blood declare it not. By that means “no man hath seen God at any time,” John, 1: 18; that is, as a God of mercy and pardon, as the Son reveals him. Adam had acquaintance, according to the limited capacity of a creature, with the properties and excellences of the nature of God. It was implanted in his heart, as indispensably necessary to that natural worship which, by the law of his creation, he was to perform; but when he had sinned, it is evident that be had not the least apprehension that there was forgiveness with God: such a thought would have laid a foundation of some further treaty with God about his condition. He had no other design but “of flying and hiding himself,” Gen. 3: 10; so declaring that he was utterly ignorant of any such thing as pardoning mercy. Such are all the first or natural conceptions of sinners: namely, that it is “the judgment of God,” Rom. 1: 32, that sin is to be punished with death.

The consideration of his works will not help a man to the knowledge that there is forgiveness with God. The apostle tells us, Rom. 1: 20, what it is of God that his works reveal — even his eternal power and Godhead, or the essential properties of his nature; but no more: not any of the purposes of his grace; not pardon and forgiveness. Besides, God made all things in such a state of rectitude and uprightness, Eccl. 7: 29, that it was impossible they should have any respect to sin, or to the pardon of it, of which they stood in no need. There being no such thing in the world as sin, nor any such thing supposed to be, when all things were made of nothing, how could any thing declare or reveal the forgiveness of it 1

No works of GoiVs providence can make known this forgiveness. God has indeed borne testimony to himself and his goodness in all ages, from the foundation of the world, in the works of his providen&e. So, Acts, 14: 15-17, “We preach unto you, that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: who, in times past, suffered all nations to walk in their own way. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness:” — “He left not himself without witness;” that is, by the works of his providence there recounted, he thus far bore testimony to himself, that he is, and is good, and doeth good, and ruleth the world; so that they were inexcusable who, not noticing these works of his, nor the fruits of his goodness which they lived upon, turned away after “vain things,” as the apostle there calls the idols of the Gentiles. So again. Acts, 17: 23-27. By arguments taken from his works, both of creation and

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providence, the apostle proves the being and properties of God; yea, he lets them know that God designed, by his works, so far to reveal himself to them, as the true and living God, the Maker and Governor of all things, that they ought to have inquired more diligently after him, and not to look on him as “the unknown God.” But of the discovery of pardon and forgiveness in God, by these means, he speaks not; yea, he plainly shows that they were not thus manifested. The great call to saving repentance is by the revelation of forgiveness. But by these works of his providence God brought not the Gentiles to saving repentance. No, he ‘’ suffered them to walk still in their own ways,” Acts, 14: 16, “and winked at the times of their ignorance;” but “now,” that is, by the word of the Gospel, ‘^ commandeth them to repent.” chap. 17: 30.

Vv’ hen man fell, there had been one signal act of God’s providence about sin, but it was so far from revealing forgiveness in God, that it rather severely intimated the contrary. This was God’s dealing with sinning angels. The angels were the first sinners, and God dealt first with them about sin. And what was his dealing with them the Holy Ghost tells us, ‘^ He spared not the sinning angels.” 2 Pet. 2:4. He spared them not: it is the same word as is used where he speaks of laying all our iniquities on Christ, he undergoing the punishment due to them, ‘’ He spared him not,” Rom. 8: 32; that is, he laid on him the full punishment that, by the curse and sanction of the law, was due to sin. So he dealt with the angels that sinned; he spared them not, but inflicted on them the punishment due to sin, shutting them up under chains of darkness for the judgment of the great day. Hitherto, then, God kept all thoughts of forgiveness in his own eternal bosom: there was not so much as the least dawning of it upon the world. And this was at first no small reason against any thoughts of forgiveness. The world is made, sin enters by the most glorious part of the creation, whose recovery by pardon might seem to be most desirable; but not the least appearance of it is discovered. Thus it was hid in God from the foundation of the world. Eph. 3; 9.

God gave to man a law of obedience immediately upon his creation. This law it was supposed that man might transgress. The very nature of a law prescribed to free agents, attended with threatenings and promises of reward, requires that supposition. Now there was not annexed to this law, or revealed with it, the least intimation of pardon to be obtained, if transgression should ensue. “In the day thou eatest, thou shalt surely die:” dying, thou shalt die; or bring upon thyself assuredly the guilt of death, temporal and eternal. There God leaves the sinner. Of forgiveness, or pardoning mercy, there is not the least intimation. To this very day that law, which was then the whole rule of life and acceptance with God, knows no such thing. Dying, thou shalt die, 0 sinner, is its precise and final voice.

From these preliminary considerations, in connection with what was before said, some things preparator’^ to the ensuing discourse may be inferred.

1. It is a great and rare thing to have forgiveness in God discovered to a sinful soul. Conscience and law, with the inbred notions in the heart of man about God’s holiness and vindictive justice, lie against it. It is a matter of which there is no common notion in the mind of man; a thing which no consideration of the works of God, either of creation or providence, will reveal; and which the great instance of God’s dealing with sinning angels renders deep, admirable and mysterious. Men who have common and slight thoughts of God, of themselves, of sin, of obediente, of the judgment to come, of eternity, that feed upon the ashes of rumors, reports, hearsays, traditions, without looking into the reality of things, may, and do take this to be an ordinary anJ acknowledged truth, easy to be entertained, which no nan disbelieves. But convinced sinners who make a trial of these things, as running into eternity, have other thoughts of them. And as to that which it is pretended every one believes, we have great cause to cry out, “Lord, who hath believed our report 1 to v*^hom hath this arm of the Lord been revealed 1”

2. The discovery of forgiveness in God, being a matter of such great difficulty, is a thing precious and excellent, as being the foundation of all communion with God here, and of all undeceiving expectation of our enjoyment of him hereafter. It is a pure gospel-truth, that has neither shadow, footstep nor intimation elsewhere; the whole creation has not the least obscure impression of it left thereon: so that,

3. It is undoubtedly greatly incumbent on us to inquire diligenily as the prophets did of old, into this salvation; to consider what sure evidences faith has that will not, cannot fail us. To be superficial in this m.atter, to take it up at random, indicates an unsound and rotten heart. He that is not serious in his inquiry into the revelation of this matter, is serious in nothing in Vvhich God or his soul is concerned. The Holy Ghost knows what is our frame of heart, and how slow we are to receive this blessed truth in a gracious, saving manner. Therefore doth he confirm it to us with such weighty considerations, as, Heb. 6: ITj 18, ‘^ God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation.” It is of forgiveness of sin that the apostle treats, as has been already shown. Men may think that possibly God will not fulfil his promises of mercy: No, saith the apostle, it is spoken by God, and it is impossible he should lie. Yea, but upon

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the manifold provocations of sinners, he may change his mind and thoughts therein: No, saith the apostle, there is a peculiar immutability in his counsel concerning the execution of this thing; there can be no change in it. But how does it appear that this indeed is the counsel of his will 1 Why, saith he, he hath declared it by his word, and that given in a way of promise; which, as in its own nature it is suited to raise an expectation in those to whom it is given, so it requires exact faithfulness in the performance of it, which God, on his part, will assuredly fulfil. But neither is this all; that no place might be left for any cavilling in this matter, “he interposeth himself by an oath.” Thus we have this truth deduced from the veracity of God’s nature, one of his essential excellences, established in the immutable purposes of his will, brought forth by a word of promise, and confirmed by God’s interposing himself against all occasions of exception (so to put an end to all strife about it) by an oath, swearing by himself that so it should be. I have mentioned this to show what weight the Holy Ghost lays upon this great truth, and thence how deeply it concerns us to inquire diligently into it, and after the grounds and evidences of it; which, among others, are these that follow:

I. The first evidence of forgiveness we have i:^ the FIRST PROMISE. The earliest manifestation of forgiveness in God was m.ade to our first parents after their shameful sin and fall; in which the ensuing observations are to be considered.

1. The first sin in the world was, on many accounts, the greatest sin in the world. It was the sin, as it were, of human nature, wherein there was a conspiracy of all individuals. Rom. 5: 12. It left not God one subject, as to moral obedience, on earth, nor the ground that there should be such an one to eternity. When the angels sinned, the whole race or kind did not fall. “Thousand thousands of them, and ten thousand times ten thousand continued in their obedience.” Dan. 7: 10. But here all and every individual of mankind (he only excepted who was not then in Adam) were involved. Besides, it disturbed the government of God over the whole creation. God had made all things in order and beautjr, pronouncing concerning his whole work, that it was exceedingly beautiful and good. Gen. 1: 31. Much of this beauty lay in the subordination of one thing to another, and of all to himself, by the interposition of man, through whose praises and obedience the rest of the creation, being made subject to him, was to return their tribute of honor and glory to God. But all this order was destroyed by this sin, and the very creation made subject to vanity. Rom. 8: 20.

2. Our first parent who sinned, subscribed in his heart and conscience to the righteous sentence of the law. He knew what he had deserved, and looked for nothing but the immediate execution of the sentence of death upon him. Hence he meditates not a defence, expects no pardon, stays not for a trial, but flees and hides, and attempts an escape. “I was afraid,” saith he, “and hid myself,” Gen. 3: 10; than which never was there words of greater horror in the world, nor shall be unto the day of judgment. Poor man! he was full of expectation of the vengeance due for a broken covenant.

3. God had newly declared, in the sinning angels, what his justice required, and how he could deal with sinning man, without the least impeachment of his government, holiness, or goodness. See 2 Pet. 2: ‘i.

4. There was nothing, without God himself, that should move him in the least, so much as to suspend the execution of his wrath for one moment; he had not done so with the angels. All things now lay under wrath, curse, confusion, and disorder; nothing was left good, lovely, or desirable in his sight. As in the first creation, that which was brought forth from nothing, was “without form and void,” so was it now again. There was an emptiness and vanity brought by sin upon the whole creation: nothing remained that might be a motive to a merciful restoration, but all is again devolved on his sovereignty. All things being in this state, in which all things conspired to the glory of God’s justice in the punishing of sin; the whole creation, and especially the sinner himself, trembling in expectation of a dreadful doom, what now cometh forth from him 1 The blessed word, ‘’ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Gen. 3: 15. It is full well known, that the whole mystery of forgiveness is wrapt up in this one word of promise. And the great way of its coming forth from God, by the blood of the Messiah, whose heel was to be bruised, is also intimated. This was the first discovery ever made of forgiveness in God. By a word of pure revelation it was made, and so faith must take it up and receive it. Now, this revelation of forgiveness with God, in this one promise, was the foundation of all the worship yielded to him by sinners for many ages; and this v»dll continue to the end of the world, as a notable evidence of the truth before us, a firm foundation for faith to rest and build upon. Let a sinner seriously consider the state of things as they were, and then view God coming forth with a word of pardon and forgiveness, merely from his olti love, and those counsels of peace between the Father and the Son; and he cannot but conclude, under his greatest difficulties, that yet there is forgiveness with God, that he may be feared. Let now the law and conscience, let sin and Satan stand forth and except against this evidence: it is enough to put them all to silence.

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II. God revealed this sacred truth by the institution OF SACRIFICES. Sacrifices by blood, do all of them respect atonement, expiation, and consequently forgiveness. It is true, indeed, they could not themselves take away sin, nor make them perfect who came to God by them, Heb. 10: 1, but yet they undeniably evince the taking away of sin, or the forgiveness of it, by what they did denote and typify. I shall therefore look back a little into their rise and intention.

1. The origin of sacrifices is not in the Scripture expressly mentioned: only the practice of the saints is recorded 5 but it is certain, from infallible scripture evidences, that they were of God’s immediate appointment. God never allowed that the will or wisdom of man should be the spring and rule of his worship. That solemn word wherewith he prefaces the rule of his worship, ‘’ Thou shalt not make to thyself,”’ which is the life of the command, (that which follows being an explanation and confirmation of the law,) cuts off all such pretences, and is as a flaming sword turning every way to prevent men’s arbitrary approaches to God’s institutions. God will not part with his glory of being the only lawgiver, as to the whole concern of his worship, or any part of it, to any of the sons of men.

2. Neither is the time of their institution mentioned. Some of the papists urge (for there is a generation of philosophical disputers amongst them, by whom their tottering cause is supported), that there would have been sacrifices in paradise if man had not sinned. But as, in all their dogmas, the first inquiry must be, what do they get by this or that, their whole religion being shaped to their carnal interest j so we may in particular do it, upon this strange assertion, which is perfectly contradictory to the very nature and end of most sacrifices, namely, that they should be offered where there is no sin. Why, they hope to establish hence a general luio, that there can be no true worship of God in any state or condition without sacrifice: What then 1 Why, then the continual sacrifice of the mass is necessary in the church, and without it there is no true worship of God; and thence their advantage and profit; the mass being that inexhaustible spring of revenue which feeds their pride and lust throughout the world. But there is in the church of Christ an altar still, and a sacrifice still, which they have rejected for the abominable figment of their mass, namely, Christ himself as the apostle informs us, Heb. 13: 10. But as the sacrifices of beasts could not have been before the entrance of sin, so it may be shown that they were instituted from the foundation of the world, that is, presently after the entrance of sin. Christ is called the “Lamb of God,” John, 1: 29, which he was, in reference to the sacrifices of old, as 1 Pet. 1; 18, 19: whence he is represented as a ‘’ Lamb slain,” Kev. 5: 6, or giving out the efficacy of all sacrifices to his church.

Now, he is said to be “a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Rev. 13: 8, which could not be, unless some sacrifice prefiguring his being slain had been then ofiered; for it denotes not only the efficacy of his mediation, but the way. Besides, the apostle tells us that “without shedding of blood there was no remission,” Heb. 9: 22; that is, God, to demonstrate that all forgiveness related to the blood of Christ, from the foundation of the world, gave out no word of pardon, but by blood. Now, I have shown that he revealed pardon in the first promise, and therefore there ensued the shedding of blood and sacrifices, and that testament or covenant was dedicated with blood, ver. 18. Some think that the beasts of whose skins God made garments for Adam, were offered in sacrifices. Nor is their conjecture vain: yea, it seems fitting that their nakedness, which became their shame upon their sin, (whence the

pollution and shame of sin is frequently so termed,) should be covered with the skins of their sacrifices 5 for in the true sacrifice there is somewhat answerable thereto: the righteousness of Him whose sacrifice takes away the guilt of our sin, is called our clothing, that hides our pollution and shame.

3. After the giving of the law, the most noble and solemn part of the worship of God consisted in sacrifices. And this kind of worship continued, with the approbation of God, from the entrance of sin until the death of the Messiah, the true sacrifice, which put an end to all that was typical.

These things being premised, we may consider what was the mind and aim of God in the institution of this worship. One instance will answer this inquiry, Lev. 16: 20, 2-2-32. ‘’He shall bring the live goat, and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.”

Let us see to what end is all this solemnity, and W’hat is declared thereby. Wherefore should God appoint poor sinful men to come together, to take a goat or a lamb, and to confess over his head all their sins and transgressions, and to devote him to destruction under that confession 1 Had men invented this themselves, it had been a matter of no moment. But it was an institution of God, which he bound his church to observe, on penalty of his highest displeasure. Certainly this was a solemn declaration, that there is forgiveness with him. Would that God, who is infinitely good, and so will not, who is infinitely true, holy and faithful, and so cannot deceive, call out men whom he loved to a solemn representation of a thing, wherein lay their chief, their eternal concern, and suffer them to feed upon ashes 1 Let men take heed that they mock not God; for, of a truth, God mocketh not men, until he be finally rejected by them. For four thousand years, then, did God declare by sacrifices, that there is forgiveness with him, and lead his people by them to m.ake a public re-” presentation of it in the face of the world.

III. God’s prescribing repentance to sinners reveals that there is forgiveness with him. After the angels had sinned God never once called them to repentance. He would not deceive them, but let them know what they were to look for at his hands; he had no forgiveness for them, and therefore would require no repentance of them. Their eternal anguish about sin committed has “nothing of repentance in it. The appointment, then, of repentance, is a revelation of forgiveness. God would not call upon a sinful creature to humble itself, and bewail its sin, if there were no way of recovery or relief; and the only way of recovery from the guilt of sin is pardon; so Job, 33: 27, 28. “. He looketh on men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” In the foregoing verses he declares the various ways that God used to bring men to repentance. He did it by dreams, ver. 15, 16; by afflictions, ver. 19; by the preaching of the word, ver. 23. What then is God’s design in all these various ways of teaching 1 It is to cause man to say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right. It is to bring him to repentance. What now, if God’s design is gained and man comes to repentance 1 Whj’’, then there is forgiveness for him, as is declared, ver. 28. To improve this evidence, I shall confirm, by some considerations, these two things: First, that the prescription of repentance doth indeed evince that there is forgiveness with God. Secondly, that everyone in whom there is repentance wrought towards God, may certainly conclude that there is forgiveness with God for him.

1. JVo repentance is acceptable with God hut what rests on the faith of forgiveness. We have a cloud of witnesses to this truth in the Scripture. Many there have been, many are recorded, who have been convinced of sin, perplexed about it, sorry for it, who have made open confession and acknowledgment of it, who, under the present sense of it, have cried out even to God for deliverance, and yet have come short of mercy, pardon, and acceptance with God. The cases of Cain, Pharaoh, Saul, Ahab, Judas, and others, might be insisted on. What was wanting, that made all that they did abominable 1 Consider one instance for all: it is said of Judas, that he repented. Matt. 27: 3; ‘’ he repented himself j” but in what did this repentance consist! 1. He was convinced of his sin in general j ‘^ I have sinned,” ver. 4. 2. He was sensible of the particular sin of which he stood charged in conscience before God: ‘’ I have betrayed innocent blood j” I am guilty of blood, innocent blood, and that in the vilest manner, by treachery. So that he comes, 3. To a full and open confession of his sin. 4. He makes restitution of what he had gained by his sin, “he brought again the thirty pieces of silver,” ver. 3, all testifying a hearty sorrow. Methinks now, Judas’s repentance looks like the young man’s obedience, who cried out, ‘^ All these things have I done: is there any thing yet lacking V Yea, one thing was wanting to that young man, he had no true faith nor love to God, which vitiated and spoiled all the rest of his performances. One thing is also wanting to this repentance of Judas, he had no faith of forgiveness in God: that he could not believe; and therefore after all this sorrow, instead of coming to hinm, he bids him the utmost defiance, and hangs himself.

What it is in particular, in this faith of forgiveness, which is indispensably necessary’’ to render repentance acceptable, I do not here attempt to define. It is not an assurance of the acceptance of our persons in general. It is not, that the particular sin wherewith, it may be, the soul is perplexed, is forgiven. A general, if it be a gospel-discovery, that there is forgiveness in God, will suffice. It is expressed, Hos. 14-: 3, ‘’ In thee the fatherless findeth mercy;” and Joel, 2: 14-, ‘^ Who knows but he will return and repent V “I have this ground,” saith the soul; ‘’ God is in himself gracious and merciful; the fatherless, the destitute and helpless, that come to him by Christ, find mercy in him. None in heaven and earth can show, but that he may return to me also.” Now, let a man’s convictions be ever so great, sharp, wounding j his sorrow ever so abundant, overflowing, abiding; his confession ever so full, free, or open; if this one thing be wanting, all is nothing but what tends to death.

2. To prescribe to sinners repentance as a duty, with out a foundation of pardon and forgiveness in God, is inconsistent with the vjisdom, holiness, goodness, faithfulness, and all the other excellencies and perfections of his nature.

The apostle represents it as the great foundation of all consolation, that God cannot lie or deceive. Heb. 6: 18. And again, he engages the faithfulness and veracity of God to the same purpose. Tit. 1:2. ‘’ God, who cannot lie, hath promised it.” The very proposal of repentance to a sinner conveys the idea that there is forgiveness with God. Repenting is for sinners. “I came not,” saith our Savior, ‘’ to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” It is for them, and them only. No such call was addressed to Adam in Eden; none is to the angels in heaven, or to the damned in hell. What then is the import of their call] O sinners, come and deal with God by repentance! Does it not openly speak forgiveness in Godl and, if it were otherwise, could men possibly be more frustrated or deceived 1 would not the institution of repentance be a liel Such a delusion may proceed from Satan, but not from Him who is the fountain of goodness, holiness and truth. His call to repentance is a full demonstration of his readiness to forgive. Acts, 17: 30-32. It is true, many in this matter deceive themselves. They raise themselves to an expectation of immunity, not on gospel-grounds; and their disappointment will be a great part of their punishment. But God deceives none; whoever comes to him on his proposal of repentance shall find forgiveness. It is said of some, indeed, that he ‘’ will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh.” Prov. 1: 2G. He will aggravate their misery, by giving them to see to what their pride and folly have brought them. But who are they 1 Only such as refuse his call to repentance, with the promises of acceptance annexed.

There is then no cause why those who are under a call to repentance should question whether there be forgiveness in God. Come, saith the Lord, leave your sinful ways, turn unto me, humble yourselves v,dth broken and contrite hearts. Alas! say convinced sinners, we are poor, dark, and ignorant; or, we are old in sin, or great sinners, or backsliders, or have fallen often into the same sins: can we expect there should be forgiveness for us ‘! Why, you are under God’s invitation to repentance; and to disbelieve forgiveness, is to call the truth, holiness, and faithfulness of God in question. If you will not believe forgiveness, pretend what you please, it is in truth because you hate repentance. You do but deceive your own souls when you pretend that you come not to repentance because you cannot believe forgiveness: for, in the very institution of this duty, God engages all his properties to make it good, that he has pardon and mercy for sinners

IMuch less cause is there to doubt of forgiveness where sincere repentance is exercised in any degree. No soul comes to repentance but upon God’s call. God calls none but those for whom he has mercy upon their coming.

God expressly declares in the Scripture, that the forgiveness which is with him is the foundation of his prescribing repentance unto man. One instance may sufiice, Isa. 55: 7. ‘’Let the wicked forsake his way,” (in the Hebrew, a perverse wicked one j) “and the man of iniquity his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy; and to our God, for,” (in the Hebrew,) “he will multiply to pardon.” You see to whom he speaks — to men perversely wicked, and such as make a trade of sinning. To what does he call them? Plainly to repentance, to the duty we have insisted on. But what is the ground of such an invitation to such profligate sinners? Why, the abundant forgiveness and pardon that is with him, superabounding to what the worst of them can stand in need of; as Rom. 5: 20.

This is another way whereby God has revealed that there is forgiveness with him, and an infallible foundation for faith to build upon, in its approaches to him. Nor can the certainty of this evidence be called into question, but on such grounds as are derogatory to the glory and honor of God. And this connection of repentance and forgiveness, is that principle from which God convinces a stubborn unbelieving people that all his ways and dealings with sinners are just and equal. Ezek. 18: 25. And should there be any failure in it, they could not be so. Every soul, then, that is under a call to repentance, whether out of his natural condition, or from any backsliding into folly after conversion, has a sufficient foundation to rest on, as to the pardon he inquires after. God is ready to deal with him on terms of mercy. If out of love to sin, or the power of unbelief, he refuse to close wdth God on these terms, his condemnation is just.

Do any object that it is needless here to multiply arguments, since the truth that there is forgiveness with God is GRANTED, as One of the fundamental principles of religion; and as none call it in question, it requires no confirmation! We answer:

1. That it is generally granted, is no argument that it is efiectually believed. What will it avail any of us that there is forgiveness of sin with God, if our own sins be not forgiven 1 No more than that such or such a king is rich, whilst we are poor and starving. My aim is not to prove it as an opinion, or a mere speculative truth; but so to present it in the principles of its being and revelation, that it miay be believed; on which all our blessedness depends.

2. It needs not the less confirmation because it is a plain fundamental truth; but rather the more, and that because of the worth and weight- of it. “This is a faithful saying,” saith the apostle, “worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into tJie world to save sinners.” So I say of this, which, for the substance of it, is the same with that; it is worthy of all acceptation, that there is forgiveness with God; and therefore it ought to be fully confirmed; especially whilst we mae use of no other demonstrations of it but those which God has furnished; and this he would not have done, but that he knew them to be needful for us. As for the plainness of this truth, it is well if it be so to us. This I know, nothing but the Spirit of God can make it so. Men may please themselves, and others sometimes, with curious speculations, and make them seem to be things of great import; which, v.’hen they are well examined, arc not true; or if true, are yet of little consequence. It is these fundamental truths that have the mysteries and grace of God inwrapped in them; which, whoso can unfold aright, will show himself “a workman that needs not be ashamed.” These still waters are deep; and the farther we dive into them, the greater discovery shall we make of their depths.

3. We dwell on these evidences, because multitudes are concerned in them. All who do believe, and all who do not believe, are so; those who do believe, that they may be established; and those who do not believe, that they may be encouraged so to do. Among both these classes, some evidences may be more profitable and useful, some to one, some to another. It may be that amongst all, the whole will -be gathered up, that no fragments be lost. They are all, I hope, instruments provided by the Holy Ghost for this end; and we endeavor to commit them into his hand, to be made effectual as he will. One may reach one soul, another another, according to his pleasure. One may be of use to establishment, another to consolation, a third to encouragement, according as the necessities of souls require. Hovv’ever, God, who has provided them, knows them all to be needful.

4. They are so also on account of the various conditions in which the same believers may be. One m.ay give help to the same soul at one season, another at another; one may secure the soul against a temptation, another stir it up to thankfulness and obedience.

These things have I spoken, that you may not think we dwell too long on this consideration. And I pray God that your consolation and establishment may abound in the reading of these meditations, as I hope they have not been altogether without fruit in their preparation.

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