"any of the truths of God, I greatly diftruft the "reality of my own confent and compliance "with his will." Do you then really give credit to all the truths of God refpecting your own loft condition, and the only way of deliverance from it. May the Lord himself increase your faith; for if it be fo indeed, you are happy and fafe. These truths, thefe alone, are the fure foundation of hope. I am afraid we have all too ftrong a tendency to look for fome encouraging qualification in ourfelves, on which we might more securely reft. What is faith? Is it any more than receiving the record which God hath given of his Son, believing the testimony of the amen, the true and faithful witness? Is not your peace and reconciliation with God, and the fanctification of your natures; expressly provided for in the all-fufficiency of Chrift, and to him you are affured that you must be indebted for both? What ftandeth in the way of your comfort then, but either that you do not give credit to the promise he hath made, or that you aré not willing that he should do it for you? and this I acknowledge is both unbelief and impenitence."te

Complain therefore no more, that you are afraid of yourselves, whilft yet you pretend to have the highest efteem of the bleffings of redemption; on the contrary, say unto God,

in a thankful frame of fpirit, "Glory to God in "the highest, on earth peace, and good-will to"wards men. I praise thee for this message of << peace. I think I fee, in fome measure, its "neceffity, truth and beauty. I fee it, I truft "to fuch a degree, that it is the fole foundation "of my hope. I renounce every other claim; nay, I abhor the thoughts of any other claim : "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, "for the excellency of the knowledge of Chrift "Jefus my Lord, for whom I have fuffered the

lofs of all things, and do count them but dung "that I may win Chrift, and be found in him, "not having mine own righteousness, which

is of the law, but that which is through the "faith of Chrift, the righteoufnefs which is of "God by faith *. It grieves me, that there "is fuch a backwardness in me to give glory to "thy name, and to be indebted to the riches of "thy grace. Subdue my obftinacy, and rule "by thine own power. Lord, I believe, help "thou mine unbelief.

SECT. VI.

How the believer recovers peace of conscience. WE have now feen in what way the believer

is reconciled to God, and delivered from condemnation. It will not be improper however Phil. iii. 8.

allo

alfo to confider how he recovers peace of conscience, and how his heart and life are governed in his after walk. This will ferve more fully to illuftrate the influence and operation of the truths of the gofpel. There is even a neceffity for doing fo on two different accounts : 1. That, as has been fhewn above at confiderable length, every true penitent is deeply and inwardly fenfible of the evil of fin in itfelf. He is not merely afraid of wrath, but fees the impurity and pollution of his own heart. Suppofing therefore, will the intelligent reader fay, this great diftinction thoroughly established, his relief is but half accomplished. There may be no more condemnation for him in the law of God, for the breach of which fatisfaction has been made and accepted; but he is only fo much the more liable to the condemnation of his own confcience. He muft ftill fuffer the reproaches and challenges of his own mind, which make so great a part of the mifery of a guilty state.

This receives additional ftrength, from a fecond confideration, that as he is juftified by faith, he hath peace only through the blood of Chrift. This is not from himself, and may be thought to leave him, fo to speak, in point of state and character, in point of pollution and defilement, juft as before; nay, the extraordinary, unfolicited, undeferved grace of God, may be thought to in

creafe

་

illustration of the two

Suppose any child has

crease his felf-condemnation, and fet the malignity of his rebellion in the strongest light. And indeed fo far this is true, that the free grace of God was intended, and does ferve to produce a growing humiliation of mind and felf-abasement, as well as an admiration of the love of God in Chrift Jefus. As the tenderness of a parent is an image which God hath very frequently made use of, to fhadow forth his own infinite, compaffion, I will borrow from it an remarks just now made. offended a parent by a grofs inftance of undutiful behaviour, for which he hath been severely reproved, and for fome time kept at a diftance: if the parent forgives him, and receives him again into his favour, does not his being thus freed from the fear of fuffering, leave full room for his concern at the offence? And does not a fenfe of his father's love melt his heart more for having grieved fuch a parent, than any terror upon his mind for the punishment of the crime? He is immediately covered with confufion; and if there be in him any spark of ingenuity, he is no fooner forgiven of his father, than the tide of his affections returns back with full force, and he can hardly forgive himself.

But notwithstanding this, as Chrift by his fufferings and death delivered us from the wrath to come, fo by the fhedding of his precious blood,

the

the heart is alfo, as the fcripture expreffes it, fprinkled from an evil confcience. On this important fubject, which leads us to the great principles of the spiritual life, the following particulars are recommended to the ferious attention of the reader.

1. Through Jefus Chrift, and the whole of his undertaking as Mediator of the new covenant, the glory and honour of God is most admirably. promoted, and a perfect reparation made to his holy law which had been broken. This must needs be highly pleafing to every convinced finner. As the juftice of God is thereby fatisfied, fo confcience, which is God's vicegerent, and as it were pleads his caufe, is fatisfied by the fame. means. The ground of a finner's diffatisfaction with himself, is the difhonour done to God. Muft it not therefore please and fatisfy him to fee this difhonour fo perfectly removed, and fo much of the divine glory fhining in the work of redemption. All the divine perfections appear there with diftinguished luftre; and must not this be highly refreshing to the pardoned criminal? The very holiness and juftice of God, which before were terrible to him, are now amiable. He alfo contemplates and adores the divine wifdom, as it is to be seen in the cross of Chrift. We are told, that even the celeftial hofts have new discoveries of the wifdom of God in this great de