breast and divers, that have attempted to search out these Arcana Dei, this art and mystery of justice and mercy, have trodden in paths different from one another; and, doubtless, many of them differing from the truth also. I shall not stand to draw a scheme of these decrees of God. Let it now suffice us to know, that God, from all eternity, foreseeing the sin and misery, which man would, by his permission and his own sin, involve himself in, did, for the manifestation of the riches both of his mercy and justice, enter into counsel, how to pardon and save him. This was the end of God's design, even to restore again to happiness some of mankind; even as many, as he should select out of the mass and common rubbish of sin and misery, and set apart for himself. But how shall this end be accomplished and brought about? Justice brandisheth its sword in the face of sinners; and demandeth as great a share of glory in punishment, as mercy doth in pardoning: and God is resolved to glorify both of these attributes of his, in their several demands. This now put him upon ransacking of the deepest counsel that ever lodged in his heart, even of an adored Mediator; in whom Justice receives full satisfaction, and Mercy triumphs in a full pardon, and both are infinitely glorious. For this end, God sent down his Son from heaven to earth, to become a propitiation for us; and so, through the shedding of his blood, to obtain remission and forgiveness of sins for us. God's Mercy and his Beloved Son could not rest together in his bosom: and, therefore, his purpose of pardoning sin was so efficacious, that, to make room for the displaying of his Mercy, he sends his own Son out of heaven, never to enter again there, till, by his merit and sufferings, he had procured remission of sins for all those that believe in him. Hence the Apostle, Rom. iii. 25, 26. tells us, that God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through God's forbearance..... that he might be just, and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus: as if the Apostle had said, God could not be just, if he should justify sinners that deserve his wrath, unless he had sent forth Jesus Christ into the world to become a propitiation and sacrifice to his justice for their sins; for, having threatened in his unalterable word to inflict vengeance upon all that are guilty, his truth obliged him to this dreadful severity upon all, since all are guilty but Christ, taking on him the guilt of sinners, by his undergoing the wrath of God and the curse of the Law hath so

fully appeased divine justice, that now God, though he doth not punish sinners in themselves, can yet be just and the justifier of sinners: therefore, he sent forth Christ to be a propitiation. God's eternal purpose, to glorify his justice in the punishing of sin, and yet to glorify his grace and mercy in pardoning sinners, wrought this great effect of sending Christ into the world, whereby two such different ends might with infinite wisdom be accomplished. So that Christ, who is the cause of all our happiness and mercy, is yet himself the effect of God's purpose and intent to pardon sin. And what can be said more to advance the greatness of this mercy? a mercy so great, that one of the Fathers, St. Gregory by name, doubted whether it were more misery or happiness, that Adam fell; since his sin and fall occasioned such a wonderful Redeemer, and such a glorious salvation: Fælix culpa, says he, "O happy fall, that obtained such a Redeemer!"

(2) Another blessed effect of God's purpose in pardoning sin, is the great gift of Faith.

Indeed, to give Jesus Christ were utterly in vain, did not God withal give faith to accept him. To tender Christ to an unbeliever, is to offer a gift where there is no hand to receive it. Hence, that God's purpose of giving pardon might stand valid, that the death of Christ might not be fruitless, and that his blood might not be like water spilt on the ground that cannot be gathered up again, God decreed to bestow faith upon theni that believe, that may convey to them the benefits of Christ's merits in their pardon and remission.

These two blessed effects follow in God's purpose and intention of pardoning sin; even the Gift of Christ to procure, and the Gift of Faith to apply, pardon unto the soul.

2. And, more especially, let us consider Pardon of Sin in its Temporal and Real Application.

And so the happy effects of it are manifold. I shall only instance in some, at present.

(1), Pardon of Sin gives an inviolable security against the pursuits of avenging justice.

This is its formal, and most immediate effect. Justice follows guilty sinners close at the heels, and shakes its flaming sword over their heads: every threatening contained in this Book of God, stands ready charged against them; and their sins make them so fair a mark, that they cannot be missed. Hence is that

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sad complaint of Job, Why hast thou set me up as a mark? into which he emptied his arrows as into his reins: Job vii. 20. Now while justice is driving the sinner before it from plague to plague, resolving never to stop till he hath driven him into hell, the great assembly and meeting of all plagues; mercy interposes, and lays its arrest upon it: and this gracious Act of Pardon rescues us, though under the hands of the executioner, and ready to be turned into hell. Here, the challenge, that justice makes to us, ceaseth; and we are left to walk safely, under the protection of mercy: for, when God issues out a pardon, he calls off justice from its pursuit. Thus you have the Psalmist thankfully acknowledging, Ps. lxxxv. 2. Thou hast forgiven our iniquities; and what follows? Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Nor is it to be feared, O Soul, that thou shalt ever more be questioned for those sins that are once forgiven thee: God's acts of oblivion can never be repealed: no: God sets an everlasting sanction upon them, and justice shall never again molest thee: Jer. xxxi. 34. I will forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And, indeed, well may divine justice cease its pursuit of the guilty sinner; for, always, when God pardons a sinner, he turns his pursuit after Christ, and satisfies all his just demands upon him: for, though we are the principals in the debt, yet our Surety, who stands bound for us in the Covenant of Redemption, is far the more able and absolving person. Now is not this an unspeakable mercy, that justice and vengeance, the heavy strokes of which many thousand wretches lie under, and which thy sins have provoked and armed against thy own soul; that might, every sin thou committest, that is every moment of thy life, strike thee dead in the place; in the dread of which, if thou hast any tenderness of conscience left in thee, thou must needs live in continual fearful expectations of this wrath of God, to destroy thee as his enemy; is it not infinite mercy, that God should call in the commission given to his justice, that mercy might secure thee from it? What is this, but the effect of pardoning grace, that gives this destroyer charge to pass over all those, upon whose consciences the blood of Christ is sprinkled for the removal of their guilt?

(2) Another blessed effect of Pardon of Sin, is Peace and Reconciliation with God.

And what happiness can be greater, than when the quarrel betwixt heaven and earth, betwixt God and the sinner, is taken

up and compounded? Open wars have been long proclaimed, and long maintained on either part: ever since the first great rebellion, man hath stood in defiance with, and exercised great hostility against his Creator; and God, on the other hand, hath thundered out whole peals of curses against these rebels, and hath slain whole generations of them eternally dead upon the place. God hath still maintained his cause with victory, and man his with obstinacy; and this war would never cease, did not God proclaim pardon and forgiveness to all that will lay down their arms and submit.

Now, hereupon, peace is concluded fully: for,

[1] God's pardoning of sinners manifests him to be fully reconciled to them.

So the Apostle tells us, Rom. v. 1. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is a sworn enemy to all guilty sinners. Himself hath affixed this title to the rest of his name, that he will by no means clear the guilty. Guilt hath a malign influence: not only on our consciences, to discompose them with terrors and affrightments; but on God's countenance also, to ruffle it into frowns and displeasure. Now when God pardons sin, he wipes away this overcasting cloud: and, the cause of enmity being removed, his face and favour clear up to us. And, then,

[2] Pardon of Sin is a strong inducement to us, to lay down the weapons of our warfare, and to be at peace with God.

What argument can be more prevailing, where there is any principle of ingenuity?" When God thus proclaims peace, shall I continue war? He pardons, and shall I rebel? He is reconciled, and shall I be implacable? Shall I persist in those sins, which he forgives? No: far be it from me. I submit to that God, whose rich grace conquers by condescending, as well as his power by crushing." And thus the soul lays down its weapons at the feet of God; and humbly embraces the terms of agreement propounded by him in the Gospel.

(3) Pardon of Sin lays a good foundation for the soul's near acquaintance and communion with God.

Guilt is the only thing, that breeds alienation. Your iniquities, says the Prophet, have separated between you and your God: Isa. lix. 2. Nor, indeed, is it possible, that a guilty sinner should any more delight in conversing with God, than a guilty malefactor delights in the presence of his judge. And, therefore, we see, when Adam had contracted guilt upon himself by eating the forbidden

fruit, how childishly and foolishly he behaved himself! God calls him, and he runs behind a tree to hide himself! What a sudden change was here! Adam, who but a little before was his Creator's familiar, now dreads and shuns him: his guilt makes him apprehend God's call, to be no other than a summons to the bar. Nor, indeed, can it be otherwise, but that guilt should produce alienation betwixt God and the soul; for look how distance grows between two familiar friends, so doth it here: if a man be conscious to himself, that he hath done his friend an injury; what influence hath this upon him? why, presently it makes him more shy and reserved to him than before: so is it here: consciousness of guilt fills us with a troublesome, ill-natured shame: we are ashamed to look God in the face, whom we have so much wronged by our sins: and this shame is always joined with a slavish and base fear of God, lest he should revenge himself upon us, for the injuries that we have done to him: and both this shame and fear take off from that holy freedom and boldness, which reverently to use towards God, is the gust and spirit of our communion and fellowship with him; and all these lessen that sweet delight in God, that formerly we relished in the intimacy of this heavenly fellowship. And what can be the final product of all this, but a most sad alienation and estrangement between God and the soul? But Pardon of Sin removeth these obstructions; and causeth the intercourse betwixt God and the soul to pass free, because it gives the soul a holy and yet awful boldness in conversing with the great and terrible majesty of God. So much sense of pardon and reconciliation as we have, so much boldness shall we have ordinarily in our addresses to God: what is the reason that the consciences of wicked men drag them before God; and they come with so much diffidence, dejectedness, and jealousy? it is, because they are conscious to themselves of guilt that lies upon them; and this makes them look on God, rather under the notion of a judge, than of a friend or father; and this makes them perform their duties so distrustfully, as if they would not have God take any notice that they were in his presence. But, when a pardoned sinner makes his addresses to God, he may do it with a holy freedom: the face of his soul looks cheerfully, and he treats with God with an open heart. What ground is there now, for such a confidence as this is? for poor, vile dust and ashes, to appear thus before the Great God of Heaven and Earth?Guilt is removed: peace is made in the blood of Christ: all