FORGIVENESS. "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Psa. cxxx. 4. THE forgiveness that there is with God is a fact the knowledge of which is of the greatest importance to us; and is, of all other truths, the most cheering to us in our fallen state. For the knowledge of it, as a fact, men are indebted to Divine revelation: Without that, whatever they might have hoped from the benevolence of the Creator, as evidenced by his works, they would have equally doubted, from the painfully felt effects of his displeasure, in many of the disorders of nature, and ordinary ills of life. Fear indeed on the subject would have preponderated over hope: as we find to have been the case with those who were left to the light of nature; who were continually occupied in offering expiatory sacrifices and oblations, to appease the wrath of their offended deities, yet never arrived at any certainty as to the result. But this attribute of his nature God had revealed to some men in the earliest ages. It was known to the men who lived before the flood. To Moses, afterwards, he proclaimed it as inserted among the titles of his name. It was the foundation of his worship by the Jewish people, according to his own prescription, with a far greater hope of mercy and confidence of acceptance, than by men of any other race. "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared "-worshipped, served, obeyed. The knowledge, however, of the pious in these early ages was nearly limited to the fact: but our revelation has brought it out, with a variety of additional particuiars, all but equivalent to a new discovery. We have the doctrine with adjuncts appended to it, that lend it every confirmation, and excite to the highest pitch our wonder, gratitude, and confidence. Let us review these particulars for our encouragement, direction, and support, in the sources of consolation they lay open. 1. The ground on which forgiveness is bestowed.— This, we are taught, is the sacrifice and merits of the Son of God in our nature. The pious men of the former dispensation must have been in some perplexity to reconcile the forgiveness of the Deity with his other attributes; with the demands of law, the claims of justice, his faithfulness to his threatenings, the honour of his majesty, and the rectitude of his moral government. They concluded, from their knowledge of his character, that there must be some such ground or expedient, alluded to in their piacular rites and offerings, to be afterwards made known; but what it might be, even with the guide of their prophetic announcements, they could not, with any degree of certainty, apprehend. Eagerly they longed to antedate the fuller revelation, but were counselled from above to submit to the ordained postponement: 66 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into, Peter, i. 10, 11. These things are revealed unto us; the results of the counsel of the ever-blessed Trinity are made known to us: in the appointment of the second adorable Person to become one of us; to receive in his own person the penalty of our guilt and rebellion, as well as to obey the law we had violated, in a strict and undeviating compliance with its requisitions. This penalty, which was the curse of God, we know that he endured. He was "made a curse (or accursed) for us," Gal. iii. 13. On him the law inflicted its full penalty for the guilt of all out of the human race who would avail themselves of the release thereby procured. The threatenings against us were thus fulfilled, not in our person, but in the person of our Divine Surety; the law received its due honour from his sufferings and obedience, and justice its homage and satisfaction. At the same time that the faithfulness and holiness of Jehovah were thus awfully vindicated, his mercy, wisdom, and grace shone forth with resplendent lustre. Now the problem is solved ;-God, we see, can be just, and yet the justifier of the penitent who believes in his Son. No fear now of his perfections being shorn of their grandeur; while we are absolved from guilt, and reinstated in Jehovah's friendship and favour. The fact of Divine forgiveness rests to us, not only on authoritative announcement, but is made reasonable and proper to our apprehension. And here, as is the case with everything true in nature, when this is once discovered, all subsequent investigation serves but to confirm and increase the original conviction. We know the way of the Divine forgiveness as well as the fact. 2. The nature and character of this forgiveness.— We are acquainted with its freeness, and readiness to be bestowed on every sincere and earnest applicant. We have no oblations to make, no sacrifices to offer, no burdensome ceremonies to go through to obtain it. We should affront the offering and mediation of Christ, by supposing that anything more than these were necessary to our reception of it, while seeking it through that channel. The breath of prayer, the acts of faith, are all the offering all the incense, required of us; and the forgiveness comes, not for our sake, but for the sake of Him" who ever liveth to make intercession for us." If we buy, it is" without money and without price; " only with asking for it, and opening our hearts to receive it. The water from Moses' rock, and the wine from the vessels at Cana in Galilee, were not more freely the gifts of God to the thirsty and needy, than the forgiveness of their sins to the penitent and believing. We are also acquainted with its fulness and perpetuity. The forgiveness of the Jewish worshippers was chiefly for their ceremonial offences, and consisted principally in a removal of the interdict upon their attendance on the services of God with his people; while their hope of absolution from moral guilt rested upon something else, which they conceived their sacrifices to be token. But even this hope was not unmixed with doubt and fear, as sins of a certain kind and degree were exempted from pardon by any prescribed offering or atonement. Their reliance, therefore, was mainly on the plenitude of the Divine mercy, according to the depth and sincerity of their repentance, Ps. li. 16, etc. But from all dubiousness on the subject we are delivered, by the knowledge of the infinitely meritorious efficacy of Christ's blood-shedding and obedience. Sins of the greatest number and deepest dye are forgiven on its account, as free from any impeachment of God's adorable perfections as the forgiveness of the least obliquities or moral deviations. "By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts xiii. 39. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7. Crimson spots are effaced by it, and the soul that is washed in it is made "whiter than snow." Not a speck of guilt, in the cloud which our sins had formed, but is dispelled by the beams of God's forgiving love in the face of his Son, Isa. xliv. 22. And, for the future, the same sacrifice and intercession are available for the perpetuation of the former, and its completion. By that we were pardoned as criminals, and taken into the family; by this we are dealt with as children under paternal correction, but in an unchangeable covenant of love and affection. Hence in the believer's heart, under the gospel, the confident hope of final and eternal justification. "If, when we |