their pardon, but they procrastinate and put it oflF so \oug, till it be too late ; Avlien the shadows of the evening are stretched forth, and tlie night of death approacheth, tlien they begin to look after their pardon. This hath been the undoing of millions; they purpose they will look after their souls, but they stay so long till the lease of mercy be run out. Oh, therefore hasten the get- ting of a pardon ! Think of the uncertainty of life ! What security liave you that you shall live another day ? Volat ambiguis nio- bilis alls hora. Our life is a taper soon blown out; it is made up of a few flying minutes. O thou dust and ashes ! thou mayest fear every liour to be blo\A'n into thy grave ; and what if death come to ar- rest thee before thy pardon be sealed? Plu- tarch reports of one Archias, v\'ho being a- mong his cups, one delivered to him a let- ter, and desired him to read it presently, being about serious business ; saith he, seria eras, I will mind serious things to-morrow ; and that night he was slain. Thou that sayest, " to-morrow I will repent, — I will get my pardon," thou mayest suddenly be slain ; therefore to-day, while it is called to-day, look after the forgiveness of sin ; after a while, all the conduits of mercy will be stopped, there will not be one drop of Christ's blood to be had, there is no sealing of pardons after death.
2d Branch of exhortation. Let us labour to have the evidence of pardon, to know that our sins are forgiven. A man may have his sins forgiven, and not know it ; lie may have a pardon in the court of heaven, when he hath it not in the court of con- science. David's sin was forgiven as soon as he repented. And God sent Nathan the prophet to tell him so, 1 Sam. xii. 13. But David did not feel the comfort of it at pre- sent, as appears by the penitential psalm composed after, Ps. li. 8., " Make me to hear joy and gladness;" v. 11., " Cast me not away from thy ])resence." It is one thing to be pardoned, and another thing to feel it. The evidence of pardon may not appear for a time, and this may b<',
1. From the imbecility and weakness of faith. Forgiveness of sin is so strange and Infinite a blessing, that a Christian can hardly persuade himself that God will ex-
tend such a favour to liim. As it is said of the apostles, when Christ appeared to them first, *' they believed not for joy, and wondered," Luke xxiv. 41. : so the soul is so stricken with admiration, that the won- der of pardon doth almost stagger his faith.
2. A man may be pardoned, and not know it, from the strength of temptation. Satan accuseth the godly of sin, and tells him that God doth not love them ; what, should such sinners think of pardon ? Be- lievers are compared to bruised reeds. Mat. xii. 20. ; and temptations to winds, Mat. vii. 15. Now, a reed is easily shaken with the wind. Temptations shake the godly; and though they are pardoned, yet they know it not. Job in a temptation thought God his enemy, Job xvi. 9. Yet then he was in a pardoned condition.
Quest. But ivhy doth God sometimes con~ ceal the evidence of pardon ?
Ans. Though God doth pardon, yet he may withhold the sense of it a while :
1. Because hereby he would lay us low- er in contrition. God would have us see what an evil and bitter thing it is to offend him ; we shall therefore lie the longer steep- ing ourselves in the brinish tears of repen- tance, before we have the sense of jjardon , it being long before David's broken bones were set, and his pardon sealed, the more contrite his heart was, and this was a sa- crifice God delighted in.
2. Though God hath forgiven sin, yet he may deny the manifestation of it for a time, to make us prize pardon, and make it sweeter to us when it comes. The diffi- culty of obtaining a mercy enhanceth the value. When we have been a long time tugging at prayer for a ])ardon of sin, and still God withholds, but at last, after many sighs and tears, ])ard()n comes, now we es- teem it the more, and it is sweeter, (^uo lonyius defcrtur, eo siiavius loitatur, — The longer mercy is in the birth, the more wel- conie will the deliverance be.
Let me now re-assume the exhortation to labour for the evidence and sense of ])ar- don. He who is pardoned and knows it not, is like one who hath an estate befallen him, but knows it not. Our comfort con- sists in the knowledge of forgiveness, Ps. \ li. 8., " Make me to hear jcvy and gladness.'
OF THE FIFTH PETITION IN THE LORDS PRAYER.
5il
Tilts is a proclaiming a jubilee in the soul, when wc are able to read our pardon ; and to the Avitness of conscience God adds the witness of his Spirit ; in the mouth of these two witnesses our joy is confirmed. O la- bour for this evidence of forgiveness !
Quest. How shall we know that our sins are forgiven ?