We take it for a good token and evidence of a virtuous healing Avater, when, without fraud or pretence, we see the crutches of cured cripples and impotent persons hung about it as a memorial of its efficacy. And it is a great demonstration of the skill and ability of a physician, when many come to a sick person and tell him " We had the same distemper with you, — it had the same s}Tnptoms, the same effects; and by his skill and care we are cured." "Oh!" saith the sick man, " bring him unto me, I will venture my life in his hand." Now, all the saints of heaven stand about a sin-sick soul ; for in this matter " we are compassed about with a cloud of witnesses," Heb. xii. 1. And Avhat do they bear witness unto? what say they unto a poor guilty sinner? " As thou art, so were we; so guilty, so perplexed, so obnoxious to wrath, so fearing destniction from God." "And what way did you steer, what course did you take, to obtain the blessed condition wherein now you are?" Say they, "We went all to God through Christ for forgiveness; and found plenty of gTace,
Ver,4.] EVIDENCE OF FORGIVENESS WITH GOD. 447
mercy, and pardon in him for us all." The rich man in the parable thought it would be a great means of conversion if one should " rise from the dead'' and preach; but here we see that all the saints de- parted and now in glory do jointly preach this fundamental truth, that " there is forgiveness with God."
Poor souls are apt to think that all those whom they read or hear of to be gone to heaven, went thither because they were so good and so holy. It is true many of them were eminently and exemplarily so in their generations, all of them were so according to their de- grees and measures; for " without holiness no man can see God," — and it is our duty to labour to be like unto them in holiness, if ever Ave intend to be so in happiness and glory; — but yet not one of them, not any one that is now in heaven, Jesus Christ alone excepted, did ever come thither any other way but by forgiveness of sin ; and that will also bring us thither, though we come short of many of them in holiness and gi'ace.
And this evidence of forgiveness I the rather urge, because I find the apostle Paul doing of it eminently in his own i:)erson: 1 Tim. i. 1 2-1 6, " I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me ftiithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Clu'ist Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." " A great sinner," saith he, " the chiefest of sinners I Avas;" which he manifests by some notable instances of his sin. " I was," saith he, " a blasphemer," — the highest sin against God ; "a persecutor," — the highest sin against the saints; " injurious,"' — the highest wicked- ness towards mankind. " But," saith he, " I obtained mercy, I am pardoned; " — and that with a blessed effect; first, that he should after all this be so accounted faithful as to be put into the ministry; and then that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in him and towards him was exceeding abundant. And what was the reason, what was the cause, that he was thus dealt withal? Why, it was that he might be a pattern, an evidence, an argument, that there was grace, mercy, foroiveness, to be had for all soils of sinners that would believe to life everlasting.
To conclude, then, this evidence : — Every one who is now in heaven hath his pardon sealed in the blood of Christ. All these pardons are, as it were, hanged up in the gospel; they are all enrolled in the
4-1-8 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. [Vcr. 4.
promises thereof, for the encouragement of them that stand in need of forgiveness to come and sue out theirs also. Fear not, then, the guilt of sin, but the love of it and the power of it. If we love and like sin better than forgiveness, Ave shall assuredly go withoiit it. If we had but rather be pardoned in God's way than perish, our condi- tion is secure.
V. The same is evident from the patience of God towards the world, and the end of it. For the clearing hereof we may observe, —
1. That upon the first entrance of sin and breach of that covenant which God had made with mankind in Adam, he might immediately have executed the threatened curse, and have brought eternal death , tipon them that sinned. Justice required that it should be so, and there was nothing in the whole creation to interpose so much as for a reprieve or a respite of vengeance. And had God then sent sinning man, with the apostate angels that induced him into sin, immediately into eternal destruction, he would Lave been glorified in his right- eousness and severity by and among the angels that sinned not. Or he could have created a new race of innocent creatures to have Avor- shipped him and glorified him for his righteous judgment, even as the elect at the last day shall do for the destruction of ungodly men.