shall all be pardoned, and it shall be said to him, " The Lord hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die." " Though his sins may have been as crimson, they shall instantly become as white as snowV The healing virtue of the brazen serpent was not felt by those only whose wounds were of a less dangerous nature, but by those who were at the very point of death : and so shall a sight of our crucified Redeemer operate, however long the wounds of sin have been inflicted, or to whatever extent they may have brought death upon the soul.
We may add also, for the encouragement of the young, that, however weakly their infantine minds have embraced the truth, yet, if they be really sensible of their lost estate, and truly look to the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope, he will " take them up in his arms and bless them," and will " ordain praise for himself even in the mouth of babes and sucklings."]
But the more immediate object of our text is, to set before us,
II. The yet happier state of the more advanced be- liever— Every believer without exception receives re- conciliation with God : but the advanced believer is yet more highly privileged. He has this blessing in common with others ; but " not only so." No : he rises higher ; he soars even to God himself ; and " rejoices" and " glories in" God1,
1. As a God of all grace — [The more we are advanced in the divine life, the more deeply do we feel our own emptiness and utter helplessness. This, we might suppose, would rather weaken and interrupt his joy: and so it would, if his views of God were not also proportionably enlarged. But he views God as " a God of all gracek;" and whatever grace he more particularly needs, he sees a fulness of it treasured up in his reconciled God for the supply of his necessities. Does he desire peace? God is to him " the God of peace1." Would he abound in hope? God is to him " the God of hopem." Would he have an increase of patience and of consolation to support him under his diversified afflictions? God is to him " a God of patience and consolation11." In short, whatever he want, God is a God of it to him, not only as having an inexhaustible fulness of it in himself, but as, if we may so speak, made up of it, as if it were his one only perfection. What a joyful thought is this
h Isai. i. 18. > It is the same word as is used in vcr. 3.
k 1 Pet. v. 10. 1 Heb. xiii. 20. m Rom. xv. 13.
n Rom. xv. 5.