Many will not admit that any one can know his sins forgiven. And I readily acknowledge, that it is a point on which a man may easily deceive his own soul, especially if he judge of it by any other criterion than that which God himself has proposed. If the life and conversation bear witness to us that we are the Lord's, then may we safely indulge the hope that we are accepted of him.
God has, in former ages, given to men an assurance of his favour —
[To Abel this was given by some visible sign, which ex- cited the envy and wrath of his brother Cainh. David, on the very first acknowledgment of his transgression, was informed by Nathan that his sin was pardoned1 ; and he himself takes notice of it in a psalm of grateful acknowledgment : " I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord : and thou for- gavest the iniquity of my sink." To Hezekiah and Isaiah were similar assurances given1. And our blessed Lord not only repeatedly vouchsafed this blessing to those who waited on him, but maintained his right to do so against those who questioned his power and authority to pardon sinm.]
At present, also, is the same blessing still vouch- safed to his faithful servants —
[What can be meant by the Spirit of adoption that is given to the believing soul11? What can be meant by the witness of the Spirit0, the sealing of the Spirit p, the earnest of the Spiritq? What can be meant by "the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost r," if God never imparts to his people a sense of his pardoning love ? I grant that if these divine sensations be not accompanied with a holy life, they are a mere illusion : but if the whole of our character and deportment be such as becomes the Gospel, then may we assure ourselves that these testimonies are from God, and that " our names are indeed written in the book of lifes." We may " know that we have passed from death unto life*." Nor is this the privilege of the adult Christian only : for even the least in the family of Christ may possess it : as St. John says, " I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
h Gen. iv. 4, 5. { 2 Sam. xii. 13. k Ps. xxxii. 5.
1 Isai. vi. 7. and xxxviii. 17.
m Matt. ix. 2 — 6. Luke vii. 48 — 50. n Rom. viii. 15.
0 Rom. viii. 16. p Eph. i. 13. i Eph. i. 14.
r Rom. v. 5. s Luke x. 20. e 1 John iii. 14.