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to Sin in the very Method of forgiving S ER M. it, he thought fit to annex the Declarations of Pardon to the Death of the Mediatour. And therefore the words in the Text, which we render, God for Chrift's fake has forgiven you; are in the Original more accurate and expreffive, God hath forgiven you In Chrift; that is, he has in the difpenfation and by the Terms of the Gospel of Chrift, declared his acceptance of your Repentance. From This confideration, it is easy to give a fatisfactory Answer to the Principal and most Material Objection of Unbelievers; who, in oppofition to the Great Doctrine of the Gofpel, alledge, that God being always neceffarily Omniprefent, and confequently bimself, at all times ready to hear the Prayers of all men, therefore there could be no need of appointing any Mediatour; and that God being of himself, effentially in his nature, always difpofed to do what is right and fit, therefore his Purposes can no way be changed by the interpofition of any Interceffor To This Objection, I fay, it is eafy, from what has been faid, to give a juft and fufficient Answer.

SERM. For the Defign of a Mediator or InterII. ceffor being appointed with God, was not

as if God could be moved, as mortal men are, by Perfwafion to do what otherwise he would not have thought right to be done: but the Defign of it was, that God would teftify his Hatred and Indignation against Sin, by configning the Pardon of it through the Blood of the Mediator. From hence alfo it appears, that as on the one hand the interceffion of Christ is not at all of the lefs value, because the eternal and effential Goodness of God was the original Ground or Motive of our obtaining Forgiveness thro' That interceffion; fo neither on the other hand is the Goodness of God lefs to be acknowledged, or the Pardon of Sin lefs Free, because the Method in which God was pleafed to manifest this Free Goodness was through the interceffion of Chrift. For he, who, in voluntary compliance with his Father's good pleasure, laid down his life for the redemption and falvation of Men; did himself love us, and give himself for us, a ransom and And at the fame propitiation for Sin.

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time, He, who having Power over all, was S E R M. pleased to appoint and to accept on our behalf this interceffion of his Son; may with as much Truth be affirmed to have forgiven us Freely, of his own Grace and Goodness, as if he had done it without any interceffion at all. The Scripture always expresses this matter accurately, with great and exact diftinctness, and with high acknowledgment of the original and effential Goodness of the God and Father of all. Our Saviour himself, Joh. iii. 16; God (fays he) fo loved the World, that be gave his only begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And the Apostle St John in like manner in his 1ft Epistle, ch. iv. 9; In This, fays he, was manifested the Love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World, that we might live through Him.

AND This is a fufficient Explication of the two first Particulars I proposed to difcourfe upon from the Text; that good Christians have their past Sins forgiven; that the original Ground or Motive of that Forgiveness, is the Goodness of God; VOL. X.

D

and

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SER M. and that the particular Method, in which the Goodness of God has thought fit to manifest itself in this Forgiveness of Sin, is through the interceffion of Christ. The

Third and laft Obfervation was, that the Condition of this Forgivenefs through Christ, is the Suppofition of fuch a Repentance, the Fruit and Evidence whereof is our Readiness to forgive each other: Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's fake has forgiven you. In all Promises of Pardon, there is always either exprefs'd or understood, a Suppofition of Repentance. And by Repentance, is always meant, not a bare Sorrow for Sin; (for, That there cannot but be, even in the Place of Torment;) but by true Rcpentance, is always meant, an actual Forfaking and Amending of the Fault repented→ of. And not That only in particular; but it includes also that there be in general fuch a difpofition of Mind, as becomes a penitent and forgiven Sinner: A difpofition of Mind, defirous to how forth the Sincerity of its Repentance by the Thankful Expreffions of an univerfal Obedience, and by imitation of Him whom

We

One SER M.

we adore for having forgiven us. principal part of which imitation, is our being ready, upon all reasonable occafions, to forgive Others, even as He has freely forgiven us. Forbearing one another, and · forgiving one another, if any man have a - quarrel against Any; even as Christ forgave you, fo alfo do ye; Col. iii. 13. And Ephef. v. 2; Walk in love, as Christ also has loved Us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a facrifice to God, for a fweet-smelling favour. To God himself, who is infinitely felf-fufficient to his own Happiness, we are capable of making no Recompence, no Return, for all the Benefits that he has done unto us: And therefore he is pleased to accept our kind and cha-ritable behaviour towards each other, as -a Regard paid immediately to Him; and he requires it of us, as the most proper and fuitable Expreffion of our having a due Sense of His mercy and goodness towards us all. If thy Brother trefpass a--gainst thee, fays our Saviour, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him: And if be trefpafs against thee feven times in a day, and feven times in a day turn again to thee, D 2

Jaying,

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