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PRINTED FOR JAMES BLACK, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN; W. BAYNES,
54, AND T. HAMILTON, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND

ROBINSON, SON, & HOLDSWORTH, LEEDS.

Davies & Booth, Printers, Vicar Lane, Leeds.

SERMONS

ON THE

FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

PSAL. CXXX. 4.

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

THE Psalmist, in the first and second verses, addresses God with earnest desires for his saving mercies: "Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord: Lord hear my voice: let thine ear be attentive to my supplication." He humbly deprecates the severe inquiry of divine justice; ver. 3. "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities: O Lord, who shall stand?" If God should with an exact eye observe our sins, and call us to an account, who can stand in judgment? who can endure that fiery trial? The best saints, though never so innoccnt and unblamable in the sight of men, though never so vigilant and watchful over their hearts and ways, are not exempted from the spots of human frailty, which according to the rigour of the law, would expose them to a condemning sentence. He relieves and supports himself under this fearful apprehension with the hopes of mercy: "but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayst be feared." It is in thy power and thy will, to pardon repenting and returning sinners, "that thou mayest be feared." The fear of God in scripture signifies the humble holy reverence of him,

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as our heavenly Father and Sovereign, that makes us cautious lest we should offend him, and careful to please him. For this reason the fear of God is comprehensive of all religion, of "the whole duty of man," to which it is introductive, and is a principal ingredient in it. The clemency and compassionate mercy of God is the cause of an ingenuous filial fear, mixed with love and affiance in the breasts of men. Other attributes, his holiness that framed the law, justice that ordained the punishment of sin, power that inflicts it, render his majesty terrible, and cause a flight from him as an enemy. If all must perish for their sins, no prayers or praises will ascend to heaven, all religious worship will cease for ever: but his tender mercy ready to receive humble suppliants, and restore them to his favour, renders him amiable and admired, and draws us near to him.

There are two propositions to be considered in the verse ;
I. That forgiveness belongs to God.

II. That the forgiving mercy of God is a powerful motive of adoration and obedience. I propound to discourse of the first, and to touch upon the second in the application.

In managing the point with light and order, it is requisite to consider; 1st. What is contained in forgiveness. 2dly. The arguments that demonstrate that forgiveness belongs to God.

1. What is contained in forgiveness. This necessarily supposes sin, and sin a law that is violated by it: the law implies a sovereign Lawgiver, to whose declared will subjection is due, and who will exact an account in judgment of men's obedience or disobedience to his law, and dispense rewards and punishments accordingly. God by the clearest titles" is our king, our lawgiver and judge:" for he is our maker and preserver, and consequently has a full propriety in us, and absolute authority over us: and by his sovereign and singular perfections is qualified to govern us. A derived being is necessarily in a state of dependance and subjection. All the ranks of creatures in the world are ordered by their Maker; his "kingdom rules over all." Those in the lowest degree of being are ordered by power. Sensitive creatures are determined by the impulses of nature to their actions; for having no light to distinguish between moral good and evil, they have no choice, and are incapable of receiving a law. Intelligent creatures, endowed with judicious and free faculties, an understanding to discern between moral good and evil, and.

a will to choose or reject what is propounded to them, are capable of a law to direct and regulate their liberty.

To man a law was given by the Creator, (the copy of his wisdom and will) that has all the perfections of a rule: it is clear and complete, enjoining what is essentially good, and forbidding what is essentially evil. God governs man conveniently to his nature and no service is pleasing to him but the result of our reason and choice, the obedience of our supreme leading powers. Since the fall, the light of the understanding compared with the bright discovery it afforded of our whole duty in our original state, is either like the twilight of the evening, the faint and dim remains of the light of the day, when night draws a dark veil over the world, or like the dawning of the morning, when the rising sun begins to scatter the darkness of the night. The latter comparison I think is more just and regular; for it is said, that the Son of God" enlightens every man that comes into the world." The innate light discovers there is a straight line of truth to regulate our judgment, and a straight line of virtue to regulate our actions. Natural conscience is a principle of authority, directing us to choose and practise virtue, and to avoid vice; and according to our neglect or compliance with its dictates reflects upon us. It is hardly presumable that any are so prodigiously wicked, as not to be convinced of the natural rectitude in things they can distinguish between what is fair and what is fraudulent in dealings, and acknowledge in the general, and in judging of others, the equity of things, though they elude the force of the conviction in the application to themselves. Now since common reason discovers there is a common rule, there must be a common judge to whom men are accountable for the obliquity or conformity of their actions to that rule. The law of God is revealed in its purity and perfection in the scripture.

The law binds first to obedience, and in neglect of it to punishment. Sin is defined by St. John to be "the transgression of the law." The omission of what is commanded, or doing what is forbidden, is a sin. Not only the lusts that break forth into action and evidence, but inward inclinations, contrary to the law, are sin. From hence results a guilt upon every sinner, which includes the imputation of the fault, and obligation to punishment. There is a natural connexion between the evil of doing, and the evil of suffering: the violation of the law is justly

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