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all this there is not the least approach to any thing like genuine repentance?

But a serious and candid reader may also here be disposed to ask, And is all this required before we ought to exercise forgiveness? Must we restrain our feelings of pity and affection? Must we appear resentful and so tenacious of injury, as to retain a sense of it in all our future dealings towards the offender? Or ought we not rather to remember who hath said, “Vengeance is mine, and 1 will repay?",

To this amiable and plausible protest it is replied: There are duties which we owe to our enemies-we are commanded to love them, but we are not commanded to forgive an offence unrepented and unacknowledged. Doubtless we ought, even previously to any concession, to cherish pity, and a disposition to exercise kindness | towards the offender. We ought to pray for him, that he may receive Divine forgiveness; and we ought to remove every impediment to a frank acknowledgment of his offence; especially if we perceive symptoms of a returning mind, we ought to encourage them, to meet them, to make it manifest that we stand ready to forgive. But all this is not forgiveness. To exercise forgiveness of injuries unlamented, is to abandon justice and sanction crime. Mercy is an amiable feeling; but mercy at the expense of justice, is no longer mercy, but sinful couniv

ance.

"If he repent, forgive him," is, however, a command emanating from the highest authority, the neglect of which involves the most tremendous consequences. It remains, therefore, now to inquire,

III. IN WHAT MANNER, AND
TO WHAT EXTENT, IS THIS

FORGIVENESS TO BE EXER-
CISED? To which it is replied,

1. Instantaneously. The Father of mercies is represented as waiting to be gracious, as ready to forgive. In like manner, we should manifest that we stood prepared, with the blessing in our hand, as it were, which we were anxious to communicate, and impatient of every delay. Upon repentance, forgiveness is our instant duty: there must be no hesitation, no intervening con siderations. Repentance and forgiveness, though the duties of different individuals, are intimately and invariably united in the word of God; and "what God has joined together, let no man put asunder," even for a moment.

2. It must be communicated cheerfully. "He that showeth mercy, let him do it with cheerfulness." Forgiveness is a duty, but it must not be communicated merely as a duty. We must show that we esteem it a privilege-a luxury. "Forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin," is the grand characteristic of Jehovah. Let us, then, by the cheerfulness with which we exercise this grace, show that it constitutes a prominent feature in our characters; that instead of an awkward, uneasy, unusual act, it is that without which we cannot feel happy.

3. It must be exercised fully and universally. The magnitude of the offence must not be any obstacle. The greatest offence against us will not bear a comparison with the least of our sins against God. Yet he hath said,

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Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson,

they shall be as wool." Jehovah | is very striking, and will form is represented as rich in mercy, an appropriate conclusion to and plenteous in redemption. these remarks. "His Lord called And our forgiveness should be him, and said unto him, O thou full, without any reserves. wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thow also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise (adds the compassionate Saviour to the disciples) shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye, from your hearts, forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."

4. Our forgiveness must be final. To adopt a common adage, we must forgive and forget. Respecting his people, the Lord says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins will I remember no more." A recurrence to past offences, indicates that we have never yet fully forgiven them. Genuine forgiveness includes a blotting-out, an erasure, an entire cancel,-that shall preclude a re-appearance at any future time, when some new of fence presents itself to our notice.

5. Our forgiveness must be exercised frequently. "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses." He is represented not only as forgiving, but as multiplying pardons.* Indeed, were it not so, what would become of us? Shall we then be weary in this good work? Shall we, who have received ten thousand pardons, refuse to forgive the comparatively few offences that are committed against us? Our Lord said to his disciples, If thy brother trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times

seven.

The parable of the unforgiving servant, who had received mercy,

*This, the writer is informed, is a correct translation of Isaiah, Iv. 7.

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sion of the pearl of great price, which the Bible contains.

1. Always remembering that the scriptures are the words of God, let that reverence and esteem be cultivated for them which their high authority and excellence demand. Without the sacred volume, darkness and uncertainty would fill our minds in reference to a future state. Without light to our feet, or lamp to our path, we should stumble on the obscure mountains of ancient heathenism; but from the Bible, a child may, in a few hours, learn more of a future state, than ancient philosophy ascertained without it in thousands of years. We can never be sufficiently thankful, that God, in various ways, and with gradually increasing clearness, continued to reveal eternal things, till at length life and immortality were fully made known by the gospel, and the message of salvation from sin and misery was sent by Him, whose dignity gives importance to his injunctions, and certainty to his promises. To read the scriptures therefore with inattention, must be highly offensive to him. Many, into whose hands they come, scarcely ever meditate on their interesting contents, but satisfy themselves with that, as a service to God, which only increases their guilt; and hence, instead of being benefitted by the reading of the scriptures, these on

enacted, "that whosoever they were, that should read the scripture in the mother tongue, they should forfeit land, cattle, life, and goods, from their heirs for ever, and be condemned as hereties to religion, enemies to the crown, and arrant traitors to the land." A glorious revolution has taken place since that period; and we have reason to believe the time not far distant, when every people upon earth shall read in their own language the wonderful works of God. The generality of their expressions form no objection against the scriptures themselves, for how could every man's case have a particular revelation? We ought wisely to consider how far their cautions, instructions, and promises, are applicable to our individual cases. God has dealt with us as we deal with our children in things of inconsiderable importance, we give them general directions; but those, upon the knowledge of which their happiness depends, we endeavour to impress deeply on their minds, by frequent repetition. In the Word of God, things of minor importance are so connected with what is of greater, as to form a beautiful and useful whole: yet truths, a knowledge of which is inseparable from our present and future felicity, sometimes occur repeatedly in the same chapter. Happy are they, who, by Divine grace, possess a sincere desire to be instructed by them, and wholy prove to them a savour of death submit their sentiments and practice to the control only of their influence.

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unto death. The man of piety, however, while he reveres the authority of the sacred volume, and esteems its contents better than thousands of gold and silver, feels that it instructs him in what belongs to his everlasting peace. He finds himself full of darkness, and the world full of contradic

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tions but from the Bible, light to administer comfort to the and truth break forth, whose saints of the former dispensation, cheering beams shine on the wil-and to give support to the first derness, and turn it into a fruitful Christians under their trials and field. Here we learn the cha- afflictions for Christ's sake; it racter of God, and the nature of should answer similar purposes his law; that we have transgress- to us, that our faith being strengthed from the womb, and that in- ened by the illustration and confinite love hath provided a Savi- firmation of the New Testament, our for the guilty, able to save, to we might have hope full of imthe uttermost, all that come unto mortality and eternal life: yet the God, by him. The cross of light of the former economy was Christ is discovered, in which the in comparison of the present, perfections of the Deity harmo- only as the rays of the moon to nize, mercy and truth meet toge- the mid-day's sun. Revelation is ther, righteousness and peace em- now completed, "that we might brace each other, the dreadful believe that Jesus is the Christ, malignity of sin is depicted, the the Son of God; and that believworth of the soul displayed, the ing we might have life through his vanity of the world, and the ex- name." The benevolence which ceeding riches of divine grace, are runs through the sacred writings, illustrated. Beholding the "Lamb properly considered, will endear of God, who taketh away the sin them to our minds, and incline us of the world," and possessing eter- to read them with more than ornal life through him, afford more dinary interest. On the contrary, joy than the increase of corn and if this be lost sight of, our reading wine can possibly excite; dis- will be a mere matter of course, cerning the glory and grandeur of and these lively oracles will prothe gospel, we say with David, duce in us no good effect. "If "O how I love thy law! it is my our gospel be hid, it is hid to meditation all the day!" The them that are lost; in whom the man who thus knows the value of god of this world hath blinded the Bible, esteems it as the best the minds of them that believe article of furniture in his house, not, lest the light of the glorious and if put to his choice, would gospel of Christ, who is the image rather be deprived of all his of God, should shine unto them." goods and chattels, than part with If this be your case, your condithat. Learn, readers, if you tion is far worse than the heathen, would gain improvement from to whom the glad tidings of sal this book, to revere its authority vation were never sent. While, as divine, and its communications therefore, you rejoice that the as more valuable than all that providence of God hath placed earth contains. you in a land of Bibles, rejoice with trembling, lest you be found among those, who, for the abuse of so distinguished a privilege,

2. In reading the scriptures, never lose sight of the ends they were designed to answer. "Whatsoever things were written afore-will be plunged into everlasting time, were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope." The Old Testament was intended by the Holy Spirit

misery. The positions of human authors you may doubt; their conclusions you may question ; and their reasonings you may, if you please, reject, without

dangerous consequences; but the Word of God demands your full belief and obedience. If you reject it, you have nothing left that can do you any good, no refuge in the storms of life, nor source of happiness in the hour of death. "He that believeth not shall be damned." Let us intreat you to read the holy scriptures, as one who considers them able to make him "wise unto salvation, by faith, which is in Christ Jesus," and as intended by their Divine Author for that very purpose.

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state of your animal spirits, and
partly from the influence the ene-
my of your souls has obtained
over you, they require that you
should rouse yourself to activity.
Perhaps you can call to your re-
collection seasons of similar dis-
tress, from which you have been
delivered by the blessing of
God, applying some promise of
his word to your minds; let
such recollections have their
per influence. When, by sinning
against God, you have brought
darkness over your souls, it will
be difficult for you to read what
brings condemnation to your con-
sciences, and you will be strongly
tempted to. forbear this exercise,
especially in private. The longer
this temptation is effectual, the
more palpable will be your dark-
ness, and heavier your distress.
"Take with you words, and turn
to the Lord, say unto him, take
away all iniquity and receive us
graciously, so will we render the
calves of our lips."

3. Read the Word of God frequently, and by no means suffer your minds to be diverted from a constant attention to it. You will meet with temptations to neglect it, particularly if you are placed in business, which requires persevering diligence. If Satan cannot prevail with you entirely to omit this duty, he will try to persuade you to read but little, and to drive that little into a corner. When you are weary in body, and when your spirits are exhausted, by application to the world, he will permit you to hurry through a short chapter, or a shorter psalm, to quiet your consciences. But you must guard against this, by redeeming time, for the perusal of the sacred volume, for deliberation on what you have read, and for prayer, that a divine blessing may attend you in reading the scriptures. If you are not exposed to the continual run of business, other temptations will be tried to prevent your attention to the Word of God. The dulness and stupidity of your minds, will some-attacked, let the believer rememtimes be such as to induce you to say, "Of what avail is it that I study the Bible; I have often read it to no purpose; I am so insensible as to understand nothing.", Such ideas may arise partly from the

It is not an uncommon thing for Satan to assault the people of God, by telling them that the scriptures are a cunningly devised fable;" that to read them, persuaded they are divinely inspired, is the greatest weakness. This is a trying temptation, but genuine faith will overcome it. "He that believeth hath the witness in himself." What he has experienced he knows is of God, and finding the counterpart of his own feelings in the sacred writings, he can no more be argued out of their inspiration than of his own existence. When thus

ber what God has wrought in him, and hold fast the word of truth. This "sword of the Spirit" must eventually overcome the adversary.

4. Never forget to accompany

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