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tender mercy of God, whereby he makes the day-spring from on high to visit us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, to guide our feet in the way of peace.

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Having considered the subjects of punishment and forgiveness, separately, we will now consider these two subjects in connection with each other, that the reader may see that there is no inconsistency between them as they stand in the scriptures. On the subject of punishment we have learned that God, in rendering to every man according to his deeds,' will recompense tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.' Nor does the scriptural doctrine of forgiveness contradict this sentiment of retribution; for it teaches the forgiveness, not of deserved punishment but of sins. This forgiveness of sins frees men from the suffering of that tribulation and anguish which God doth recompense upon every man that doeth evil; yet it does not oppose the doctrine of a just recompense to every man according to his deeds; for it frees them from the before mentioned tribulation and anguish by freeing them from sin. Then being freed from sin, they are no longer that description of persons upon which the law pronounces

its curses.

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In the present light of our subject we can perceive the consistency of the sentence in the writings of Moses, which was referred to in the beginning of this article. The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.' God,

in tender mercy to sinners, employs means in his wise and benevolent government, to reform them, and free them from transgression and sin. And when by the influence of those means which the divine government employs, sinners are brought to repentance, or turn from the love and practice of sin, then too they are freed from the guilt and condemnation of sin, and God does not impute to them their sins, or treat them as sinners any longer. They are permitted to enjoy the sweets of communion with God, in the consciousness of the divine approbation, as if they had never sinned. But while they remain guilty,' walking in the way of transgression, God will by no means clear' them from the suffering of that death and misery, that tribulation and anguish, which the divine law makes the sinner's just portion. Accordingly, the person who has been forgiven, has suffered the proper punishment of his sins; even as the man who has been healed of a bodily disease has suffered the natural evil of that disease.

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The sick man is freed from pain by being freed from the disease by which the pain was produced. And when the disease is removed, and the man restored to health, his then experiencing a freedom from pain, and the pleasure of bodily health is in accordance with, and not opposed to, that organic law of the corporeal system which connects pain with disease; for the law connects pleasure with health. Even so, when the man who is reformed and forgiven, experiences a freedom from the evil or punishment of sin, and enjoys the pleasure of virtue and truth, this is in accordance with, and not opposed to, that divine moral law, which connects punishment with sin;

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for the same law connects a holy and rational pleasure with virtue and truth. The language of this divine law is, The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.'1 The soul that sinneth, it shall die,-in his sin that he hath sinned, and in his trespass that he hath trespassed, in them shall he die." But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness he shall live."2 Surely this law is not opposed to men's being freed from the condemnation or death of sin, when they are freed from sin.

III. Thus far we have considered the subject of forgiveness in its most extensive sense, as applying to the whole work of deliverance from sin with its consequences. But there are two or three cases in the New Testament, where the subject of the divine forgiveness is introduced, in which the word forgive seems to be applied to that part of deliverance or salvation from sin, which consists in a sensible freedom of the mind from its guilt. Matthew and Mark make mention of Jesus' saying to his disciples, 'Forgive, if ye have aught against any, that your Father also which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your tres

1 Prov. xi, 31.

2 Ezek. xviii, 4, 21, 22, 24.

ses.' We are not to construe this scripture as teaching that God cherishes an unfriendly disposition towards us, while we cherish an unfriendly disposition towards others. This would represent Him who is the standard of perfection, as copying in his disposition after frail man, and even after wicked unforgiving men. God is unchangeably good, kind to the unthankful and the evil. Even while men are sinners, God's kindness to them employs means to bring them to repentance, that they may come into the rich enjoyment of forgiveness, or freedom from sin. But we learn from the above language of our Lord, that as long as we are in the service of sin, God will not grant us a freedom from its guilt.

2 Matt. vi, 14, 15. Mark xi. 25, 26. See also Matt. xviii. 21-35. Some learned theological writers use this passage in support of the doctrine of endless punishment in the prison of hell. The man, they say, who was cast into prison or delivered to tormentors until he should pay his debt,could never make pay. ment, and therefore could never get released from prison: and hence they argue, that those with whom God deals thus, (see v. 35,) will be cast into a prison from which there is no deliverance. But there is no authority either for this statement or conclusion. The object of the man in the parable, who cast his fellow-servant ihto prison was, to obtain his debt. • He cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.' It appears hence that he expected that his fellow-servant might be able to make some arrangement to pay the debt. And the same expectation is expressed of the lord of the unforgiving servant, when he delivered him over to the tormentors, or jailers. And though such debtor may have died in prison before he paid the debt, it does not follow that those to whom this parable is applied, might not fully pay what their Lord required. The debt required of them was, to forgive their brethren. And as the debtor in the parable was to remain in prison until he should pay the debt, 80 should they remain in the prison of death, until they should exercise a forgiving spirit. He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death. But there is no evidence that any will eternally continue in an unfriendly or unforgiving spirit.

If we cherish an unkind and unforgiving disposition towards our fellow-creatures, we are in bondage to sin; for such a disposition is sin. And it is only by repenting or turning from sin, and exercising love which forgives our fellow-creatures, that we can experience ourselves a freedom from guilt, and enjoy the approbation of our Father in heaven.

Although the term forgive, in the last noticed instance, seems to apply in particular to a freedom from the guilt or condemnation of sin, yet here is likewise implied that freedom from sin itself, which we have shown to be meant in general by the phrase, forgiveness of sins. Nor can the christian find any forgiveness in his own experience, but what amounts to a deliverance from sin. The freedom from guilt which the christian enjoys, is only proportional to his freedom from the love and practice of evil. And when, as enlightened christians, we pray to our father, Forgive us our sins,' we do not mean to ask God to let us go on in sin and screen us from the punishment which he has thretened on transgressors; but the sense of our prayer is, 'Free us from our sins, that we may live unto thee, enjoy thy approbation and suffer no longer that tribulation and anguish, which is upon every soul of man that doeth evil.'

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IV. We have now taken a general view of the doctrine of punishment as it is pronounced by the divine law, and administered by the divine government; and also of the doctrine of forgiveness or remission of sins. And it appears to be a clear case, that as these two doctrines

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