to him be in secret in your closets, and believing in your hearts. Let it be as those who are ready to perish, but who see, in the all-sufficiency of the Redeemer, that which encourages your faith, revives your hope, and fixes your unshaken confidence and trust. Look unto him, and be ye saved. Come unto him, and he will give you rest: follow him, as his willing, obedient disciples; and where he is, there shall you be also.

SERMON XVII.

THE GOSPEL MESSAGE.

ACTS xiii. 38, 39.

Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.

IF there be a message in the Bible deserving to be called "glad tidings," it is this. The words before us are full of meaning: they relate to subjects of the first importance, and are worthy of our best attention.

Paul and Barnabas, being set apart to the ministry, entered immediately on their work. In imitation of their great Master, they went about doing good. Thus we read; "Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and sat down." Soon they attracted particular notice. "And, after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word

of exhortation for the people, say on." Paul, without hesitation, complied: and, summoning the attention of his audience, addressed them as from the sixteenth. verse. You can read his discourse at your leisure. The words of the text are towards the close they are part of its application, and are just as interesting to us as they were to the persons who first heard them. May we all understand their meaning, and feel their importance!

In considering the text, we shall notice-The BLESSINGS which it exhibits-Their EXTENT-Their MEDIUM-and Their SUBJECTS.

1. The BLESSINGS which the text exhibits. These are, forgiveness and justification. They are closely connected with each other: indeed, the former may be regarded as included in the latter.

Forgiveness implies offence. The forgiveness of sins evidently supposes that the persons forgiven are transgressors. And does not this apply to us? Have not we transgressed the law of God, which is "holy, just, and good?" Who is not ready to admit the charge, and that, on account of sin, he deserves severely to suffer? Forgiveness has been stated as "simply the removal of all obligation to punishment. It does not render a man innocent of the crimes which he has committed; for a man can never appear otherwise to God than he really is; and it will be everlastingly true that Job cursed the day of his birth, and Peter denied his Master. But sin contracts guilt, and guilt binds over to punishment now forgiveness cancels this obligation to punishment, and restores the offender to safety."

Divine forgiveness, or forgiveness of sins with God, is a blessing of the highest worth, and of the utmost

perfection. Whom the Lord pardons he pardons freely, and completely. Hence he is represented as passing by transgression, as not imputing iniquity, as blotting out sin, as casting it behind his back, as sinking it in the depths of the sea, and as remembering it no more. These are all figurative expressions, but full of meaning, and replete with comfort. The Most High, in the forgiveness of sins, entirely frees the offender from all obligation to punishment, and receives him as if he had not transgressed.

But this leads to the other blessing mentioned in the text-Justification. We cannot better define the term, or give a more correct explanation of the subject, than in the words of that most excellent compendium of Scripture truth, the Assembly's Catechism;-"Justification is an act of God's free grace, whereby he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone." It is not a work wrought in a person, but an act passed upon him; as when a criminal is declared acquitted, and receives his legal release. It is also an act of God. This the Bible a-serts in so many words: "It is God that justifieth :" and his act, not merely as a gracious Sovereign conferring a favour, but as a righteous Governor and Judge doing that which is every way equitable and proper" justified freely by his grace;"-yet as the act of that Being who "is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works."

The blessing includes not only the pardon of sins, but the acceptance of our persons. It is not only exemption from punishment, but restoration to favour : not only release from danger, but admittance into a state of high honour and real safety. Yes; whom

God justifies, he receives cordially into friendship with himself. He looks on such an one not as an enemy, but a friend; as no more an alien, but a child as no longer in disgrace, but dignified. In himself, ever so unworthy and deformed by sin; yet clothed with the garments of salvation, and covered with the robe of righteousness, he is "perfect through the comeliness which is put upon him :" he is "accepted in the beloved." "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." And what think you of such blessings as these? Are they not desirable? Are

they not of inestimable worth? Be it known unto you, that these "good tidings of great joy," the forgiveness of sins and justification unto life, are preached unto you.-Notice,

II. The EXTENT to which they reach.

When the text says, "the forgiveness of sins," it means, doubtless, all sins: and this is evident from the expression, "justified from all things;" that is, from every charge, from every accusation, which from any quarter can possibly be brought against us. Think of the forgiveness of all your sins, secret and open; sins of thought, of word, and of action; sins which have been visible to men, and which are known only to God. His language is"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy 'sins *." Their atrocity shall not hinder, any more than their number; for "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though

*Isai. xliii. 25.