" After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, whom no one could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And they sung with a loud voice, saying "Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever." Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and do. minion, for ever and ever. Amen. CHAP. V. The believer's triumph over sin in its guilt. THE forgiveness of sins is the grand doctrine of salvation, on which peace with God is built. Sin is present with the believer, but pardoned. Sin is felt, but ceases to condemn. This is the chief difficulty in experience. How the truth of God, and his holiness, and his threatenings, and the honour of his law can be maintained, and yet he can be faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The believer may be often shaken in his mind, and troubled with legal fears and workings, if he be not so well established by the Spirit, and word of God, as to submit in his conscience to God's way of pardoning sin. It was always one and the same, contrived and appointed in the everlasting councils of the blessed Trinity, and revealed upon the entrance of sin, viz. that a person in Jehovah would become incarnate, and take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. To him Moses and all the prophets give witness. C that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. The proclamation of grace holds it out most clearly. When Moses was permitted to see his glory, the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth: keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Every sacrifice preached this same truth visibly, showing the death which the sinner deserved, and the divine method of pardoning it, through faith in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. For Jesus is the very paschal Lamb who was sacrificed for us : and the deliverance which they experienced in Egypt, through the sprinkling of his blood, we feel the same in our hearts unto this day. Through faith they kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them : through the same faith we keep the same feast, and having found redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, we live safe out of the reach of the destroyer. We know our danger as they did, and we look to the Lamb of God for safety. It is the Holy Spirit who convinces both of sin and of pardon. His conviction of sin makes an impression upon the conscience of its infinite evil. He stops the sinner's mouth, and makes him subscribe to all that is said in scripture of his guilt, and of his danger. Looking at himself under the law, and under sin, which is the transgression of the law, he is made to submit to the sentence of condemnation, and has nothing of his own to plead in arrest of judgment. Thus he is taught to think of the law, as God does, both of its precepts and penalties. He sees infinite justice, and holiness, and truth, armed against him, and the desert of his sins to be everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, which he has no power to resist, and no means to escape. When the Holy Spirit convinces him of righteousness, and manifests the grace of God, in the free forgiveness of his sins, yet still he feels the exceeding wickedness of them. He loaths and abhors himself, as the subject of them, and groans, being burthened with the abiding sense of his corruptions. At his very best it is-O wretched man, who shall deliver me? &c. but at the same time he can rejoice in God his Saviour-I thank God through Jesus Christ-He is the propitiation for my sins, and I have found peace with God through faith in his blood. Thus the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. He gives a steadfast faith in the atonement of Jesus, and settles such a peace in the conscience, as answers all charges from sin and from unbelief. And hereby he fulfils the proclamation of grace in the new Testament, which agrees exactly with the sentiments of the Old. When our Lord sent out his apostles to preach the gospel to every creature, his commission to them runs in these words : " And Jesus said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day : and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all G |