Jesus." And again to the Corinthians, "Ye are washed, ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God." I entreat you to attend to this statement, and clearly to understand it. That Forgiveness of sins, which we preach to you, through the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ, is a present forgiveness. Great, complete, and comprehensive as it is, it is also to be received, possessed, and enjoyed now. God in Christ is ready, even now, to be reconciled unto you, to remit all your sins which are past, and henceforth to receive you as righteous, and to regard and deal with you as his beloved children. Such is the nature of that offer which is made to you in the Gospel of Christ. Such is the blessing which it sets before you under the term "Forgiveness of Sins."

And now, my Brethren, are you ready to enquire what you must do to obtain this blessing; and to appropriate it to yourselves? Are you saying each in your own heart, Would that my sins were thus remitted! Would that I were thus justified from all things! What must I do to make this blessing my own, to secure to myself a name and. a place among the children of God?' If suchbe your enquiries, such your secret desires and thoughts, I can easily and satisfactorily reply to them. The text itself furnishes an

answer. Take notice how St. Paul describes those persons, whom he represents as "partakers of the benefit." "By Him all that believe are justified from all things." "All that believe." Belief in Christ is that single condition, qualification, or requisite, on which the Apostle insists as essential to our justification. And God forbid, then, that the minister of Christ should insist on any other. If we should represent the blessing of Remission of Sins as less complete, less comprehensive, than the Apostle has represented it, we should be taking away from the words of Scripture. If we should tell you that any other condition is necessary, for your ob taining this blessing than that one, which He has laid down, we should be adding to the words of Scripture. My Brethren, I would neither take from nor add to the word of God. Saint Paul here says, "All that believe are justified from all things;" and the Scripture says the same in numerous other places; and therefore I say it to you. On the authority of the word of God I say to you, that if you believe you are justified from all things. If with the heart you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, (for it is of such a belief only that the Apostle is here speaking,) your sins, though many, are forgiven you. You are justified from all things, from which you can be justified in no other way. If you

have never to this hour truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, yet even now if He should give you grace with the heart to believe on Him, the whole blessing of which we have been discoursing will from this very hour be yours. Though you came unto this place an unpardoned sinner, yet if now you cordially receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Redeemer, and with your soul assent to the covenant which God offers to you through Him, you will with the Publican "go down to your house justified." You will even now receive remission of sins, and be justified from all things. You will be thoroughly reconciled unto God; and will receive from Him new power and strength to assist you in breaking off from the practice of sin, and in walking henceforth in newness of life. These are the Glad Tidings of the Gospel which we preach to you. This is the gracious message which we are authorized to proclaim to you. May the Lord dispose you to receive it with joy and gladness, and make you a willing and an obedient People in the day of his power! For oh! my Brethren, another part of my office yet remains to be discharged. While on the one hand I thus declare to you the glad tidings of the Gospel, I must, on the other hand,

II. Warn you also of the Guilt and Danger of rejecting them.

What did St. Paul say to the Jews at An tioch, after delivering to them the gracious message in the text, "Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets, Behold, ye despisers, and won, der, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise be lieve, though a man declare it unto you."

He thus affectionately, but solemnly forewarned them of the guilt and danger they would incur by not embracing and obeying the Gospel. They would surely, in this case, bring upon themselves those dreadful judgements which God had denounced by his Prophets on those who should be guilty of despising him and his word; and which would be literally and circumstantially fulfilled, in a manner past all belief. And did not this fulfilment actually take place? The. greater part of the Jewish nation did reject the Gospel, and despise the Saviour. And. what was the consequence? The Almighty, within the space of a few years, brought upon them the most tremendous and com-. plicated calamities, with which any nation was ever visited. They were cut off by fire and sword, by famine and pestilence, in every part of the world; while at Jerusalem alone above a million of them perished in the most dreadful manner. Nor has the revolution of 1800 years expiated the guilt of this national

sin. Their posterity have ever since been "a bye-word and a proverb" in all countries, and to this day stand forth an aweful example of the truth declared in the Text, and of the dreadful punishment which awaits all those who reject and despise the Gospel.

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Let me remind you of some of those sages of Scripture in which these punishments are clearly implied or expressly predicted. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?" "What shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ?" "If he that despised Moses' Law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace ?"* To these significant questions, which carry with them their own answer, listen to these words of Christ Himself to his Apostles: "And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgement than for that city." And lest * Heb. ii. 3. 1 Pet. iv. 17. Heb. x. 28, 29. + Matthew, x. 14, 15.