AN EXPOSITION

OF THE

FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN

IN A SERIES OF SERMONS.

SERMON IX.

 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive, us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1 JOHN 1: 9.

The apostolic writings were immediately from the Holy Ghost. They are the great bulwarks of the church of Christ. The very walls of salvation which surround the city of our God. They are ever to be treated with the utmost reverence. They are wholly Divine. They are immutable. The truths contained in them will outlast the world. They will remain in our world immutably the same ; let our various apprehensions of them be what they may. And our greatest wisdom consists, in our giving up our minds to such right apprehensions of them, so far as the Spirit of Cod may be our teacher, as to understand them rightly, and properly for our advantage, and the Lord's glory. The apostle has been aiming to assist saints in their communion with the Lord, by removing from their minds, any, and every thing which seemed to them to obstruct the same. As they had sin in them, and therefore must have as the consequence of the same, their sinful, as well as their bodily, and natural infirmities ; and as these would, and could not but produce in their minds, such effects as naturally followed from them ; so he prepared a most noble remedy to ease their minds from all this, by saying to them, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Lest any mistake might arise in their minds, concerning the cleansing virtue of Christ's most precious blood, as if it actually so cleansed them, that they were never to expect to see, and feel any sin, or sinfulness in themselves any more, he immediately adds, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." It will prove us to be self-deceivers so to say, or think. It being to be contradictors of what is recorded in the scriptures ; of what is recorded in them of all the saints. Their confessions of their own inherent. sinfulness, and their experiences of the same, were full proofs to themselves, of sin being in them. We are the same inwardly, and in our fallen nature as they were : therefore to affirm of ourselves, that we have no sin in us, is to deceive ourselves-to contradict the scriptures-to tell a lie. And this is incompatible with truth. We ourselves, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, have sin in us. We are not without it : so neither are you. If so, it may be asked, do we not sometimes fall by it? most assuredly we do : it cannot be otherwise : for if it dwells in us, if we are the subjects of a body of sin and death, it cannot but be, we must some­times be under the partial influences thereof. Therefore the apostle proposes a relief suited to this part of our spiritual distress. If we con­fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In these words, we have a most blessed direction how to act when in, and under sinful cases : so as to improve for ourselves that most blessed cordial proposed to us, by the apostle in these words, The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us front all sin. As we go through our present text, this will be further elucidated. In speaking on these words of my text, I will propose to set before you the following particulars.

1. That the saints are at times, in various cases, and circumstances, in which the only remedy for them is, to confess their sins to the Lord. If we confess our sins.

2. How this is to be done.

3. The benefit of so doing. We have the forgiveness of them.

4. From whom we receive this forgiveness, and the faithfulness, and justice of God made known therein. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

5. The perception of this grace ; which is thus expressed. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 0 glorious grace ! It is wholly and altogether from above. It is everlastingly divine. I will for the preserving the connection quote the former words. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we con­fess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The former words having been opened, it is the latter which now lie before me to explain ; of which I have given my plan of division, and which by the Lord's blessing I am now to fill up. And my

 1st. Particular is this-That the saints are at times, in various cases, and circumstances, in which the only remedy for them is, to confess their sins to the Lord. And this is here proposed by the apostle. If we confess our sins.

 Whilst all saints are in an immutable state of grace, and the work of grace within them is invincible, and can never undergo the least  change;  yet the minds, the frames, the cases, and circumstances of saints are not so. If they have sin within them, they will feel it : yea, and this cannot be but they will be afflicted, and affected with it. They will in consequence of it, lose their sweet frames. Their free accesses to the Lord will be broken in upon : their minds will be distressed. Their cases will be various. Sometimes the remembrance of sin will fill them with Holy disquietude; sometimes circumstances in a providential way, will greatly agitate and embarrass their minds : sometimes they will be in a sinful case: their old besetting sin will overcome them : this will most sorely distress them. They will write bitter things against them­selves: they will refuse to be comforted : yea, they will confound their case with their state, and say it may be, on such and such accounts, that. their state is a sinful state. This cannot be. Their case may be a sinful one : they may have fallen into sin : they may have fallen by their iniquity, into that very sin, which most easily besets them : they may have the guilt of it on their consciences ; the pollution of it on their minds. It cannot but bring with it great sorrow and grief into their hearts : yet all this is quite distinct from their being in a sinful state. No: none of the Lord's regenerated ones, can ever be any more in a sinful state : yet they may over and over, be in a sinful case, and sinful circumstances. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider, sin liveth and dwelleth in them -Satan hates them with implacable hatred - all, the world out of Christ, are watching them, and every snare is laid in their way, and set before them, to turn and divert their minds from Christ. It is also to be considered, they cannot support themselves : inherent grace can do nothing for them. It is the Lord alone who can uphold them. He leaves them at times to themselves, in various, and a variety of particulars, to the intent they may know their own inherent sinfulness, and weaknesses, and find to a demonstration, that without Him they can do nothing. It is the Lord's will, they should bewail all this, and confess all this before Him, to the intent, that by their own words, they may more sensibly apprehend their own personal, and peculiar, and particular cases. And there are seasons, in which they find, the only remedy for their is, to go and confess their sin before the Lord. One of old said, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found." Ps. xxxii. 3-6. There is no case more distressing to a real saint, than a sinful one. He cannot get relief from it, but by going to the Lord. He cannot have access unto the Lord, but he must open his grief's, and confess his sins, and sinfulness: and this is what the Lord himself will bring him to. Then he finds, as one of old said, did, and acknowledges the same, to the praise and glory of free grace; and says, "Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee." Ps. lxxxvi. 5. The Lord is pleased thus to address him­self, saying unto them, '' Turn, 0 backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you:" they hearing his most blessed voice, rejoin, " Lord, to whom should we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." He says again to them, "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord, say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." Such scriptures as these suit us, when we are in peculiar cases, and sinful ones, and distressing circumstances, arising from our inherent sinfulness and actual defilements. Such passages as have been quoted, had not suited the cases of those to whom the Lord speaks them, had not their cases been sinful ones. They are on the Lords part strong memorials of his grace and on the part of those to whom they are spoken, they are very solemn testifications of their alienation in heart and affections from Him the fountain of living waters. One whose case was a sinful one, said in an entire agreement with all this, and with the whole of the subject now before us, " Iniquities prevail against me, as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away." Ps. lxv. 3. This, as I conceive of it, fully proves, that saints are at times in various cases : in a variety of circumstances. They have various frames and feelings: it will not do to con­ceal them in their own minds. They must if they would be relieved, pour out their hearts before the Lord. If oppressed with sin, their own sin, and inward sinfulness, it. is not sufficient to confess the same to one the other. There is no remedy for them, but to confess the same be­fore the Lord. This is the only remedy : and it is exactly suited to their case. This is that which only can do then good. It is true the apostle James says, '' Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." let most assuredly, he means matters which may arise against each other ; the best remedy for which is, to confess the fault, one saint, to another : so as they may both share equal blame, so far as each may deserve, and thus mutually settle the difference on both sides. Yet. that is not. the subject here before us : so that it hath no place here. It is our sinning against the Lord, and our confessions of the same before Him are the subject. And also, that this is the only remedy for real saints, in some particular cases, and circums­tances : as hereby the glory of God is advanced. I would here men­tion the words of Joshua, who said to one who had sinned in tine thing accursed. '' My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him." vii. 19. It appears to me, the whole contained in all this, is opened in the following scripture. " I acknow­ledge my transgressions : and my sin is ever before me : Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightiest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." Ps. li. 3, 4. Sin as sin, is an act immediately against God. it is an offence against His majesty. A transgression of his law. He only can pardon it. To him we must therefore go for the pardon of it. Which brings me

 2. To set forth how this is to be done. " If we confess our sins." Which implies we are so to do. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our­selves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But what comes before me, in this second head of discourse, as connected with the former, concerns the confession of sins. Of which it hath been before said, that there is no remedy for saints, in some par­ticular cases, and circumstances, but by a confession of their sins. And his remedy is now to be spoken of. The question therefore is, how is this confession to be made, and unto whom is it to be done, so as that saints in their sinful cases, may receive relief. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. To confess sin is our act : the right confession must, be in the faith of the everlasting efficacy of the propitiatory sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood cleanseth us, now, and evermore from all sin. The confession is to be made to, and before the Divine Father. He is the Person intended in these words,

 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. With respect to of these particulars, I know not how I can set them forth more completely before you, than by reciting what. was transacted by Aaron, and all the congregation of Israel, on the great day of Atonement. You have the account of it in the 16th chapter of Leviticus. It was to be a day of solemn fasting and humiliation. Aaron the high-Priest, who was the representative of the church, and a type of Christ. also, was to act as follows. He was to lay both his hands on the head of the goat called the scape-goat, and confess over him, all the sins, iniquities, and transgressions of all the people of Israel. Not any thing belonging to their iniquities was to be omitted. I will quote the passage that you may see it for yourselves. “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat." A very strong figure to set forth our Lord Jesus Christ, as the substitute of' his people, to whom the Father transferred their sins, and all and every thing contained in them. So that He bore our sins in his own body on the Tree. It is the true knowledge of this, makes way for our true and proper confession of sin. It consists in our total renunciation of all we are, or ever shall be ; acknowledging our exceeding sinfulness, and resting, pleading and confessing before the Divine Majesty, our expectation of receiving everlasting life, pardon, health, cure, and purity, for the whole contained in our inherent sinfulness, and every effect thereof, from the virtue con­tained it the one sacrifice of Jesus : which is so complete that He hath thereby for ever perfected the putting away of sin. Now as the High Priest, and people, both in his own name, and in theirs also, as representing them, made a confession of their sins, iniquities, and transgres­sions in all their sins, before the Lord, and thus laid them on the head of the scape-goat, a type of our Lord Jesus Christ-so we New Testament saints, when we have fallen into sin, and have to lament. our sinful cases, are to come before our heavenly Father, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and laying our hand on his head, as our true and only sacrifice, confess before the Divine Majesty, what, and wherein we have done amiss. And this is our only remedy. I have said, we are to lay our hand or his head. It is impossible for us so to do : the cleaning is, we are to rest all our dependence on the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, before his Father and our Father, his God, and our God, for our everlasting life and salvation. I conceive no one can be more inherently defiled than myself: nor can have been more deeply sensible thereof, and in experience seen themselves more vile. And thus is the way I have been often led in real spiritual practice-to come before the Lord -to place myself in his view-to beseech him to look on me in Christ ;­to pardon me influentially and manifestatively, in the full knowledge he hath of the worth and perfection of Christ's everlastingly efficacious bloodshedding. And I have in the real exercise of faith trusted before Him, on the finished work of the God-Man, for everlasting health, cure, purity, and salvation from every spot and stain of sin, on the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ : not looking at any thing good or bad in me; but looking wholly without. me, to the free grace of the Divine Father; who hath revealed his Christ in the gospel, and set, him forth therein, as the propitiation. Beloved, I have, as I conceive, opened the  apostles meaning unto you. We are to come in, and we are to come with, all our sinful cases to the Lord, our heavenly Father. We are to ,confess what we feel, and what we have clone amiss before Him. We are to act thus, in the faith of Christ, his blood and righteousness. If we thus confess our sins, we may be sure we shall find this an all suffcient remedy for us ; let a sight and sense of the same be to our own apprehensions what they may, it is the blood of Jesus Christ, now, and ever­more cleanseth us from all sin. And in a true spiritual conception of the same, we have a complete cure for all our wounds : yea, an infallible remedy for our every case, be it what it may. We coming before the Father, with all our inward wounds, and wants, confessing our inherent and actual sinfulness, this makes way for our being benefited in so doing which

3. Is this we have the forgiveness of them. If we confess our sins, lie is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

This is what we approach Him for : and it is an inestimable blessing. The true apprehension of the same received into our minds, is present life and salvation to its. It is because we feel our present sin­fulness, we confess it before the Father. Nothing can be a present cure and antidote for us, but, his free and full forgiveness. It is recorded of Him, by one who had full proof of the truth of it in his own mind, and who therefore spoke it out, that He might be glorified thereby ; '' Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive ; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee." Ps. lxxxvi. 5. It is in the realizing of divine mercy to our minds, we are deeply impressed with it : have real appre­hensions of it : and arc again and again, filled with holy admiration at the same. It was a great display of mercy on us, when the Lord first  looked on us, in Christ. And he having revealed Christ unto its, we were then led to look unto Him : and we found in Him everlasting life; with all the blessings of a free, finished, and an everlasting salvation. We then were most divinely overcome with it. We did not expect to nave ever felt and found that in ourselves, which we now do, and have since done. We need Christ to the present. moment : we shall need Him the next : we shall need Him in our last moments : nor shall we need Him then, more than we do now. It is our various and sinful cases prove the truth of this to our minds. We are never without sin : we have never more, nor less, the inherency of it in our fallen natures. It is true we see, and feel its influence and operation within us, more at one  time than the other : yet as it respects the inbeing of it in us, this is always one and the same. We scarce believe this. To prevent our mistakes concerning it, the apostle says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we have no sin in us, if we never commit sins, we cannot confess them. It follows that. the Lord's people have sins to confess. It. must therefore be that they are sensibly affected, and afflicted with them ; or, this had never been prescribed as a true and proper remedy for them-to go to the Lord and confess them. Nor would the benefit, consequent thereon have been thus freely and fully pronounced-the forgiveness of them. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. An old Puritan divine, Mr. Bridge, expresses himself on our present subject thus. " God, (says he,) hath set up a Pardoning-office." It is really so. And any of those who are believers in Christ may repair to it. His title is a God of Pardons. See the margin to these words, " Thou art a God ready to forgive." Neh. ix. 17. To this, sinners, even such as have tasted that the Lord is gracious, may repair : they may give in their bills : they may confess their sins : they may particularly specify what they are : and say, each for himself, I have sinned. They will on this receive the following answer. " I will heal your backslidings. I will love you freely. For mine anger is turned away from you." Sometimes it will be individually to one of these, Thy sins which are many, are forgiven thee. Thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in peace. This is all, and evidentially true, in the real cases, experiences, and minds of many of the Lord's beloved who find the truth of this in their minds, and can set their seals to the truth hereof. And it serves to set the apostles words before them, in a true point of view. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. This is the blessed fruit which follows on the con­fession of sins : of our sins before the Lord. We his children, going, and confessing before Him, our present sin, guilt, and defilement, and pleading the person, blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, are discharged in our minds, by His royal free and sovereign pardon ; which he is pleased to give us a renewed sense and apprehension of, so as that we enjoy an inward sense thereof, rejoice in him; and bless him for the same : saying, " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." We are hereby sometimes so refreshed in such experiences as these, of the forgiving grace of our heavenly Father, as to be lifted up in love to, and communion with Him, more than we were, when he first manifested himself in Christ Jesus unto us-. and no marvel, because it is such a proof to us, that he delighteth in mercy, as makes way for a more full reception into our minds, of what he saith. – “With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." It is well then for us, to come before our heavenly Father, in the Person, Name, blood and righteousness of his coequal Son, with all our fresh cases, wounds, sins, and miseries : to confess them : to sue out a fresh pardon for them : and never to forget this is our only remedy. If we confess our sins, this is what will follow thereon. He will forgive us our sins. It is but to ask, and we shall receive the same. This is the gospel way for us to be discharged. It is the present way for us to obtain relief for our present, and particular cases. It is agreeable with what the Lord saith, and puts us upon in the following words, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance : let us plead together declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." Isa. xliii. 25, 26. This leads me

 4. To consider more particularly from whom we receive this forgiveness, and the faithfulness and justice of God, made known therein, and thereby. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

As the benefit, saints reap, by confessing their sins before the Lord, in the way and manner as hath been expressed, as agreeable with the words of our present text, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to. forgive us our sins, hath been opened ; so we are now to consider Him from whom this blessing comes who is said to be faithful and just. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the Divine Father. It is before Him we confess our sins. It is to Him we apply for the pardon of them. It is He who hath been included in the text, and throughout the whole context: of whom it is here said, If we confess our sins, God, even He who '' is light, and in whom is no darkness at all," of whom it hath been declared, " If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." It is even He, of whom it is here said, If we confess our sins, lie is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So that. the whole of' this grace here thus divinely expressed, flows from the covenant transactions between the Father, and the Son. Hence Mr. Romaine once said, in my hearing, " I do not.," said he, " know any scripture so calculated to settle the peace of conscience, as this, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." It is an act of justice in God to pardon the sins of his people, as truly as it is an act of mercy. I would here ask, whom is God just unto ? In answer to which question I would reply, to his Son Jesus Christ : and to his people also. In the everlasting council and cove­nant, the Father promised the glorious Surety and Representative of the elect., that if he would " make his soul an offering for sin, He should see his seed, the travail of his soul, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand." It was also promised to Messiah, in the same everlasting covenant, that the Father would be ever mindful of his covenant to, and with Him ; and to his seed also. He says, " My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments ; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments ; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips, once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah." Ps. lxxxix. 28-37. You have here, the Father's covenant faithfulness to his Son, the glorious Mediator thereof: and to his seed, and saints also. The Father is not only merciful in the pardon of our sins, and in the revelation and manifestation of the same to us, on our confession of them, unto, and before Him ; but he is just also. It is with Him an act of justice, as truly as it is in Him an act of mercy. Our sins having been laid on Christ; they have thereby been removed from our persons ; and also out of the sight of law and justice : and all this upon the footing of the oblation of the worthy Lamb. The Father's law Having been hereby magnified, his justice satisfied, his holiness most gloriously displayed, and he having accepted the Mediator, and his most glorious work of mediation, he is just, and the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus. He therefore says, " I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." And again, " I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, and will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me." Jer. xxxi. 34., and xxxiii. 8. This is the open display of the exceeding riches of his grace : such, as when received into the renewed and spiritual mind, by the power of the Holy Ghost, can­not. but be very relieving, and efficacious to the hearts of the people of God. Thus I have endeavored to open to you these words, If use confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, in a manifestative and influential way, which most assuredly, and evidentially, is the meaning of the apostle here, Otherwise, as it respects pardon of sin, it is an act of the Divine mind. It. was solemnly declared over and over, under the 01d Testament dispensation. It was fully expressed when our Lord made peace by the blood of his cross. It was most freely and fully published by the apostles, in their preaching the everlasting gospel, as it had been by all the prophets before them. Hence Peter says, "To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth on him, shall receive remission of sins." Acts x. 43. And Paul says, " Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this than is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Acts xiii. 38. He also writing to the saints at Colosse speaks to them of this forgiveness of sins, in the past. tense. Having forgiven you all trespasses." ch. ii. 13. It is the manifestation of it to the mind is what is intended in the scriptures cited, and also in the text before us. And, as the Lord's called ones, going to our heavenly Father, with our sins, wounds, disease, and maladies, he most graciously compassionates us. And by creating such conceptions in our renewed minds, how he stands related to us, as our Father in Christ Jesus ; that he hath ever in view and remembrance, the everlasting covenant, which hath been fulfilled, ratified, and sealed with the blood of his Son, he is pleased to shine upon us in Him. Our heavenly Father thus manifests, and makes known afresh his pardon and forgiveness to our minds. In so exercising himself towards us, He proves himself to be what he is, faithful and just. He is hereby faith­ful to his Son. He is just in the fulfillment of his promise unto Him ; and He is just and faithful to us in Him, in exercising himself towards us, agreeable with his covenant relation to us, and His promises of grace, which are set before us, in his most holy word. And this is the substance of what is expressed, and set before us, in these words ; which are designed as a means of consolation. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. It is the knowledge of this, is to support us under all the miseries, and infirmities, which cannot but arise, from the inherency of sin in us. I come

 5. To notice the perception of this grace, in the spiritual mind, which is thus expressed. And to cleanse its from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse its from all unrighteousness.

 We have access to the divine Father, spiritually and mentally. We come before Him with our complaints : we deeply bewail what we are in our fallen nature : we confess before Him the prevalency of sin : we express what our cases are : we recite before Him, what the glorious Mediator hath been, and done, and completed. This is performed under and by the inward energy of the Holy Ghost within us. The Father is pleased to open our minds, and let in upon them, such blessed conceptions of our precious Lord Jesus, as carry us before we are aware, from all our sins, and miseries. He gives us such clear views of the eternal dignity of the Person of Christ, as fills us with holy admiration. He admits us to entertain such thoughts of the everlasting worth and perfection of his righteousness and offering, as lead us off entirely from our­selves : and off from sin too : so as that we clearly apprehend in our own minds, the value and virtue of Christ's most precious blood : by means of which we have the Lord Jesus Christ so inwardly made known to us, by the secret and imperceptible operation of the Holy Ghost, within us, and upon us, that we see ourselves to be in the sight of our heavenly Father, clean from all sin in the blood of the Lamb. And thus the divine Father is pleased to manifest, and evidence to us, the free and full for­giveness of our sins : of our past, and present sinfulness, which we have been bewailing before Him : and to give us fresh light into this mystery of grace, that he cleanseth us from all unrighteousness, in the blood and righteousness of his Son ; which he having once for all imputed unto us, he is continually reiterating his vast mind on. And by the renewing the thoughts of, in ours, we enjoy and feel the blessed effects of. I can say, I know the truth of all this, in my own case, and in my own mind. Yet it may be, I may not have stated it so as to convey the subject fully to your minds. I must say this, what I know most. of in these important., personal, and experimental particulars, I can say the least of. Not for want of the true knowledge of them, but for want of words in which to clothe them. May the Lord bless what is here set. before you, and give you the true knowledge of it. Amen.