merce of the Holy Spirit with your heart*:" and you shall at length come to the full possession of eternal life itself, the gift of the same Saviour, who died for you that he might wash you from your sins in his blood, and prepare and fit you for his immediate presence and glory.

*Bishop Horsley.

SERMON VI.

THE GRACE OF GOD IN PARDONING SIN.

MICAH, VII. 18-20.

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth int quity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

THERE is scarcely any thing in religion more difficult than deeply to feel our sins and mourn for them, and yet to believe firmly in the readiness of God to forgive them. When the penitent discovers the number and aggravation of his offences, and remembers the authority and majesty of the God whom he has provoked, he is usually prone to yield to despondency, and to consider the pardon of them as impossible. To

oppose such gloomy suggestions, therefore, and to lead the broken in heart to behold the benignant face of their heavenly Father, is an important as well as pleasing duty, The words of my text are well calculated for this design. They close the prophecies of Micah, and seem intended to console those who were really pious among the Jews, under the chastisements to which the sins of the nation were exposing them, and to strengthen their faith in the divine promises of future deliverance and salvation. may consider from the text,

We

I. The matchless extent of God's pardoning mercy;

II. The consoling application of this mercy to the case of the penitent sinner;

III. The confirmation of both these topics, to be derived from the covenant of mercy itself.

I. THE MATCHLESS EXTENT OF GOD'S PARDONING MERCY.-Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Ver. 18.

The Prophet appears in these words to break out into an abrupt and impassioned admiration of God's mercy, as the cause of all his forbearance towards his rebellious people. Indeed, the uniform character of God in his dispensations

to his church in all ages, is that of a God who pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin. The eye of the penitent and humble sinner is to be directed, then, to this point. For before he can make any consolatory application of the promises of grace to his own case, he must view and admire the infinite benignity and love of God in general, his readiness to pardon, his delight in mercy. He must not imagine him to be a hard master, but a compassionate father, who hastens to welcome the returning prodigal, and to embrace him with the most condescending and exuberant affection.

This part of the character of God will appear as we review the several expressions in this portion of the text. HE PARDONETH INIQUITY. He is ever engaged in remitting the sins of those who plead his mercy in the Son of his love. This is his habitual and delightful employ. As soon as the awakened penitent feels and confesses and forsakes his iniquity, and approaches his offended God in the name of Jesus Christ, desiring to rely on his atonement and trust to his merits, his sins, however great or manifold, are pardoned. Guilt and the desert of punishment, which oppressed him with an insupportable load, are removed. He has redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins.

This is further evident by the following

clause, AND PASSETH BY THE TRANSGRESSIONS OF

THE REMNANT OF HIS HERITAGE.

This is a form

of speech taken from the conduct of one who voluntarily overlooks an offence or declines to exact the punishment due to it; fore acts as if he did not see it.

and who there

Thus our God

and Saviour, when we come to him with a contrite heart, does not allow himself, as he justly might, to be hindered or stopped by our sins, but acts as one who sees them not. If he should indeed enter into judgment with us, no man living could be justified. If he should mark what is done amiss, none could stand. Our iniquities would immediately meet him, and present themselves before his eyes. But when God pardons sin, he passes, as it were, over it, even as a hastening traveller urges on his way and neg lects the impediments in his road. Or, rather, like the commissioned angel, who, when he went out at midnight to slay the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses where the. blood of the expiatory lamb was sprinkled on the lintel and side-posts; the Almighty Avenger passes by the transgressions of those who are protected by the sacrifice of that Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. When he sees that sacred blood sprinkled, as it were, on the abode, he desists from his vengeance, and forgets all his displeasure. He looks with infinite complacency on the humble suppliant,