and accounts him as one of the remnant of his heritage; of that heritage which is no longer confined to the children of Abraham according to the flesh, but which embraces all the spiritual and invisible body of Christ's church.

With regard to such, HE RETAINETH NOT HIS ANGER FOR EVER. We find that of old he often laid aside his wrath towards his people; and though perhaps he delivered them up for a time to their enemies, yet he forgat not his mercy, but restored them again to his favour and protection. So now also he retains not his anger for ever against the lowly penitent. He is indeed provoked with the obstinate and rebellious. Whilst men go on in their wickedness, he is angry with them every day; and if they persist in their crimes, he will not spare them, but his anger and his jealousy shall smoke against them. But when they truly repent and turn unto him, immediately he lets go all his wrath, he views them with infinite compassion, he pardons them, he passes by their sins, and accepts them to the praise of the glory of his grace. It is true they may not have the full and immediate enjoyment of these privileges; they may not discern his gracious smiles; he may delay the manifestation of his mercy, and seem to keep his anger for a time, in order to humble them and to prove them; yet he soon, as though repenting, comes

back to them most placidly, and testifies that he is reconciled to them.

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The spring of all this grace and condescension is that He delightetH IN MERCY. He does not pardon reluctantly, and pass by our sins with hesitation or backwardness, but with willing promptitude and satisfaction. He might indeed swear in his wrath that we should not enter his rest. He might crush us with his power, or terrify us into despair by his justice; but, lo, he brings salvation, he gives a Redeemer, he reveals a way of pardon, he lets go his anger, he bestows grace; because it is his nature to be good, because he delights in kindness and beneficence. There is a force in the original phrase, which deserves notice. The expression is literally, because, AS FOR HIM, he delighteth in mercy; or, because he delighteth in mercy, EVEN HE. This emphatic turn of the sentence marks more distinctly that it is the mind and inclination and pleasure and will and desire of God to be merciful. Remission of sins in the gift of Jesus Christ is what he delights in. His very nature prompts him to it. We need inquire no further: he will have mercy because he will have mercy. When he executes wrath on the impenitent, he is described as slow and reluctant-coming out of his place, doing his work, his strange work, and bringing to pass his act, his strange act. But mercy is

congenial and gratifying, so to speak, to the divine mind. God is love. He rejoices over his church to do them good, and bestows on them grace assuredly, with his whole heart and with his whole soul. He swears by himself that he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner. He is good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon him. He will save the contrite, he will rejoice over him with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over him with singing.

What can this and similar language mean, but to exhibit to the sinner the matchless character of God? Why then should the inquiring and self-condemned penitent despair of pardon? Why should he allow Satan to obscure this astonishing truth of the divine mercy, and form before his eyes a different image of it? Why should he suffer him so to terrify him with his sins and so to place eternal death before his eyes, as to hide this benignant face of his heavenly Father, and to substitute for it a countenance of unmingled justice and wrath? Why should he let him tempt him to fly from God as an enemy, and to rush into despair? It is difficult indeed to conceive of the pardoning mercy of God, when we have learnt something of our real unworthiness and guilt; but it is not impossible. Has not God, so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for the redemption of

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it? Is it not his glory to forgive? Does he not delight in mercy? Did he not proclaim his name to Moses, as the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth? Has not the mysterious sacrifice of the Cross made the exercise of this mercy consistent with all the demands of justice and holiness? Does not God repeatedly set forth his love and compassion on purpose to appease the agitations of the lowly heart? Then why not admit, acknowledge, believe, realize, adore the pardoning mercy of God? Why not admire the incomparable glory of the divine grace in forgiving sin? Why not exclaim with the Prophet in mingled surprise and gratitude, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, because thou delightest in mercy? The difficulties in the way of remission may be great, and to us may appear insurmountable, but the glory of God in bestowing it is therefore so much the more illustrious. He is, in this as well as every other respect, God, and there is none else; he is God, and there is none like him. Who is like unto the Lord our God, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Who in the heavens can be compared unto the Lord, who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? The first step to true consolation is, not to lessen our view of sin, but to enlarge our conceptions of the divine

mercy. We should consider him to be exalted in this attribute, as in every other, far above all human ideas of what might comport with the character of the Deity. We think not aright of God till we see him to be singular, excellent, with a distinct and separate honour above all things in the world. We may well stand amazed at the triumphs of grace in the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Truly it is without compare-It reacheth even unto the heavens. All the displays of the divine perfections with which we are acquainted, are as nothing to the glory of pardoning sin, of giving a Saviour, of justifying the ungodly. Yet while this majestic truth excites your admiration, let it not overwhelm your faith; let it not appear incredible merely because it is stupendous and unparalleled. Rather apply it practically to your own case, and let it compose your anxious mind. You conceive perhaps that there is none like yourself in unworthiness and misery; remember then that there is none like unto God in pardoning; let this lead you to a humble hope of acceptance; let it be a light to cheer the path of penitence; let this correct the impressions of unbelief, and silence the forebodings of fear; let this fill and surprise and elevate and console your drooping heart; let it raise you to the expectation that you also may at length experience to your own indivi

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