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blood, the forgiveness of fins. And Colof. II. 13. You being dead in your fins, and in the uncircumcifion of your flesh, bath be quickened together with him (i. e. with Chrift) having forgiven you all tref paffes. And chap. I. ver. 21. You who were fometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now bath be (i. e. Chrift) reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death.

From these texts it appears, that believers or chriftians (for they are the fame) are not liable to condemnation, but are abfolved from the penalty which is due to fin; and from a state in which they were obnoxious to God's wrath and vengeance, are received into a state of reconciliation and friendship. And is not this a ground of rejoycing? 'Tis plain the apostle Paul thought fo, when he faid, Rom. V. 11. We joy in God through our Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom we have now received the atonement; or the reconciliation, as it might better be rendered, and as the fame word is rendered in the foregoing verse.

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To be juftified is to have all our fins forgiven and is not that a foundation for joy? David feems tranfported with the thought, when he fays in the F 4 XXXIId

XXXIId Pfalm, Bleffed is he whofe tranfgreffion is forgiven, whofe fn is covered; bleed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. To be juftified is to be delivered from the condemning power of fin. The apostle Paul, Rom. VI. 23. fays, that the wages of fin is death: not only a temporal death, for that is common to all men, the righteous as well as the wicked; but the apoftle, by the word death, in this place, feems to denote fome evil that is peculiar to wicked men. For he is diffwading christians from a vicious courfe, by the confideration of the many evils which attend it. See verfe 21. What fruit had ye then in thofe things whereof ye are now afhamed? for the end of those things is death.

In this verfe there are contained three arguments against vice and wickedness: first, the unprofitableness of it in this life; expreffed in those words, What fruit had you then in those things? i. e. What benefit and advantage did you reap from your fins at the time that you committed them? Secondly, the fhame and confufion it causes in the reflection upon it; expreffed in those words, whereof ye are now afbamed. Thirdly, the dreadful iffue and confe

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quence of it; expreffed in those words, for the end of those things is death. Which is again repeated with a small variation of expreffion in the 23d verse: For the wages of fin is death. Now if the apoftle meant only a temporal death, I cannot fee that there would have been any thing in this laft argument to diffwade men from a vicious course; because tho they do break off their fins and become good and virtuous, yet they are never the less subject to mortality, and shall as certainly undergo a temporal death as if they perfifted in a course of fin and vice. It is no fufficient argument to perfuade men to forfake fin, that it terminates in a temporal death, except by fo doing they could escape a temporal death. Therefore if we will allow the apostle to write with any ftrength and force, we must believe that by death in this place he means fomething more than a temporal death: and what can that be, but the fame which in other places of fcripture is called the fecond death; which includes in it all thofe miferies and torments which shall be the portion of wicked men in a future ftate? And if we interpret it thus, we have a very power

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ful argument againft vice; viz. that it will terminate in endless mifery, which may be avoided by repentance and holinefs of life, tho a temporal death cannot. Now from this death, which is the wages of fin, the juftified believer is delivered; and therefore he hath abundant reason to rejoice. He may fuffer many evils in this world, and fhall at last be cut off by a temporal death as well as his unrighteous neighbours but beyond the grave he shall fuffer nothing; the second death hath no power over him.

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Again: to be juftified, is to be reconciled to God, and restored to his favour. And any one who confiders what a being God is, muft acknowledge this to be a great happiness. He is armed with almighty power, able to fave and to deftroy, to make men compleatly happy, or compleatly miferable. How terrible muft it be to have him for our enemy, who is a confuming fire, who, after he hath killed, hath power to caft into hell? And, on the other hand, how defirable is it to have him for our friend, who is the fountain of being and bleffedness, and who can make us as happy as it is poffible for us to be ?

This is the first reason why christians ould rejoice evermore; viz. because they are justified or made righteous.

II. Another reason why chriftians fhould rejoice evermore, is because they are fanctified, or made holy. They are chofen to falvation through fanctification of the Spirit, as well as belief of the truth, 2 Theff. II. 13. They that are Chrift's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lufts; Galat. V. 24. If any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature; old things are paft away, behold, all things are become new; 2 Cor. V. 17. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? I Cor. III. 16. We are his workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them; Ephef. II. 10. And is not this a good reafon why christians should rejoice? Nothing is more apt to excite joy than the consciousness of some excellent qualities and endowments. Now, no man is endowed with greater perfections than the christian. If thou art a christian, thou haft learned to mortify thy lufts, and to govern thy paffions; to fubdue

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