Gofpel kmif siora. arfiftions, I would put this to them ; either they are pardoned, or not pardoned : if ye are pardoned, why are ye fo troubled ? ifye are not pardoned, then you hadneed to fpend the ftrength of ,your fpirits by waving your grief for affliftions to feek par- don of your fins. Secondly, Pardon offnwill make afliEtions cafe ; becaufe the foul may be cffured that the evil of afflation is gone ; he that has his fin pardoned may be affured,that there can nothing befall him in this world, but that if he know all,he himfelfwould be willing with all his heart it fhouldbe fo : And is not this a bleffed condi- tion for any man, while he lives here in this world, in which there is abundance of evil , yet to be in fuch a condition as that we (hall certainly know , that there (hall nothing befall us as long as we live in this world, but that, which if we knew all, we our felves would chufe it, and-account it to be a better condition than any other ? this is a bleffed eftate, to be in fuch a condition as this is, for God to teftifie from Heaven unto us, that it (hall not be in the power ofany creature in the world to do usany hurt ; for certainly fo it is when once a man or wo- man is juftified, God does as much as fpeak from Heaven to that poor foul ; Paying, Soul now you are fafe, be certainly af- fured that there is no creature in all the world can do you any hurt, Pial. 116. 7. thou main fay as David there, Return unto thy ref O my f oul, for the Lordbath dealt bountifullywith thee God has pardoned thy fin, and delivered thee fromdeath ; and nowmyfoul return unto thy refl : the word tranflated ref in the Original is plural, return unto thy refs ; there are refts enough for a foul whomGodbath delivered and pardoned, all afilifti- ons to him are but as the Viper on Paul's hand that he may (hake off, they will do him nohurt ; the fling of death is fin, and the fling of affíic`fions is that they are the beginners of death : but to one that has his fin taken away, the property of aflliftion is altered ; theycome not as as ofrevenging Juftice, but as effeas of Love and Mercy : the Principle from whence they come , and the end to which they tend is differenced from wnat it was before ; when Trefpaffes are forgiven, Deliverance fromEvil will follow after,as it is in the Lards Prayer. True, as you heard before in the former point, If once we come to-, have ;
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=