RULES FOR OBTAINING FORGIVENESS. 275 the son of her womb'? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." The state of things in truth, is as much otherwise as can possibly be thought or imagined To what purpose is it for men to be passing a judg- ment on themselves, when there is no manner of cer- tainty in their determinations, and when their proceed- ings will probably lead them to further entanglements, if not to eternal ruin.. The judging of souls, as to their spiritual state, is the work of Jesus Christ ; especially as to the end now under inquiry. Men may, men çlo take many ways to make a judgment of themselves. Some do it on slight and trivial conjectures ; some on bold and wicked presumptions, some on desperate atheistical notions, as Deut. 29 : 19 ; some, with more sobriety and sense of eternity, lay down principles, it may be, good and true in themselves ; and from them they draw conclusions, arguing from one . thing to another, and in the end _either deceive themselves, or sit down no less in the dark than they were at first. .A man's judgment from his own reasonings is. seldom true, more seldom permanent. I speak not of self-ex- amination with a due discussion of graces and actions, but of the final sentence as to state and condition in which the soul is to acquiesce. This belongs. to Christ. Now, there are two ways whereby the Lord Jesus Christ gives forth his sentence in this matter. 1. By his word. He determines,,in the word of the Gospel, the state of all men. Each individual coming to that word, receives his own sentence and doom : he told the Jews that Moses accused them, John, 5 : 45, his law accused and condemned the transgressors of it.
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