DISCOURSE V. 229 took away the guilt of their iniquities. So David was forgiven his adultery and his murder, crimes of the deepest dye, for which David knew of no sacrifice ; Ps. li. 16. and for which no man could be pardoned or justified by any ceremonies in the law of Moses. And therefore the apostle says ; Acts xiii. 38, 39. By this man, even Jesus Christ, there was forgiveness appointed for those sins for which no sacrifices were ordered by the law of Moses, nor any sacrifices were offered, or accepted, accord- ing to the Levitical law. Rom. iii. 24, 25. God has set hint forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood; to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God* r But even at that time there was forgiveness with God in the view of Christ; for even David speaks with much freedom in the xxxii. Psalm, and elsewhere, of the par- don of sin. It was also through this blood of the Lamb slain, that Solo- mon was pardoned his many heinous and grievous sins; i. e. the Lanzb ofGod, slain in the view of the Father, as an atoning sacrifice, from the foundation of the world; And through the same blood God forgave the repeated crimes of Manasseh the king, who had filledJerusalem with slaughter ; and all the saints, and all the kings, who bad ever been sinners, and were saved, it was in this view of the blood of the Lamb ; always supposing 1 trust in the mercy of God, together with sincere repentance, and return to God, was found at thesame time. Blessed Jesus, how early and how extensive was this salvation through thy blood, even before it was actually offered ! 6. The gospel of the salvation of sinful man was contrived and appointedby the great God, in this view of Jesus, theLamb of God, the great expiatory sacrifice, slain from the foundation Of the world; And it is for this reason that the doctrine of this atonementfor sin by sacrifice, runs through all the parts and forms of religions which God early appointed in the world, and the several religions which man, under the divine appointment of God, ever practised. Heb. x. 12-18. Where there is a particular account given of the covenant of grace, from the lan- guageof the prophets. " This man, after he had offered one sa- crifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right-hand of God ; for by one offering he bath perfected for ever them that are sancti- fied ; whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them ; and their sins * We translate this word forgiveness, as though it- were Aq+rv,c, remission, but the word is wap,o.r, which properly signifies the passing by of sin ; that is, that God did not actually punish them : Though the Cocceian writers do not make a just inference from this, that therefore no sins were pardoned under the Old 'Testament, butmerely the pdaishment of them delayed or neglected. r 3
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