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by faith in a Mediator; and to free grace revealed: he found accefs;-And the Lord faid unto Mofes, I will do this thing also that thou haft spoken; for thou baft found grace in my fight, and I know thee by name. Exod. xxxiii. 17. Mofes is a fworn enemy to felfrighteoufnefs, and preaches it down as much as Chrift (his mafter) did in his days; and shews plainly that there is no entering into rest by that, nor for that:-Speak not thou in thine heart [here he condemns the thought of it] after that the Lord thy God hath caft them out from before thee, Jaying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to poffefs this land. Deut. ix. 4. Again, Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, doft thou go to poffefs their land, ver. 5. And again, Understand there fore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to poffefs it for thy righteousness; for thou art a ftiff-necked people, ver. 6. If the thought of meriting an earthly inheritance be condemned, what fhall we fay of them who not only think, but boast of meriting an eternal inheritance by their own righteousness?

Abimaaz. God bless thee, my brother, thou haft cleared that point up to my fatisfaction. I fee clearly that the righteousness of Chrift is that in which all the elect ftand juftified before God; it is witneffed both by the law and the prophets; and as for the gofpel, that reveals no other:-I am not afbamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the right oufness of God revealed. Rom. i. 17 And find

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ing Mofes himself justified by the righteousness of faith is a very comfortable thought to me. I fee clearly that the law can never find fault with the Saviour's righteoufnefs, which is upon every believer; nor can it demand a better, nor condemn or curfe the man that has laid hold of it; for, as the fcriptures fay, he that believeth is juflified freely from all things. O how fafe is the poor finner under this robe! Bleffed is the man whofe iniquity is forgiven, whofe fin is covered. Yea the Saviour himfelf declares, that be that believeth is paffed from death unto life, and shall never come into condemnation ; and Paul speaks the fame thing-there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift Jefus. Rom. viii. I.

Thus I fee that a foul ftands just in the presence of God, and in the light of the law, by faith in an imputed righteoufnefs; which Paul calls the obedience of the Saviour:-Even fo by the obedience of one fhall many be made righteous, Rom. v. 19; yea, all the elect, for in him shall all the feed of Ifrael be jufiified, and fhall glory. Ifa. xlv. 25. And we are for ever juftified in the eye of Juftice by faith in the Redeemer's blood; and confequently Juftice can never demand of the believer the penal fum, which is eternal death. Surely God hath commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet finners Chrift died for us. Much more then, being now juftified by his blood, we fhall be faved from wrath through him. Rom. v. 8, 9, Thus I fee I ftand juft before the law, by faith in

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the Saviour's obedience; and just in the seven-fold of justice, by faith in the Saviour's blood; and if fo, I am juftified freely from all things, from which I could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts xiii. 39. But I have heard people, and even divines, say, that our fins will appear at the day of judgment, though we are pardoned; I wish you would rectify this matter. I am to you as the queen of Sheba was to Solomon-I come to prove your wisdom with bard questions. 1 Kings x. 1,

Cubi. For my part, I hope ever to go by what God fays in his word, not by what men fay. God fays of every believer, that be is complete in Chrift the head, Col. ii. 10, and that he will not impute their trefpaffes unto them, 2 Cor. v. 19; that he will caft all their fins into the fea, Micah vii. 19; that he will remember them no more, Jer, xxxi. 34; that be fees no fin in Jacob, nor perverfeness in Ifrael. Numb. xxiii. 21. And again, In those days, and in that time, faith the Lord, the iniquity of Ifrael shall be fought for, and there fhall be none; and the fins of Judah, and they fball not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reJerve. Jer. 1. 20. If I was to owe a man fifty pounds, and a furety stepped forth and paid the fum, is not that debt cancelled? Is not the book discharged? And have I not got the bill and receipt in full of all demands in my pocket? And would it not be an unkind, and an unjust act in fuch a creditor to be perpetually producing that old debt to my view, in the prefence of all company? would it not be contemptuous ?

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temptuous? And what credit could fuch an one get by fuch an action? Would not the book itself, being discharged, condemn his folly? And who but a novice would charge the Judge of all the earth with this? God bleffes every poor finner that believes in his dear Son. Juftice fays, I am faithful and just to forgive your fin, and to cleanse you from all unrighteoufnefs.-Mofes is content.-And Chrift fays, thou art all fair, there is no fpot in thee. Song iv. 7.

Abimaaz. But fome fay, it will be done to magnify the grace of God, and to fhew how grace hath pardoned the greatest of fins.

Cufbi. Juftice does not demand this, nor require it in all the Bible. Befides, it would admit of that which God excludes; it would have the appearance of upbraiding, which the word of God admits not. God giveth liberally and upbraideth not. James i. 5.

As juftice does not require it, and as upbraiding is excluded, it can only be done to gratify devils and finners, which God will never do. I read, that the mystery of iniquity is to be revealed to the righteous; but I never read that the mysteries of grace are to be revealed to the damned. The manifold wisdom of God is to be made known by the church to principalities and powers in heavenly places, Eph. iii. 10, but to no other. A purged confcience, the law of God written in the heart, and the teftimony of God's Spirit, is a receipt in full of all the

above-mentioned demands. And the poor finner, who has long laboured under a fight and fenfe of his fins, frequently finds, that after God has removed his tranfgreffions from his fight, and purged his conscience, that himself, even in a fit of unbelief, is not able fo much as to bring his fins fresh to his remembrance again; they are blotted out as a cloud, they are buried, nor can the devil or unbelief raise them up and bring them to life again. Not a fingle fin fhall appear against the poor believer in the judgment day; he fhall rife in his Saviour's image; He shall be like him, for he shall see him as he is. 1 John iii. 2. He fhall have boldness in the day of judgment. 1 John iv. 17. He shall be preJented holy and unblameable and uureproveable in God's fight. Col. i. 22. He fhall rife firft, and appear in the Saviour's likeness, before the wicked be raised at all. Theff. iv. 16.

Abimaaz. I am coming again with another knot; for I am determined to bring every puzzling experience, and every puzzling providence forth; not a perplexing fcripture, not an entanglement in my judgment, will I leave unriddled, if God will enable me to bring them forth, and you to explain them. But I dare fay I fhall think of twenty things after you are gone, that I fhall now forget. But to the matter in hand. You know that Paul fays we must all appear before the judgmentfeat of Chrift;-For we fall all stand before the judgment-feat of Christ. For it is written, As I live,

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