God, then pardoned the human race, in Christ, when he made them.  How?  Ans.  By ordering their existence in such a manner, that they should be freed from sin through death and the resurrection.  That is the day of our final discharge—­the day, when the prisoner shall be set free—­the day, when our redemption shall come.  But asks the objector, are we not to realize our pardon in this world?  Ans.  Only through faith in the reality.  We look forward, and anchor our hope within the veil of death, and enjoy our pardon, or redemption, only by an eye of faith.  This “faith works by love and purifies the heart.”  It causes us, in a great measure, to break off our sins by righteousness.  But this has no influence, whatever, over the sins already committed.  For them, we must still continue to feel miserable.  Punishment is certain.  From the sins that are committed, we only enjoy our pardon or redemption from them through faith in Christ the resurrection.  Paul told the believers, that if there were no resurrection, their faith was vain, they were yet in their sins.  This proves that they only enjoyed the pardon of their sins through faith in the resurrection, otherwise I see no force in his language.

But inquires, the reader, why do you pray that God would pardon our sins?  Ans.  I do not pray to turn the Almighty from his will and purpose; but humbly trust, that I spend my days in searching out what “that perfect will of God is,” and then pray in reconciliation to his revealed will.  It is wicked to pray what we do not believe.  “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”  I believe that God pardoned us from the beginning, and that this pardon will be realized through death and the resurrection.  And when I pray that God would pardon our sins, I mean that he would grant us an evidence of that pardon, which unchangeably existed in his eternal mind, by enlightening our understanding in the Scriptures of truth, and giving us correct views of his character as a Being of tenderness and compassion to the children of men.  So when we say, God has pardoned us, we do not mean that he has been moved by our petitions to do a new act; but that through the appointed means, he has so far enlightened our minds, that we have received an evidence of that pardon which existed with him from the beginning, and by faith we look forward, believing it will take place through death and the resurrection, as Christ has proved.  By this faith we perceive the love of God, and break off our sins by righteousness.  But while in the flesh, we feel a thorn—­a hell of conscious guilt for the sins we have committed, and though the penitent may beseech God, that this messenger of satan, buffeting him, may depart from him, yet the answer will be, “my grace is sufficient for thee.”