y irrespective of what we have been or done; and it is
there continually, however often we fall, with the same large and
liberal hand to pour out continual forgivenesses, and never wearies of
restoring us again and again to the solid foundation of the peace and
grace which are by Jesus Christ. We are not meant to be miserably
anxious or morbidly introspective. We must confess our sins, and that
with exactness, without self-sparing, without self-excusing, in utter
humility and truth; but 'if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.'

[1] Jer. xiii. 33.

[2] Except the sins which slew Him.

[3] I have combined this passage with the illustrative passages in St.
Paul's speeches to the heathen. Acts xiv. 16: 'Who in the generations
gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways.' Acts
xvii. 30: 'The times of ignorance God overlooked (winked at); but now
he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent.' Wisd. xl.
23: 'Thou overlookest (winkest at) the sins of men to the end they may
repent.'

[4] This paragraph gives distinctness to a somewhat latent thought in
vers. 25, 26. But I feel convinced that this, and nothing else, is the
thought.

[5] Verses 5, 25, 26.

[6] Rom. iii. 22.

[7] Phil. iii. 9.

[8] 2 Cor. v. 21.

[9] Rom. ix. 31.

[10] Rom. ii. 5.

[11] Cf. 1 John i. 9: 'Faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.'

[12] Joseph, the 'righteous' man in Matt. i. 19, is kindly. But his
kindliness has still the elements of moral severity. And it must be
remembered that in Rom. v. 7 'righteous' is still put in contrast to
'good.'

[13] See Acts ii. 38: 'Be baptized ... unto the remission of your
sins.' xxii. 16: 'Be baptized and wash away thy sins.'

[14] Acts xxvi. 18, i.e. forgiveness and fellowship in the consecrated
body, the new Israel; cf. xx. 33.

[15] 2 Macc. vii. 37.

[16] 4 Macc. vi. 28, 29.

[17] John xi. 50.

[18] None the less immoral as Caiaphas intended it, because, as St.
John perceives, a divine truth uttered itself through his lips (John
xi. 51).

[19] John i. 29.

[20] Matt. xxvi. 28; Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 24.

[21] Robertson-Smith, _Religion of the Semites_ (Black, 1889), p. 418.

[22] Ps. l. 21; cf. Eccles. viii. 11.

[23] On some of the difficulties felt about the doctrine of the
Atonement, see app. note D.

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DIVISION II. Sec. 2. CHAPTER IV