1. It is the most powerful means to set sinners free from the guilt and punishment of sin, and to relieve a distressed conscience under the sense of divine anger: It gives the most effectual security to a believer against the terrors of hell and eternal death; for it not only declares, that there is forgiveness with God, but it shews us the foundation upon which this forgiveness stands, namely, the satisfaction made to the offended justice of God by the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his Son. Suppose it were possible for a philosopher, or wise man, to prove that God would forgive the sins of the penitent, yet there is nothing but the gospel that can set the conscience at such joyful ease from the terror of guilt, and release the soul from the chains wherewith it was held: “For now, says the believer, I not only hear it proved by divine testimony, that there is pardon of sin to be obtained from God, but I see how God may do it with honour: I behold the atonement that is made by Christ Jesus, his own Son: The atonement is equal to the offence: He can justify me, though I am a sinner, upon the account of this perfect righteousness, and he can do it with glory to all his terrible perfections; therefore I may venture my assent to this doctrine, and I may rest my soul upon it.” 2. The gospel is a powerful means also to raise undeserving sinners to a hope of heaven and eternal life. It shews us what heaven is, by the discoveries of one that has been there, even the Son of God himself. _Life and immortality are brought to light by this gospel_, which lay hid under much darkness before; 2 Tim. i. 10. It teaches us also, how the happiness of heaven is procured for us, even by the obedience and blood of the Son of God; and therefore, some think, heaven is called _the purchased possession_ in Eph. i. 14. It assures us, that this blessed state of the enjoyment of God in unchangeable peace, and in the company of blessed spirits, waits for every believer, when he is dislodged from this flesh, and when the habitation of the body is no longer fit to retain the spirit: And it reveals also the final heaven of the saints, when the body shall be raised into immortality. “Without this gospel, says the soul, I could have no just ground to hope for heaven; for all my best righteousnesses are imperfect, my fairest acts of holiness have many defects in them; but I behold the perfect righteousness of my Saviour that has procured it. A life of holiness without defect, and a most submissive obedience to a painful and shameful death, has been the price and purchase of it.”