sin in the beleever is in the sight of God 69 17 How Gods anger manifesteth it self upon his children when they sinne pag. 75 18 What kinde of sins God is displeased with 79 19 How God manifesteth his displeasure against his people in spirituall and eternall things 82 20 How the Antinomian would prove that God doth not see sinne in a justified person 88 21 How the Antinomian distinguisheth between Gods knowing and seeing of sin ibid. 22 How seeing is attributed to God 89 23 How Gods knowledge and ours do differ ibid. 24 How the Antinomians are contrary to themselves 93 25 How farre Gods taking notice of sinne so as to punish it is subject to the meer liberty of his will 95 26 How freedome may be extended to God 96 27 How the attributes of God and the actions of them differ in respect of freedome 97 28 How Gods justice essentially and the effects of it differ 100 29 How Christ satisfied God 101 30 How afflictions on Beleevers can agree with Gods justice ibid. 31 Why sins are called debts 105 32 What in sin is a debt ibid. 33 What is meant by that petition Forgive us 113 34 Whether we pray for the pardon it self or for the sense thereof only 4 Reasons proving the affirmative 116 35 What is implied in the petition Forgive us our debts 121 1 In the subject who doth pray ibid. 2 In the matter praied for 126 3 In the person to whom we pray 128 36 How sin a considered 130 37 How all sin is voluntary 132 38 Whether sin be an infinite evil 138 39 What remission of sin is 139 40 Why repentance and faith is pressed as necessary 146 41 How our repentance consists with Gods free grace in pardoning of sin 147 42 How many doe mistake concerning repentance p. 150 43 Why God requires repentance seeing it is no cause of pardon 157 44 Why repentance wrought by the spirit of God is not enough to remove sin in the guilt of it 161 45 Why repentance should not be as great a good and as much honour God as sin is an evil 163 46 What harm comes to God by sin ibid. 47 What kinde of act Forgivenesse of sin is and whether it be antecedent to our faith and repentance 166 48 Whether justification precede faith and repentance 176 49 Whether infants have actuall faith and are Beleevers 181 50 How we are sinners in Adam 185 51 How an elect person unconverted and a reprobate differ and what kinde of love election is 188 52 Whether in that petition Forgive us our debts we pray for pardon or for assurance only 196 53 Why God doth sometimes pardon sinne not acquainting the person with it 200 54 What directions should be given to a soul under temptation about pardon of sin 203 55 Whether a Beleever repenting is to make difference between a great sin and a lesser 205 56 What is meant by covering of sin 216 57 How God by pardoning sin is sâ—id to cover it 217 58 Whether the phrase of Gods covering sin imply that he doth not see it 219 59 How sins being in justified persons can stand with the omnisciency truth and holinesse of God 220 60 How God doth see sin in beleevers when they have the righteousnesse of Christ to cover it 221 61 How a face is attributed to God 226 62 What sins Gods children may fall into 230 63 How the sinnes of Gods people and of the reprobate differ 234 64 How farre grosse sinnes make a breach upon justification 236 65 Why the guilt of new grosse sinnes doth not take away justification p. 245 66 Whether God in pardoning doth not forgive all sins together 246 67 Wherein the compleatnesse of the pardon of sin at the day of judgement consists 262 68 Whether the sins of Gods people shall be manifested at the last day 264 69 Whether we are justified in Christ before we beleeve as we are accounted sinners in Adam before we actually sinned 186 70 Whether reconciliation purchased by Christs death doth necessarily inferre justification before faith 190 OF JUSTIFICATION LECTURE I. ROM 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace c. THE Apostle in the words precedent laid down two Propositions to debase man and all his works that so he might make way for the exaltation of that grace of justification here spoken of The first Proposition is that By the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in his sight where two things are observable 1. That he cals every man by the word Flesh which is emphaticall to beat down that pride and tumor which was in the Jews 2. He addeth in his sight which supposeth that though our righteousnesse among men may be very glorious yet before God it is unworthy The other Proposition is that All come short of the glory of God Some do make it a Metaphor from those in a race who fall short of the prize Whether by the glory of God be meant the image of God and that righteousnesse first put into us or eternall life or which is most probable matter of glorying and boasting before God which the Apostle speaks of afterwards is not much materiall Now the Apostle having described our condition to be thus miserable he commends the Grace of God in justifying of us which is decyphered most exactly in a few words so that you have in the Text a most compendious delineation of justification First There is the benefit set down being justified Secondly The efficient cause Gods Grace and here we have a two-fold impulsive cause one inward denoted in the word Freely the other outward in the meritorious cause Christs death which is further illustrated by the appointment of God for this end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some understand this of Gods manifestation as if it were spoken to oppose the propitiatory in the Ark which was left hidden some to the whole polity in the Old Testament which in the Legal shadows and the Prophets predictions did declare Christ Others upon better ground refer it to the Decree of God This death of Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denoteth both the action it self as also the effect and benefit which cometh by it Chrysostome observeth that it is called redemption and not a simple emption because we were the Lords once but by our sins became slaves to Satan and now God doth make us his again In the third place you have the instrumentall cause Faith in his bloud this is that Hysop that doth sprinkle the bloud though it be contemptible in it self yet it is instrumentall for a great good and hereby is denoted That Faith hath a peculiar nature in this work of Justification which no other grace hath for none saith Love in his bloud or Patience in his bloud Lastly here is the final cause To declare the righteousnesse of God for the remission of sins past Some observe those words sins past as implying no sinne is
we remain still obnoxious and bound in Gods wrath Again It is for comfort to the godly what though Satan thy own heart and the world doth condemn thee yet if God Justifie thou maiest rejoyce you see Rom. 8. what a challenge Paul there makes Who shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that Justifieth Who shall charge any thing The devil thy own heart can lay much pride hypocrisie sloth fulnesse to thy charge it is true but God through Christ doth Justifie What a Cordiall and reviver would it be to Gods people to live in the power of this gift bestowed upon them it is God that justifieth thee O my troubled soul who can then condemn who can hinder it or invalidate it Certainly we are therefore in dejections despondencies and perplexities often because we drink not of this water of life Lay and apply this excellent Doctrine to thy fainting dying soul and it will become to it like Elisha applying himself to the dead childe cause spirit and life again to return to him right thoughts here will sweeten all thoughts in other things Eleventhly Although Justification be a Court action and drawn from judicatories yet God is not in this action considered meerly as a Iudge but as paternus Judex a fatherly Iudge having an admirable temperament of justice and mercy so that God pronounceth this sentence from the Throne of Justice and Mercy also of Justice in that he will not absolve till satisfaction be made and he will not pronounce righteous but where there is a perfect righteousnesse Therefore that opinion of making Faith to be accepted of for righteousnesse is a dangerous and false assertion God in this work of Justification is never described as accepting of an imperfect righteousnesse for a perfect No God doth not cease to be just while he is thus gracious Again his Justice and righteousnesse is herein seen that none shall be Justified but such sinners who feel their guilt and desire to be eased of that burden beleeving and rolling their souls upon him It is very hard to give the right order of the benefits of Vocation Justification Adoption and Sanctification but yet this may be made good against the Antinomian that a man is not Justified till repenting and beleeving Here is Justice then but there is also a great deal of Grace and Mercy As in the accepting of a surety for us that he would not keep to the Law of having us in our own persons to pay the utmost farthing This was great love so likewise to finde out a way for our reconciliation that when the devils had no remedy provided for them we have Further that when this price is laid down we have the application of this benefit and so many thousands have not Two in a Bed in a Family in a Parish one Justified and the other condemned What Gracâ— is this Twelfthly This grand mercy is described in Scripture by God his giving something to us not our doing any thing to him It is described by Gods actions not ours to him which may abundantly satisfie the heart against all doubts and fears thus the Scripture cals it forgiving not imputing sin imputing righteousnes making righteous all which are actions from God to us not ours to him so that we are no where said in a good sense to Justifie ourselves or commanded to it as we are to repent or beleeve and to crucifie the lusts of the flesh because it is wholly Gods action by faith indeed we apprehend it but it 's Gods action as the window letteth in the light but it is the Sun that doth inlighten And from this particular we may gather much comfort for when we look into our selves and see no such righteousnesse or holinesse that we dare hold out to God then we may remember this is not by our doing to God but receiving from him and in this sense it is more blessed for us to receive then to give This made the Father say justitia nostra est indulgentia tua our righteousnesse is thy indulgence Therefore let not the troubled heart say where is my perfect repenting where is my perfect obedience but rather ask where is Gods forgiving where is Gods not imputing how hardly is the soul drawn off from resting in it self it is not thy doing but Gods doing thou must not consider what do I but what God doth The Antinomian he indeed wringeth these breasts of Consolation till bloud cometh but the true sweet milk of the word must not therefore be thrown away Do not then as they sought for Christ look for him in the grave when he was risen out thence Do not thou poâ—r in thy self for this treasure when it is to be looked for from heaven duties graces will say this is not in me Lastly The Scripture hath other equivalent phrases to this of Justification which likewise do amplifie the comfort of this gift It is called Blessedness as if this indeed were the true heaven and happines If thou art justified thou carriest heaven about with thee and thy name may be Legion for many are the mercies that do fill thee Nothing can make thee blessed but this it is not Blessed is he to whom the Lord giveth many riches and honors many parts and abilities but to whom the Lord imputeth no sin and howsoever those who wallow in a Laodicean fulnesse judge not this such blessednesse yet ask a Cain ask a Judas demand of the tormented in hell whether it be not a blessed thing to have sin pardoned That thou shouldest be able to look on thy sins as so many serpents without stings as so many Egyptians dead upon the shoar as if they had never been that thou shouldst be able to say Lord where are such lusts such sins of mine I finde them all cancelled Is not this blessednes indeed Another expression is of accepting us in Christ and herein lieth much of Justification that it is an acceptation of us to eternall life Eph. 1.6 This must needs imbolden and incourage the heart when it knoweth that both person and duties are accepted though so much frailty and weakness yet God will receive thee The third phrase is to make Just Rom. 5.9 For God doth not pronounce that man just which is not so Therefore when we are Justified this is not absolutely and simply against a righteousnesse of works but in a certain respect as done by us and as obedience coming from us and this must needs support the soul for when satisfaction is made when God hath as much as he desireth why should not this quiet the heart of a man will nothing content thee unlesse thou thy self art able to pay God the utmost farthing A fourth word is not imputing of sin or imputing righteousnesse and this as you heard before is a very sure and real thing though it be not in us for there are many real benefits do come to us wheh yet the
Therefore in different respects we may say That pardon of sin is an utter abolition of it and it is not an utter abolition of it It is an utter abolition of it as it doth reflect upon the person making him guilty and obliging him actually to condemnation in this respect a man is as free as if he had never sinned but if you speak of the inherency of sin and the effects of original corruption that do abide in all which are also truly and properly sins so pardon of sin is not an utter abolition and although Christ wrought no semiplenam curationem as is observed no half-cures upon any diseased persons but whom he healed he healed perfectly yet he works by degrees in the grace of Sanctification as he did perfect the world by severall degrees successively and not as Austin thought all at once So that this particular viz. That forgiveness is a perfect abolition of sin in the former consideration is of transcendent comfort to the believers and indeed it is impossible that sin should be forgiven divisibly and by parts so a man should be at the same time under the favour of God and under his hatred which is impossible Thou therefore who art a believer hast cause to rejoyce for this perfect work of remission of thy sins past wherein nothing more is or can be done for thy good and consolation Do not think it is with God as with men who say indeed They forgive with all their heart yet retain their secret inward hatred as much as before Indeed the pain of sin may roul and tumble in thy conscience a long while after though it be forgiven we see so in David as the sea which hath been enraged by tempests and windes though they be quiet yet the sea will roar and make a noise a long time after The heart of a man awakened and pierced with the guilt of sin doth not quickly and easily compose it self again Prop. 2. It is one thing for God to forgive and another thing not to exact and demand punishments As we see among men a Judge many times through fear or otherwise when Justice is obstructed doth not call such a malefactour to an account but deferreth it yet for all that the man is not acquitted so it is often to be seen in Gods providence There are multitudes of sinners who after their transgressions committed are not onely without punishment but enjoy great prosperity and much outward successe yet these men are not pardoned they have no acquittance from God This hath been such a temptation to David Jeremiah and others of Gods people that they have many times staggered through unbelief But men may have their punishments deferred their damnation may sleep or linger but it is not taken off Let not men therefore delude themselves with vain hopes as if their sins were forgiven because not yet punished No there must be some positive gracious act of God to acquit thee else thy sins are alive to condemn thee Examine thy self therefore whether thy peace comfort plenty be a fruit of Gods forbearance meerly or of his acquittance This later is alwayes an act of his gracious mercy but the other may be a terrible fruit of his hatred against thee insomuch that thou hadst better wander up and down like Cain fearing every thing will kill thee or damn thee then be in such security Prop. 3. A godly man may account not only himself bound to thank God for the pardon of those sins he hath committed but he is to acknowledge so many pardons as by the grace of God he hath been preserved from sin And if a believer enter into this consideration how will it overwhelm him So often as God hath preserved thee from such and such sins which thy own heart or temptations would have inclined thee to God hath virtually given thee so many pardons That God preserved David from killing Nabal and his Family here was interpretatively as great mercy as in the expresse forgiving of the murder of Vriah It is a rule of Divines Plures sunt gratiae privativae quà m positivae There are more preventing graces then positive The keeping of evils from us is more then the good he bestoweth on us Therefore Austin observed well that as Paul said By the grace of God I am what I am So he might also have said By the grace of God I am not what I am not Though therefore we are not so sensible of preventing mercies as of positive yet a due and right consideration of Gods love in this matter might much inflame our hearts Say therefore O Lord I blesse thee not onely for the pardon of those sins I have committed but also for thy goodnesse in preserving me from those many thousands I was prone to fall into which is in effect the pardon of so many Prop. 4. Remission of sin is not to be considered meerly as removing of evil but also as bestowing of good It is not only ablativa mali but collativa boni it is not a meer negation of punishment due to us but a plentifull vouchsafing of many gracious favours to us such as a Sonship and a right to eternal life as also Peace with God and Communion with him God also never pardons any sin but where he sanctifieth the nature of such an one Indeed it will be worth the enquiry Whether this connexion of pardon of sin with inherent holiness arise from a natural neâ—essity so that one cannot be without the other or whether it be by the meer positive will and appointment of God for the present this is enough God hath revealed he will never dis join these Prop. 5. Iâ— every sin there are as to the purpose of Justification these two things considerable the offence that is done to God whereby he is displeased and the obligation of the man so offending him to eternal condemnation Now remission of sin doth wholly lie in removing of these two so that when God doth will neither to punish or to be offended with the person then he is said to forgive We must not therefore speak of two kinds of remissions one remission of the punishment another of the offence and fault for this is one remission and God never doth the one without the other It is true there remain paternal and medicinal chastisements after sin is forgiven but no offence or punishment strictly so taken What kinde of act this remission is whether immanent or transient is to be shewed in the next Question Prop. 6. From the former Proposition this followeth That sin in the guilt of it is not remitted by any act that we do but it is a meer act of God So that neither the grace of repentance or love of God is that which removeth guilt out of the soul but it is something in God onely It is the opinion of many Papists That God in pardoning doth onely inable to repent for sin and then the guilt of
respect viz. as far as by-past sins are virtually contained in the following sin as if by a new sin a mans ingratitude is so great that he becomes as guilty as if he had all his former sins incumbent on him But whatsoever mens judgments are the Scripture-expressions about pardon of sin which are The remembring of them no more The blotting of them out and throwing them into the bottom of the sea c. do plainly evidence That God when he pardons a sin pardons it absolutely and for ever so that it shall never live again to condemn him here or hereafter There are two places of Scripture that seem to give a check to this Doctrine The first is Ezek. 18.24 26. where God saith If a righteous man turn away from his righteousnesse and commit iniquity his righteousnesse shall not be mentioned but he shall die in his sin Quid clarius sâ—ith Bellarmine What is more clear then this place Hence this is strongly insisted upon by Papists Arminians Lutherans as the Achilles Now to this place these Answers are given First That the Prophet speaks not of a truly righteous man but a pharisaical bragging man who hath a conceit of his righteousness without any reality at all and such a feigned righteousness may quickly melt away but this may seem too much forced though learned men insist on it partly because the opposition is made of a righteous man to one really wicked partly because it is such a righteousness which if a man had continued in would have saved him he should have lived by it Others therefore say The expression is only conditional and by supposition if he do this which doth only imply a posse if a man be left to himself not an esse or that indeed he will do so yea God useth these conditional comminations as a sanctified means to keep a righteous man from falling This is a good Answer but there are others with whom I joyn that say The Scripture doth here consider a man as of himself and what he is in his own power not what he is by a Covenant of Grace which is only per accidens and ex hypothesi a meer extrinsecal and accidental thing to a man And now speak of a godly man thus we may say that he may fall and lose the favour of God for although in respect of Gods predestination and Covenant of Grace he cannot yet that is meerly external and from without So that the Scripture speaks of a godly man sometimes in respect of his external relative condition as elected and federated Thus he is made unchangeable in respect of his state Again in other places it speaks of him in respect of his internals and what is dwelling in him and in this sense He that stands must take heed lest he fall And that this is the right interpretation is plain by the opposition in a wicked mans estate for there saith the Text If the wicked leave his wickednesse and do that which is righteous he shall live Here is no mention of Grace at all Can any from hence infer therefore a wicked man without Gods Grace is able to turn to God No. Other places demonstrate the necessity of that So that it is plain these Texts do not at all relate to any thing external and extrinsecal to a man The next place urged for the return of sins pardoned is Mat. 18.32 34. where in the Parable The Master is said to forgive a servant all his debt but because the same servant shewed not the like compassion to a fellow-servant his master was wroth with him and charged all the debt he had forgiven upon him again By which it may appear That if we after our sins are forgiven do those things that are very distasteful to God he will remember our former sins against us But the scope of the Parable which is the right key to open it is not to shew That God will remember sins pardoned for new ones committed but to manifest That forgiveness of others is a necessary qualification to be forgiven by God and that we may not believe God will forgive us unless we forgive others and this is clear from the conclusion of the Parable ver 35. So will not my heavenly Father forgive you unlesse you from your hearts forgive one another Besides every passage in a Parable is not argumentative but the chief intention only Many things are flourishes in the Picture not lineaments In the second place Neither doth a justified person so sinning fall from the Grace of Justification or his Adoption he is not cast out of the right of his Inheritance Whom he loveth he loveth to the end all this while Christs intercession is effectual for him Though he be a Prodigal living with Swine and upon husks yet he is a Sonne still Quod Christus naturâ nos gratiâ as Christ is perpetually the Sonne of God by nature so we in him and by him are alwayes the sons of Grace and the perpetuity or stability of our Justification is not founded upon any thing in us but upon Gods will and love and his sure promises Neither thirdly Doth he fall from the state of inherent or sanctifying Grace no more then imputed for by Gods gracious Covenant the principles of Grace are more firmly infixed and rooted in a godly mans soul then his soul in his body Vt custodiat nos per fidem custodit in nobis ipsam fidem That he may keep us by Faith he keepeth Faith in us saith a learned man Neither fourthly Doth a godly man fall into these grosse sins without a merciful ordering of them even to the godly mans good Although afflictions may befall a man to his good yet some have questioned Whether God suffers a godly man to fall into sins for good because sins have an inward malignity and poison in their natures which the evils of afflictions have not But if Gregory said truly of Adams sin Foelix culpa it was an happy fault because God wrought such a good the good of a Mediatour which is a greater good then that sin was no question but God can over rule the sins of Gods people for their own advantage as a godly man said He got more good by his sins then his Graces Audeo dicere c. saith Austin de civit Dei lib. 13. I dare be bold to say it That it is profitable for proud men to fall in manifest and open sins whereby they may be ashamed and made loathsome in their own eyes Salubrius sibi displicuit Petrus quando flevit quam sibi placuit quando praesumpsit It was better with Peter disliking himself in his weeping then pleasing himself in his presumption This therefore God doth to his people to prevent sin he lets them fall into sin and as Austin saith Sectio dolorem operatur ut dolor dolore tollatur The cutting of the wound causeth pain that so pain may be removed by pain and sometimes venena venenis
dispelluntur poison is driven out by oison And thus much for the Negative we come to the Affirmative and in the general we say A godly man committing such a gross sin till he doth repent is in a state of suspension from all the effects of Gods Grace in Justication though not of abdication or exheredation He is under Sequestration though not Ejection he is under an interdiction though not an exile He is as Absolom that was cast out of his fathers family though not from being a son The English Divines expressed it well in the Synod of Dort by a leper who was shut out from his own house so that although he had a right to his house yet he had no claim by any law to enjoy his house So though a godly man have a right to pardon of sin yet he cannot claim this as due to him as long as the guilt of sin abideth on him Hence that is expounded Purge me with hysop as an allusion to the leper who in such a manner was cleansed not that this state is to be conceived a third estate between a state of Justification and Condemnation but a suspending of the benefits of the former In which sense a godly man justly cast out by Church-officers for a sin is said to have his sins bound in Heaven And in this respect Zanchy saith he doth Quodammodo excidere à gratiâ Dei and that they are made quasi inimici as it were enemies Thus Perkins also Upon the committing of such sins saith he God turneth the effects of his grace into the effects cujus dam odii of a kinde of hatred to their sins so that quodammodo fiunt inimici Dei Now that the terrour of this condition may more fasten on the godly to make them cautelous against such fals let us consider what particulars this general doth include And first it supposeth a present unfitness for the Kingdom of Heaven or any gracious Priviledge There is no aptitude or preparation in a godly man so lapsed for comfort or salvation but like the unclean man is to stand aloof off from all this Now how woful is this to consider that such a man who had Gods gracious Scepter alwayes held out to bid him come into his presence must now finde the doors and gates of mercy for a season shut upon him Now the Master of the feast may say to him How camest thou in here without a wedding Garment When David sate not according to his custom at the Kings Table it was excused he had uncleanness upon him Alas it is a godly mans aggravation of this guilt why doth he not apply the Promises as formerly Why is he not had into the Spouses Wine-cellar Alas uncleanness is upon him As Christ said to Mary Touch me not for I am not yet ascended we may apply otherwise the Promise of Grace Christ saith to thee Touch me not lay not hold upon me for thou art not yet risen out of thy filth 2. As there is no aptitude for gracious priviledges So also God doth now change all his dealings and administrations towards them Those effects of love delight comfort assurance and sweetness they had are now turned into the bitter effects of wrath displeasure trouble and grief of soul sad pangs and convulsions of conscience so that they have no peace with God nor themselves Thus their sins swallow them up like Jonahs Whale and they are as it were in the bottome of hell God is really offended and displeased with them hereupon their conscience doth truly and sadly accuse them And all this being set home by Gods Spirit convincing of them of sin in all the aggravations of it O the groans and agonies their souls must needs conflict with This David doth evidently teach us in what he felt upon him Hearken then to Davids cryings and groanings and take you heed how you abuse the Grace of God either doctrinally or practically to a secure committing of gross sinne Be sure if ye belong to God your sinne will finde you out and no Doctrine of free Grace will be Altar or Sanctuary safe enough for you to hide your selves in God who was the God of all consolation is now the God of all sorrow and fear Thou thinkest on him and thy meditations are not sweet but troublesome Now it s not the Spirit of God that seals and comforts but of Conviction and Humiliation Now Christs bloud which thou despisedst doth speak bitter things against thee A drop of Gods anger fals into the conscience of a godly man thus awakened like a drop of scalding lead into a mans eye O what comfort do those pleasures those lusts now afford him Now he may say of them as she of her husband Thou art a bloudy husband 3. Although he hath a right to the Covenant of Grace to the priviledges contained therein yet as you have heard He may not without renewed Repentance claim any of these He cannot say my God my Christ my Pardon No God hath spit in his face as the expression is to Miriam and the soul is become filthy and noisome and she must be washed again ere Christ will receive her Though there be a Well of Salvation yet thou hast no bucket to draw out of it As long as a godly mans heart stands thus averse from God and hath a purpose to continue in sin all the Promises are like a fountain sealed up and a Garden enclosed He is in a worse condition then the wounded man in the way to Jericho for not only the Priest and the Levite the Moral Law pass by him but even the good Samaritan Christ and the Promises pour no oil into his wounds All the while he applieth comforts to his soul and supports himself with hopes of Gods favour he liveth upon spiritual robbery And he can with no more truth if we speak of the actual use and application say of the Promises then the devil of the world and the glorious things thereof All these are mine 4. By this they incur the guilt of eternal damnation There is a two-fold guilt as some distinguish one potential which by others is Reatus simplex a simple guilt another actual which by others is Reatus redundans in personam a guilt falling upon the person Now it is upon all sides agreed That by those sins he deserveth eternal damnation And therefore a godly man so offending ought to bewail the forfeiture he hath made If God should deal with him according to that strict rule Cursed be every one that abideth not in all the things that the Law requireth where should he appear But may we not say they have an actual guilt obliging them to eternal wrath not absolutely but conditionally till they take the means appointed by God for their pardon I see not but in a sound sense this may be said for God doth not will to them salvation while they abide in that state though at that time he wils to give them
fit nisi revelante spiritu per fidem aeternum Dei propositum de sua salute Who is a righteous man but he that returneth love to God for Gods loving of him And how can this be but by Gods Spirit revealing his purpose of Election concerning the just mans Salvation Use of Instruction Doth the apprehension of great pardon breed great Humiliation then we may see the necessity of that Ministery and preaching which doth discover the depth length and breadth of sin They take the best way to set up grace and magnifie Christ who do amplifie the pollution of sin in us Now that we may come to be convinced how much God doth forgive us two points are much to be insisted upon 1. The Doctrine of original corruption for thereby we shall see our selves guilty of more sins then ever we thought of a man without this Scripture-light is like one in a dark dungeon which is full of Serpents Toads and all venemous creatures but is not able to see any of them and so thinks himself without any danger at all If therefore thou wouldst see how much is forgiven reckon up all the debts thou owest The mercy and skill of the Physician will then appear when the worst of thy disease is made manifest A second Point much to be pressed is the pure strict and exact obligation of the law which being set as a pure glass before thee all thy deformities will appear In this sense it is good to be a legal Preacher and a legal Hearer often that so knowing the holiness of the Law and our imperfection we may esteem the more of Gods Grace in pardoning so much As God in the outward passages of his providence doth therefore suffer one trouble to follow another like so many waves that so the greater their calamities have been his wisdom power and goodness may be the more conspicuous in delivering of them Thus it is also in his spiritual administrations he will not reveal the riches of Grace but to the poor in spirit nor will he give ease and refreshment but to those that are heavy laden and burdened And this is the reason why a Pharisee a formalist a moral man a self-righteous man doth not love Christ as converted Publicans and sinners do Use second of Admonition to those who have sinned much and so have had much forgiven them let such know their expences of practised grace must be according to the receipts of justifying Grace Let such know the pardon of many sins is a talent to be greatly improved As thou hast abounded in many sins and God in many pardons so do thou in much thankfulness How thankful would we be to a man who hath delivered us often from a temporal death but behold a greater love is manifested here Thou who hast it may be been the chiefest sinner of many thousands be now the chiefest Believer of many thousands If thou hast been a great sinner and art not now a great actour and spiritual merchant negotiating for God fear the truth of thy grace much love should be like much fire that consumes all dross quicken up thy self with such thoughts as these Lord who was more plunged into sin then I whose diseases were greater then mine It may be thousands and thousands for less and fewer sins then I have committed are now taking their portion in hell O Lord this thy overflowing goodness doth overcome me oh that I had the hearts of all men and Angels to praise thee FINIS THE TABLE A FIve absurdities objected by the Antinomians which they say will follow from the Doctrine that God afflicts his people for sin vindicated p. 39 40 41 What kinde of act forgivenesse is and whether it be antecedent to our faith and repentance 166 167 There are no accidents in God ib. How afflictions come upon the godly after pardon of sin 24 God doth not alwayes afflict with reference to sin 28 The afflictions of the godly are not legal but evangelical and why 39 How afflictions on believers agree with the justice of God 101 It is a great aggravation to the sins of Gods people that they have been committed in his sight 53 54 Aggravations and diminutions of sin 206 208 The unsound Answers of the Antinomian about the afflictions of the godly 24 25 The Antinomian contrary to himself 33 34 93 Three Arguments of the Antinomian answered 34 35 36 37 The Antinomians answer to and evasion of certain Scriptures answered 53 How the anger of God is shewed toward the the sins of his people 76 77 78 The Antinomian Arguments answered 176 to 193 Arguments proving that God doth see sin in the justified so as to be offended with it 53 Seven Arguments proving our faith and repentance antecedents of Justification 169 to 172 Three Reasons proving that Assurance of pardon is apt to kindle spiritual affections in us 269 270 B Sins committed after Baptism pardonable 126 127 Christ is the advocate of Believers after Justification 66 67 Bellarmines objection answered 115 How sin is a blot in the soul 136 When sins are blotted out 158 C A three-fold cause of Justification Efficient Meritorious Instrumental 2 The people of God are not cast off for their sins 232 It is one thing to change the will and another to will a change 193 It is no derogation from Christ that sin is in a believer 40 What the bloud of Christ doth meritoriously cleanse the Spirit doth efficaciously 57 Wherein the compleatness of the pardon of sin at the day of Judgement consists 259 260 Six comfortable considerations gathered from certain Scriptures 49 â—0 It is of great consequence to have the Doctrine of Justification kept pure and why 3 A two-fold condition of faith pag. 191 192 Comfort to the children of God 263 Pardon of sin is a continued act 115 What is meant by covering sin 216 217 1 What is 2 What is not implied in that phrase of covering sin 217 218 219 How sin being in the regenerate yet covered will stand with the omnisciency truth and holiness of God 220 221 Whether God doth see sin when he hath covered it 219 220 D Eternal Death deserved by every sin 206 What in sin is a Debt 105 Sins called a Debt in a four-fold respect 105 106 There is a great difference between original and actual sin and wherein they differ 20 There is great difference in the calamities of the godly 28 The afflictions of the godly and the wicked for sin how differ 29 The difference between a godly man troubled in conscience and a man damned in hell 82 A two-fold difference between actions immanent and transient 166 167 168 An elect person and a reprobate how they are alike differ 188 Whether a difference ought to be made between great and little sins Six Propositions clearing the same 206. to 212 A Christian is to make a difference of sins six wayes 208 209 210 Four things wherein a Christian
pardon can never be called an inherent righteousnesse or a qualitative Justice but rather it opposeth it but it may be called a Legal or Judicial righteousnesse because God for the obedience and satisfaction of Christ doth account of us as righteous having pardoned our sin and withall imputing Christs righteousnesse to us both which make up our Justification For the understanding therefore of the first particular viz. Remission of sins take these Propositions which will be the foundation upon which many material questions will be built 1. That forgivenes of sin is possible there may be and is such a thing Hence in that ancient Creed we are said to believe a remission of sins where faith is described not in the meer historical acts of it but fiducial the remission of my sins Now this is some stay to a troubled sinner that his sins may be forgiven whereas the devils cannot God no where saying to them Repent and believe And although Salmeron holdeth that God gave the lapsed Angels space to repent before they were peremptorily adjudged unto their everlasting torments yet he hath scarce a guide or companion in that opinion were not therefore this true that there is such a thing in the Church of God as forgivenes of sin How much better had it been for us if we had never been born 2. Consider That a sin may be said to be forgiven divers wayes First in the decree and purpose of God as Christ is called the Lamb slain from the beginning Though I do not know where the Scripture useth such an expression yet the Antinomians build much upon it Secondly A sin may be said to be forgiven in Christ meritoriously when God laid the sins of his people upon him which the Prophet Isaiah doth describe as plainly Isa 53. as any Evangelist hence some have called Isaiah the fifth Evangelist Now you must not conclude such a mans sins are pardoned because they are laid upon Christ a long while ago which is the Antinomians perpetual panalogizing for to this effect of remission of sin there go more causes besides the meritorious faith the instrumental cause which is as necessary in its kinde for this great benefit as the meritorious cause is in its kind that though Christ hath born such a mans sins yet they are not pardoned till he do believe for as the grace of God which is the efficient cause of pardon doth not make a sin compleatly forgiven without the meritorious cause so neither doth the meritorious without the instrumental but there is a necessity of the presence and the co-operation of all these Thirdly A sin is said to be pardoned when the guilt is taken away and this is properly Remission of iniquities Fourthly Sin is pardoned in our sense and feeling when God takes away all our fears and doubts giving us an assurance of his love And lastly Sin is forgiven when the temporal affliction is removed and in this sense the Scripture doth much use the word forgivenesse of sins and his not pardoning is when he will punish 3. There are several things considerable in sin when we say it is forgiven First In sin there is a privation of that innocency which he had before as when a man is proud by that act of pride he is deprived of that innocency and freedom from that guilt which he had before This is properly true of Adam who lost his innocency by sinning It cannot be affirmed of us but in a limited sense thus far that when a man commits a sin that guilt may be charged upon him whereof he was innocent before Now when sin is forgiven the sense is not that he is made innocent again for that can never be helped but that it must be affirm'd such an one hath sin'd this cannot be repaired again It is true the Scripture useth such expressions That iniquity shall be sought for and there shall be found none Jer. 51.20 But that is in respect of the consequence of it We shal have as much joy and peace as if we had not sinned at all A 2d thing in sin is the dignity desert it hath of the wrath of God and this is inseparable from any sin if it be a sin there is a desert of damnation thus all the sins of the godly howsoever they shall not actually condemn them yet they have a desert of condemnation Thirdly There is the actual ordination and obligation of the person sinning to everlasting condemnation and forgivenes of sin doth properly lie in this not in taking away the desert of the guilt of sin but the actual ordination of it to condemnation Therefore its false that is affirmed by some that reatus est forma peccati guilt is the form of a sin for a sin may be truly a sin and yet this actual ordination of it to death taken away Fourthly There is in sin an offence done unto God or an enmity to him so that now he is displeased and this is taken away in some measure by forgivenesse yet so as his anger is not fully removed If we speak exactly God doth not punish his children yet as a Father he is angry with them and that makes him to chastise them though the sin be forgiven Fifthly In sinne is likewise a bloâ— or pollution whereby the soul loseth its former beauty and excellency and this is not removed by remission but by sanctification and renovation Hence it is ordinarily said that Justification hath a relative being only but Renovation an absolute inherent change And lastly In all sin there is an aversion from God either Habitual in Habitual sins or Actual in Actual and in this aversion from God the soul abideth till it be turned to him again as a man that turneth his back on the Sun continueth so till he turn himself again now Conversion and not Justification doth rectifie this so that by this you may see what it is to have a sin forgiven not the foulnes or the disformity of it to Gods Law removed nor yet the dignity and desert of Gods wrath no nor all kinde of anger from God but the actual ordination of it to condemnation 4. There is a great difference between original sin and actuals for that of original is much more perplexed in the matter of remission then those of actuals when an actual sin is committed the act is transient that is quickly passed away there remaineth only the guilt which sticketh till God by pardon doth remove it and then when he hath forgiven it there is all of that sin past But now in original sin it is otherwise for that corruption adhering to us cleaving to our nature like Ivie to the tree as the Father expresseth it though it be forgiven yet it still continueth and that not only as an exercise of our faith and prayers or by way of a penal languâ—r upon us but truly and
his people now in heaven is an Ocean of infinite comfort LECTURE IX JER 50.20 In those dayes and at that time the iniquity of Judah shall be sought for and there shall be none c. I Shall now conclude with the last sort of Arguments which are from those Scriptures that speak how God is affected with his people when they have sinned which affections do necessarily imply Gods seeing of sin so as to be angry with them yea in some respects Gods anger is more to them then others and we say in some sense God doth more see and take notice of the sins of believers then others The places of Scripture which speak in what manner God takes the sins of believers are these Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the holy Spirit of God c. where the godly in their sins are said to grieve Gods Spirit Now can the Spirit of God which is also God be grieved to speak after the manner of men at our sins and not take notice of them certainly if they grieve God they ought to grieve us let us not neglect that which the Spirit of God is so offended with This place seemeth to be taken out of Isa 63.10 They vexed his holy Spirit So that it is such a grieving as doth vex and imbitter the holy Spirit of God O what a dreadfull consideration should this be against all falshoods in this point Doth not God doth not the Spirit of God take notice of thy corruptions yet it is grieved and vexed at them furthermore the aggravation of this sin is seen in that it is against the Spirit that doth seal us to the day of redemption A Metaphor saith Zanchy in loc from Merchants who having bought such goods seal them as their own that so leaving others they may transport them Now for the godly to sin it is to deface this seal and if it be so great an offence to violate humane seals how much more divine Observe likewise that passage of God to Moses Ex. 4.14 where Moses out of the sense of his infirmity refusing the office God called him to twice or thrice it is said The Lords wrath was kindled against him In the Hebrew it is very emphatical The fury of the Lord was angry against Moses and the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which expression was signified God was not lightly but grievously angry with him So Ps 74.1 the Church crieth out Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture and in many other places Now can God be angry and that in so high a degree with that which he doth not see or take notice of It is true Isidor Pelus l. 1. ep 144. will not suffer that notice and affliction which God layeth upon us to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but then anger is to be taken in a strict sense for punishment by way of satisfaction but otherwise the Scripture doth frequently use this word and that of God to his own people yea vengeance which is more Ps 96.8 But that it may the better appear how great the guilt of sin in believers even in the sight of God is and what his account is of it take notice of these particulars First What the Scripture stiles them 1 Sam. 2.29 There God reproveth Eli in his indulgence about his sons with this remarkable expression Thou honourest thy sons above me Is not this an aggravation which God taketh notice of and yet Eli did reprove his sons but because he failed in the measure of zeal therefore is God thus angry with him so that God doth not only see the grosse sins committed by his people but a lesse measure of their graces and is angry for that So Rev. 2. because the Church abated in her first love and her works were not perfect therefore doth God threaten her As the godly are said to honour the creature above him when they sin so they are likewise said to despise God and can God but be offended with them that despise him 1 Sam. 2.13 They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed saith God again to Eli. Thus likewise to David 2 Sam. 12.9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord God cannot but take notice of that which is a despising and contemning of him As their sins are a despising of God so are they said to displease God which cannot be if God see no sin for if God see no sin it is all one in reference to God whether a believer wallow in the mire of sin or whether he live holily so that this Doctrine must needs eat and consume like a Gangrene Is God as well pleased with Peter denying Christ as Peter repenting as much pleased with David in his adultery and murder as when making his penitential Psalm The Papists indeed would fasten such prodigious consequences upon the Protestants Doctrine but they abhor it whereas it followeth naturally from the Antinomian assertion Indeed the Orthodox say David and Peter in their lapses did not fall from the state or grace of Iustification but wherein the Antinomian and they differ is hereafter to be shewen That God is thus displeased with justified persons when they thus sin is plain 2 Sam. 11.29 where what we translate displeased according to the original is was evil in the eyes of the Lord where you see expresse Scripture That God did see sin in David because that which he had done was evil in Gods eyes so again 1 Chron. 21.7 Davids numbering of the people is said to be evil in the eyes of the Lord. Thus the very letter of the Scripture is against them Lastly Their sins are offences against God and can God be offended with that which he doth not behold Elihu speaks true and excellent Doctrine Iob 34.32 though he erred in the application Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will offend no more where he acknowledgeth That chastisements are for sins and that sins are offences If then the sins of Gods people are a dishonour to him a despising of him a displeasing of him they are evil in his eyes and an offence to him it cannot be but that he must see sin in his people Secondly The Scripture describeth Gods threatning and upbraiding of them with all his kindnesses he did to them so that God doth not only take notice of them but in the several aggravations of their ingratitude and unkindnesse unto him in all that they offend Thus observe Gods dealing with Eli 1 Sam. 2.28 Did not I choose thy father out of all the Tribes of Israel to be my Priest to offer upon my Altar Did I not give unto thy father all the offerings by fire of the children of Israel wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice What a cutting sword must this needs be in Eli's heart and because the children of God have a Spirit of love in them these upbraidings must needs wound their heart the
if he be a Beleever the wages due to his sin is only temporal chastisements but to a wicked man it 's eternal death I say this is not safe for although a Beleevers sin shall not actually damn him yet God hath made the same Law to both and repentance as a means is prescribed so that we may by supposition say If the wicked man repent his sin shall not damn him If the justified person do not his sin will damn him It 's true it is not proper to say of sin in the abstract it shall be damned no more then that grace shall be saved but we are to say the person shall be damned or saved Yet the guilt of the sin will cause the guilt of the person if not taken off by Christ as the meritorious and faith as the instrumentall cause The sins then of Beleevers and ungodly are both alike only that the guilt of them doth not redound upon the persons alike is because the one takes the way appointed by God to obtain pardon and the other doth not Not that the godly man makes himself to differ from the wicked but all is the work of grace In some respects the sins of godly men are more offensive to God then those of wicked men because committed against more light and more experience of the sweetnesse of Gods love and the bitternesâ—e of sin What is the cause Heb. 10.28 29 30. the Apostle maketh the condition of a wilfull Apostate to be so dreadfull but because of the excellency of the object in the Gospel above that in the Law If he that despised Moses his Law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy c. Observe that interposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 think ye do you not easily think that such sins offend God more Now although the truly sanctified can never fall into such a condition totally and finally yet their sins committed wilfully against the Gospel are gradually and in some measure of such a nature and therefore they fall terribly into the hands of the living God when they so sin against him and consider how that the Apostle speaks these things even to them of whom he hoped better things and things that accompany salvation Heb. 6. If therefore we see a godly man who hath tasted much of Gods favour play the prodigall walk loosely we may and ought notwithstanding Antinomian positions powerfully and severely set home these places of Scripture upon his conscience And observe how in the New Testament the Apostle alledgeth two places out of the Old Vengeance belongeth to me Deut. 32.35 and the Lord will judge his people Psal 135.14 To judge is to avenge so that the people of God have those considerations in their sins to provoke God which wicked men cannot have and therefore have the same motives to humble them as the Apostle argueth To which of the Angels said he Sit at my right hand c. so may we To what wicked man hath God poured out his love revealed himself kindly as unto the godly therefore do they neglect the greater mercies LECTURE X. JEREMIAH 50.20 In those daies and at that time the iniquity of Iudah shall be sought for c. LEt us in the next place consider the particulars wherein Gods eye of anger doth manifest it self upon his own children if sinning against him The effect of his wrath may be considered in that which is temporal or spiritual or eternal in all these Gods anger doth bring forth in one respect or other For the temporal objects take notice of these particulars first When they sin against God they are involved in the common and ordinary afflictions which do usually accompany sin in the wicked Thus 1 Cor. 11.30 for their unworthy receiving of the Sacrament and some even of those were godly as appeareth v. 32. many were weak and sickly weak were such as did languish and sickly is more such as had diseases on them now these were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strokes from God and therefore came from his anger for their sins Though the Lords Supper consist of a twofold bread the one earthly for the body the other heavenly the bread of life for the soul yet both body and soul did miserably decay because of unworthy receiving This Table being as Chrysostom said mensa Aquilarum not Graculorum food for Eagles not Jaies As therefore those children who have fainting diseases upon them and do secretly eat salt oatmeal c. though they have never such excellent food at their fathers table yet thrive not but look pale and consuming so it was with the Corinthians by reason of their corruptions they inclined to death though they fed on the bread of life Now that these bodily diseases are the common issue and fruit of sin appeareth Lev. 26.16 Deut. 28.22 grace therefore of justification can give no Supesedeas to any disease that shall arrest a believer offending but are the wicked in Consumptions Agues Feavers for their sins so are the godly yea the people of God are in these calamities before the wicked Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities I have known you that is acknowledged ye for mine see what that is Exod. 19.5 A peculiar treasure unto me above all people The Hebrew word signifieth that which is dear and pretious and to be desired of all This is aggravated by what followeth for all the earth is mine that is seeing there are so many nations in the world over whom I have full power and dominion how great is Gods goodnesse in taking you for his above others now mark the Prophets reason because I have done this therefore I will visit you for your iniquities for to all your other wickednesses you adde an ingratefull heart So there is another place 1 Pet. 4.17 where God is said to judge them before others and this hath been a great offence to the godly It is time that is a seasonable opportunity by the decree and appointment of God for judgement that is chastisements for former sins which are called judgements because they are publique testimonies and manifestations of Gods anger against sins and are to put the godly in minde of their sins only it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original The word is used even of the godly 1 Cor. 11.31 32. 1 Pet. 4.6 By the house of God he meaneth the true Members of the Church and whereas he saith it begins in them he thereby intimates that the godly in this life are more exposed to afflictions for sin then the wicked are and this made David and Jeremy so expostulate with God in this matter so that the godly in their afflictions ought to say as that widow of Sarepta 2 Kin. 17.18 This is to call my sin to remembrance It is thought the Apostle though he doth not
godly this must be the more terrible because they are of a more tender apprehension As they say Christs bodily pain was more then other mens could be because of the excellent temper and tender constitution of his body so it is with the godly every expression of Gods anger fals like a drop of scalding lead into a mans eye the conscience of the believer when once awakened feels every frown of God like an hell Thus after the committing of gross sin God hides his face and then for the while they are like so many Cains and Judas's crying out Their sin is greater then they can bear and truly this worm would never die this fire would never be quenched in them did not God again take them into favor there is no difference between a man damned in hell and a godly man troubled in conscience but the adjunct of time one is perpetual and the other is not Now our Divines say That eternity is not essential to the punishment of hell for Christ suffered the torments of hell for us which yet were not in time eternal but accidental because those in hell are not able to satisfie Gods justice therefore they must continue there till they have paid the last farthing which because they cannot do to all eternity therfore they are tormented for ever Look upon David again in Psal 32.3 4. How it fared with him because of his sins My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Did David speak these things hyperbolically and rhetorically only Did he not finde such anguish and consumption in his soul that he thought no words could express it and all this he saith was because of sin O then believe this and tremble lest such a whale of sorrow and grief should swallow thee up as did David Thus it was also with the incestuous person the devil was ready to swallow him up he was delivered to him to be tormented by him and can all this be done yet God take no notice of sin As the godly in this life time may have that joy in the Gospel which passeth all understanding and more then the heart can perceive so they may have for sin such trouble and spiritual desertions that shall make every thing their chamber the field a very hell to them and David in many Psalms manifesteth such desolation upon his soul especially this is seen in lapses when persecutions do abound and men through fear have denied that truth which in their consciences they were assured of We may read in Ecclesiastical Histories of the grievous wounds and gashes Gods people through frailty have made upon their own souls And as it is thus in matter of consolation so in the particular of sanctification how may you observe some who have been planted by Gods grace like a Paradise through their negligence and corruptions become like a parched wilderness was not David in his fall till recovered like a tree in winter though the moisture of grace was within yet nothing did outwardly appear Was he not like Samson when his hair was cut off not able to break the cords of sin he was tied in some have thought a godly man can no more fall from the degrees of grace then the essence state of grace but if sin increase and grow certainly grace must decrease for whether sin expel grace meritoriously only or formally still the introduction of the one must be the expulsion of the other Thus Rev. 2. the Church is reproved for abating in her first love and the people of God complain Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear Isa 63.17 not that God doth infuse hardness but only he denieth mollifying grace And certainly a gracious tender heart must fear a deliverance up to hardnesse more then up to Satan Illud est cor durum quod non trepidat ad nomen cordis duri said Bernard That is an hard heart which doth not tremble at the name of an hard heart A godly man therefore may so provoké God that he be left in a senslesse stupid way acting sin without tender remorse and securely lying down therein Lastly The anger of God eternal cannot indeed be in the event upon him but yet it doth conditionally oblige him till he doth repent so that you may suppose a Believer to be damned if you suppose him not to repent A conditional Proposition Nihil ponit in esse but it doth in posse and therefore the Scripture makes such hypothetical Propositions wherein a possibility of Apostacy is supposed in the godly if left to themselves as in that famous place Ezek. 18.14 When the righteous man turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity all his righteousnesse shall not be mentioned in his sins he shall die This place is not as some do to be understood of a righteous man in appearance only for it s opposed to a wicked man in reality and it is such a righteousnesse that if continued in he should have lived eternally Neither may we stretch it to an apostacy from the state of Justification as others do but it is to be understood as comminatory by way of threatning and supposition for it is true that if a godly man should forsake his righteousnesse it would not be remembred to him and therefore if you suppose a justified person not to repent of his grievous sins committed you may also suppose him to die in the displeasure and eternal wrath of God but this is more exactly to be considered of when we handle that Question Whether Remission of sin obtained may be frustrated and made void by new subsequent actual sins LECTURE XI HEB. 4.13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do ALthough this Text in the general sense of it will not fully prove Gods eye of anger against sin in justified persons yet because a more special scrutiny and search into the words will make much against the Antinomian Error and also because the Answers which are given to this Text and the like do contain grosse falshoods so that in the refuting of them all things in this controversie will be clearly discovered as also because that principal and noble Question How far Gods taking notice of sin to chastise and punish it is subject to the meer liberty of his will will in some measure be discussed I shall therefore insist upon this Text. Not that the Orthodox make it their shield of Achilles as the Antinomian slandereth Honey-comb p. 73. But because the vanity of that distinction which they make between Gods seeing and his knowing may be brought out from behinde the stuff where like Saul it had hid it self And first for the Text absolutely in it self The words are part of that excellent commendation which is given to Gods word The purity and power
sinne doth naturally and necessarily go away so that there needeth no acceptation from God or act of remission but onely an infusion of grace to repent But this in the next Sermon shall mainly be insisted upon and it is of great practical use to take us off from having confidence and trust in our sorrow for sin For as when a creditor doth forgive his debtor it is the sole act of the creditor not any thing of the debtor So in pardoning it is not any thing that we do though with never so much love and brokennesse of heart that doth release and untie the bond of sinne but it is an act of God onely If you say Why then is repentance and faith pressed so necessarily that God doth not forgive without it For if it be onely an act of Gods then it may be done without any work of the sinner intervening But of this in the next place onely for the present take notice That it is not any sorrow or retraction of ours that makes a sinne either remissible or actually remitted but a meer act of Gods and if all the men of the world were askt this Question What they mean when they pray God to forgive their sins The sense of all would be not that they should doe something which would remit them but that God by his gracious favour would release them So then if all these particulars be cast up together you may clearly conceive how God doth forgive sin not by infusing or putting grace into us which may expel sin as light doth darkness but by his outward grace and favour accepting of us and therefore we are not to relie upon any thing we do not to presume no not of our godly sorrow for sinne but to look up to Heaven desiring God would speak the word that he would pronounce the sentence of absolution Let the Use be To look upon our selves as bound in chains and fetters by our sins as made very miserable by them that so we may the more earnestly desire pardon and put an high prize upon it Though Gods forgiving be not the putting of godly sorrow and the working of a broken heart within us yet we can never obtain the one without the other The grace and mercy of a pardon is no more esteemed by us because we look not upon our selves as so many guilty persons adjudged to eternal death Thus the Publican cried out Have mercy upon me a sinner What Plutarch said of the Husbandman That it was a pleasant sight to him to see the ears of corn bending to the earth because that was an argument of fruit within No lesse joyfull is it to spiritual husbandmen to see their people walk with humble debased broken hearts through sense of sin and not to walk confidently and delicately like Agag saying The worst is past God said of Ahab though humbled for externall motives only Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself How much more will God take notice of those who humble themselves upon spiritual grounds desiring ease from Christ As therefore Bernard writing to one epist 180. who he thought was not sollicitous enough about the Judgements of God in stead of wishing him according to the ordinary custom of salutation Salutem plurimam much health said Timorem plurimum much fear So may the Ministers of God we wish you not much joy but much holy fear Alas thou fearest pain poverty death but the guilt of sin is chiefly to be feared but we like children are afraid of a vizard and do not fear the fire which is a real danger LECTURE XVIII MAT. 6.12 And forgive us our debts YOu have heard Pardon of sin is Gods work only as also his manner of doing it is not by infusing grace into us which takes away the guilt of sin but besides grace sanctifying there is also an act on Gods part repealing the sentence of condemnation against us Now because this may seem to overthrow the duty of repentance and because this is the rock many have been split upon not being able to reconcile our duty of repentance with Gods gracious favour of pardoning I shall speak though not all yet as much as relateth to my purpose in hand concerning the duty and necessity of repentance although there be no causality or merit in it to take away sin and this may rightly inform us about the true efficacy of our sorrow for sin To open this Truth consider these Propositions First That God doth never remit or forgive sin but where also he giveth a mollified and softened heart to repent The Scripture doth abudantly confirm this by precepts and examples It is indeed disputed by the Schoolmen as you have heard whether God by his absolute power might not forgive sin without Sanctification of our natures and the grace of Repentance for seeing they are two distinct mercies why may not God separate the one from the other But it is a vain thing to dispute what God might do when he hath revealed what he will do And although we cannot say That there is a natural necessity between Justification and Sanctification such as is between the light and heat in the fire yet this conjoyning of them together by Gods will and appointment ariseth from a condecency and fitnesse both to God himself who is an holy God and to the nature of the mercy which is the taking and removing of sin away 2. Although the Scripture attribute pardon of sin to many qualifications in a man yet Repentance is the most expresse and proper duty The Scripture sometimes makes forgiving of others a necessary disposition sometimes confessing and forsaking of them sometimes believing though that hath a peculiar nature in receiving of pardon which other graces have not and therefore faith obtaineth pardon by way of an instrument applying which other graces do not But if we speak of the expresse formall qualification it is repentance of our sins not repentance as it is a meer bare terrour upon thy heart but as it is sweetned with Evangelical considerations Luther said There was no word so terrible unto him and which his soul did more hate then that Repent But it was because he understood not Gospel-grounds We read then of some places of Scripture which make God to be the only Author of blotting out and pardoning sin And again we reade of other places where God doth this for none but the broken and contrite heart Now both these places must not be opposed to each other neither may we so dwell upon the one as to neglect the other so to look upon it as Gods act as if there were nothing required in us and again so to look upon that which we do as if God were not to be acknowledged 3. None may believe or conclude that their sins are pardoned before they have repented To this I shall speak more particularly when I handle the Doctrine of Justification before Faith As for the Assertion
insufficiency in Christs bloud for alas if Christs bloud be not able to cleanse away thy sin how shall thy tears do it Hence it s no lesse then blasphemy which Rivet reporteth of Panigirolla the Papist who cals it foolishnesse and a grievous sin to put confidence wholly in Christs bloud Although therefore God puts up thy tears in his bottle yet if he do not also take notice of the bloud of Christ thy soul must still remain filthy Do not therefore magnifie thy tears and undervalue Christs bloud The bloud of the Sacrifice which represented Christs bloud was to be sprinkled upon the posts of the door but not on the threshold it was not to be trampled upon or despised no more is Christs bloud In the second place There are many reasons of congruity and fitnesse why a man should repent though it procure not pardon as a cause Though God cause the Sunne to shine and the rain to fall upon the wicked as well as the righteous yet pardon and reconciliation is not vouchsafed to the impenitent as well as the penitent The first reason of Congruity is Because hereby a man shall experimentally know the bitternesse of sin as well as the sweetnesse of it For as God though Christ hath fully satisfied his justice to take away all punishment doth yet heavily afflict his own people for sin that so they may in their own sense apprehend what wormwood and gall is in sin so the Lord though pardon come wholly by Christ yet will give it to none but to those that repent that so according to their delight in sin may also be their bitternesse for it Jer. 2.19 Aristotle said Homo est magis sensus quam intellectus much more is he sensus then fides more sense then faith and what he experimentally doth most feel in that he is most affected 2. Another Congruity is this Hereby we shall come to prize pardon the more and to esteem the grace of God in forgiving The sick esteem the Physician The broken bones make a man cry out for ease The famished Prodigal would be glad of crums It is therefore fit that a mans sins should be a burden and an heavy trouble to him that so pardon may be the sweeter and Gods love the more welcome When Josephs brethren were put in fear and dealt with roughly as spies after this to know that Joseph was their reconciled brother did work the greater joy Again we shall hereby judge the better of Christs love to us his sufferings in his soul were more exquisite then those in his body when he cried My God why hast thou forsaken me in this was the height of his Agony Now thou that in thy repentance feelest Gods displeasure art ready to cry out Why dost thou forsake me By these throbs and agonies in thy own soul thou maiest have some scantling of what Christ had in his soul and certainly to think that Christ was thus tempted thus under Gods displeasure for thee will more indear Christ to thee then that he was made poor a worm and no man yea crucified for thee 3. Hereby we shall give God the glory of his Justice that he might damn us if he did enter into strict judgement with us In repentance we judge our selves 1 Cor. 11. that is we condemn our selves acknowledge such sins to be committed by us for which God might shew no mercy for which he might say Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire and by this means God is highly honoured and we debased See this notably in David Psal 51.4 Against thee have I sinned that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest By this expression David doth acknowledge that all the afflictions laid upon him for sin were just and therefore God was to be cleared howsoever Thus in repentance a man comes to know himself how low and vile he is and that if he be saved from wrath and hell it is meerly from Gods good pleasure and therefore repentance is a kinde of a revenge upon a mans self 2 Cor. 7.10 The Lord is set up in his greatness and soveraignty we are made wholly prostrate 4. As there is a Congruity So repentance floweth by naturall consequence from a regenerated and sanctified heart For seeing regeneration is taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh thereby also is given a flexiblenesse and tendernesse and aptnesse to relent because God is dishonoured As there is in children a natural impression to mourn and relent when a father is displeased so that this godly sorrow floweth from a gracious heart as a stream from the fountain as fruit from the tree From this inward principle David doth so heartily mourn and pray from this Peter goeth out and weeps bitterly It is therefore a vain Question to ask Why a godly man is humbled for sinne it is as if you should ask Why a childe mourneth for the death of his father That love of God within him which doth abundantly prevail and reign there is like fire that doth melt and soften So that as naturall forms are the principles of actions which flow from them Thus is a supernatural principle of grace within the ground of all spiritual actions that issue thencefrom but although it flow as a fruit yet many times this stream is obstructed or dried up 5. There is in godly sorrow an aptnesse or fitnesse to be made the means or way wherein pardon may be obtained And this is the highest our godly sorrow can attain unto in reference to pardon of sinne viz. an ordinability of it to be such a way wherein we may finde mercy And thus we cannot say of impenitency or any other sin That God may forgive a man living in his impieties and wicked wayes for they have no aptitude or condecency in their natures to be referred to such an end We grant therefore that when the Spirit of God doth humble and soften a mans heart for sin that it works that in a man which hath a fitnesse to be used as the means whereby mercy is obtained yet that hath no merit or condignity in it to purchase salvation Hence it is that we may not say It is all one whether a man doth repent or not or that repentance is in a man as a sign only that God hath pardoned but we must go further and say it is the means and way which God hath aâ—pointed antecedently to pardon so that where this goeth before the other cometh after 6. There is a Congruency in repentance for sin Though it be not expiatory or satisfactory If we do regard the justice of God or the mercy and grace of God The justice of God For if he should pardon sinfull impenitent men though they wallow in all mire and filth that despise his grace and mercy how could his justice bear it Though therefore repentance doth not satisfie his justice yet sins unrepented of cannot
Example God the Father is moved through the death of Christ to pardon the sins of such persons for whom he dieth This agreement is to be made good in that time they shall pitch upon in their transaction Now it pleased the Father that the benefits and fruits of Christs death should be applied unto the believer and not till he did believe though this faith be at the same time also a gift of God through Christ It is good therefore when we either call Election absolute or say Christ died absolutely to consider that Absolute may be taken as opposite to a Pre-requisite Condition which is to be fulfilled by us so that upon this Election and the fruits of Christs death shall depend or else Absolute may be taken as it opposeth any Means or Order which God hath appointed as the way to obtain the end and in this later sense it would be a grand absurdity to say Election is absolute or Christ died absolutely for if this were so the prophane Argument about Election would have truth in it If I be elected let me live never so wickedly I shall be saved And the Arminian Argument That every one were bound to believe that Christ died for him though wicked and abiding so would not well be avoided His last Argument is from the unchangeableness of Gods love If we are not justified in his sight before we believe then God did once hate us and afterwards love us And if this be so why should Arminians be blamed for saying We may be the children of God to day and the children of the devil to morrow Hence he concludes it as undoubted That God loved us first before we believe even when we were in our bloud In answering of this Argument several things are considerable First It must be readily granted That God is unchangeable Jam. 1.17 God is there compared to the Sunne and is therefore called the Father of Lights but yet is preferred before it because that hath Clouds sometimes cast over it and sometimes is in eclipse but there is change or shadow of change with him The Heathens have confessed this and so argued If God should change it would be either for better or worse for worse how could it be imagined for better then God were not absolutely perfect Most accursed therefore must Vorstius his blasphemy be who purposely pleads for mutability in God But secondly As this is easily to be confessed so the difficulty of those Arguments brought from the things which God doth in time and not from all Eternity have been very weighty upon some mens shoulders insomuch that they thought this the only way to salve all by saying That all things were from Eternity And certainly by the Antinomian Arguments we may as well plead for the Creation of all things from all Eternity as that we are justified from all Eternity for all are equally built upon this sandy foundation That because the things are done in time therefore there must be some new act of will or love in God which would imply God is mutable not loving to day and loving to morrow Therefore to avoid this they say All is from Eternity Origen who was called by an ancient Writer Centaur because of his monstrous opinions argued thus lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 2. As there cannot be a father without a sonne or a Master and Lord without a possession so neither an omnipotent unless there be those things about which this power may be exercised Now although it be true That De Deo etiam vera dicere periculosum est because of the weakness of our Understandings to perceive his infinite lustre Yet thirdly It is well cleared by the Schoolmen That those relations which are attributed to God in time as a Creatour Father or Lord are not because of any new thing in God but in respect of the creatures so that when the world is created when a man is justified we say God who was not a Creator before is a Creator who was not a Father by grace is now by grace not because any new accident is in him but because there is a new effect in the creatures Thus if a man once the childe of wrath be now a son of Gods love the change is not in God but in the creature For the better clearing of this we are to take notice in the fourth place That it is one thing as Aquinas observeth Mutare voluntatem to change the Will and another thing Velle mutationem to Will a change By the same unchangeable Will we may Will several changes in an Object As the Physician without any change of his Will may will his Patient to take one kinde of Physick one day and another the third here he wils a change but doth not change his Will Thus God with the same Will decreed to permit in time such an elect man to be in a state of sin under the power of Satan and afterwards to call him out of this condition to justifie his person here indeed is a great change made in the man but none at all in God There is no new act in God which was not from all Eternity though every effect of this love of God was not from Eternity but in time Hence when our Divines argue against Arminians That if the Saints should apostatize Gods love would be changeable it is meant of Gods love of Election which is an absolute purpose and efficacious will to bring such a man to glory now although such a decree was free and so might not have been yet ex hypothesi supposing God hath made this decree it doth very truly follow That if that Saint should not be brought to glory God would be changeable And besides this immutability which may be called an immutability of his nature there is another of his Word and Promise whereby he hath graciously covenanted to put his fear in their heart that they shall never depart from him Now if any of the Saints should totally or finally apostatize Gods mutability would be seen in both those respects of his nature or will and of his truth and fidelity But the case is not the like when a man at his first conversion is made of a childe of wrath a childe of grace partly because there was no such absolute decree of God from Eternity that he should be for no space a childe of wrath but the clean contrary and partly because there is no such word or promise unto any unconverted person that he shall be in the favour of God but the Scripture declareth the clean contrary This duly considered will give a clear reason why it is no good Argument to say Such a man in his sins to day is a childe of wrath and converted to morrow is a son of grace Therefore God is changeable But on the other side if a man should argue An Elect man received into the state of grace may fall totally and finally Therefore God is
changed would be a strong and undeniable inference And indeed for this particular may the Arminians be challenged as holding Gods mutability because they hold That notwithstanding Gods decree and purpose to save such a man yet a man by his own corruption and default shall frustrate God of this his intention Otherwise all know Adam was created in a state of Gods favour and quickly apostatized into the contrary so that we may truly say Adam was one day yea hour as some a childe of Gods favour and in another of his wrath yet the change was in Adam not in God both because God had not made an absolute Decree from all Eternity for his standing as also because he had made no Promise to preserve him in that happy condition In this sense 1 Pet. 2.10 it is said Which in time past were not a people but now are the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy And whereas the Opponent saith God loved us before we did believe it is true with a love of purpose but many effects of his love are not exhibited till we do believe He loveth us and so worketh one effect of love in us that that effect may be a qualification for a new and further effect of love He loveth us to make us his friends and when he hath done that he loveth us with a love of friendship God loved us before he gave Christ for out of that love he gave us Christ that so when Christ is given us he may bestow another love upon us Now because it is ordinary with us to call the effect of love love as the fruit of grace is grace Therefore we say In such a time God loved not one and afterwards we say He doth love the same not that herein is any change of God but several effects of his love are exhibited As we call the effects of Gods anger his anger Poena patientis ira esse creditur decernentis The punishment on the offender is judged the anger of the inflicter and by this means we say sometimes God is angry and afterwards he ceaseth to be angry when he removeth these effects of his anger so a man is said to be loved or not to be loved according to the effects of Gods love exhibited in time and God hath so appointed it that one effect of his love should be a qualification in the subject for another as sanctification for glorification LECTURE XXIII MAT. 6.12 And forgive us our Debts THe next Question to be considered is Whether in this prayer we pray only for the Assurance of Pardon not Pardon it self For thus the Antinomians answer to the Objection fetched from this place that the whole sense of this Petition is That we may feel in our selves and assuredly perceive what pardon God had given us before Honey-Comb p. 155. So Den reconcil of God to man p. 44. making this Argument of the Text against himself If we pray for forgiveness of sins then sins are not forgiven before answereth The Protestants saith he with one consent hold That they do beg at the hands of God greater Certainty and Assurance of Pardon and he instanceth in a condemned person that is upon the ladder who having received the pardon of his Prince may when called into the Kings presence fall down and say Pardon me my Lord and King but this is to abuse Protestant Authours for although many of them may make this part of the meaning yet none make it the only meaning Gomarus in his Explication of this Petition doth excellently confute Piscator for explicating Pardon of sin by a Metonymy of the subject viz. The sense and feeling of this in our hearts and saith That such a signification cannot be proved out of any place of Scripture nor out of the language of any good Authors and one of his reasons is this Prayer for pardon of sin would be imprudently taken out of the Lords Prayer for he who prayeth for the sense and feeling of a thing supposeth it already done Now saith he every wise Petition hath for its object a thing to come and not a thing past This also Bellarmine objecting against special Faith as if it were a confidence that my sins are forgiven already he makes it as absurd upon this ground to beg for pardon as it would be to pray that Christ may be incarnated or made flesh Crocius in his answer to this Disput de fidei justificantis objecto pa. 131. saith as you heard before That those things indeed use not to be prayed for which are so done that they are never done more but those things which are so done as that they may be often done again may be prayed for The incarnation of Christ was once done and can be no more but Remission of sins is so done that it continueth further to be done and its last effect is reserved for the future For as often as we sin so often there is need of Repentance So that by his Judgement Remission of sinne is not like Creation which once was and is not reiterated but conservation More might be said out of Authors but I come to answer the Question First We grant it a duty for that believer who knoweth his sins are pardoned to pray for further Faith and Assurance of the Pardon For seeing our Faith admits of degrees and is sometimes staggering ready to sink no marvel if it needs supports Thus David although he heard his Pardon proclaimed yet makes that poenitential Psalm Psal 51. for mercy to do away his sins which was by appeasing his conscience and satisfying his soul with the goodness of God for as a godly man though he have truly repented of his sins yet upon any sad occasion doth reiterate his Pardon as Paul many times hath his heart-ake for his former blasphemies and persecutions so it is necessary to have the sense and apprehension of his Pardon reiterated to his own comfort and consolation There is no mans Assurance about Pardon so high and unmoveable but it many times meeteth with violent assaults and therefore needeth oil to be frequently poured into his wounds Comfort comfort ye my people saith the Prophet There must be an ingemination of the duty else the soul at first will not hearken In the second place We may conceive of four sorts of persons praying for this Pardon of sin The first is an unconverted and unregenerated man For although he cannot call God Father and so not pray in Faith yet he is bound to pray The Socinians interpret that compellation Our Father not actually but dispositively as if the meaning were who art ready and willing to be a Father But that is not the full meaning of that place There lieth an obligation upon unregenerate men to perform holy Duties though they cannot do them acceptably Their impotency to do them doth not disoblige from the command to do them Now its plain that such a person
at all Yea God hath delighted sometimes in natural Causes to work the Effects without them lest the glory should be given to the instruments Hence he caused light to be before the Sunne and the earth is commanded to bring forth Herbs before any rain that so God may be acknowledged all in all If God do this in the order of natural things how much more of supernatural Yet this is not so to be prest as if therefore God would forgive sin without Repentance No God hath ordered a way inviolably and indispensably wherein he will vouchsafe his Pardon and no otherwayes But although God out of his meer good will hath inseparably conjoined Repentance and Remission together yet the Discovery or Promulgation of this unto the broken and contrite heart is altogether Arbitrary And in this as well as in other things that speech is true The winde bloweth where it listeth Know therefore by these divine Dispensations That though thou dost repent Gods forgiveness is a meer gift of liberality and no natural necessary fruit of thy sorrow Insomuch that setting Gods gracious Promise aside whereby he is a Debtor unto his own faithfulness after thy purest and most perfect Humilation for sin God might refuse to take thy guilt away A second Reason Why God though he pardon may yet deny the manifestation of it is Because hereby God would make us feel the bitternesse and gall of it in our own hearts A Pardon easily obtained takes off the burden of the fault Thus God dealt with David The light of Gods favour doth not presently break thorow the Cloud that so David may feel how bitter a thing it is to sinne against God As God suffered Isaac to be bound to have wood laid on him the knife to be lifted up to strike him in all which space Isaac's fear could not but heighten Thus God also will kill and wound those whom he intends to make alive he will bruise them and break them that so they may judge the seeming good in sin to be nothing to the real evil that followeth it And from this second issueth a third Reason viz. To make us more watchful and diligent against the time to come Peters bitterness of soul was a special preservative against the like temptations as bitter Potions kill the worms in childrens stomacks It must needs argue much guilt in Gods people if after the particular gall and wormwood they have found in sin they shall be ready to drink the like bitter potion when sin presents it self Certainly the heart-aches that Paul found afterwards though pardoned for his former persecutions were like a flaming sword to keep him off from such attempts again He might more truly say then that Heathen did He would not buy repentance so dear 4. By reason of the Difficulty and supernaturall way of believing it is that Pardon may be in Heaven when we cannot apply it in our Consciences Hence though the Promises be never so much for our ease and thereupon infinitely to be desired yet the way of believing this is so far above natural conscience which expects Justification by works that the heart of a man hath much ado to close with it Therefore faith is not like other Graces or Duties viz. Love of God Humility c. which have some obscure footsteps in the natural dictates of conscience but it is wholly supernatural yea Adam in the state of integrity knew not this kinde of believing in the righteousness of a Mediatour For as the object of faith viz. Christ is only by revelation no councel of men or Angels could have excogitated such a truth so faith as it is the hand or organ applying Christs righteousness is a duty not manifested by humane light but wholly from above And as flesh and bloud doth not reveal to us That Christ is the Son of the living God so neither that we are to have remission of sins only by faith in his bloud Hence the Scripture makes faith the gift of God which coming from the Spirit into our hearts meeteth with much contrariety and opposition of doubts and unbelief No wonder therefore if after the heart of a man hath been awakened for sinne there remain some commotions a long while after even as the sea after tempests winds though they be allaied yet for some space after roareth and rageth not leaving its troubles presently as you heard before Though therefore as God pardoneth in Heaven he offereth it also unto our Consciences yet we refuse and put it off we will not be comforted because it is not a comfort flowing in the way we look for viz. by working And for this reason though David heard Nathan pronounce his pardon yet he doth vehemently importune for it afterwards in Psalm 51. as if he had not the least notice of any such mercy to him Lastly God defers the notice of Pardon to thee that so thou mayest be the more able to sympathize with those that are in the like tempted condition For as one end of Christs suffering in his soul lying in agonies under Gods displeasure was because he might know how to have compassion upon his children in such temptations So the Lord doth exercise his people to the same purpose and certainly Christ accounted this the tongue of the learned to speak a seasonable word to a wounded heart Besides hereby shall we speak the more wonderfully of Gods grace and his goodness after our deliverance out of those storms Those that have been in these deep waters see the wonderful works of the Lord and so have their hearts and mouths the more opened to celebrate his praise Another Question may be What Directions are to be given unto a soul tempted about the pardon of sin for many such there are who like Pauls fellow passengers in the ship have been so many dayes moneths yea it may be years and have seen no Sun enjoyed no comfort at all Let the Persons thus affected use these remedies First Acknowledge God and clear him howsoever Thus David Psal 51. that thou mayest be clear when thou art judged If the devils and the damned in hell have no cause to complain of God as unjust or too severe then much less mayest thou who art kept in darkness for a season only that afterwards thou mayest enjoy the more light Let not God be the worse God his goodness the less unto thee because thou art not yet set free out of the bonds of sin By being thus humble thou takest the way to be filled whereas impatiency and discontent causeth God the more to hide his face Secondly Examine thy Repentance whether that hath been so sound so pure so deep so universal as it should have been All sorrow and humiliation for sin is not godly Repentance Ahabs tears and Peters differ as much as the water of the Sea which is brinish and salt and the water of the clouds which is sweet David Psal 32. acknowledgeth the pain
sinners but deals with us as if we had never sinned at all as it is here made blessednesse to have sinne covered so it is made a woe and misery Nehem 4.5 not to have sinne covered as Nehemiah praieth against Sanballat and Tobiah This expression is also used Psal 85.2 In the next place we may consider in what sense God doth cover sin when he pardons and in what he doth not 1. God is said therefore to cover sinne from his eyes because he will not take notice of it in justified persons to punish it with wrath and condemnation although it be not so covered as that God doth not see it to be angry with it and chastise beleevers for it yet it is so covered as that he doth not see it to condemn beleevers for it We do not therefore make God to cover sinne as an Antinomian saith we do as if a man should cover a thing with a net where the object is still seen Honey comb pag 57. but as to Gods hatred and revengefull condemnation so it is wholly covered and therefore those expressions of taking away blotting out of sinne c. do fully imply that God giveth not an half pardon but that he taketh away the offence and whatsoever punishment properly so called belongs unto it 2. It doth imply That God when he hath thus forgiven deals with a man as no more in that particular a sinner Therefore David after his murder and adultery are washed away he is as white as snow in respect of those actuall sinnes and every true beleever repenting is bound to beleeve that God doth this graciously and gloriously to him That he is no more in Gods account that loathsome leper and unclean person he was It doth imply That God by degrees and in his due time will cover the beleevers sins as from his own eyes so from the beleevers eyes So that the guilt of conscience those arrows of the Almighty shall not alwaies stick in his heart Thus as mans love to another covers a multitude of sinnes he will not mention charge or upbraid the party with them so doth Gods love cover the multitude of beleevers sins committed by them dealing with them as reconciled persons not upbraiding of them but bestowing all encouraging mercies upon them so that if we improve this phrase of covering sin no further we shall split on no rock and yett he soul have as much comfort as it can rationally desire In the next place hear what it doth not reach to and wherein the phrase is abused As 1. When we dream of such covering of sinne as that sinne is wholly taken away so that no reliques of original corruption abide in us Thus the Papists We must not say they suppose such a covering as if sinne were still there only God will not impute it but it is such a covering as is a blotting sinne out Now for actual sinne we grant covering to be a blotting it out but for original sin in the lusts thereof We say they are still in the godly and properly sins only covered because not imputed to them for the grace of regeneration though it cut the hair of sinne as Dalilah did Samsons yet it groweth again as long as the root is there 2. We may not conceive sinne covered in this sense as if we by our subsequent good actions did cover sinne so some have expounded holy works to be the garment that covers our nakednesse but this would be our covering and not Gods covering whereas the Psalmist attributes it to God Psa 85.2 Therefore that Exposition will not hold which some bring out of Austin explaining this covering of sinne as Emplastrum tegit vulnus the Plaister covers the sore by healing of it for although healing grace accompany justification yet it is not justification 3. We may not conceive it said to be covered in this sense As if God when he had pardoned did not yet still retain anger against the persons sinning and so chastise them Though this doctrine be much pleaded for yet Scripture is evident against it David had sin covered yet God would not let the sword depart from his house Thus Job aweth himself against sinne with this consideration That God would see it in him and take notice of it Job 10.14 If I sinne thou markest me God seeth sin in Job and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity and Cha. 14.16 17. he saith God doth watch over his sin and seal it up in a bag Let not then the people of God delude themselves into security by any false doctrine and what woful conclusions there are of a godly mans peace when he fals into a grosse sin I shall handle in another Question Neither fourthly may we conceive of sin covered in a carnall grosse manner As if there were something interposed between Gods eyes and sinne as if a mans face were covered with an hat or a candle put under a bushell The Antinomians similitude is grosse and carnall Honey-comb pag. 275. as a man looking thorow a red glasse seeth the water all red within it so God looking upon us in Christ seeth nothing but the righteousnesse of Christ and no sin at all for the reason why our senses judge water red thorow a red glasse is because it depends upon the fitnesse of a medium and that being indisposed the eye is deceived but God in looking upon us doth not depend upon any intervening thing and indeed Gods seeing of sin in this point is not so much an act of his understanding as of his will decreeing to punish sin or not to punish it So that this similitude doth no waies hold for God in this matter of forgiving or punishing sinne is not to be looked upon as a natural agent but voluntary So that all these things rightly understood we may take that which is good and comfortable leaving that which is corrupt and false And if the Question be made Whether the phrase of covering sinne make for that errour That God doth not see sin in beleevers offending I answer No by no means for these Reasons First Gods covering of sinne is to be limited only to condemnation as I have proved Davids sinne was at the same time open to God and covered open to fatherly chastisements covered to revengefull condemnation God did see it as a Father to be angry with him not as a Judge to hate him 2. Because this covering is limited to those sins which are paâ— and repented of not to new sins committed they are not covered without a new gracious act of Gods favour David before this sinne committed that is spoken of in the Psalm he had his former sinnes covered but this was not covered till he did acknowledge it and then saith he Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne Though therefore God should not see the sinnes past yet the new ones committed they are taken notice of by him 3. Because though God hath covered them yet God may and
state dissoluble or indissoluble and if so then that neither great sins or less should break it and this makes us to wonder how David in his adultery and murder could be justified because we prepossess our selves with this principle That sin doth by a natural necessity expel the grace of God whereas many Schoolmen are bold to determine That de potentiâ absolutâ God might pardon sin though there were no Repentance or infused grace at all in a man Thirdly That a particular partial guilt is not the immediate opposition to universal Justification of the person unlesse it were to abide in him Justification of a mans person will keep him from being actually condemned though not from the guilt of condemnation As a guilty person thrown into prison is kept from the use of his house goods and all comforts but he is not deprived of them till he be actually condemned so a believer falling into gross sins is deprived of the use of all spiritual comforts but not cast out of the right of them because he shall never actually be condemned LECTURE XXVIII PSAL. 51.9 And blot out all my iniquities THe next thing in this Text to be considered is the second Petition which though differing from the former in words yet is coincident in the matter In this was observable as you heard the Petition it self Blot out my iniquities 2. The extent All all my iniquities Now from hence we may justly take an occasion to handle that Question Whether God in pardoning do forgive all sins together So that sins past present and future are remitted together for that is the opinion of some That as soon as ever a man is actually entered into the Covenant of Grace all his sins even future are actually forgiven and that they are bound to believe the same even before they actually repent of any iniquity committed This at large Cornwell maintaineth in his Book of Gospel-repentance Yea there are some learned and worthy Authours who seem to encline this way D. Ames in his Medulla in the Chapter of Justification saith Not only the sins of justified persons that are past are remitted but also in some sort those that are to come Neither saith he can sins past and present be altogether and fully remitted unlesse sins to come be in some sort remitted also Only he makes this difference sins past are remitted by a formal application sins to come only virtually sins past are remitted in themselves sins to come in the subject or person sinning But this in effect to say they are not remitted but that God by his Covenant of Grace will as sins are committed give Grace to repent whereby there may be a forgiveness of them This is to say rather No sin shall hereafter actually condemn them rather then to say they are forgiven Doctor Twisse Vindic. Gratiae pag. 82. de Eurat lib. 3. Quid si dicam in Justificatione nostra c. What if I say in Justification we receive the forgivenesse of our sins not only that are past but of future also that is we are made more certain of their forgivenesse For saith he that internal act of God whereby he doth remit sins cannot be renewed in God Certissimum esse judico c. I judge it most certain as he goeth on to whom God once doth forgive sins to the same man he forgives all his sins whatsoever they are of which absolution there is indeed a frequent pronunciation iterated to Penitents often in the Scripture Thus that learned Authour going upon those two grounds 1. That Pardon of sinne is an immanent act in God 2. That application of Pardon to us is no more then the sense and manifestation of that pardon which was from all Eternity But the weakness of these grounds hath been already demonstrated and we have other Orthodox Writers speaking more consonantly to Truth denying that future sins are forgiven before committed and repented of When Grâ—tius had objected That the Protestants Doctrine was Peccata condonari antequam fiant That sins were forgiven before they were committed Rivet in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 467 replieth Imo id nos absurdissimum credimus c. Yea we think such a Doctrine most absurd and the imputation of it to us most unjust For though saith he God decreed to pardon our sins from all Eternity yet the execution of this is not from all Eternity As God decreed from all Eternity to create the world yet the world was not from all Eternity Those that know God hath decreed from Eternity to pardon sinne upon the condition of Repentance Those that know God hath not decreed the end without the means will never ascribe to themselves Pardon of sin without these exercises of Repentance Thus the same Author in the same Book pag. 533. Absurdum est credere c. It is absurd saith he to believe a Remission of sins which are not yet committed for neither in the Decree of God is there an actual Remission decreed without Repentance preceding Remission To this purpose Perkins in his Book of Predestination There is no actual Pardon saith he offered on Gods part to us nor on our part received without Faith and Repentance When Thomson in his Diatriba had made mention of an answer formed by some Author That in Justification all sins past present and future were forgiven and a justified person was bound to believe this Bishop Abbot in his Answer cap. 24. cals this incommodè dictum an incommodious expression and argueth against it Having premised this I come to lay down the grounds that sins are not pardoned to a justified person before they be committed and repented of and therefore it is dangerous presumption to believe such a thing Only these things must be acknowledged First That God when he pardons sins past to those that repent He forgiveth all them together God doth not pardon some and leave out others Thus the gracious Promise Heb. 8. of remembring our iniquities no more and blotting them all out is to be thus farre universally interpreted that all those sins which then are found in the lives of believing persons shall be removed and taken away All past sins are forgiven together And the ground of this Truth is two-fold partly because the same Grace and love of God which moveth him to blot out one will also stirre him up for the other And indeed if it were not so God would have love to a man as his friend and hatred to him as an enemy at the same time whereas Remission is Reconciliation with God and therefore every obstacle must be removed partly this ariseth from the nature of Repentance for where that is truly for one sin it is also for all other sins and then the guilt of all must needs be taken away Secondly We must grant That to speak properly there is nothing future to God and those things that are not yet to us they are present to him For he calleth
this world Hence our Saviour cals it The day of our redemption upon the coming whereof they are to lift up their heads The Observation is That a compleat and full absolution from all sin is not enjoyed till the day of judgement The Beleevers have not a full discharge till then we are in this life continually subject to new sins and so to new guilt whereby arise new fears so that the soul hath not a full rest from all till that final absolution be pronounced at the day of judgement Before we shew the grounds whereby it may appear that the remission of our sins is not fully compleated till then we must lay down some Propositions by way of a grand work First The Scripture not only in this priviledge of remission of our sin but in others also makes the complement and fulness of them to be at the day of judgement Redemption is the totall summe as it were of all our mercies and we are partakers of it in this life Col. 1.14 Rom. 3.24 Yet the Scripture cals the day of judgement when we shall rise out of our graves in a peculiar and eminent manner the day of redemption Ephes 1.7 Ephes 4.30 because at that day will be the utmost and last effects of our redemption Adoption that also is a priviledge we receive in this life yea a learned man Forbes in his book where he handleth the order of Gods graces makes adoption as I take it to be the first and to go before justification yet the Apostle Rom. 8.23 calleth the last day the day of adoption Hence 1 Joh. 3.2 the Apostle though he saith We are now the sons of God yet he saith it doth not appear what we shall be because the glory God at the last day will put upon us is so farre transcendent and superlative to what now we are Thus Mat. 19.28 the last day is also called the day of regeneration unto the people of God yet in this life they partake of that grace but because then is the full perfection and manifestation of it therefore the Scripture cals it the day of regeneration Even as the Apostle Act. 13.33 applieth that passage of the Psalm to Christs resurrection This day have I begotten thee because then was such a solemn and publique declaration that he was the Son of God No marvel then if the Scripture do also call the day of judgement a time when sins shall be blotted out because then is the publique absolution of the godly and according to philosophy motions receive their names from the term to which they tend Secondly Howsoever Justification be said to consist in pardon of sin yet there is a great difference between the one and the other for Justification besides the pardon of sin doth connote a state that the subject is put into viz. A state of favour being reconciled with God Hence it is that this state cannot be reiterated often no more then a wife after that first entrance into the relation is frequently made a wife In this sense the Scripture alwaies speaks of it as connoting a state or condition the subject is put into as well as a peculiar priviledge vouchsafed to such It is true There are indeed learned men who think Justification may be reiterated as you heard Peter Martyr and Bucer Others call it a continued action as conservation But although there is a continuance of Justification and the godly are preserved in that estate yet we cannot say God doth renew Justification daily as he doth pardon of sin There are some that think the Scripture gives a ground for a second Justification or the continuing and encreasing of it and bring those places Tit. 3.5 6 7. Rev. 22.11 The learned and excellent Interpreter Ludovicus de Dieu in Cap. 8. of the Romans vers 4. largely pleadeth for a two-fold Justification The first he makes to be the imputing of Christs righteousness to us received by faith which is altogether perfect and is the cause of pardon of sins The second he makes an effect of the former whereby through the grace of God regenerating we are conformable unto that love in part and are day by day more and more justified and shall be fully so when perfection comes of which Justification he saith these texts speak Jam. 2.21 24. Revel 22.11 Mat. 11.37 1 King 8.32 This two-fold Justification he makes to differ toto coelo from the Papists whose first is founded upon the merit of congruity the second upon the merit of condignity But the discussing of this will be more proper in the other part viz. of imputed righteousness Austin seemeth to hold Justification a frequent and continued act lib. 2. contra Julianum cap. 8. When we are heard in that prayer Forgive us our sins we need saith he such a remission daily what progress soever we have made in our second Justification He speaks also of a Justification hujus vitae which he cals minorem the lesser and another plenam and perfectam full and perfect which belongs to the state of glory Tract 4. in Joannem lib. de spiritu lit cap. ultim But the more exact handling of this will be in the place above-mentioned It seemeth more consonant to Scripture if we say That Justification is a state we were once put into which is not repeated over and over as often as sin is forgiven neither can it admit of increase or decrease so that a man should be more or less justified for even David while he was in that state of suspension was not less justified though the effects of Justification were less upon him It is true in some sense learned men say Justification may increase viz. extensivè not intensivè as they express it by way of extension when more sins are pardoned not intensively in its own nature Even as the soul of a man in its information of the body admits of no increase intensively but it doth extensively the more the parts of the body grow the further doth its information extend But of these things more in their proper place Thirdly Howsoever an absolution shall be compleated at the day of judgement yet our justification shall not abide in such a way as it is in this life Now our Justification is by pardon of sin and a righteousness without us imputed to us which is instrumentally applied by faith but this way shall then cease for having perfect righteousness inherent in our selves we shall need no covering It is true the glory and honour of all this will redound upon Christ and he shall not be the less glorified because he hath then brought us to the full end of all his sufferings I know some may doubt whether any righteousness but that which is infinite can please God and therefore as some think the Angels were accepted of God through Christ though perfect so it may of the Saints in heaven but I see no ground for this This seemeth to be undoubted That the
her self further appeareth in making her Hair heretofore the instrument of her pride and wantonness now a Towel to wipe his feet In the third place Christs love towards her is remarkable and in the general it is so great that the Pharisee puffed up with his own pride was offended at it not considering First That though she had been a sinner yet now she manifested Repentance And secondly That every commerce and communion with a sinner is not forbidden but that which is of incouragement or consent unto his sin but our Saviours was like the communion of a Physician with the Patient to heal and cure Hence our Saviour touched the leper whom he healed yet was not unclean because he touched him to restore him to health But as the people murmured because Moses married a Blackmore so the Pharisees grudged because Christ shewed mercy to sinners but Moses indeed could not make the Blackmore white whereas Christ doth purifie the defiled soul Now our Saviour doth aggravate his love to her First by a diligent enumeration of those several acts of service which she had exhibited to him not mentioning any of her former sins and all this he doth with an Antithesis or opposition to that carriage which the Pharisee had presented him with 2. To convince the Pharisee he declareth a Parable that so from his own mouth the Pharisee may judge her love to Christ to be greater then his In the last place his grace to her is further declared by pardoning her sins though so hainous which pardon is first declared unto the Pharisee in my Text and afterwards to the woman her self In my Text is the first promulgation of her pardon now because the words have some difficulty and the later part is brought to prove love to be a meritorious cause of Remission of sins two Questions are briefly to be resolved First When this womans sins were pardoned And the Answer is That as soon as ever she repented in her heart of her evil wayes and believed in Christ her sins were forgiven her for so God doth promise and this was before she came to Christ but she cometh to Christ for the more assurance of Pardon and not only so but that he should authoritatively absolve her from her sinne for Christ did more then declare her sins pardoned as appeareth by the standers by who with wonder made this question v. 49. Who is this that forgiveth sins also Whereas to declare the forgiveness of sin only any Minister may do as we read of Nathan to David 2 Sam. 12.13 So that her sins were pardoned by God before at the first time of her Faith and Repentance but now Christ as the Mediator doth particularly absolve her and that in her own conscience therefore he bids her Go in peace The second Question is Whether that expression Much is forgiven her for she loved much be causal as if her love were antecedent and a cause of her forgiveness or consequential only as an effect or sign of her forgiveness in this sense She loved much because God did forgive her many sins not she loved much and therefore God forgave her Here is a great and vast difference between these two many Papists are for the later the Protestants generally for the former and there is this cogent reason for it for that Christ doth not speak of Repentance or Love which should go before and be the cause of the pardon of sins is plain by the Parable he brings of a Creditor who forgave one Debtor more another Debtor less hereupon our Saviour asked the Pharisee Which of them will love him most Simon answered I suppose him to whom most was forgiven Now of such a love our Saviour speaketh when he mentioneth the woman which is clearly a love of Gratitude Because much was forgiven not an antecedent love of merit to procure pardon so that as from her actions of anointing and washing his feet by way of a sign or effect we gather her Faith and Love of Christ so by her Faith and Love as by a sign and effect it may be gathered that her sins are forgiven her But you may ask How could she come to know her sins were forgiven before Christ told her I answer By the promise of God made to every true Penitent and Believer though this assurance of hers was imperfect and therefore admitted of further degrees whereas then all this Repentance and Humiliation was not that sinne might be forgiven but from Faith that they were forgiven We may observe this That the sense and apprehension of pardon of sins already obtained doth not beget carnal security but a further mollifying and humbling of the heart in a gracious manner This is a practical truth of great concernment And for the opening of it take notice of this distinction as a foundation viz. That there is in Scripture a two-fold Repentance or Humiliation of the soul for sin the one antecedent and going before pardon and this the Scripture requireth as a necessary condition without which forgiveness of sin cannot be obtained of this Repentance the Scripture for the most part speaks Ezek 14.18 30. Mat. 3.2 Mark 6.12 Luk. 13.3 Act. 3.19 and generally in most places of Scripture In the second place there is an Humiliation of heart and brokenness of soul for sin arising from thâ— apprehension of Gods love in pardoning whereby we grieve that we should deal so unkindely with so good and gracious a God This though more rarely yet is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as first in this woman who out of the apprehension of Gods love in pardoning so much to her did pour out her soul in all wayes of thankfulness After this manner also was Davids Repentance Psal 51. for he was thus deeply affected after Nathan had told him His sin was taken away Although it doth appear by the Psalm also that he had not as yet that sense of pardon which did quiet his conscience This kinde of affection was also in Paul 1 Tim. 12 13 14 15 16. 1 Cor. 15.8 9. in which places the Apostle remembring his former sins confesseth them and acknowledgeth thereby his unworthinesse of all that grace and favour he had received so that the Apostle doth not there humble himself that he may obtain mercy but because he had obtained mercy The most eminent instance of this kinde of sorrow and shame is Ezek. 16.62 63. where God promiseth to establish his Covenant with them and then mark the event of this That thou mayâ—st remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee So then both these kindes of Humiliations are to be owned and practised and therefore it is a false and dangerous error to acknowledge no other kinde of Repentance then the later The Papists will not acknowledge this later Humiliation at all because they deny all Faith and Assurance that a believer may have of