the pardoned sinner upon the account of sin partly to prevent sin partly to rouse him up to repentance when he hath sinned partly to set sinners to their feet that they may be rightly affected with sin when it is pardoned and that they may be excited to make a right use of pardon There remains yet other two Questions or Cases to be cleared anenâ— the nature of remission of sin to which I shall now briefly speak as the Lord will give The 3d Case or Question in order to this whether the truth of pardon depends upon the intimation thereof to our hearts yea or no so that when a sensible sinner fallen down at Gods foot-stool in the confession of sin and crying for pardon through Christ yet he finds nothing like a pardon intimate to his Conscience In this case the Question is whether hath he ground to doubt that neither hath he repented of sin nor gotten a pardon from God for it The general Answer to this is that pardon and Gods intimation of pardon to the Conscience are not to be confounded The Apostle 1 Cor. 2.12 gives a general rule concerning all supernatural gifts that when we have received these things freely of God we must receive the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God It 's one thing to get these supernatural gifts gifted to us another thing to get the spirit which is of God to know they are given us and this hath place particularly in the matter of pardon of sin for the pardon of sin is a sentence already past in the Word of God in favours of all believers and penitents in Christ so that no sooner doth the penitent sinner flee unto him and look unto him as to the brazen serpent for pardon and cure but as soon that pardon becomes his before he can subsume and say I am fled unto Christ for pardon and am pardoned his direct act of faith draws out pardon before he can reflect and pass a judgment on that his pardon And hence when Nathan hath pronounced that David's sin is pardoned him 2 Sam. 12.13 Yet in the 51. Psalm he crys instantly for mercy for pardon and blotting out of his transgression Why Though he was pardoned in the Court of Heaven yet he was not pardoned in the Court of his own Conscience The intimation of pardon was suspended and kept up And hence is that which I named before Mat. 9.2 Son be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee It 's one benefit to him to have his sins forgiven him and another benefit to be of good chear on that account Therefore as Christ tells him that his sins are forgiven him so he must bid him be of good chear Thus ye see the truth of a penitents pardon depends not on the intimation thereof to his conscience But this wakens up another Case or Question the following forth whereof will deduce this more distinctly and that is how it comes and for what ends it is that a child of God cannot get it discerned and closed with that he is pardoned For clearing of this Case we should look first to our selves and then to a wise hand of God suspending the intimation of pardon If we look to our selves when we are pardoned we cannot discern it because of our weakness that cannot discern our happiness we are blind and discern not our happiness discern not our health we confound the reality of pardon with the sense and feeling of pardon and we will not believe pardon except we feel the effects of pardon and it is also because we are ignorant of getting pardon through the satisfaction of another when we are brought to be sensible for sin and to look to Christ for pardon and God hath spoken pardon we are like the Sea which being raised by a storm doth tumble a while after the storm is over and there is a calm These are some hints on our part why the pardoned sinner gets it not discerned that he is pardoned But if we look up to God he may have a holy hand in keeping up the intimation of pardon upon several accounts As 1. The Lord would have us looking more to his Word wherein pardon in the Gospel is holden out to us on Gospel-terms and less to sense he would breed us to grip the promise while sense come and to grip the promise that sense may come and they that will suspend all assurance of pardon while it be sensibly intimat the Lord in his holy providence keeps up the intimation of pardon from them to teach them to pay more due respect to his Word and to seek and feed upon the consolation that depends upon pardon promised and pronounced therein that by following his method by faith they may come to sensible intimation of pardon 2. The Lord may keep up the sensible intimation of pardon from the penitent and pardoned man that he may learn him to look upon pardon not as a necessary result and effect of his repentance but as a free gift of God which though the Lord will not bestow without repentance yet he doth not bestow it for repentance therefore doth he suspend the intimation of pardon from the penitent man that he may learn to look less to his Repentance and more to the free Grace of God in obtaining of Pardon 3. The Lord sees it fit to keep pardoned sinners in suspence as to the sense of Pardon or the intimation of it that he may let them see that when he is provocked by their sinning it is not so easie to recover themselves and get into his favour Therefore though he have pardoned them yet he will keep them at the back of the door as to the intimation of it partly that they may be put to resent how bitter a thing it is to depart from God and to raise a Cloud betwixt him and them and partly that they may be affrighted to dally with sin again he will have them to know that though he give them mercy it is not so easie to bring a Delinquent in Court and Favour again And 4. The Lord keeps up the intimation of pardon from the penitent and pardoned sinner for this among other ends that he may be fit for sympathy with others that may come in the like case with himself he may cause his reconciled people feel the bitterness of departing from him and may suffer them to ly in the sense and under fears of their un-reconciled condition as to the intimation of pardon that they may bear burden with others that come to be in their case 5. The Lord keeps up the intimation of pardon from them that he may set them on work to repent more that they may search out sin more and repent more for their sin and for the sinfulness that is in their sin that possibly as yet they have not laid well to heart These reasons of suspending the intimation of pardon even
merciful bowels to deal about them according to their ability and as there is cause and a cruel unmerciful disposition is a shrewd token that such an one has not obtained mercy But more of this afterward 5. And Lastly The Objects of this Mercy are described to be tender walkers according to the Rule and Pattern set before them Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Their tender walk puts them not without Mercies mister The more tender they are in their walk they see the more need of mercy and this keeps them under the drop of mercy So much for the Object of this Mercy that is with God and for the characters of them to whom it is exprest which would be looked to by all of you who would be partakers of it I proceed now in the 3d place to speak to the properties of this Mercy which will help to unfold the nature of it a little more distinctly and among all the Properties that might be assigned to it a little briefly to these five 1. This would be fixed that the mercy of God is a real mercy Ye will get fair weather and complemental mercy enough in the World mercy professed where it is not and where it kythes not in any effect ye will get mercy enough like that Jam. 2.15 When a brother or sister is naked or destitute of daily food men that will say to them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but they give them nothing needful for the body The whole world as one says are like Histrionicks counterfeit masked persons and in nothing more than in their pretences and professions of mercy but the mercy of God is a real mercy a mercy that folk may lippen to if ye enquire for it in the inward affection what can be required but it is adduced to express it Isai 23.15 It is exprest by sounding of the bowels Jer. 31.20 By bowels being troubled or moved Hos 11.8 By the turning of the heart within and repentings kindled together All these expressions are to point out how cordial and real the Lord is as to the inward affection of mercy and for the Effects of it men want rather eyes to discern them than the mercies themselves Even his own people are straitned in their own bowels how to keep the proofs of mercy when his heart is enlarged to bestow them and yet they never want a proof of his mercy while they have a room in the Hospital of his Heart and Faith to believe that they are in the Hospital of his Compassion that is an evident proof how real his mercy is 2. As his mercy is real so the Scripture tells it is that wherein he delights Mic. 7.18 He retains not his anger for ever Why Because he delights in mercy No but he delights in himself and in all his Attributes and in the manifestation of them in the World but in a peculiar manner in his mercy upon divers accounts He may be said to delight in it partly on the account of the frequency of his merciful dispensations and manifestations in acts of mercy For works of Judgment towards his people are his Work his strange Work and his Act his strange Act. Isai 28.21 But the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 35.5 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant c. Psal 25.10 Again he delights in mercy because there is nothing flows from him but that which may invite not hinder sinners from coming to him being objects of his mercy It is true he willeth the death of sinners for sin to glorifie his Justice Yet Ezek. 18.23 He hath no pleasure at all in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should return from his ways and live Nothing flows from him to seclude any from his mercy that will not seclude themselves even when he strikes it is to drive to his mercy when he afflicts the language is Turn you and live why will ye die O house of Israel Again he delights in mercy because all the good he doth to his people he doth it not grudgingly Many a good turn among men is as ye speak spilt in the doing But the good that he does to his people he does it with his whole heart and soul Jer. 32.41 He acts mercy toward his people to speak so as one in his own Element and as going about a work that is kindly to him if I may so word it And lastly he delights in mercy because to speak after the manner of men he hath no pleasure that his people should ever raise any cloud betwixt his mercy and them the people of God cannot do themselves a greater wrong nor him a greater unkindness if ye understand it aright than by their provocations to incapacitat him to manifest his mercy towards them But mistake not this for he hath a Soveraignty in his grace even when they in a manner necessitat him to keep up the acts of his mercy and to afflict them hence when they go onfrowardly in the way of their own heart his tender mercy will make a stepping-stone of impediments that are put in its way Isai 57.17 Because he delights in mercy he will come over all these impediments to do them a good turn freely And that is a 3d property of this mercy it is a free mercy it is a mercy bestowed without money and without price But this as I told you the last day is comprehended under the notion of Grace that is imported in the Goodness of God in that it is freely given And therefore Exod. 33.19 cited Rom. 9.15 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy compassion c. And it 's not in him that wills nor in him that runs but in God that shews mercy There is no place for disputing here Why he will have mercy on such and such and not on others it is an act of his royal prerogative in grace that none can hinder for who can hinder him to do with his own what he will A 4th Property of this mercy with God is That it is an eternal mercy I do not mean that any creature that gets not an Interest in the mercy of God in this life may look to be partaker of it after this life that was the Opinion of Origen that Devils and damned men and women should at length share in the mercy of God Either thou must grip mercy here or thou hast done with it eternally But to them that close with mercy here it is an everlasting mercy Hence is that over-word of the 136. Psalm His mercy endureth for ever and Psal 103.17 His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him from election to their eternal glorification so David finds that his tender mercies and loving kindnesses have been for ever of old And the Church Lam. 3.23 finds It is of the
his salvation yet pray on there is nothing formidable in a Supplicants condition so long as he is not driven from Gods Footstool but he prays on 2. Another direction is that repulses or delays should promove humility in Supplications and Supplicants It 's here supplications that he puts up when he pleads for audience Now the poor uses supplications supplications are the Beggers are the Dyvours Language many Supplicants when they have cryed long and are not heard may be in peril to fret to quarrel to repine to bark but that 's a wrong method to come speed with God in Prayer thou ought to be the more humble the longer thou art delayed thou ought to creep the nearer the dust and come in among the poor that speak supplications And a third direction shall be from the Phrase and Metaphor in the Text as I explained it in the entry that is that there be a believing that the Lord hath an affectionat ear to listen unto and hear the cry of humble Supplicants This is imported in the very terms of the Prayer put up to God as an affectionat Parent ready to notice the cry of his Child when he is in hazard and crys for help and this is a needful direction when the Supplicant is held at the door that beside diligence and humility he entertain Faith that bods well of God Faith that when God was seeming to destroy Job made him say These things hast thou hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee Job 10.13 I know thou hast a kindness for Job though thou appear terrible to me so must Faith reckon when answers to Prayer are delayed I know he will do me good though I seem not to be noticed Now I come to the third and fourth Verses wherein we have the second Branch of the Psalmist's wrestling and that is a wrestling with guilt that might hinder audience and to give you a general view of these two Verses ye shall take this Branch of his wrestling in these three 1. Ye have a very sensible and humble acknowledgment of the desert of sin in the most godly vers 3. If thou Lord should mark iniquity O Lord who should stand That is iniquities are so hainous a thing that if thou wilt mark them as a severe Judge and according to the Covenant of Works proceed with men none would be justified 2. Ye have the Psalmist's relief being thus humbled in Gods pardoning mercy on which he lays hold in the beginning of the 4. vers But there is forgivenness with thee 3. This pardoning mercy in God is amplified from the end he hath before him in letting it forth That thou mayest be feared that is not only in general because thou art a merciful and pardoning God in Christ men have access to worship and serve thee who otherwise art a consuming fire but in particular thy pardoning mercy will excite men to fear and worship so good a God that freely pardons iniquity under the weight and burden of which they could not stand For the first of these his sensible and humble acknowledgment of the desert of sin in the most godly I may touch it the more cursorily now because it will fall in when afterward I come to speak of the right way of applying pardoning mercy where I shall take a view of this Verse as it points out the right method of obtaining pardon and the qualification of the pardoned sinner calling upon God in trouble what I would say now upon it ye shall take up in these three 1. Ye have the sense of sin and guilt joyned with the sense of trouble 2. Ye have the sense of guilt meeting a godly man in the teeth when he is sent to God by Prayer in trouble 3. Ye have guilt meeting him with a terrible Aspect that if God marked it he nor none is able to stand For the first I shall give it to you in this brief Observation That in right exercise the sense of sin and guilt should go along with the sense of distress and trouble the Psalmist rests not on his being sensible that he was in the deeps but he is also lying under the sense of sin and guilt a man that hath the meer sense of trouble without the sense of sin he is no more than a beast that will feel a smart and so it is a bruitish thing to be houling under the sense of trouble without the sense of sin Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their heart when they houled upon their beds They houled for their trouble but they called not sincerely unto me And vers 16. They return but not to the most high they are like a deceitful bowe And hence Micah 6.9 The Lords voice calls unto the City hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it There must be a hearing of the Appointer of the Rod as well as the Rod it self To evince the truth of this point I shall shortly hint at some consequences that readily follows the sense of trouble without the sense of sin Not to stand upon this that readily they choise a new sin to an outgate Job 26.1 This hast thou chosen rather than affliction I shall name these three 1. Where the sense of trouble is without the sense of sin folks expects to win soon out of it There are readily a world of conceity folk that think they will win soon and easily out of their trouble Judah found the weight of trouble but not the weight of sin and when they were going to captivity they were filled with dreams of outgate Jer. 12.4 They said he shall not see our last end And Jer. 2.25 They said because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me And when they were brought very low that delusion did not leave them Ezek. 11.15 They say Get ye far from the Lord unto us is the land given in possession And Ezek. 33.24 These of them that did inhabite the wastes said Abraham was one and he inherited the land but we are many the land is given us for inheritance Whence it is clear that deluded confidence is one of the wofull fruits of the sense of trouble without sense of sin A 2d is woful bitterness and carnal distempers of Spirit if not when the trouble comes on because they trust to be soon delivered from it yet when it continues long How find ye that people Jer. 5.19 and the parallel places who are brought in saying Wherefore hath the Lord our God done all these things unto us What 's our iniquity And what 's our sin And Isa 51 20. Ye may take up the temper of such a people Thy sons have fainted they ly at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net they are full of the fury of the Lord the rebuke of thy God Ye will not tame a wild Beast by putting him in a Net but mad him the more and so are they who continue long under the
makes him say Isai 1.13 Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting And lastly consider God in his Power and Justice that if he put forth his Dominion to call thee to account thou being considered in thy self what will the issue be but that Heb. 10.31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God where there is not a Cautioner to interpose betwixt Justice and thee consider God thus if thou would be sensible of the desert of sin 2. When thou hast taken a right look of God thy Party in his Supream Dominion Omniscience Holiness Purity Power and Justice cast up the Sum of thy Debt which thou art owing to this Party and thou wilt be like that man Mat. 18.24 that was owing ten thousand Talents Consider the Law in its spiritual sense and meaning and thou wilt find that Paul found himself guilty upon the account of his concupiscence before it came to the consent of the will and so art thou Consider that the Law condemns evil thoughts unripe and indeliberat motions and how many of these art thou guilty of Again consider the Gospel what a Mass of Duties it commands or recommends upon the account of Gospel-encouragements and what a vast count or reckoning wilt thou find over thine head Sins of commission and sins of omission sins in the seed and root and sins in the fruit against the Law against the Gospel in thy particular station and in thy general Calling O! what a dreadful count will there be if a man cast up the rate of his duty and in how many things he hath offended There will be such a Count that as Job says Chap. 9.3 That if God contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand There is not one of a thousand challenges that a righteous man can put off but he must say as David Psal 40.12 Innumerable evils compass me mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I cannot look up they are moe than the hairs of my head But 3ly When thou hast considered thy Party and the Debt which may be charged upon thee and the number of thy sins take another look of the nature of them and their aggravations from the times wherein thou hast sinned as if they have been times of light and it may be also thou hast been sinning with Zimri and Cozbi when the Congregation was weeping Num 25. When sad affliction hath been lying upon the people of God it may be thy sin hath been against as clear light as Absalom's sin was when he committed incest with his fathers concubines upon the top of his fathers house 2 Sam. 16.22 It may be when thou was under punishment and judgment for former sins to deterr thee from future It may be it was when thou was surrounded with mercies when God was drawing thee with cords of love with the bonds of a man and was to thee as they that take off the yoke from thy jaws and laid meat unto thee Hos 11.4 It may be thou hast been a person much obliged to God who hast often been refreshed with pardoning mercy he hath spoken peace to thee upon condition thou would not return to folly and yet thou hast returned to it It may be thou art one whose example hath had influence to harden many others in sin c. I cannot enumerat the aggravations of sin that Professors of the Gospel have been or are lying under but when the Account is casten it will not be found an Account of Cyphers or insignificant petty Nothings but an Account of iniquities and transgressions very hainous and dreadful all circumstances being considered I shall in the 4th place when you have considered your Party the Sum of your Debt the number of your sins in their nature and aggravating circumstances exhort you to ponder how just God is The truth of his threatnings against sin and the curse Think on that place Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them and it were to good purpose that these Chapters Deut. 28. and Lev. 16. were more frequently read and thought upon It were to good purpose that we heard Moses from Mount Sinai thundering oftner not to drive us from Christ but to him It 's a woful trick in our hearts that leads us to look over threatnings with a light eye We would consider that the threatnings will be accomplished as well as the promises and the least farthing of the sinners debt will be exacted off the sinner or off his Cautioner Thou must either do or get one to do for thee and when thou reads the threatnings think on the posture wherein thou stands And 5ly That ye may sensibly say over this assertion If thou Lord mark iniquity who shall stand I recommend to you to consider the sufferings of our blessed Lord. Consider if such things were done to the green tree what will be done to the dry And there a man that hath any sense of sin will read the dreadful desert of sin when he considers that wrath for sin made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And how his Holy Nature abhorred that Cup and put him to pray that it might pass from him and how it made him in his agony sweat drops like blood when thou judges of the desert of sin by that thou wilt stand then and more sensibly think that thou wilt not be able to stand before God marking iniquity for if such things were done to the green tree when his Holy Humane Nature suffered so much being supported by his Divine Nature what will be done to thee who art a dry Tree out of him If God would speak home these things to your hearts ye would Subscribe to that Verdict Solomon hath Prov. 14.9 that they are fools that make a mock at sin nay that they are distracted that are lying under the guilt of sin and can take rest in themselves till they see if a remedy can be had till they come to that which follows in the Text But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared There are some particular inferences that I intended to have spoken to from this point but the time being past I quite them Only remember that which I have been upon what hath been spoken to you of the dreadful desert of sin a Doctrine that is very necessary but little laid to heart by many of you Ye have got the Gospel-knack among you and have learned to talk of sin and of making Christ a refuge against it But I dare not account all Gold that glisters nor look upon all them as real Converts that can talk in a Gospel-Dialect in Irwine I would drive none of you from Christ if any of you find your need of a Saviour
come away he waits to receive you but lay a solid foundation acquaint your selves more with the sinfulness of sin with the desert of sin and with the impossibility of standing before God marking sin in strict Justice that ye may close with Christ in earnest God bless what ye have heard for Christ's sake SERMON VII Psal 130. Vers 3. If thou LORD shouldest mark iniquities O LORD who shall stand 4. But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared YE have heard how the Psalmist in the 1st and 2d Verses being wrestling with plunging perplexities expressed here under the name of deeps gets guilt stopping his audience and success to wrestle with in the 3d and 4th Verses wherein as ye have heard we have 1. A sensible confession concerning the desert of sin Verse 3. Next we have his refuge when he is humbled with the sense of that and it is pardoning mercy forgivenness with God to which he claims in the beginning of the 4th Verse And lastly ye have the end for which God lets out and bestows pardoning mercy on sinners that he may be feared For the first of these in the 3d Verse I am near a close of what I purpose to say upon it for beside the conjunction ye have heard ought to be betwixt the sense of sin and the sense of trouble without which the sense of trouble is but bruitish and beside that ye have heard that guilt will readily meet the people of God in straits when they are made to cry out of the deeps unto God Beside these I say I insisted the last day on that great Point that iniquity marked by God according to the Covenant of Works and the Rules of strict Justice is that which no man is able to stand under and ye may remember how at great length I both Explained and continued this truth by several Deductions from the Text which I shall not now repeat I shut up the Point with a general word of Exhortation that sinners that look for everlasting happiness would learn to say over this Text with application to themselves If thou Lord should mark iniquity I cannot stand and to do it sensibly for the fixing of which and bearing of it home ye may remember what Considerations were laid before you as Considerations concerning God your Party Considerations concerning the number of your sins and guilt It 's called iniquities in the Plural Number Considerations concerning the nature and aggravations of your guilt upon which account also it 's called Iniquities Considerations also of the just threatnings of God and of the infallible execution of them upon the sinner or his Surety Considerations concerning the sufferings of Jesus Christ a Glass wherein the desert of sin must be seen Now before I come to the next Verse I shall mark three or four particular inferences And 1. Ye have here a clear discovery that there is no Justification by Works that a man by his Works cannot think of standing before God Justification by Works is that only which we know by the Light of Nature and that first Covenant made with mankind in Adam and therefore every man hath a natural propension to do his own turn that way The Jews being ignorant of the righteousness of God and going about to establish their own righteousness did not submit unto the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 Ignorant persons think to please God with their Repentance and the mending of their faults and doing better Papists plead with an open mouth for Justification by Works some Mungrel Protestants would mumble out somewhat that way but ye are to consider that the Covenant requires that which is now impossible even perfect holiness and that Covenant being once broken is everlastingly broken and for any Evangelical Paction the Text leads us to there is no Medium betwixt God's marking iniqiuity and forgiving iniquity a man must either stand to his hazard of God's sitting down on his Tribunal and marking his iniquities to punish them or he must lay aside all thoughts of complementing with God in this matter or of patching up a business of Grace and good Works in his Justification before him they that study the first part of the Text well that if God mark iniquity none can stand they will easily be put from that conceit of Justification by Works and plead forgivenness And therefore 2 I would have sinners considering that there is no standing under guilt except Christ be fled unto for refuge if ye have not taken Sanctuary in Atheism that ye look upon all that is said in this Preached Gospel as cunningly devised Fables will you but look to it and think with your selves what will you do in the day of Visitation and in the day of Wrath when the just threatnings of God shall be execute against sin and all sinners that are out of Christ when many will be ready to cry out for Hills and Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. O! consider it if ye can be perswaded to be in earnest about your souls what ye think to do in the day of Gods wrath for sin In that day wherein the sensless sinners that made a sport of sin will be made to sing that doleful Note Lam. 5.16 The Crown is fallen from our head wo unto us for we have sinned Then ye will find it desperate folly and madness that ye went on in sin and fled not in time from the wrath to come Ponder that Parable Luk. 16.24 which is not to be stretched beyond the principal scope as if there were charity for others in Hell and ye will find what a dreadful Bargain sin is when a drop of cold Water to cool the Tongue would be an ease to the Drunkard in torment and he cannot have it when his warning of others is a witness against himself that he was a desperat man that run such a hazard that is now past remedy Think I say on these things if ye look not on this Word as Fables But 3. If none can stand before God's marking iniquity then the sense of guilt should make us justifie God in all the troubles that come upon his People when we consider that the Lord may for sin not only as in a solemn day call our terrors round about as the word is Lament 2.22 But may everlastingly condemn us in hell how dare a sinner murmur under lesser calamities or troubles The language of a man sensible of the desert of sin is that which ye have Ezra 9 13. Thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and that Lam. 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not A man that is sensible of sin and of the desert of it ye will not find him a murmurer against any cross inflicted but a wonderer at the moderation that shines in the sharpest tryals Therefore as I said upon the first head the sense
of trouble without the sense of sin is ill company and will breed many distempers which the sense of sin joyned with the sense of trouble will bear down and prevent And 4. If even the most godly man be thus lyable to punishment for who can stand if God mark iniquity and even for his ordinary failings consider what is the godly mans case when he falleth in grosser out-breakings If when thou looks upon thy dayly escapes through ignorance rashness precipitancy short-coming in duty thou art made to lament and say Lord I cannot stand before thee if thou Lord mark iniquity how may the lamentation be hightned when thou falls in grosse sins and spots and by them causes the enemy to blasphem and the truth is were folk more frequent in laying to heart their ordinary escapes and infirmities it would be a mean to caution them against out-breakings in grosser debordings but when these are not laid to heart and mourned for it provokes God to write it with some vile blemish and I shal add if the Lord mark iniquity and a godly man cannot stand what shall become of a wicked man who hath no interest in Christ if a David suppose he hath been the penman of this Psalm be trembling and sinking under the Burden of iniquities what a posture should monsters for prophanity who declare their sin as Sodom be in I confess they are not troubled with sin because they forget that they have immortal Souls but their trouble is coming They see godly men plunged and perplexed under apprehensions of wrath when they are free of grosse out-breakings and they are not affected with all their impieties but O! what a witnes is that against them who walk as monsters among men and are never troubled ponder that word 1 Pet. 4.17.18 The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it begin at us what shall become of them that obey not the Gospel of God and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If godly men dare not think of standing before God marking iniquity how can these monsters for prophanity and ungodliness think to look God in the face marking their iniquities But now I proceed to the second General in the Text and that is the refuge to which the Psalmist betakes himself when he is thus humbled and abased under the sense of the dreadful deserts of sin But there is forgivness with thee That is thou hast declared thy self to be a pardoner of sin on gospel-terms and this forgivenness is with thee that is it 's thy peculiar right in opposition to all pretenders None have a right to pardon but thou and it 's thy right when the Law and our own Consciences do condemn us to stepin and forgive and therefore though upon account of the Covenant of Works I cannot think of standing before thee I betake my self to the refuge that forgiveness is with thee There is a General Word that I might here mark that is That there is a remedy in God for all difficulties under which the Saints are humbled and abased as insuperable for when in the 3. verse he hath said If thou Lord should mark iniquities who can stand There is a But a reserve an exception added Forgivenness is with thee There is indeed a hopeless case but here is a remedy for it in God so that there is no case how hopeless soever it be that is desperat if folks go to God with it But this I leave and pitch upon the main point in the Text That there is pardoning mercy in God for sin and this is the only refuge to a sensible sinner oppressed with sin and guilt It 's here the Psalmist's only refuge and ease when he cannot think of standing before God marking iniquity It 's Job's only refuge Chap. 7.20 21. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Thou may set me as a mark against thee and make me a burden to my self but all that will not make thee reparation Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity and it 's the happiness of fallen Man not that he is sinless or able to satisfie Justice for his sin but that he is a pardoned man Psal 32.1.2 c. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is pardoned blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity This we would not need to insist on to prove it if souls were in the Psalmists posture here if souls knew what it were to be under the burden of the debt of Sin there would be no happiness to that to have sin pardoned God would be to them a matchless God upon this account Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he would be a matchless God upon the account of his pardoning iniquity whatever other proof of Love he should give or withhold Now because this is a most important and weighty Gospel point of Truth The pardoning of Sin and I know not when I may fall upon it in a Catechetical way I purpose to quite my ordinary way and to insist upon this head The pardon of â—in which would give me occasion to speak to several things for information of judgment and to set you to your duty I shall reduce what I intend to say on it to these Heads 1. What is Pardoned 2. Who they are that are Pardoned 3. What the nature of this Pardon is 4. When Pardon passes in favours of the Sinner whether it be irrevocable 5. What is the right method of the Application of Pardoning Mercy which will lead me to the last thing in the Text That forgiveness is with God that He may be feared These and the like through the determination of the Scriptures may be of special use to you 1. What is it that God doth pardon it is sin or iniquity so the former verse and this collated holds forth It 's the iniquities under which he is groaning in the former verse for which there is forgiveness with God in this verse so in that forcited place Mic. 7 18. He pardons iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage and Psal 52.1 2. It 's sin iniquity transgression that is pardoned covered not imputed to intimat that sin under whatever name it be expressed is that which God pardons Now to prosecute this I shall not fall upon many descriptions of sin and its nature it shall suffice us to know that sin is the transgression of the Law and that of the Law of God neither the crossing of folks humors will make a man a sinner James 4.11 12. There are a number of rigid Censurers that would make their Will a Law to all or have all to walk by their rash Judgment whereas there is but one Law-giver who is able to save and destroy
destroyes us not how often might he say as he said to Moses of Israel Exod. 32.10 Let me alone that my wrath may wax bot against them and that I may consume them that I may sweep them away from off the earth and yet he doth it not how often might he do with us in this World as he did with Sodom and the old World and yet he bears with us How often might he make the visible Church a terror to it self and all the World and how often might he make the Saints a burden to themselves and yet great is his goodness that he spares a sinful VVorld and sinners in it And upon another account it commends God and that is that he lets not the sinfulness of his People make void their interest in him but notwithstanding their sinfulness allows them to call him Father That though they be dayly by their repeated provocations iniquities and transgressions drawing Rods forth from his hand yet that doth not make void the Covenant Psal 89.32 33. That he will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquities with stripes nevertheless his loving kindness will he not utterly take from them nor suffer his faithfulness to fail O! but the study of our sinfulness would make dayly a new wonder to us it would not be common news but a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 And as we grow in the study of our sinfulness the sweeter should these Truths that holds out the remedy of sin grow and continue SERMON VIII Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared AFter that I had spoken to this godly man his humbling sense and fight of the desert of Sin in the third verse I have begun to speak to this remedy of pardoning mercy with God upon which he layeth hold and I took up the words in that General Note That there is pardoning mercy in God for Sin and that is the only refuge for sinners sensible of the burden of sin and of the desert of sin and told you that I have a purpose if the Lord will to prosecute this Point in the resolution of several Questions which yet may be reduced to a few General Heads Which were hinted at That which now I am upon is the consideration of that that is pardoned Sin Iniquity or Transgression where I spoke to one particular that all Mankind have sinned and done that which will need a pardon They have iniquities even the most godly which makes them when they are sensible of them to look upon it as good news to hear of pardon That which I further proposed to be spoken to was 1. That as all have sinned so sin is a crime a debt a burden that men stand in need to rid their hands of 2. That sin is a debt that man cannot satisfie but must have it done away by Remission it must consequently follow That the unpardoned Man is in a woful plight And 3. That if this be a Debt that can only be done away by Pardon then to a sensible man this will be the chiefest of good news That there is forgivenness with God As to the First of these and the Second in Order proposed to be spoken to on this Branch when it is granted that all have sinned the stupid and carless will look lightly upon it wherefore it is to be considered in the next place what sin is to the right discerner it 's a crime which since he cannot expiat hath need of pardon It 's a debt which since he cannot satisfie hath need of forgivenness This imports that to be lying under the burden of sin is no light matter to a man that knows his case through sin I shall take notice of the Notion under which sin is expressed Luk. 11.4 with Matth. 6.12 Where sin is called our Debt I shal no insist here to clear that every mans sin is his own Debt contracted by himself in his own Person or in the common Root Adam and that he hath not others to blame for it Though as Adam did lay over his sin on the Woman which God gave him so is every one ready to do yet when God and the Sinner reckons he will find that he must reckon for his Sin by himself or by a Surety but waving that that sin is called a Debt it is not to be understood that Man is oblidged to sin for Obedience is that which is required and which we are oblidged to pay to God but what is imported in this metaphor I shall lay open before you in these four 1. A man that is adebted and not fulfilling his Bond is lyable to the Law so the Law of God is an hand-writting against sinful man oblidging him either to do his Duty or to satisfie Justice for his Fault or if he cannot do that and there be no other remedy to undergo everlasting punishment in hell 2. The Debt is heightned by this that all the means offered to Man of directions threatnings promises opportunities power and abilitie to do good in the time and station he lives in Gifts and qualifications for that end and Talents for the not improvement of which he becomes Debtor to God and his sin is hightned thereby 3. As sin resembleth a Debt so it is a Debt above all other debts a man under the debt of Sin is in a more dreadful plight than any under other debt he may be able to pay it and though he be broken he may come up again But a man under the debt of sin can never pay again a man under debt if he cannot pay he can shift his Creditor But for a man under the debt of sin there is no shifting of God his Creditor Psal 139. Whither shall he go from his spirit Or whither shall he flee â—rom his presence Again though a man be under debt and not able to shift his Creditor yet his Creditor is not always in a readiness to attach him though he be in his view because he is not in a legal capacity to reach him But we are in God's reverence every moment Again other Debt reaches the Body only this Debt of Sin reaches the Soul also And to add no more other Debt may reach a man with inconveniences in his Life but when he is dead his Debt is payed But the punishment of this Debt reaches a man chiefly after this Life all these clear that Sin is a Debt above all other Debts And I shall add 4. That Sin may well be compared to a Debt on this account that Sinners while they fall upon a right method of seeking pardon they much resemble an ill Debtor an ill debtor desires not to hear of his accounts far less to sit down and cast them up so it is with these ill Debtors they put the ill day far away They cannot hear of a day of compt and reckoning nor to sit
by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and by the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe without difference That there should be a righteousness by the faith of Christ closing with him for pardon O! what a wonder is that and how good news should that be to sinners how should it quicken up and revive any that are ready to sink under the burden of the sense of sin That when they look upon a holy and just God that hates sin with a perfect hatred they may also look upon him as one who will pardon That when they look to the Law and Covenant of Works their expectations are to be limited thereby because there is a Righteousness without the Law manifested to be had by Faith in Christ 3. But because sensible souls may readily think how can this be And may be afraid to lean their weight on a Pardon they have so much Guilt and the Conscience iâ— alarmed with it and pardoning mercy is an Act of free Grace whereupon they know not that they may venture Therefore to enforce this that God is a pardoner of Iniquity I shall not anticipat what may come to be spoken to this afterwards but the sensible Sinner would consider 1. That the pardon of Sin is an Act of Royal Prerogative in free Grace It 's an act of Princes Royal Prerogative to pardon Criminals in many cases and shall we deny that to God which we give to Creatures Seing He is above all Law who can hinder him to have Mercy on whom he will have mercy to do with his own what he will and pardon whom he will Salvation belongs to him as his Prerogative Royal. 2. Sensible sinners would consider that satisfaction is payed to Justice for their Sins though he freely pardons which will come in afterward only here such would remember that thoughts of the Holiness and Justice of God needs not afright the sensible Sinner why Justice is fully satisfied That fire that brunt continually on the Altar and was not quenched by these Sacrifices under the Law is now quenched the burning fire of the Justice of God is now satisfied and hence God in pardoning sins is not only Merciful but Just therefore Rom. 3.26 Upon Christ the Redeemer his being set forth as the propitiation through Faith in his Blood it follows to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus without reflection upon his Justice and hence the Apostle 1 Joh. 1.9 says If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness not only upon the account of his fidelity that he will keep his promise but upon the account of the Paction past betwixt him and the Mediator and upon the account of the Satisfaction and Price payed by the Mediator upon that account he is faithful and just to pardon sin And hence 3ly Things being thus when sensible sinners come to Christ or to God through him for pardon and yet are filled with doubts and fears they would conclude that there hesitation results not on the uncertainty of their pardon for the holy and just God will not break bargain with his Son but partly it results on our ignorance of that Righteousness which is by the Covenant of Grace we know no Righteousness by the Covenant of Works but that which is inherent and the Ignorance of that Righteousness which is by the Covenant of Grace is the groâ—â—â—d of our hesitation and of many doubts and fears partly it results on a proud competition whether thy abounding sin or his superabounding grace should carry it Rom. 5.20 Where sin abounded grace did much more super-abound and therefore thou that comes to Christ for pardon and yet will not settle upon it thou would say upon the matter that thy abounding sin should carry it not his Super-abounding Grace So much for the second head proposed to be spoken to concerning the Author of Pardon The 3d. Thing I proposed to be spoken to was anent the nature of the pardon of Sin what this pardon of Sin Imports or Is And this when I have spoken to it at this time will give the rise to several other Questions which will come in in their own place and may be useful for you I shall not detain you upon the signification and importance of these Words and Phrases that expresses pardon in Scripture that may come in afterward that word Mat. 6.12 Forgive us our Debts signifies the dismissing of one accused and a loosing of one bound for Debt both concurr here as sins are a Debt they are forgiven and they are a Bond tying the Conscience to answer at the Tribunal of God they are remitted and loosed and considering sins as accusations as they that are in a Court accused a pardon remitts assollzies them So the pardoned man may say as Rom 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that Justifies c. The word rendered pardon or forgivenness Col. 2.13 Having forgiven you all trespasses hints at the freedom of the grace of God in pardoning of Sin It 's the Publicans Word Luk. 18.13 God God be merciful to me a sinner the word in the Original expresses pardon with an eye to the propitiation Pauls word also I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 which also is a word made use of in the new Testament or Covenant Heb 8.12 Intimats the yearning of the bowels of God relative to the miserable state of the pardoned sinner expressed in pardoning That word Psal 32.2 Rom. 4.8 not imputing of sin or iniquitie is borrowed from Merchants that in casting up accompts pass some Debts And that word Psal 32.1 Of covering sin imports that as sin is a loathsome thing so the pardoning of Sin takes sin out of the sight of Gods vindictive Justice Now all these expressions put together might give some general hint what pardon of sin is when God out of his free grace out of the yearning bowels of his mercy compassion accepts of the propitiation made by Jesus Christ and upon that accompt remitts the sinners obligation to wrath by pardoning sin dismisses him from the accusation laid against him looses him of his Bonds puts his Debts out of his Books and covereth the loathsomness of his Sin But to follow out this a little more distinctly what this pardon is I shall take up both negatively what it is not and then positively what it is For an error here is an error in the first digestion or concoction that will not be gotten well helped in the second For the first of these negatively what the pardon of sin is not and for clearing of this
an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I knovv that it shall be well with them that fear God How will ye prove that because he fears before him but it shall not be vvell with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shaddow because he feareth not before God No approbation lyes in the bosom of forbearance Another Scripture that gives a dreadful refutation to them that take forbearance for pardon is that Psal 50.21 These things thou hast done and I kept silence thou thought that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this all ye that forget God lest I tear you in peices and there be none to deliver There is a refutation of all the wicked mans dreams anent God and his forbearance And if ye would have a third Scripture take the forecited place Rom. 2.4 5. Thou despisest the riches of his goodness forbearance and long suffering not knowing that it leadeth thee to Repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath Thou may treasure up other things as thou will for thy advantage but thou shalt find thou treasurest up wrath to thy ruine thou may think because thou prospers in Sin God approves of thee as the saying is prosperum faelix scelus virtus vocatur Wickedness is called a virtue because it thrives yet remember that forbearance is no Pardon 4. In taking up the nature of pardon negatively Consider That God's pardoning of particular Sinners whereby he restores them in favour is not to be confounded with National Pardons which God gives to Nations This pardon is many times spoken of in Scripture though by analogy we may draw them to a particular pardon So the scope of that place Num. 14.19 runs another way than to particular Persons and respects a National Pardon Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people sayes Moses according to the greatness of thy mercy as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even untill now I have pardoned according to thy word sayes the Lord but truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. I have pardoned but yet I will punish and vindicat mine honour So that passage Psal 78.38 But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not when they deserved That was a pardon of the Nation or a National Pardon Now a National Pardon amounts only to this when the Lord forbears to root out a Nation as the Lord threaten â—o Moses that he would root out Israel in that forecited place Num. 14.12 That he would Dis-inherit them and make of him a greater Nation and a Mightier than they when he keeps them in their own Land as he did Israel and does not root them out or when he continues with them the priviledge of a Church though he plague them and weed out a godless generation from among them as he did out of Israel that in the space of 38 years time there was not a man of them left that were 20 years old and upwards when they came out of Egypt save Caleh and Joshua So the Lord may pardon a Nation and yet punish them he may by his Judgments weed out the generality of a Generation and send them to the Pit which may consist with a National pardon when he doth not cut off the Nation or suffers them to enjoy the priviledges of a Church But the pardon of a particular Sinner is when he sits down at God's Footstool and Judges himself and closes with Christ for righteousness and that 's another thing And 5. In taking up the nature of pardon Negatively We must beware of confounding the pardon of Sin with the removal of Sin the prosecution whereof would lead me to speak Positively wherein pardon of Sin consists to the guilt and pollution of Sin and the different acts of God about both but because that will give the rise to other Questions I shall remit it to another occasion only here ye shall distinguish these three The filth of Sin the power of Sin and the guilt of Sin The filth of Sin is the foul stain that Sin leaves behind it The guilt of Sin is the Offence done to God and the Obligation to punishment resulting thereupon the power of Sin is the Tyrrany that Sin exercises over the Sinner Now when I say we are not to confound the pardon of Sin with the removal of Sin ye would understand it aright I grant that God strikes at the guilt of Sin and the power of Sin both at once which is this in plain languege that a pardoned sin must not be a reigning sin where the vertue of the blood is applyed for pardon the power of the blood will also be applyed for the subjugating of sin and putting it from the Throne and therefore in the by ye may take it as a noble evidence of pardon when sin is subdued or if it be not subdued yet ye are engadged against your own sinful disposition that it prevails not with your consent but for the filthiness of sin though it be stricken at as soon as any of the former Regeneration layes the Ax to the Root of that Tree yet it remains in the Saints till death make the separation Paul Rom. 7. Hath a Law in his members rebelling against the Law in his his mind till Death but the pardon of sin is attainable before death and given in Justification and afterward upon the justified persons Repentance for particular faults and therefore consequently it is not to be confounded with the removal of sin sin may be pardoned and pardon of sin is consistent with the sight of the filthiness of sin for which the soul is abased before God dayly after Regeneration though sin doth not reign and that 's it wherein the pardon of sin consists even in the taking away of the guilt of sin and the souls obligation to wrath though the filth of sin remain SERMON XI Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee I Am now insisting upon the refuge to which the man abased with the conscience of sin betaketh himself who when he hath reflected upon Gods proceedings in strict Justice according to the tenor of the Covenant of Works with sinners and who when he hath found that if God should thus mark iniquity none even the most godly should be able to stand he subjoyns this as a blest aftergain in mans deplorable case But forgivenness is with thee In prosecution of this great truth that there is pardoning-pardoning-mercy with God to be a relief for Self-condemned sinners I have spoken to two of the five heads that I proposed to be spoken to upon it 1. I have spoken to the Consideration of that which is pardoned that is Iniquity Sin or Transgression or call it by what name ye will 2. I
closing therewith ye would look upon pride of Heart as having a main hand in it Rom. 10.3 The reason why the Jews did not submit unto the righteousness of God they went about to establish their own A doubting Soul in its exercise may seem to be very humble and crucified it may be but it is not humbled but while it stands a-loof from pardoning Mercy proclaims its Pride for it proclaims it would have a price to bring in its hand to God and God is angry at that pride he will have thee coming to him as a Dyvour when thou hast tryed all thou can do to the yondmost And 6. and lastly in this aversion read another mistake folk think it presumption when they are convinced of their vileness to close with pardoning Mercy but it is so far from being presumption that it is the greatest evidence of humility to take mercy freely when thou comes to the Mercat of Free-grace with no price in thy hand and not only so but it is a high honouring of God The man that being sensible of his sinfulness closeth with pardoning Mercy doth with Abraham Rom. 4.20 Give glory to God and by his receiving his testimony put to his seal that God is true Joh. 3.33 and therefore any that are sensible of sin and have any thing of the conviction of the dreadful desert of sin and are in any measure in the exercise of repentance for sin they would take notice of these things that I have named as stumbling blocks in their way of closing with pardoning Mercy and labour to take them out of it that they may come up to close with it and say But there is forgiveness with thee 3. But now because folk may readily say all that I spoke to in the Morning for preparation to closing with pardoning Mercy is good and when they hear it holden out as the will of God that a sensible sinner should lay hold on Christ for pardon who are they that will not say they have sense of sin and may take a pardon therefore to prevent the stumbling of such I shall in the 3d. place as I proposed in the entry speak to some things required consequentially as a fruit of pardon whereby a man comes to know and evidence that he is pardoned and to improve his pardon answerable to that subjoyned to forgiveness in the Text and here in speaking to the evidences of pardon a posteriori as we use to speak or which are consequential to pardon I might touch upon many things but in general as those that would see the rising of the Sun in the East they would look to the West where they will see by the shade of his Beams when he rises so these that would make their pardon sure would mind well the consequences of pardon as the surest evidences of their pardon and that they are not deluded in that matter And the 1st that I would recommend to youâ— is Love to the Pardoner There is none hath gotten pardon but it will kyth in this and for proof of it take notice of that Luk. 7.47 Where Christ speaking of the woman that washt his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head he says her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much The meaning is not that her great love to Christ did merit a pardon for if ye read the Parable before from verse 40. It will clear that that is not the meaning Christ says to Simon Which of the Debitors will love the Creditor most Simon answers I suppose be to whom he forgave most There Love is the result of pardon and the consequent of pardon not the cause and it is in that case that Christ applys it to the woman such love to me is an infallible evidence that much is forgiven her I would have imbittered folk and such as are reflecters upon and carps at Providential Dispensations noticing this That it is no good evidence of pardon and thou that has love to him whatever be his Dispensations towards thee it speaks good news of pardon though thou cannot discern it 2. I recommend much Heart-melting and Evangelical Repentance whereof I spoke before as it is required antecedently to pardon now I press that which is consequential to pardon when a sinner hath closed with pardoning Mercy and by a reflex act looks back upon what hath been forgiven him O what melting of heart hath it as in that woman Luke 7.47 Much is forgiven her therefore she loveth much and that melted her heart and made her weep much she is a tender melting woman and certainly if thou be a Child the too look to pardon and much more the application of pardon will melt the heart and work more than many Rods. And 3. I recommend to you as a Consequence of Pardon a deep sense of the hainousness of the sin pardoned and much compassion toward them who are yet lying in the same pollution and guilt a pardoned sinner looking on his sin through the Glass of pardoning Mercy it grows much more hainous than it was and a pardoned man cannot but with compassion look on others lying in the puddle of Nature Titus 3 2 7 Speak evil of no man says he but be gentle shewing all meekness to all men for we our selves were sometime foolish disobedient c. till the loving kindness of God was manifested O what compassion will the pardoned man have towards others wallowing in that pollution from which he is delivered There are other two Evidences consequential to pardon one is Our forgiving of others Mat. 6.12 which is no meritorious antecedent cause of pardon for it is the sense of Christ pardoning Mercy to us that should and doth loose our hearts to pardon others we are bidden say Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Another Evidence in the Text is holy filial fear but because the one of these is a Point in the Text and the other concerns the pardoning of one another as an evidence we are pardoned which will require more time to deduce than now we have I shall fist here for this time The Lord bless his Word to you SERMON XVII Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee YE may remember that I have insisted long upon this excellent Priviledge The remission or the forgiveness of sins I have spoken to the Object of pardon or what it is that is pardoned Iniquity I have also spoken to the Author of pardon GOD To the Nature of Pardon and when it is that Pardon is pronounced and I entered the last day upon the Applicatory part of this Doctrine to lead you in a right way of closing with pardoning Mercy following the scope of the Context I proposed to speak of somewhat required antecedently to pardon to somewhat required in closing with pardon and of something consequential to pardon whereby we Evidence that we are pardoned and do improve our pardon I spoke to the first
sense of trouble without the sense of sin And a 3d Consequence is a woful issue when ever delivery out of trouble comes to folk in such a posture and I find in this issue these two to concur one is their hungry starved lusts meeting with mercies do surfeit upon them as the peilled Jews when they came from the Captivity and had not quit their covetousness they no sooner came back but they eat up one another And another is when such folk are delivered out of the strait wherein they were their delivery ordinarily hath the plague of God with it Psal 78.29 c. When that people cryed for flesh He rained flesh upon them as dust and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea they were filled he gave them their desire but while the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel This in short would put folk to it in shoring times to see what they are most affected with whether with trouble or with sin If ye be going with your hands on your loyns what ails you What affects you most Sin or trouble Provocation or trouble the fruit of your provocation Mark it there is much exercise in sad times when it is not about sin and the fruit of that exercise will be found wind Isa 26.18 We have been with child we have been in pain we have as it were brought forth wind Sense of sin over-weighing sense of trouble were a blest mean to cure our trouble Isa 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin when he makes all the stones of the Altar as Chalk stones that are beaten asunder the Groves and Images shall not stand up But the 2d Note I proposed to be spoken to was That sense of guilt meets him in the teeth when he comes to God The Observation is that guilt will readily meet the people of God in their approaches to him under trouble when he is crying to God out of the deeps and is earnest for audience God's marking of iniquity stares him in the face to put some stop and demurr to his access and audience and the issue he would have been at If time would suffer I would deduce this point in these four 1. A tender soul is known by many heart-smitings for sin which David was well acquaint with in the Wilderness when he cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 A very innocent thing to vindicat his own integrity yet his heart smote him a heart-smiting for sin was no dainty to him then I confess when men are at ease and are not in a tender frame they may give way to gross sins and their heart not smite them What a temper is David in when he is at ease and secure What a wide throat hath he to swallow down Adultery and Murder and to betray a part of his Army 2 Sam. 11. The sword devours one as well as another saith he it 's the fortune as we call it and the chance of War let it not trouble thee That was not like David when he was tender but however the general holds true that heart-smiting from sense of sin is a most infallible sign and evidence of tenderness and nearness to God O but the skin of a Conscience near God is thin A little thing will draw blood of it And as upon the one hand ye would try your nearness to God by this so upon the other hand ye would look upon it as poor gallantry to digest sin without a heart smiting you for it There is a generation of men who are called strong spirits gallant men and wherein doth their strength of spirit and gallantry ly In contemning the Law of God in treading upon his Authority in defying God they can commit all wickedness and sleep in a sound skin and never be troubled with it these are our Gallants but the day will come when that will be found poor gallantry and that he is the brave spirit that knows what heart-smiting for sin is and hath tenderness in his walk There is in the 2d place this in particular that when Saints go to God then their guilt readily meets them although they have little sense of guilt in ordinary yet when they approach to God in earnest their sin will muster up before them 3. Although in ordinary Addresses they may be little sensible of sin yet when a strait comes and they are sent to God then their sin will find them out though they can walk in ordinary and be little troubled with guilt yet in a distress it cross-necks them And 4ly Although wicked men do not readily meet with guilt because they are plagued with stupidity yet their guilt will meet with them and they shall find it marked by God as if when they came to God in ordinary they came to proclaim their iniquity These are the Branches of the Point which now I cannot insist on to deduce at large only if ye have to do with God and be in earnest beware of unrepented guilt the longer it be in meeting with you it will be the sadder when you and it meet and the longer it be that ye lay it not to heart to repent of it and turn from it it will be the more sad God bless what ye have heard SERMON V. Psalm 130. Vers 3. If thou LORD shouldest mark iniquities O LORD who shall stand YOU have heard that the Psalmist being wrestling by Prayer with the difficulties and plunging perplexities that were in his case vers 1 2. Doth here come to wrestle more particularly with guilt which might stop his audience and success and as ye heard he doth 1. make a sensible confession of the misdeserving of sin that if God should mark it as a severe Judge none should be justified none should be able to stand 2. Ye have his relief and refuge being thus humbled in the pardoning mercy of God upon which he lays hold in the beginning of the 4. Verse But there is forgivenness with thee And 3ly as ye heard in the end of vers 4. This pardoning mercy of God is amplified from his end and design in letting it forth That thou mayest be feared There is forgivenness with him that sinners may draw near him who in himself is a consuming fire and that pardoned sinners may be excited to fear and worship so good a God that freely pardons sin From the first of these I spake to a general Note That the sense of trouble and the exercise about it should be attended with the sense of sin and exercise about sin for the Psalmist here is exercised and taken up with both while he is crying out of the deeps he is lying under the sense of sin I confirmed this and marked some sad consequences that followed sense of trouble without sense of sin I hinted also at a
of sin the Scriptures speaks clearly to it as in that patern of prayer Mat. 6.12 Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors so Eph. 4.32 Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you and Col. 3.13 Forgive one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye But private persons forgiving of sins is the forgiving the injuries done by mens sinning to them rules anent which I may meet with ere I have done with this Theme But though a privat person is bound to forgive injuries done against them It is still with a reservation of God's interest and the sinner must count to God notwithstanding from all which to resume it 's clear whatsoever hand man hath in forgiving sin God is the principal Creditor whose Law is violat whose Majesty is offended whose Justice must be satisfied and therefore it 's his property and prerogative to forgive sins and louse from the obligation to wrath that sin deserves In making use of this I shall not digress to deal with Papists who in receiving pardons from their Priests use not a judgment of discretion whether the persons pardoning them be acting according to their Instructions and according to their own principles for if they did they might be easily nonplus'd They put the power to give indulgences intirely in their Pope and assert that their Priests are Commission at by him to dispense them but they can only have a humane Faith concerning that Commission For beside that the Popes Power to do so is upon many accounts questionable They ask how we know the Scripture to be the word of God we might ask them how they know the Pope who must give these Indulgences to be the Pope That he is a Christian and hath gotten Baptism For according to their own principles the Pope is no Pope except he be Baptized Now they cannot certainly know their Pope is baptized that being one of their grounds that Baptism is not administred except the intention of the Priest go along Now they cannot be certain that the Priest who baptized the present Pope hath had an intention to baptize him while he went about that Action therefore they cannot be certain of any pardon this present Pope shall give them nor can they have any thing but a humane Faith as to the pardon of their sins But the Judgment of God is visible upon them for not receiving the truth inlove God hath been provocked to give them up to strong delusions to believe lies and shall I add further It 's a plague and a snare to prophane men that walk in the imagination of their own heart adding drunkenness to thirst that they have this woful shift get them a a Priest and let them have an Absolution and then they are as ready to take in a new swack of sin as ever they were this is the woful cheat that follows theit way if folk walked like a principle of Conscience they were to be pitied but when profligat men run that way they drive their carnal interest or have a sleeping God to their Conscience under all their abominations But passing this and leaving particular Inferences till the afternoon I shall give you these three words 1. If God be the only pardoner of sin they make a very blind block that pardon themselves for all their faults that is who can commit all sorts of iniquities and cast them over their thumb when they have done Thou that does so shall know that God only is the pardoner of sin ere long and that thy pardon will not stand 2. It leaves a sad check on all them that satisfie themselves with the plaudites of the world Why they are good folk cryed up and commended of their neighbours if they have done wrong they will confess it make reparation or restitution but what is all that if God pardon thee not though thou should get never so many to hugg thee or assoil thee so long as God the only pardoner of iniquity doth not assoil thee And 3. It leaves a sad check also on them that care not to displease God to please Men and O! what snares to men are these that give themselves to be pleasures of men with displeasing of God They make no bonds of any sins if they can please them they are obliged to But thou that dost so will find thou hast made an ill bargain when the reckoning comes for they cannot forgive thy sin when thou stands before God neither will thou get men for thy Intercessors God only is the pardoner of iniquity and therefore they make a very foolish bargain who to please any stand not to displease God SERMON X. Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee IN handling of this great Point the Remission of sins which is in effect the great Article of the New Covenant Jer. 31.34 I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more After that I had spoken in the first place to that which is pardoned or pardonable sin I entered in the morning to speak to the Author of pardon that forgivenness is with God whatever hand Ministers or privat persons may have in pardoning the one in carrying the word of Reconciliation and pardon the other in forgiving sins so far as they are injuries done to themselves yet God is still the principal Creditor and pardon from him is still to be looked after from which as I told you not only Papists who ly down and sleep on the pillow of mens pardon without considering whether they act according to their Commission come to be reproved but these Self-absolvers and these who rest on the applause of others and these who to please men stand not to displease God are found to be culpable Now before I leave this Head I would draw somewhat from it for incouragement of these who are in earnest about the pardon of sin and here that there is forgivenness with God it should and will affect sensible sinners as a wonder he will not only be a matchless God to them but upon the account that he passes by iniquity and pardons transgression Mic. 7.18 But it will be a wonder to them that there should be a pardon for iniquity that pardoning mercy should be with him whose holy justice is so great who is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity who hath no pleasure in wickedness and who hateth all the workers of iniquity that such a holy and just God should pardon sin that his Holiness and Justice should combine so sweetly with mercy to the sinner is a wonder of wonders yea further this may heighten the wonder that pardoning mercy gives access to them who are secluded by the Covenant of works that when as it is verse 3. If he should mark iniquity none could stand yet as verse 4. there should be forgivenness with him That as it is deduced Rom. 3.20 22. When
battel but such as we are driven in by the power of Temptation Likewise that there must be an exact and distinct account taken daily of our failings and of these evils the pardon whereof we expect and seek And 3. When upon Examination we have found out our Debt there must be a deep sense of the sinfulness and desert of these provocations such as the Psalmist had here when he crys out pathetically If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand I left at a fourth Direction and that was That we should study Repentance for these sins the pardon whereof we expect and seek and as the former Direction tells that the sense that these in the way of pardon have of sin must not ly floating in the brain so this will press further That the sense of sin we have must not be a crushing and killing sense but a sense that resolves in a kindly Repentance for sin a sense and hatred of sin and a grief and sorrow for it in which posture they that expect pardon must resolve to come to God This is so clear in the Scriptures that I adduced in the morning and it is so clear an Evidence of the poured out-Spirit Zech. 12.10 Which is a mourning spirit in them that partake of it that I shall not insist further to prove it neither shall I digress to make a common place of Repentance here I shall only desire you to take notice of these three concerning Repentance and I have done 1. That there is a legal Repentance and an evangelical Repentance A legal Repentance is that which flows meerly from the sense of the terrors of the Law and the curse and wrath due to men for sin And evangelical Repentance is that which hath something of Faith and somewhat of the Gospel in its bosom And I may again desire you to consider that evangelical Repentance is either the result of a general apprehension that there is pardoning mercy in God when a sinner confounded with the sense of guilt looks in general to this Truth That there is forgiveness with God or more particularly when the sinner closes with that pardoning mercy for his own behove and makes application of it to himself and so is a pardoned man Now for the Repentance that is antecedent to pardon there must be somewhat both of legal and evangelical Repentance some Too-look to that great Truth and Encouragement Verse 4. There is forgivenness with thee for the legal Repentance it may crush but evangelical Repentance makes the sinner to bow legal Repentance is like a hammer that breaks the Rock evangelical Repentance is like the fire that melts the mettal only that Repentance that results upon the Application of Pardon to a sinners self is not antecedent to but consequential of pardon 2. Ye would consider the room that Repentance hath in this bargain of the Pardon of sin it comes not in certainly by way of merit for all the Salvation we get first and last is through the merit of Christ but Repentance has place in the obtaining of Pardon partly as it is an inseparable companion of saving Faith that apprehends and lays hold on Christ for Pardon a man cannot say he has Faith if it be not a penitent Faith partly it comes in as a condition required in order to God's Pardoning for God as I said before though he hath promised to pardon no man for his Repentance yet he hath declared he will pardon none without Repentance and partly it comes in as a qualification of the person pardoned who is thereby fitted to ly low at Gods Footstool for pardon Repentance makes folk find sin as bitter as ever they found it sweet Repentance is that which excites them to condemn themselves and to justifie God without Repentance it were inconsistent with the Justice of God to pardon a sinner lying impenitent in his filth nor would it commend the Grace of God if it were cast a way to the despisers of Grace as well as to the penitent who highly esteem of Grace And a 3d. Word I would have you to consider is concerning the degree and measure of repentance I dare not digress on that much There is a Word that might give folk ground of sad thoughts Acts 2.37 compared with verse 38. where ye will find a people pricked in heart and put to a peremptor they have compunction and cry out What shall we do Verse 37. and Peters answer Verse 38. is Repent They that are pricked in heart and put to a peremptor may have their Repentance to begin not only they that have legal Repentance may have evangelical to begin but even those who have made some progress in evangelical Repentance their hard and impenitent heart may be so habituated with obduration that when they have a gail of the Spirit of Repentance they may need to employ God to help them to repent to purpose I shall say no more on this but beseech you to look to your Repentance it fears me that few be come the length of legal Repentance or to examine whether they have sinned or not But suppone that ye had examined and found out sin had some sense of it I intreat you make Conscience of Repentance Thou that has confidence to believe and seek pardon give this evidence that thou art in earnest about it by making Conscience of Repentance daily O! how long is it since many of you sat down and communed with your own heart and smote upon your thigh saying What have I done How long is it since ye was in Ephraim's posture Jer. 31.19 Ashamed yea confounded because ye have born the reproach of your youth O think on it in earnest neglected Repentance daily will make an ill revel'd Hesp daily to you if ever ye and your Conscience meet and as I said before let never folk talk of their Faith that is not dipped in tenderness and repentance daily Only take what hath been said with this Caution if ye be convinced of your need of repentance and yet ye want it ye know where to get it That exalted Prince for giving pardon is also exalted to give repentance Acts 5.31 So much for these things required antecedent by way of preparation for pardon In the 2d place I proposed to speak somewhat to that whereby a soul so qualified prepared closes with Christ for pardon and that is Faith whereby a sinner having his sin discovered the sense of it wakened up within him and having made conscience of Repentance for it grips unto Jesus Christ by Faith for the pardon of it and that is the thing which the 2d word in the Text holds out after he has said verse 3. If thou Lord should mark iniquity who can stand he adds verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee there is his Faith closing with pardoning mercy to get a good account of that iniquity and sinfulness whereof he is convinced So we find David when making his Testament
2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God there is his abasing of himself in the sense of sin and shortcoming in duty Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure he runs to the Remedy held forth in the everlasting Covenant and that is it which Paul subjoins to that which I cited in the morning Philip. 3.3 When a man hath no confidence in the flesh when all beside Christ is flesh to him and consequently that which he dare not have any confidence in Then the next step is not only to close with but to rejoice in Jesus Christ That I may make something of this I shall speak a short word to wicked men and insist a little longer in speaking to convinced sinners 1. For wicked men that which I am upon may serve to discover to them a great mistake they are afraid to grow acquaint with themselves O! how dow they think of casting up their accounts These black Libels and dreadful Dittays that are lying in process against them that were their ruine and would undo them if they should look thereaway they would never have a day to do well they would turn desperat and I would willingly know what it will avail them not to look over their Accompts will they resolve never to repent or will they get them shifted out of the way will their forgetting of their faults mend them will not the iniquity of a man's heels soon or syne compass him about Will not their sin find them out as is said Num. 32.23 But shall I add thou art in a great mistake that thinks the searching out of thy sin will undo thee I confess if thou do it in earnest thou must not continue in a course of sin as thou hast done but it is thy advantage to search out sin and repent if thou can say If thou Lord mark iniquity who can stand Thou shall have reason to say But forgiveness is with thee Wilt thou consider what rich advantage is in taking with thy guilt and being humbled for it that it is a man's safety to be thus lost it is an argument whereon he may plead for mercy when he finds himself undone without it It is thy ignorance of the rich advantage that is on the back of Self-judging that makes thee voluntarly continue a stranger to it But 2. For these who are convinced of sin and sensible of it who can say They have no confidence in the flesh and yet dare not say They rejoyce in Christ Jesus I would have such looking upon it as their great mistake that keeps them from resting on Christ and rejoycing in him and it makes all their other exercise to be but wind though ye had so much sorrow for sin as to sink you in the pit if ye add not There is forgiveness with thee if Christ be not the end of all your Exercises they will miscarry and leave you sinking in sin and misery And had I many to speak to that are making conscience of Repentance of sin and yet come not up to close with the Remedy of pardoning mercy in Christ I would point out several things that would be adverted to by such as are in such a frame and I shall pitch on five or six of them 1. Thou that art under convictions of sin and does not close with pardoning mercy thou evidence a mistake of that mercy thou considers not that thy necessity and impossibility to stand without it is a claim unto it thou considers not that it is the design of the Gospel to rescue the lost whose feet are sinking thou considers not that then thou begins to be beautiful when thou becomes loathsom in thine own eyes and that thou begins to be saved when thou art put to cry Save Master I perish and so in standing a-loof from pardoning mercy thou mistakes the design of the Gospel 2. In this standing a loof thou discovers thy ignorance of Gods Design in giving thee the sense of thy condition what a posture art thou in Thou art one that sees thy self abominable monstâ—ously vile the chief of sinners But may I say who told thee who shewed thee that thou was so and made it out to thee Has there not been a day when thy condition and frame was as bad and thou saw no such thing which says that it hath been Christ who by his spirit convinceth the world of sin that has opened thine eyeâ— discovered to thee thy vileness through sin But thou may think though he hath done it yet it is to be the Narrative of a sad sentence against thee and to send thee to the gate But if thou abuse not Mercy there is another thing in it if he hath opened thy mouth wide he will not fill it with an empty spoon but with good things if he hath made his Law to have a work upon thee it is not to drive thee from him but that the Law may be a school-master to bring to Christ So then it is the ignorance of God's design in giving thee the sense of sin that makes thee under convictions stand a loof from Mercy 3. In this aversion and unwillingness to come unto pardoning Mercy I would have you to consider a great reflection upon the Truth and Faithfulness of God 1 Joh. 5.10 He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because be believeth not the record that God gave of his Son I wish that I had many to speak unto that have to do with these things but I cannot pass it being the Applicatory part of the Doctrine Hast thou any sense of sin art thou afraid of wrath because of it what makes thee afraid is it not the Authority and Veracity of God speaking in his Law when thy Conscience is wakened and thou sees how faulty thou art and the Law leaves thee under the curse it afrights thee and there is good cause but how comes it that when thou hast believed God speaking in his Law unto thee thou does not believe him speaking in the Promise seing it is the same God that speaks in both is not this to make God a liar and hast thou not a witness against thy self while the Faith of his threatnings troubles thee and yet the Faith of his Promises doth not encourage and comfort thee But 4. In this unwillingness to close with pardoning Mercy read corrupt and ill principles man by nature is ignorant of a Gospel-righteousness he knows nothing of Pardoning Mercy through a Mediator but if the Covenant of Works be once broken it is everlastingly broken and hence the sensible sinner being ignorant of the New Covenant of Grace he chooses rather to ly mourning under the ruines of that first Covenant than to look up to a better and this ignorance of Gods righteousness is a thing which the Saints ought rather to mourn for than to foster But 5. In this standing a-back of sensible sinners from pardoning Mercy and in not
How shall they get their crap submitting to it How shall they get their bitter disposition under their feet that they may heartily remit wrongs done unto them I confess this is a duty that requires more than an ordinary measure of grace and grace in exercise and few attain it Alas How few are who when they have gotten a wrong have that testimony that they mourn more over their own disposition than resent the wrong and pray for the person that hath wronged them but in short there are four words I would recommend to you in order to that meâ—k and mortified temper 1. It were a special mean to bring you this pardoning-humour to be daily sensible of the wrongs that ye have done and are doing to God and who wots but a wrong done by thee to God is laid in thy dish by a third hand to make thee sensible of it The man that is daily sensible of the wrongs he doth to God is the only man to be a good neighbour when he comes out loadned with the sense of his own provocations he will be ready to forgive others He that finds he hath ten thousand talents to be forgiven will easily be brought to forgive an hundred pence It 's our distance with God and the want of the sense of the wrongs done to him that makes us keep up a revengful humour 2. They that would have this pardoning-disposition would be sensible of how much need they have to be forgiven themselves Eccles 7.21 22. Take not heed unto all words that are spoken lest thou hear thy servant curse thee do not sash thy self with noticing every injury were it from as mean a person as thy servant for oft-times also thine own heart knoweth that thou thy self hast cursed others There is no living in the world if as we use to speak we do not live and let live if we forgive not as we would be forgiven If thou seest a more in thy brothers eye pull the beam out of thine own and then thou wilt see more clearly to pull the more out of thy brother's eye This will make thee of a meek and condescending frame 3. I recommend to thee that would forgive to labour to get a sight of the hand of God in the wrong done to thee When thou gets a wrong it may be of a person far below thee and one that thou can easily reach O! How doth poor dust swell with thoughts of revenge But were the hand of God seen in that wrong it would tame thee when David is fleeing from his son Absalom and Shimei comes out and curses him Abâ—shai says Should a dead dog curse the King let me go over and take off his head O let him alone saith David God hath said unto him Curse David Who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so 2 Sam. 16.9 10. If the providence of God extend to the hairs of our head that they are all numbered Mat. 10.30 Unquestionably it is not unconcerned in the affronts and injuries done to us by men and whatever thou hast to say to the person that hath injured thee yet if thou look up to the hand of God in it thou wilt be silent and calm And 4. Remember when thou does not pardon but offers to revenge at thine own hand thou usurps Gods place Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved revenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord and consequently when thou offers to revenge thou takes his place and provocks him to leave thee and let thee stand to thy self and not concern himself in any wrong done to thee But the third thing I proposed to speak a word to is That this forgivenness of others is absolutely necessary to them that would evidence that they are pardoned of God themselves Mat. 6.12 We are bidden pray Forgive us our debts as we forgive others I shall briefly explain this and close And 1. As I have often hinted before our forgiving others doth nor merit pardon for forgiving of others is not an antecedent to pardon but a consequence of it it 's the evidence of a pardoned man and consequently cannot be antecedent to pardon far less a meritorious cause of pardon 2. While Christ bids us pray Forgive us as we forgive there is no proportion to be understood there is a vast difference betwixt Gods forgiving and our forgiving his forgivenness extends to ten thousand talents ours only to an hundred pence Mat. 18.24 28. His forgiving requires a satisfaction to justice before he give out the sentence of pardon not so ours his forgivenness brings no profit to him as ours doth to us we having thereby access to pardoning mercy only in this the parallel holds that we forgive frankly and freely as God forgives us 3. Consider the connexion a little more nearly partly it is an encouragement to the sensible sinner to believe he is pardoned when he finds a disposition in himself to forgive others a poor sensible sinner lying at Gods foot-stool suing for pardon though he be pardoned yet he hath a hink whether he be so or not but this encourages him to believe it that he finds in himself a loosing of heart to forgive another that hath wronged him often he may reason have I gotten many wrongs and yet I can find in my heart to forgive and put them in my bosome that have wronged me upon their repentance and shall I doubt but God who is a God infinite in mercy hath pardoned me So that thy warmness and loosing of heart to forgive others looses and opens a door to thee to believe that the infinite God in mercy hath pardoned thee and partly ye would remember that it is a condition of pardon not antecedent but subsequent whereby a man may reflect and gather whether he be pardoned or not read Mat. 6.14 15. he contents not himself to say Forgive if we would be forgiven but he adds if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Ye can have no evidence that ye your selves are pardoned except ye have a tender disposition and frame of heart to forgive others and therefore that servant who Mat. 18.27 had ten thousand talents forgiven him and yet when he got his fellow-servant would not forgive him an hundred pence he proclaimed that though he seemed to be forgiven he was not forgiven but behoved to go to prison Now I have been detained in providence upon this Doctrine for this time a Doctrine that is not unseasonable to you if ye be in earnest in seeking the pardon of your sin it serves to point out to you the terms on which it is attainable and by which ye evidence that ye are pardoned that ye may not in this matter cheat your selves in taking a lie in your right hand in stead of pardon and it is not
unseasonable were it but to give a check to the malicious disposition that haunts too too many in this generation What shall I say of it I shall only say this that little love is the first step to this malicious disposition when love grows cold and folk lives uncouth and fram'd one to another without intimations of that warmness of affection that should be which is much creept in among the fearers of God love I say growing cold then injuries bitter resentments back-bitings reproaches evil speakings c will threed in with that needle yea this is one of the great in-lets to that monstruous damnable dreadful sin of Witchcraft into which some have been led by their lusts others have been tempted to through poverty but moe by malice than by both to give themselves formally over to the Devil to renounce Christ to renounce their Baptism hope of happiness and to sacrifice all to their malicious and revengful temper therefore look to it and upon this as a necessary Doctrine that presses you to have love one to another forbearing and forgiving one another that love that suffers long is not puffed up behaveth not it self unself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provocked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but in the truth beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things endureth all things 1 Cor. 13.4 It was the most known badge of the primitive Christians and no wonder their Master left it with them Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another love to kindle up kindness that malice drowns love that extenuats faults that passion aggreges love that pities and compassionats where malice and revenge severely punishes love that will meet an injurer mid-way and more when revenge bids run away As ye would not be given up to the most dreadful temptations study love and from love to forgive and harbour not a malicious and revengful disposition Lord bless c. SERMON XVIII Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared IN the morning I was detained upon that evidence of a pardoned man which is of very common use in our walk that we have a tender-hearted disposition and be in a readiness to forgive others Now there remains before I leave this point another evidence or consequence of pardon when it is rightly closed with held out in that which ye may remember I made a third branch of this Text being an amplification of pardoning mercy taken from Gods design in letting it out even that he may be feared I shall not here stand on a general how needful it is to look to Gods design and what he drives at by every thing he doth unto us and about us as the Psalmist takes notice of Gods end in pardoning Though it were needful that we should look to it that we abuse no dispensation of God to serve our own ends neglecting his ends The reason why we speed not in many suits is we ask and receive not because we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our lusts Jam. 4.3 But passing that I come to the word in the Text. The word here fear of God it is one of these internal graces that naturally results upon the acknowledgment of a Deity and consequently belongs to the first Command where knowledge and acknowledgment of God faith and hope in God love to him and fear of him and patience under his dispensations are all commanded under that of having no other gods but frequently the fear of God is taken more largely for all the service and fear and worship of God and that because fear and reverence is a necessary ingredient called for in every part of service and worship we perform here we need not restrict the sense of the Word and so the meaning is pardoning Mercy is in God and let forth by God to the penitent that the pardoned sinner may stand in awe to offend God and may be invited to worship and serve God who invites him to it by a free pardon of iniquity under which he could not stand if God should mark it in strict Justice And hence in that sum of Christianity Philip. 3.3 If a man from having no confidence in the flesh come to rejoyce in Jesus Christ the result of that is to worship God in the Spirit hence Job 37.23 24. When God is taken up as one excellent in Power Judgment and plenty of Justice that will not afflict it hath this consequence resulting upon it men do therefore fear him and 1 Kin. 8.38 when his people pray to him he by his hearing of Prayer forgiving of sin doing and giving to every man according to his ways doth hereby invite them to fear him all the days that they live in the Land which he gave to their Fathers and Hos 3.5 It is said of converted Israel That they shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter dayes Now that I may speak somewhat of this for your edification I shall take a word or two from this purpose abstractly considered and then consider it with an eye to the scope 1. Then considering the words abstractly we may mark that fear and reverence is due to God that God is a suitable Object of humble and reverential fear in the Creature the fear of God is a thing frequently spoken of and prest in Scripture as most due to him Rev. 15.4 Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name Psal 76.7 11. Thou even thou art to be feared bring presents to him that ought to be feared Isai 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself let him be your fear and your dread Heâ—â—e not to insist upon the Derivations that some give of the Greek and Latine Names of God from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying Fear the Scripture sometimes Names God by this That he is the fear of his people Gen. 31.53 when Laban sware by the God of Abraham and the God of Nabor Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac that is by the God that was the Object of Isaac's fear and that word is very emphatick which ye have Psal 76.11 in your Translation it is bring presents to him that ought to be feared but in the Original and as it is rendred in the margin of your Bibles it is bring presents to the fear that is to God the Object of the reverential fear of his people It may be said that the Object of fear being things evil God who is the Chief Good seems not to be the proper Object of fear but that is easily cleared affection to God as to the chief Good cannot be without holy solicitude and reverential fear lest either our sin deprive us of him and of his favour or he be provocked to send evil on us upon the account of our provocations Now for the kinds of this fear of God I shall not insist upon
pardoning mercy sets hearts on work to fear God and to tenderness in the study of holiness then ye may see how many of the Children of God do cut the throat of all their endeavours after holiness and to walk tenderly through their not closing with pardoning Mercy I suppose some have the Conscience a sad Monitor unto them a sad Wan-rest within doors for want of tenderness and some would fain be at serving and worshipping of God and yet they cannot win at it but look if thou leaves not thy encouragement behind thy hand in not closing with pardoning Mercy and by so doing not only cuts thy self short of the Joy of the Lord which is thy strength but provocks God to blast thy study of holiness that thou would put in his room or in the room of his pardoning Mercy But thou that would be keeped fresh and green in thy pursuit of holiness here is thy method that thou must follow first wrap thy self in the bosom of pardoning Mercy and then try thy work and thou shalt find it more delightsome and go better with thee than when thou leaves this encouragement behind thee lay thy self in his bosom for pardon and O! but that will make thee fear him much and love him much that woman Luke 7 that bad much forgiven her loved much and had abundance of tears to wash Christ's feet her closing with pardon did so melt her heart and so would it thine closing with pardoning Mercy would heal palsie hands and feet and make thee work walk and run it would kindle that love that is strong as death and that jealousie that is cruel as the grave the coals whereof are coals of fire that have a vehement flame and bring it to that that many waters cannot quench or the floods drown or contemn all that would compet with it I dare not offer to insist the day being shortened but as on the one hand they who fall asleep on pardoning Mercy as the bride of Christ may some times take a nap but wakens and sets to her feet again would know they make not a right use of pardoning Mercy but sin grievously and if they sleep on they evidence that they cheat themselves in that matter and these that love not holiness proclaim they were never partakers of it so upon the other hand thou that loves holiness but cannot win at it close better with pardoning Mercy as that which will strenthen and encourage thee and by waiting on the Lord in this way thou shalt renew thy strength mount up with wings as eagles run and not be weary walk and not be faint Now to our God be praise and glory through Jesus Christ SERMON XIX Psalm 130. Verse 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning YE heard when I entred upon this Psalm that the first six Verses contain the wrestling and the exercise the Psalmist was under as the last two Verses contain his victory and issue and his improvement of it For his wrestling and exercise it consists as ye heard of three branches ye have him wrestling with the difficulties and plunging perplexities in his case these he expresses under the Metaphor of depths and his wrestling with them is by fervent wrestling and crying to God in Prayer verses 1 2. 2. Ye have him wrestling with the Conscience and sense of guilt that obstructed his audience put back his Prayers and offered to crush his hopes and with that he wrestles in the 3 and 4. Verses by taking with the dreadful desert of sin by laying hold on God's pardoning Mercy and carrying alongst with him God's end in letting out pardoning Mercy to sinners even that he may be feared and of this subject I have been speaking at great length and I must exhort and intreat that though a close be put to Preaching on it that yet ye may not give over the minding of that Doctrine it is that which will be your great Pasport pardoning Mercy if ye obtain it when ye come to grapple with the King of Terrors and go through the dark valley of the shadow of death Now in the two Verses read ye have the Psalmist in the third place wrestling with delays of answers to his Prayers or the delays of the out-gate prayed for and these he wrestles with by confident patient affection at waiting on God I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope c. And this purpose also we have cause to look unto because it gives an account of a Christians constant exercise in time he that would be a Christian indeed it is not enough that he pray in difficulties that he take with the desert of sin and look to pardoning Mercy when Conscience challenges him but when he hath done all that he must persevere in so doing and wrestle with the delays of answers to his Prayer he must give a proof of the patience as well as of the Faith of the Saints he must be a follower of these who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises There is a general Remark which will make way to the purpose contained in the words which I shall insist on a little that is That perseverance and constant waiting on God in his way is the great task of Saints and the Touchstone of their sincerity in all other exercises and duties This tryes how well breathed the Saints are and what is their integrity in other exercises that they are at sometimes even that they be constant bide by it wait on God and persevere in waiting on him in his way notwithstanding they meet with delays And that I may unfold this General to you ye shall with me take a threefold look of this perseverance 1. Look upon it in general as it is opposed to Apostacy backsliding giving up with the ways of Religion 2. Which will deduce this General more fully and particularly ye shall take a look of this perseverance as it imports a constant Tenor and course in waiting on God and seeking of God in opposition to folks phrases fairds and hot fits at some times wherein they are but fleeting And 3. Which will lead me to the particular in the Text look on it as it is opposed to wearying sitting up or falling by from employing God and waiting on him if they be delayed especially in sad dispensations and exigences they meet with For the first of these Perseverance in general as it is opposed to apostasie back-sliding and giving up with the ways of God and godliness I shall not dwell much on that Doctrine The necessity of it appears in the Promises made unto it Mat. 24.13 It is he that endures unto the end shall be saved and Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters it is always to the overcomer that the Promise is made though I
reference to his misery The next Letter is Gracious to intimate that God having lookt on miserable man as the objeâ—â— of his compassion because it might be objected God hath great compassion but what deserves miserable man He hath nothing to commend him yea he hath much to discommend him It is answered God is not only merciful to compassionat miserable man but he is gracious to notice him and compassionat him freely without merit and contrary to demerit Then he is Long suffering c. Now in reference to this mercy of God there are three things I intend to touch on before I come to the use 1. To open up the nature of this mercy 2. To speak a little of the object of it And 3. to the properties of it In speaking to the first I shall wave all School speculations anent it as whether mercy and punitive justice be essential to God and on what account they can be called essential Attributes seing mercy presupposes man miserable which is one of the Socinian foundations to overthrow the satisfaction of Christ but that might be easily cleared by adding a word to what hath been already said That mercy in God is nothing but the goodness of God with relation to the object to which it is communicat and punitive justice is nothing else but that essential Attribute of his holiness vindicating and avenging himself on a sinner the object of his justice and if we consider the mercy and justice of God thus we will find it no difficulty to rank them among the essential Attributes of God yea that it is blasphemy to deny them to be such I thought to have cleared to you how that mercy is no passion nor perturbation in God as it is in man though it be for our encouragment to hope in him exprest in most pathetick terms as also to have cleared That the Earth â—s full of his Mercy and Goodness Psal 33.5 All creatures share in it yet there are vessels of mercy afore pre-prepared to glory Rom. 9.23 That are objects of his especial mercy and to have spoken to its properties how it is real and not complementing How he delights in mercy Mic. 7.18 How it is free eternal sure and rich for all necessities But for want of time I forbear and recommend you and what ye have heard to His blessing whose word it is SERMON XXXIX Psalm 130. Verse 7 For with the Lord there is mercy THough when a look is taken of God's Israel none are more low and empty in themselves none that claim greater acquaintance with the dust than they are enabled to do yet none have such ample ground of encouragement as they if they be Israel thogh they be in misery and under bondage and particularly oppressed with and under the bondage of sin yet Israel is still allowed and commanded to hope in God and that because Israel's wealth and happiness and the ground of his encouragement is without himself Though he be poor and needy yet the Lord thinks on him though he have nothing in God he possesseth all things Though his house be not so with God yet his salvation and desire lies in this That God hath made with him an everlasting covenant well ordered in all things and sure And in a word have what he will or be what he will in himself yet he may hope in God considering what is with God Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord c. I have spoken from this argument pressing hope in God to what is imported in it as to the hopers condition that he is indigent and miserable in himself needing to look for mercy in God that he is in bondage needing to look for plenteous redemption with God and particularly that he is under the bondage of iniquity which puts him to look for a particular redemption from that from him that redeems Israel from all his iniquities And the last day I came to break in on what is proposed in the words for Israel's encouragement to hope in God The first Observation of four which I could scarce break in on was That it is the great encouragement of God's people to hope in him in all exigents and cases that there is mercy with God that they have to do with a God with whom there is mercy This mercy as I then cleared is nothing else but the goodness of God and consequently an essential attribute relating to the misery of the object to which it is communicat even as his punitive Justice is an essential Attribute being nothing else but his Holiness manifesting it self against sin for as the goodness of God undergoes various notions on divers accounts as was said so it hath the name of mercy with relation to the misery of man In prosecuting of this I proponed to speak 1. more generally to the nature of this mercy 2. To the Object To the Properties And 4. Of the use of the whole For the first the nature of this Mercy 1. It must be fixed that this mercy is free of all passion or perturbation in God When we consider God as merciful we must not conceive of him as of one subject to the passions of grief or sorrow for the misery of others as mercy in man is to be considered and therefore mercy in men used to be condemned by the Stoicks as being in their opinion a debasing of the spirit of man below the hight and greatness that it ought to have and it is reported of Agesilaus King of Sparta that he said it was difficult for a man both to be merciful and wise at once because if he were merciful it would be ready to transport him to that which was not suitable to a wise man but we have nothing to do with that debate here Mercy in God is free of passion or perturbation of sorrow or grief for others misery as it is in creatures it is only the goodness of God willing to remove allay or sweeten the misery of others only though God in his mercy be free of passion or perturbation yet he sweetens allays or removes the misery of man as tenderly and carefully as if he were affected with it Therefore for our capacity and better uptaking of it the mercy of God is spoken of as very passionat affecting and transporting in him as Isai 63.9 He is spoken of as being afflicted in all the afflictions of his people Zech. 2.8 as being touched on the apple of his eye when they are touched Jud. 10.16 as having his soul grieved or shortned in his resolution to punish when he looked on his peoples misery And Hos 11.8 As being put to a very great perplexity about them How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together All which terms are borrowed to shew that however God in shewing mercy be free of