effects thereof such are the various names or expressions of Gods pardon or not pardon of sin For example As sin is stiled filthiness or uncleanness 2 Cor. 7.1 Rom. 6.19 So the pardon of sin is stiled washing cleansing covering purging away As sin is the souls sickness or disease in which sense some Expositors do understand that in Psal 103.3 Who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thy diseases Or as sin doth wound the sinner so pardon is stiled Healing As sin maketh us guilty so the pardon of sin is stiled Gods not imputing it his not laying it to our charge and his not pardoning us is said to be his not cleering us or holding us guiltless As sin makes us wretched and miserable so pardon of sin is stiled Gods being merciful to the sin or sinner As sin is stiled a Debt making us lyable to God in such sort as Debtors to their Creditors so Gods pardoning mercy is said to be his blotting out our sins casting them into the depths of the sea And in this sort allusivè the Apostles phrase in the Text which is now before us seemes to be the express word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word most frequently used by other of the Evangelists and Apostles which word doth signify to dismiss leave let alone absolve send away release or set at liberty Mat. 4.20 and 18.27 being twice used in one verse Luke 4.18 though it be rendred in different English words viz. Deliverance and setting at liberty It seems to be a Metaphor taken from those who are loosened from their bonds or delivered out of prison into which they were cast for their Debts or misdemeanors To proceed As the sinner by committing sin doth as it were arm his sin against himself or as sin hath a power accrewing to it as I may so say to do us mischief by vertue of the Law 's commination for which cause the Law is said to be the strength of sin 1 Cor. 15.56 so Gods pardoning sin is said to be his subduing our sin or giving victory to the sinner over his sin 1 Cor. 15 57. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ As sin makes us obnoxious to Gods hatred and abhorring so Gods pardoning the sinner is said to be Gods gracious receiving the sinner Hos 14.2 Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously And contrarily Gods not pardoning us is said to be his not accepting us 2. Let it be observed and considered that the most of the said various expressions are allusive Translations or metaphorical being spoken of God after the manner of men in them Deus humanum dicit God doth condescend to our capacity he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the Apostles phrase 1 Cor. 4.6 he doth in a figure transfer the said things and expressions from us to himself whereby to assist us in our weakness e. g. it being usual with men when they do forgive to forget God therefore forgiving sin is said not to remember it and it being usual with men when they threaten to be revenged to say to their adversary Well I 'll be sure to remember you I 'll never forget this injury and affront so long as I live Gods not pardoning therefore is said to be Gods not forgetting sin or his remembring sin Again Men when they do forgive being moved with inward pity and compassion as was the father of the Prodigal upon the sight of his relenting Son Gods forgiving us therefore is said to be his having compassion on us Mic. 7 19. Gods compassion Quoad terminum or terminativè is the self same with forgivenesse of sin but being considered connotativè it doth farther intimate the rise of pardon or the inward moving cause together with the external occasion therof viz. Mans misery and Gods free love and mercy Gods compassion being verbum con-significans This latter particular being duly observed and considered it will appear how wary and cautious we should be in the Interpretations of the said Metaphorical phrases and how needful it is therein to observe the Apostles rule in another case viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.3 We must beware how we do in our conceptions about the said phrases supra sentire that we do not understand more in them then is fit or in reason possible to be understood we must be careful not to sense them above their scope and intendment but ever to interpret them in a modest moderate and sober sense that the words may be the words of truth as indeed they are the sense must be the sense of sobernesse For want of observing of due caution in the sober construction of the said phrases it may in a sort be said unto many a one as to him in the Poet Quem recitas mens est O Fidentine libellus Sed malè dum recitas incipit esse tuns Thus may the Lord say unto many amongst us who do misconstrue such metaphorical phrases as Gods casting sin behind his back his blotting it out his not remembring it stretching them beyond their due scope and intendment and as it were gathering that in and from them which God never strawed viz. The words as uttered by me are my words and true Scripture but as over-sensed and misunderstood by you they are your own and no part of any Scripture of mine Quest What Rules are to be observed for the safer better and right understanding of the foresaid Metaphorical phrases Answ These three 1. The like rule which is given us for the sensing of Parables and similitudes is here to be observed that is to observe their true scope and intendment and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Apostles word 2 Cor 10.14 not to wretch and tenter them beyond that scantling or to stretch them beyond the measure of their said scope and intendment It s a common saying Similitudo non currit quatuor and as the learned Stegman doth learnedly expresse it Parabolae nihil probant ratione circumferentiae sed tantum ratione centri the like may be said concerning the foresaid expressions If we respect them in their circumference in such a latitude of sense as they sound to our ears they prove nothing the sense of them being to be confined to their center i.e. their bare scope and drift that look how really a man forgives an offence when he hath forgotten it so really doth God forgive 2. We are here to interpret as Saint Paul elsewhere directs us to prophesie viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.6 according to the Analogy of faith and so as that the said phrases may hold proportion and correspondency with other Scriptures This indeed is a general rule to be observed in the expounding of any place of Scripture and it is in the present businesse especially to be made use of viz. to compare Scripture with Scripture and to make the sense of one Scripture coherent with another and to preserve
serve as a clue or key to unlock and lead us through divers intricacyes and ambiguities of phrase where the pardon of sin is mentioned in Scripture which said ambiguities I shall in the following Chapters as in their due place specifie CHAP. VI. The various senses or significations wherein forgivenesse of sin is taken in Scripture it being taken in four several senses but most commonly and signally in one sense and what sense that is declared 1. GODS forbearing or ceasing to punish sinners with temporal punishments is stiled his pardoning them Num. 14.19 Pardon I beseech thee saith Moses the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even till now What was Gods forgivenesse of the people from Egypt until then but Gods sparing of them in regard of temporal judgments either not at all inflicting them or after a short time removing them So Psal 85.1 2 3. where Gods forgiving the iniquity of his people is interpreted to be Gods taking away all his wrath and turning himselfe from the fierceness of his anger And contrarily Gods punishing sinners with temporal punishments is stiled his not pardoning them Lam. 3.42 43. We have transgressed and rebelled thou hast not pardoned Thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us thou hast slaine thou hast not pitied There Gods not pardoning them is interpreted to be his plaguing them with temporal judgments 2 Though God doth not wholly forbear to punish or wholly take off the temporal punishment of sinners yet if he doth punish with lenity or moderation or make some commutation of the punishment to use the term of the Civil Law this said moderating or commuting is said to be Gods pardoning And no wonder for it is truly and really pardon viz. in its kind Quomodo libet taliter qualiter in a diminutive sense or with respect to punishment in part and in some degree Thus Psal 78.38 Gods being full of compason and forgiving their iniquities is expounded by that which followes He destroyed them not and did not stir up all his wrath See also for proof of this Numb 14.20 21 22 23. compared with ver 12. by the due consideration of which place of Scripture it will appear That Gods not instant or sudden dis-inheriting or destroying the whole body of the people as one man and their whole race according to the tenour of the threatning ver 12 is stiled his pardoning them ver 20 notwithstanding that God did otherwise and in part punish very many of them for their sin of murmuring viz. so far forth as to debar all those from ever enjoying the Land of Promise who had seen his miracles in the house of bondage Caleb and Joshuah excepted Thus Gods sparing Davids life and not taking him away by sudden death making as it were a commutation of the childs life in stead of the life of the parent is stiled by Nathan Gods putting away or pardoning his sin albeit God did in the mean time sundry wayes even to his dying day punish him for those sins which albeit they might well bee said to have been put away in respect of sudden death not inflicted yet were they not so put away in respect of certain other punishments which he suffered Yet in this saying I would not be so understood as if I did confine the meaning of the Prophets absolution in those words Thou shalt not dye to a temporal death for that instant time for as a sudden temporal death was not the only or the greatest evil doubtlesse which David then feared rebus sic stantibus so I am perswaded that freedom from such an evil was not the only or chiefest good which God therein and thereby did promise 3. Gods suspending his judgements and reprieving sinners as I may so say or his delaying to punish them for the present time whether with sudden death or with some other notorious dreadful exemplary judgment is stiled his pardoning them and no wonder for it is truly so viz. pro tempore in a diminutive sense and so long as it is to last according to the purpose of God This I take in part to be the meaning of Numb 14.20 where God saith he had pardoned them viz. pardoned them for that time as appears in that he doth in the next words threaten that he would take a time to punish them and that in such sort as whereby to make his power and his justice the more glorious throughout the world In this sense elsewhere God is said to pardon those sinners the self same Nation as afore was instanced in at one time on whom he took vengeance at another as appears by comparing Psal 99.8 with Exod. 32.34 yea whom he doth threaten with certain vengeance at that very time when it is said That he repented of the evil which he thought to do unto them that phrase Gods repenting of the evil importing the self-same thing with remission of sin as I shal demonstrate in due place Exod. 32.34 with v. 14. These three kinds of pardon or Gods pardoning a sinner any of those three said wayes I may stile docendi gratiâ and for distinctions sake from pardons in the sense immediately following pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 improper or improperly so called they being but pardon of the half blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that they are not produced of the self same seed i.e. of the self same electing and redeeming love of God in Christ as doth the true heir I mean that kind of pardon which I am in the next and last place now to set down 4. Gods taking away from a sinner the obligation unto and his forbearing to punish sinners with eternal damnation is stiled his pardoning sinners or forgiving them their sins This kind of punishment is variously stiled in Scripture e. g. That wrath to come 1 Thess 1.10 Damnation simply John 5.29 Eternal damnation Mark 3.29 The damnation of hell Matth. 23.33 The damnation of the divel 1 Tim. 3.6 The time when it shall be suffered is said to be the world to come and as for the place where it is said to be Hell or the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Rev 21 8. Marc 5.29 Now because this last kind of punishment is the worst of all and chief of punishments that are threatned to sin and sinners it being the punishment not only of the body but also of the soul and that bothe easelesse endlesse and remedilesse therefore is the pardon of sin with respect to freedom from this kind of punishment more especially and principally stiled pardon or pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as this last punishment is the king of punishments to allude unto that expression of Job chap. 18.14 so this kind of pardon may be stiled the king of pardons And in this sense chiefly I mean but not exclusively the word is taken in the tenour
godly and the wicked so farre or in such a sense I doe assert that God doth not remember the sins of his people 2. God doth not so farre remember the sins of his people as to damne them or to punish them in hell for the same as hee will the wicked for their sins 2. God doth not in such sort remember the sins of his people now in times of the New Testament as he did remember the sins of his people in times of the Old Testament Quest How so and not so Answ Wheras in times of the Old Testament God did daily remember the sins of his people as being minded thereof by their frequent and daily sacrifices even as he was minded of his covenant with Noah in the behalfe of all flesh by the sight of the rainbow Gen. 9.12 13 14 15. and whereas God was put in mind of their sins by the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ upon the crosse hee doth * viz. Heb. 10.17 there signifie unto them that he would not remember their sins any more i.e. By the Levitical sacrifices for Christs death the antitype or substance of those sacrifices being come and accomplished the types or shadowes must now vanish or give place not yet by the death of Christ for it was not necessary that Christ should die often or more then once he having by himself once offered for ever perfected those that are sanctified and this being one special difference betwixt Jesus Christ a Priest after the order of Melchisedec and those Priests which were after Aarons order these being to offer daily sacrifices as memorials of sin but he being to offer but one and that one but once And this I take to be the true meaning of the Apostle in that of Hebrewes ch 10.17 18. as wil I presume appeare unto any intelligent reader who will impartially and without prejudice peruse the text and context in which respect I might have spared my large answer in shewing how farre forth God doth and doth not remember the sins of his people albeit as to other purposes and respects the reader I think hath no cause to judge my paines and labour therein to be amisse and needlesse And I shall adde as a third consectary and in the next place how and with what caution it behoveth us to interpret this phrase God not remembring our sinnes together with other phrases of the like straine or kind recorded in Scripture CHAP. IX Caution given as touching the interpretation of such Metaphoricall phrases whereby forgivenesse of sinne is expressed that we construe them warily and in a sober sense CONSECT III. 3. IT follows that in all such metaphorical phrases whereby the pardon of sin is expressed in Scripture E. g. Gods not seeing sin his not remembring it his covering it blotting it out hiding his face from it casting it behind his back and the like we must be wary and circumspect in their construction understanding them in a modest moderate and sober sense and not stretching them hower they sound beyond the due limits of their intended meaning so as to think soberly of God of our selves and sins I have already given certain rules or directives as touching the right interpretation of such phrases and shall need therefore in this place to say the lesse Onely I shall adde what followes as a reason or motive to double our caution and circumspection in the interpretation of the said phrases by saying That should we regard the bare sounds of such phrases or the phrases themselves barely as they sound without a due search into their true scope and sense which is apparently the fault of the Antinomians we may besides other monstrous and intolerable inferences as well conclude from other Scriptures where some of the like phrases are used that God doth pardon all the sins of every wicked man without any exception of sins or sinners as of any of the godly seeing it is expresly said that God is a God of purer eyes then to behold evil or to looke upon iniquity whatsoever or in whomsoever the iniquity and evil is Hab. 1.13 The meaning then of the forecited metaporicall phrases which do hold forth the pardon of sin is this not to stand upon the school-distinction concerning Gods seeing as it is taken in sensu simplici or modo merè intuitivo in sensu connotativo or connotantè which to this purpose is both considerable and satisfactory viz. That such sinners whose sins God is said not to see or remember but to blot out cover and cast behind his back shall be no more damned for their sins then if so be God did not behold them or had forgot them Or that such sinners shal as undoubtedly be saved from ther sinnes as from the greatest wrath to come at the day of judgment as if God had forgot them or as if their sins were covered and blotted utterly out of his sight CHAP. X. In what sense or how farre forth as true and false those common sayings of our Divines Sublatâ culpâ tollitur poena justificatio tollit omnia poenalia may or are to be construed and interpreted and in what sense to be rejected CONSECT IV. 4. IT followes in what sense or how far forth as true and not true to understand those common sayings of our Protestant Divines as well Calvinists as Lutherans Sublatâ culpâ tollitur poena And Justificatio tollit omnia poenalia 1. It is most true that seeing pardon of sinne is the taking off of the obligation to punishment and consequently punishment it self so farre forth as tollitur culpa tollitur etiam poena i.e. so far forth as sinne is pardoned so far forth the punishment of sin is taken away 2. As Poena is taken in a like sense with pardon viz. for punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in a signal sense viz. for everlasting punishment as opposite to life eternal or for punishment meerly and purely such as are the punishments of the wicked so it is most true Sublatâ culpâ tollitur poena And in the other sense that other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is true also Justificatio tollit omnia poenalia the word poenalia being taken in the sense immediately aforesaid 3. In such a sense as the Apostle asserts whom God hath justified them also hath he glorified Rom. 8.30 i.e. He hath alreadie glorified them in part and he will at last and in due time glorifie them fully and in such a sense we commonly say Positâ justificatione ponitur etiam glorificatio I say in such a sense the foresaid sayings Sublatâ culpâ tollitur poena justificatio tollit omnia poenalia are most unquestionably true i.e. A person justified or pardoned shall in due time citius serius sooner or latter at one time or other be delivered from all things penal or from all punishment due to his sins 2. If in the foresaid sayings we take justificatio for our justification immediately upon or at our first believing and
the harmony of the whole that so all Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breathed by God as the word signifies 2 Tim. 3.16 we may not make God to utter hot and cold with the same breath I mean to speak contradictions or to be contradictious to himself 3 We are to calculate as I may so say our sense and constructions of the said phrases according to the meridian of the Divine Nature I mean we are to construe them in no other sense then the Essence Nature and Properties of the Godhead or Deity will permit It is an old and good rule given by one of the Greek Fathers Theodoret as I remember that those things which are spoken of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those things which are spoken of God after the manner of men are to be understood in a sense becoming God condecent of or to his divine properties and excellencies These rules are the rather to be observed because of their consequence I mean the momentous consequence of observing or not observing them For as the careful heeding of them is a special preservative that our Table become not a snare to us I mean That our conceptions of God and the things of God be not occasionally perverted by those very expressions which were intended of God as means to help and assist our understandings touching him and them so the not-observing of them is one main cause as I am perswaded of much errour in those of the Antinomian party who do hold in a sense most intolerable and blasphemous that God sees no sin in Believers whose sins are pardoned and that he doth not in any sort remember them of which I shall have occasion to speak more particularly and largely afterwards CHAP. IV. What forgiveness of sin is not laid down in four negative Propositions HAving intimated as Chap. 1. in the way of Proeme or Preface that sacred phraseology or varity of phrase whereby forgivenesse of sin together with its contrary viz. non-forgiveness is expressed in the sacred Scriptures both of the Old and N. Testament I will in the next place set down what is as to me seemeth the true resolution of the matter in question and this I will endeavor to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declaring 1. Negatively What the pardon of sin is not 2. Affirmatively What it is according to the true scope purport or intent of the aforesaid various expressions For the former then bee it known 1. Gods pardoning a sin or sinner is not his freeing the sinner from the very fact of sin Not so for this is impossible ex natura rei it is I say a thing simply impossible implying a palpable contradiction What is once done can never be undone or rendred not done That which is once past cannot by the power of God be made or rendred not past in so saying I would be understood in sensu compositiva for although whatsoever is done or past might by the power of God have been prevented and in such a divided sense might never have been done or come to passe yet being once done and past it cannot be undone recalled or rendred not come to passe it being a flat contradiction that a thing should be done and not done past and not past come to passe and not come to passe 2. It is not Gods freeing a sinner from the fault of sin i.e. the faultinesse and sinfulnesse of sin It is not Peccata non peccata facere or Peccata pro non peccatis habere taking the phrase according to its simple and absolute import and not with a quasi or tanquam which doth much qualifie and alter the sense of the expression I say Pardon of sin is not so to be taken for this also is impossible ex natura rei and doth implicare involve a contradiction viz. That a fact should be faulty and not faulty a sin and not a sin for take away sinfulnesse from a fact and it doth no longer remain sinful It is therefore to be observed That a sin pardoned is as well a sin yea as much a sin i.e. every whit as sinful as ever it was before the pardon of it When a Prince or State doth pardon a Delinquent or Malefactor they do not yea they cannot thereby make them of Delinquents no Delinquents or of Malefactors no Malefactors To clear one e. g. an accused person from the fact or faultiness of the fact wherewith he is charged is one thing and to pardon a person so accused is another God by doing the latter doth not do and therefore cannot be said to do the former When a sinner therefore is pardoned we must not conceive that he is thereby made innocent again 3. Gods pardoning a sin or sinner is not his freeing them from the simple guilt and desert I mean their guiltiness and deserving of punishment I use these latter words to explain the former For though the word Reatus or Guilt be a word much in use both in Authours and in our Sermons yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ambiguous and of doubtful construction being sometimes taken for the deserving of punishment and sometimes for the punishment it self deserved and sometimes for both Yea in such various senses I take the word to be used in the Text at least in the Translation of sundry Scriptures For example Num. 35.27 Where it being laid down as a Law That if the Revenger of blood finding the man-slayer without the borders of the city of Refuge shall there kill the slayer he shall not be guilty of blood that is as I conceive he doth not deserve or incur the desert of punishment neither shall he suffer for it Deut. 21.9 Where God commanding that the City-Inhabitants next to any place where an unknowne murder was committed being commanded to offer a certain peculiar Sacrifice Prov. 30.10 Lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty i.e. Lest thou sin suffer deservedly otherwise the curse causelesse shall not come and is not therefore to be feared God doth there promise that they shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among them that is as I conceive the punishment which the shedding of that innocent blood did deserve Levit. 5.5 where it being declared in what special cases a soul should be guilty I conceive that by guilt there is meant as sin it self so the deserving of punishment However I may be mistaken in the exact sense of the forenamed Scriptures about which I list not to contend with any men of a contrary mind yet sure I am that the word Guilt as commonly used is sometimes taken for the bare deserving of punishment and sometimes for the punishment it self deserved which two the Schoolmen do usually distinguish the former being by them stiled Reatus Simplex simple guilt and the latter * Yet not as excluding but as including the sinners obligation to punishmâ—â—â— of which more distinctly I shall speak
In these two consists that Reatus which Schoolemen call Reatus redundans in personam viz. In a sinners obligation to punishment and in his actual suffering of that punishment to which he was obliged having therefore afore said that Reatus redundans in personam is with the Schoolemen a Sinners suffering his deserved punishment I would be understood not as excluding but as including a sinners personall obligation to the suffering of such punishment And here let me offer this to the observation of the Reader viz. That as in some respect the sinner is said to make himself guilty viz. in respect of simple guilt or the bare deserving of punishment so in respect of guilt redundant or the actuall suffering of the punishment it selfe deserved God is said to make him guilty for which see Psal 5.10 where Gods making the wicked guilty is interpreted to be his destroying the sinner that it is impossible to be taken away but as it may bee taken and as it is usually taken in a second sense 1. for Obligation to punishment in which sense many doe define Guilt saying Reatus est obligatio ad poenam 2. For the punishment it selfe inflicted to which wee were obliged in both which senses it is taken in Scripture and particularly in that Speech of Abimelech to Isaac Gen. 26.10 What is this that thou hast done unto us One of the people might lightly have lain With thy wife and thou shouldst have brought Guiltinesse upon us i.e. We might thereby have made our selvs liable or obnoxious to suffering and accordingly might actually have suffered Thence it is that I define pardon of sinne as consisting in these two things opposite thereunto and wherin our full liberation or remission doth as I thinke consist viz. 1. The taking away or dissolving the obligation of the sinner to punishment which I take to be the terminus preximus or immediatus of pardon 2. The denying or taking away or the not inflicting of punishment it self which I take to be the terminus remotus thereof I doubt not but we may find in several Authours as well ancient as moderne several definitions or descriptions of Forgivenesse and some of them more at large expressing not only the quiddity or nature of the thing it self but also the Authour grounds causes effects ends consequents antecedents of it all or most of which this text in 1 John 1.9 doth minister just occasion to touch and dilate upon but it is beyond my present purpose to meddle with them my bare intent by these presents being to discover and to demonstrate only ipsam rei quidditatem the bare form or naked essence of the thing what be the Partes constitutivae what those things are which do make up forgiveness of sin or wherein the thing it selfe or nature of it doth consist I remember the definition which Dr. Twisse gives of it lib. 1. p. 272. Vind. Grat. saying Remissio peccatorum si quidditatem inspicias nihil aliud est quam aut punitionis negatio aut volitionis puniendi negatio Pardon of sin in its precise nature is nothing else but either Gods not punishing or not willing to punish Had the learned Doctor by Gods not willing to punish meant God disabling the Lawes obliging us to punishment or his taking away our obligation to punishment I had gone into his opinion Manibus pedibus as the saying is I had fully even to a tittle consented with him but he meaning therby another thing I cannot but with due respect otherwise to the Learning and Piety of an Author so renowned professedly dissent from him For by Gods not willing to punish a sinner for example the faithful for of those he speaks in the place forecited he meanes Gods electing them to salvation in opposition to unbelievers whom he did from all eternity designe to punishment To the refuting of this opinion I shall take occasion to speake more at large hereafter In the meane time had the Doctor said only this That Remissio est nihil aliud quam puniendi negatio 1. He had said the self-same thing and given the self-same description of forgiveness of sin as Austin and Anselme those two famous men in their generations the one in the list of Fathers the other of School-men did of old as Zanchy upon this Text doth informe me they saying Remittere nihil aliud est quam non punire To forgive is nothing else then to not punish 2. I had yeilded my full consent unto that saying as a truth or a true description 3. The saying being understood or interpreted as it ought to be viz. not as excluding but as including and presupposing the taking away the obligation to punishment I should have yeilded my assent unto it as a full truth or as a full description of pardon the taking off a sinners obligation to punishment being the terminus proximus and Gods not punishing being the terminus remotus of pardon of pardon I mean as actively taken for in these two termes or things doth consist the very nature or quiddity of pardon as it is taken in a passive sense which said pardon as passively taken is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the state of the Question or the very thing upon which Gardo praesentis controversiae vertitur and in this sense I would be understood whensoever I shall in the progresse of this Discourse assert pardon of sin to be nothing else but Gods not punishing viz. As pardon is taken in a passive sense and as Gods not punishing doth presuppose or imply Gods taking off the obligation to punishment And let the aforesaid description serve as a direct and full answer to the first Question propounded viz. What is meant by forgivenesse of sin evermore in the language of Scripture And for proof of the truth of the said description as a direct and full answer to the foresaid Question I need not as I presume to say much more then hath been already said concerning that which in Scripture is made the direct opposite to pardon viz guilt Gods not pardoning a sinner being said to be Gods holding the sinner guilty or not guiltlesse Neither need I to instance in any particular Scriptures for the proving of it it being sufficient to say That look in what place of Scripture soever God doth promise pardon to the sinner or the sinner doth beg pardon of God stil there is meant in the sense both of God and man Gods not punishing the sin or sinner either Gods forbearing or his surceasing to punish in the sense as was aforesaid The like also I say concerning all such places of Scripture wherein God doth declare himselfe to have pardoned any sin or sinner I shall only adde two or three particulars as in the way of Caution and for the right understanding of the said description 1. When I say that pardon of sin doth consist in dissolutione obligationis ad poenam in dissolving the obligation to punishment I must
for his sins together with an Answer to several Objections wherein the distinction betwixt chastisements and punishments is examined and how far forth allowable declared wherein also the true differences betwixt the sufferings of the Godly and the wicked are asserted and proved and the false ones commonly assigned are rejected and refuted That the Saints may and oft-times do in this life suffer for their sins Christs satisfaction notwithstanding proved and cleered In what sense God doth and in what sense he doth not remember the sins of Believers laid downe in sundry Propositions Affirmative and Negative wherein likewise is declared what difference there is betwixt Gods remembring the sins of the Godly and of the wicked as also betwixt his remembring the sins of Believers under the Old Testament and the sins of Believers under the New Testament CONSECT II. 2. A Sinner may be said to be pardoned viz. upon the main and with respect to everlasting punishment in hell from the suffering whereof he may be for the present altogether disobliged though he be not discharged from suffering of all or all manner of punishments temporal and de praesenti which notwithstanding his pardon upon the maine he may suffer in some measure yea in a very great measure and that to his dying day yea and in a sort after his death so farre as a man being dead is said to suffer in his posterity he being a parent or in his subjects he being a Prince as the sad experience of many of the Saints recorded in Scripture doth witnesse beyond exception specially of David Solomon and Manasseh 2 Sam 12 7 8 9 10 11 14. 1 King 3.13 14. ch 11.11 2 King 24.3 And in that respect the sins of the Saints though pardoned upon the maine may be said not to be pardoned viz. as to those temporal punishments which they did suffer and in this respect it is expresly said concerning the sins of Manasseh however pardoned upon the maine and as to eternal punishment as is generally and upon good ground conceived that he would not pardon them 2 King 24.3 4. Surely at the command of the Lord came this upon Judah to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh according to all that he did And also for the innocent blood that he shed which the Lord would not pardon Object The sufferings of the Saints are not punishmens but chastisements and chastisements are not punishments properly so called Ans 1. What difference soever there is between punishments properly and improperly so called It seems clear to me that Scripture doth not distinguish the sufferings of the Saints and of the wicked by the name of chastisements and punishments their names being of promiscuous use in Scripture For 1. The sufferings of the Saints are frequently called punishments and the righteous God in his Word is said as well to punish the godly as the wicked with some kind of punishments for which see Amos 3.2 You have I knowne above all the nations of the earth therefore will I punish you for all you iniquities Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us lesse then our iniquities do deserve Lam. 3.39 Object Those Scriptures are spoken of the whole Church in which were wicked as well as godly Answ God is said not to leave the remnant of the godly in the Church altogether unpunished Jer. 46. last and 30.11 and what is that but in part or in some measure to punish them as appears by comparing the forecited Scriptures with Isaiah 27.8 and Jerem. 10.24 2. How often are the punishments of the wicked stiled chastisements See Psal 94.10 Hee that chastiseth the Heathens shall not hee correct The punishments which were inflicted upon Pharaoh and the plagues of Egypt are called chastisements Deut. 11.2 3. I speak not with your children that have not knowne and seene the chastisement of the Lord your God his greatnesse his mighty hand and his stretched out arme and his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt See also Hos 7.12 and 10.10 Jer. 30.14 Specially see Lev. 26.28 where the last punishment of all which God threatens for their final obstinacy as seven times greater then all the former is stiled by the name of chastisement And the sufferings of Christ which were punishments in a very proper sense are called chastisements Isa 53.5 The chastisement of our peace i.e. the punishment of our sins in order to our reconciliation was upon him So that it doth not appeare that there are any such distinct words in the Scriptures of the old Testament the one signifying or being rendred chastisements the other punishments whereby to expresse the different sufferings of the godly and the wicked nor can it be made appeare for ought I know that there are any such words in the New Testament as doth in this sort difference them For albeit Aristotle doth distinguish betwixt such sufferings as are inflicted for the sake of the sufferer and such as are inflicted for the sake of the punisher calling these by the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former by the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neverthelesse I am most assured that the sufferings of the godly and the wicked are not by these names distinguished in the New Testament for I finde therein that the everlasting punishment of the wicked in hell are expressed be the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for proof whereof see Matth 25 last and 2 Pet. 2.9 where te h words translated punishment and to be punished are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one shall ask me whether I do blame our Divines for their usuall distinguishing the sufferings of the godly and the wicked by the names of chastisements and punishments I Answer albeit I think it our duty as neere as we can to speake Scripture sense in Scripture words neverthelesse lest I might seeme captious I would not condemne those who have differenced them by the aforesaid words yet with these Salvoes and Provisoes 1. Provided that they impose not upon me or others a necessity of distinguishing them by those names as names distinct or of distinct use and signification in Scripture 2. Provided that as I leave them to their libertie so they leave me to my libertie and not blame me who shall chuse rather to keep close to the language as wel as the sense of Scripture in this matter and to distinguish rather betwixt punishments and punishments then betwixt chastisements and punishments 3. Provided that under the foresaid names they vary not from the sense of Scripture making such differences betweene the sufferings of the godly and the wicked as Scripture doth not make or will not warrant which last proviso is the rather considerable because there are some I meane not only Antinomians but others also who in their explication of the differences betwixt chastisements and punishments doe difference them in such sort as the Word of God wil not for ought I know allow E.g. Undertaking
in a capacity of pardon Now as I am not satisfied with Mr. Pembles so neither with Mr. Burges his answer to the foresaid imputation of the Papists the one saying That both the fault or guilt is taken away by pardon and the other granting that wee hold That a sinner is not a sinner after God hath pardoned him which I for my part cannot see reason to grant because as hath been before proved the effect of pardon is not to make a sinner no sinner but not to deal with him as a sinner or in the phrase of the Psalmist Psal 103.10 Not to deal with him after his sins or to reward him according to his iniquities I doubt that some will sharply censure and almost be imbittered against me for thus scanning the words of such most learned and godly men with whom 't is true I am not worthy to be named the same day and will prophecy concerning me That I shall be sure to have the same measure from others in having all my words and sentences scann'd to purpose but my own heart witnessing to me That I do blesse and magnifie the name of God for those men and their excellent Labours from whom in some things I do expresse my dissent and that I do endeavour expiscari veritatem to find out the truth with all due respect and in another sense without any respect to persons I am hopeful that the most of my reverend and learned brethren in the Ministry will not hold me guilty especially when I shall professe before the world even as I now do by these presents viz. That if there bee any man who shall evidence that to be currant and justifiable wherin I do declare my dissent or dissatisfaction I shall not in any measure by the grace of God be offended at the discovery of Truth though thereby and therewithal my owne weaknesse of judgement bee discovered also CHAP. XXVI That a Believer during his warfare on earth is to fear Hell and damnation why and how proved and manifested as also cleered in the way of answer to several Objections notwithstanding the Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints be acknowledged in answer to which objections the consistency and co-operation of the love of God and the fear of God is proved What manner of fear it is that love doth expel and what manner of fear it is that love doth retain declared Notwithstanding that Believers are restrained by the love of God yet that God doth use several other means whereby to constraine i. e. effectually to induce them proved and what those several means are specified more at large The consistency and co-operation of faith and fear maintained and proved That filial and slavish fear do not dâ—ffer in their object matter or in the thing feared but in the manner of fearing asserted and how proved and cleered by a due interpretation of that Scripture in Luke 1.74 The difference betwixt fear as it is the fruit of the spirit of bondage and as a fruit of the Spirit of Adoption opened and asserted CONSECT XIX 19. IT follows That a person justified and pardoned As a wicked man is to hope for heaven suppositively i.e. if he turne from sin and return to God so a godly man is to fear hell suppositively i. e if he turne from God and return to fin believersthemselvs so long as they are militant here on earth are to fear Hell and damnation namely upon supposition of their Apostacy and backsliding or unlesse they do continue in the doctrine and practice of the faith Albeit this inference bee very cleer from the Premises and of unavoidable necessity neverthelesse I shall be very punctual and copious as well in the proving of it by other Scriptures as in answering such Objections as may or are usually made against it by the Antinomians and this I shall the rather do for the following Reasons 1. Because it is a Truth under much prejudice and against which many mis-informed people especially the Antinomians do conceive such indignation of heart as that upon the hearing thereof from the mouth of any Minister they are ready almost to rend their cloathes as the Jewes were wont to do upon the hearing of blasphemy crying out against us and saying Away with such legal Preachers from the Church it is not fit that they should live upon the maintenance or bear the name of Gospel-Ministers 2. It is a truth of concernment the greater by how much the contrary Doctrine is of consequenc as I think exceeding dangerous for I cannot easily think any opinion more dangerous for a Christian to entertain then this viz. That he is to live altogether without the fear of hell as being in no possible danger thereof I read of some in these times particularly of one Coppin who preaching frequently in these parts as in several other Countyes in the Land hath gathered of the profane sort of people sundry Disciples after him who do hold that there is * This appears by several Pamphlets in print under the name of Rich. Coppin no Resurrection no day of Judgment no Salvation no Damnation no Heaven nor Hel but what is in this life Next to the belief of this That there is no hell after death I hold this opinion or belief to be most dangerous viz. That a Christian after he is once a true Believer is in no danger at all of hell and is not therefore in any sort to entertaine the fear of it 3. As the danger is very great so it is very common for we see in experience how ordinary it is with the Antinomians to cast off all fear and that which should cause fear viz. the threatnings of God in Scripture as not at all or in any sense concerning them As it is the profession of some in these times to live above all Ordinances and all Scripture even every part of Gods Word so it is the profession of the Antinomians though not to live above all Ordinances and all Scriptures yet to live above all the thereatnings of Scripture and above all the curses and comminations of the Word of God in so much that as God laid it to the charge of his Israel of old that he had written unto them the great things of his Law but they accounted them as a strange thing Hos 8.12 So may it bee said of the Antinomians with respect to the comminations of the Word God hath written unto them the grand threatnings of his Law and they look upon them as strange things as things strange to them because in no sort as they think concerning them or written as intended for them but only for the wicked who are actually under the curse This their practice is so much the more dangerous because as to live above one part the threatnings of the Word is a ready way to live above another part the Precepts of the Word so many of those Arguments whereby they plead to defend their practice in casting off
so ingrost the truth that others may not in some points be righter then they or that they may not be guilty of running too farre in any one point either by the power of prejudice or heat of opposition or some other disadvantage temptation or imperfection this is such arrogancy as modest Christians should not be guilty of Much lesse should they be unwilling to heare and try whether it be so or not Undoubtedly there are many differences that seeme real and momentous through mis-informations and prejudice which indeed are but in words or methods or of inferiour nature And abundance of good might be done by drawing differences into a narrower compasse and discovering the true point of disagreement and cutting off all the superfluous contentions were it not that by zealous censorious faction and by men that know not what Spirit they are of the world is swayed by reproaches and prejudice and the matter brought to that passe that none can set their hand to so blessed a work til they first resolve to subject themselves to the scorne and slanders even of Divines and to cast overboard their interest and reputation even with zealous godly men And how few are they even among those that can contemn the censures of the openly profane that are able to deny themselves so far as to conquer in this assault We look on the ignorant vulgar as fooles and therfore pride it selfe can spare their applauses But when wee take such pious persons and Learned Divines to be men of valuable judgments that are able indeede to honour or dishonour us How hardly will a proud heart lie down to be trod upon Think not that I injuriously dishonour the pious or the Church guides in supposing any or many of them to be such and become such instruments to hinder the work of Christ and to further the cause and kingdom of the divel were they perfect Saints it would not be so But he that observeth not the sad imperfections of the best of Saints and how farre they make them serviceable to the enemie and that all men even the best are vanity and lyars and that the Churches greatest danger is from it selfe more then from all enemies without yea and that every one is the greatest enemy to himselfe he knoweth not himself he hath sure beene a sleepe at least these 12 years and not seen the discoveries that our late tryals have made and he hath more of the Popish opinion of perfection then is safe To be ignorant after our convincing experiences is to be mad Well may the best of Divines say to them that call them Rabbie and see wholly with their eyes and bow down to their understandings as the Angel said to John Rev 22.9 see thou doe it not for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren and of them which keepe the sayings of this book Which I speak not to diminish the just estimation and authority of the Ministry which I am blamed by some for maintaining to be so great and which God of late hath vindicated by delivering their most raging enemies Quakers and such like to be plainly possest or ruled by the divel nor yet do I lay these accusations upon all seeing by the great mercy of God we have many of eminent moderation and sobriety and I observe among the best that within this year or two their zeale for the Churches unity is very much increased for which I heartily blesse the Lord. But the number of such is too smal and of the selfe conceited and contentions so considerable as cannot be hid For my owne part when I remember that it is but about the sixth part of the world that are Christians all the rest being Pagans Infidels and Mahometans and of that sixth part how few the Protestants are in comparison of the Papists the Greeks the Abassines and the rest and of the Protestants how many countries are Lutherans besides all others I confesse I have no great zeale to confine the Church to the party that I best like nor to shut Christ out of all other Societies and coope him up to the congregations of those few that say to all the rest of the Church Stand by wee are more holy then you In a word and a plaine word I am loth to make Christ only the head of the Calvinists in stead of being the head of Christians and Catholicks and loth he should cease to be the head of the body and become only the head of any party or faction and therefore I would contribute the utmost of my endeavours to reconcile the differing members of that body If I have digressed unprofitably I crave pardon and returne to the subject of this Exercitation And because the Reverend Authour seems to mee in some few passages to have exprest his mind somewhat obscurely or in terms lyable to mis-construction I shall adventure upon a presumption of his consent to give the Reader a key for the understanding of them and to tell him my thoughts of some of them in particular leaving the rest to his judgment As to the nature of pardon of sin from which all the consectaries of this Treatise are drawn I conceive there are three distinct species of it arising from the three parts of Gods regiment of mankind 1. As God is Legislator he doth conferre on all believers a right to impunity or dissolve the obligation to punishment in regard of the Law of works he doth this as he is about that law by relaxing it In regard of the Law of grace he doth it as the free Legislator thereof And it is this law it self or promise that is his instrument of doing it and the act of that Law which is his pardoning act it is conditional to all before faith It is actual pardon to those only that believe I conceive this pardon is the main observable Act that Scriptures and Divines do commonly treat of And that it is the same in substance with justification constitutive though some respective difference is imported in the terms 2. As God is judge of the world according to his lawes so he hath a sentential remission of sinne or justification But there is this difference between these two terms Remission of sin doth more properly signifie the legal or donative remission and lesse properly the judicial sentence it being in strictest sense the Prerogative of a Ruler as he is above all law to pardon the faults against the Law and not of a Judge who as such must be regulated by law yet the word Pardon may be applied to the sentence too But contrarily justification signifieth very fitly both acts legal and judiciall but more fully and strictly the sentence then the grant And therefore justificatio juris justificatio judicis is a most necessary currant distinction but justificatio judicis is the more proper phrase But remissio juris et judicis is tolerable but the later member somewhat less proper 3. As God is the executioner
of his laws either in this life before the final sentence for some mens sins goe before to judgment and some follow after or in the life to come so it belongeth to him actually to punish or to remit punishment and thus his pardon is not to punish yet not simply not to punish but not to punish one that deserved it This I call for distinction sake executive pardon Now I conceive that the word Justification hath principall respect to the obligation and sentence and lesse to the punishment But the word Remission more emphatically connoteth the punishment then the Obligation dissolved and yet the Obligation more then the sentence It seems to me that this Reverend Author doth sometime looke only at the executive Remission in his Consectaries sometime at the Legall Remission and sometime hee joyneth them together as one And it must be confest that this last is the full end and perfection of both the former and the former are both but meanes to this Therefore doth God give us pardon and judge us pardoned that we may escape the Penalty and live The Reverend Author calls this the ultimate Terme and the dissolving of the Obligation the neerest which may admit of a double sense Either as this species of executive pardon is the end of the foresaid species of pardon or as Impunity enters the Definition of the Donative or Legall sort of Pardon and so it is not considered in esse existenti as in executive pardon it is but as future and in esse volito And so as Guilt or Obligation to punishment which is all one is the neerest terme specifying this sort of pardon so Impunity is the remote terme seeing the Obligation dissolved is an Obligation to Punishment Reader here 's nothing but what 's obvious and beyond question for the truth and if thou have but the skill to use the Key of this distinction of Remission and apply it to some dubious passages in the Exercitation it will prevent thy misunderstanding and I suppose thy wronging of the Author and thy causelesse offence Chap. 4. p. 10. where he saith that Guilt is taken sometime for the punishment it selfe I confesse I have not observed so much nor yet doe So Chap. 5. p. 12. Nor do I suppose that the Reatus redundans in personam containes punishment it selfe but onely connotes it as the Terme of the Obligation Therefore when Chap. 4. p. 10. he saith pardon is not a freeing us from the simple Guilt and Defect I should to avoid mis-understanding have left out the word guilt and said only it is the freeing us from the desert because I have not observed it usuall to make guilt to be the same with desert Though I confesse he may be called 1. Guilty of deserving punishment that hath deserved it As he is 2. Guilty of punishment that is obliged to it and he is 3. guilty of the fault simply considered who did indeed commit it Distinguish of these three wel and you will also be the better able to understand some dubious application of the Reatus simplicis et reatus culpae which you after here meete with As to c. 18. n. 4. p. 33. I conceive that it is not the tenour of the Gospel but the law of nature that obligeth believers to punishment for a grosse sinne and so it doth for the smallest that this obligation is a making him guilty of death in general but not of the losse of former Pardon in specie And that as Pardon is a Benefit of the new Convenant which the old knew not so the loss of pardon is a penalty threatned by the new Covenant properly Though I suppose God suffers none to fall under that penalty that were actually pardoned as to the eternal Punishment When Ch. 23. Cons 17. he dedenyeth Justification to be a change meerely Relative his Reason is because it is the same with Remission and Remission is a real change viz. not punishing Ergo c. But note 1 That he explains himselfe to speake only of Executive Remission which is nothing to the other two sorts 2. I thinke executive Remission is not usually called Justification And therefore I shall still say that Justification is but a Relative change So Ch. 25. Cons 19. where there is mention of Guilt in heaven I conceive the word can meane no more then that the Saints did deserve Gods wrath and whether that be a proper sense of the word Guilt or usuall I must leave to wiser Lawyers then my selfe I doe not take these or any the like obscurityes or inprefections to be a sufficient reason to quarrel with the labors of this Reverend man much lesse to deprive the Church of the benefit of them Nay I hope it is no small gaine that many will receive by it so far am I from damning exploding or contemning every thing that hath somewhat disagreeable to my opinion Doubtlesse it must needs be very useful to ordinary Christians to see the nature of pardon more plainly and to see such cleare Reasons for a Necessity of our dayly praying for pardon yea for pardon of the same sins that were before pardoned and to see Providential Castigatory Punishments so wel reconciled with the fulnesse of Christs satisfaction for the same sins and to see such full Evidence for a necessity of holy fear working out our savaltion yet without ascribing any merit unto man to see the Reason of the necessity that the promise of our continued and final Justification should be on the condition of our perseverance and so that continued and final Justification be but conditionall and this not onely consistent with the certaine perseverance of the Saints but also the ordinate rational meanes of their perseverance to see the imperfection of that Remission and Justification which we have in this life beyond all reasonable exception manifested with many the like points I conceive will have much influence on mens affections and practices and free them from some mistakes that doe no whit befriend their Graces nor a Godly life But I must from experience advise the Reverend Author to expect the offence of some the bitter censures of others and perhaps to be scorned and snarled at if not be worried by some of the fautours of the Libertine sect or some that make a trade of voluminous Disputation if they finde him not in their rode they may seeke him by a Digression and such men are never out of their way If I may advise him unless they convince him of some mistake to be revoked he should hear them as if he heard them not and never thinke of wording it with them but suffer them to ease themselves without Contradiction and leave the successe of his Labours to God The Lord pitty his poore divided imperfect Church and acquaint the Guides with the Necessity of its Unity and those Principles which have a tendency to the healing of our breaches and powre out more adundance of the Spirit of Illumination
of the New Covenant recited Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 where God promiseth to forgive our inquities and remember our sins no more And so likewise most commonly in the wrirings both of the Old and New Testament passim And in this sense chiefly I mean but not exclusively it is to be taken in the present Text. And that may serve for a direct and positive answer to the second Question viz. What is meant by forgivenesse of sin in the present Text or texture of the Apostle Saint John Only let it be remembred that I have inserted this parenthesis as emphatically to be observed chiefly I mean but not exclusively for I do not think that that promise of forgivenesse is altogether exclusive of or doth altogether * And therefore to speak my sense more fully I may say of pardon in this last sense That it is Gods taking away from a sinner the obligation to all kinds of punishments proceeding from his pure Justice his delivering sinners from all such punishments more especially from the damnation of hell it being the chiefest of punishments which God in Justice doth threaten to sinners exclude all manner of mercy unto or all kind of freedome of the sinner from temporal punishment in this life and that upon the following Grounds or Reasons 1. Because albeit the pardon of sin is not necessarily to be understood as consisting in the disobligation of a sinner from suffering of all manner of punishment de praesenti but either de praesenti or de futuro as was aforesaid neverthelesse God may be and sometimes is pleased of his superabundant grace to vouchsafe unto a penitent sinner at once as a discharge or disobligation from eternal punishment so likewise actual freedome from such temporal sufferings as his sin had brought upon him according to the tenour of that promise James 5.15 Wherein the Apostle promiseth That the prayer of Faith should at once prove an effectual mean whereby the sins of the sick party should be forgiven and his body also cured of or restored from his sicknesse How many of Gods servants have reason to call upon their souls to blesse God who at once or at the self same time hath forgiven their sins and healed their diseases as in Psal 103.3 and for that reason to call not only upon their souls but also upon their bodies and bones to praise God as in Ps 35.10 2. Though God doth not alwayes do so but taking off the obligation of the sinner from suffering the torments of hell hereafter doth chastize or punish him with a kind of hell here as David and others even to their dying day have been punished neverthelesse such temporal punishments or chastisements are evermore 1. Moderated from that degree which otherwise would have been as appears by 2 Sam. 12.13 Isai 27.8 Jer. 10.24 and 47.28 Which said moderation of punishment may in a sense be called pardon as was aforesaid viz. Aliquousque and in some degree 2. Sweetned with the influences of comfort from God his holy Word and Spirit God informing them in his Word that his end in punishing them is upon the maine their non-condemnation according to that in 1 Cor. 11.32 and that no suffering whatsoever in this life shall separate them from the love of God in Christ justifying them from their sins according to that triumphant challenge of the Apostle Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate uâ— from the love in Christ Shall c. 3 Sanctified by Gods grace and turned to good according as is witnessed abundantly in the Scriptures Isai 27.9 Rom. 8.28 Heb. 12.11 And as in these and the like respects the temporal punishments of all penitent and believing sinners do differ from the temporal punishment of Reprobates who shall be damned for their sins even so for the same respects or reasons or Eatenus such penitent sinners may be said to be pardoned as to or in regard of temporal punishments Thus have I set down wherein according to my present thoughts and according to truth as I hope the nature of forgivenesse of sin doth not Though all pardon be of God in which respect Remissio Juris is Remissio Judicis neverthelesse that doth not hinder but that pardon may be distinguished into Juris Judicis because this latter is pardon in sensu famofiori in a more notable and signal sense Even as in Logick though Omnis materia be immanens yet may materia be distinguished into immanens and transciens Now pardon of sin as it consists in taking off the obligation to punishment being by the power of Gods word or Law and as it consists in taking off the punishment it self it being by the Word of his power I think therefore that this latter may be stiled Remissio judicis it being effected by the hand of God as the other by the Word or Law of God and wherein it doth consist it consisting as was aforesaid in these two things 1. In a sinners discharge from the obligation of the Law to punishment 2. In his actual impunity or immunity from punishment in Gods not binding him by his Law to punishment and in Gods not actually inflicting punishment upon him The former of these I may call Remissio Juris pardon in Law Title or in the sense or title of Law the latter I may stile Remissio Judicis the pardon of the Judge for albeit that Remission of sin which we shall receive at the day of Judgment and not afore be commonly stiled by Divines as I think Remissio judicis in way of contradistinction from the Remission which we have in this life and which they stile Remissio legis or Juris neverthelesse seeing those two do alike differ as do Right or Title to a thing and the actual possession of the thing it self and seeing it is the hand or power of God that must put us into the actual possession or that must give us the actual enjoyment of that which according to his will revealed in his Law Word or Promise we have Title or Right unto these things I say considered I think I may not unfitly distinguish the said part of pardon by the name of Remissio juris judicis The premises considered as well what hath been spoken in the Negative as in the Affirmative part of my Answer to the said Questions I shall from thence make these following Deductions or Conclusions as necessarily resulting from them whether as jointly or as severally considered CHAP. VII That a Reprobate may be said in some sense even in a Scripture sense to be pardoned and how CONSECTARY I. 1. THere is a sense of Scripture with respect whereunto those who shall be damned may be said yea in Scripture are said to be pardoned viz. with respect to some kind or degree of temporal punishment either wholly forborn and taken off or else suspended and delayed for a time CHAP. VIII That a sinner notwithstanding his pardon upon the main may and oft times doth suffer temporal punishments
as to be displeased with them and to be incensed against them 2 Sam 11.27 Davids sin in the matter of Vriah is there said to displease God Dent. 9 20. God is there said to have been very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him 2. So farre as to checke and reprove them for their sins whereby he would have them take special notice that he doth remember them and these reproofes God doth convey sometimes in a most cutting and convincing way for proof hereof see Rev. 2.4 where the Church of Ephesus is reproved for her declining And 2 Sam 12.1 Where David is sharply taxed about the matter of Vriah 3. So farre as to threaten them with suffering for their sins and that 1. Conditionally except they repent Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy Candlestick 2. Absolutely notwithstanding they have or shall repent 2 Sam. 12 13 14. where David is threatned with the death of his child if any one shal say it is a prediction to speak properly rather then a commination it will make nothing against the intent and purpose for which I alledge it notwithstanding his professed repentance and the Prophets absolution of him as to the maine of pardon in the name of God related in the foregoing verse 4. God doth so farre remember the sinns of his people as actually to inflict punishment upon them for the same and that both while they live and when they are dead 1. While they live and that variously viz. not only by withholding and withdrawing those mercies and favours from them which otherwise would have been bestowed and continued but also by inflicting such evils upon them which otherwise he would not have inflicted as doth evidently appear and as David himselfe did know to his smart and cost 2 Sam. 12.8 9 10. 2. When they are dead viz. in their posterity successors and Subjects they being Parents Princes or Soveraignes as appeares undeniably in the instances of Eli Solomon and Manasses for which see 1 Sam. 3.13 14. 1 King 11.33 and 2 24 3 4. Thus doth God so farre remember the sins of his people as to smite them for the same not only with the rod of reproofe but also with the reproof of his rod it being the duty of Gods people under extraordinary sufferings to take notice that God doth thereby remember or take knowledge of their sins as did the widow of Zareptah by occasion of the unexpected death of her Sonne saying to the Prophet O thou man of God art thou come to call my sin into remembrance and tr slay my Sonne 1 King 17.18 And if their sins do not presently appear it s their duty to search for them and to pray to God to discover them unto us according to the example of Job chap. 10.3 13.23 Where he prayes to God to shew him wherefore he contended with him and according to the patterne of the Church Lam. 3.40 Exciting one another to search and try their waies 5. If as there be degrees of grace on earth so there be degrees of glory in heaven as is commonly and very probably conceived I see not but that it may be affirmed that God doth so farre remember the sinnes of his people particularly their backslidings and declinings in grace after their conversion as to deny unto them such an eminent degree of glory in heaven which otherwise had they been more circumspect and zealous they might have obtained or had attained unto they in meane time losing of the fulnesse of the reward to which purpose that of the Apostle may not unfitly be understood 2 Joh. 8. Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward But I will not say that this is properly to be called punishment 2. In the next place I am to shew Negatively or in what sense God doth not remember the sins of his people and for that end be it knowne 1. God doth not in such fort remember the sins of his people as he doth remember the sins of the wicked whom he doth not pardon E. g 1. God doth not so remember the sins of his people as to punish them with or in such pure justice as hee doth punish the sins of the wicked but with or in justice tempered with fatherly love 2. He doth not punish them with revenge meerly judicial or purely vindictive I say revenge meerly judicial or purely vindictive and let it be observed 1. What I doe acknowledge 2. What I doe deny 1. I grant and acknowledge that the punishments which God doth inflict upon his people are in a sort vindictive they proceding from Gods justice and being inflicted for sin as was aforesaid and one end of the inflicting therof being to make the Saints to smart and for that cause I deny not but that such punishment which God doth inflict upon the Saints for their sins may be called and are called sometimes in Scripture vengeance and for which cause I doe fully assent unto Mr. Ainsworth's Exposition of that in Psalm 99.8 Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengance on their inventions Where that pious and Learned Textman doth interpret by vengeance not only the punishment that in proces of time was inflicted upon the body of the rebellious people but also what was inflicted upon Moses and Aaron for their miscarriages he comparing that of the Psalmist not onely with Num. 14.20 21 23. Exod. 32.14 34 35. but moreover with Num. 20.12 Deut. 3 23 24 25. in which latter places the punishment which God did inflict upon Moses and Aaron for their sins is recorded And here let it be observed that whereas some do distinguish betwixt chastisements and punishments meaning therby the sufferings of the godly and the wicked saying that chastisements are not vindictive I cannot assent thereunto for the reasons aforesaid and which I forgot to insert in its proper place where I spake concerning the difference betwixt chastisements and punishments 2. I deny that the punishments of the Saints are revenge meerly judicially or purely vindictive as are the punishments of the wicked and the reason is evident because they proceed not from pure justice and againe albeit Gods end in inflicting them be to make them smart for their sins neverthelesse this end of Gods justice is but in subordination unto other effectual ends of his mercy or in subordination to other gracious ends which God will actually effect thereby mercy therein rejoycing as I may so say against judgement Herein the revenge which God taketh upon a penitent sinner is like to that revenge which a penitent sinner doth sometimes take upon himselfe which is not purely vindictive but in part it being upon the maine medicinal and preventive 2 Cor. 7.11 Briefly whatsoever differences have beene or can be truly assigned betwixt the temporal punishments of the
Apostasie by the example of Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.18 19. Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander Thus likewise doth he warne every one that professeth Christ by the example of the Apostasie of Hymeneus and Philetus saying Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.18 19. Thus are the Corinthians admonished by the Apostasie and infidelity of the Israelites in the wilderness whose example as he tells them were written for their admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 12. By the like example he doth also admonish the believing Hebrewes ch 4. beg And by the fall of the whole nation of the Jews Saint Paul doth admonish the believing Romans concluding the relation with this admonition Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by Faith Be not high minded but fear Rom 11.20 Yea the example of the Apostate Angels is set before the faithful as a warning and admonition whereby to avoid their sinne and to escape their punishment Jude begin 7 In order to the perseverance of the Saints God doth inflict sometimes very grievous judgements 1. Upon the wicked commanding the Saints to take warning thereby that they may hear and fear and learne not to sin presumptuously Deut. 17.13 1 Cor. 10.11 12. This use did Nehemiah perswade the Jewes to make of Gods judgments upon their predecessors chap. 13.18 Did not our fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaneing the Sabbath The contrary sin is laid to the charge of Judah who would not take warning by the sore hand of God upon her Sister Israel Jer. 3.8 And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed Adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and plaid the harlot also 2 Upon themselves This means viz. the rod of correction God doth use sometimes whereby to keep the Saints from running the same excesse of ryot with the wicked by this means as it were by thornes hedging up the way of sin as is the Prophets phrase Hos 2 6 but more especially to reduce them from their wandrings when they have gone astray 1 Cor 11.32 I have some where read or heard of a similitude very apt for this purpose of one resembling us to Tops that by meanes of whipping are got up when they are down and being up are kept going 8. One maine end of Church Discipline of Ecclesiastical censure as of publick Authoritative admonition and excommunication is that Believers may stand in aw and persevere in holinesse 1 Tim. 5.20 Them that sin rebuke openly that others also may fear The Premises considered it appears evidently that Believers are and are to be constrained not only by love but also by fear and by the rod of God if by any means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Apostles word Phil. 3.11 they may attain the Resurrection of the dead and the salvation of their souls And surely did not some men in these times go about to make themselves wiser then God Almighty they would rather blesse and magnifie yea admire and adore both the wisdome and goodnesse of God becoming all things to all men and to every part of man both the old man and the new in that variety of meanes which he useth for the preservation of believers in the state of grace I say they would rather so do then cry out upon Gods Ministers as legal Teachers for mixing Threatnings with Promises and thereby endeavouring to preserve the Saints as wel in the fear of the wrath of God and the curse as in the love of God and his goodness Obj. 5. Believers are preserved through their faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Answ Though Saint Paul saies That they are preserved through faith unto salvation yet he saith not through faith only and to interpret him exclusively there is no ground and here I say once again as before viz Those graces and vertues which God hath joyned together wee must not make opposite one to another or sever one from another Though faith and fear are diverse yet are they not adverse and repugnant More distinctly then I answer 1 That as the Saints are preserved to salvation through their faith so likewise through their feare Jerem. 32.40 I will put my Feare into their hearts that they shall never depart from me 2. He that rightly understands himself in saying That Believers are preserved through faith wil understand how that he doth by necessary consequence in so saying imply That they are preserved through their fear for what is the object of faith is not the whole Word of God Though I should grant That in some peculiar sense the Promise is the object of Faith in which respect Saint Paul calls the Promise the Word of faith Rom. 10.8 yet who can deny that the whole Word of God is Fides objectiva or the object of Faith and consequently who can deny that Believers are to exercise faith as well in the threatnings as in the promises of the Word and the scope of God in his threatnings being to beget faith and fear as well as in his Promises to beget faith and hope in his people who can deny That Believers are kept to Salvation as well through faith and fear of the Threatnings of God in his holy Word as through faith and hope in his promises 3. Consider that as the wicked have been reclaimed to their duty by faith and fear of Gods threatnings for which see the example of the Ninevites of whom it is said That they believed God and proclaimed a Fast Jonah 3.5 So the godly have been by the like meanes contained or retained in their duty as was made appear by several instances before recited unto which I shall add the example of Noah of whom it is said That he by faith moved with fear prepared an Ark for the preserving of himselfe and his houshold Heb. 11.7 Observe thence as to the purpose in hand these two things 1. The conjunction 2. The cooperation of faith and fear 1. Observe That faith in God as touching his Promises and the fear of God as touching his threanings may very well stand together 2. As Saint James said concerning faith and works Chap. 2.22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works so I may here say concerning faith and fear Seest thou how faith and fear did cooperate to Noahs obedience and preservation 4. Be it considered that as every Threatning doth imply a Promise so every Promise doth imply a Threatning as is manifest by that remarkable Scripture Heb. 4. beg where the Apostle in the forgoing Chapter having spoken of an expresse threatning of not entering into Gods Rest he admonisheth them by way of Inference saying Let us therefore fear lest a Promise
us Ministers neverthelesse I shall not go about at this time to enumerate all the differences betwixt them but shall content my self to name only this one as being sufficient for my present purpose viz The conditions which God requires of man in both these Covenants are very different the condition of the Covenant of Works being perfection of obedience or the perfect fulfilling of the whole Law but the condition of the Covenant of Grace is Faith in Christ Repentance and Sincerity of Obedience Now as Adam was to do or perform the former condition or the condition of the former Covenant for life so are we to perform the latter condition or the condition of the latter Covenant for life also Should we go about to set up the perfect fulfilling of the whole Law as the condition of salvation and in such sort work for salvation this indeed were legal working and to work as Legalists or should we expect salvation as merited wages for our work this were to work legally but to labour by his strength to perform the conditions of the Covenant of Grace to believe repent to return unto and to keep with God in the duties of New Obedience that so we may live and to expect from Gods free grace and mercy that in so doing we shall live this is to work as a Christian and as becomes the Gospel of Christ Object But is it not the ready way to make people trust unto or to rest in their own good works or duties to tell them that they may do them for salvation Answ 1. I shall in the next place answer this Question with two or three other Questions 1 Is it not the ready way to make people to cast off the doing of all good duties and good works to tell them that they may not ought not need not to do them for salvation 2 Is not the danger as common and great this way as that Or is it not as dangerous to think to go to heaven without the doing of good as by resting on the good we do Is it not as ordinary for people to perish for barrenness as for bringing forth fruit to themselves 3 Whether is it not fitter for a Minister to instruct people how far forth they may and how far forth they may not trust in and rest upon their own Duties Graces works or holinesse for salvation then to tell them that they ought not to do any good duty for salvation As this latter is a thing unlawful so the former is a thing I am well assured not only lawful but also expedient and necessary in order therefore thereunto bee it knowne 1. In general That we are not to trust unto or rest upon our own good Works Duties or Graces for salvation in any such sort as Christ alone and his Righteousnesse is to be trusted unto or rested upon 2. More particularly bee it known 1. That we may not trust unto or rest in them as our legal Righteousnesse i. e. such as for which the Law of Works will pronounce us righteous or as any part of our legal Righteousnesse in conjunction with Christs 2. Consequently hereupon we may not rest in them as things that are absolutely perfect and exactly commensurate or answerable to the rigour of the Law 3. Not as things by which Gods Justice is satisfied his wrath pacified or by which we make him an amends for breach of the first Covenant 4. Consequently hereupon not as things whereby in any strict or proper sense we do merit salvation we having indeed no works formally ours which do make the reward to be of debt and not of Grace In these respects we are to disclaim all our own Works Duties Graces Holiness and to trust unto or rest upon Christ and his Righteousnesse wholely and solely 2 But in the second place be it knowne 1 In general That because Christ alone is to be rested upon for salvation in the foresaid respects we have no more reason to conclude from thence that we may can or ought in no sense to rest in our own good works or duties for salvation then we can conclude that because Christ alone doth save us therefore it may not can not ought not to be said in any sense that we do save our selves which notwithstanding is the frequent language of Scripture 2 More particularly be it known 1. That we may rest in or trust unto our own good Works Duties and Holinesse for salvation in subordination to the free grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus accepting them and pardoning the sinfulness of them 2 We may rest on them as things which do assure us of our title unto or actual interest in the satisfaction and Righteousness of Jesus Christ there being a personal or evangelical righteousnesse necessary to salvation as well as a legal righteousness i. e. it being not sufficient for our actual enjoyment of salvation that Christ was righteous or did fulfil all righteousnesse of the Law unless we in our own persons do labour to bee righteous as he was righteous 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom â—f God be not deceived neither Fornicators nor 3 We may rest in them as the wayes wherein or which is to the same purpose as was said in the particular foregoing as the conditions without which Christ Jesus will not save us for without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12 14. neither is Christ the Authour of salvation actually enjoyed unto any other then such as do obey him Heb. 5.9 1 Tim. 4.16 Neither is the resting upon our own holinesse in these senses any whit against the glory of Christ this being in effect and in deed neither more nor lesse but this viz. To rest upon Christ and Christ alone for salvation in Christs own way i e. the way of holinesse and righteousness I do not mean perfect holinesse and righteousnesse according to the Covenant of Works but such as is expected and required from us as necessary to salvation according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace I doubt not but the most self denying servants of Christ did in this sort rest upon their own holinesse for salvation in special Hezekiah praying to the Lord That he would remember how he had walked before him with a perfect heart 2 King 20. beg and Nehemiah praying to the like purpose with subordination to the mercy of God pardoning his defects chap. 13.22 and David praying and saying Lord save me for I am holy Psal 86.2 and Saint Paul saying I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith hence forward is laid up for me a Crawn of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. To rest upon our own holinesse for salvation in the sense immediately aforesaid is no more then for a man who doth use the creatures moderately as meat drink sleep recreation in or upon the use of them to depend on God the only Authour