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A26806 Sermons upon Psalm CXXX, ver. 4 but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayst be feared / by William Bates. Bates, William, 1625-1699. 1696 (1696) Wing B1124; ESTC R25865 50,575 129

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that all the World are become guilty before God that is justly chargeable with their Crimes and liable to his Judgment The Act of Sin is transient and the Pleasure vanishes but the Guilt if not pardoned and purged away remains for ever in the Records of Conscience The Sin of Judah is written with a Pen of Iron and with the Point of a Diamond it is graven on the Tables of the Heart When the Books of eternal Life and Death shall be opened at the Last Day all the unpardoned Sins of Men with their killing Aggravations will be found written in indelible Characters and shall be set in order before their Eyes to their Confusion The righteous Judg has sworn he will forget none of their Works According to the Number and Heinousness of their Sins a Sentence shall pass upon them No Excuses shall suspend the Judgment nor mitigate the immediate Execution of it The Forgiveness of Sins contains the Abolition of their Guilt and Freedom from the deserved Destruction consequent to it This is express'd by various Terms in Scripture Pardon relates to some Damage and Offence which the offended Party may severely vindicate Now altho the blessed God in strictness of speaking can receive no Damage by rebellious Creatures being infinitely above the Impression of Evil yet as our Saviour speaks of one that looks upon a Woman with an impure Desire that he has committed Adultery with her in his Heart tho the Innocence of the Woman be unstained so the Sins of Men being Acts of foul Ingratitude against his Goodness and notorious Unrighteousness against his Authority are in a Sense injurious to him which he might justly revenge upon them but his Clemency spares them The not imputing Sin is borrowed from the Accounts of Servants with their Masters and implies the Account we are obliged to render the supreme Lord for all his Benefits which we have so wretchedly misimproved he might righteously exact of us ten thousand Talents that are due to him but he is graciously pleased to cross the Book and freely to discharge us The purging from Sin implies 't is very odious and offensive in God's Eyes and has a special respect to the expiatory Sacrifices of which 't is said that without Blood there was no Remission This was typical of the precious Blood of the Son of God that purges the Conscience from dead Works from the deadly Guilt of Sin that cleaves to the Conscience of the Sinner By the application of his Blood the crimson Guilt is wash'd away and the pardoned Sinner is accepted as one pure and innocent 2. I shall next demonstrate that Forgiveness belongs to God This will be evident by the following Considerations 1 st 'T is the high and peculiar Prerogative of God to pardon Sin His Authority made the Law and gives Life and Vigour to it therefore he can remit the Punishment of the Offender This is evident from the Proportion of humane Laws For tho subordinate Judges have only a limited Power and must acquit or condemn according to the Law yet the Soveraign may dispense with it This is declared in Scripture by God himself I even I am he that blots out thy Transgressions for my Name sake He repeats it with an Emphasis He is proclaimed with this Royal Title The Lord gracious and merciful pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin 'T is a Dispensation of Divine Soveraignty to pardon the Guilty 'T is true God pardons as a Father according to that most gracious Promise I will spare them as a Father spares his Son that serves him but as invested with the Dignity of a Soveraign Our Saviour directs us in the perfect Form of Prayer dictated to his Disciples to pray to God for the Forgiveness of our Sins as our Father sitting in Heaven upon a high Throne from whence he pronounces our Pardon His Majesty is equally glorious with his Mercy in that blessed Dispensation His Royal Supremacy is more conspicuous in the Exercise of Mercy towards repenting Sinners than in the Acts of Justice upon obstinate Offenders As a King is more a King by the pardoning humble Suppliants by the Operation of his Scepter than in subduing Rebels by the Power of the Sword For in Acts of Grace he is above the Law and over-rules its Rigour in Acts of Vengeance he is only superiour to his Enemies 'T is the peculiar Prerogative of God to pardon Sin The Prophet challenges all the reputed Deities of the Heathens as defective in this Royal Power Who is a God like unto thee pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin The Pharisees said true Who can forgive Sins but God only for 't is an Act of Empire The judicial Power to pardon is a Flower inseparable from the Crown for 't is founded in a Superiority to the Law therefore inconsistent with a depending Authority A Creature is as incapable of the Supremacy of God in pardoning Sin as of his Omnipotence to create a World for they are both truly infinite Besides the Power of pardoning Sins necessarily implies an universal Knowledg of the Minds and Hearts of Men which are the Fountains of their ●ctions and according to their Ingred●●ncy the moral Good or Evil of them rises The more deliberately and wilfully a Sin is committed the Sinner incurs a greater Guilt and is obnoxious to a more heavy Punishment Now no Creature can dive into the Hearts of Men They are naked and open to the piercing Eye of God alone Add farther the authoritative Power to pardon has necessarily annex'd to it the active Power of dispensing Rewards and Punishments Now the Son of God alone has the Keys of Life and Death in his Hands It may be objected That our Saviour declares that the Son of Man has Power to forgive Sins The Answer to this will be clear by considering there are two Natures in Christ the Divine Nature that originally belongs to him and is proper to his Person and the Humane Nature which is as it were adoptive and was voluntarily assumed Now the Divine Person is the sole Principle and Subject of this Royal Dignity but 't is exercised in its Conjunction with the humane Nature and attributed to the Son of Man As in the Humiliation of Christ the Principles of his Sufferings and the actual Sufferings are solely in the humane Nature but upon the Account of the personal Union they are attributed to the Divine Person 'T is said The Lord of Glory was crucified and the Blood of God redeemed his Church The Church of Rome with high Presumption arrogates to their Priests a judicial Power of forgiving Sins and by the easy Folly of the People and crafty Deceit of their Instructors exercise a Jurisdiction over Conscience To avoid the Imputation of Blasphemy they pretend there is a double Power of Forgiving supreme and subordinate the first belongs to God the other is delegated by Commission to the Ministers of the Gospel But this is an irreconcileable Contradiction for