A SUPPLEMENT To the several DISCOURSES Upon Various Divine Subjects By the Late Learned Divine STEPHEN CHARNOCK B. D. LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Leggs in the Poultry 1683. A DISCOURSE OF THE Sinfulness and Cure OF THOUGHTS Gen. 6.5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually I Know not a more lively description in the whole Book of God of the Natural corruption derived from our first Parents than these words Wherein you have the Ground of that grief which lay so close to God's heart v. 6. the Resolve thereupon to destroy man and whatsoever was serviceable to that ungrateful creature That must be highly offensive which moved God to repent of a fabrick so pleasing to him at the creation every stone in the building being at the first laying pronounced good by Him and upon a review at the finishing the whole He left it the same character with an Emphasis †Gen. 1.31 very good There was not a pin in the whole frame but was * Eccles 3.11 very beautiful and being wrought by infinite * Psa 104.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Praepar Evang. wisdom it was a very comely piece of Art What then should provoke him to repent of so excellent a work The wickedness of man which was great in the earth How came it to pass that man's wickedness should swell so high Whence did it spring From the imagination Though these might be sinful imaginations might not the superiour faculty preserve it self untainted Alas That was defiled The imagination of the thoughts was evil But though running thoughts might wheel about in his mind yet they might leave no stamp or impression upon the will and affections Yes they did The imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil Surely all could not be under such a blemish Were there not now and then some pure flashes of the mind No not one Every imagination But granting that they were evil might there not be some fleeting good mixed with them as a poisonous toad hath something useful No Only evil Well but there might be some intervals of thinking and though there was no good thought yet evil ones were not always rouling there Yes they were Continually not a moment of time that man was free from them One would scarce imagine such an inward nest of wickedness but God hath affirmed it and if any man should deny it his own heart would give him the lye Let us now consider the words by themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imagination properly signifies figmentum of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to afflict press or form a thing by way of compression And thus 't is a metaphor taken from a potters framing a vessel and extends to whatsoever is fram'd inwardly in the heart or outwardly in the work 'T is usually taken by the Jews for that fountain of sin within us †Alii rectiâ—s dicunt non esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nisi in malum Merc. in loc Mercer tells us it is always used in an evil sense But there are two places if no more wherein it is taken in a good sense Isa 26.3 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maimon More Nevoch Par. 3. c. 22. Amam Censur in locum Whose mind is stayed and 1 Chron. 29.18 where David prays that a disposition to offer willingly to the Lord might be preserved in the Imagination of the thoughts of the heart of the people Indeed for the most part 't is taken for the evil imaginations of the heart as Deut. 31.21 Psal 103.14 c. The Jews make a double figment a good and bad and fancy two Angels assign'd to man one bad another good which Maimonides interprets to be nothing else but natural corruption and reason This word imagination being joyn'd with thoughts implies not only the compleat thoughts but the first motion or formation of them to be evil The word Heart is taken variously in Scripture It signifies properly that inward member which is the seat of the vital spirits But sometimes it signifies 1. The understanding and mind Psal 12.2 With a double heart do they speak i. e. With a double mind Prov. 8.5 2. For the Will 2 Kings 10.30 All that is in my heart i. e. in my Will and purpose 3. For the affections as Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart i. e. with all thy affections 4. For conscience 2 Sam. 24.5 David's heart smote him i. e. his Conscience check'd him But Heart here is used for the whole soul because according to Pareus his note the soul is chiefly seated in the heart especially the Will and the affections her attendants because when any affection stirs the chief motion of it is felt in the heart So that by the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are here meant all the inward operations of the soul which play their part principally in the heart whether they be the acts of the understanding the resolutions of the Will or the blustrings of the affections Only evil The Vulgar mentions not the exclusive particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so enervates the sense of the place But our Neighbour Translations either express it as we do Only or to that sense that they were Certainly or no other than evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Continually The Hebrew All the day or every day Some Translations express it verbatim as the Hebrew Not a moment of a man's life wherein our hereditary corruption doth not belch out its froth even from his youth as God expounds it Gen. 8.21 to the end of his life Whether we shall refer the general wickedness of the heart in the Text to that age as some of the Jesuits do because after the Deluge God doth not seem so severely to censure it Or rather take the exposition the learned Rivet gives of it referring the first part of the Verse and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth to those times Gen. 8.21 Rivet in Gen. exâ—â—cit 51. and the second part to the universal corruption of man's nature and the root of all sin in the world The Jesuits argument will not be very valid for the extenuation of original corruption from Gen. 8.21 For if man's imaginations be evil from his youth what is it but in another phrase to say they were so continually But suppose it be understood of the iniquity of that age may it not be applied to all ages of the world David complains of the wickedness of his own time Psal 14.3 Psal 5.9 Yet St. Paul applies it to all mankind Rom. 3.12 Indeed it seems to be a description of man's natural pravity by Gods words after the deluge Gen. 8.21 which are the same in sense to shew that man's nature after that destroying judgment was no better than before Every word is emphatical
thereof The Kingdom of God is not destroyed when it is removed but transplanted into a more fruitful Soil While Christ hath a body in the world he will find a Joseph of Arimathea to embalm it and preserve it for a resurrection When the glory of the Lord goes off from one Cherub it will find other Cherubims whereon to settle Ezek. 10.4.18 That glory which had dwelt is the material ark of the Sanctuary departs from thence to find a Throne in that Chariot which had been described Ezek. 1. Nay the departure of God from one Church renders his name more glorious in another * Rivet in Hos 1.10 p. 518. The rejection of the carnal Israel was the Preamble to the appearance of the spiritual Israel the Kingdom of the Messiah was rendred more large and illustrious by the dissolving of that Church that had confidence in the flesh trusted in their external rites and patcht the beauty and purity of divine Worship with their whorish additions just as the mortification of the flesh gives liveliness to the spirit and the pulling up noysom weeds from a garden makes room for the setting and flourishing growth of good plants 2. Though God unstakes the Church in one place yet he will not only have a Church but a professing Church in another It shall be said of Sion This and that man was born there It shall be said of Sion by God It shall be said of Sion by men If Christ confesseth none before his Father but such as confess him before men Luk. 12.8 shall he ever want imployment shall the world ever be at that pass as to bear none that profess him and so none to be owned by him at the right hand of his Father Shall he by whom all things subsist have none to acknowledg their subsistance by him The world may be the Inheritance of Christ but scarce counted his possession if there were not in some parts of it a body of subjects to justifie their Allegiance to him in the face of a persecuting generation Indeed when the Church was confined to the narrow limits of the carnal Israel the profession of the truth was contracted to a few though the faith of it might be alive in others only Caleb and Joshua among the whole body of the murmuring Israelites in the wilderness asserted the honour of God and maintained the truth of his promise though the belief of it might sparkle in the hearts of others under the ashes of their fears that hindered their discovery of it to others It was another time reduced to one and Elijah only had the boldness to make a declaration of the name of God though there were 7000 who had retain'd their purity while they had lost their courage to publish it 1 Kings 19.18 But in the Christian Church since the number of elect are more the profession will be greater in the midst of an universal Apostacy of pretenders Rev. 13.8 All that dwell upon the earth shall Worship him i. e. the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. If their election be a preservative against an adoration of the Beast it is also a security against the denial of any such worship and an encouragement to profess the name of Christ when they shall be brought upon the stage This profession may lye much in the dark and not be so visible as before As a field of corn overtopt by weeds looks at a distance as if there were nothing else but the blew and red cockle and darnel but when we come near we see the good grain shews its head as well as the weeds but a professing people there will be one where or other 'T is a standing law of Christianity that a belief in the heart should be attended by confession with the mouth Rom. 10.9 And the Church is a congregation of people sounding the voice of Christ as he was preached and confest by the Apostles while there are believers there will be professors in Society together some Ordinances setled in being during the continuance of the world as the Supper 1 Cor. 11.6 implies a Society as the seat of the administration Baptism is a Ceremony of admission into a Society the Supper a feasting of several upon spiritual Viands Officers appointed imply a body professing some rules Math. 28.20 To what purpose are all these setled during the continuance of the world if they were not somewhere to be practised till that period of time how can they be practised without a Confederation and Society Without such a body all the Ordinances and Rules of Christ would be in vain and imply as little wisdom in enacting them as a want of power in not keeping up a Society in some part of the world to observe them according to his own prescriptions There will therefore be in some part or other of the world a Church openly professing the doctrine of truth 3. This Church or Sion shall have a numerous progeny The Spiritual Israel shall be as the Sand of the Sea which cannot be measured or numbred Hos 1.10 which was the promise made to Abraham Gen. 22.17 and renewed in the same terms to Jacob Gen. 32.12 The Church is a little flock in comparison of the carnal world yet it is numerous in it self though not in every place for sometimes there may not be above three found to withstand the worship of a Golden Image yet in some one or other place of the world and successively it shall be numerous he will not lose the honour of the feast he hath prepared though those that are invited prefer their Farms and Oxen before it but will find Guests in the high-ways he will spread his wings from East to West and in every place Incense shall be offered to his Name Mal. 1.11 The Church is compared to the morning Cant. 6.10 which from small beginnings in a short time fills the whole Hemisphere with light and the promises concerning it run all that way The Hills were to be covered with the shadow of it her boughs are to be sent out to the Sea and her branches to the River Psal 80.10 11. It was to spread it self like a goodly Cedar and be a dwelling-place to the Fowl of every wing Ezek. 17.23 Yea a numberless multitude from all Nations Kindreds People and Tongues are to stand before the Throne and before the Lamb Clothed with white Robes and Palms in their hands Rev. 7.9 adorned with innocency and crowned with victory No Monarchy ever did ever can so far stretch her bounds nor hath the Sun seen any place where it hath not seen some sprinkling of a Church Every Kingdom hath met with unpassable bounds but the Ensigns of Christ have not been limited The Church was once crowded up in a narrow compass of Judaea but since that her Territories are enlarged her Ensigns have flourished over many Countries Rahab Tyre Ethiopia the vast circuit of Asia and the deserts of
Ages to witness the baffles he hath received what a fool is he to think that her Defender should be conquered by a revolted Angel that lies under an everlasting curse 3. The violences against her which have been fatal to other Societies have been useful to her This bush hath burned without consuming and preserved its verdure in the midst of fire not from the nature of the bush but the presence of him that dwelt in it It hath not only subsisted in the bowels of her Enemies but hath been established by means of the violence of men and grown greater in the midst of torments and death she hath not only out-grown her afflictions but grown greater and better by them The last Monarchy compos'd of Clay and Iron Clay for its earthly and miry designs and Iron for its force and violence is the immediate Usher of the Kingdom of God that shall never be destroyed but stand for ever Dan. 2.41 44. 1. She hath been often encreased Persecution hath lopt off some branches of the Vine but have been found more sprouting up instead of them that were cut off Her blood hath been seed and the pangs of her Martyrs have been fruitful in bringing forth new witnesses We have scarce read of more sudden conversions to Christianity though indeed more numerous by the Preaching of the Word than by the shedding the blood of Christians Eminent Professors have sprung out of the Martyrs Ashes The storms have been so far from destroying her that it hath been the occasion of spreading her Tents in a larger ground Saul's winnowing the Church blew away some of the Corn to take rooting in other places Acts 8.3 4. Like seeds of Plants blown away by the wind which have risen brought forth their kind in another soil and it is no more than hath been predicted Dan. 12.1 4. Such a time of trouble that never was since there was a Nation should be the time when many should run to and fro and knowledg should be increased While other Societies increase by persecuting their Enemies this increaseth by being persecuted her self It grows as a Vine Hos 14.7 Though it be cut the cutting hath contributed to its thriving This Rose-bush hath not only stood in the wind which hath rooted up other Oaks but the fragrancy of it hath been carried by that wind to places at a greater distance When Antiochus commanded all the Books of the Scripture in the hands of any to be burned they were not only preserved but presently after appeared out of their hidden places as they were translated into the Greek Tongue the Language then most known in the world and made publick to other Nations Truth hath been often rendred by such proceedings more clear and glorious The persecution of Sion's Head the Captain of our Salvation to death was the occasion of the discovery of the Gospel to the whole world he was the great seed that being cast into the ground became so fruitful as to spread his branches in all corners of the Earth Joh. 12.24 And that persecution which I suppose remains yet to be acted and which will be the smartest shall be succeeded by the clearest eruption of Gospel-light wherein the Gospel shall recover its ancient and primitive glory The slaying of the witnesses shall end in an Evangelical success Rev. 11.9 10 c. The world shall give glory to the God of Heaven v. 13. The Kingdoms of the world shall become the Kingdoms of Christ v. 15. Christ shall more illustriously reign v. 17. The Temple of God shall be opened in Heaven v. 19. The spiritual Israel as well as the national the Antitype as well as the Type have multiplied under oppression * Decay of Christian Piety p. 23. and like an arched Building stood firmer by all the weights that have been designed to crush her 2. She has often been Refin'd by the most violent persecutions of her Enemies She hath not only surviv'd the flames that have been kindled against her but as refin'd Gold come out more beautiful from the furnace left her dross behind her and hath been wrought into a more beautiful frame by the hand of her great Artificer like the sand upon the sea shore she hath not only broke the force of the waves but been assisted by them to discharge her filth and been washed more clean by those waves that rusht in to drown her She hath been more conformed to the image of her head and made fitter to glorify God here and to enter into the glory of God hereafter The Church is to cast forth her roots like Lebanon Hos 14.5 The Cedar by its shakings grows up more in beauty as well as strength and the torch by its knocks burns the clearer Though the number of her children might some times decrease through fear yet her true Off-spring that have remained have increased in their zeal courage and love to God Apostates themselves have proved refiners of them that they have deserted * Dan. 11.35 And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and make them white The Corn is the purer by the separation of the chaff Thus hath she grown purer by flames and sounder by batteries 4. When she has seemed to be forlorn and dead God has restored her When Israel was at the lowest a decree issued out in Aegypt to destroy her males and root out her seed deliverance began to dawn and when a knife was at her throat at the red sea and scarce a valiant believer found among a multitude of despairers God turned the back of the knife to his Israel and the edge to the throat of the enemies When the whole Church as well as the whole world seemed to be at its last gasp God preserved a Noah as a spark to kindle a new world and a new Church by When Jerusalem was sackt the City destroyed the people dispersed into several parts of the Babylonish Empire without any humane probability of ever being gathered again into one body yet she was preserved restored recollected brought out of the sepulchre resetled in her ancient soyl and recovered her beauty which can be said of no other society in the world but this whose deliverance and restauration hung not upon the will and policy of man but upon the Word of God who had limited their captivity to seventy years and promised a restauration The blessing of God to Abraham and Sarah is set out as a ground of faith and comfort for the Churches restauration and increase Isa 51.1 2 3. He will comfort Sion and comfort all her wast places and make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of God that joy and gladness may be found therein as well as he did enliven the dead body of Abraham and the barren womb of Sarah When the Church hath been so low that men have despaired of seeing any more of her than her ashes God hath produced a new remnant he hath
punishment Psal 22.1 But thou art holy when he expostulates with God why he had forsaken him justifies Gods holiness Howsoever thou dealest with me thou art holy in all thy waies Thou dost me no wrong why should I complain when holiness and hatred of sin guides thee in all those actings with me 4. How earnest should we be to get rid of sin By pardon by Sanctification Guilt is the sting of punishment Sin only embitters trouble The Remission and Mortification of sin is the health of the Soul If the arrows head be out of a wound the cure will be more easy Look upon my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sin saith the Psalmist Psal 25.8 forgiveness of sin would mitigate the sharpness of his pain 5. How should we act faith on God in Christ before and under such a condition of punishment As we can never love God too much because he is the highest good so we can never trust God too much because he is one of immutable truth when we are in straits it is not for want of faithfulness in God but for want of Faith in us that we are many times not preserved We distrust God and this is the cause we fall into many distresses which otherwise would not come upon us or be quickly removed from us Did we grasp the promises closely and plead them earnestly we should often find the deliverance we desire We pray but we pray not in Faith we cry for deliverance but not with confidence we plead Gods power but forget his promise Many temporal promises are not perform'd to us not for want of truth in God but for want of faith in us Particular fiduciary acts will draw out the riches of a promise for want of which we remain poor in the midst of abundance Some think that the promise made to Josiah of his dying in peace which phrase is usually meant in Scripture of a peacable death upon the bed was not performed because Josiah was out of the way against the precept of God and therefore could not act faith requisite to the fulfilling of that promise for faith is much dampt in its actings under present contracted guilt †Tho. Goodwin This Faith in promises for outward preservation is not an absolute infallible assurance that God will bestow such outward things because the promises themselves are not absolute but it is rather an indefinite act of recumbency and submission referring it to his good pleasure towards us But it is certain we are very much defective in acting Faith upon promises for temporal mercies because it is an Epidemical distemper in us to trust God with our Souls rather than with our bodies and outward concerns 1. Exercise Faith before such a time Furnish your selves with the comforts of the Covenant and the efficacy of the death of Christ In bodily distempers our minds are discomposed and we cannot have that Freedom of thoughts and spiritual reflections This is the way to engage God who is the best assistant a very present help in time of trouble 2. Exercise it in the use of spiritual means God never Commanded us to trust him but in his own methods That is not trust in God which is attended with any wilful Omissions If we be careful in doing our duty God will be careful in doing what belongs to him Prayer is the best means for Faith to exercise it self in A spirit of Prayer before-hand is a sign of good success When the heart is drawn out to cry it is a sign God stands ready with the mercy in his hand Times of distress are times of calling upon God Psal 18.6 In my distress I called upon the Lord and he heard my cry God is to be acknowledged in all our ways Prov. 3.6 In the beginning by prayer for his direction in the end by praises for the success We are usually more earnest in trouble We have not at all times an equal fervency Christ himself some say had not for when he was in his agony he prayed more earnestly than before Luke 22.44 3. Act Faith upon the Relation God bears to you He is our Father We trust earthly Fathers and are confident they will not abuse us How much more ought we to trust our heavenly Father and not doubt of his sincerity towards us The greater the trouble the more we should plead Gods relation to us Our Saviour in the garden Mat. 26.39 42. at his entrance into his passion for us prays to God by the title of my Father whereas at other times he calls God Father without that appropriation But now he would excite his confidence and trust in God and those promises he had made him to assist him in that hour 4. Act Faith upon the attributes of God There is nothing in God can affright a believer There is not an attribute but seems fixed in God to encourage our dependance on him in any strait wisdom mercy truth omniscience power justice too for what comfort could we have to trust in an unjust God All which attributes are promised to be assistant to a believer in any case of need in the Covenant of grace where God makes himself over to us as our God and therefore all that God hath and is is promised there for our good Upon the Power of God Gods Omnipotence was the ground of our Saviours prayer to him in his distress and that which the Apostle seems to intimate his eyeing of Heb. 5.7 He offered up prayers unto him that was able to save him from death And Psal 16.1 The Psalmist or rather Christ pleads the power of God Preserve me O Lord for in thee do I put my trust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila renders it strong Plead the truth of God in his promise The promise that preceded the threatning viz. The bruising the Serpents head the defeating all his plots and designs whereof this was one to bring man into a state of punishment There is a promise which hath been especially tryed and made good though all in the book of God have been found true Psal 18.30 The Word of the Lord is tryed Not one word but the truth of it hath been tryed but especially this word That God is a buckler to them that trust in him i. e. That he will preserve and defend depending believers 5. Act Faith upon Christ Hath God delivered Christ to death It must be for some glorious end not for destruction of the Creature that might have been done without the death of his Son but for remission if so there is sufficient ground to trust him for every thing else We have a merciful high Priest which encourageth us to make our addresses to him He cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities our penal infirmities which he suffered our sinful infirmities for which he suffered Where can he shew his mercy but in our misery Are we under Gods strokes Christ himself felt them that he might the better pity us
stand good in law because the crossing of the book implies the Satisfaction of the debt A debt may be read in our manner of writing in a crossed book but it cannot be pleaded God may after pardon read our sins in the book of his Omniscience but not charge them upon us at the bar of his Justice 2. Gods willingness to pardon Blots not razeth He engraves them not upon marble he writes them not with a pen of Iron or point of a diamond writing upon wax is easily made plain 3. The extent of it Blotting serves for a great debt as well as a small a thousand pound may as well and as soon be dasht out by a blot as a thousand pence 4. The quickness of it upon repentance It takes more time to write a debt in a book than to cross it out one blow would obliterate a great deal of writing upon wax Sins that have been contracting many years when God pardons he blots out in a moment 2. Covering as it alludes to the drowning the Aegpytians is exprest by casting into the depths of the Sea Micah 7.19 Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea This notes also 1. Gods willingness to pardon Casts them not lays them gently aside but flings them away with violence as things that he cannot endure the sight of and is resolved never to take notice of them more 2. Gods reality in pardon He will cast their sins as far as the arm of his omnipotency can reach If there be any place further than the depths of the Sea thither they shall be thrown out of the sight of his justice 3. The extent All their sins The Sea covered Aegyptian Princes as well as the people The mighty Lord as well as the Common Souldier sank like lead in those mighty waters 4. The Duration of it The Sea vomits up nothing that it takes into its lower bowels things cast into the depths of the Ocean never appear more Rivers may be turned and drain'd but who can lave out the Ocean 2. Not imputing Not putting upon account not charging the debt in a legal process To this is aequivalent the expression of not remembring Isa 43.25 I will not remember their sins An act of oblivion is past upon sin This notes 1. That God will not exact the debt of thee God doth not absolutely forget sin for what he knows never slips out of his knowledg So that his not remembring is rather an act of his will than a defect in his understanding As when an act of oblivion is passed the fact committed is not Physically forgotten but legally because the fear of punishment is removed God puts them out of the memory of his wrath though not out of the memory of his knowledge He doth remember them paternally to chastize thee for them though not judicially to condemn thee 2. Not upbraid thee Not with a scornful upbraiding mention them to cast thee off but with a merciful renewing the remembrance of them upon thy Conscience to excite thy repentance and keep thee with in the due bounds of humility and reverence More particularly the nature of pardon may be explained in these Propositions We must not think that these expressions as they denote pardon do intimate in this act the taking away of the being of sin nature of sin or demerit of sin 1. The being and inherency of sin is not taken away Though sin be not imputed to us yet it is inherent in us The being remains though the power be dethroned By pardon God takes away sin not as it is a pollution of the Soul but as it is an inducement to wrath Though remission and Sanctification are concomitants yet they are distinct acts and wrought in a distinct manner 2. The nature of sin is not taken away Justification is a relative change of the person not of the sin for though God will not by an act of his justice punish the person pardoned yet by his holiness he cannot but hate the sin because though it be pardoned it is still contrary to God and enmity against him 'T is not a change of the native malice of the sin but a non-imputation of it to the offender Though the person sinning be free from any indictment yet sin is not freed from its malitia and opposition to God For though the law doth not condemn a justified person because he is translated into another state yet it condemns the acts of sin though the guilt of those acts doth not redound upon the person to bring the wrath of God upon him Though David had the sins of murther and adultery pardon'd yet this pardon did not make David a righteous person in those acts for it was murther and adultery still and the change was not in his sin but in his Soul and state 3. The Demerit of sin is not taken away As pardon doth not alter sins nature so neither doth it alter sins demerit for to merit damnation belongs to the nature of it so that we may look upon our selves as deserving Hell though the sin whereby we deserve it be remitted Pardon frees us from actual condemnation but not as considered in our own persons from the desert of condemnation As when a King pardons a thief he doth not make the theft to become formally no theft or to be meritoriously no capital crime Upon those two grounds of the nature and demerit of sin a justified person is to bewail it and I question not but the consideration of this doth add to the triumph and Hallelujahs of the glorified Souls whose chief work being to praise God for redemption they cannot but think of the nature and demerit of that from which they were redeemed Rev. 5.13 4. The guilt of sin or obligation to punishment is taken away by pardon Sin committed doth presently by vertue of the law transgressed bind over the sinner to death but pardon makes void this obligation so that God no longer accounts us persons obnoxious to him Peccatum remitti non aliud est quam non imputari ad poenam * Durand lib. 4. dict 1. q. 7 For sin to be pardoned is nothing else but not to be imputed in order to punishment 'T is a revoking the sentence of the law against the sinner and God renouncing upon the account of the Satisfaction made by Christ to his justice any right to punish a believer doth actually discharge him upon his believing from that sentence of the law under which he lay in the state of unbelief and also as he parts with this right to punish so he confers a light upon a believer humbly to challenge it upon the account of the Satisfaction wrought by his surety God hath not only in his own mind and resolution parted with this right of punishing but also given an express declaration of his will 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself i. e. openly renouncing upon Christs account the right to