Alienation and Estrangement between God and the Soul But now Pardon of Sin removes these Obstructions and causeth the intercourse betwixt God and the Soul to pass free because it gives the Soul a Holy and yet Awful Boldness in Conversing with the Great and Terrible Majesty of God So much sence of Pardon and Reconciliation as we have so much boldness shall we have ordinarily in our Addresses to God What 's the Reason the Consciences of Wicked Men drag them before God and they come with so much Diffidence Dejectedness and Jealousie Why it is because they are Conscious to themselves of guilt that lies upon them and this makes them look on God rather under the Notion of a Judge than of a Friend or Father and this makes them perform their Duties so distrustfully as if they would not have God take any notice that they were in his Presence But when a Pardon'd sinner makes his Addresses to God he may do it with a Holy freedom the Face of his Soul looks chearfully and he Treats with God with an open Heart What ground is there now for such a Confidence as this is For poor vile Dust and Ashes to appear thus before the great God of Heaven and Earth Yes there is for Guilt is removed his Peace is made in the Bloud of Christ all Enmity is abolished all Quarrels are decided and it becomes not him to serve God with such Suspiciousness as Guilty Sinners do Hence we have that Expression of the Apostle Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near to him in full Assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience That is from a Guilty and an Accusing Conscience Now when the Heart and Conscience is sprinkled with the Bloud of Christ whereby this Guilt is taken off then hath a Man good ground to draw near to God in full Assurance of Faith Fourthly Pardon of Sin lays a good ground for Peace in a Man 's own Conscience I do not say that Peace of Conscience is always an inseparable Attendant upon Pardon of Sin For doubtless there are many so unhappy as to have a Wrangling Conscience in their own Bosoms when God is at Peace with them But this is certain That Pardon of Sin lays a solid ground and Foundation for Peace in a Man 's own Conscience and were Christians but as industrious as they should be in clearing up their Evidences for Heaven they might obtain Peace whenever they are pardon'd What is there that disquiets Conscience but only Guilt nothing but the Guilt of Sin doth it this is that which rageth and stormeth in Wicked Men and is as a Tempest within their Breasts this is that unseen Scourge that draws Bloud and Groans at every Lash this is that Worm that lies perpetually gnawing at the Heart of a Sinner this is that Rack that breaks the Bones and disjoynts the Soul it self In a word Guilt is the Fuel of Hell and the Incendiary of Conscience were it not for Guilt there were not a more pleasant and peaceable thing in all the World than a Man 's own Conscience Now Pardon of Sin removes this Guilt and thereby makes Reconciliation between us and our Consciences and therefore says our Saviour Matth. 9.2 to the Paralytick Man Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee why might not some say this is an Impertinent Speech to say to one that was brought to be cured of a sad Infirmity of Body That his Sins were forgiven him whilst yet his Disease was not cured Not but our Lord Christ knew that there was infinitely more cause of Joy and Chearfulness to have Sin Pardon'd than to have Diseases cured To have all calm and serene within not to have a Frown or Wrinkle upon the Face of the Soul to have all smooth Thoughts and peaceful Affections this is some faint resemblance of Heaven it self and is never vouchsaft unto any but where Pardon and the sence of it is given to the Soul Pardon of sin takes away the Curse of every Affliction Fifthly He whose Sins are Pardon'd may rest assured that whatever Calamities or Afflictions he may lie under yet therâ— is nothing in them of a Curse or Punishment It is Guilt alone that diffusetâ— Poison through the Veins as of all ouâ— Enjoyments so of all Afflictions also and turns them all into Curses Buâ— Pardon of Sin takes away this Venome and makes them all to be Medicinaâ— Corrections good profitable and advantagious to the Soul See how God by the Prophet expresseth this Isa 33.24 The Inhabitants shall not say they are sick Why so For the People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquities When Sin is Pardon'd outward Afflictions are not worth complaining of The Inhabitants shall not say We are Sick A Disease then becomes a Medicine when Pardon hath taken away the Curse and Punishment of it God hath two ends with respect of himself for which he brings Punishments upon us the one is the Manifestation of his Holiness the other is for the satisfaction of his Justice And accordingly as any Affliction tends to either of these ends so is it properly a Punishment or barely a Fatherly Chastisement If God intends by the Afflictions he lays upon thee the satisfaction of his Justice then thy Afflictions are properly Punishments and they flow from the Curse of the Law but if the manifestation of his Holiness be all he intends by them then are they only Fatherly Corrections proceeding from Love and Mercy First Those whose sins God hath pardon'd he may afflict for the declaration of his Holiness that they may see and know what a Holy God they have to deal with who so perfectly hates sin that he will follow it with Chastisements even upon those whom his free Grace hath pardon'd Secondly God inflicts no Chastisements upon those whom he hath pardon'd for the satisfaction of his Justice and therefore they are not Curses nor properly Punishments but only Corrections and Fatherly Chastisements Christ hath satisfied the demands of Justice for their Sins and God is more just than to exact double satisfaction for the same Offence one in Christ's Punishment and another in theirs The Apostle tells us Gal. 3.13 Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us It is not the Evils that we suffer that makes them Curses or Punishments be they never so great but only the Ordination of these Evils to the satisfaction of Divine Justice upon us And therefore Christ in Scripture is said to be made a Curse not simply because he suffered but because he was adjudged to his Sufferings that thereby satisfaction might be made unto the Justice of God Hence therefore with what calmness and peace may a Pardoned Sinner look upon any Afflictions though they are sore and heavy tho they seem to carry much of God's Anger in them yet there is nothing of a Curse or of the nature of a Punishment the Sting was all
is one and the same faculty bandying against it self and the reason of this is because a Child of God hath two Principles in every single faculty there is in him a mixture of Flesh and Spirit a carnal part that sides with sin and a spiritual part that always contradicts and opposeth it and these two are spread over his whole Soul and are mingled with every power and faculty thereof so that he can neither do the evil nor do the good that he would do without contradiction strife and reluctancy now try your selves by this when you are tempted to sin what is it that resists it Is it your Will or is it only your Conscience are you only frighted from it doth the fear of Hell overcome the love of sin why all this may be from a mere restraint in those who are altogether unacquainted with the power of sanctifying Grace this is the symptom and Character of a gracious Soul that when it is most inclinable unto sin yet at the same time is most averse from it when it most wisheth the accomplishment of sin yet even then it strongly wishes the subduing and mortifying of that sin I know this appears a Riddle and a strange Paradox to wicked Men but those who have any true sense of the work of Grace upon their own hearts know it to be a truth and rejoyce in the experiences that they have of it Fourthly and lastly Restraining and sanctifying Grace differ in the motives and arguments that they make use of for the resisting of sin there are two general Topicks or common places whence all arguments against sin are drawn and those are the Law and the Gospel both of these administer such weapons that if rightly used are very effectual for the beating down of sin and commonly restraining Grace useth those only that are borrowed from the Law it urgeth the command it thunders the curse it brandisheth the sword of Justice and makes reports of nothing but Hell and eternal Damnation and such like arguments that scare Men from the committing of their sins though still they love them now sanctifying Grace though it also makes a most profitable use of these very arguments yet it chiefly useth more mild and more ingenious motives drawn from the love of God from the Death of Christ from the comforts of the Holy Ghost and these though they strike softer yet they wound deeper now hereby also you may give a guess whether your abstaining from sin be merely from restraining or from sanctifying Grace observe what weapons you use What considerations do over-awe your hearts Are they such as are drawn only from the Law and the sad reflections of the end and issue of sin That it brings Shame and Death and Hell must you run down to Hell every time a temptation comes to fetch arguments thence to oppose against your corruptions can you no where else quench the fiery Darts of the Devil unless it be in that Lake of Fire if this be all though this too is well yet know if it be all this is no more than what restraint and common Grace may perform it is the proper character of restraining Grace to keep Men back from the commission of sin only by dread and fear of punishment but now sanctifying Grace that especially betakes it self to Gospel Arguments and considers how disingenious it is to sin against a reconciled and a gracious Father against a crucified and a bleeding Saviour against a patient and long suffering Spirit and heaps up many such like ingenious arguments that work kindly upon the heart he leads every temptation to the Cross of Christ and there shews it his Saviour hanging and bleeding and can I commit this sin that hath drawn so much blood from my Saviour to expiate it and would draw so much blood from my Conscience to perpetrate it did he die to free me from the condemnation of it and shall I wilfully rush into the commission of it no O Lord thy love withholds me I cannot do this thing and sin against so rich so free and infinite Mercy and Goodness that thou dayly extendest towards me Thus true Grace usually teacheth a Child of God to argue against his sins and this keeps him from the commission of those sins that others rising up against them only from the terrors and threatnings of the Law and other such dreadful considerations fall into notwithstanding a Wooll-pack sooner damps a bullet than a Stone-wall and truly sofâ— arguments taken from the Gospel from the love of God from the death oâ— Christ from the patience and long suffering of the Spirit these soft arguments sooner damp a temptation and resist a corruption than more rigid and severe ones will when alone used by themselves Now having thus in general shewed you the difference betwixt sanctifying and restraining Grace I shall now descend to more particular considerations of those ways and methods that God useth in keeping Men back from Sin by his special and sanctifying Grace and here I shall premise this That whatever Sin God doth I mean by his sanctifying Grace prevent his own Children from the commission of he doth it by exciting the inward Principle of Grace to the actual use and exercise of it there is a two-fold Grace always necessary to keep the best Christians from Sin Habitual and Exciting Grace and God makes use of the one to quicken and stir up the other he makes use of exciting Grace to quicken habitual Grace that else would lie sluggish and dormant in the Soul Habitual Grace that denominates the Soul alive unto God but yet it is no otherwise alive than a Man in a Swoon is it is exciting Grace that alone can enable it to perform the Functions and Offices of Life in the deepest Winter there is life in the seed that lies buried under ground but yet it acts not till the Sun's influence draws it forth and then it heaves and shoves away the Earth that covered it and spreads it self into the beauties of a Flower So is it here inherent habitual Grace is an immortal seed and it is but a seed till the influences of the approaching and exciting Grace of God awaken it and chafe it's benumbed vertue and then it stirs and thrusts away all that dung and filth of corruptions under which it lay buried and then it flows forth into actual Grace habitual and exciting Grace must both concurr to the producing of actual Grace as necessarily as there must be the concurrence both of the heat of the Sun and of life in the seed to produce a Flower now by God's exciting inherent habitual Grace in the Soul he keeps Men from sinning two ways First by prevention and secondly by suppression of Sin First hereby he prevents and excludes those Sins that werâ— we not employed in the exercise of Gracâ— we would commit when the Soul is constantly employed in holy and spirituaâ— affairs Sin hath then neither room noâ— opportunity to put
against the pursuits of avenging Justice This is its formal and most immediate Effect Justice follows guilty Sinners close at the Heels and shakes its flaming Sword over their Heads every Threatning contained in this Book of God stands ready charged against them and their Sins make them so fair a Mark that they cannot be missed Hence is that sad Complaint of Job Why hast thou set me up as a Mark Into which he emptied his Arrows as into his Reins Job 7.20 Now while Justice is driving the Sinner before him from Plague to Plague resolving never to stop till he hath driven him into Hell the great Assembly and Meeting of all Plagues Mercy interposeth and lays its Arrest upon it and this Gracious Act of Pardon rescues us though under the hands of the Executioner and we ready to be turned into Hell Here the Challenge that Justice makes to us ceaseth and we are left to walk safely under the protection of Mercy For when God issues out a Pardon he calls off Justice from its pursuit Thus you have the Psalmist thankfully acknowledging Psalm 85.2 Thou hast forgiven our Iniquities and what follows now Thou hast taken away all thy Wrath thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness of thine Anger Nor is it to be feared O Soul that thou shalt evermore be questioned for those sins that are once forgiven thee God's Acts of Oblivion can never be repealed No God sets an everlasting Sanction upon them and Justice shall never again molest thee Jeremiah 34. I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more And indeed well may Divine Justice cease its pursuit of the guilty sinner for always when God pardons a sinner he turns his pursuit after Christ and satisfies all his just demands upon him for though we are the Principals in the Debt yet our Surety who stands bound for us in the Covenant of Redemption is far the more able and absolving Person Now is not this an unspeakable mercy that Justice and Vengeance the heavy stroaks of which many thousand Wretches lie under and which thy sins have provoked and armed against thy own Soul that might every sin thou committest that is every moment of thy Life strike thee Dead in the place in the dread of which if thou hast any tenderness of Conscience left in thee thou must needs live in continual fearful expectations of this Wrath of God to destroy thee as his Enemy Is it not now Infinite Mercy that God should call in the Commission given to his Justice that Mercy might secure thee from it What is this but the effect of Pardoning Grace that gives this destroyer charge to pass over all those upon whose Consciences the Bloud of Christ is sprinkled for the removal of their guilt Peace and Reconciliation an Effect of pardon of sin Secondly Another Blessed Effect of Pardon of Sin is Peace and Reconciliation with God And what happiness can there be greater than when the Quarrel betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt God and the Sinner is taken up and compounded Open Wars have been long proclaimed and long maintained on either part ever since the first great Rebellion Man hath stood in defiance with and exercised great Hostility against his Creatour and God on the other hand hath thundred out whole Peals of Curses against these Rebels and hath slain whole Generations of them eternally Dead upon the place God hath still maintain'd his Cause with Victory and Man his with Obstinacy and this War would never cease did not God proclaim Pardon and Forgiveness to all that will lay down their Arms and submit Now hereupon Peace is concluded fully for first God's pardoning Sinners manifests himself to be fully reconciled to them so the Apostle tells us Rom. 5.1 Being Justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is a sworn Enemy to all guilty sinners himself hath affixed this Title to the rest of his Name That he will by no means clear the guilty Guilt hath a malign influence not only on our Consciences to discompose them with Terrours and Affrightments but on God's Countenance also to ruffle it into Frowns and Displeasure Now when God pardons sin he wipes away this over-casting Cloud and the cause of Enmity being removed his Face and Favour clears up to us And then Secondly Pardon of Sin is a strong Inducement to us to lay down the Weapons of our Warfare and be at peace with God What Argument can be more prevailing where there is any Principle of Ingenuity When God thus proclaims Peace shall I continue War He Pardons and shall I Rebel He is Reconciled and shall I be Implacable Shall I persist in those sins which he forgives No far be it from me I submit to that God whose rich Grace conquers by condescending as well as his Power by crushing And thus the Soul lays down its Weapons at the Feet of God and humbly embraceth the terms of Agreement propounded by him in the Gospel Pardon of sin lays a good foundation for Acquaintance and Communion with God Thirdly Pardon of Sin lays a good Foundation for the Souls near Acquaintance and Communion with God Guilt is the only thing that breeds Alienation Your Iniquities says the Prophet have separated betwixt you and your God Isa 59.2 Nor indeed is it possible that a guilty Sinner should any more delight in Conversing with God than a guilty Malefactour delights in the presence of his Judge And therefore we see when Adam had contracted guilt upon himself by eating the Forbidden Fruit how childishly and foolishly doth he behave himself God calls him and he runs behind a Tree to hide himself what a suddain change was here Adam who but a little before was his Creator's Familiar now dreads and shuns him his guilt makes him apprehend God's Call to be no other than a Summons to the Bar. Nor indeed can it be otherwise but that guilt should produce Alienation betwixt God and the Soul for look how distance grows between two familiar Friends so doth it here If a Man be Conscious to himself that he hath done his Friend an Injury what Influence hath this upon him why presently it makes him more shy and reserved to him than before So is it here Consciousness of guilt fills us with a troublesome ill-natur'd shame we are ashamed to look God in the Face whom we have so much wronged by our sins And Secondly this shame is always joyned with a slavish and base fear of God lest he should Revenge himself upon us for the Injuries that we have done to him and both this Shame and Fear takes off from that holy freedom and boldness which reverently to use towards God is the gust and Spirit of our Communion and Fellowship with him and all these lessen that sweet Delight in God that formerly we relisht in the Intimacy of this Heavenly Fellowship And what can be the final product of all this but a most sad