down and examine what they are owing and what is it that engadges a Man either to essay to be an Athiest I say essay to be one for he will never be one in earnest or turn Voluptuous and drown himself in sensual pleasures but to hold down the eye of his Conscience that would call him to compt and reckon Again when an ill Debtor is brought to think upon his accounts how ashamed and afraid may he be not knowing when he shall be seised upon turned out of all he hath and put in Prison And though impenitent sinners will not let it light that they have any fears yet their Consciences can bear them Witness to many over-castings of heart upon apprehension of what may be the close of their Course Again ill Debtors are full of dilators shifts and delayes they will promise fair but will not perform and so it is with sinners that are not thinking on Repentance in order to Pardon They will take fair in hand many have that much good Nature Civility or Policy to take with a reproof and say they will mend and repent they will cast off the course they are in and do better but all these are dilators to give the Creditor fair weather without satisfaction And further to add no more an ill Debitor loves not his Creditor yea often hates him and though impenitent sinners dare not say they do not love God yet what spightful and hateful thoughts do often rise up in their hearts against God Why they cannot get this done and that done but they must be accounted sinners and cited to appear before the Judgment Seat of God to undergo a sentence of punishment and is that good thus to repay him so because he craveth this Debt All these Resemblances contribute to make it out that man is a Debtor and sin is a debt that he cannot satisfie Are they not fools then that make a sport at Sin as Solomon says Prov. 14.9 Fools make a mock at sin but they would sport at leasure if they considered what a debt this debt of sin is Men in their right wits have so smarted under it and the consequences of it that their hearts have been smitten and withered as grass and they have forgotten to eat their bread Psal 102.4 They have had no soundness in their flesh because of Gods anger nor rest in their bones because of their sins Their iniquities have been a burden too heavy for them their wounds have stinked and been corrupt because of their foolishness Psal 38.3 c. And where art thou that art lying under that Debt and never thinks of putting it off Certainly thou must be under a distraction And this leads me to the third Thing in Order that I proposed to be spoken to that is That sin being a great Debt and a debt we cannot satisfie a man lying under it if he be sensible of it will look upon it as the sadest posture and plight he can be in Sin will be a most heavy burden to a sensible man and I shall in short make it out in a five-fold respect what a woful plight an un-pardoned criminal and debtor is in 1. An un-pardoned Man is a dead Man a gone man as the Lord tells Abimilech Gen. 20.3 Behold thou art but a deadman for the woman which thou hast taken for she is another mans wife Every unpardoned man is a dead man he is like a condemned Malefactor the sentence is pronounced upon him the day of his death is appointed though he eat and drink and sleep he is reckoned a dead man 2. An unpardoned man is capable of no good thing Isai 59 1.2 Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated betwixt you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear And Jer. 5.25 Your iniquities have turned away these things and your sins have withholden good things from you They have turned away the good things ye had and have withholden other good things from coming to you so that the unpardoned man is capable of no good and all the good that he gets is but a snare to him The good things he hath are feeding and fatting him to destruction 3. An unpardoned man is in a woful plight because all that he doth till his person be reconciled and taken into favour with God how good soever it be in it self is sin and an abomination to God He may do many good turns that are good upon the matter but would ye have the Scriptures verdict of them as they come from him read Prov. 15.18 Prov. 21.4 and 28.9 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination the plowâ—ng of the wicked is sin He that turns away his ear from hearing of the Law even his prayer shall be abomination Whence it is clear all the good that an unpardoned man does is sin 4. An unpardoned man is in a pitiful plight because to him there is no comfortable bearing of trouble but where the pardon of sin is it sustains a man under trouble and makes him bear it cheerfully Men that never trouble themselves to repent and seek pardon they had need of much fair weather for unpardoned guilt will have a dreadful Eccho in a storm to them Of the pardoned man it 's said Isai 33.34 The inhabitant shall not say I am sick for the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities A man's being forgiven his iniquity will make him forget that he is sick and will make him bear trouble comfortably which an unpardoned man cannot get done And 5 an unpardoned man is in a woful plight because death will have a terrible aspect upon him To the pardoned man death is a friend a Messenger sent to call him home a Chariot sent to carry him to heaven but to the unpardoned man death is the King of Terrors the wages and cursed fruit of sin O! the sweet sight of Christ and of pardon that meets the pardoned man at Death and Judgment somewhat whereof is hinted in these Words Acts 3.19.26 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you But O! what a dreadful lying down and rising out of the Grave will the unpardoned man have So ye have heard that as all have sinned so sin is a Debt that hath need of pardon the non-forgiveness whereof puts and keeps a man in a most wofull condition and being so I proceed to the 4th and last thing I proposed to be spoken to here that is that sin being a debt and such a debt as can only be taken away by pardon and forgivenness then it might be good news the chiefest of good news to the man sensible of sin that iniquity will be forgiven That there
is forgivenness with God and this is it in the Text for verse 3. he sayeth If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity Who can stand But verse 4. Forgivenness is with thee That is it ye have Mat. 9.2 Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee Now for this Pardon the nature of it and the terms upon which it is attained it will come in in the own proper place to be spoken to Here I am upon consideration of the thing remitted and that that I shall pitch upon is That there is a remission of sin attainable by sinners in the due order It 's a blessed Article of our Creed the remission of sins When I spoke of the remission of sin I spoke of the remission of all sins great and small in their nature and number There is forgivenness with God for iniquities I confess there is an exception made Math. 12.31 32. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven Heb. 10.26 They that sin afer they have received the knowledge ef the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin And 1 John 5.1 There is a sin unto death But the sin against the holy Ghost needs not trouble the sensible sinner that would fain have pardon It is true it should warn all to beware of malicious sinning against light and having sinned to beware of running away from God but the sensible sinner that is seeking peace and pardon needs not to be afraid of it That sin is therefore irremissible because the sinner comes not to seek pardon but if thou hast the sense of sin and if it be thy desire and endeavour to repent and to have pardon it is an evidence that thy sin is not that unpardonable sin But that I may make something of this I shall deduce it in two or three Branches The first whereof shal be 1. That small sins need Pardon 2. That gross sins are Pardonable 3. A word to the consideration of the persons whose sins are pardonable 1. The smallest of sins needs a pardon we are not as Papists would charge us Stoicks who affect a parity and equality of all sins we grant there are different degrees of sins and different degrees of punishment A beating with many stripes and a beating with few stripes Luke 12.47 48. But yet when we assert this difference we dare not with them assert venial sins that deserves not everlasting Wrath without repentance and fleeing to Christ for refuge sure the Apostle tells us Rom 6.23 The wages of sin is death What death look to the opposition and it will clear it but the gift of God is eternal life if the Gift of God be eternal life the wages of sin must be eternal death that he sayes it of sin indefinitly it 's equivalent to an universal the wages of sin is death so that they must take away the nature of sin from these sins they call Venial or grant the wages thereof is death and likewise Mat. 12.36 Christ tells that Every idle word that men speak they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment And an idle word might seem a small sin well then if the smallest sin needs a pardon look that we do not practically make a distinction of mortal and venial sins even gross men if they fall into gross out-breakings it will affect them somewhat when they do not heed their ordinary escapes Godly persons also are culpable here a scandalous sin will affect them and so it should but how little are they affected with wanderings of mind in holy duties idle words and thoughts habitual distance from God and is not that a practical distinguishing of sin It is true none can in repentance distinctly overtake all their failings for Psal 19.12 Who can understand his errors Yet we ought to do what we can to overtake them and if we cannot overtake them be at Gods Foot-stool with them mourning over them in the bulk But 2. as the smallest of sins needs a pardon so the â—rossest of sins are pardonable in the due order There is forgivenness with him for iniquities as in the Text and Isai 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will aboundantly pardon He will pardon greatest sins in their nature and kind and hence David saith Psal 25.11 Pardon mine iniquity for it is great And Isai 1.18 The Lord sayes Come now and let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wool And these great sins are pardonable in the due order whether they be done in ignorance as Paul's persecution was 1 Tim. 1.13 I was a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief Or whether they be committed through the power of temptation even against light as Peter's threefold denyal of his Master was yet not being malicious it 's pardoned Again as great sins for nature and kind are pardonable so great sins for the multitude and number of them when they are like a cloud and a thick cloud he will blot them out Isai 44.22 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and sins And that word Isai 55.7 He will aboundantly pardon In the original it is he will multiply to pardon one and moe a multitude of them and Psal 40.11 12. David pleads for mercy for innumerable evils for iniquities that are moe than the hairs of his head And as God pardons great sins for kind and many for number so frequent relapsing in these sins which I may speak to afterward Jer. 3.1 She that hath played the harlot with many lovers is allowed to return And he that bade Peter Mat. 18.22 Forgive his brother not only seven but seventy times will much more do so to his penitent People renewing their repentance But when I say he will pardon great sins I would have it well applyed It is not to embolden any body to sin thou that so improves this Doctrine does turn the grace of God into wantonness and thou that ventures on sin because God is merciful to pardon great and many sins and thinks thou may take a whelps fill of sin and then go and repent and get mercy the woful shift that many follow O! remember that Repentance is not in thine own hand nay I will say more thou bears a sad evidence of one that will never get the grace to Repent but that abuse of this doctrine being laid aside ye shall while I am upon the explication of this great Article of Faith take a word or two of Inference in the by And 1. It may be great encouragement to sensible sinners thou who art sensible of thy sins thy Dyvour-bill of great and many sins if thou come
an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I knovv that it shall be well with them that fear God How will ye prove that because he fears before him but it shall not be vvell with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shaddow because he feareth not before God No approbation lyes in the bosom of forbearance Another Scripture that gives a dreadful refutation to them that take forbearance for pardon is that Psal 50.21 These things thou hast done and I kept silence thou thought that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this all ye that forget God lest I tear you in peices and there be none to deliver There is a refutation of all the wicked mans dreams anent God and his forbearance And if ye would have a third Scripture take the forecited place Rom. 2.4 5. Thou despisest the riches of his goodness forbearance and long suffering not knowing that it leadeth thee to Repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath Thou may treasure up other things as thou will for thy advantage but thou shalt find thou treasurest up wrath to thy ruine thou may think because thou prospers in Sin God approves of thee as the saying is prosperum faelix scelus virtus vocatur Wickedness is called a virtue because it thrives yet remember that forbearance is no Pardon 4. In taking up the nature of pardon negatively Consider That God's pardoning of particular Sinners whereby he restores them in favour is not to be confounded with National Pardons which God gives to Nations This pardon is many times spoken of in Scripture though by analogy we may draw them to a particular pardon So the scope of that place Num. 14.19 runs another way than to particular Persons and respects a National Pardon Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people sayes Moses according to the greatness of thy mercy as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even untill now I have pardoned according to thy word sayes the Lord but truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. I have pardoned but yet I will punish and vindicat mine honour So that passage Psal 78.38 But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not when they deserved That was a pardon of the Nation or a National Pardon Now a National Pardon amounts only to this when the Lord forbears to root out a Nation as the Lord threaten â—o Moses that he would root out Israel in that forecited place Num. 14.12 That he would Dis-inherit them and make of him a greater Nation and a Mightier than they when he keeps them in their own Land as he did Israel and does not root them out or when he continues with them the priviledge of a Church though he plague them and weed out a godless generation from among them as he did out of Israel that in the space of 38 years time there was not a man of them left that were 20 years old and upwards when they came out of Egypt save Caleh and Joshua So the Lord may pardon a Nation and yet punish them he may by his Judgments weed out the generality of a Generation and send them to the Pit which may consist with a National pardon when he doth not cut off the Nation or suffers them to enjoy the priviledges of a Church But the pardon of a particular Sinner is when he sits down at God's Footstool and Judges himself and closes with Christ for righteousness and that 's another thing And 5. In taking up the nature of pardon Negatively We must beware of confounding the pardon of Sin with the removal of Sin the prosecution whereof would lead me to speak Positively wherein pardon of Sin consists to the guilt and pollution of Sin and the different acts of God about both but because that will give the rise to other Questions I shall remit it to another occasion only here ye shall distinguish these three The filth of Sin the power of Sin and the guilt of Sin The filth of Sin is the foul stain that Sin leaves behind it The guilt of Sin is the Offence done to God and the Obligation to punishment resulting thereupon the power of Sin is the Tyrrany that Sin exercises over the Sinner Now when I say we are not to confound the pardon of Sin with the removal of Sin ye would understand it aright I grant that God strikes at the guilt of Sin and the power of Sin both at once which is this in plain languege that a pardoned sin must not be a reigning sin where the vertue of the blood is applyed for pardon the power of the blood will also be applyed for the subjugating of sin and putting it from the Throne and therefore in the by ye may take it as a noble evidence of pardon when sin is subdued or if it be not subdued yet ye are engadged against your own sinful disposition that it prevails not with your consent but for the filthiness of sin though it be stricken at as soon as any of the former Regeneration layes the Ax to the Root of that Tree yet it remains in the Saints till death make the separation Paul Rom. 7. Hath a Law in his members rebelling against the Law in his his mind till Death but the pardon of sin is attainable before death and given in Justification and afterward upon the justified persons Repentance for particular faults and therefore consequently it is not to be confounded with the removal of sin sin may be pardoned and pardon of sin is consistent with the sight of the filthiness of sin for which the soul is abased before God dayly after Regeneration though sin doth not reign and that 's it wherein the pardon of sin consists even in the taking away of the guilt of sin and the souls obligation to wrath though the filth of sin remain SERMON XI Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee I Am now insisting upon the refuge to which the man abased with the conscience of sin betaketh himself who when he hath reflected upon Gods proceedings in strict Justice according to the tenor of the Covenant of Works with sinners and who when he hath found that if God should thus mark iniquity none even the most godly should be able to stand he subjoyns this as a blest aftergain in mans deplorable case But forgivenness is with thee In prosecution of this great truth that there is pardoning-mercy with God to be a relief for Self-condemned sinners I have spoken to two of the five heads that I proposed to be spoken to upon it 1. I have spoken to the Consideration of that which is pardoned that is Iniquity Sin or Transgression or call it by what name ye will 2. I
in more than ordinary exigence we might say through Christ strengthning us we can do all things Lord bless his word unto you SERMON XXXVII Psalm 130. Verse 7 8. Let Israel hope in the Lord for c. YOU heard that these two Verses do contain the second part of the Psalm wherein after that the Psalmist in the first 6 Verses hath been wrestling partly with plunging perplexities represented under the notion of Depths vers 1.2 Partly with the Conscience of guilt verses 3.4 And partly with the delays of comfort and an outgate verses 5.6 After that I say the Psalmist comes to get some issue and outgate whereof he giveth not a direct and express account but any good he hath gotten he presently makes it appear in good news to Israel he hath an exhortation to them to hope in the Lord and hath Motives and Arguments pressing his Exhortation which are taken partly from what is in God to the behove of his Israel For with the Lord there is mercy c. And partly from what he will let forth of this for their good and behove not only is mercy and plenteous redemption with him but he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities For the Exhortation I spoke to it at length And at the last occasion I brake in upon the Motives The Instructions to be gathered from which I reduced to two general Heads 1. Something supposed concerning them that are put to hope and allowed to hope in God And 2. Something proposed concerning such as are called and allowed to hope and as a ground to their hope For the first That which is supposed in the Words it may again be reduced to these two Heads of Doctrine 1. That the man called and allowed to hope in God is one that is acquainted with misery in himself and is put to look out to what is in God or with him to do his turn For with the Lord there is mercy That there is mercy with God implys That the man that is called and allowed to hope in God is in himself miserable and put to look out to God for mercy and so it is one of the blessed and sure characters of a person that is called and allowed to hope in God that he is kept humble not conceity nor dreaming of any good in himself and the nearer he be to the dust he hath the more warrand to hope for the man that spears the right gate to hope is he that Lam. 3.29 Puts his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope he creeps low in the dust to seek encouragement to hope and the man that is called to live by Faith is opposed to the man whose soul is lifted up in him and consequently to the man whose heart is not upright in him Hab. 2.4 And further the man that is called to hope and allowed to hope in the humbling sense of his misery he is put to look without himself to what is in God or with God for him he is called to hope on the account of mercy in relation to his misery It intimats that the humble sensible man the Israel of God can never be undone so long as God is to the fore and there is enough in him to do his turn though he be miserable and wants that he stands in need of yet if it be in God he shall not want If mercy be in and with God he is made up in the midst of his misery To this I have spoken already and shall not repeat I proceed to the second Observation implyed in that which is supposed concerning the man that is put to hope and warranted to hope in God That not only is he simply miserable and needing mercy but he is under such a bondage of sin and misery as he cannot extricat himself out of it except God interpose He needs not only mercy in God but redemption and plenteous redemption in God to rid him out of these bonds wherein he is fettered and bound and out of which he is not able to deliver himself Although the consideration of sin will come in to be spoken to on the next Observation by it self yet I shall on this touch a little in general both on the bondage of sin and misery under which the Israel of God are supponed to be lying As for sin all men by nature are bound slaves to it they are hurried away with every impetuous blast of temptation that blows upon their corruption but it is the Israel of God that are called and allowed to hope in God that feel this bondage Hence the Apostle Rom. 7.19 saith The good that I would I do not but the evil that I would not that I do And he finds a law in his members warring against the law of his mind leading him captive to the law of sin on which account he crys out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death There is a captivity indeed under sin and he tells the Galatians Chap. 5.17 That the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary one to another so that they cannot do the things they would So the Israel of God are under a bondage of sin when they would do good as the same Apostle hath it ill is present with them And for the bondage of their misery the Scripture is so full anent it and the experience of the Saints so amply confirms it that it is needless to stand on particular proofs and instances of it How often are they put to that Psal 107.11 Because they rebelled therefore he brought down their heart with sorrow and labour they fell and there was none to help In the Application of this I shall speak a word first to the wicked and ungodly and then to Gods Israel who are called and allowed to hope in him notwithstanding this bondage they are under For the first to wit the wicked They would from this look on it as a sad character to know little and be as little sensible of their bondage through sin and misery They look on a licentious way of living in sin when they have eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin as it is 2 Pet. 2.14 When sin reigns in their mortal bodies and they obey it in the lusts thereof and they yield their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin Rom. 6.12 When they give themselves up to work all uncleanness with greediness Ephes 4.19 They look upon that as their liberty and they are never out of bonds except when they are glutting themselves with sin they slâ—ep not except they do ill O! that such knew what a madnes and distraction they are under while they glory in their chains as if a mad-man should glory in his fetters look to it assure thy self thou shalt find sin to be a bondage and need of looking to God for Redemption from it ere thou have a warrand to