weak and impotent as is certain from what our Blessed Saviour says to the Man sick of the Palsy Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Mark it 's not be of good chear for thou art made whole but thy Sins are forgiven thee This is enough to make the Lame to walk the Deaf to hear the Blind to see here 's that which is sufficient to turn our Weeping into Laughter our Mourning into Rejoicing our Death into Life and to settle us in a belief that he and he alone is blessed whose Sin is not imputed Now such are blessed 1. In Life as thereby God takes the Children of Men into a state of Grace and Favour with himself For God's not imputing Sin is the removal of that which begot the difference and hath maintain'd the distance betwixt him and his Creatures Isa 59.2 Of all Evils Sin is the greatest because it hath not the least mixture of Good in it to make it tolerable nor doth it produce the least good to any Creature It was Sin that turned the Angels out of Heaven that cast Man out of Paradise that brought the Curse upon the Creation and Wrath upon Sinners To be freed therefore from so great an Evil is one part of our Happiness and that which compleats it is God's taking us into Favour whose Favour is better than Life as the Psalmist says Psal 63.3 in whose Favour you may rest assured of all Advantages necessary to render you happy in this Life as the supply of your Wants Psal 34.9 10. Prov. 10.3 protection from Dangers Psal 33.18 34.10 guidance in all your Ways Psal 37.23 c. Prov. 3.6 strength against Temptation 1 Cor. 10.13 a sanctified use of Afflictions Rom. 8.28 and deliverance out of Trouble Psal 34.19 22. Such unto whom the Lord imputes not Sin may no less rest confident of Peace For being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 Which Peace of God will fill our hearts and keep us in peace when others are in trouble and quiet tho the World be in an uproar And tho many are hurried to and fro by cutting Perplexities fretting Disappointments and growing Fears God will make their Habitations quiet resting-places there is scarcely any thing that shall offend and molest them for Peace is always the sure Effect and Fruit of Righteousness to Justification as Isa 32.17 18. As they have Peace and Provision so they shall have every thing necessary to render them blessed in Life Psal 84.11 for God will withhold no good thing from them to whom he will not impute Sin 2. They are blessed also in Death because God's not imputing Sin is to dispoil Death of all Power that otherwise might render it hurtful to us Guilt which is Death's fiery Sting is taken away and he ceases to be a King of Terrors They fear him not how terrible soever he may be in his march towards them They whose Sin is not imputed are ready to receive and entertain him knowing that in this his last and most violent Effort he is like to go away with a poor Conquest the greatest execution he can do upon them is to cut the Thread of Life and send their frail brittle weak and sickly Bodies to the dust for a while to sleep in the Grave whilst blessed Angels wait the fatal stroak to take the fleeting Soul into their embraces and with Wings extended carry them swiftly into the happiness of Abraham's Bosom I confess there is reason enough for the Man whose Sin and Guilt is bound upon him to dread the approach and tremble at the sight of such an Enemy arm'd with nothing but Terrors and ready to wound the Soul with his flaming and siery Sting ready to cut the thin-spun Thread of Life which when done he is violently seized by some of the Infernal Crew and hurried unavoidably to the Confines and Region of utter Darkness to suffer the Pains of Eternal Fire O that Sinners would timely consider of this to break off every vicious Course by Repentance laying hold on the Righteousness of Christ by a lively Faith exprest by sincere obedience to the Commands of the Gospel lest their Sin hasten Death and in death proves their ruin But Death is so far from being hurtful to the Man whose Sin is not imputed that it is truly necessary as the only means by which blessed Souls are conveyed from sojourning in these tottering houses of Clay to live for ever with their Saviour in that house and building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens This made holy Paul chuse rather to die than live that he might be with Christ which was best of all Phil. 1.23 and 2 Cor. 5.1 2. So that the Man to whom the Lord imputes not Sin is blessed in Death and not only so but in the 3d place Such are blessed after death in that death lands them safe on that shore where they shall for ever rejoice in celebrating the Memory of the Grace of God in not imputing Sin unto them Their entrance into Heaven is made sure and every thing removed that otherwise might obstruct it who shall there be blessed and happy in the highest degree if we consider First The perfect freedom they shall have in Heaven from all Evil. On Earth holy Souls have often the greatest share of Affliction and Trouble as one Link follows another in the Chain or as one Wave another so deep calleth unto deep Psal 42.7 Here with Lazarus they have their evil things Poverty Pain Sickness Sores Crosses Troubles Temptations Afflictions Diseases and Death but all these evil things and more shall be left behind them in death and in Heaven they shall have no sense of them For God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Tho it will be quite otherwise with the Wicked who here on Earth had their good things but shall then have their evil things they shall no more enjoy the precious things their Souls lusted after and the things that were dainty and goodly being departed they shall find them no more at all Rev. 18.14 no not one drop of Water to cool their flaming Tongues Such as affect Sin here tho God so earnestly sollicites them to the contrary must for their contempt of his Grace be content to lie down in everlasting burnings where without relief they must roll in tormenting flames and shall have no rest day nor night Rev. 4.8 The Wicked then shall have their evil things but the Godly their good things who shall be for ever raised above the sense of any thing afflicting and in this respect they are blessed Secondly The Man whose Sin is not imputed is blessed after Death considering he is then put into such a condition as renders it utterly impossible for him to
the Law there shall no Flesh be justified If not by the Deeds of the Law which were not only contrived by infinite Wisdom but bore the impress of God's terrible Majesty upon them and were dispensed and given from Mount Sinai in pure Goodness to Israel How much less shall Man be justified by Works devised by Men and founded upon no better warrant than humane Authority It is also certain that Man is become culpable and liable by Sin to the stroke of God's just Displeasure and therefore under an absolute necessity of being justified from Sin in order to his avoiding Misery and injoying Blessedness which Blessedness in the beginning progress and first steps of it stands in God's good Will towards sinners but more perfectly in his free and full discharging us from the imputation of Sin through the Righteousness which is in our Lord Jesus Christ And this was the received Opinion of the Men of God of old as well as of St. Paul in our words as is evident by his referring to the Prophet David's Testimony recorded in Psal 32.1 2. So that it 's no new Doctrin or novel thing but what hath been is and will be believed to the end of the World That the Man is Blessed unto whom the Lord imputes not Sin In the words we have these three things 1. A Blessedness pronounced Blessed is a Happiness consisting in a sure security from all Evil but more especially the evil of eternal Death and an assurance of all Good and eternal Life 2. You have the subject of this Blessedness the Man And that you may know who this Man is the Apostle describes him by his Privilege To whom the Lord will not impute Sin a privilege peculiar to those that are and shall be Happy Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord will not impute Sin 3. The time when Man comes to be stated in this Blessedness and that is in the very instant that God ceases to impute Sin There is not any thing that Man injoys which can render him Blessed whilst God charges Sin upon him therefore Blessed is the Man mark he is Blessed not shall be but is in the present tense he is and therefore shall be Blessed We shall briefly enquire 1. What we are to understand by the Lord 's not imputing Sin 2. Who by the Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin 1. By the Lord 's not imputing Sin we must understand a free Act of Grace in God which Man of himself neither hath nor ever could have deserved being utterly unable to satisfy that Justice he had by Sin offended or appease that Wrath which his Sin had kindled Never could Man by his own procurement have rescued himself from that Punishment and Misery he was involv'd by Sin therefore we say Not to impute is an act of Mercy in God exprest in his not charging Sin upon the sinners account so as to exact satisfaction of the Debt from the Trespasser nor to punish the sinner with eternal Misery in want of such satisfaction of his own procurement 2. By the Lord 's not imputing Sin we may understand a free Act of Love and Kindness in God in pardoning and forgiving Sin as to the eternal Punishment of it As when a Creditor is pleased of mere Mercy to forgive a poor Debtor his Debt justly due to him in such case he will not impute the Debt nor charge it to account or when a Governor forgives the fault of a Child or Servant he will not impute the Crime nor punish him for it 2. Who is this Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin I conceive it is 1. Believing Man 2. Infant Man 1. God will not impute Sin to Believing Man Every Man and Woman that in truth believes in the Lord Jesus Christ may rest with the greatest Confidence in this Grace of God who is said to be the Justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.26 4.3 4 5. To which you have the concurrent Testimony of all the Prophets in that summary Account given us by St. Peter which is that whoever believes in the name of Christ shall receive the Remission of Sin Acts 10.43 So that none as I know of in the least doubt the truth of this that believing Man is privileged by and interested in the Grace of God and that he is not the Man to whom the Lord will impute Sin But 2. By the Man to whom God will not impute Sin we may understand Infant Man The little Infant the new born Babe is stiled Man in Scripture Phrase and that truly because such a one partakes of the whole nature of Man tho unable to exert and put forth it self in such Actions by reason of its natural Weakness and Impotency as are proper to Men in a grown State who are capable of exercising their Understanding and Power in things they are imploy'd about But this incapacity of Infants being natural and common to all Men deprives them no more of the name than the nature of Man therefore Job speaking of the frailty of humane Life saith Chap. 14.1 2. Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of Misery he cometh up and is cut down like a Flower signifying that all the days of Man from his Birth to his Death in number are but very few and as the Flower sometimes is no sooner blown but it 's cut down so Man sometimes no sooner breaths in the Air but he falls into the Dust is no sooner taken from the Womb but he is laid in the Grave But notwithstanding his continuance here is so very short yet in his Infant state he is truly stiled Man And so our Lord in John 16.21 saith A Woman in travail hath sorrow because her Hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the Child she remembreth no more her anguish for joy a Man is born into the World And that all Infants living or dying whilst such are the Subjects of the Blessedness in our Text will I trust no less appear if void of all prejudice we will consider 1. That Man in his Infant State is a Sinner only by imputation not by any choice consent or act of his own whereby he transgrest any Law of God For all Sin is the transgression of a Law 1 John 3.4 But in that sense dying Infants are not Sinners God never assigning them a Law whereto they should have regard by any Command of his that I know of And certain I am where there is no Law Sin is not imputed as our Apostle saith Rom. 5.13 That Sin is imputed to Infants so far as to bring them under the power of Death I confess and even so Sin is imputed unto Believers for they die as well as others But since there is no Law given to Infants we soberly affirm Sin is not imputed to them to condemn them eternally to the torments of Hell Fire and that is what we propose to clear
The Judg of the whole Earth must do right he cannot but do so he may as well cease to be as cease to be righteous in all or any of his Ministrations and Procedures Men may be rigorous and unrighteous cruel and preposterous but God cannot be so it is contrary to his Nature and repugnant to that Law by which he will act and govern himself in all his proceedings with Man Now I appeal to all Men of common sense and understanding tho but of a small measure of ingenuity and honesty whether it be consistent with the common Rules of Justice and Equity among Men to punish the Innocent with the Nocent the Faultless with the Guilty Were it your own case could you think so Nay that the Criminal's Offence should be charged upon you and the Offender himself go free The latter of these all Men would decry as high injustice and a preposterous proceeding But so it is in the case in hand reserving that only Instance of Christ's suffering for us and in our stead by the designation of his Father and as an evidence of his good Will to us We have not only God charging the Sin of Adam upon his whole Posterity wherein he is perfectly just Adam considered as our common Head and we all in his Loins standing or falling in and with him but letting Adam go free and inflicting eternal punishment on his Seed But with reverence we may demand What makes vain Man to imagine that God will discharge Adam the actual Offender giving him immediately upon his Fall the promise of a Saviour and yet bind the guilt of that Sin upon the greatest part of his innocent Posterity who could neither avoid nor prevent it to their inevitable ruin and eternal destruction A Conception most unworthy of God and his dealing with Men For whatever Grace and Favour Adam received in so early a Promise of a Saviour he received it as well for his Posterity as for himself and as we had been represented by him under the disadvantages of the Fall so he being still in the station of a publick Person matters were negotiated with him as our common Head for the intitling us to the promised Saviour as well as before he and we in him did so fall The untoward Jews entertain'd such a conceit as this of God insomuch that by the vent they gave it in their Discourses it was taken up as a Proverb in Israel That the Fathers had eaten sowr Grapes and the Childrens teeth were set on edg Ezek. 18.2 But doth God take this kindly at their hands to represent him so unequal in his proceedings as to punish the Innocent with the Guilty No he resents it with great indignation and displeasure abhorring the thoughts they had of him and the measure by which they represented him as manifestly reflecting on the Goodness of his Nature and the Justice of those Rules and Eternal Laws of Righteousness by which he proceeded Wherefore he solemnly declares and that upon Oath That thenceforth they should have no more any occasion to use it as a Proverb As I live saith the Lord God all Souls are mine as the Soul of the Father is mine so also the Soul of the Son is mine but the Soul that sinneth it shall die as you read in the 3d and 4th Verses How positive and plain is the Lord in these terms to satisfy all and to rectify Israel's mistake whose Notions and ill-form'd Apprehensions had been very unworthy of him and who had without any ground conceiv'd him rigid and cruel Therefore Israel change your Opinion of me think of me no more as inequitable in my judicial proceedings with Man I tell you again The Soul that sinneth shall die the Son shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father and so on in the 20th Verse And this Justice and Righteousness of God's dealings is abundantly illustrated in that Passage wherein Moses expresses great tenderness and strong affection to sinning and revolting Israel in his intercession with God for them His Love inclin'd him willingly to be made a Sacrifice for them that had sinned rather than God should cast off all regard for 'em and enter the Lists as an Enemy against them Lord says Moses if thou wilt not pardon thy People blot me I pray thee out of the Book which thou hast written Exod. 32.32 To which the Lord replies as it were No no Moses thou hast not sinned and tho thou hast sufficiently expressed thy love to an undeserving People yet should I do as thou desirest it would be to act contrary to the Rules of perfect Equity and Justice from which I will not I cannot swerve and therefore it is only they that have sinned against me that I will blot out of my Book as vers 33. My love to my People hath been very great exprest by manifold acts of kindness but in case they sin as they have now done my Justice and Faithfulness will not let them go unpunished much less punish thee an innocent Person for their sin and acquit them thereupon from the sin and punishment due to it From all which it 's evident that God will not impute Sin to dying Infants to their eternal condemnation and that in both these respects that Man is blessed Infant as well as believing Man unto whom the Lord will not impute Sin The Doctrine from the words is That he and he alone is blessed whose Sin is not imputed and that dying Infants are assuredly blessed on that account I confess there are many in the World who from the prosperity of their present state and condition think all is well with them they are not under wracking pain nor pinching poverty they have their Wants supply'd and it may be more than their hearts can desire Psal 73.4 5 7. The Language of whose Hearts is the same with that of Babylon's Rev. 18.7 I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow whereas their Sun may he declining and as Zephar says Job 20.5 6 7. their Prosperty is very short the remainder of their days may be fill'd with trouble perplexity and disappointment and nothing remain but a sad prospect of mourning and sorrow in utter darkness if not prevented by a timely and hearty Repentance All is not Gold that glisters 't is too common for Man to mistake his own state and to think with Laodicea Rev. 3.17 because of their full enjoyment of this World's Wealth accompanied with a profession of the Christian Religion that they are Rich and have need of nothing when as in truth they are wretched miserable poor blind and naked The rich Man in the Gospel was no less mistaken at last as to his own state and condition Most certain it is that Nature has not power to endow us with Features so amiable and Faculties so excellent as to insure us of Blessedness The greatest Beauty is oft spoiled by a fit of Sickness as the Small Pox c. and sometimes not only defaced but
turned into a frightful Visage by Death whether natural or violent as Absalom's was whose Beauty surpassed that of Women What is Wit but a Flash and tho it be excellent and deservedly coveted by all yet alas how soon is the sharpest Wit spoiled and confus'd by Melancholy or Phrensy And as of these so it may be concluded of all the rest of Nature's Endowments which loudly proclaim that true Blessedness is not in them Nor is it in the Goods of Fortune I confess Fortune may render you very prosperous in having the Advantage of her favourable and beneficial gales but the most she can do for you is to raise you by the wings of Fame exalt you to the highest pitch of Honour set upon your Heads a fading Diadem and waft you into the port of your wish'd for Possession Wealth enabling you to accommodate your selves with every thing desirable to the Heart and delightful in the Eyes of vain Man as in the case of Solomon But it 's not in Fortune to make you happy tho she would at once empty her self to fill you If Crowns or Kingdoms could make Men happy then Saul Ahab and Nebuchadnezzar had been blessed Neither can Honour or Wisdom else Haman and Ahitophel had been Blessed Nor can Riches and great Possessions if they could the young and rich Man in the Gospel had been blessed who from his increasing Goods thought himself a very happy Man he sang a Requiem to his Soul and caressed himself with a Come eat drink and be merry thou hast Goods laid up for many Years Luke 12.19 as if he had said Come Soul forbear to weary and perplex thy self with plodding contriving and projecting Means and Artifices for the gaining of more cease to weary thy self by toilsome Labour take thine ease thy fill of Pleasure eat drink and be merry thou hast Goods laid up for many Years But notwithstanding the great Advantage he had of other Men in appearance he was in truth no wiser than a Fool nor happier by his trusting in those things than one miserable beyond all Expression as is evident from the Lord 's own estimate of him and what he says to him in the 20th Verse And God said Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided Neither can the highest attainments in Tongues and Languages make Men Blessed else Herod had been happy who in his Oration to the People delivered himself so exquisitely that they concluded it rather to be the Voice of a God than of a Man Acts 12.22 Also on this foot of Account the Learned Greeks had been Blessed whose attainments in the Learning of the Schools were such as raised them above the having any venerable esteem of the Wisdom of God accounting Christ in the ministration of the Gospel to be but Foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 Now were it possible for Man to possess himself of most or all these good things at once he might notwithstanding be of all Men the most Miserable as may be concluded from that amazing and direful outcry to the weighty Hills and Mountains to fall upon them and crush them as it were into nothing so that they might be but hid from the Presence of God and the Wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6.16 But who were these that thus courted the Hills and Mountains to fall on them Were they any other than the silly shrubs of the Earth poor Men Men of a mean Figure in the World Yes for the 15th Verse tells you that they were Kings of the Earth that is such Kings only whose Sins the Lord had marked and imputed upon their living repugnant and walking in a course that ran counter to those Laws which the King of Heaven and Earth had given them and by the Conduct whereof they should have order'd all their Affairs in obedience to him their Rightful Lord and Soveraign With these also you find ranked great Men rich Men mighty Men and chief Captains which may serve as a Memorandum to the Rich and Mighty of this World that they do not crush the Poor nor hurt the Needy nor by their Power and Austerity unjustly force the Poor from their Right nor by the use of Violence and Oppression increase their Wealth insulting over the distressed like that Imperious Pope of whom I have read that trod upon the Emperor's Neck to help himself on Horseback For a day of Accounts will come when such will be convinced with great Horror and Dread that it is not in the power of Riches and Royalties to make Men Blessed And on the other hand there is no Distress so great nor Poverty so extreme nor Affliction so deep as to render that Man miserable whose Sin is not imputed Such a Man is taught to believe that his present Evils with respect to his Afflictions shall work for his good and turn to his Advantage by the disposition of God's good Providence which is ingaged for him Else the Royal Prophet had never proclaim'd it good for him that he was Afflicted Psal 119.71 Nay further by Faith in the Promises the Good whereof is that Man's Portion alone whose Sin is not imputed he is helped to peirce the Clouds of the thickest darkness and look into that delightsome Region of Heaven it self and there behold the smiles of a loving Father towards him the endeavours of a wise faithful and compassionate Advocate for him yielding him such a taste and sense of the sweetness of Divine Love as raises him above the sense and bitterness of Affliction It was this that made St. Peter and John rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer Stripes for the Lord Jesus It was this that made St. Paul and Silas tho laden with heavy Shackles and their feet made fast in the Stocks to sing the Praises of God Acts 16. 'T is not the Evil Accidents or Indisposition that attends our Bodies or Interests in the World that can make the Man whose Sin is not imputed unhappy or miserable for the wise Man tells us That the Spirit of a Man sustains his Infirmities Prov. 18.14 A Man may have a sound Spirit in a weak and sickly Body a free and chearful Spirit in a Body closely confin'd and oblig'd to undergo the last Severities of Art and Physick as blistering blooding cupping and dismembring nay in a Body sinking by the power and prevalency of a Distemper into dissolution which of all things is most dreadful to humane nature But under such a Circumstance what matter of Joy would it be to a Man to have his weak and languishing Body restored to a sound and healthful frame and habit for which how are Physicians courted their assistance sollicited and some Men do let their Gold fly as if they had no regard unto it But to have Sin pardoned and be freed from the imputation of its guilt is much rather and more truly a ground of joy to the Soul tho dwelling in a Body