their sin to mortifie sin to caution them against sin for the future 4. That many trials and afflictions come on pardoned sinners wherein God doth not pursue them for sin but is trying their faith and their graces Such were Jobs trials though Elihu tells him what he was he had sin and his sin deserved all was come upon him yet betwixt God and Satan all his trials were stated on this whether he would prove a godly man and continue so notwithstanding of them all and such were these trials under which the Apostles and other godly persons did glory God in these was not pursuing sin but taking service and proofs of their faith love zeal patience c. under the cross from them and to this pertains that of Joh. 9.2.3 When the Disciples asked him sayng Master Who did sin This man or his parents that he was born blind Christ answers Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents That is God was not punishing his nor his parents sin in that stroak of blindness but that the works of God might be made manifest in him These truths being conceded there are other some things to be caution'd against as error and I shall reduce what I would say for Caution to these three Heads 1. It is certain that sin is the in-let to all affliction Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Death that is all calamities which are a begun death and the great death the separation of the soul from the body And hence what-ever may be God's design in any affliction he sends on godly men it is their wisdom while they are under the Cross to search out and be sensible of sin and to be humbled for it before God as we said before when we was on the 2 and 3. verses That sense of trouble should be attended with the sense of sin The sense of sin is good company when sense of trouble is sharpest and therefore though Job was under a cleanly tryal yet Elihu tells him he had sin to deserve all that was come upon him and if he considered his sin he would quarrel less when his friends mistook him What-ever other exercise affliction calls to this is one to search out and be humbled for sin and it is a shrewd evidence that that affliction is not blessed of God that is not well Varnished with sense of sin But 2ly Not only is sin the in-let to all afflictions but even godly persons pardoned of sin may be under affliction upon the account of sin I shall not speak of those common and absolutely determined afflictions as that all godly men must die and godly women must have pain in child-bearing as well as others but godly pardoned persons may come under peculiar afflictions upon the account of sin and that either before sin is committed or after sin is committed Before sin be committed godly men may come under affliction upon the account of sin How many afflictions got godly men upon the account of their corrupt dispositions to prevent sin to withdraw them from their purpose to hide pride from man to keep back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword Job 33.17 18. How many are such hard Rocks that they must have hard Wedges to rent them How many are so prone to wandering that were not their way hedged up with thorns and the cross laid in their way they would ruine themselves in following their lovers How many would be intolerable to live with if their nose were not holden on the Grindstone How many are made beggers because they cannot bear wealth Thus ye see godly men may be put under the cross with an eye to sin to prevent sin Again they may be brought under peculiar afflictions upon the account of sin even when it is committed and that either before it be pardoned or after it is pardoned Before it be pardoned as when a sinner is lying under unrepented guilt singing himself asleep in his provocations If a godly man with David 2 Sam. 11. drive such a Trade to fall into scandalous sins and ly over in security the Lord will send a hurl upon him not to satisfie his justice but to shake him out of his secure posture and to set him to his feet to the exercise of repentance and humiliation he will send a rod that he may hear the voice thereof and who hath appointed it Hence David Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray before I got the cross I wandered and knew not what I was doing but now have I kept thy word That 's affliction upon the account of sin committed before it be pardoned to waken out of security and put to repent for it again afflictions may come on the godly upon the account of sin even when it is pardoned when the pardoned man falls in sin especially if it be a scandalous sin he may not win easily away with that escape but may be made to go with a born-down-back after it is pardoned all his days 2 Sam. 10.12 13. The Lord tells David that he had pardoned him yet that the sword should not depart from his house for all that We suppose the Corinthians were godly men and pardoned for the abuse of the Lords Supper yet 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged But when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world Where ye may see affliction is let out upon the account of sin remitted And if ye ask Why doth the Lord so I answer not to take a satisfaction to his justice that 's already compleatly made by Christ but he doth it partly to vindicat his own honour whatever be betwixt him and his pardoned children if they fall in sin that the world observes he will let the world see that he will not wink at their miscarriages The sword 's not departing from David's house was not to satisfie justice for his sins that were pardoned but because by his scandalous out-breaking he had made the enemies to blaspheme He will let the world see that if his darling David bourd with him and fall in sin he hath made an ill bargain Partly he doth this upon the account of sins remitted that even the Saints who are pardoned may see yet more the bitterness of their folly and wandering The Lord looketh not upon it as a sufficient discovery of sin and the evil thereof that a child of God may win to in repentance antecedent to pardon but when he is pardoned he will sharply afflict him that he may know the bitterness of sin and that he made an ill bargain when he gave way to it and upon this it will result that when the Lord afflicts the pardoned they are not to forget daily to
two of which I have spoken to in the Forenoon to wit that which is supponed here that God is a marker of iniquity and what it imports And secondly that which is proposed on this supposition That if God should mark iniquity as was explained men even the most godly men could not stand where somewhat was said to the importance of that Phrase Now I proceed in Explication of the Point from the Text for to that I confine my self in other four particulars The first and third in order shall be this That this assertion that men cannot stand before God marking iniquity is of infallible verity a most certain and infallible truth it is not a Bug-Bear to afright Children but the infallible truth of God This is hinted at in the Text partly in the Psalmist his proposing the matter to God If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand He proposes it to God who knows this matter better than any other and who is Supream Judge in the matter without whose determination a Decreet in our own favours will signifie nothing at all it imports O Lord let men dream what they will of their standing thou knowest that none can stand if thou shalt mark iniquity to punish it and particularly the infallible verity of this assertion may be gathered from the way of proposing it and that is by way of Question Who shall stand Which Question is a very peremptory denyal of the thing questioned for so the like Question is resolved Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Yea the proposing of it by way of Question Who shall stand Doth import a defyance to any to attempt it or to succeed in their attempt and indignation at the presumption of any that should dream of standing before God marking iniquity But in the fourth place as this assertion is of infallible verity so it is of universal verity This is held out in the Question for the Question is Who shall stand That is as the parallel Question is answered Job 14.4 None at all good or bad If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity none should stand for the Psalmist here a godly man is taking in himself with others as a man that could not stand himself without pardon And so the Phrase is Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified The best of men that are come of Adam by ordinary generation shall not be justified if thou mark iniquity Hence in Scripture it is clear that Saintship consists not in sinlessness but in sincerity for for Original guilt in that Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one and for a mans endeavours after he is brought in to God and is wrestling with corruptions to have these purged out says Solomon Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Eccles 7.20 There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not but as it is Jam. 3.2 In many things we offend all Thus ye see that Saintship doth not consist in sinlessness but in sincerity neither doth Saintship consist in the Saints their sins not deserving condemnation or in their being able to stand though they have sinned but in their sins being pardoned hence ye will find them sadly exercised in wrestling under the burden of guilt upon their gross out-breakings as David Psal 51. ye have them praying for the pardon of great iniquity Psal 25.11 For thy Names sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great Ye have them pleading for mercy upon the account of innumerable evils compassing them and their iniquities take hold of them and being more than the hairs of their head Psal 40.11 12. And when they are delivered from gross out-breakings ye have them with Paul Rom. 7. groaning under a body of sin and death till they attain to a song of thanksgiving thorow Jesus so that not only doth the Text hold out the infallible verity of this truth but the universal verity of it that if God mark iniquity none can stand The 5th thing I gather from the Text is that the infallible and universal verity of this assertion that if God mark iniquity none can stand might be gathered and closed with if men were eying God much this I gather from the Text where the Psalmist repeats the Name of God twice If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity And then again O Lord who c. Wherefore is this twice repeated in this assertion Certainly not by way of idle repetition condemned Mat. 7.21 in many that say Lord Lord nor meerly because the Psalmist is affected with that which he is speaking of for so the expression of affections or mens being affected with a thing is expressed by a doubled Exclamation which may come in in the own place when I speak of the pardon of sin but here it is to make this truth out that serious and frequent repeated thoughts of God is a mean to give folk a right sense of the desert of sin And to make out this consider partly that when we seriously think of God we know that he is Omniscient to find out that which is hid from the world Omniscient to find them guilty that are innocent to others Omniscient to know more of us than we know of our selves A consideration that John would have us marking 1 Joh. 3.20 If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things If we know so much naughtiness of our selves by our selves what must God know who knoweth all things And Paul makes use of this consideration 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my self to wit in the administration of his Office yet I am not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Partly if we will consider what is imported in the Names of God here made use of by the Psalmist We will find it further clear the first Name JAH is a diminutive from JEHOVAH that imports a Supream Independent Beeing The second name ADONAI signifies his Dominion and Lordship Ponder these well and what a dreadful sight will it afford of the unspeakable desert of sin A sinner in sinning rebels against a Supream Beeing from whom he hath his beeing This is made a great aggravation of sin to Belteshazzar the greatest Monarch on earth Dan. 5.23 Thou hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven the God in whose hands thy breath is thou hast renounced thy dependence on him from whom thou hast thy beeing Sin is also the casting off of the Yoke of his Dominion and Lordship it says upon the matter that which ye have asserted of wicked men Psal 12.4 They say with our tongues we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us That 's the Language of every sinner in sinning and not only doth the sinner by sinning cast off the yoke of God's Dominion but he
neither will the Commands of men oblidging them in Law conclude men to be sinners unless there be a superiour Command of God oblidging them to give obedience to these Commands of men but waving that to the end I may resume and follow forth something to your Edification I shall briefly speak to these four 1. That all men have sin to be pardoned 2. That sin is a Crime and a Debt that needs a pardon a burden that a man will not willingly ly under if he look right on it nor be at rest till he get it off 3. That Sin being a Debt that needs pardon and a burden too heavy for any the unpardoned man looks upon himself if in his right wits in a doleful plight till he be pardoned And 4. That it is the chiefest of good news to a Man sensible of the Debt of Sin that God is a pardoner of Sin For the first of these all have sinned or done that which needs a pardon I shal not need to repeat what I spoke the last day upon this when I cleared the universality of that assertion That if God mark iniquity none can stand before him v. 3. I shall only add two Scripturall Confirmations this day One is that 1 John 1.8 Where the Apostle writing to the godly says as to Original Sin if we say we have not sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us and another Confirmation when as to actual sin he says v. 10. If we say that we have not sinned we make God a liar and his word is not in us And another Confirmation ye shall take from the Patern of Prayer Mat. 6.12 Where these who are allowed to call God Father even the godly are required to pray dayly forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors or as Luk. 11.4 hath it Forgive us our sins I shall say no more of this but briefly mind you of these four 1. It serves to refute the perfectists that pretend to sinlesness It was the damnable error of the Pelagians that they affirmed that as we have no guilt by Adam's sin so Men might live without sin not only sine crimine without any gross scandalous out-breakings as we confess some sins or some way of committing sin are not incident to the People of God 1 John 3.9 But they assert that men may live sine peccato without any sin at all And when they are urged with that Petition enjoyned in the Lords Prayer where we are bidden pray for the daily forgivenness of sin They Answer That men should say that Petition humiliter but not veraciter humbly but not truly and in sincerity which is both an imputation on the Majesty of God and a refutation of their error An imputation on the Majesty of God as if he did require that men should lye under pretence of humility and a refutation of their own error for if they should lye and pray hypocritically and not sincerely they prove themselves to be sinners and not perfect as they pretend 2. We might here put Papists to mind what they say when they plead for the sinlesness of the blessed Virgin Mary though in this they do not agree among themselves The Franciscans and Jesuits they assert that she was conceived Immaculat others as the Dominicans assert that she was conceived in sin but she was immediatly cleansed from it but both of them agree that she lived without actual sin VVe are for to declare her blessed above all VVomen and highly favoured of the Lord but we dare not contradict Scripture which concludes all under sin Rom. 3.23 Nor her own confession Luke 1.47 Where she owns God as her Saviour which imports her acknowledging that she was a sinner nor yet contradict our blessed Lord his taxing of her as Culpable John 2.4 When she would enjoyn him by her Motherly Authority to work a miracle Woman saith he what have I to do with thee mine hour is not yet come he owns her as a Woman not as his Mother in the Acts of his Mediatory Office and reflects upon her as one culpable that would require of him to work a miracle But 3. I would from this recommend to all of you to grow in acquaintance with your pollutions sinfulness infirmities and manifold dayly failings And for this alas we need not light Candles there is not need of any secret search as the Word is Jer. 2 34. The skirts of our Garments tell what we are to us may be applyed that Word Isaiah 3.9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them and they declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not wo unto their souls for they have rewarded evil unto themselves But were we as spotless as Paul it is our duty to be exercised with the root of sin with the Body of Sin and Death with that Law which is in our Members rebelling against the Law of the mind with that will that is present with us when we delight to do good after the Inner-man Rom. 7. Ye would drive this trade and mourn for your secret sins lest God be provoked to give you up to scandalous out-breakings which the world will read when ye are not exercised with secret sins ye provoked God to give you other work a do litle to your advantage Learn to be at that work which the people are at Isaiah 59.12 Our transgressions say they are multiplyed before thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them And at that trade David was at Psal 40.12 While he saith Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up They are mo than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me Estrangement from our sinfulness is an impediment to our humility all the crosses in the world will not humble or bring a man so low as acquaintance with his own pollutions and sinfulness of his nature Estrangement from sinfulness is a great obstruction to repentance he cannot be a penitent that is not a dayly student of his own failings and infirmities and estrangement of our sinfulness is an impediment to pardon for sin must be taken with and confessed before we can expect pardon and that cannot be while we live estranged from it Thus you see the losses that follows the neglect of acquainting our selves with the sinfulness of sin our dayly pollutions and infirmities But the 4. and last Word I shall give you from this and I shall go no further for the time shall be this that the consideration of the universal sinfulness of all mankind should excite folk much to commend God it commends God as upon many accounts so particularly upon these two one is that he spares the World dayly though there be so much sin both of Saints and others abounding in it who would fit with so many wrongs as God gets every day and yet he
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
in the right order needs not keep thee back thy desire to come and repent and seek pardon tells that thou art not guilty of that unpardonable sin and therefore stand not a back for scarlet and crimson coloured sins nor for relapsing in these sins There is forgivenness with God for those iniquities and that ye may grip the better to this when it is intimate that God is such a pardoner of sin ye would look to the infinit price of the Son of God whereby he purchased pardon and upon which pardon of sin is founded and ye would look to that infinite and superabounding grace in God inclining him to pardon and when these two are laid together well considered all thy doubts about pardon will amount to this whether thy iniquities or Christ's death thy abounding sin or Gods superabounding Grace will carry it And reason will determine it in favours of Christs purchase and the super-aboundant Grace of God 2. Let me leave this as a Witness against slighters of this offer of pardon I believe there are many engadged as the Jews were Jer. 2.25 Who said There is no hope no for we have loved strangers and after them we will go The matter is past redding There is little appearance that ever we will do well and therefore we mind not to do well But here is a Witness laid at thy door whatever thy condition be God and thou art yet in trysting terms and thou hast the offer of Pardon upon Repentance and turning to him art thou as mad as the man that had the legion of Devils Mark 5.9 will thou employ Christ he can cure thee Though thou were like Mary Magdalen out of whom Christ cast seven devils Luk. 8.2 He can cast them out and set thee down a worshipper of him at his feet Thy scarlet and crimson coloured sins he can make white as the snow or wool Thy scattered affections as the wind he can fix upon the nail fastened upon the sure place if thou wilt come and reason with him thou shalt find him as good as his Word and shall not this be a Witness against slighters of pardoning Grace that such profligat wretches runnaways and backsliders are within the reach of pardoning mercy and there is a Royal Proclamation made of it wherein it is offered unto them and yet they slighted it All the wrath of Sinai shall not be so terrible to such as this will be one day that in the Name of Christ we proclaimed pardon to you providing ye seek it in the right order and look how ye will answer the Lamb sitting down on his tribunal of Majesty I thought to have spoken to the persons who they are that are pardoned and that they may call God Father who seek pardon and how that it secluds not the vilest of sinners upon repentance and how it makes against the Novatian error that thrusts repentance out of the Church And to that case of godly men their relapsing in sins they have repented of and whether such be pardonable but the time having cut me short I shall forbear to break in upon these for the time The Lord blesse for Christs sake what ye have been hearing SERMON IX Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee that thou mayest be feared I Have now broken in a litle upon this great Article of of our Creed the remission of sins The great Gospel-news the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace to them that are in the Psalmist's posture in the third verse that there is no standing before God marking iniquity in strict justice according to the Covenant of Works I am as yet detained on the first head that I proposed to be spoken to on this Subject that is the consideration of that which is pardoned it is iniquity as in the preceeding verse sin or transgression let it be called by whatsoever name it will and as to this I spake to these things 1. That all have sin 2. That sin is a Debt and Burden which they who take a right look of will see great cause will desire to be rid of it That sin being such a debt or burden the unpardoned man if he get a right look of his own condition he will find himself in a wofull plight and 4. That sin being such a debt as can only be done a way by pardon and such a burden as puts the unpardoned man in a woful plight It follows that it is good news the best of all news to a sensible sinner That there is pardon for iniquity in God When a man hath said verse 3. If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity who can stand that he may add verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee And here ye may remember that it was cleared how the least sins needed a pardon As also how the greatest sins for nature number or other circumstances are pardonable that sensible sinners needed not be troubled with that sin against the holy Ghost seing their very flying to the remedy of sin in Christ is a sufficient evidence that it was not in them I was the last day cutshort by time from speaking a word to these persons whose sins are pardonable And this I wold now speak to before I go to the other Heads I proposed to be spoken to And the ground of that which I would say of them whose sins are pardonable I shall take it from that pattern of Prayer Mat. 6.9 12 Father forgive us our debts They are Children who may come to God for pardon of sin and to open this a litle I shal speak to these three from it 1. It would be remembred that these who are not Children must come and become children in the due order that they may attain to the priviledge of pardon when Children only are allowed to beg pardon of sin it secludes none who are unpardoned from coming to God through the elder brother Jesus Christ that they may be put among the Children by Adoption for Isai 55.7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto Lord and he will have mercy vpon him and to our God for he will aboundantly pardon or multiply to pardon and Ezek. 33.15.16 When the wicked man restores the pledge gives again that which he had robbed doth walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall surely live he shall not die none of the sins he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him There shal be no more word of them which as I said the last day when I spake from these words leaves a sad check and ground of dittay at the doors of Rebels to whom the Fountain for Sin and Uncleanness is keeped open and they have pardon in their offer but will not follow the right method of obtaining mercy and pardon They will not come and be children but continue rebels still And it leaves also a caution and a check to many who if
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
have spoken to the Consideration of the Author of Pardon who it is that pardons sin and whatever hand Ministers have in this or what ever hand private persons have in it in remitting injuries done to them yet the Text determins God still to be the principal Creditor it 's with thee says he It 's with thee alone that forgivenness is I entered upon the 3d thing I proposed to be spoken to which is the main thing in thing purpose that is to inquire after the nature of this pardon what this forgivenness of sin which is with God imports and after a brief touch upon some passages of Scripture whereby pardon of sin is expressed I proceeded negatively to tell you what it is not where I shew that pardon of sin is not to be confounded with mens forgetting of sin and taking a pardon to themselves as also that sin is not to be lightly looked on as a thing that God lightly passes by when he pardons it for he pardons none but upon satisfaction made to his Justice by sinners surety likewise that pardon of sin is not to be confounded with Gods forbearing or not inflicting punishment for it for a time for they may be long forborn who yet may be unpardoned and whose forbearance is no sign of Divine Approbation Further it was cleared that the pardoning of particular sinners and their restoring in favour is not to be confounded with a National pardon conferred on a Nation whom he may pardon and yet punish And lastly it was cautioned and cleared that we should not confound the pardon of sin with the removal of sin in the pollution of it for though God strike at the guilt and power of sin both together yet whereas pardon of sin is attained before Death some filthiness of Sin will remain in the pardoned Sinner as long as he is in this life and pardon of Sin may consist with the sight of the filthiness of Sin for which the Sinner is abased before God daily And this leads me positively to point out what pardon of Sin imports all that I shall say to it in general before I break in to tell you more particularly what it is shall be this ye shall distinguish in Sin these two There is in Sin a blot or pollution of the Soul and a defaceing of God's Image thereby And there is in Sin a guilt that is an offence done to God by the violating of his Law whereby the Sinner becomes obnoxious to the punishment that He hath threatned in his Law These two are clearly distinguishable among men a child running in a puddle polluteâ— himself and by so doing he becomes guilty of transgressing his Parents command and is lyable to their correction or punishment Now as to these two the guilt and the blot of Sin there are diverse and distinct Operations of God conversant about them for as the blot of Sin begins to be stricken at in Regeneration so that work is carried on by Piece-meal in Sanctification till Sanctification be perfected and end in Glorification Regeneration and Sanctification are the Acts of God conversant about the Blot and Filthiness of Sin but pardon of Sin takes not away the beeing nor the Filthiness of Sin as Antinomians say but it takes away the guilt of Sin and the guilt of Sin being pardoned the Sinner is delivered from the Punishment that his guilt deserves and this is also distinguishable among Men for a person having committed an enormous crime that crime continues still a filthy thing and evidences a naughty disposition yet when that crime is pardoned the man that committed it loses not their favour against whom it was committed and is freed from the punishment that it deserves So a Child that hath puddled himself in a mire suppose the Parents forgive the offence the filth that he hath got in the mire sticks to him still till it be washed away another way So I say pardon of sin takes not away the filthiness of sin but the guilt of sin And this I mention not meerly for speculation and information of the Judgment but it says something for their Advantage and Encouragement who in the sense of sin are flying to Christ for pardon that they be not scarred by the pollution of sin from relying on him for the pardon of guilt A tender Soul so long as it finds the blot of sin it will readily doubt if the guilt of sin be taken away but if we take up pardon Scripturally the guilt of sin is done away by pardon though the blot of sin remain I confess the blot of sin must not remain unmourned for it must not remain unsubdued or without an endeavour to subdue it yet it may remain when the guilt and violation of the Law of God by Sin is pardoned and past that sin may be near thy sight in the blot and pollution which pardon hath put far off as to the guilt of it Jer. 50.20 In those days and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought and there shall be none and the sin of Judah and they shall not be found Why For I 'le pardon them whom I reserve only let me add that that thou who grips to the pardon of guilt when yet thou finds the blot of sin remaining and art mourning for it remember that pardon must not be only a simple exemption from punishment but that it is only a Restitution into his Favour whom thou hast offended Thy pardon must not be an Absalom's pardon that brought him back to Jerusalem but he saw not the King's face Thou must not satisfie thy self with that but thou must be accepted and come into favour that was David's prayer Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce and verse 12. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me by thy free Spirit But of this I will have occasion to speak in the progress therefore I leave it And having given you this general Notion of Pardon I shall proceed to batter it out a little for the clearing of four Questions 1. How the guilt of sin can be separated from the blot of sin and the sinner pardoned 2. Whether in pardon the obligation to punishment be so taken off as the pardoned man falleth under no Chastisement for sin 3. Whether the real passing of Pardon be one in the Court of Heaven with that which is in the Court of Conscience or if the truth of pardon depends on the intimation of it to our hearts 4. Whether what the Lord pardons He pardons Irrevocably or whether upon the Contracting of new guilt the former pardon be made void to the pardoned man These four Questions I shall touch upon as briefly as I can and sure I am these of you whose plight anchor pardon of sin is ye will not weary to hear them
sin God remits culpam but not paenam That is he remits the fault or guilt so as not only he may chasten which we grant but as he reserves a punishment by way of satisfaction for sin to be undergone by the pardoned sinner They distinguish in this betwixt mortal and venial Sins for mortal sins they grant that the free Grace of God turns eternal punishment into a temporal which the sinner must undergo for venial sins which they say deserves not eternal punishment but temporal all that temporal punishment they will have the pardoned man to sustain it Hence is their Doctrine of Pennances in this life and of Purgatory after death when Pennances are not undergone here where they will have pardoned sinners to make satisfaction of sin for this Doctrine it would be but troublesome to you to hear all that might be said against it though we should but touch on it and therefore passing that groundless distinction of mortal and venial sins ye shall notice these five anent that their Doctrine 1. That as the bulk of Popish Religion is nothing but a well contrived Policy or Interest of State so this Doctrine of Pennance and Purgatory is nothing else but a Politick Device to make gain for maintaining their Kitchin Pomp Pride and Luxury which as I told you the last day Caesar Borgia the Son of Alexander the sixth makes to appear who while he had lost 100000 at the Dice past it in a sport saying These are the sins of the Germans meaning that thereby they had purchased remission of Sins for here the policy lies Once perswade folk that they must do Pennances to satisfie for sin or to go to Purgatory what will they not do while they are alive or their Friends for them when they are dead to mitigat that satisfaction that is their Market and then pay well and come to Heaven without either Pennance or Purgatory so that their Doctrine in this is a perfect cheat 2. In this their Doctrine they corrupt the Doctrine of the antient Church which was not so very sound for 〈◊〉 they have a trick of retaining antient Names of things under which they bring in new Errors so in this particular of Pennances and Indulgences used by the antient Church who while they were a distinct Society were very strict and severe in requiring publick Pennance and Satisfaction for Scandals some they held many years in making their Repentance some they held all their life but afterward when the World came in to the Church and the Emperors imbraced Christianity and they with other great Ones were too thin-skin'd and would not submit to Discipline the Church did degenerat from their strictness and shortned their Indulgences but the antient Church their Pennances were not to satisfie God for sin but the Church they were not for privat and secret sins but for publick and scandalous offences And the Church willing to gratifie great persons did mitigat these severities to many But the Papists retaining the Name they will have these Pennances a satisfaction to God for sin and their Indulgences to assoil folk in the Court of Heaven A 3d thing to be considered in that their Doctrine which is very unhansom for them to maintain these Pennances which they call satisfaction what are they They are their Fastings their Ave Marias and Pater-nosters their Pilgrimages and Peregrinations their Charity to the poor or for a Religious use their Self-scourgings and Whippings now I enquire what are these They are either Commanded Duties or not If they be not Commanded Duties how can they be satisfaction for sin for will God be satisfied with that which he doth not require Who required these things at your hand If they be Commanded Duties how can they make a punishment of them that is a dreadful Solecism in their Religion that Commanded Duties that should be the joy and rejoicing of folks hearts should be turned to Punishments and except they be punishments they cannot be satisfaction so that they have a bad impression of these things which they look upon as Duties while they make Commanded Duties punishments for sin And a 4th Word I say to that their Doctrine is this That to admit of satisfaction for sin either as to temporal or eternal punishment for it is a blasphemous imputation on Christ's Satisfaction as if any thing needed to be added to the Ocean of his Merit who hath satisfied the Justice of God both as to the Temporal and Eternal Curse due to his own Elect for their sins And a 5th I shall say to their Doctrine is That it is contradictory to it self for what is the guilt of sin as contra-distinct to the stain of sin that is removed It is not the potential guilt the desert of sin for that is inseparable from sin it is only the actual ordination to punishment Now to say God remits the guilt and retains the punishment of sin it is to say that he remits and retains that he pardons and doth not pardon that he takes away actual ordination to punishment that he craves the debt which he hath forgiven This is sufficient to refute the Papists on the one hand in what they hold anent the pardon of sin Upon the other hand the Antinomians run on another extream and say that pardoned justified persons fall not so much as under chastisement let be a proper punishment for sin And they will have all Afflictions that come upon the Godly to be meer tryals of their Faith and no more and think that it is a legal Spirit that teacheth folk while they are under the Rod to search out sin and to be humbled for it all that a man is called to do in that case say they is to maintain his Faith in adhering to the Love of God in Christ for whatever Affliction come it is not for sin and it is no wonder they maintain the Saints cannot fall under affliction for sin or chastisement for sin seing they maintain God sees no sin in them To clear the mind of God in this particular There are some things that must be granted as truths and there are some other things to be cautioned against as error The truths that are to be granted may be reduced to these four words 1. That justified persons never meet with condemnation what temporal lots soever they meet with and though they be not secured against the cross yet they are secured from condemnation 2. That a pardoned and justified child of God doth never come under the wrath of God though justified persons may come under Gods Fatherly displeasure yet they are never more objects of divine wrath as others though they may often meet with Fatherly and Divine displeasure as children they come not under wrath as enemies 3. That pardoned and justified sinners never fall under proper punishments for sin or afflictions to satisfie for their faults though for other ends they may as to invite them to repentance and to be humbled for
for pardon But that I may speak a little more distinctly to this which when I have done with there will remain only the right method of application of Pardon to be spoken to that will bring me on in the Text and to the practical Use of all this Doctrine I shall speak briefly to these three Questions on it 1. Whether sin be pardoned from all eternity or when Christ paid satisfaction to Justice on the Cross as the Antinomians say 2. Supposing that sin is pardoned not from eternity but in time The next Question will be Whether all sins be forgiven at once to the justified and pardoned man whether in Justification and upon a mans closing with Christ all sins not only sins past and present but sins to come are actually pardoned 3. If sins be pardoned in time How is it said Act. 30 19 20. To be done at the day of Judgment 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 c. For the first of these Questions the Antinomians make Justification and the Pardon of sin an imminent Act in God as they call it and they will have it past from all eternity and they assert That all the Elect are actually pardoned from eternity and the lowest that any of them come is That they will have all the Elect pardoned when Christ upon the Cross finished the satisfaction to Justice for their sins and all that a Believer gets when he comes to Christ and closes with Christ for Righteousness and Life is not an actual pardon but the intimation and declaration of his pardon even as when a pardoned Rebel who hath a pardon in his pocket is brought in before the King and prays for pardon and the King intimats the pardon which he hath already got unto him To clear it according to Scripture and so to lead you to something practical in this ye shall take up pardon in four steps 1. We grant That from all eternity God Decreed to pardon the sins of all the Elect and in this respect we shall not decline to say that all the Elect are Justified and Pardoned in God's Decree to whom known are all his works from the beginning of the world Act. 15.18 Yet we must add that that will not prove actual Pardon to the Elect from eternity for all the Elect are saved as well as pardoned in God's Decree and yet they are not actually saved till they be glorified There is only a Decree concerning their Pardon to be in due time past on Gospel Terms and actual Pardon is a transient Act and changes the state of the person 2. As Pardon to the Elect is Decreed from all eternity so it is purchased by Christ at his Death for then Col. 2.14 He blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrair to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross He then blotted out our Libel and Dittay how by paying a price for that pardon that in due time and in the use of means was to be actually conferred and in this sense we shall let it pass that the Elect were justified in Christ their Head at his Death he took up that Song Isai 50.8 He is near that justifies me who will contend with me that we might sing it after him Rom. 8.34 It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth But there is a third step of the pardon of sin that is That pardon that is Decreed by God from eternity and purchased by Christ at his Death it is recorded by way of a past Sentence and tendered in the word of the Gospel to be imbraced by sinners in due order in the use of the means A sentence of pardon is past and pronounced in the word of the Gospel that needs no more to make it effectual to the sinner but his closing with Christ and getting in his name in the due use of the Means But yet we must add a fourth step when pardon is Decreed when Christ has purchast padon and the Sentence of pardon is past and pronounced in the Word yet no man is actually pardoned till he come unto Christ till he be actually penitent and a Believer he is not actually pardoned and when he is an actual penitent and has closed with Christ for pardon of sin righteousness and Life he may then look back with comfort on Gods Decree of Election on Christ's purchase of pardon on his being on Gods Heart when pardon is holden out in the Word but actually pardoned he is not till he himself come to Christ and be a Believer on him Many things would fall in to be spoken to for clearing of this some whereof will come in when we come to the Resolution of the next Question I shall here offer three words for clearing and confirming this Truth 1 That all the Elect before Conversion are in a state of Wrath even as others Ephes 2.3 The Elect before they be quickned are Children of Wrath not in their own sense only as the Antinomians say but really even as others and consequently they were not pardoned nor reconciled before they were quickned more than the Pagans Children of wrath 2. It is clear from the Tenor of the Scriptures that they are not nor cannot be justified and pardoned till they be in Christ the second Adam not in a decree or judicially as represented by Christ but actually by Faith for we are justified by faith Rom. 5.7 and consequently by Faith we are pardoned which is a Branch of Justification now men are in Christ by Faith not from eternity but in time and on that account Rom. 16.7 Paul tells of some of his kinsmen that were in Christ before him and consequently were not actually pardoned till they were in him by Faith And 3. In the pattern of Prayer Mat. 6. We are bidden Pray daily Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors The Antinomians say when we are bidden Pray for forgiveness that it is for the intimation of pardon but that Gloss may be easily wiped off if we consider that we are to pray for forgiveness as we forgive others Now we forgive others by a real passing from the wrong they have done us and nor by the intimation of pardon only And further it may be cleared from that same similitude that Antinomians bring of a Rebel or Malefactor that hath gotten a pardon from his Prince it is true after he hath gotten his pardon when he comes before his Prince he may seek the intimation of his pardon but he were a fool if as oft as he came in his Princes presence he should seek the Intimation of his pardon and consequently it is not the intimation of pardon that is to be sought daily in that Petition but actual pardon Thus ye see that sin is not actually pardoned from eternity This might warn us in our practice
your selves to the end ye may walk sickerly in this matter I shall give you the impression that found out guilt after Examination should leave upon a man in four steps 1. He must not only not deny his faults as too many do with whom I do not trouble my self some being such monsters that they care not to deny their vileness and other abominations with perjuries to hide them from the world but he must not deny his sin in the guilt and ill-deserving of it he must take with it and all it's aggravations he must see it in its sinfulness and dreadful desert A man that would have pardon from God must not only know his Dittay but he must pass sentence on himself and judge himself if he would not be judged for it Thou hast examined thou hast found out much sin but what thinks thou of it as it is an offence done by a worm to the Majesty of God And hast thou thought upon the Aggravations of thy sin from thy place and station from the many Means thou art under from the many Mercies has been heaped on thee obliging thee to the contrary This is it thou should be about who would be affected with thy sin in order to pardon But 2. This taking with and aggravating of sin must not be an act of the Judgment only but it must sink down to the heart many will dream of sin and of the sinfulness of sin and will talk of sin and of the desert of sin but pass it over with words of that kind but a sight of sin and a thought of sin that is not heart-affecting is a proclaiming upon the matter thy contempt of sin Thy sight of sin and speaking of it must be like that of the Psalmist here it makes him in nettle earnest and to pour out a pathetick confession of it It must be a sight and sense of sin that bides not in the brain but goes down to the bottom of thy heart and affections and makes thee cry out with Paul Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Thou can talk of sin and the demerit of it distinctly and eloquently but as men do of America or some new found Land they know not but content not thy self with that The sight of sin in order to pardon requires a heart-pondering and affecting And I shall add 3. The sight of sin and it's sinfulness must not be a simple affecting only at some times Some cheat themselves with that also Take them at some times O how are they affected how mad will the drunkard call himself after that throw his drunkenness he is distempered and hath a sore head and pained stomach And what a monster will a profane man sometimes call himself after a conviction or challenge of Conscience but bide till the next bout of a Temptation and he and his sin will be as homely as ever The affecting of many with sin is like a shower upon the ice in frost that wets it above but brings not a ground thaw Therefore where there is a right affecting with sin it must bring the Man with the Psalmist here to be restless under that burden to see that there must be no standing still till he be relieved of it The sluggard may have his convictions of sin and desires to be rid of it But the man that sees sin in it self and the consequences of it and is rightly affected with it he will see it to be his greatest misery and consequently that it must be his greatest haste to be delivered from it Many of your convictions are false conceptions ye are in pain with them but ye do not follow them forth but stiffle them they never set you to your feet as is said of Ephraim Hos 13.13 He is an unwise son he stayeth long in the place of breaking forth of children it is a dreadful token to stick in the birth and to stiffle Convictions better thou had never had them though that case be most dangerous also than when thou hast been under them to stiffle them and set thy foot upon them before thou get a true ease And I shal add in the 4th place In this sense of sin that is when Souls are thus affected with sin as I have been speaking a pardon will be very precious it will not be lookt upon as the scorâ—er doth or as the Soldiers who said to Christ Hail King of the Jews and then buffeted him O! a pardon to a most sensible sinner will be most glad news and God on that account will be a matchless God Micah 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee who pardons iniquity He will be a blessed man whose sin is pardoned Psal 32.1 a good Lord that pardons his people 2 Ch. 30.18 And so in the Text he is to the Psalmist If thou Lord should mark iniquity O Lord who should stand But the Back-note is There is forgiveness with thee for to a sensible sinner there being no remedy for sin but pardon and no pardon of sin but from a gracious God what wonder that pardon of sin be very precious and God on that account a matchless God But a 4th Direction antecedent to pardon is That we study Repentance for these sins the pardon whereof we study and expect that we may be in capacity for pardon I shall not insist now upon this Doctrine or Direction only let me intreat you to make it sure work in this affair I have laid your duty somewhat home to you and I fear there is need ye will take it all and more and yet in the doing of it my meaning is not as if ye could produce these things called for antecedent to pardon of your self or that when ye are not come this length ye should bide away from Christ no ye must come to him for these antecedent qualifications that ye may get pardon But these are the true and faithful sayings of God and whosoever they be that are not in this order seeking pardon and yet think they are pardoned they had need to look to it that they have not a lie in their right hand for this is the Scriptures method wherein the Lord leads his own to pardon and pardoneth whom he doth pardon The Lord bless what ye have heard for Christs sake SERMON XVI Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee I Am now entred upon that which is the Applicatory part of this Doctrine concerning the pardon of sins and upon a way to hold out Directions to you how without abusing this great Priviledge or deceiving your selves ye may come to it in the due order and look like it I was speaking before noon of some things required antecedent by way of preparation for pardon I spoke somewhat to a Caution and carefulness to avoid sin that the sins we come to God for pardon of may not be these we have run after impetuously as the horse runneth into the
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
merciful bowels to deal about them according to their ability and as there is cause and a cruel unmerciful disposition is a shrewd token that such an one has not obtained mercy But more of this afterward 5. And Lastly The Objects of this Mercy are described to be tender walkers according to the Rule and Pattern set before them Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Their tender walk puts them not without Mercies mister The more tender they are in their walk they see the more need of mercy and this keeps them under the drop of mercy So much for the Object of this Mercy that is with God and for the characters of them to whom it is exprest which would be looked to by all of you who would be partakers of it I proceed now in the 3d place to speak to the properties of this Mercy which will help to unfold the nature of it a little more distinctly and among all the Properties that might be assigned to it a little briefly to these five 1. This would be fixed that the mercy of God is a real mercy Ye will get fair weather and complemental mercy enough in the World mercy professed where it is not and where it kythes not in any effect ye will get mercy enough like that Jam. 2.15 When a brother or sister is naked or destitute of daily food men that will say to them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but they give them nothing needful for the body The whole world as one says are like Histrionicks counterfeit masked persons and in nothing more than in their pretences and professions of mercy but the mercy of God is a real mercy a mercy that folk may lippen to if ye enquire for it in the inward affection what can be required but it is adduced to express it Isai 23.15 It is exprest by sounding of the bowels Jer. 31.20 By bowels being troubled or moved Hos 11.8 By the turning of the heart within and repentings kindled together All these expressions are to point out how cordial and real the Lord is as to the inward affection of mercy and for the Effects of it men want rather eyes to discern them than the mercies themselves Even his own people are straitned in their own bowels how to keep the proofs of mercy when his heart is enlarged to bestow them and yet they never want a proof of his mercy while they have a room in the Hospital of his Heart and Faith to believe that they are in the Hospital of his Compassion that is an evident proof how real his mercy is 2. As his mercy is real so the Scripture tells it is that wherein he delights Mic. 7.18 He retains not his anger for ever Why Because he delights in mercy No but he delights in himself and in all his Attributes and in the manifestation of them in the World but in a peculiar manner in his mercy upon divers accounts He may be said to delight in it partly on the account of the frequency of his merciful dispensations and manifestations in acts of mercy For works of Judgment towards his people are his Work his strange Work and his Act his strange Act. Isai 28.21 But the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 35.5 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant c. Psal 25.10 Again he delights in mercy because there is nothing flows from him but that which may invite not hinder sinners from coming to him being objects of his mercy It is true he willeth the death of sinners for sin to glorifie his Justice Yet Ezek. 18.23 He hath no pleasure at all in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should return from his ways and live Nothing flows from him to seclude any from his mercy that will not seclude themselves even when he strikes it is to drive to his mercy when he afflicts the language is Turn you and live why will ye die O house of Israel Again he delights in mercy because all the good he doth to his people he doth it not grudgingly Many a good turn among men is as ye speak spilt in the doing But the good that he does to his people he does it with his whole heart and soul Jer. 32.41 He acts mercy toward his people to speak so as one in his own Element and as going about a work that is kindly to him if I may so word it And lastly he delights in mercy because to speak after the manner of men he hath no pleasure that his people should ever raise any cloud betwixt his mercy and them the people of God cannot do themselves a greater wrong nor him a greater unkindness if ye understand it aright than by their provocations to incapacitat him to manifest his mercy towards them But mistake not this for he hath a Soveraignty in his grace even when they in a manner necessitat him to keep up the acts of his mercy and to afflict them hence when they go onfrowardly in the way of their own heart his tender mercy will make a stepping-stone of impediments that are put in its way Isai 57.17 Because he delights in mercy he will come over all these impediments to do them a good turn freely And that is a 3d property of this mercy it is a free mercy it is a mercy bestowed without money and without price But this as I told you the last day is comprehended under the notion of Grace that is imported in the Goodness of God in that it is freely given And therefore Exod. 33.19 cited Rom. 9.15 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy compassion c. And it 's not in him that wills nor in him that runs but in God that shews mercy There is no place for disputing here Why he will have mercy on such and such and not on others it is an act of his royal prerogative in grace that none can hinder for who can hinder him to do with his own what he will A 4th Property of this mercy with God is That it is an eternal mercy I do not mean that any creature that gets not an Interest in the mercy of God in this life may look to be partaker of it after this life that was the Opinion of Origen that Devils and damned men and women should at length share in the mercy of God Either thou must grip mercy here or thou hast done with it eternally But to them that close with mercy here it is an everlasting mercy Hence is that over-word of the 136. Psalm His mercy endureth for ever and Psal 103.17 His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him from election to their eternal glorification so David finds that his tender mercies and loving kindnesses have been for ever of old And the Church Lam. 3.23 finds It is of the
manifested to them as they stand in need of it for if he have mercy he shall compassionat them in their misery if plenteous redemption be with him He shall redeem Israel from all their iniquities If he have authority and power to redeem it shall undoubtedly be evinced in actual redeeming of them Now there remains a 4th Observation to be spoken to That it is the great and peculiar ground of hope and encouragement to God's Israel that he will redeem them from all their iniquities which is the very words of the Text He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Therefore let Israel hope in the Lord This Point though it be rich and full in it self yet I may be the more brief in the handling of it That on the 4th Verse I spoke at great length to that Doctrine concerning forgiveness of sins I shall therefore here first Explain the Point a little as it is held out in the Text and then speak to some Inferences and Uses from it What we say in Explication of the Point may be reduced to 4 Heads 1. More generally ye would consider That it is a great encouragement to God's people that guilt sin and iniquity needs not mar their hope in God for though Israel have sinned and though their sins here be called iniquities and though there be an all of these iniquities notwithstanding all that the Spirit of God makes it here evident Israel may hope in God for He shall redeem them from all their iniquities By the Covenant of Works iniquity getting once place all hope is forefault that bargain being once broken it is everlastingly and irrecoverably broken But here is the Gospels glad news and great encouragement That iniquities if folks be seeking redemption from them needs not hinder hope in God That when as it is Rom. 3.20 By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight For by the law is the knowledge of sin That Verse 21. There is a righteousness of God without the Law manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets that affords ground of hope that when Israel hath trespassed against God Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Ezra 10.2 In a word these are no small part of the glad news of the Gospel That there is any trysting betwixt God and sinful man That every step in guilt is not a step into utter despair That man upon every failing has not done everlastingly with any ground of hope to the sight of God's face in favour That 's the first and chief part of the glad news of the Gospel 2. Consider what it is that God does in reference to iniquity which gives ground of hope to Israel He redeems from iniquity Now as ye heard from Verse 4. There is in iniquity these two The guilt or offence done to God and the obligation to punishment resulting thereon And there is the dominion power and tyranny of sin which it exexcises over the sinner where it once gets access Now redemption from both these is the work of God by Christ He redeems from the guilt of sin by the price and merit of his death by that infinite compleat and sufficient ransom which he hath payed to Justice to appease the wrath of God and to restore the guilty sinner to favour with him and he redeems from the dominion power and tyranny of sin by the power and vertue of his death and to this may be applyed that of Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works He gave himself for us not only by his death to expiat the guilt of sin but that he might break the bonds of iniquity and make us a purified and peculiar people to himself zealous of good works I shall not need here to obviat the Socinians cavillations who from this phrase of redeeming from iniquity would obscure the truth of the satisfaction of Christ as if the term Redemption did not import a satisfaction or paying of a price for say they We are redeemed from the iniquity and power of Satan to whom no satisfaction is payed But that is but a mistake of the import of the phrase for as it is spoken of in reference to God it imports constantly a ransom as Job 33.24 Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom and 1 Joh. 2.2 He is the propitiation for our sins but when it is spoken in reference to sin or Sathan it is improperly taken and is a redemption by force as if a person arrested for debt in prison when the principal Creditor were satisfied his Cautioner should break the fetters that is redemption from sin and as if he should deliver him from the Jaylor by giving him a broken Head that 's redemption from Sathan 3. Ye would consider the universality of this Redemption and this is also in the Text He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities holding forth the universal extent of their Redemption which for your better understanding ye shall shortly take up under these three 1. He redeems his people from the guilt of all their sins for as on the one hand there is no sin so little that God will pass over without a satisfaction There is no venial sin that needs not a satisfaction to Justice and that merits not condemnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death even eternal death which is opposed there to eternal life the gift of God So on the other hand no sins of his people are so hainous though they be iniquities as in the Text though they be scarlet and crimson coloured sins as Isai 1.18 But if God in Christ be made use of they shall be redeemed from them He will blot out as a thick cloud their transgressions and as a cloud their sins when they return to him for he hath redeemed them Isai 44.22 So he will redeem them from the guilt of all their iniquities 2. This universal all may be understood in relation to the power of iniquity that where he falls in on the sinner he redeems from the bondage and slavery of all sin and when that work is rightly undertaken in his strength the sinner is a slave to no iniquity he balks none he spares no Zoar no Delila no darling sin when he comes to redeem and subdue the iniquities of his people all that is iniquity he puts them to take it to task to have a respect to all his commands Psal 119.6 And to esteem all his precepts concerning all things to be right and to hate every false way verse 128. A study of universal Mortification is that which he puts them on to when he will redeem from iniquity And 3. The universal all may be extended yet further even to all the degrees of iniquity that not only doth he redeem his people from the guilt and from the power and dominion of all
sin but he sets them on work to purge out all sin and in due time he will redeem them from the reliques and remainders of sin every thing that hath the relique or remainder of iniquity in it he will redeem them from it in due time And 4. Ye would consider the object of this mercy who they are that he will redeem from all iniquity they are his people Israel the object of God's power and mercy in redeeming in his being a propitiation for sin in redeeming from the power and guilt of sin are Israel and they only That as Adam when he fell drew all his seed along into perdition with himself So Christ the second Adam will redeem all his seed which is the true import of that comparison institute betwixt the first Adam and the second Rom. 5. and not to prove an universal redemption for then as all fell in Adam so all should be actually redeemed and liberat by Christ but the meaning is That as in Adam all his seed fell with him so by Christ all his seed are redeemed and as in Adam all fell not Christ was excepted so by Christ all are not redeemed his seed only are recovered This is a Point I need not enter to debate It is too evident many are not redeemed by Christ for many have not the outward means that make offer of redemption by Christ many never heard tell of Christ and if Christ had payed a price for all it were not agreeable to Justice that so many should be put to suffer punishment in hell It is clear also from that that Christ would not pray for the world Joh. 17.9 And he did not die for them for whom he would not pray and he doth not sanctifie himself for all therefore he redeems not all and yet this needs be no impediment to them to look to him for Redemption who find their need of him their fleeing to him for refuge and gripping to him for satisfaction opens up the council of God that they are among the given ones to be redeemed by Christ only remember that as none of God's Israel are secluded from this redemption how worthless soever they be Though they may be secluded from these gifts and measures of graces afforded to others yet not from this redemption from all iniquity That is the common-good of all that 's the nail fastned in the sure place on which all the vessels of greater and smaller quantity are hung so on the other hand it is to Israel alone and to none other that this redemption is ensured Having thus explained the Point it remains That we should draw some Uses from it and put a close to the Psalm and there are four or five words of inference that I would give you from what hath been said 1. See here what is the great concerning business the chief Interest and exercise of the true Israel of God It is the matter of iniquity what to do with it how to be rid of it and delivered from it therefore after all the former encouragements to hope in God That with him is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption this comes in as the reserve that he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities To tell that the great exercise of a true Israelite will be about iniquity the conscience of sin and guilt what to do with that how to get the conscience pacified in reference to it this exercise is a great stranger in the visible Church there may be much trouble of mind where the conscience is dormient and sleeping There may be much vexation and fashâ—ie about trouble and cross dispensations of providence when guilt is little minded but ye would look to it I shall not say they are not Israelites that fall into this error but surely it looks not like a true Israelite where sin is not made the main exercise where daily searching out of sin and endeavours to have the conscience purified and purged from guilt is not folks great task And I shall add that exercise about sin and guilt would give a more comfortable account about trouble If we were studying to have this Text made out to us He shall redeem Israel out of all his iniquities we should find that of Psal 25. Redeem Israel O God out of all his troubles also made out to us redemption from iniquity would bod well were a good prognostick of redemption from trouble for as ye heard from Isai 10.12 Trouble hath a work on Mount Zion and if ye would know what that is see 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin when he maketh all the stones of the Altar as chalk stones c. Were trouble getting its work it should have the less ado when it had gotten its errand and therefore ye that are fasht and vexed folks with the Cross tost with many troubles shall I say to you that ye run long on little ground and to little purpose if ye had more ado about sin ye should have less ado about trouble or your exercise about it should soon be discust Therefore look on it as a mark of a true Israelite that whatever exercise he have sin is the greatest exercise 2. Whereas folk may seem to have some exercise about sin but all that it amounts to is to take with sin and grip to pardoning mercy and this is very common in the visible Church to name sin and to name pardon and upon the naming of sin to make a present Plaister of pardon and there is an end To obviat this mistake take this word That the pardon of sin and purging out of sin must go together hand in hand But in this mistake me not I would hurt none nor have I commission to hurt any Ye may remember that when I was on the 4th Verse I told you that the filthiness of sin remains after the pardon of sin but remember also that I then told you God strikes at the guilt and power of sin both at once that where Christ comes with the merit of his death he comes also with the power of his death he lays the Axe to the root of the Tree but I would not be mistaken in this either the pardoned sinner gets not the power of sin presently subdued yea when he is pardoned the power of sin may fash him more than before and when sin is in the dead-throws it may vex him most with strugling Many a sad bout may pardoned sinners have alongst their life with their predominants but where-ever God pardons sin he sets folks to be in necks with sin and to have the dominion and power of sin subdued that sin reign not in their mortal bodies they and sin will not dwell in peace in one house they will not be taken alive captive without a scart they oppose it and protest against the prevailing of it they sin not with full consent And O! but this
is needful to have the renovation of the Disposition to be a Seal of the pardon of sin that when thou hast gripped pardon thou may know by this that thou art not delivered because it sends thee back to get sin subdued and mortified with greater eagerness and bensil of spirit that if the pardon of sin take not away the filthiness of sin yet it sets thee in a stated war with it and opposition unto it that thou and it shall never be friends and God then evidences the pardoning of thy sin when he helps thee to subdue sin And it is no wonder that folk have a cold Coal to blow at when they are under a temptation that they are not pardoned and have nothing to witness that they have any thing like the renovation of their disposition though in that case God forbid that I should forbid such to run to Christ for pardon but in running to him for pardon of sin through the merit of his death and in gripping to pardon carry alongst the vertue of his death for the subduing of sin 3. This leads me to a 3d word of Inference many of you may say ye are put to a hard task when ye are put seek redemption from iniquity from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of sin And I grant it is a hard task indeed and they that essay it in earnest will find it an insuperable task Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Then may they also do good that are accustomed to do evil Twin them of their life as soon as twin them of their Delilah or take their darling-sin out of their bosome What shall they then do with it This point tells that God can and will redeem Israel from all their iniquities I would in order to this have you looking two ways on Gods interposing to subdue iniquity one is that ye would never look on the subjugation or subduing of sin as leill come wherein ye are not put to employ God There be many evils that ye are not tempted to or if tempted to them ye get them easily under foot ye are never sent to God to subdue them Ye have reason to suspect ye have never been tryed enough with these evils if in earnest ye be tried with evils ye will be sent to God for the mortification of them otherwise any mortification ye get of ills without him it will fail you when ye have most ado with it and ye will find that Satan is not cast out but gone out and will return and surprise you for ye must be put to God for a right redemption from iniquity And 2. on the other hand I would have you looking on no iniquity even that which most enslaves you as on an iniquity that he cannot subdue or were not willing to subdue if he were seriously employed ye have his word for it Mic. 7. where when he hath said v. 18. He is a God that pardons iniquity and passes by transgression He adds v. 19. that he will have compassion and subdue our iniquities He can break in pieces the Gates of Brass and cut in sunder the bars of Iron To allude to that Psal 107.16 and Isai 45.29 He can burst all these bonds under which a sinner is shut up in slavery and servitude and deliver him from those base lusts that carried him captive and held him in bondage How deeply was Paul engaged in persecution How mad was he in pursuance of that woful Trade Yet when God interposed he made him stand unholden What Monsters were these 1 Cor. 6.8 9. Fornicators idolaters adulterous thieves covetous drunkards effeminat c. Yet v. 11. he tells them Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God As upon the one hand I would not only have these that are puddled with their corruptions that all their purposes and resolutions to reform misgive them looking upon it as a cause of their ill success that Christ is little employed but also I would have them looking on no prevailing predominant evil as impossible to his power to subdue it So on the other hand O that this might speak a word to profligat profane persons that cannot sleep except they do ill that cannot go to bed unless they be full as beasts that rake the life from them rather than twin them and their lusts they are so habituat to excess and riot they cannot forbear it Thinks thou that an excuse that thou cannot help it What an excuse would it be for a Thief arraigned at the Bar to say he must be forgiven for he cannot hold up his hands No more will it excuse thee for drunkenness lasciviousness c. To say Thou cannot help it it 's an aggravation of thy crime and no excuse But here I would leave it at the door of all profligat wretches as a witness against them that God is able to redeem from all these iniquities if they will come to him God is able to cast out all these Devils that enslave thee That deaf Devil that will not let thee hear what God speaks to thee That dumb Devil that will not suffer thee to pray to him That filthy swinish Devil that will never suffer thee to be out of the mire of some abomination I here leave it I say at the door of such Monsters that there is power in God if they will employ him to redeem them from all their iniquities But here it sticks the power of God is little employed to redeem from the power of sin because the Conscience is little touched with the guilt of sin O! pray to God that your Conseiences may be awak'd that ye may cry What shall we do to be saved That sin may be a burden to you as it will be when the Conscience is touched and if ye will not pray know that God can do that when you little dream of it as ye may see in Cain Judas Achitophel who could not keep their Consciences asleep to tell that folk have not Consciences at their command but if the Conscience be touch'd with guilt know there is power in God to redeem from iniquities 4. A fourth word of Inference is That if God as ye heard in the Explication do redeem from all iniquities then not only must ye endeavour the pardon of sin and the mortification of sin but that the mortification of sin be universal ye must spare a Zoar a Delilah a bosom sin or idol but seek that all sin may be subdued the man that is rightly engaged against sin it will not satisfie him that he hath got the wings of sin clipped and made it to couch that it break not out but he must be at war with it so long as there is a tapoun of sin as ye use to speak under ground it must be his exercise to be about the mortification of
sin till he be quit of sin altogether Redemption from all iniquity imports That the remainder of sin will be a burden as was it to Paul Rom. 7. And made him cry out O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death and here is the task and touchstone of the truly godly it will not content them though sin do not reign but the remainder of sin the bird-lime of sin the clog of corruption will be a burden to them and these who in their security do satisfie themselves to get sin kept under the hatches they provock God to write what is in their bosom in their practice and when any thing breaks out in a person that hath the name of Religion it is an evidence they have not been busie within doors else he needed not to have that Bell rung to him to give him warning of it And hence 5. If the very remainders and seeds of sin be a burden to the Israel of God till they get home ye may gather how much those who are true Israelites exercised with the guilt and power of sin will be taken up with the thoughts of a compleat liberation from sin with that which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 8.23 Waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies And Christ Luke 21.28 Bids look up and lift up our heads for the day of our redemption draws near This is it an Israelite indeed is taken up with There are many folk who when they are vext in the world would be gone wherein they look rather to the ills they would flee from than the good they look for But here is the exercise of a true Israelite they long to be home that they may be compleatly Redeemed from all iniquity that they may sin no more that as it is Eph. 5.27 They may be presented a glorious bride unto Christ not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but may be holy and without blemish and they that are vext here with the stirring and foul-sticking slime of their corruptions would be taking a Pisgah look of that day that is coming when they shall be Redeemed from all Iniquity from the least degree and grain of it and shall be made perfectly holy We shall say no more but Lord bless what ye have heard FINIS Courteous Reader help the following Errata with thy Pen the first number sheweth the Page the second the Line R. is for read D. dele or blot out F. for ib. ibidem or in the same Page Page 2. 28 29. r. rendered degrees 6. 29. d. either 9. 12. r. wakens 16. 10. r. surcharging 21. 15. r. is he 28. 1. F. that r. then 31. 30. r. to be put out of prayer's mister 56. 10. r. F. ordinary r. ordinances 61. 4. r. meet the sinner 84. 3. r. wherein as in a mirror the desert of sin may be seen 92. 6. f. will r. ill ib. 11. r. provock 96. 33. f. eye r. cry 105. 27. r. to desire to be rid of it 3ly That sin c. 108. 7. r. would not 109. 5. r. would have none 113. 30. r. pardoning 117 8. d. but. 118. 1 r. are not to be limited ib. 8. r. if they may venture 119. 32. r. and as they are a bond 126. 34. r. after-game 129. 25. f. only r. also 132. 14. r. satisfactorly 133. 35. f. use r. rise 139. 20. r. takes away actual ordination to punishment and yet will have the sinner suffering punishment 150. 35. r. serious 170. 31. r. takes a view 198. 22. d. unself 202. 5. r. stamp of 212. 33. r. indignity offered 213. 27. r. having run through these things shortly ib. 36. r. seemed 217. 36. r. therefore 218. 12. d. like 222. 18. r. or take them not so near them 223. 4. r. cleansed my heart 230-7 r. and a man 240. 16. close the parenthesis after such 258 17. r. be ground for temptation 262. 17. r. patient 279. 1. d. out his wisdom 280. 15. f. many r. may 182. 13. r. what thou will do 283. 4. r. and out of 298. 20. r. begin its exercise 299. 10. r. and this ye must know 303. 18. r. if the priest 311. 27. r. ambiguous 312. 19. r. fixed 316. 17. r. therefore it is so soon 319. 10. d. in 342. 6. r. in that word 358. 15. r. among other things 364. 7. r. speaking meat 367. 28. r. can these bones live 394. 9. r. from all his iniquities 451. 10. r. though their pressures be such 458. 28. r. not find their lovers 462. 24. close the parenthesis after rejoyce 467. 1. r. much work may fall 480. 14. r. redeem Israel from all c.