doctrine extreamly derogating from the full satisfaction of Christs death as the Orthodox shew against the Papists Therefore in the third place the truth is this That God when he forgiveth a sin or sins he doth likewise take off all temporal punishment properly so called viz. in order to any vindicative justice as if a further supply were to be made to Christs sufferings by what we indure yet we say withall that God indeed doth take notice of the sins of those that are justified and doth correct them for them so that when he chastiseth them it is in reference to their sins they are the occasion or the impulsive cause as we may say though improperly when we speak of God Although the final cause and the end why God doth so is not to satisfie his justice but for other ends It is doubted whether we may call them punishments or no but we need not litigate about the word I see Chemnitius and Rivet cals them so And if we make a distinction in Gods end why he afflicts the godly for their sins from that when he punisheth the wicked though both for their sins we speak the truth fully enough though we call them punishments and certainly the words punish or punishment used Hos 4.19 Ezek. 9.13 Levit. 26.41 do not take the word punishment in such a strict sense The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used of the damned Angels and men 2 Pet. 2.9 Mat. 25.46 and this word seems not applicable to the afflictions of Gods people for their sins and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth to be an act of some Judge who doth not attend to mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in voc But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Iudge is attributed to God when he doth correct his children 1 Cor. 11.31 where the Apostle useth three words in an elegant paronomasia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so then when God doth afflict his people he may be said to do it as a Iudge and afflictions are called judgements 1 Pet. 4.17 only when God doth thus correct and punish his people he is paternus Iudex a fatherly Judge But the most expressive word of these afflictions is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denoteth God afflicting his people as a father his childe and although he doth it because of their faultslts yet he hath tendernesse in what he doth This is the truth and for the proving of it consider these Propositions First That God doth not afflict any but where there is sin in the subject for so was the threatning at first in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die By death is meant all kinde of evil and punishment so that had there been no sin going before there had no curse either upon man or creatures followed after Hence it is that Divines say The very hunger and thirst which Adam had while in the state of integrity was without that pain and provocation as it is in us So that the state of man in righteousnesse was like the heavens that admit of no corruptive alterations As for that dispute Whether God may not by his absolute Soveraignty adjudge man without the consideration of sin to everlasting misery the affirmative decision of it will not much incommodate this truth seeing that even then they say God doth this per modum simplicis cruciatus by way of a meer naked trouble and pain not per modum poenae by way of a punishment As for Christ he though innocent was a man of sorrows because our sins were laid on him Secondly That God may and sometimes doth afflict yet not in reference to sin Thus God doth exercise Job who though he was not without sin yet God seemeth not to do it for sin Therefore such calamities were rather exercises of his graces then correctives of his sins they were to him what a storm or a tempest is to a skilfull Pilate what a valiant adversary is to a stout Champion and to this purpose is that answer of our Saviour when the question was Whether the parents or the blinde man himself had sinned that he should be born blinde speaking according to the opinion of some Philosophers that was now also received among the Jews as learned men think viz. That there was a prexistency of the souls before they were united to their bodies our Saviour returneth this answer Neither hath this man sinned because he had no being before his birth nor his parents viz. some grievous sin for which God would punish the childe but only that the works of God may be made manifest This also must be granted Thirdly That all afflictions and crosses are to be reduced to the Law We may acknowledge this truth also if so be by Law we mean strictly whatsoever doth command and threaten and the Gospel to be only promissory though if largely taken the Gospel hath its curses and afflictions so God threatning or afflicting of a godly man doth so far use the Law as an instrument to make him sensible of his sin and therefore this is a sure Argument that the Law is not abolished as to all uses to the Believer because still there do befall afflictions to the godly not only from sin as the Antinomians speak but for sin only as the Law without the grace of God worketh all evil so do all afflictions likewise to men that are not godly Therefore wicked men in afflictions are as garlik or any ill-smelling herb the more it is pounced the worse smell it sends forth so that there must be teaching as well as chastening to make that affliction blessed Fourthly That in the calamities which fall upon the godly there is a great difference some are common and absolutely determined others more special and not necessary This distinction must be attended for God hath so peremptorily and irrevocably concluded upon some miseries as the fruits of sin that no repentance or humiliation can ever take them off Thus though a man should have as much faith as Abraham as much meeknesse as Moses as much uprightnesse as David as much zeal and labour for the Church as Paul yet all this would not free from death nor could it remove the curse that is upon the ground so a womans holiness and humiliation cannot take away the pains and throbs in childe-bearing for these are absolutely decreed But then there are special calamities which many times by turning unto God are taken away yea and God very frequently when he pardoneth sin he taketh also away those outward miseries as we see in many whom he healed both in soul and body at the same time So that we say not God is bound alwaies when he doth pardon sin outwardly to afflict for it Fiftly There are again some calamities that come upon them because of sin others for other ends We acknowledge it as clear as the sun that many troubles upon
it self it is plain by all those places of Scripture which make repentance requisite to pardon Ezek. 14.6 Ezek. 18.30 Mat. 3.2 Luk. 13.3 The learned Dr Twisse Vind. grat p. 18. confesseth that there are Arguments on both sides in the Scripture Sometimes he saith Pardon of sin is subjoyned to confession and repentance of which sort he confesseth there are more frequent and expresse places but yet sometimes remission of sin already obtained is made an argument to move to repentance and he instanceth in David and Mary Magdalen who did abundantly and plentifully break out into tears upon the sense of pardon But these instances are not to the purpose for David repented of his wicked ness before Nathan told him That his sin was taken away and his penitential Psalm was not made so much for the first pardon of his sin as the confirming and assuring of him in his pardon Thus it was also with Mary Magdalen But more of this in time 4. There is a necessity of Repentance if we would have pardon both by a necessity of precept or command as also by a necessity of means and a way Whatsoever is necessary Necessitate medii by a necessity of means or a way is also necessary by a necessity of command though not è contra That repentance is necessary by way of a command is plain by the places fore-quoted and in innumerable other places I do not handle the case Whether an actual or explicite repentance be necessary to salvation of every sinner but I speak in the general It is disputed Whether it be a natural precept or a meer positive command and if it be a natural or moral command to which command it is reduced Those that would have it under the command of Thou shalt not kill as if there were commanded a care of our souls that they should not be damned are ignorant of the true limits and bounds of the several Commandments It s disputed also When this time of repentance doth binde It is a wonder that some should limit it only to times of danger and fear of death Certainly this command binds as soon as ever a man hath sinned Venenata inducias non patiuntur A man that hath swallowed down poison is not to linger but presently to expell it And one that is wounded who lieth bleeding doth presently dispatch with all readinesse for Physitians to have his bloud stopt and thus ought men to take the first opportunity Hence in that famous miracle wrought at the pool of Bethesda not the second or third but he that stept first into it was the only man that was healed As repentance is thus necessary by way of command so also by way of means for the Spirit of God worketh this in a man to qualifie him for this pardon So that although there be no causality condignity or merit in our repentance yet it is of that nature that God doth ordain and appoint it a way for pardon So that the command for repentance is not like those positive commands of the Sacraments wherein the will of the Law-giver is meerly the ground of the duty but there is also a fitnesse in the thing it should be so even as among men nature teacheth That the injurious person should be sorry and ask forgivenesse before he be pardoned 5. Concerning this duty of repentance there are two extream practical mistakes the one is of the prophane secure man who makes every empty and heartlesse invocation of mercy to be the repentance spoken of in the Scripture whereas repentance is a duty compounded of many ingredients and so many things go to the very essence yea the lowest degree of godly sorrow that by Scripture-rules we may say Repentance is rarely to be seen any where for if you do regard the nature of it it is a broken and a contrite heart Now how little of the heart is in most mens humiliations Men being Humiliati magis quam humiles as Bernard said humbled and brought low by the hand of God rather then humble and lowly in their own souls Again if you consider the efficient cause it is from the Spirit of God the spring of sorrow must arise from this hill Zech. 12. Rom. 8. Further if you consider the motive it must be because God is displeased and offended because sin is against an holy law and so of a staining and polluting nature Lastly If you consider the effect and fruit of repentance it is an advised forsaking and utter abandoning of all those lusts and iniquities in whose fetters they were before chained so that a man repenting and turned unto God differs as much from himself once a sinner as a Lazarus raised up and walking differs from himself dead and putrifying in the grave Do not thou then whose heart is not contrite who dost continually lick up the vomit of thy sin promise to thy self repentance No thou art far from this duty as yet On the other side There is a contrary mistake and that is sometimes by the godly soul and such as truly fear God They think not repentance enough unlesse it be enlarged to such a measure and quantity of sorrow as also extended to such a space of time and by this means because they cannot tell when they have sorrowed enough or when their hearts are broken as they should be they are kept in perpetual labyrinths and often through impatience do with Luther in such a temptation Wish they never had been made men but any creatures rather because of the doubts yea the hell they feel within themselves Now although it be most profitable bitterly to bewail our sins and to limit no time yet a Christian is not to think Pardon doth not belong to him because his sorrow is not so great and sensible for sin as he desireth it David indeed doth not only in his soul but even bodily expresse many tears yea rivers because of his sin and other mens sins yet it is a good rule That the people of God if they have sorrow in the chiefest manner appretiativè though not intensivè by way of judgment and esteem so that they had rather any affliction should befall them then to sin against God if this be in them though they have not such sensible intense affections they may be comforted When the Apostle John makes this argument He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen implieth That things of sense do more move us then matter of faith David made a bitter out-cry upon the death of Absolom with sad expressions Would to God I had died for thee O Absolom my son my son c. But when Nathan told him of his Adultery and Murder though he confessed his sin yet we reade not that he made such sensible lamentation Thus Hierom writeth of a godly woman Paula that at the death of her children would be so dejected that she did hardly escape death yet
they have no peace with God must needs be true of all godly men while unconverted He that believeth not hath not life and the wrath of God abideth on him and without faith it is impossible to please God Now who can deny but that this is true of Paul while no believer but an opposer of godlinesse The Psalmist also saith God is angry with the wicked every day Was not this true of Manasses before his conversion It must therefore be a very poisonous Doctrine to say That God is as well pleased with a man before his conversion as after 2. If the Scriptures limit this priviledge of Justification and pardon only to those subjects that are so and so qualified then till they be thus furnished they cannot enjoy those priviledges The places are many which testifie this Act. 3.19 Repent that your sins may be blotted out Therefore their sins stood uncancelled as so many Debts in Gods register Book till they did repent Act. 26.18 To turn them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins Therefore they had it not while under the power of darknesse 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins which supposeth That God doth forgive our sins only when we confesse and forsake them Matth. 6.15 If ye forgive not neither will my heavenly Father forgive you It is in vain to number up more places for these do necessarily prove sinne is not forgiven till Faith and Repentance They do not indeed argue a causality or merit yet they infer a necessary presence in those that obtain pardon and do hold by the same proportion as those places which require Sanctification before Glorification 3. Where the Scripture requireth many things to the obtaining of any speciall benefit there that benefit cannot be said to be enjoyed till all those things be brought about Now the Word of God speaks of several things required to pardon of sin There is the Grace and mercy of God as the efficient cause Psal 51.1 Isa 43.25 Rom. 3.25 2. There is requisite the bloud of Christ as the meritorious cause for there can be no remission of sins without effusion of bloud Rom. 3.25 1 Cor. 15.3 Heb. 1.3 1 Joh. 4.10 3. There is Faith required as an instrumental cause Act. 26.18 Rom. 3.25 Now although an instrumentall cause have not that worth or excellency as the efficient and meritorious have yet it is as necessary in the way of an instrument as the others are in their respective causalities so that as a man may not from those places which speak of Gods grace inferre therefore remission of sins is before Christs death So neither may a man argue because Christ died to take away our sins therefore these are taken away before we believe So that this Argument may fully establish us We see the Scripture speaking of three causes cooperant to pardon of sin therefore I may not conclude the effect is wrought till all those causes be And as the Scripture speaks of these causes so as you heard of many qualifications in the subject Insomuch that it is so far from being a duty to believe our sins were pardoned from all eternity antecedently to faith and repentance that we are undoubtedly to believe they were not If the King proclaim a pardon to every one that shall humble himself and seek it out If the Physician prepare a potion for the patient to receive it shall any man say because of those causal preparations that either the one is pardoned or the other healed before their particular application of those things 4. If our sins be pardoned antecedently to our Faith and Repentance then all those effects which are inseparable in the least moment of time from Justification are also antecedent to our Faith and Repentance But it is evident by experience that is not so It is a clear truth That Sanctification of our natures is individually conjoyned one with the other So that although there be a priority of nature yet they are together in time God pardons no mans sins whom he doth not heal Rom. 8.1 1 Joh. 1.9 Psal 32.2 A man may be justified and not glorified but not justified and unregenerated Then if so a man shall be at the same time unconverted and converted at the same time a member of Christ and a member of the devil and so as they say we are justified only declaratively in our own consciences so we shall be regenerated and converted only declaratively Again where sins are pardoned there is blessednesse as the Psalmist speaks then I may call Paul a blessed Persecutor Manasses a blessed murderer for they had no sin imputed to them at that time Besides those whose sins are pardoned may boldly go to the throne of grace and call God Father all which are contrary to the whole tenour of Scripture which expostulateth with men for taking his name or words into their mouth and hate to be reformed yet a Doctor of this Antinomian sour leaven affirmeth boldly That God doth love us as well before conversion as after That God did love Paul with as great a love when he persecuted the Church as when he preached the Gospel How must this devour up all godlinesse when I may have the same faith and confidence in God for pardon in the acting of flagitious crimes as well as out of them in prayer and humiliation and if he may have the same faith why not then the same consolations and joy in conscience 5. If Justification do antecede our Faith so that Faith doth only declare our pardon of sin then any other grace may be said to justifie as well as Faith For take any other grace repentance humility joy these are all the fruits of Gods Spirit and so demonstrate his election of us his justification of us But how unanswerably do the Orthodox prove a peculiar instrumental vertue in faith for pardon which others have not The Apostle expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through faith in his bloud not love of his bloud and indeed the Apostle maintaineth that Gospel-position against false teachers viz. That we are justified by Faith not by works The Question was not Whether the works of the Law did justifie us declaratively only but causally So then by this Doctrine Faith must no more be called the hand or the eating and drinking of Christs body and bloud but only made a sign of such mercies 6. If pardon of sin be from all eternity going before our Faith and Repentance because of Gods election then it must also be antecedent to the death and obedience of Christ So that not only our tears but Christs bloud shall be excluded from this great favor The reason is plain Because Gods predestination and election is antecedent to Christ yea Christ is a fruit of our election so that the Orthodox maintain against Arminians though we be chosen
Scripture less loving is called hating sometimes as the Learned observe Neither doth this make any change in God it only denoteth a change in the creature as hereafter is to be shewed So that the gross mistake as if Eleâ—tion were all love actually and expresly and the confounding of the love of God as an immanent act in him with the effects of this love hath made several persons split upon rocks of errors But how love and anger are in God is more exactly to be examined when we speak of the meritorious cause of Justification which is Christs merits for indeed this Argument from Election will as well put in for a Justification before any consideration of Christ as well as of Faith if every thing be duely weighed as in that part God willing is to he shewed where also the distinctions about Gods love are to be considered of Some making a general love and a special love others a first love and a second or one flowing from the first others a love of benevolence or beneficence and of complacency But of these in their proper place We proceed and in the next place we will put his fourth and sixth Argument together being both grounded upon this That Christ by his death gave a full satisfaction to God and God accepted of it whereby Christ is said so often to take away our sins and we to be cleansed by his bloud This Argument made the learned Pemble pag. 25. to hold out Justification in Gods sight long before we were born as being then purchased by Christs death otherwise he thinks we must with the Arminians say Christ by his death made God placabilem reconcilable not placatum reconciled No saith he it is otherwise the ransome demanded 〈◊〉 paid and accepted full satisfaction to the divine Justice is given and taken all the sins of the Elect all actually pardoned This is a great oversight For first Though Christ did lay down a price and the Father accept of it yet both agreed in a way and order when this benefit should become theirs who are partakers of it and that is when they believe and repent Now Bonum est ex integris causis if God the Fathers Covenant be to give pardon for Christs sake to those that do believe which faith also is the fruit of Christs death then may we not separate Christ from faith no more then faith from Christ or God the Fathers love from both If Christ had died for such a man to have his sins pardoned whether he had faith in him or no then this Argment would have stood firm God then did accept of Christs death and becomes reconciled but in that order and way which he hath appointed 2. This Argument doth interfâ—re with that of Election for there pardon of sin doth take its rise from Election but here from the time God laid our sins upon Christ And indeed the Antinomians are at a variance amongst themselves some fetching the original of pardon from one way and some from another 3. We do not say That faith is the condition of Christs acquiring pardon but of the application of pardon Faith doth not make Christs merits to be merits or his satisfaction to be satisfaction This ariseth from the dignity and worth of Christ It would be an absurd thing to say That faith is the cause why God doth accept of Christs merits and receiveth a satisfaction by him This were to make the instrumental cause a meritorious cause The Arminians they make Christ to have purchased pardon upon condition of believing which believing they do not make a benefit by Christs death yea they say Nihil ineptius nibil vanius nothing is more foolish and vain then to do so Now this indeed is an execrable errour to hold Christ died only to make a way for reconciliation which reconciliation is wholly suspended upon a mans faith and that faith comes partly from a mans will and partly from grace not being the fruit of Christs death as wel as remission of sins it self But we say a far different thing Christ satisfied Gods wrath so that God becomes reconciled and gives pardon but in the method and way he hath appointed which is faith and this faith God will certainly work in his due time that so there may be an instrument to receive this pardon For the opening of this when it is said Christ satisfied Gods wrath this may have a different meaning either that Christ absolutely purchased reconciliation with the Father whether they believe or no without any condition at all as Joab obtained Absoloms reconciliation with David or Esther the Jews deliverance of Ahashuâ—rosh Or with a condition In the former sense it cannot be said because the fruits of Christs death are limited only to believers If with a condition then either Antecedent which is to be wrought by us that so we may be partakers of his death and that cannot be because it is said He died for us while sinners and enemies And this is Arminianism for by this means only a gate is set open for salvation but it may happen that no man may enter in or else this condition is Concomitant or consequent viz. A qualification wrought by the Spirit of Christ whereby we are enabled to receive of those benefits which come by his death And in this sense it is a truth and by this the foundation of the Opponent is totally razed For Christ took away the sins of those for whom he died and reconciled them to God and this absolutely if by it we understand any condition anteceding to be done by us but not absolutely if it exclude a condition that is consequently wrought by the Spirit of God to apply the fruits of Christs death so that the actual taking away of sins is not accomplished till the person for whom he died be united to him by Faith Hence the Scripture speaks differently about Christs death sometimes it saith He died for us sinners and enemies and in other places John 15.13 He layeth down his life for his friends and his sheep Joh. 17.19 He saith he prayeth and sanctifieth himself for those that shall believe in him viz. in a consequent sense for those who by faith shall lay hold on his death So that faith hath a two-fold condition the first of the time when sins are taken away by Christs death and that is when they believe 2. Of whom these priviledges are true and that is of such who do believe Now all this may be the further cleared if we consider what kinde of cause Christs death is to take away our sins It is a meritorious cause which is in the rank of moral causes of which the rule is not true Positâ causâ sequitur effectus The cause being the effect presently followeth This holdeth in natural causes which necessarily produce their effects but moral causes work according to the agreement and liberty of the Persons that are moved thereby As for
such effectual Grace that thereby they shall recover and so remove that gulf which is between them and God So that at the same time God doth will to give them grace to repent and recover and yet he doth not will salvation to them till they do recover Here is no contrariety in Gods will because though this be about the same person yet not in the same respects for Gods will not to give salvation while in such an estate and to give Repentance that he may come out of that estate do no wayes oppose one another and because of this later mercy it is that we may alwayes say There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Their sins are never imputed to them for their condemnation but there is a conditional obliging of them till they sue out their pardon So that it is here as Solomon did with Abiathar 1 Kin. 2.26 Thou art saith Solomon worthy of death but I will not at this time put thee to death 5. Because of this guilt and demerit of sin it is that our Divines do say That if such an one David for example should die before these sins be repented of he would be damned For if you suppose a justified person to persevere alwayes in gross and vile sins without reformation you may as well suppose him to be damned Hence there is as some observe a two-fold impossibility There is an impossibility that David elected and justified should be damned There is also an impossibility that David a murderer and an adulterer should without Repentance be saved but God by his powerful grace will untie this knot by a certain and infallible recovery out of his sins for that is a perpetual and sure rule Election hath obtained Rom. 11. otherwise speak of David as in that state before Repentance we may say if he had died in it he would have been damned Thus Beza Twiss c. Yet Gods grace which was so potent at the first to raise out of the grave of sin how much rather if life be in us will it quicken us to turn unto God 6. From hence further it ariseth That he needeth a particular Justification in respect of that guilt which is to be done away Some Orthodox and learned Writers Abbot and others distinguish of a two-fold Justification one universal whereby a man is absolutely received into the grace and favour of God becoming his Son A second is particular whereby sins are remitted to them that are already made the children of God without which they would fall from their first benefit of sonship The one is called Justificatio simplicitèr The other Secundùm quid and this particular Justification they make to be often repeated Thus Peter Martyr Rom. 3. Lapsis post Justificationem repetitâ denuò Justificatione per fidem condonari Thus Bucer Defensio pag. 85. acknowledgeth an iteration of Justification after we repent and arise from more grievous sins Others call it not a particular Justification but an application of that universal Justification And certainly Justification doth denote the state of a man but seeing the Remission of such sins doth not put them into a new estate for they never fell from that we cannot so properly call it Justification and I know not any place where the Scripture cals it so and it would be very hard to say That Justification is re-iterated as often as sin is pardoned Though therefore there may be some difference in the words yet the matter it self is clear viz. There is a necessity of the removing of this guilt that so the person offending may be brought into Gods favour again 7. Seeing all this is true then it followeth That such a man so offending must renew an act of Faith and Repentance So that the former acts of faith and godly sorrow will not discharge or acquit from the new sins committed Therefore lastly it is a most dangerous errour in practice to hold That after a known sinne committed the first thing a believer is to do before Repentance or Humiliation is to believe that that sin is already pardoned Thus a late Writer Cornwell in a Treatise called Gospel-repentance wherein he labours to prove That a believer entred into the Covenant of Grace upon the commission of an actual known sin ought to believe the actual pardon of that sin before he actually repent of the same Now although this is to be confuted when we handle Faith and Repentance yet thus much we may say That this Doctrine must needs be very unsound for first There is no sin actually pardoned before Repentance as at large I have shewed and no sin is pardoned before it be committed as in the next Question is to be shewed So that it would be abominable presumption yea and falshood to believe such a thing Hence such a perswasion as this God hath or will pardon my sins can bring no comfort or peace to our conscience till we repent for a Scripture perswasion is That God enabling me to repent and to use the means will vouchsafe pardon and in this only can I have comfort Besides the Author makes the last work of Faith the first for upon a known sin committed Faith is to be exercised first in the threatnings of God to believe those due to him In the next place Faith is to relie upon Christ for pardon that he may receive remission of sins for as Rivet and Perkins urge well There is no pardon offered on Gods part or received on mans till he do believe and then when these acts are done God doth many times incline the soul to believe the sin is pardoned But the pardon of sin must be received by a direct act of Faith before we can believe that it is pardoned by a reflex But this is more largely to be confuted Now the Objection may be How can sinne thus far prevail in the filth and guilt of it and yet the man so sinning not fall from his Justification This will be cleared if you consider these things First That Justification is an act of God meerly it is not our act We are said to be justified and God he doth justifie Now Opus Dei non potest irritum fieri per opus hominis Those acts of God which he doth we cannot make void but he ordereth them for their time and continuance as he pleaseth Secondly Consider That sin doth not expel the Grace of Justification efficiently or physically as darkness doth light or coldness heat but meritoriously by way of desert Now God doth not with us according to our desert when he entered into a Covenant of Grace with us he so appointed it that no sin should break the league of friendship whereas if he had pleased he might so have appointed it that the least sin should have dissolved this bond and if sin did expel the Grace of Justification efficiently the least sin would have done it But now if it was wholly at Gods pleasure to make this
way of Justification by faith in Christ ariseth because of our imperfection and sinfulness remaining in us and therefore is justificatio viae not patriae a justification of us in our way not when we come to our home Fourthly Although pardon of sin be compleated at that great day yet this is not to be understood as if Gods pardon of any sin were imperfect and something of sinne did still remain to be done away No those expressions of forgivenes of sin in the Scripture denote such a full and plenary pardon that a sin cannot be more remitted then it is But because we commit new sinnes daily and so need pardon daily Therefore it is that we are not compleatly pardoned till then As also because the perfect pardon we have here shall then solemnly and publikely be declared to all the world These things thus premised I come to shew the grounds or particulars wherein our pardon of sinne is thus compleated And first In our sense and feeling For howsoever God pardon a sinne perfectly yet our faith which receiveth it is weak This Jewell is taken with a trembling and shaking hand Hence it is that we have not full faith and confidence in our spirits We may see this in David though Nathan told him his sinnes were forgiven him yet his faith was not so vigorous and powerfull as wholly to apply this to his own soul and therefore he had much anguish and trouble of heart afterwards But now at the last day all these fears diffidence and darknesse will be quite removed out of our hearts There shall be no more disturbance in our souls then there can be corruption in the highest heavens we shall then have such a gourd as no worm can devour Our souls shall not then know the meaning of sitting in darknesse and wanting Gods favour There will then be no complaints Why hath the Lord forsaken me Well may Gods children be called upon to lift up their heads when such a redemption draweth nigh and well may that day be called the times of refreshment seeing the people of God are so often scorched with the fiery darts of Satan Secondly Pardon of sin will at that day be perfected Because all the effects of pardon will then be accomplished and not so much as any scars remain the wound will be so fully healed Although God doth fully pardon sin yet the effects of this are delaied many chastisements and sad afflictions are to be undergone howsoever death it self and the corruption in the grave must seize upon justified persons now these are the fruit of sin and howsoever the sting of these be taken away yet they are not wholly conquered till that last day Then therefore may we justly say Sin is pardoned when there shall be no more grave no more death no more corruption but all shall be swallowed up in immortality and glory Thirdly Then and not till then may we say remission of sins will be compleated because then shall no more iteration of pardon be Here in this life because the root of corruption abideth in us there are daily pullulant branches of sinnes and so frequent guilt is contracted whereby as we have daily sores so we need daily plaisters It is with originall corruption in us as in that Tree in Dan. 4.14 15. although the branches be cut off yet the stump is still in the earth and that sprouts out too fast by the temptations that are alwaies by it Hence it is that we alwaies pray Forgive us our sins and because of thâ—se failings the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.20 writeth to and exhorteth the godly Corinthians who were already reconciled to God to be further reconciled to him But then this Petition shall wholly cease then there will be no serpent to sting us nor will the eye of justifying faith to look upon the brazen serpent exalted be necessary any more The Lord will not only wipe away the tear of wordly grief but also of godly sorrow at that time Then and not till then will it be true That God seeth no sin in his children Then will the Church be without wrinkles or any spot within her In this respect it is the Church of God pâ—aieth so earnestly for the Bridegrooms coming For this it is They look for and hasten in their praiers that day Fourthly At that day will pardon of sin only be compleated if you consider the nature of justification For what is that but an overcoming the accusing adversary and clearing of us against every charge Now this is most eminently and fully done in those last assizes The Syriack word to justifie is also to conquer and overcome because when a man is justified he overcometh all those bils and indictments which were brought in against him now this is manifestly done in the day of judgement when God shall before men and Angels acquit and absolve his people and if the Apostle say in this life Rom. 6.7 of a godly man dead in Christ he is justified from his sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of sanctification that sin doth not conquer him but he sinne how much more will this be true at that day when all the guilt and filth of sin shall be totally removed Oh what a glorious conquest will that be over sin hell and the devil when the Judge of the whole world shall pronounce them free from all sinne and command them to enter into his glorious rest Having thus cleared the Doctrine one Question may be briefly touched upon Whether the sins of Gods people shall be manifested at the day of judgement and God for Christs sake then acquit them There are learned men for the affirmative They shall be published and there are learned men for the negative Those that are for the affirmative they say indeed godly mens sins shall not be examined for their ignominy or confusion but only that the goodnesse and grace of God may be made the more illustrious For this they urge these Arguments First Those places of Scripture which speak of the universality of the reall objects and personal Of the reall as when it 's said A man must give an account of every idle word Mat 12.36 2 Cor. 5.10 an account must be made for every thing done in the body For the universality of the object personal 2 Cor. 5. We must all appear before the Tribunall seat Again They urge the opening of the book which shall be at that day and that is nothing but the manifesting of the consciences of men Furtther Many wicked mens sins and godly mens are mingled together and there cannot be a judgement of discussion preceding that of condemnation unlesse godly mens sinnes also be produced In summe They think this conduceth more to the setting up of Gods justice the exaltation of his mercy neither say they will this breed shame to the godly for in heaven they shall remember their sins committed on earth but without any grief
sin in the beleever is in the sight of God 69 17 How Gods anger manifesteth it self upon his children when they sinne pag. 75 18 What kinde of sins God is displeased with 79 19 How God manifesteth his displeasure against his people in spirituall and eternall things 82 20 How the Antinomian would prove that God doth not see sinne in a justified person 88 21 How the Antinomian distinguisheth between Gods knowing and seeing of sin ibid. 22 How seeing is attributed to God 89 23 How Gods knowledge and ours do differ ibid. 24 How the Antinomians are contrary to themselves 93 25 How farre Gods taking notice of sinne so as to punish it is subject to the meer liberty of his will 95 26 How freedome may be extended to God 96 27 How the attributes of God and the actions of them differ in respect of freedome 97 28 How Gods justice essentially and the effects of it differ 100 29 How Christ satisfied God 101 30 How afflictions on Beleevers can agree with Gods justice ibid. 31 Why sins are called debts 105 32 What in sin is a debt ibid. 33 What is meant by that petition Forgive us 113 34 Whether we pray for the pardon it self or for the sense thereof only 4 Reasons proving the affirmative 116 35 What is implied in the petition Forgive us our debts 121 1 In the subject who doth pray ibid. 2 In the matter praied for 126 3 In the person to whom we pray 128 36 How sin a considered 130 37 How all sin is voluntary 132 38 Whether sin be an infinite evil 138 39 What remission of sin is 139 40 Why repentance and faith is pressed as necessary 146 41 How our repentance consists with Gods free grace in pardoning of sin 147 42 How many doe mistake concerning repentance p. 150 43 Why God requires repentance seeing it is no cause of pardon 157 44 Why repentance wrought by the spirit of God is not enough to remove sin in the guilt of it 161 45 Why repentance should not be as great a good and as much honour God as sin is an evil 163 46 What harm comes to God by sin ibid. 47 What kinde of act Forgivenesse of sin is and whether it be antecedent to our faith and repentance 166 48 Whether justification precede faith and repentance 176 49 Whether infants have actuall faith and are Beleevers 181 50 How we are sinners in Adam 185 51 How an elect person unconverted and a reprobate differ and what kinde of love election is 188 52 Whether in that petition Forgive us our debts we pray for pardon or for assurance only 196 53 Why God doth sometimes pardon sinne not acquainting the person with it 200 54 What directions should be given to a soul under temptation about pardon of sin 203 55 Whether a Beleever repenting is to make difference between a great sin and a lesser 205 56 What is meant by covering of sin 216 57 How God by pardoning sin is sâ—id to cover it 217 58 Whether the phrase of Gods covering sin imply that he doth not see it 219 59 How sins being in justified persons can stand with the omnisciency truth and holinesse of God 220 60 How God doth see sin in beleevers when they have the righteousnesse of Christ to cover it 221 61 How a face is attributed to God 226 62 What sins Gods children may fall into 230 63 How the sinnes of Gods people and of the reprobate differ 234 64 How farre grosse sinnes make a breach upon justification 236 65 Why the guilt of new grosse sinnes doth not take away justification p. 245 66 Whether God in pardoning doth not forgive all sins together 246 67 Wherein the compleatnesse of the pardon of sin at the day of judgement consists 262 68 Whether the sins of Gods people shall be manifested at the last day 264 69 Whether we are justified in Christ before we beleeve as we are accounted sinners in Adam before we actually sinned 186 70 Whether reconciliation purchased by Christs death doth necessarily inferre justification before faith 190 OF JUSTIFICATION LECTURE I. ROM 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace c. THE Apostle in the words precedent laid down two Propositions to debase man and all his works that so he might make way for the exaltation of that grace of justification here spoken of The first Proposition is that By the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in his sight where two things are observable 1. That he cals every man by the word Flesh which is emphaticall to beat down that pride and tumor which was in the Jews 2. He addeth in his sight which supposeth that though our righteousnesse among men may be very glorious yet before God it is unworthy The other Proposition is that All come short of the glory of God Some do make it a Metaphor from those in a race who fall short of the prize Whether by the glory of God be meant the image of God and that righteousnesse first put into us or eternall life or which is most probable matter of glorying and boasting before God which the Apostle speaks of afterwards is not much materiall Now the Apostle having described our condition to be thus miserable he commends the Grace of God in justifying of us which is decyphered most exactly in a few words so that you have in the Text a most compendious delineation of justification First There is the benefit set down being justified Secondly The efficient cause Gods Grace and here we have a two-fold impulsive cause one inward denoted in the word Freely the other outward in the meritorious cause Christs death which is further illustrated by the appointment of God for this end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some understand this of Gods manifestation as if it were spoken to oppose the propitiatory in the Ark which was left hidden some to the whole polity in the Old Testament which in the Legal shadows and the Prophets predictions did declare Christ Others upon better ground refer it to the Decree of God This death of Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denoteth both the action it self as also the effect and benefit which cometh by it Chrysostome observeth that it is called redemption and not a simple emption because we were the Lords once but by our sins became slaves to Satan and now God doth make us his again In the third place you have the instrumentall cause Faith in his bloud this is that Hysop that doth sprinkle the bloud though it be contemptible in it self yet it is instrumentall for a great good and hereby is denoted That Faith hath a peculiar nature in this work of Justification which no other grace hath for none saith Love in his bloud or Patience in his bloud Lastly here is the final cause To declare the righteousnesse of God for the remission of sins past Some observe those words sins past as implying no sinne is
we remain still obnoxious and bound in Gods wrath Again It is for comfort to the godly what though Satan thy own heart and the world doth condemn thee yet if God Justifie thou maiest rejoyce you see Rom. 8. what a challenge Paul there makes Who shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that Justifieth Who shall charge any thing The devil thy own heart can lay much pride hypocrisie sloth fulnesse to thy charge it is true but God through Christ doth Justifie What a Cordiall and reviver would it be to Gods people to live in the power of this gift bestowed upon them it is God that justifieth thee O my troubled soul who can then condemn who can hinder it or invalidate it Certainly we are therefore in dejections despondencies and perplexities often because we drink not of this water of life Lay and apply this excellent Doctrine to thy fainting dying soul and it will become to it like Elisha applying himself to the dead childe cause spirit and life again to return to him right thoughts here will sweeten all thoughts in other things Eleventhly Although Justification be a Court action and drawn from judicatories yet God is not in this action considered meerly as a Iudge but as paternus Judex a fatherly Iudge having an admirable temperament of justice and mercy so that God pronounceth this sentence from the Throne of Justice and Mercy also of Justice in that he will not absolve till satisfaction be made and he will not pronounce righteous but where there is a perfect righteousnesse Therefore that opinion of making Faith to be accepted of for righteousnesse is a dangerous and false assertion God in this work of Justification is never described as accepting of an imperfect righteousnesse for a perfect No God doth not cease to be just while he is thus gracious Again his Justice and righteousnesse is herein seen that none shall be Justified but such sinners who feel their guilt and desire to be eased of that burden beleeving and rolling their souls upon him It is very hard to give the right order of the benefits of Vocation Justification Adoption and Sanctification but yet this may be made good against the Antinomian that a man is not Justified till repenting and beleeving Here is Justice then but there is also a great deal of Grace and Mercy As in the accepting of a surety for us that he would not keep to the Law of having us in our own persons to pay the utmost farthing This was great love so likewise to finde out a way for our reconciliation that when the devils had no remedy provided for them we have Further that when this price is laid down we have the application of this benefit and so many thousands have not Two in a Bed in a Family in a Parish one Justified and the other condemned What Gracâ— is this Twelfthly This grand mercy is described in Scripture by God his giving something to us not our doing any thing to him It is described by Gods actions not ours to him which may abundantly satisfie the heart against all doubts and fears thus the Scripture cals it forgiving not imputing sin imputing righteousnes making righteous all which are actions from God to us not ours to him so that we are no where said in a good sense to Justifie ourselves or commanded to it as we are to repent or beleeve and to crucifie the lusts of the flesh because it is wholly Gods action by faith indeed we apprehend it but it 's Gods action as the window letteth in the light but it is the Sun that doth inlighten And from this particular we may gather much comfort for when we look into our selves and see no such righteousnesse or holinesse that we dare hold out to God then we may remember this is not by our doing to God but receiving from him and in this sense it is more blessed for us to receive then to give This made the Father say justitia nostra est indulgentia tua our righteousnesse is thy indulgence Therefore let not the troubled heart say where is my perfect repenting where is my perfect obedience but rather ask where is Gods forgiving where is Gods not imputing how hardly is the soul drawn off from resting in it self it is not thy doing but Gods doing thou must not consider what do I but what God doth The Antinomian he indeed wringeth these breasts of Consolation till bloud cometh but the true sweet milk of the word must not therefore be thrown away Do not then as they sought for Christ look for him in the grave when he was risen out thence Do not thou poâ—r in thy self for this treasure when it is to be looked for from heaven duties graces will say this is not in me Lastly The Scripture hath other equivalent phrases to this of Justification which likewise do amplifie the comfort of this gift It is called Blessedness as if this indeed were the true heaven and happines If thou art justified thou carriest heaven about with thee and thy name may be Legion for many are the mercies that do fill thee Nothing can make thee blessed but this it is not Blessed is he to whom the Lord giveth many riches and honors many parts and abilities but to whom the Lord imputeth no sin and howsoever those who wallow in a Laodicean fulnesse judge not this such blessednesse yet ask a Cain ask a Judas demand of the tormented in hell whether it be not a blessed thing to have sin pardoned That thou shouldest be able to look on thy sins as so many serpents without stings as so many Egyptians dead upon the shoar as if they had never been that thou shouldst be able to say Lord where are such lusts such sins of mine I finde them all cancelled Is not this blessednes indeed Another expression is of accepting us in Christ and herein lieth much of Justification that it is an acceptation of us to eternall life Eph. 1.6 This must needs imbolden and incourage the heart when it knoweth that both person and duties are accepted though so much frailty and weakness yet God will receive thee The third phrase is to make Just Rom. 5.9 For God doth not pronounce that man just which is not so Therefore when we are Justified this is not absolutely and simply against a righteousnesse of works but in a certain respect as done by us and as obedience coming from us and this must needs support the soul for when satisfaction is made when God hath as much as he desireth why should not this quiet the heart of a man will nothing content thee unlesse thou thy self art able to pay God the utmost farthing A fourth word is not imputing of sin or imputing righteousnesse and this as you heard before is a very sure and real thing though it be not in us for there are many real benefits do come to us wheh yet the
pardon can never be called an inherent righteousnesse or a qualitative Justice but rather it opposeth it but it may be called a Legal or Judicial righteousnesse because God for the obedience and satisfaction of Christ doth account of us as righteous having pardoned our sin and withall imputing Christs righteousnesse to us both which make up our Justification For the understanding therefore of the first particular viz. Remission of sins take these Propositions which will be the foundation upon which many material questions will be built 1. That forgivenes of sin is possible there may be and is such a thing Hence in that ancient Creed we are said to believe a remission of sins where faith is described not in the meer historical acts of it but fiducial the remission of my sins Now this is some stay to a troubled sinner that his sins may be forgiven whereas the devils cannot God no where saying to them Repent and believe And although Salmeron holdeth that God gave the lapsed Angels space to repent before they were peremptorily adjudged unto their everlasting torments yet he hath scarce a guide or companion in that opinion were not therefore this true that there is such a thing in the Church of God as forgivenes of sin How much better had it been for us if we had never been born 2. Consider That a sin may be said to be forgiven divers wayes First in the decree and purpose of God as Christ is called the Lamb slain from the beginning Though I do not know where the Scripture useth such an expression yet the Antinomians build much upon it Secondly A sin may be said to be forgiven in Christ meritoriously when God laid the sins of his people upon him which the Prophet Isaiah doth describe as plainly Isa 53. as any Evangelist hence some have called Isaiah the fifth Evangelist Now you must not conclude such a mans sins are pardoned because they are laid upon Christ a long while ago which is the Antinomians perpetual panalogizing for to this effect of remission of sin there go more causes besides the meritorious faith the instrumental cause which is as necessary in its kinde for this great benefit as the meritorious cause is in its kind that though Christ hath born such a mans sins yet they are not pardoned till he do believe for as the grace of God which is the efficient cause of pardon doth not make a sin compleatly forgiven without the meritorious cause so neither doth the meritorious without the instrumental but there is a necessity of the presence and the co-operation of all these Thirdly A sin is said to be pardoned when the guilt is taken away and this is properly Remission of iniquities Fourthly Sin is pardoned in our sense and feeling when God takes away all our fears and doubts giving us an assurance of his love And lastly Sin is forgiven when the temporal affliction is removed and in this sense the Scripture doth much use the word forgivenesse of sins and his not pardoning is when he will punish 3. There are several things considerable in sin when we say it is forgiven First In sin there is a privation of that innocency which he had before as when a man is proud by that act of pride he is deprived of that innocency and freedom from that guilt which he had before This is properly true of Adam who lost his innocency by sinning It cannot be affirmed of us but in a limited sense thus far that when a man commits a sin that guilt may be charged upon him whereof he was innocent before Now when sin is forgiven the sense is not that he is made innocent again for that can never be helped but that it must be affirm'd such an one hath sin'd this cannot be repaired again It is true the Scripture useth such expressions That iniquity shall be sought for and there shall be found none Jer. 51.20 But that is in respect of the consequence of it We shal have as much joy and peace as if we had not sinned at all A 2d thing in sin is the dignity desert it hath of the wrath of God and this is inseparable from any sin if it be a sin there is a desert of damnation thus all the sins of the godly howsoever they shall not actually condemn them yet they have a desert of condemnation Thirdly There is the actual ordination and obligation of the person sinning to everlasting condemnation and forgivenes of sin doth properly lie in this not in taking away the desert of the guilt of sin but the actual ordination of it to condemnation Therefore its false that is affirmed by some that reatus est forma peccati guilt is the form of a sin for a sin may be truly a sin and yet this actual ordination of it to death taken away Fourthly There is in sin an offence done unto God or an enmity to him so that now he is displeased and this is taken away in some measure by forgivenesse yet so as his anger is not fully removed If we speak exactly God doth not punish his children yet as a Father he is angry with them and that makes him to chastise them though the sin be forgiven Fifthly In sinne is likewise a bloâ— or pollution whereby the soul loseth its former beauty and excellency and this is not removed by remission but by sanctification and renovation Hence it is ordinarily said that Justification hath a relative being only but Renovation an absolute inherent change And lastly In all sin there is an aversion from God either Habitual in Habitual sins or Actual in Actual and in this aversion from God the soul abideth till it be turned to him again as a man that turneth his back on the Sun continueth so till he turn himself again now Conversion and not Justification doth rectifie this so that by this you may see what it is to have a sin forgiven not the foulnes or the disformity of it to Gods Law removed nor yet the dignity and desert of Gods wrath no nor all kinde of anger from God but the actual ordination of it to condemnation 4. There is a great difference between original sin and actuals for that of original is much more perplexed in the matter of remission then those of actuals when an actual sin is committed the act is transient that is quickly passed away there remaineth only the guilt which sticketh till God by pardon doth remove it and then when he hath forgiven it there is all of that sin past But now in original sin it is otherwise for that corruption adhering to us cleaving to our nature like Ivie to the tree as the Father expresseth it though it be forgiven yet it still continueth and that not only as an exercise of our faith and prayers or by way of a penal languâ—r upon us but truly and
many other places do abundantly prove that there is not forgivenes but where there is repentance Therefore look upon all those doctrines as false and dangerous which make justification to be before it Not that we do with Papists make any merit or causality in repentance or that we limit it to such a measure and quantity of repentance nor as if we made it the condition of the Covenant of Grace but only the way without which not the cause for which remission of sins is not obtained neither can there be any instance given of men forgiven without this repentance and the same likewise is affirmed of faith though faith is in another notion then repentance this being the instrument to apply and receive it But of this hereafter 9. This remission of sin is not limited to persons times or the quantity and quality of sins Indeed the sin against the holy Ghost cannot be forgiven we will not explain that cannot by difficulty as if indeed it might be forgiven but very hardly The ordinary answer is that therefore it cannot be forgiven because the person so sinning will not confesse humble himself and seek pardon God is described by pardoning iniquity transgressions and sins Christ is said to take away the sin of the world David and Peters sins were voluntary yet God forgave them LECTURE IV. ROM 3.24 25. Being Iustified freely by his grace c. THe Doctrine about remission of sin being thus particularly declared we come to that great Question How afflictions come upon the godly after the pardon of their sins For the Antinomian goeth into one extremity and the Papist into another so true is that of Tertullian Christ is alwayes crucified between two thieves that is Truth suffers between two extream errors Therefore in prosecuting this point which is of great practical concernment I will lay down First What the Antinomian saith Secondly What the Papist And lastly What the Orthodox The Antinomian in his book called the Honey-Comb of Justification explaineth himself in these particulars by which you may judge that his Honey is Gall. Having made this Objection to himself That the children of God are corrected by God therefore he seeth sin in them maketh a large Answer Distinguishing first of afflictions calling some Legal and some Evangelical and then he distinguisheth of Persons making some unconverted others converted the unconverted again he makes to be either such as are reprobate or else elected now saith he the legal crosses have a two-fold operation either vindicative or corrective Vindicative are such afflictions as God executeth upon the wicked and reprobates in which sense God is called the God of vengeance Corrective are such lashes of the Law as are executed upon those persons that are the children of God by election but not yet converted and so under the Law therefore these afflictions are not in wrath to confound them but in mercy to prepare them to their conversion for God seeing sins in them layeth crosses upon them Now these elect persons he cals unconverted actively and declaratively in a very ambiguous and suspicious manner as if conversion were from all eternity as well as Justification so that as they say a man in time is justified only declaratively being indeed so from all eternity thus he must be said to be converted and if this be true then it will likewise follow that a man in heaven is glorified likewise onely declaratively but actually and indeed glorified from all eternity even while he is in this miserable house of clay In the next place he comes to Evangelical crosses which fall upon them that are actively and declaratively as he cals it converted and these he denieth expresly to be for their sins for this were saith he to deny Christs satisfactory punishment because by his death we have not one spot of sin in us therefore he makes them to be only the tryal of their faith and to exercise their faith so that by his divinity when a godly man is afflicted the flesh would indeed perswade a man hath sin in him but this is to try whether thou canst beleeve thou art cleansed from sin for all these afflictions Therefore if any man yield to this temptation viz. that he hath sin in him when he is afflicted what is this saith he but to deny Christ and his bloud Think you this to be the voice of the Scriptures Hence he laboureth to shew that twelve absurdities would follow from this doctrine of Gods afflicting his children for their sins the strength of which shall be in his place considered I have now only laid down his judgement and he makes the Doctrine of the Protestants opposing this to be Popish and confounding the Law and the Gospel together Hence intending the Protestant Authors and Ministers he saith They paint God like an angry father ever seeing sin in us and ever standing with a rod and staff in his hand lifted up over our heads with which by reason he seeth sins in us he is ever ready though not to strike us down yet to crack our crowns and sorely to whip us whereas the Gospel describeth him to be not only a loving Father but also our well-pleased Father at perfect peace with us so that the upshot of his position is to shew that they are taskmasters and do degenerate to the legall teaching in the Old Testament whosoever preach that God doth correct Believers for their sins and I have saith he somewhat the more largely hunted this Fox because it is so nourished not only by the Papists but also some of us Protestants who by lisping the language of Ashdod do undermine the very roots of the Lords vine And that you may see it is not one mans judgement amongst them see what their great General saith in a Sermon pag. 162. Know this that at that instant when God brings afflictions upon thee he doth not remember any sin of thine they are not in his thoughts towards thee Again whatsoever things befall the children of God are not punishments for sins they are not remembrances of sin and if men or Angels shall endeavor to contradict this let them be accounted as they deserve Thus the Antinomian The Papist goeth into another extremity for thus they hold Bellar de poen lib. 4. cap. 1 2. That when God hath forgiven a sin yet it is according to his Justice that the sinner should suffer or do something to satisfie this justice not in respect of the sin as it is against God for although some say so yet others reject it but in respect of some temporal punishment either in this life or in the life to come which is the ground of Purgatory And that this may be made good they say When God doth forgive a sin he doth not presently remit the temporal punishment therefore men may by some satisfactory penalties voluntarily taken upon themselves rescue themselves from these temporal punishments Now this is a
the godly are by way of tryal and temptation upon them and because of the good that is in them of these the Apostle James speaks when he bids them count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations of these Paul speaks when he saith he will rejoyce in his infirmities so that the persecutions and miseries which come upon them are an Argument of the good in them more then of the evils as the tree that is ful of fruit hath its boughs more broken then that which is barren and the Pyrates watch for the ship that is fraughted with gold And thus a martyr comforted himself That though he had many sins for which he deserved death yet he thanked God that his enemies did not attend to them but to the good that was in him and for that he suffered so then all the grievances upon the godly are not of the same nature Sixtly The afflictions for sins upon the godly do differ much from those that are upon the wicked This we also grant that when God doth punish the godly and the wicked for their sins though the punishment for the matter of it may be alike yet they differ in other respects very much as in the cause from which one cometh from a God hating their persons the other from anger indeed but the anger of a father Hence secondly they differ in the fittedness of these afflictions to do good God doth moderate these afflictions to his people that thereby grace may be increased but to the reprobate they are no more to their good then the flames of hell-fire are to the damned The Butcher he cuts the flesh far otherwise then the Chirurgion saith August Again in the end they differ All afflictions to the godly are like the beating of cloathes in the Sun with a rod to get out the dust and moths but it is not so with the wicked many other differences practical Divines prove out of the Scripture Seventhly Yet God doth in reference to the sins of his people though forgiven sometimes chastise them This is proved 1. From the Scripture that makes their sin the cause of their trouble Thus of David Because thou saith Nathan 2 Sam. 12.14 hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the childe also that is born of thee shall die Thus God speaks to all the godly in Solomon 2 Sam. 7.14 15. I will be his father and he shall be my son if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men but my mercy will I not take away In these places sin is expresly made the cause of those afflictions and it is a poor evasion to say this was in the Old Testament for was not the chastisement of the godly mens peace in the Old Testament laid upon Christ as well as in the New but their folly herein and their contradiction to themselves will be abundantly shewed in answering their objections 2. In the places that do assert Gods judging of his people and rebuking of them and they are divers 1 Cor. 11. For this cause many are sick and weak where again you have not only the affliction but the cause why viz. irreverent prophaning of that Sacrament Thus James 5.14 Is any man sick Let him call for the Elders and let them pray for him and if he have committed sins saith the Text they shall be forgiven him There is none but hath committed sins yet the Apostle makes such an if because he speaks of such sins that may provoke God to lay that sicknesse upon him Thus in the Old Testament Psal 99.8 Thou forgavest them though thou tookâ—st vengeance on their inventions Here the Psalmist cals the chastisements upon those whose sins were forgiven vengeance as in other places his anger is said to smoak against the sheep of his pasture but we must not understand it of vengeance strictly so called as if God would satisfie his justice out of their sufferings 3. From the incouragement to duties by temporal Arguments and threats of temporal afflictions If the godly have these goads then certainly as they may conclude their temporal mercies to be the fruit of their godlinesse which hath the promise of this life and the life to come so they may conclude that their afflictions are the effects of their evil waies which have the threatning of this life and the life to come only here is this difference that the outward good mercies are not from their godlinesse by way of merit or causality but their afflictions are so because of their sins Hence the Apostle urgeth the godly Heb. 12.19 with this that even our God is a consuming fire Thus 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good daies let him eschue evil and do good So that the Scripture pressing to holinesse because of outward good mercies and to keep from sin because of external evils and pressing these to the godly doth evidently declare this truth and certainly the Apostle speaking of the godly Rom. 8.10 saith the body is dead because of sin for by body Beza doth well understand our mortal body and not the mass of sin as some interpret it 4. From the comparison God useth concerning his afflictions upon his people and that is to be a father in that act correcting of them Thus Heb. 12.6 7 8 9 10 11 12. compare this with Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke now rebuke is alwaies for some fault and this is further cleared because he makes this conclusion be zealous therefore and repent therefore sin was precedent Now in these places God compareth himself to a Father and beleevers to children and we all know that fathers never correct but for sin it would be ridiculous to say the father whips the childe from sin not for sin It is true he doth it from sin by way of prevention to the future yet for sin also The Antinomian saith this is spoken of many beleevers together where some were not converted but this is weak because the persons whom he reproveth God is said to love them and they are children not bastards Again he saith There is no sin mentioned therefore it was not for sin But I answer the very comparison of God with a Father correcting his childe doth evidently argue it was for sin though it be not expressed 5. From the command not to despise or to make little account of Gods afflictions but to humble our selves and search out our waies Why should this be spoken but because they are for our sins Heb. 12.5 Despise not the chastening of God neither faint when thou art rebuked of him Where two things may seem to be forbidden though some make them all one one not to faint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphore from those who faint in the race through languor and dissolution of minde The other is in the other extream not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to despise or to
make little or nothing of it as it were a great fault in a childe to slight or make nothing of his fathers corrections Now let all the world judge whether the Antinomian Doctrine doth not open a wide gate to despise Gods afflictions this makes them cry down Fast-daies repentance humiliation and confession of sin yea they make it Popery and hypocrisie what is done this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may say with Homer 6. If God hath commanded Magistrates to execute outward evils upon some godly men that have hainously offended then its Gods will to afflict them for sin but he hath done so If a godly man being through the Dalilah of some corruption perswaded to have his hair cut off his spirituall strength gone and so he fall into the sin of murder is it not Gods will that the Magistrate should put him to death for this sin and what God would have the Magistrate do is it not as much as if God himself had done and must not all say this is a chastisement upon him because of his sin Thus have I brought reasons to prove that which I think was never denied before till this age which every day like Africa bringeth forth some Monster And certainly the Doctrine of afflictions upon the godly is so sweet and wholesome a truth that none but a Spider could suck out such poison from it as the Antinomian hath done LECTURE V. ROM 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his grace c. WE come now to consider how the Antinomian can make good that Paradox of his God chastiseth not believers because of their sins and indeed the Author forementioned doth much sweat and tug in bringing in severall absurdities which he conceives will follow upon the truth asserted by us But before we examine them let us take notice of the Authours great contradiction to himself in this point and that within very few Pages Falshood is not only dissonant from truth but also from it felf for whereas in the forequoted place he makes his assertion universal that Ged seeth not sin in persons converted and therefore there are no afflictions befall them because of sin Now see how flat contrary that same Authour speaks in the same book pag. 117. for there making an opposition between the condition of believers in the Old Testament and those in the new he expresly gives this difference God saith he saw sin in them as they were children that had need of a rod by reason of their non-age but he seeth none in us as being full-grown heirs and again God saw in them and punished them for it as they were under the Schoolmaster of the Law but he seeth none in us Hence pag. 99. he makes it peculiar to the time of the Law that Moses for an unadvised word was strucken with death and Vzzah and Jonah and Ely with others temporally corrected Therefore it was saith he came those terrible Famines whereby mothers were driven to eat their own children all was because they were under the severity of the Law that if they did but a little step awry they were sharply scourged for the same Now how great a contradiction is this to his other assertion for were not the godly under the Old Testament actually converted had they not Christs righteousnes made theirs were they not elected how cometh it about then that they were afflicted for sin and not believers under the New Testament when a man can bring the East and West together then may he reconcile these assertions but self contradiction is no strange thing in that book But I come to his Arguments The first place he urgeth is Ro. 5.1 2 3. Being justified by faith we have peace with God that is all beating blows and anger are ceased saith he and hence it is that we glory in our afflictions but now if they were for our sins we had no more cause to glory in them then the childe hath in his whippings for his faults For the opening of this place consider these things some ancient Commentators reade the word imperatively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us have instead of we have and thus they have interpreted it Being justified by Faith let us take heed how we sin again but preserve our peace with God The words taken this way would much confirm rather then debilitate our assertion but I doe not judge this so suteable to the scope of the Apostle in this verse we will take them as they are indicatively or assertively and first we may mean by peace either that reconciliation which is made with God or the sense and feeling of this which is nothing but tranquillity and security of conscience through the perswasion of Gods favour to us Now these may be separable one from the other a believer may be reconciled with God and in the state of friendship with him yet he not feel this or know this as many passages in Davids Psalms do witnesse even as the childe in the womb knoweth not the great inheritance and rich Revenues it shall be possessed of or as Agar did not see the well of water by her but thought she must perish till God opened her eyes There is a seal of the pardon of sin when yet the proclamation of it is not made in the conscience If we take peace in the first respect it is an absolute universal proposition and true of every justified person but in the latter sense it is true only of some persons and at some times for the sense of Gods favour is a separable priviledge from those that are in it If by peace we should understand the sense of Gods favour and the declaration of it in our consciences as by their arguments they must do then it proveth against their opinion as well as any others for they hold that a believer needeth to pray for pardon in the declaration or sense and feeling of sin though not for the pardon it self of sin now there cannot be at the same time a want of the feeling of pardon of sin and the tranquillity of conscience together so that this place must needs be a thorn in their side But 2ly the true and direct answer to this place is that there is a twofold peace one which is opposite to the hatred of God as he is a terrible enemy to sinners unreconciled with them in which sense he is often described in Scripture The other as it is opposite to that fatherly anger and displeasure whereby though for the main reconciled yet he may for some particular faults be displeased now the Apostle speaks of the former kinde of peace Being justified that is God being once reconciled with us in Christ he hath no more hostile enmity against us and if we do sin afterwards he will not become an enemy to us or satisfie his justice by punishing of us but as a father he may in his displeasure chastise us
The sense of Gods displeasure as a father may well stand together with an assurance that for all this he is no enemy A childe that bitterly crieth out because of his fathers chastisements yet even then hath that hope and comfort which he would not have if fallen into the hands or rage of an enemy that would kill him Hence it is that we presse all believers though sorely punished for their sins as their own hearts can tell them yet they must never pass such a sentence Now God is become my enemy he deals with me as with a Judas as with a Cain these we say are sinful inferences but they may conclude thus God though a loving father is now very angry and much displeased with me Distinguish then between a peace that doth oppose the hatred of God to a sinner as an enemy and a peace which doth oppose only the frowns of a father and this objection is answered I will acknowledge the people of God are apt under his sore displeasure not to discern between a father and an enemy They have much adoe to keep up this in their hearts God he smites he frowns he chides yet he is a father still but this is their temptation and weaknesse and we are apt to endeavour some kinde of compensation to God in our troubles for sin therefore it was a most blessed thing when God at the Reformation out of Popery caused this truth to break out That punishments for sin were not satisfactory to God but fatherly chastisements Thus you have this answered and as for that which followeth we glory in tribulations the Apostle must be limited to those which fall upon us for professing of Christ and his truth In these we may glory as the souldier doth of his marks and wounds he hath received in the wars for a good cause and to this purpose we told you in one Proposition That there was a great difference between those troubles that fell upon us because of the good in us and those which come upon us because of the evil in us What glory is it saith Peter 1 Pet. 2.20 if ye be buffeted for your faults Now who can deny but that even a godly man may fall into some hainous crime for which he may receive a sentence of death This man though he may rejoice in God who doth pardon the sin to him yet he can no more glory of this tribulation then a childe doth of whipping for his faults Another place of Scripture is Isa 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed This Text of Scripture is again and again pressed by them and certainly it is more sweet then the Honey or Honey-Comb but truly they do with it as the thieves with the man of Jericho leave it half dead and much wounded First Let us open the place and then see how far they are from the meaning The Prophet Isaiah in this Chapter may be called as we said before the fifth Evangelist for he seemeth rather to write an History of Christ then make a prophecie of him Among other passages these two are to our purpose 1. That the chastisement of our peace was upon him by Peace here Calvin doth well understand not that of quietnes in the conscience but a reconciliation made with God through his sufferings And it is observed by some how emphatical the Scripture is in that Pronoun He He hath born and He hath been wounded The second follows With his stripes we are healed Some think that this is spoken to debase that condition Christ so voluntarily put himself in that so his love might appear the more to us it being an allusion to the State of servants who used to be chastised by their lords The phrase is the same with that He hath born our griefs or diseases which Matth. 8.17 is applied to Christs healing of diseases and 1 Pet. 2. to that suffering upon the Crosse And well may this be because the outward healing of diseases was a Symbole or Testimony of his inward healing Although Grotius observeth That Christ is therefore said to bear our diseases when he cured them because of the great pains and travell he took therein for it was after Sun-set and the multitude did much throng him so then by the words you see the whole price of our peace laid upon Christ and by him all evils both temporall and spirituall removed but what is this to the purpose Yes say they here our chastisements are laid upon Christ therefore we have none for sin but 1. if this proved any thing it will be more then the Antinomians will yield for it would infer that there are no chastisements at all either for sin or no sin now the Antinomians cannot deny and experience confuteth them but that the godly have afflictions though as they say not for sin and this will inevitably follow by their argument for as they would prove from hence they have no sin at all not only sin that will not condem as the Orthodox say but even no sin so it will by the same reason follow that believers have no chastisements at all I do not say not for sin but none at all But Secondly The Antinomian in that place pag. 129. doth fully answer himself All chastisement saith he for sin needfull for the making perfect peace between God and his justified children was laid upon him very true Therefore say we though these chastisements be for sin yet they are not upon the godly as upon Christ they are not to satisfie Gods justice to work a reconciliation but only to humble them in themselves and make them the better feel how much they are beholding to Christ who bore so much wrath for them To say therefore as the Papists Christ by his death did only remove the spirituall evil and we by our sufferings must take away the temporall punishment this would indeed be derogatory to Christ and take off in a great measure from his glory A Third place brought in to maintain their errour is James 1.2 3 4 5. Count it matter of all joy when you shall fall into divers temptations therefore saith he they are not for sin because they are matters of joy and mark how he baptizeth goeth on the Author crosses and afflictions as it were with a new name taken from the nature of the change of them through the Gospel calling them temptations and trials But mark the ignorance of the adversary rather then the name of afflictions for Is it peculiar to beleevers under the Gospel that their afflictions are tryals what then will he return to that place Deut. 8.2 God saith the afflictions upon the people of Israel for fourty years in the wildernesse and they were not all beleevers much lesse beleevers under the Gospel were to humble them and prove or try them And Jer. 9.7 God speaking of the Israelites saith He will melt them and try them See
also Dan. 9.25 Zech. 13.9 Whereby you will presently judge of the mans bold ignorance But as for the place it self certainly the words are very emphaticall Count it implying a man in his choicest deliberation ought to do so all joy an Hebraism full perfect joy when ye fall the word is so fall that ye are compassed round about And lastly divers temptations By temptations Austin seemeth to have understood inticements or provocations to sin and whether such temptations may be desired or to give ground of a just joy is disputed by the Schoolmen but that is impertinent we see the Apostle speaketh of afflictions as appeareth by the word following and not all kinde of afflictions but such as are for Christs name certainly the Apostle writing to the Corinthians and speaking of the chastisements of God upon them for their sins he doth not bid them count that all joy but rather exhorts them to judge themselves that they be not condemned with the world He doth not then speak of all kinde of afflictions but some only and his meaning is not that under even those afflictions they should have no grief for he saith no affliction is for the present joyous but grievous but he giveth one respect why they should rejoyce because of the good work of their faith manifested thereby though in other considerations they may be humbled And I see not but even in those persecutions which befall the godly for the Gospels sake they may not some of them at least and sometimes be humiliations for the Godlies former sinnes as well as explorations of their Graces and more eminent glorifying of them here and hereafter I deny not but even in afflictions for their sins the people of God may take comfort to their souls from severall considerations but I think not that the Apostle doth refer to them in this place Let us now consider what dangerous Absurdities would flow from this doctrine of ours and first saith he this is to confound Law and Gospel together The Law should be preached only to secure sinners the Gospel to broken sinners only whereas if you tell the godly when they are afflicted that it is from their sinnes you preach Law to them But first Then the Apostle mingled Law and Gospel when he commands the Corinthians to judge themselves under Gods hand upon them and how legall was Peter when he said judgement must begin at the House of God 2. The Gospel and the Law are to be mingled in all spirituall administrations but for different ends As they must not in preaching be confounded so neither divided 3. The people of God have still sin pride and hardnesse of heart remaining in them and shall a Minister preach the Gospel to his pride shall we comfort them because their hearts are sometimes dull and froward Lastly Though we say they are afflicted for their sins yet this is not to make the crosses Legal but Evangelical for we do not say they are so for their sins as that thereby they must satisfie the justice of God in their own persons but for other considerations A second Absurdity will be say they hereby to make the Gospel unsufficient to abolish the old man unlesse it borrow help from the Law But first Observe his contradiction The Gospel doth abolish sin in the beleever how can that be when he holdeth there is no sin to be abolished certainly that which is not needs not to be abolished for it is not already Secondly If the Gospel be so powerfull to abolish sin why will he have the Law preached to obstinate sinners certainly by his rule the Gospel would sooner melt the tuffest and most Ironny sinner that is Thirdly That which he would have such an absurdity is an eminent truth the Law and the Gospel are mutually subservient to each other and are to be preached as conjoyned though not confounded one with another Another Absurdity for I cannot take them in order seeing he doth absurdly make one thing several arguments and so doth but tautologize This would be to deny Christs perfect righteousnesse and that we are not made without all spots or blemishes But first It doth not derogate from Christ that we are not freed from sin while here in this life for he himself holdeth the believers in the Old Testament had sin in them and God scourged them for it yet Christ bore their sins and took away their iniquities Secondly If this place prove any thing it would the Popish Tenet That we are inherently without sin and the Antinomian denieth that for he saith we are made perfectly holy not actively but passively whereas those places speak of an active holiness Thirdly If so be the sin remaining in us did not only bring temporal evils but eternal did not bring only a disease but hell also then this would evacuate the fulnesse of Christs death but now it doth not A fourth Absurdity he would fetch from an Argument of Bish Babingtons Ejus quod non est non est poena but sin when it is forgiven is not therefore to forgiven sin there is no temporal punishment I answer first If by that which is not should be meant that which hath a physical and natural existence then the Argument would prove that no sin whether forgiven or not forgiven could damn a man because no sin according to the received opinion hath any positive natural being therefore it must be understood of a moral being that is a desert of punishment Now when sin is said to be forgiven the reason is not at if remission of sin made sin no sin drunkennesse no drunkennesse or as if that sin did not deserve punishment for that is inseparable from the nature of it but forgivenesse of sins takes away the actual ordination of them to condemnation So then a sin though forgiven hath some kinde of being though not that of actual ordination to everlasting death when therefore sins are said to be thrown into the bottom of the sea and they shall be no more that is to be understood quoad hoc in respect of actual condemnation So Davids sin was forgiven viz. as to damn David yet though forgiven it was still viz. to afflict David and to make God angry with him A fifth Absurdity If you say the people of God are afflicted for sin this would trouble the consciences of Gods children exceedingly and make them fearfully to expect horrible temporal plagues every hour because the least sin is so infinitely distastfull to God But first It seemeth then a godly man though fallen into murder adulteries c. his conscience must not be troubled Peter if he denieth Christ must not weep bitterly Secondly we give many cordials and antidotes against despair while we say they are afflictions even for sin for we add further That they are all bounded within a due measure God considers our strength and
thee even as a Creditor doth forgive many thousands to a Debtor by his meer voluntary Act. Now we are apt to think according to the principles of Popery that our Justification is no better then our inherent holinesse is whereas any godly man may sit down and consider that he is not able to goe out with his five thousrnd against the Justice of God that comes against him with ten thousand Grace justifying takes away all guilt of sinne grace sanctifying doth not because as Bonaventure well observeth the remedy given by grace against originall sin is not ordained against it prout corrumpit naturam sed prout personam as it doth infect our nature for so it sticketh till death but as it doth defile the person measure not therefore the perfection of grace justifying by the perfection of grace sanctifying Thirdly This Scripture language doth infer That sin forgiven is as if it had never been now the troubled soul cryeth out Oh that I had never been thus done thus Why God when he doth pardon makes it as if it had never been do not fear the drowned Aegyptians will rise up and pursue thee again We may tell a David a Paul it is so with them as if no adultery murder or persecutions had been committed by them Fourthly As God doth indeed really thus remit so the Scripture commands the repentant sinner to believe this and with confidence to rest satisfied Oh what holy boldnesse may this truth believed work in the tender heart You may see a poor man though he hath much ado to live yet if his debts be discharged how glad he is he can go abroad and fear no Sergeant to Arrest him no writ issued out to attach him and thus it is with a sinner repenting and beleeving and if there be any whose heart is not ravished with this glorious mercy it is to be feared he never felt the burden of sin or else never strongly beleeved this gracious way of God Let not then any Antinomian say we put water into the beleevers wine or wormwood into their bread for who can rationally desire more then this doth amount to but to expect such a pardon such a justification as that God shall take no notice of sin to chastise or afflict for it is to say There is forgiveness with God that he may not be feared contrary to Davids expression LECTURE VII JEREMIAH 50.20 In those daies and at that time the iniquity of Iudah shall be sought for c. FIfthly From this Scripture-expression is gathered That gross sins are blotted out as well as sins of an inferiour nature Though there be sins that waste the conscience yet they do not waste the grace of remission how is the true repentant affected with slavish fears sometimes as if his sins did blot out Gods mercy like a thick cloud as if our transgressions had subdued his goodnesse and thrown it into the bottom of the Sea What a comfortable expression is that Isaiah 1.18 Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. It was wonderfull mercy that ever so horrid and bloudy sinners therefore their sins are said to be like scarlet should become so clear yet the grace of Justification doth as totally remit great sins as lesse sins as Christ did with the same easinesse cure several diseases Thus David also Psal 51. after he had wallowed in that mire he prayeth to be purged in an allusive expression with hysope which was the last thing used in their legal purifications and therefore doth imply the total and compleat cleansing by Christ and upon this David saith He shall be whiter then snow which phrase is neither with the Papist to be extended to sanctification as if such perfect clean righteousnesse were vouchsafed to him as that there were no sin in him nor with the Antinomian as if God did quite abolish sin from David out of his sight so as to take no notice of it or chastise him for it for after the pardon was past yet his childe was to die and much more evil to come to Davids house but in respect of final condemnation God having thus pardoned David through Christ would no more adjudge him to everlasting punishment then he would one that was innocent or without any spot of sin And this is to incourage great sinners ten thousand talents was a great summe of money yet how easily forgiven by that kinde Master Thus Exod. 34.7 God is described forgiving sins of all sorts and this he proclaimed when his glory passed by and how necessary is this for the contrite heart which judgeth his sins because of the aggravations of them to be unpardonable If they had not been of such a breadth and depth and length they would not fear overwhelming as now they do There are sins of all sorts described and which is to be observed God putteth no term or bounds to his mercy whereas he doth set some to his anger Let not therefore the greatness of sin be thought more then the greatness of mercy pardoning and Christs obedience suffering as it is hypocrisie to extenuate and make our sins lesse then they are so it is unbelief to diminish his grace and Gods greatness above us is as much celebrated in this his kindness as in any other attribute The sins of all the world if they were thy sins were but like a drop of water to his mercy no more then our essence or power is to his Majesty Take heed then of saying Such and such sins may be forgiven but can he forgive such as mine are also Lastly In that Honey Comb for we may say of these places if of any they are sweeter then honey this sweetness may be pressed out That all their sins though never so many shall likewise be blotted out The Sea could as easily drown an whole Hoast of Pharaohs men as twenty Souldiers The Apostle is excellent Rom. 5. in this making an opposition between the first Adam and second aggravating the superlative power of the gift by grace above the evil through sin Hence it 's called the riches of his grace rather then power or wisdome because of the plenty and abundance of it Who would not think that while Gods goodness in the Scripture is thus unfolded there should not be a dejected unbeleeving Christian in the world shall our sin abound to condemnation more then his grace to justification because sin is too strong for us is it therefore too much for the grace of God also you see by ths that we may drink wine enough in the Scripture Wine-cellars to make our hearts glad and yet swallow not down any dregs of Popish or Antinomian errors These things thus explained I come to confirm you with severall Arguments that God doth see sin so as to be offended and displeased with it in those that are already justified And the first rank of Arguments shall be taken from those places of Scripture where the godly do
is this fable declareth that all men are by birth the sons of God but they fall from that right by alienating themselves from God it deserveth a double Animadversion one for calling this Parable fabula which although in a critical notion it may have a right sense yet use doth not now indure it It would be very offensive to call Christs Parables Christs Fables Secondly he sheweth unsound Divinity worse then Pelagians or Arminians as his very expression declareth but to passe that The Parable doth represent a godly man foully lapsed in sin and now returning to God and he accuseth himself aggravating sin that his Father took notice of it and whatsoever other Doctors teach yet this is the best way for godly persons repenting to aggravate their sinfulnesse in reference to Gods beholding of them and being angry with them Quicunque sibi se excusat accusat Deo whosoever excuseth himself to himself accuseth himself to God said Salvian and Tertul. In quantum non peperceris tibi in tantum tibi Deus crede parcet so much as thou shalt not spare thy self God beleeve it will spare thee Lastly This is to be observed that after his father had kissed him which was a sign of reconciliation and pardon yet the son confesseth he had sinned against heaven and before him A second rank of Arguments shall be from those places where the Spirit of God is said to mortifie our sins or we by his help to crucifie our sins if the Spirit of God do inable us to crucifie and mortifie sin as that which is an enemy and loathsome to him then notwithstanding Christs righteousness imputed God doth take notice of that which is filthy and to be removed in the godly But we are assisted by Gods Spirit to this Ergo. Rom. 8.11 13. If ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body Gal. 3.18 If ye be led by the Spirit ye shall not fulfill the deeds of the flesh In these words are two plain Conclusions First That the godly have still sins in them for these are called the deeds of the flesh By deeds of the flesh are not meant grosse sins but all the inward motions and thoughts of the soul corrupted Secondly That the Spirit of God seeth them takes notice of them they are loathsome to him and therefore he mortifieth them Now the Spirit of God being the same with God that which he mortifieth must needs be taken notice of by him as offensive To this what do they answer They say We do not mortifie sin no not by Gods Spirit out of Gods sight but only out of our own sight so that when the Spirit of God overcometh a corruption in us this is not by removing it out of Gods sight but our own only Honey-Comb pag. 164. for say they Christs righteousnesse being made ours we are all clean before God and that which the Spirit of God doth afterwards in sanctification is cleansing away sin only declaratively before men Hence as you heard they distinguish of a two fold cleansing one secret and mysticall by Christs righteousnesse and the other palpable and grosse to our sense and feeling which is by Gods spirit in us but here are many mistakes and errours 1. That they oppose Christs cleansing and the Spirits cleansing together for what Christs bloud doth meritoriously cleanse away the same Christs Spirit doth by efficacious application Hence Christ by his death doth quite remove sin in respect of the guilt of it here on earth and doth give his Spirit to crucifie the power of it so that both Christs cleansing and the Spirits cleansing do relate to Gods sight for it is Gods will that we should not only be clean by imputed righteousnesse but also by inherent holinesse 2. It is false that we only mortifie sin declaratively to men for it is really and indeed done even to God-ward Hence this is the great difference between a Pharisaicall or externall mortification and a spirituall The former is from humane principles to humane motives the other is from God and to God and through God so that as that is not a divine faith but humane which is not from a divine principle and because of divine Authority so neither can that be divine and spirituall mortification which is not from divine efficiency and because of divine grounds Hereby it is that the whole work of grace is called a new creature and it is a new creature not only man-ward but God-ward and who can think when Eph. 4. we are exhorted to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse that any other sense can be drawn out of it then that the putting off the old man and putting on the new have relation to God as well as man It is therefore well observed by Musculus on the former Text that both these are put together If ye through the Spirit do mortifie we and the Spirit The Spirit and that sheweth all the Popish means of mortification to be unprofitable the Spirit of God neither appointing them or working by them Then he addeth ye denoting that we also are to work and act being first quickned with a spiritual life put into us and not as some do now dangerously maintain give up all expecting the operation of the Spirit only 3. The falshood of this Assertion will further appear If the Spirit of God by mortification doth not remove sin out of us as to Gods sight then by further sanctification it brings no good thing into us as to Gods sight likewise and thus as God shall see no sin in his people so neither no good thing inherently in his people for this must necessarily follow by their principles as God takes no notice of sin inherent in believers to be angry with them so likewise no notice of inherent grace to be well pleased with them for if the Spirit of God do not cleanse our corruption from Gods sight then still the more corruption is washed away God still doth no waies approve that holinesse but it is only the imputed holines of Christ which he regards Therefore he that maintaineth God seeth no sin in believers to chastise must maintain he seeth no graces in them to reward them and take their own similitude as he say they that looks thorow a red glasse seeth every thing in it red if there be dirt in it it looks red if there be pearls in it it looketh red all is one to the sight so when God looketh upon us in Christ if there be sin if there be our own inherent holines it is all one God seeth only Christs holiness Thus while the Antinomian laboureth to have our sins covered from Gods eies he likewise spreads a covering over all the fruits of Gods Spirit in us that they shall not be taken notice of whereas none ever denied but that the graces of Gods people are acceptable to him though not to justification and many promises he makes to them
if he be a Beleever the wages due to his sin is only temporal chastisements but to a wicked man it 's eternal death I say this is not safe for although a Beleevers sin shall not actually damn him yet God hath made the same Law to both and repentance as a means is prescribed so that we may by supposition say If the wicked man repent his sin shall not damn him If the justified person do not his sin will damn him It 's true it is not proper to say of sin in the abstract it shall be damned no more then that grace shall be saved but we are to say the person shall be damned or saved Yet the guilt of the sin will cause the guilt of the person if not taken off by Christ as the meritorious and faith as the instrumentall cause The sins then of Beleevers and ungodly are both alike only that the guilt of them doth not redound upon the persons alike is because the one takes the way appointed by God to obtain pardon and the other doth not Not that the godly man makes himself to differ from the wicked but all is the work of grace In some respects the sins of godly men are more offensive to God then those of wicked men because committed against more light and more experience of the sweetnesse of Gods love and the bitternesâ—e of sin What is the cause Heb. 10.28 29 30. the Apostle maketh the condition of a wilfull Apostate to be so dreadfull but because of the excellency of the object in the Gospel above that in the Law If he that despised Moses his Law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy c. Observe that interposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 think ye do you not easily think that such sins offend God more Now although the truly sanctified can never fall into such a condition totally and finally yet their sins committed wilfully against the Gospel are gradually and in some measure of such a nature and therefore they fall terribly into the hands of the living God when they so sin against him and consider how that the Apostle speaks these things even to them of whom he hoped better things and things that accompany salvation Heb. 6. If therefore we see a godly man who hath tasted much of Gods favour play the prodigall walk loosely we may and ought notwithstanding Antinomian positions powerfully and severely set home these places of Scripture upon his conscience And observe how in the New Testament the Apostle alledgeth two places out of the Old Vengeance belongeth to me Deut. 32.35 and the Lord will judge his people Psal 135.14 To judge is to avenge so that the people of God have those considerations in their sins to provoke God which wicked men cannot have and therefore have the same motives to humble them as the Apostle argueth To which of the Angels said he Sit at my right hand c. so may we To what wicked man hath God poured out his love revealed himself kindly as unto the godly therefore do they neglect the greater mercies LECTURE X. JEREMIAH 50.20 In those daies and at that time the iniquity of Iudah shall be sought for c. LEt us in the next place consider the particulars wherein Gods eye of anger doth manifest it self upon his own children if sinning against him The effect of his wrath may be considered in that which is temporal or spiritual or eternal in all these Gods anger doth bring forth in one respect or other For the temporal objects take notice of these particulars first When they sin against God they are involved in the common and ordinary afflictions which do usually accompany sin in the wicked Thus 1 Cor. 11.30 for their unworthy receiving of the Sacrament and some even of those were godly as appeareth v. 32. many were weak and sickly weak were such as did languish and sickly is more such as had diseases on them now these were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strokes from God and therefore came from his anger for their sins Though the Lords Supper consist of a twofold bread the one earthly for the body the other heavenly the bread of life for the soul yet both body and soul did miserably decay because of unworthy receiving This Table being as Chrysostom said mensa Aquilarum not Graculorum food for Eagles not Jaies As therefore those children who have fainting diseases upon them and do secretly eat salt oatmeal c. though they have never such excellent food at their fathers table yet thrive not but look pale and consuming so it was with the Corinthians by reason of their corruptions they inclined to death though they fed on the bread of life Now that these bodily diseases are the common issue and fruit of sin appeareth Lev. 26.16 Deut. 28.22 grace therefore of justification can give no Supesedeas to any disease that shall arrest a believer offending but are the wicked in Consumptions Agues Feavers for their sins so are the godly yea the people of God are in these calamities before the wicked Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities I have known you that is acknowledged ye for mine see what that is Exod. 19.5 A peculiar treasure unto me above all people The Hebrew word signifieth that which is dear and pretious and to be desired of all This is aggravated by what followeth for all the earth is mine that is seeing there are so many nations in the world over whom I have full power and dominion how great is Gods goodnesse in taking you for his above others now mark the Prophets reason because I have done this therefore I will visit you for your iniquities for to all your other wickednesses you adde an ingratefull heart So there is another place 1 Pet. 4.17 where God is said to judge them before others and this hath been a great offence to the godly It is time that is a seasonable opportunity by the decree and appointment of God for judgement that is chastisements for former sins which are called judgements because they are publique testimonies and manifestations of Gods anger against sins and are to put the godly in minde of their sins only it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original The word is used even of the godly 1 Cor. 11.31 32. 1 Pet. 4.6 By the house of God he meaneth the true Members of the Church and whereas he saith it begins in them he thereby intimates that the godly in this life are more exposed to afflictions for sin then the wicked are and this made David and Jeremy so expostulate with God in this matter so that the godly in their afflictions ought to say as that widow of Sarepta 2 Kin. 17.18 This is to call my sin to remembrance It is thought the Apostle though he doth not
expresly mention a place yet he takes this out of the Doctrine of the old Testament for so God did begin first with his people Isa 10.12 Jer. 25.17 18. Ezek. 9.6 begin at my Sanctuary Ezek. 21.4 There God in publique calamities maketh no difference between the righteous and the ungodly now this is so great that the Apostle saith the righteous is hardly saved The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used of those things that with much labour are brought about Act. 14.18 Act. 27.7 These tribulations are so great that they almost destroy the godly themselves see also Jam. 5.13 Is any sick where the godly man is supposed to be sick and the cause if he hath committed sin that is such sins as were the causes of that disease they shall be forgiven him so that even justified persons afflicted by diseases are to inquire what sins the Lord would humble them for and to labour that the sicknesse of the body be the sanctified occasion of the health of the soul 2. Gods anger is seen in bringing extraordinary and unusual calamities upon them because of their sins so that they have strange punishments which even the wicked do many times escape Jonah who endeavoured to flie from Gods face and that he might easily have done by Antinomian Doctrine with what a prodigious judgement was he overtaken Jonah 2. The Prophet cals it the belly of hell and how deeply his soul was afflicted under that punishment appeareth in that he saith his soul fainted within him and he concluded he was cast out of Gods sight He that voluntarily ran from Gods presence doth now bewail that he is cast from it He makes the Whales belly an house of praier and this came up to God in his holy Temple that is Heaven You see by this that God prepareth strange judgements sometimes for those that offend him though his children so in that 1 Cor. 11.30 when he saith that many of the Corinthians were dead for their unworthy receiving it is to be understood of an immature and untimely death they did not live out to the term of those daies that according to natural causes they might have done so that it is the same with being cut off in the old Testament Exod. 12.15 Whosoever did eat the Passeover with leaven was to be cut off from Israel Therefore even godly men may procure to themselves untimely deaths and may provoke God to cut them off in the midst of their years 3. Yea further God may not only afflict them in an extraordinary manner but even strike them with sudden death and that while their sins are upon them I will not instance in Ananias and Saphira nor in Nadab and Abihu though some have thought charitably of them we have a clear instance in Vzzah wherein Gods anger was so apparent by striking him suddenly dead that the thing is said to displease David 2 Sam. 6.7 The anger of God was kindled against Vzzah and he smote him for his error His error was not because he was not a Levite for its plain he was but because they put the Ark upon a new cart whereas they should have carried it upon their shoulders although its thought the carrying of the Ark was limited only to the Levites that were the sons of Kohath and that no other Levite might touch the Ark which if so then it was a second offence against the Law because he touched it and indeed this seemeth to be the proper cause because it was a personal fault of Vzzah whereas the putting of it on a new cart was the error of others besides him Thus Vzzah in his very sins is stricken dead you have likewise another sad example of Ely Lege historiam ne fias historia 1 Sam 4.18 Because he failed in the measure of zeal about the reproof of his sons therefore he fell backward and broke his neck Ely manifested his pious affections in submitting to the hand of God punishing and in being more affected with the publique calamity then his own private yet this is his sad Tragical end 4. Gods anger doth not limit it self to them only but it reacheth even to their children and to those that are dear to them Thus Davids childe is stricken dead for his sin and thus Flies daughter gives up the ghost with sad grief The family both of David and Ely have remarkable calamities following them and all because of their sins When any of Elies posterity shall be forced to crouch for a morsell of bread this is a Memento of Elies sin Here a man may see the seed of the righteous begging bread but for their Parents sins Therefore that of David Psal 36. must not be understood universally That this calamity may the more wound his heart God telleth him what he will do to his house after his death if any were left alive it should be like that indulgence to Cain to carry up and down a token of Gods displeasure and if you ask for how long should this anger of God endure 1 Sam. 3.14 His iniquity must not be purged away from that house for ever Well may the Scripture say that whosoever heareth this judgement of God his ears shall tingle By this instance how watchfull should godly parents be lest for their sins committed a curse should cleave to the family for many generations I acknowledge these calamities as they fel upon Ely a godly man so they were wholsome medicines and fatherly corrections but as they came on his wicked children or posterity continuing in wickednesse so they were strictly and properly punishments Lastly These temporal evils will reach even to the publique Church and State wherein they live so that the sins of godly men may help to pull down publique judgements Thus it was with Hezekiah for his unthankfulnes and pride there was wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 32.25 so Davids sin in numbring the people it was the death of many thousand in Israel for Elies sin the Israelites are slain in the Army and the Ark is taken Hence you have Esay Daniel and Ezra joining themselves in the number with others who made publike confessions of their sins upon daies of humiliation It is therefore a cursed and secure opinion that faith the godly when they keep Fast-daies do it not because they have any sins that God punisheth bâ—t because of wicked men The Scripture doth manifeâ—t the contrary and the holiest men living do bring some sparks and fire-brands to increase the wrath of God and therefore they ought to bring their buckets for the quenching of it The aggravation of this anger will appear if you consider what kinde of sins they have been for which God hath been so sore displeased and in them enumerated or instanced in you may perceive they were the Belzebub-sins the first-born of iniquities Vzzah failed only in the order God had appointed what he did was out of care and a good intention yet the Lord
that respect as he seeth and he doth not see in that respect he doth not know As for example God doth not see the floud now to be no more can we say he knoweth it now to be for that is false God doth not see the Leprosie upon Naaman no more doth he know it to be on him So God knoweth his people in Christ as well as seeth them in Christ and therefore if by Christ he seeth no sin in them he must likewise know none in them Now this error is grounded upon a dangerous conceit as if Gods seeing were limited to things existent and his knowledge to things past or future so that it 's inexcusable ignorance to say with this Author that God knew the Sun and Moon before he made them but he did not see them He did not indeed see them to be before they were no more did he know them to be before they were but when they were made his seeing and knowing of them were all one Sixtly If Gods seeing were to be explained oppositely to his knowing then nothing that had a present being were known by God But doth not the Scripture give to God the knowledge of all things and though the things be diversified by time past present and to come yet to God they are not so Consider that eminent place 2 Pet. 3.8 A thousand years with God are but as one day The Apostle alledgeth this place out of Psal 90. ver 4. with a little variation The Psalmist saith as yesterday when it is past The Apostle as one day The Psalmist saith in thy eyes O Lord The Apostle with the Lord. The Psalmists expression in the eyes of the Lord are very pregnant to our purpose Here is a description of eternity proving that God seeth all things with one intuitive cast of his eye and that although to us things are present past and to come yet to God all things are present and although we are not able to reach this with our understanding no more then a pigmie the Pyramides yet we must rest more upon this Scripture assertion then our own understanding Quicquid de Deo dici we may add cogitari potest eo ipso est indignum quia dici cogitari potest and again dignè Deum aestimamus dum inaestimabilâ—m dicimus The Schoolmen dispute whether those things which God did once know he still knoweth as for example God once knew that Christ was to die but now it is not true that he is to die and their resolution is that we cannot properly say God begins to know what he did or ceaseth to know what he did but rather that the thing it self beginneth to be known or ceaseth to be known so that the change is not in respect of Gods knowing but the thing known as when I see the Sun and afterwards it is hid in the cloud the change is not in my eye but in the Sun Hence they also resolve that God knoweth all things simul together that his knowledge is invariable that it admitteth not of increase or decrease that all things are present to him and that as the Sun is alwaies in actu lucendi so God in actu intelligendi So that this very Text doth briefly overthrow all that which the Antinomian in so many pages sweateth to prove and that the consideration of Gods eternal knowledge in this manner is of profitable use appeareth by that when the Apostle saith Be not ignorant of this one thing Seventhly If Gods seeing of things were limited in our capacity only to things present then all the by-past sins of ungodly men though unrepented of yet God doth not see them because they have no present being and so God shall not only not see sins in the godly but likewise not in the ungodly All the past sins of Judas and Cain God did not see at the day of their death for they were pâ—st away Here will be much comfort to unbelievers as well as Believers Eightly If therefore God doth not see a thing because it is past what need the Antinomian run to Christs merits taking away sin out of Gods sight for this would follow by natural consequence because the object is taken away Take their own instances God doth not now see the Floud that drowned the world The Leprosie upon Naaman The Israelites wound that is healed why so doth there need the bloud of Christ to remove these No it followeth naturally because the objects are removed and taken away and so it would be here Ninthly All these instances for Gods not seeing yet knowing are contrary to the doctrine they hold God doth not see the Floud that drowned the world he seeth not Naamans Leprosie why so because these things have no being but here is their grand absurdity that they hold sin hath still an objective existency in us to Gods understanding and yet he doth not see it They should have instanced in some thing that hath a being and yet for all that God not see it If Naamans Leprosie had continued on him still and yet God not see it then it had been to the purpose for they grant that we have truly sin in us and we are to judge so yet though it hath such a being in us God doth not see it Tenthly What an empty Cobweb is this distinction even for that very purpose they bring it Oh say they if God see sin he is of so pure a nature that he cannot be but horribly and infinitely displeased with us Those say they that hold God seeth sin in Believers consider not how loathsom even the least sin is in his eyes But will this comfort my conscience if they say at the same time though God doth not see it yet he knoweth it Alas God is of that pure nature that if he knoweth but the least sin by me he cannot but be infinitely displeased at it So that you see this distinction will no waies ease a Believer in point of the trouble of his conscience And thus have I laboured to break the heart of this false and ignorant distinction LECTURE XII HEBREWS 4.13 All things are naked and opened to him c. THe second answer made by the Antinomians to this Argument from Gods omnisciency is this For when we say how weak and absurd is it to hold God doth not see that which we see They answer Honey-Comb pag. 61. Here we oppose the power of God against his will for he seeth all things saving that which he undertakes to abolish out of his own sight that he may not see it so that by his mysticall cloathing of us with his sons righteousnesse he hath abolished it out of his own sight though not out of ours Now we told you that this answer is not universally to be slighted for our Divines Pareus and others as I mentioned before maintaining that remission of sin though it be the utter deletion of the guilt yet not the ful
eradication and abolition of the filth but that it still continueth in us make this objection to themselves Nothing is hid or covered from Gods eyes if therefore sin be there God cannot but see it To this they answer God seeth all but what he will not see and that is a known saying of Austins Noluit advertere noluit animadvertere noluit agnoscere maluit ignoscere God will not take notice of the sins of justified persons he will not punish them he had rather forgive them It seemeth then by this that God will not see sin in Believers to condemnation but yet he will to castigation but if Christ hath fully satisfied Gods wrath and it be a meer arbitrary thing in God whether he will chastise or no why then should not Gods anger and his chastisements be removed from the godly by Christs death as well as his justice and punishments It 's therefore worthy the inquiry how far Gods taking notice of sin so as to chastise or punish it is subject to the meer liberty of his will And in answering of this I will not range as far as this question will carry me for the totall discussion of it in its large extent will be when we speak of the meritorious cause of justification against Socinians To speak therefore in a more restricted way of this matter Consider these Propositions some whereof are ground-works and foundations the other more immediatly reaching to our scope in hand First There is in God a liberty and free-will whereby he doth whatsoever he pleaseth so that as the Psalmist saith He that made the eye to see shall not he see He that maketh man to know shall not he know and thus he that gave man and Angels this perfection of freedom shall not he much more be free Therefore those titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek Fathers sometimes give to the will of man are too proud and lofty and do more properly belong to God Indeed so far as freedom is conceived in creatures to have some potential 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferency or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a suspendedness to be determined by some other so far we are not to conceive it in God for this mutability or Potentiall indetermination is an imperfection and so that same potest as peccandi power to sin which some make necessary to liberty and which they call a perfection though they grant the action of sin it self to be an imperfection though this should be granted which must not yet neither could this be found in Gods liberty and no marvell seeing that it is not in the liberty of Christs humane will for though Christs obedience was truly and properly so being under a command of God yet not only as he was God but as he was man he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impeccablo or free from the temptation of sin Therefore its detestable blasphemy of Durand and other Schoolmen saying Christ might have sinned lib. 3. Sentent dist 12. quae 2. as also of the Remonstrants who say Christ after he had taken this Office of a mediatorship might have forsaken it and given it over but of this more in its proper place God therefore is a free agent Psal 135.6 He hath done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and earth so that he made not the world as the fire burneth or the Bees make their Honey-Combs by a naturall necessity but according to the counsel of his will hence it is that all his spiritual mercies become commended unto us under the title of grace There was no naturall or morall necessity obliging God to elect us to give his Son for us or to save us and indeed it could not be liberality if it were not a libero from one that is free Propos 2. According to the different descriptions of liberty and freedom so it may be extended larger or narrower unto the actions of God Those who make liberty consistent with a necessity of immutability and do not think indifferency necessary but only knowledge and judgement going before they extend it even to the goodnesse and holinesse of God so they say God is liberè bonus freely good and doth freely love himself so they make the confirmed Angels and Saints freely to love God though necessarily thus we sin freely though necessarily But others who make a power to do or not do necessary to liberty think it a kinde of blasphemy to say God doth freely will that which is good hence they make liberty not an attribute of his nature as holinesse omnipotency c. are but an affection of his will only and they think that necessarium and contingens under which liberty is comprehended are differences of ens in its full latitude as finitum and infinitum therefore as the same thing cannot be finite and infinite so neither necessary and free but this is to put the definition of liberty into too strait fetters as in time may be shewn I join with those that think immutability and liberty may be in the same act and that God doth freely though unchangeably love himself but that freedom of his actions to the creatures is with a power to do otherwise if he pleaseth There is also another kinde of liberty mentioned by the learned which is opposed to servitude and is the same with sui juris now God in all things is this way free He hath no law imposed upon himself by any other but only what he prescribeth himself that doth he work by therefore when we say its just with God to damn an impenitent sinner this justice ariseth not from any obligation put upon him by another but what he hath eternally prescribed himself Propos 3. Gods omnisciency or his bare seeing and taking notice of sin when it is is not subject to his liberty He cannot but see whatsoever is and also possible to be so that we cannot say properly God seeth all things because he will see them for this is an attribute founded in the nature of God but if we take knowledge or seeing for the effects accompanying them as the Scripture for the most part doth because God is not an idle spectator of things but upon his seeing there is either care and protection or anger and punishment then in this sense all these effects are subject in some sense to the liberty and free-will of God God cannot but see the adultery of David but whether he will so see it as to punish David for it in his own person or in Christ or whether he will chastise him at this time or in this manner that is meerly at the good pleasure of God Whether indeed he is free to punish at all or chastise at all you will hear in the other Propositions thus much we may conclude That God cannot abolish sin so out of his sight so that with his eyes of omnisciency he should not behold
yet his love and wisdom put him upon that remedy which neither men or Angels could have excogitated so that God doth not let sin go unpunished only he provideth a Ram to be sacrificed for Isaac a Mediator to come between his wrath and us It is true reason as we see doth much gainsay this mystery but we may say mulier ista taceat let this woman hold her peace in the Church of God Though therefore God cannot but execute justice upon sinners yet his justice did admit of a temperament whereby God doth proceed to see the sins of his people to hate them but yet to punish them upon Christ 7. Prop. There is a great deal of difference between Iustice as it is an essential property in God ad intra and between the effects of it ad extra These latter come much under the liberty and freedom of God which appeareth in the variety of his judgements upon wicked men some being consumed one way and some another so that it is meerly at his pleasure whether he will stir up more or lesse wrath Ps 2. there is a little anger of his spoken of but you may read a remarkable expression Ps 78.38 He turned away his wrath from thâ—m and stirred not up all his wrath Here you see the anger of God subject to his free-will If the effects of Gods justice should flow from him as burning from fire or drowning from water the whole world were not able to endure before him who is a consuming fire How could it come about that the wicked do so overflow with prosperity in this world if so be that God did necessarily punish and destroy which are effects of his Iustice So that there is a great difference between Iustice taken for an attribute and Iustice for the effects God cannot but be alwayes just the former whereas there is a liberty in the latter As in man the power of laughing is an essential property in him yet the act of laughter ariseth in some measure by the freenes of his will Hence it is that Gods essential Iustice doth not receive more or lesse but the effects of his Iustice may be more or lesse If many men be in the same sin and God doth punish some of them with a remarkable temporal judgement we may not say God dealeth more justly with these then the other yet we may say the effects of his Iustice are greater upon some then others 8. Propos Christ satisfied God as a just Iudge not as a Father provoked and by this means though punishments are taken away yet afflictions for sin are not and this doth directly answer the whole Question whereas it is demanded seeing Christ fully reconciled God to us and thereby all punishments are taken away why not as well all afflictions If he hath removed greater will he think much at the lesse The answer lieth fully in this Christ by his bloud and satisfaction undertook that the justice of God should never fall upon us to punish us not that he should never be angry with us a Father to chastise us By this redemption it s Christs will that God should not as a just Iudge require compensation of us not that as a provoked Father he should not scourge us for our sins when committed The reason is clear because fatherly anger is an â—ffect of love but punishment the fruit of hatred And thus now you see why God will not see sin to condemnation because Christ hath made up that yet he will see it in believers to angry castigation because Christ did not interpose there it is therefore no derogation to Christs death no injury to his sufferings if notwithstanding them God doth afflict for sin even his own children 9. Propos By reason of this anger of God against sin even still abiding those afflictions which come upon believers are from a conveniency with the justice of God Although we cannot say rigidly That if God did not chastise believers for their sins he were unjust yet we may say his afflicting of them is beseeming his Iustice partly because he hath prescribed this law to himself 1 Sam. 7.14 Even as to wicked men upon their obstinate sinning to punish them so upon his own if they offend to chasten them and partly by afflicting of his people for their sin he demonstrates the hatred of it unto the world Although therefore God do not alwayes chastise every godly man but sometimes by their repentance these very chastisâ—ments are either prevented or removed yet when God doth thus break out in his anger against them this is becoming his just nature and the world thereby seeth how he is displeased with it One of the Articles which Arminius relateth as laid against him was that he should hold The temporal afflictions of believers were not chastisements but punishments properly so called To this he answereth pa. 103. Resp ad Artic. 31. That the calamities inflicted upon David for his sin in the matter of Vriah may be called punishments properly and that the Text seemeth to be better explained so and yet withall that there will be no favour to the Popish opinion for he grants That Christ satisfied both for eternal and temporal punishments but yet God when he takes off the spiritual punishment may for a while reserve the temporal as though Christ hath taken away the jus the power and right death hath over us yet he hath not quite destroyed actual death but all this is a meer itching to innovate needlesly in Religion for if Christ have satisfied for temporal death then though it be not removed presently yet it cannot abide as a punishment strictly LECTURE XIII MATTH 6.12 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors THis Text shall be the last because the noblest to prove that God seeth sin in those that are believers for if they be bound to pray that God would forgive them their debts therefore they are involved in debts and in deep humility they are to acknowledge this withall desiring the cancelling or blotting them out so that as the Church anciently used this place against those Pelagian Doctrines which dreamed of a perfection in this life and immunity from all sin no lesse doth it overthrow those novel Assertions of being without sin though not inherently yet as to Gods eye and account What Terâ—ullian said of the Lords-Prayer in general is most true of this Petition Quantum substringitur verbis tantum diffunditur sensibus it is as comprehensive in sense as straightned in words so in this Petition you have few leaves of words but much fruit of matter It s like Christs Mustard-seed which by a good Interpreters managing will grow into a tall tree The material things that belong to remission of sins I shall inclose as pertinent to my purpose In the words you have the Petition it self Forgive Secondly The Subject Vs Disciples and Believers He that thinketh himself without sin that very thought is
Blesse the Lord O my soul who forgiveth all thine iniquities This particular assurance inlarged his heart to praises But although this be part of the sense in this Petition yet this is not all we pray for as the Antinomian contends for we pray principally for the real exhibition of pardon and secondarily for the Declaration and manifestation of it in our consciences Their conceit is That God from all eternity hath pardoned our sins past present and to come and that when we believe or repent our sins are pardoned declaratively only to our conscience they being forgiven before This I shall handle in a Question by it self Only I shall lay down some few Arguments to prove that we do not only pray for assurance and manifestation of pardon but also for pardon it self The reasons are these First We might by the same rule interpret all the other Petitions in regard of Declaration only and not exhibition when we pray for sanctification and glorification in that Petition Thy Kingdom come it might be as well said that we were sanctified and glorified from all eternity and therefore when we are converted or saved in heaven this is but to our sense and feeling This Argument seemeth to be so strong against them that they have confest A man is already glorified while he is upon earth most absurdly confounding the Decrees of God from eternity to do things with the executions of them in time How ridiculous would it be to expound that Petition Give us our daily bread thus Not that God should give us daily bread but only make us to see and feel that he hath given it us A second reason is from the nature of forgivenesse of sin When sinne is pardoned it is said to be blotted out now that blotting out is not only from a mans conscience and feeling but more immediately out of Gods Book So that when God doth forgive he doth cancel those debts which are in his Book and not only the guilt that lieth upon our hearts therefore these are very separable the one from the other A man may feel no weight or burden of sin upon him and yet it stand in fiery Characters against him in Gods Book and on the contrary a sin may be blotted out there yet be very heavy and terrible in a mans feeling and apprehension so sin pardoned is said to be covered or hid not in respect of us as if it were taken from our sight but from Gods sight and he is said to cast our sins behinde his back not ours The third reason This Explication as the whole sense of the Petition would overthrow all other places of Scripture which make no pardon of sin to be but where the subject hath such qualifications as this in the Text of forgiving others it is not indeed put as a cause or merit but yet it is as a qualification of the subject therefore our Saviour repeateth this again Except ye forgive others neither will my heavenly Father forgive you So Act. 10.43 Whosoever believeth on him shall have remission of sins Rom. 3.15 He is a propitiation through faith in his bloud here faith is made an instrument to apply and bring that pardon to the soul which it had not before So 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins By these and the like Scriptures it is plain That remission of sin is given us only in the use of these graces not that hereby we merit at Gods hand or that God is tied to these wayes but it is here as in the Sacraments he hath tied himself to convey his graces in no other chanels or conduits then he hath appointed Lastly This would make no difference between sins repented of and not repented of for if they be all pardoned from eternity then sins that are humbled for and that are unhumbled for have the like consideration on Gods part and I may feel the pardon of the latter though not repented of as well as the former yea I may have the sense of the pardon of all the sins I shall commit for the future and so whereas I pray for daily bread not to-morrow bread I shall here beg for the sense of the pardon not only of my sins to day but tomorrow and the next year But I never read that God made such a Jubile as one Pope did who promised a plenary Indulgence not only for sins past but afore-hand also for all sins to come God doth not antidate his pardon before the sin be committed or repented of but of this more largely in time 6. We pray That as God doth forgive the sin so also he would release the punishments and take away all the wrath that doth belong to it It is a mockery which Papists make about pardon as if indeed God did pardon the sin but the punishment that abideth still and we must work out a release from that by our own selves It is true as we have proved God though he doth pardon sin yet he may grievously afflict but these are fatherly chastisements not judicial punishments but in this Prayer we desire also that as the sins are removed so also whatsoever troubles afflictions and chastisements do remain that they also may be taken away that as the gulf of hell is removed so every cloud also may be dispelled 7. In this Petition we pray That God would deliver us from those effects of sin which God hath immutably set upon it such as are sicknesses death and corruption For although God by vertue of the Covenant of Grace hath promised a perfect pardon of sin yet we cannot come to a full enjoyment of all those priviledges which remission of sin doth bring till we be freed from death and corruption So that as long as there is the death and grave still sin hath some power We therefore pray that whatsoever mortality and corruption sin hath brought in it may be taken away and we made fit for eternal life which is the consequent of pardon of sin for you must know that pardon is not a meer privative mercy freeing us from Gods wrath but there is also a positive investing of us with a title to everlasting life and glory only our corruptibility hinders us from the actual possession of that which we have a right unto we therefore pray That as God removed our sins so he would also remove all the sad effects and mischievous fruit which came in by it 8. We pray not only for pardon of sin but also for the good concomitants and effects of it which are Peace with God and Joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 5.1 Hence Luther speaketh of a twofold pardon one secret and hidden when he forgiveth sins but the people of God do not feel or regard it The other is open and experimental now both these condonations are necessary The first saith he is more bitter and troublesome but more
unclean Thus saith he Christs bloud will cleanse from sin that contaminateth a man Neither is it necessary that grace must really have been in the soul before and then sin by depriving the soul of it so to stain it for it s enough that the soul ought to have grace in it though it were not present before as when a man doth not believe Gods Word though this unbelief do not deprive him of the beauty and grace of faith which he had yet it doth of that beauty of faith which he ought to have And thus as particular actual sins are multiplied so are particular stains and defilements also encreased we therefore must grant a stain by sin though this be not that which is removed by remission Therefore that which continueth a man a sinner in Gods account and is to be removed by remission is that obligation to eternall wrath appointed by God for as soon as a man hath sinned there doth accrue to God a moral right as we may speak with reverence and power being a Judge as thereby he may inflict vengeance upon a sinner and in this respect sin is called an offence because it doth provoke him who is a just Judge unto anger and vengeance This then is that which makes a sin to continue still as if it were in act because upon the sinne committed there is an obligation by Gods appointment to everlasting punishment and when this is taken off then is God said to forgive and till it be sinne is alive crying for vengeance as fiercely as if it were newly committed So that the act once committed that causeth the obligation to punishment and this obligation continuing God doth not forgive When a sinne is committed it may remain in Gods minde and in our minde In our minde by way of guilt and trouble as David said His sin was alwayes before him or else in Gods minde so that he doth will the punishment of such Now when God doth forgive he blots sins out of his minde and remembers them no more He doth not will the obligation of them to punishment being satisfied thorow Christ and the party believing in him By all this you may see That after a sin is committed there remaineth obligation in the will and minde of God to eternal punishment and God when he doth forgive cancelleth this debt or obligation This being cleared we may the easilier judge with what act God doth forgive sinne but of that hereafter Let us consider the aggravation of sin as it is an offence to God which may the more instigate us to pardon In sin we may consider two things First The deprivation of that rectitude which ought to be in every thing we do in which sense sin is a moral monster as there are natural monsters for the soul in sin doth not bring forth fruit answerable unto reason and the Law of God this consideration may much humble us but there is another thing in sin which doth more aggravate it and that is as it is a dishonour and an offence to God and by this means it becometh above our power ever to satisfie God for it Therefore in every sin besides the particular considerations look upon that general one which is in all viz. That peculiar deformity it hath as it is an offence against God Its disputed Whether sin have an infinite evil and deformity in it To answer this If a sin be considered in its kinde so it s not infinite because one sin is so determined to its kinde that it is not another sin as theft is not murder Neither secondly can sin be said to be infinite evil in respect of the being of it for it cometh from finite creatures who are not able to do any thing infinite and therefore sin is not infinite as Christs merits are infinite which are so because of the dignity and worth of the person though the actions themselves had a finite being Besides if sins were infinite in such a sense then no sin could be greater then another because that which is truly infinite cannot be made more or lesse Therefore thirdly Sins are said to have infinite evil in them in respect of the object or person against whom they are committed viz. God who is an infinite object For seeing the aggravation of a sinne ariseth from the worth of the person against whom it is committed if the person offended be of infinite honor and dignity then the offence done against such an one hath an infinite evil and wickedness in it So that the infiniteness of sin ariseth wholly from the external consideration of God against whom it is But of this more when we speak of the necessity of Christs satisfaction to Gods justice by his death Let the Use be to inform thee That every sin committed continueth as fresh to cry vengeance many years after as if it were but lately done till remitted by God Think not therefore that time will wear it out though they may wear out of thy conscience yet they cannot out of Gods minde Consider that of Job 14.17 Thou sealest up my transgression as in a bag and thou sowest up mine iniquity So that what the Apostle speaks of some 2 Pet. 2. is true of all impenitent sinners Their damnation slumbereth not nor doth it linger Therefore till the mercy of God hath taken off this guilt thou art to be in as much fear and trembling as if the very sins were still committed by thee LECTURE XVII MAT. 6.12 And forgive us our Debts THe next Question to be handled is What remission of sin is and how God doth forgive them And although the discussing of the former Question viz. What maketh a man a sinner doth make an easie and quick way of dispatching this because Justification doth take off that consideration and respect of a sinner from a man yet that the whole nature of it may be better understood I shall lay down severall Propositions all which will tend to give us much light in this great and glorious benefit of the Gospel And in the first place as we formerly considered some choice Hebrew words that set forth the pardon of sinne so now let us take notice of some Greek words in the new Testament that expresse this gracious act of God for the holy Ghost knoweth best in what words to represent this glorious mercy to us The word that is most frequently used by the Evangelists and Apostles is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the general is as much as to dismisse or send away to let alone to leave to permit or suffer in which senses the Scripture often useth it and certainly God in this sense doth pardon sin because he lets it alone he leaves it he meddles no more with it but handleth the person forgiven as if he never had been a sinner But commonly this word is used of absolving those who are accused as guilty which appeareth in that famous sentence of Agesilaus
sinne doth naturally and necessarily go away so that there needeth no acceptation from God or act of remission but onely an infusion of grace to repent But this in the next Sermon shall mainly be insisted upon and it is of great practical use to take us off from having confidence and trust in our sorrow for sin For as when a creditor doth forgive his debtor it is the sole act of the creditor not any thing of the debtor So in pardoning it is not any thing that we do though with never so much love and brokennesse of heart that doth release and untie the bond of sinne but it is an act of God onely If you say Why then is repentance and faith pressed so necessarily that God doth not forgive without it For if it be onely an act of Gods then it may be done without any work of the sinner intervening But of this in the next place onely for the present take notice That it is not any sorrow or retraction of ours that makes a sinne either remissible or actually remitted but a meer act of Gods and if all the men of the world were askt this Question What they mean when they pray God to forgive their sins The sense of all would be not that they should doe something which would remit them but that God by his gracious favour would release them So then if all these particulars be cast up together you may clearly conceive how God doth forgive sin not by infusing or putting grace into us which may expel sin as light doth darkness but by his outward grace and favour accepting of us and therefore we are not to relie upon any thing we do not to presume no not of our godly sorrow for sinne but to look up to Heaven desiring God would speak the word that he would pronounce the sentence of absolution Let the Use be To look upon our selves as bound in chains and fetters by our sins as made very miserable by them that so we may the more earnestly desire pardon and put an high prize upon it Though Gods forgiving be not the putting of godly sorrow and the working of a broken heart within us yet we can never obtain the one without the other The grace and mercy of a pardon is no more esteemed by us because we look not upon our selves as so many guilty persons adjudged to eternal death Thus the Publican cried out Have mercy upon me a sinner What Plutarch said of the Husbandman That it was a pleasant sight to him to see the ears of corn bending to the earth because that was an argument of fruit within No lesse joyfull is it to spiritual husbandmen to see their people walk with humble debased broken hearts through sense of sin and not to walk confidently and delicately like Agag saying The worst is past God said of Ahab though humbled for externall motives only Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself How much more will God take notice of those who humble themselves upon spiritual grounds desiring ease from Christ As therefore Bernard writing to one epist 180. who he thought was not sollicitous enough about the Judgements of God in stead of wishing him according to the ordinary custom of salutation Salutem plurimam much health said Timorem plurimum much fear So may the Ministers of God we wish you not much joy but much holy fear Alas thou fearest pain poverty death but the guilt of sin is chiefly to be feared but we like children are afraid of a vizard and do not fear the fire which is a real danger LECTURE XVIII MAT. 6.12 And forgive us our debts YOu have heard Pardon of sin is Gods work only as also his manner of doing it is not by infusing grace into us which takes away the guilt of sin but besides grace sanctifying there is also an act on Gods part repealing the sentence of condemnation against us Now because this may seem to overthrow the duty of repentance and because this is the rock many have been split upon not being able to reconcile our duty of repentance with Gods gracious favour of pardoning I shall speak though not all yet as much as relateth to my purpose in hand concerning the duty and necessity of repentance although there be no causality or merit in it to take away sin and this may rightly inform us about the true efficacy of our sorrow for sin To open this Truth consider these Propositions First That God doth never remit or forgive sin but where also he giveth a mollified and softened heart to repent The Scripture doth abudantly confirm this by precepts and examples It is indeed disputed by the Schoolmen as you have heard whether God by his absolute power might not forgive sin without Sanctification of our natures and the grace of Repentance for seeing they are two distinct mercies why may not God separate the one from the other But it is a vain thing to dispute what God might do when he hath revealed what he will do And although we cannot say That there is a natural necessity between Justification and Sanctification such as is between the light and heat in the fire yet this conjoyning of them together by Gods will and appointment ariseth from a condecency and fitnesse both to God himself who is an holy God and to the nature of the mercy which is the taking and removing of sin away 2. Although the Scripture attribute pardon of sin to many qualifications in a man yet Repentance is the most expresse and proper duty The Scripture sometimes makes forgiving of others a necessary disposition sometimes confessing and forsaking of them sometimes believing though that hath a peculiar nature in receiving of pardon which other graces have not and therefore faith obtaineth pardon by way of an instrument applying which other graces do not But if we speak of the expresse formall qualification it is repentance of our sins not repentance as it is a meer bare terrour upon thy heart but as it is sweetned with Evangelical considerations Luther said There was no word so terrible unto him and which his soul did more hate then that Repent But it was because he understood not Gospel-grounds We read then of some places of Scripture which make God to be the only Author of blotting out and pardoning sin And again we reade of other places where God doth this for none but the broken and contrite heart Now both these places must not be opposed to each other neither may we so dwell upon the one as to neglect the other so to look upon it as Gods act as if there were nothing required in us and again so to look upon that which we do as if God were not to be acknowledged 3. None may believe or conclude that their sins are pardoned before they have repented To this I shall speak more particularly when I handle the Doctrine of Justification before Faith As for the Assertion
do not make to the internal Happinesse of God yet he is pleased with this and commands it of men and threatens to punish where it is denied him and certainly we may not think the Scripture doth aggravate sinâ—e under this title as an injury to him as that which offends him and is disobedience unto him if so be there were not some Reality Besides the Necessity of Christs death by way of satisfaction doth necessarily argue That sinne is a reall offence and dishonour to him And lastly a sinner as much as lieth in him depriveth God of all his inward happinesse and glory insomuch that if it were possible God would be made lesse happy by our sins It is no thanks to a sinner that he is not but it ariseth from his infinite Perfection that he cannot Let the first Use be To commend Repentance in the necessity of it if ever we would have pardon God hath appointed no other way for thy healing Never perswade thy self of the pardon of sinne where sinne it self hath not been bitter to thee Besides where godly sorrow is there will be earnest prayer and heavenly ascensions of the soul unto God for his pardon Hence Zech. 12. The spirit of Prayer and Mourning is put together and Rom. 8. Prayer and groans unutterable As the fowls of the Heaven were at first created out of the water so do thy heavenly breathings after God arise from thy humbled and broken soul It is presumption to expect pardon for that sinne which hath not either actually or habitually been humbled for by thee If a man should expect health and life yet never eat or drink would you not say he tempted God and was a murderer of himself So if a man hope for pardon and yet never debase or loath himself repenting of his sins will you not â—â—y he is a murderer of his soul And be encouraged to it because God hath annexed such a gracious Promise to it He might have filled thee with sorrow here and hereafter It might be with thee as the damned Angels who have neither the grace of repentance nor the mercy of pardon 2. Not to trust in repentance but after all thy humiliations still to depend only upon Christ Though Christ died and was crucified yet he did not lose his strength and efficacy This was represented in that passage of Gods providence That a bone of his was a broken Relie therefore upon Christ wounded for sinne not upon thy own heart that is wounded use this but trust only in Christ Dependance upon Evangelical graces doth evacuate Christ as well as confidence in the Law A man may not only preach the Law and the duties thereof to the prejudice of Christs glory but also the duties and graces of the Gospel If a man relieth upon his repentance and believing he maketh Justification and Salvation to be of works though it be of faith for he makes his faith a work and gives that glory which belongs to Christ to his own repentance LECTURE XX. MAT. 6.12 And forgive us our Debts IT hath already been demonstrated at large How God doth remit or forgive sins We come now to shew What kinde of act forgivenesse of sin is and whether it be antecedent to our faith and repentance Both these Questions have a dependency one upon another and therefore must be handled together The first Doubt is What kinde of act in God forgivenesse of sin is Whether it be an immanent act in-dwelling and abiding in God or transient working some reall effect and change upon the creature Now in handling of this I shall not trouble you with that perplex Question so much vexed by the Schoolmen Whether a transient action be in the Agent or in the Patient but lay down some differences between an immanent action and a transient action only you must take notice that we are in meer darknesse and not able to comprehend how God is said to act or work For on the one side we must not hold that there are any accidents in God or that he can be a subject recipient of such because of his most pure and simple Essence so that whatsoever is in God is God And yet on the other side the Scripture doth represent God doing and working such mercies and judgements as seemeth good to him Only this some conclude of wherein others with some probability dissent that Gods knowledge and will is the cause of all things that are done so that there is not an executive power besides them whereby he doth this or that As we see there is in man though an Artificer wils such a thing to be done yet that is not existent till he hath wrought it but now God worketh all things by a meer command of his will as appeareth Gen. 1. God said Let there be light and there was light Here was Gods will to have it so no executing power distinct from that will Therefore it is a sure truth De Deo etiam vera dicere periculosum est It is dangerous to assert things though true of God and Tunc dignè Deum aestimamus cum inaestimabilem dicimus then do we rightly esteem of him when we judge him above our thoughts or esteem We must not therefore apprehend of God as having a new will to do a thing in time which he had not from eternity as Vorstius and others blaspheme but his will was from all eternity that such a thing be in time accomplished by his wisdome As for example in Creation God did not then begin to have a will to create but he had a will from all eternity that the world should exist in time and thus it is in Justification and Sanctification not that these effects are from eternity but Gods will is And if you ask Why seeing Gods will to create or justifie is from eternity Creation and Justification are not also from eternity The answer is because God is a free Agent and so his will is not a necessary cause of the thing for then it would be immediately as the Sun beams are necessarily as soon as the Sun is but it is a voluntary principle and so maketh the effect to be at the time he prescribeth As if there were an Artificer or Carpenter that could by his meer wiâ— cause an house to be reared up he might will this to be done in such and such a year long after his will of it to be So God when the world is made when a sinner is justified willed these things from all eternity and when they come to have a being these effects cause an extrinsecal denomination to be attributed to God which was not before as now he is a Creator and was not before now he justifieth and did not before There is no change made in God but the alteration is in the creature But of this more in its time Let us come to give the differences between an immanent action and a transient and then we
Gods grace are to be effected Thus Rivet vind Apol. p. 127. If therefore any of our Orthodox Authors have acknowledged a remission of sins before faith it hath been in a particular sense to oppose the Arminians who maintain a reconciliability and not a reconciliation by Christs death and not in an Antinomian sense as is more largely to be shewed in answering of their Objection brought from Christs death for enemies and sinners Indeed some learned and worthy men speak of a Justification before faith in Christ our head as we are accounted sinners in the first Adam or common person Thus Alstedius in his supplement to Chamier pag. 204. when Bellarmine arguing against the holiness of the Protestants Doctrine and bringing this for a paradox above all paradoxes That I must be justified by faith and yet justifying faith be a believing that I am just and righteous which is saith Bellarmine besides and against all reason He answereth among other things That Christ and the elect are as one person and therefore an elect man is justified before faith in Christ as the principle of righteousnesse before God and then he is justified by faith as an instrument perceiving his justification in that righteousnesse of Christ So that faith as it goeth to the act of justification is considered in respect of that passive application whereby a man applieth the righteousnesse of Christ to himself not of that active application whereby God applieth to man the righteousnesse of Christ For this application is only in the minde of God To this purpose the learned Zanchy in his Explication of the second Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians upon those words vers 5. And you being dead in sin he hath quickned together with Christ doth in the first place distinguish of a two-fold quickning One whereby we are freed from the guilt of sinne and invested with a title or right to eternal life The other from the power of sinne whereby we are made spiritually alive to God The former is Justification the later Sanctification Now saith he this two-fold blessing is to be considered in Christ and in our own persons In the first respect God did quicken us in Christ when by his death sinne being expiated he freed from guilt all the elect that have been and shall be considering them as members in Christ their head In the later respect God doth it when having given us faith he gives us also remission of sins and imputeth Christs righteousnesse to us And afterwards the fore-quoted Author making this Objection to himself How Christ could be said to be freed from the guilt of sinne who had no sin He answereth The person of Christ is considered two wayes First in it self as God-man and so Christ was not bound by any guilt Secondly as appointed head and so representing our persons In this respect as God laid our iniquities upon him Isa 55. So when they were expiated by his bloud then was he released from the guilt of those sins We might instance in other Authors but these may suffice to certifie that some orthodox and learned Divines do hold a Justification of the elect in Christ their head before they do believe yet so as they acknowledge also a necessity of a personal Justification by faith applying this righteousnesse to the person justified Therefore although this Doctrine passe for true yet it will not strengthen the Antinomists Although even the truth of this opinion may modestly be questioned unlesse by being justified in Christ our head we mean no more then that Christ purchased by way of satisfaction our Justification for us and so virtually we were justified in Christs death and resurrection But the learned men of that opinion speak as if God then passed a formal Justification upon all though afterwards to be applied that are elected even as in Adam sinning all his posterity were formally to be accounted sinners Now this may justly admit a debate and there seem to be many Arguments against it First If there were such a formal Justification then all the elect were made blessed and happy their sins were not imputed to them for so in Adam when accounted sinners they are wretched and miserable because sin is laid to their charge And if the elect before they believe or repent were thus happy how then at the same time could they be children of wrath and so God imputing their sins to them Can God impute their sins to them and not impute them to them at the same time It is true if we say That Christ by his sufferings obtained at Gods hand that in time the elect should beleeve and be justified this is easily to be conceived but it is very difficult to understand how that all our sins should be at the same time done away in Christ who is considered as one person with us and yet imputed to us Secondly I do not see how this Doctrine doth make our justification by faith to be any more then declarative or a justification in our conscience only and not before God and so by believing our sins should be blotted out in our sense only when they were blotted out before God by Christs death already And so our Justification by faith shall be but a copy fetcht out of the Court roll where the sentence of Justification was passed already whereas the Scripture speaks to this purpose That even before God and in his account till we do believe and repent our sins are charged upon us and they are not cancelled or blotted out till God work those graces in us Therefore this opinion may symbolize too much with the Adversary and indeed none of the meanest Antinomians speaks of an original reconciliation which was wrought by Christ on the cross without any previous conditions in us and urgeth that parallel of the first Adam in whom we all sinned before we had any actual being as also that Text Col. 3.1 where we are said to be risen with Christ Thirdly It is difficult to conceive how Christ should represent any to his Father thereby to partake of the heavenly blessings which come by him till they do actually beleeve and are incorporated in him for they are not his Members till they do believe and till they are his Members he cannot as an head represent them It is true God knoweth whom he hath elected and to whom in time he will give faith whereby they may be united to Christ and so it 's in Gods purpose and intention to give Justification and Sanctification to all his elect but these being mercies vouchsafed in time and limited to such qualifications in the subject I see not how they can be said to be justified in Christ before they do believe otherwise then virtually and meritoriously It is true we are all condemned in Adam because that was a Covenant made with him and his posterity so that the issues thereof fell upon them by a natural and necessary way but
Example God the Father is moved through the death of Christ to pardon the sins of such persons for whom he dieth This agreement is to be made good in that time they shall pitch upon in their transaction Now it pleased the Father that the benefits and fruits of Christs death should be applied unto the believer and not till he did believe though this faith be at the same time also a gift of God through Christ It is good therefore when we either call Election absolute or say Christ died absolutely to consider that Absolute may be taken as opposite to a Pre-requisite Condition which is to be fulfilled by us so that upon this Election and the fruits of Christs death shall depend or else Absolute may be taken as it opposeth any Means or Order which God hath appointed as the way to obtain the end and in this later sense it would be a grand absurdity to say Election is absolute or Christ died absolutely for if this were so the prophane Argument about Election would have truth in it If I be elected let me live never so wickedly I shall be saved And the Arminian Argument That every one were bound to believe that Christ died for him though wicked and abiding so would not well be avoided His last Argument is from the unchangeableness of Gods love If we are not justified in his sight before we believe then God did once hate us and afterwards love us And if this be so why should Arminians be blamed for saying We may be the children of God to day and the children of the devil to morrow Hence he concludes it as undoubted That God loved us first before we believe even when we were in our bloud In answering of this Argument several things are considerable First It must be readily granted That God is unchangeable Jam. 1.17 God is there compared to the Sunne and is therefore called the Father of Lights but yet is preferred before it because that hath Clouds sometimes cast over it and sometimes is in eclipse but there is change or shadow of change with him The Heathens have confessed this and so argued If God should change it would be either for better or worse for worse how could it be imagined for better then God were not absolutely perfect Most accursed therefore must Vorstius his blasphemy be who purposely pleads for mutability in God But secondly As this is easily to be confessed so the difficulty of those Arguments brought from the things which God doth in time and not from all Eternity have been very weighty upon some mens shoulders insomuch that they thought this the only way to salve all by saying That all things were from Eternity And certainly by the Antinomian Arguments we may as well plead for the Creation of all things from all Eternity as that we are justified from all Eternity for all are equally built upon this sandy foundation That because the things are done in time therefore there must be some new act of will or love in God which would imply God is mutable not loving to day and loving to morrow Therefore to avoid this they say All is from Eternity Origen who was called by an ancient Writer Centaur because of his monstrous opinions argued thus lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 2. As there cannot be a father without a sonne or a Master and Lord without a possession so neither an omnipotent unless there be those things about which this power may be exercised Now although it be true That De Deo etiam vera dicere periculosum est because of the weakness of our Understandings to perceive his infinite lustre Yet thirdly It is well cleared by the Schoolmen That those relations which are attributed to God in time as a Creatour Father or Lord are not because of any new thing in God but in respect of the creatures so that when the world is created when a man is justified we say God who was not a Creator before is a Creator who was not a Father by grace is now by grace not because any new accident is in him but because there is a new effect in the creatures Thus if a man once the childe of wrath be now a son of Gods love the change is not in God but in the creature For the better clearing of this we are to take notice in the fourth place That it is one thing as Aquinas observeth Mutare voluntatem to change the Will and another thing Velle mutationem to Will a change By the same unchangeable Will we may Will several changes in an Object As the Physician without any change of his Will may will his Patient to take one kinde of Physick one day and another the third here he wils a change but doth not change his Will Thus God with the same Will decreed to permit in time such an elect man to be in a state of sin under the power of Satan and afterwards to call him out of this condition to justifie his person here indeed is a great change made in the man but none at all in God There is no new act in God which was not from all Eternity though every effect of this love of God was not from Eternity but in time Hence when our Divines argue against Arminians That if the Saints should apostatize Gods love would be changeable it is meant of Gods love of Election which is an absolute purpose and efficacious will to bring such a man to glory now although such a decree was free and so might not have been yet ex hypothesi supposing God hath made this decree it doth very truly follow That if that Saint should not be brought to glory God would be changeable And besides this immutability which may be called an immutability of his nature there is another of his Word and Promise whereby he hath graciously covenanted to put his fear in their heart that they shall never depart from him Now if any of the Saints should totally or finally apostatize Gods mutability would be seen in both those respects of his nature or will and of his truth and fidelity But the case is not the like when a man at his first conversion is made of a childe of wrath a childe of grace partly because there was no such absolute decree of God from Eternity that he should be for no space a childe of wrath but the clean contrary and partly because there is no such word or promise unto any unconverted person that he shall be in the favour of God but the Scripture declareth the clean contrary This duly considered will give a clear reason why it is no good Argument to say Such a man in his sins to day is a childe of wrath and converted to morrow is a son of grace Therefore God is changeable But on the other side if a man should argue An Elect man received into the state of grace may fall totally and finally Therefore God is
and gripes he had within because of sin and no wonder he did not confess it and bewail it before God If therefore God keeps thy heart in many doubts and fears giving thee no rest consider whether thou hast cast all that leaven out of thy house whether every Achan within thee be stoned or no. It is in vain to cure the wound as long as any splint of the poisoned arrow lieth within it or if thou finde no sin unrepented of search whether thy formal lazy duties be not the cause of all the blackness that is in thy heart We reade in the Canticles that the Churches laziness and her not opening the doors to Christ when he knockt was the cause of that spiritual desertion she was plunged into seeking up and down for her Beloved but not finding of him The standing pool begets the croaking Frogs not the running stream and it is the dull negligent Christian whose heart is filled with sad fears and doubts whereas the hidden Manna and white stone is promised to him that overcometh 3. Though thy soul walk thus in darkness yet exercise acts of dependency and recumbency upon Christ howsoever As David many times cals upon his soul to trust in God and not to be sinfully dejected How is that woman of Canaan commended for her faith who though our Saviour called her Dog and did in effect tell her she was excluded from pardon did yet earnestly pursue him and gave him no rest till he gave her rest And certainly this is the noblest act of Faith this is indeed to give glory to God when in the midst of all thy fears and guilt thou canst relie upon him for pardon as in wicked men who are filled with Satan as Ananiaâ— was there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a desperate boldness whereby they dare venture upon sin So in the godly there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a confidence of Faith whereby maugre the devil and our consciences we dare throw our selves into the arms of a Promise Thus by frequent putting forth of strong fiducial applicative acts of Faith we shall at last enjoy obsignative Howsoever hereby thou wilt shew thy heavenly courage in enduring a kinde of spiritual Martyrdom As that Love is the highest Love which is carried out to enemies so those are the strongest acts of Faith which make us depend on God though he seem to kill us yea to damn us LECTURE XXIV MAT. 6.12 And forgive us our Debts ANother Question which is also of great use we are to dispatch at this time viz. Whether a Believer repenting and suing for pardon is to make any difference between a great sin and a lesse For if a man should be perswaded of the negative then would gross and notorious sins which Tertullian cals Devoratoria salutis whirlpools and gulfs wherein the party offended is plunged be no more then those sins which Austin cals Quotidiana levia daily infirmities which continually flow from the most sanctified person Again on the other side A Christian falling into such a gross sin may so far be swallowed up with sorrow as that he shall think the whole bond of friendship is dissolved between him and God that he is cast out of that spiritual Paradise he was in and that God is no more his Father nor he his childe It is therefore necessary to have a pillar of fire to guide us in this wilderness And that the whole truth of this matter may be understood observe these Propositions First Every sin even the least sin doth deserve eternal death As appeareth by those general places Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things the Law commands Gal. 3.10 Now every sin is a transgression of the Law This the Apostle speaks universally of all sin without any exception Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death And indeed this must needs be so if you consider the least sinne is an offence against an infinite God and in this respect because God is not a little but a great God so every sin is not little but a great sin Again if you consider the necessity of Christs bloud to expiate this no sinne can be thought little for if a man had no sin in the world but one of these little ones he could not escape eternall wrath without Christs mediation Therefore we cannot say any sin is venial either from its kinde and nature as Papists distinguish such they make to be officious or jesting lies or from the imperfection of the act such they make those that are committed indeliberately or out of ignorance without full consent or knowledge Or from the smalness of the matter as to steal a farthing or the like None of these sins are so small but that they deserve hell because they are the transgression of the Law of an holy and great God and our Saviour confirmeth this when he saith Of every idle word a man shall give an account Mat. 12.36 and that phrase of giving an account is not a diminutive but aggravative expression Our Saviour doth there argue from the less to the greater Thus If a man must give an account for every idle word much more for blasphemy against the holy Ghost Take we heed therefore how we bring down the weight and guilt of the sinne here also we may see why Paul found such a mountain upon him by sinful motions only arising in his heart There are two places that seem to import such a difference between sins as if some only deserved hell and others not The first is Mat. 5.22 where our Saviour speaking of three degrees of sin doth proportionably assign three degrees of punishment and the last only is guilty of hell fire But the clear Answer is That our Saviour speaks allusively to those three Courts of Judicature among the Jews the least punishment whereof was death so that the first Court punished with death the second death with a more grievous torment The third with a most grievous For that our Saviour doth only allude to these Courts and not speak of what faults the Courts punished is plain for none can think that the Court put any to death for calling his brother fool It was murder and such â—ins that they punished with capital punishments The other place is 1 Joh. 5.15 17. where the Apostle makes a difference between a sin unto death and a sin not unto death but that is clearly to be understood either of the sin against the holy Ghost which in those times when the spirit of discerning was frequent might easily be known or of such sin that did plainly discover obstinacy and impenitency accompanying of it otherwise no man might pray for another man that hath committed a mortal sin if by a sin unto death the Papist will mean every mortal sin Lay therefore this foundation That every sin is mortal in respect of its desert and guilt howsoever to the godly believing and repenting no sin is mortal
respect of the living members Therefore although Gods people in such grievous fals lose their assurance feel wofull commotions of heart yet they are not to conclude That God hath utterly cast them off They are not to look upon themselves as unsound though they have been Prodigals LECTURE XXV PSAL. 32.1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sinne is covered Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity DAvid is stiled by some Ancients The Divine Orpheus by whose musick the wilde beasts evil men may be made tame and certainly his materiall Harp was not more efficacious to drive out Sauls evil spirit then his Psalms are sanctified means to expell all corrupt affections in us And although all Scripture be equally excellent in respect of the Authour yea and of the matter absolutely considered yet in respect of us our direction or consolation by reason of our present estate one place of Scripture may be preferred before another in which sense Junius interprets those Psalms that have their inscription A Psalm of Degrees A Psalm of Excellencies as the Hebrew word will bear it Now this Psalm I am upon may justly be so stiled because it hath a peculiar usefulnesse to those who are exercised about the guilt of sinne for here we have David like an anatomy opened that we may be instructed Hence the title of the Psalm is Maschil which is as much as giving instruction and it is observed by Commentators this is prefixed commonly to those Psalms that have some choice eminent Doctrine especially about afflictions as this hath about Davids guilt and trouble under sin and also his pardon of it The Hebrews call this Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cor The heart of David because he is so affected with Gods displeasure for sinne and the excellency of the pardon Therefore you must conceive the Text to be uttered by David as one groaning and heavily pressed with the weight of his sinne and crying out Oh how blessed and happy are they that have theis sinnes forgiven them In which words you have pardon of sin described First From severall expressions to magnifie the mercy Sins forgiven covered not imputed It is much to consider how ancient Interpreters have made a difference between the sins enumerated as if there were divers kindes or at least degrees of sinne enumerated and hereupon also they make a difference between forgiving covering and imputing as if one were more then the other but we are rather to take it according to the Scripture-custome which doth use for amplification sake to say the same thing in divers words and this is autology but not tautology The difference that is is from the severall metaphors that are in the words As the first word doth signifie the taking away of sin which is a burrhen blessed is he that is eased of such a weight The second which is covering doth suppose the loathsome filthinesse of sin in the eyes of God and therefore by grace is taken out of his sight The third not imputing or reckoning is a metaphor supposing sinne a debt and God in his account will not set it upon our score so that the severall expressions are wonderfully comfortable if sinne trouble thee as an heavy weight on thee pardoning is the easing and taking off this burden if sinne make thee to judge thy self loathsome thou canst not endure thy self pardon of sin is covering of it if sin put thee in such a debt to God that thou knowest not how to satisfie pardon is not imputing Secondly This is described from the adjunct adherent to remission of sinne viz. blessednesse The Apostle Rom. 4 alledgeth this place to prove That a man hath righteousnesse imputed to him without works But the pertinency of the Apostles argument is disputed of for how doth it from this place follow that a man hath righteousnesse imputed to him without works This is as if a man should argue He is a rich man because his debts are forgiven which is a non sequitur because they are two distinct things This makes Piscator and Wotton with others to make justification to be nothing but remission of sins and that imputation of righteousnesse and remission of sins are the self same thing a man being therefore accounted righteous because his sins are not imputed unto him Hence they deny that the Scripture ever saith Christs righteousnesse is imputed unto us although in some sense they grant it may be said so inasmuch as by his death for us he purchased remission of sin which is our righteousnesse This is to be considered of when we speak of the other part of justification viz. imputation of Christs righteousnesse Although they that are for imputed righteousnesse say The Argument is good which Paul useth because imputing of righteousnesse is immediatly contrary to the imputing of sinne and therefore Paul might argue righteousnesse imputed from sinne remitted even as we truly argue The night is not therefore the day is because darknesse and light are immediate contraries and the subject must necessarily have one of them Lastly This forgivenesse of sin is described from the subject in whom it is viz. in him in whose heart there is no guile that is who doth not cover his sins by not confessing and not repenting of them as David acknowledgeth he did for a while From the Text I shall raise such Observations as are to my particular scope As First That forgivenesse of sin is a covering of sin This truth deserveth a diligent unfolding because the mistake about it hath brought forth dangerous errours in two extremities The one of the Papist That because it is covered Therefore there is no sinne at all in the godly otherwise God could not but see it and hate it as Pererius and others argue The other of the Antinomian who inferre from thence That therefore God seeth not sinne or taketh notice of it in justified persons as Eaton To understand this aright take notice That to cover is a metaphorical expression and we must not squeeze it too much lest bloud come out in stead of milk Some make the metaphor from filthy loathsome objects which are covered from our eyes as dead carcases are buried under the ground some from garments that are put upon us to cover our nakednesse some from the Aegyptians that were drowned in the Red Sea and so covered with water some from a great gulf in the earth that is filled up and covered with earth injected into it Lastly some make it an allusive expression to the Mercy-seat over which was a covering which might signifie Gods grace through and in Christ abolishing our sinnes Hence the Apostle attributes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Christ and his bloud which is given to the Mercy-seat We may not strive for any of these Metaphors they all in the generall tend to shew this That God when be pardoneth doth not look upon us as
or trouble yea with joy and thankfulnesse to God because delivered from them Quandoque laeti recordamur dolorum said Gregory We may with joy remember by-past grief But those that are for the negative think this no waies suteable to Gods goodnesse that the sins of the godly should then be published for these grounds following First From the judicial processe where Christ cals the blessed of his Father to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them and then enumerateth only the good works they had done no question they had many sins and failings but God takes no notice of them Secondly This agreeth best they say with those expressions of Scripture concerning pardon viz. that God blotteth them out that they are thrown into the bottom of the sea Thirdly The godly are said not to come into judgement and there is no condemnation to them yea they have already life everlasting Lastly Christ is their bridegroom their friend their advocate and how ill becoming would it be one in such relations to account or lay open their sins Which of these opinions is truest is hard to say neither of them have cogent arguments and the Scripture doth not expresly decide the question yet the negative seems to have more probability on its side The Use is First Of comfort and glad tidings to the children of God howsoever in this life they have accusations from within and from without yet the day is coming when they shall have a glorious and publike justification from all objections Then Satan can no more accuse Joshua for the noisome rags upon him Then Joseph shall be brought out of the prison freed from all guilt and calumny and exalted to great glory and it may be therefore God suffereth thee to be exercised with much guilt and fear here that thou maist the more long for those daies of refreshment And as this truth is for their great consolation so also it demonstrateth their happinesse That that which is so terrible and dreadfull to wicked men should be such matter of rejoycing unto them when they through horrour should cry for the mountains and hils to cover them these shall desire the graves and the earth to deliver up her dead that they may enjoy their Bridegroom Certainly beleevers are not beleevers in this point as they should be what an heavenly contempt would it work in them of this present world what earnest desires that this Kingdom might at last come This is their marriage-day the day of coronation Then death hell grave sin and Satan are all conquered And if the joy and peace which remission of sin produceth in this life be so exceeding glorious what will that be when we shall have no more streams but that fountain 2. Use by way of contrary To terrifie and arouse wicked men for as the godly have but a glimmering a little pittance in this life in respect of that fulnesse of glory to be revealed hereafter so the wicked feel not the least part of that guilt torment shame and confusion which hereafter shall be poured upon them There are many mens sins lie asleep keep no noise either in their own consciences or before God but then these lyons these mastive dogs that lay tumbling at the door will rise up in rage and wholly devour Do not therefore take Gods forbearance for his gracious acquittance oh do not imbolden thy self with false encouragements and say The worst is over As the Apostle said these light afflictions were nothing to that eternal weight of glory so on the contrary may the wicked say These pangs and wounds of consciences which are felt here are nothing to that eternal weight of sin hereafter Bernard said descendamus in infernum viventes ne descendamus morienâ—es let us goe into hell while we are alive by a serious meditation and holy consideration that we may not go into it when we be dead by reall miseries As the Apostle saith we are the children of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be there is more glory then they can conceive so wicked men are now the children of wrath but it doth not yet appear what they shall be Oh therefore that ungodly men were as wise as Jonah's mariners who in the midst of tempests seeing their ship necessarily sinking throw away the goods that were a burden knowing they and their safety could not consist together Thus are ye to do throw away thy sins those heavy burdens that put all into danger and so maist thou safely arrive at last in heaven LECTURE XXX LUKE 7.47 Wherefore I say unto thee Her sins which are many are forgiven her for she loved much THis Text is part of a famous history which may well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the three great things observable in it 1. Great sinnes 2. Great repentance and humiliation â— Great love and grace of God through Christ in pardoning And there is this one peculiar thing well observed about this woman in the history that whereas divers others addressed themselves to Christ for corporal mercies this only cometh for spiritual even for remission of her sins For the better understanding of the text let us briefly consider the history and first the woman is described by her quality inherent a sinner not in a common sense as all are but in a more notorious manner and therefore those that mitigate her fault out of some reverence or honour to her do not so much encrease her honour as Maldonat upon the place well observeth as detract from Christs honour for the Physicians skill is most commended where the disease is more desperate That she was a known great sinner appeareth in that the Pharisee wondred at Christ because he would have any commerce with her Whether this woman was Mary Lazarus his sister or no is hotly disputed by Commentators but impertinent to my scope In the next place you have her great repentance expressed wherein for the generall you may see the Apostles duty accomplished as she had given her members to be members of iniquity so now of righteousnesse insomuch that she is the true looking-glasse of an humble convert Her humiliation is described 1. In bringing of a box of oyntment to anoint his feet not his head say some because she thought her self so unworthy she brought indeed an outward visible box of ointment but she had another invisible and spiritual one even a contrite and broken heart 2. She stands behinde Christ as being loathsom in her own eyes and washeth his feet with her tears which must suppose that to be true in her which Jeremiah desireth viz. Her head to be a fountain of water but as long as her heart was such a fervent limbeck it was no wonder to see such precious distillations Chrysologus upon this fact of hers saith The Heavens are wont to water the Earth with rain but ecce nunc rigat terra Coelum here the earth watereth Heaven Lastly The debasement of
fit nisi revelante spiritu per fidem aeternum Dei propositum de sua salute Who is a righteous man but he that returneth love to God for Gods loving of him And how can this be but by Gods Spirit revealing his purpose of Election concerning the just mans Salvation Use of Instruction Doth the apprehension of great pardon breed great Humiliation then we may see the necessity of that Ministery and preaching which doth discover the depth length and breadth of sin They take the best way to set up grace and magnifie Christ who do amplifie the pollution of sin in us Now that we may come to be convinced how much God doth forgive us two points are much to be insisted upon 1. The Doctrine of original corruption for thereby we shall see our selves guilty of more sins then ever we thought of a man without this Scripture-light is like one in a dark dungeon which is full of Serpents Toads and all venemous creatures but is not able to see any of them and so thinks himself without any danger at all If therefore thou wouldst see how much is forgiven reckon up all the debts thou owest The mercy and skill of the Physician will then appear when the worst of thy disease is made manifest A second Point much to be pressed is the pure strict and exact obligation of the law which being set as a pure glass before thee all thy deformities will appear In this sense it is good to be a legal Preacher and a legal Hearer often that so knowing the holiness of the Law and our imperfection we may esteem the more of Gods Grace in pardoning so much As God in the outward passages of his providence doth therefore suffer one trouble to follow another like so many waves that so the greater their calamities have been his wisdom power and goodness may be the more conspicuous in delivering of them Thus it is also in his spiritual administrations he will not reveal the riches of Grace but to the poor in spirit nor will he give ease and refreshment but to those that are heavy laden and burdened And this is the reason why a Pharisee a formalist a moral man a self-righteous man doth not love Christ as converted Publicans and sinners do Use second of Admonition to those who have sinned much and so have had much forgiven them let such know their expences of practised grace must be according to the receipts of justifying Grace Let such know the pardon of many sins is a talent to be greatly improved As thou hast abounded in many sins and God in many pardons so do thou in much thankfulness How thankful would we be to a man who hath delivered us often from a temporal death but behold a greater love is manifested here Thou who hast it may be been the chiefest sinner of many thousands be now the chiefest Believer of many thousands If thou hast been a great sinner and art not now a great actour and spiritual merchant negotiating for God fear the truth of thy grace much love should be like much fire that consumes all dross quicken up thy self with such thoughts as these Lord who was more plunged into sin then I whose diseases were greater then mine It may be thousands and thousands for less and fewer sins then I have committed are now taking their portion in hell O Lord this thy overflowing goodness doth overcome me oh that I had the hearts of all men and Angels to praise thee FINIS THE TABLE A FIve absurdities objected by the Antinomians which they say will follow from the Doctrine that God afflicts his people for sin vindicated p. 39 40 41 What kinde of act forgivenesse is and whether it be antecedent to our faith and repentance 166 167 There are no accidents in God ib. How afflictions come upon the godly after pardon of sin 24 God doth not alwayes afflict with reference to sin 28 The afflictions of the godly are not legal but evangelical and why 39 How afflictions on believers agree with the justice of God 101 It is a great aggravation to the sins of Gods people that they have been committed in his sight 53 54 Aggravations and diminutions of sin 206 208 The unsound Answers of the Antinomian about the afflictions of the godly 24 25 The Antinomian contrary to himself 33 34 93 Three Arguments of the Antinomian answered 34 35 36 37 The Antinomians answer to and evasion of certain Scriptures answered 53 How the anger of God is shewed toward the the sins of his people 76 77 78 The Antinomian Arguments answered 176 to 193 Arguments proving that God doth see sin in the justified so as to be offended with it 53 Seven Arguments proving our faith and repentance antecedents of Justification 169 to 172 Three Reasons proving that Assurance of pardon is apt to kindle spiritual affections in us 269 270 B Sins committed after Baptism pardonable 126 127 Christ is the advocate of Believers after Justification 66 67 Bellarmines objection answered 115 How sin is a blot in the soul 136 When sins are blotted out 158 C A three-fold cause of Justification Efficient Meritorious Instrumental 2 The people of God are not cast off for their sins 232 It is one thing to change the will and another to will a change 193 It is no derogation from Christ that sin is in a believer 40 What the bloud of Christ doth meritoriously cleanse the Spirit doth efficaciously 57 Wherein the compleatness of the pardon of sin at the day of Judgement consists 259 260 Six comfortable considerations gathered from certain Scriptures 49 â—0 It is of great consequence to have the Doctrine of Justification kept pure and why 3 A two-fold condition of faith pag. 191 192 Comfort to the children of God 263 Pardon of sin is a continued act 115 What is meant by covering sin 216 217 1 What is 2 What is not implied in that phrase of covering sin 217 218 219 How sin being in the regenerate yet covered will stand with the omnisciency truth and holiness of God 220 221 Whether God doth see sin when he hath covered it 219 220 D Eternal Death deserved by every sin 206 What in sin is a Debt 105 Sins called a Debt in a four-fold respect 105 106 There is a great difference between original and actual sin and wherein they differ 20 There is great difference in the calamities of the godly 28 The afflictions of the godly and the wicked for sin how differ 29 The difference between a godly man troubled in conscience and a man damned in hell 82 A two-fold difference between actions immanent and transient 166 167 168 An elect person and a reprobate how they are alike differ 188 Whether a difference ought to be made between great and little sins Six Propositions clearing the same 206. to 212 A Christian is to make a difference of sins six wayes 208 209 210 Four things wherein a Christian
more Again see the like dealing with David 2 Sa. 11.12.8 9. I anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and if that had been too little I would have given thee such and such things wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of God c. Must not this pierce into the very bowels of David Shall God upbraid his people falling into sin spread before their eyes the manifold mercies he hath bestowed upon them and all this while see no sin in them Therefore when it is said Iam. 1.5 That God upbraideth not that is to be understood in respect of his frequent and liberal giving as men use to say I have given thus often and I will give no more which kinde of giving Seneca cals panem lapidosum but if men walk unworthy of the benefits received he doth then upbraid as Mar. 16.14 He is said to upbraid the Disciples because of their unbelief Thirdly The Scripture applieth the threatnings of God to believeâ—s as well as to others making no difference between them unless they repent Indeed we say against the Papists that all the sins of justified persons are venial and not mortal that is such as in the event will have pardon but that is because the seed of grace will be operative in them so that they shall either habitually or actually repent of their sins Neither when the Orthodox say That Election is absolute do they exclude the media instituta means appointed by God in which the fruit of Election is accomplished but conditions antecedanâ—ous as if that decree did remain suspense and uncertain till the will of man had determined 1 Cor. 6.9 10. The Apostle laieth down an universal rule such and such grosse offenders shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven that is those who live so and do not repent and this is to be extended not only to those who are habitually so but actually likewise unlesse they are reformed Therefore no godly man falling into any of those grosse sins may deceive himself and think he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven without a change Godly or ungodly yet if found in the committing of such a gross sin unless they do repent God will not accept one or the other As repentance is appointed for the wicked man as a duty without which he cannot be saved so confession and forsaking of sin is prescribed a godly man fallen into sin without which he cannot have remission 1 Jo. 1.9 There is no such free grace or Gospel as faith to a believer if fallen into a foul sin whether you repent or no your sins shall be pardoned to you Hence 1 Cor. 11. the Apostle makes every man that receiveth unworthily and yet some of them were godly to receive their damnation that is their eternal damnation without repentance and reformation and after repentance their judgement though not of condemnation yet affliction and castigation How terrible likewise is Paul He. 12.29 where speaking to the godly that are to receive a kingdom that is eternal he exhorteth them to duty Let us have grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let us retain and keep grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ro. 15.4 and observe the manner with reverence and godly fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is such a fear as relateth to punishment compare this place with Ps 2.12 and thus the words following suppose for our God is a consuming fire this is taken out of Deu. 4.24 and the meaning is God is no less angry with Christians sinning against him then formerly with the Israelites it is as easy for him to destroy whom he is offended with as for the fire to destroy stubble How directly doth this place overthrow that Antinomian assertion God saw sin in believers in the Old Testament and therefore afflicted them but it is not so under the New Now when it s said God is a consuming fire this denoteth the great anger of God compare it with Deu. 9.3 Deu. 32.22 Fire is most efficacious and least capable of transmutation as other elements are for which reason the Persians worshipped fire for a god but fire might be extinguished whereas God is such a fire as consumeth all and remaineth immutable Know then brethren that as there are places in the New Testament which speak of the riches of his grace so also of his consuming anger As therefore the promises of the Scripture are for consolation hope to the godly so are the threatnings for a godly fear Between these two milstones a Christian is made dulcis farina as Luther once said and neither of these milstones may be taken for a pledge as the Law was in the Old Testament because one cannot work without the other Therefore for a man to take only those places of Scripture which speak of the goodnesse of the promises and to reject the terrors of the threatnings is spiritual theft in an high degree Doth not Paul 2 Cor. 5 excite himself to run like a Gyant in his ministerial race because of the terror of the Lord at the day of Judgement See ver 10. We must all appear so to appear as to be seen through and made manifest before the judgement-seat of God as those that are to plead a cause in an eminent place before a Judge to receive a reward sutable to his life nâ—w knowing this saith the Apostle we perswade it may relate to himself and to those whom he perswadeth Yet this apprehension of the Lords terror did not exclude love for v. 14. he saith The love of Christ constraineth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either an expression from those who had a spirit of prophecie upon them that was very powerfull whereby they could not but speak or else from women in travell Heb. 12.15 which through pain cannot but cry out so efficacious was love in Paul 4. The sins of godly men cease not to be sins though they are justified We may not say that in Cain killing of another is murder but in David it is not We may not say denying of Christ in Judas is indeed a sin but in Peter it is not No priviledge they have by justification can alter the nature of a sin He that receiveth unworthily is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord whether he be a wicked man or a Beleever It is not with a Beleever and a wicked man as with a man and a beast comparatively If a beast kill a man it is not sin because the subject is not reasonable but a man if he do so whether godly or ungodly it is a sin because against Gods Law It is not safe to say that God doth with the Beleever and wicked as if a Magistrate should make a Law that whosoever committeth such a crime if he be a free-man he shall only be imprisoned but if a servant he shall be put to death so God whosoever murdereth or committeth adultery
it is not reported that she found such grief for her sins So that as in corporal things a man would choose the tooth-ach rather then a pestilent feaver yet a man is more afflicted and pained at the tooth-ach or burning of his finger then at a feaver So it may be here a godly man would rather choose the losse of his children or dearest relations then lose the favour of God by his sinne yet it may be have more painfull grief in the one then the other Again it is to be observed That the Scripture requiring sorrow or repentance for sin doth not limit such a degree or such a length of time which if necessary would certainly have been prescribed 6. It cannot be denied but that the ancient Fathers have spoken hyperbolically of tears and repentance which phrases were the occasion of that corrupt doctrine in Popery Chrysostom compareth repentance to the fire which taketh away all rust of sin in us Basil cals it The medicine of the soul yea those things which God properly doth are attributed to tears and sorrow as if the water of the eyes were as satisfactory as the bloud of Christ his bloud is clean enough to purge us but our very tears need washing It is true indeed we reade of a promise made to those who turn from their evil wayes Ezek. 18.27 he shall save his soul alive but this is not the fruit of his repentance but the gift of God by promise It qualifieth the subject it hath no influence upon the priviledge Even as a man doth by the power of nature dispose and prepare the body to receive the soul but it is the work of God immediately to infuse it 7. Though therefore repentance be necessary to qualifie the subject yet we run into falshood when we make it a cause of pardon of sinne And thus ignorant and erroneous people do Ask why they hope to be saved or justified why they hope to have their sins pardoned they return this answer Because they have repented and because they lead a godly life Thus they put their trust and confidence in what they have done But the Scripture though it doth indispensably command repentance in every one yet the efficient cause of pardon is Gods grace and the meritorious is Christs bloud And if repentance come under the name of a cause it can be only of the material which doth qualifie the subject but hath no influence into the mercy it self We reade Luk. 7. that Mary Magdalen had many sins pardoned her because she loved much But the Parable of a Creditor which forgave debts that is brought by our Saviour to aggravate her kindnesse doth plainly shew That he speaks not of a love that was the cause of pardon of her sin but which was the effect of it Gods love melting her heart even as the Sun doth snow The highest expressions that we meet with in Scripture where pardon of sinne seemeth to be ascribed to godlinesse as a cause is Dan. 4.27 Break off thy iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Here we would think that if a man would on purpose hold that doing of a good work would be a proper cause to remove sin he would use no other expression But first it appeareth by the context that Daniel giveth not this counsel in reference to Justification and the pardon of his sin so as to be accepted with God but to prolong and keep off that temporall judgement which was revealed in the vision as appeareth by those words If there may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity And we have the like instance in Ahab who prorogued his calamity by an external humiliation Again although the Vulgar translate it Redeem thy sins yet the Hebrew word doth properly signifie To break a thing as we translate it and although by a metaphor it be applied to redeem and deliver yet that is alwayes of men and persons not things especially it would be ridiculous to say Redeem thy sins so that the meaning is That whereas before Nebuchadnezzar had by injustice and oppression done much rapine and violence now Daniel counselleth him to break off such wicked wayes by the contrary expressions of love and chastity So that this place giveth not any spiritual mercy to repentance as the proper cause thereof 8. As repentance is thus necessary but not as a cause of pardon so neither is it required as that whereby we appease and satisfie God and this all Popery goeth upon yea and all Pharisaical spirits in their humiliation that by those afflictions and debasements of their souls they shall satisfie God and make him amends But this is so grosse that the more learned of the Papists are fain to mitigate the matter and say That satisfaction cannot be properly made to God by any thing we do because all we have and do is from God and therefore there must be an acceptation or covenant by way of gift interposed whereby we may be able to satisfie And then further they say There cannot be satisfaction made to gain the friendship of God which sin hath violated but to take away some thing of temporall punishment that belongs to sinne So that by all this which hath been delivered we may give repentance those just and true bounds which Gods Word doth assign to it and yet not give more then Gods Word doth Neither may we think it a nicety or subtilty to make a difference between a qualification and a cause for if we do not we take off the due glory that belongs to Christ and his merits and give it to the works we do and we do make Christ and his sufferings imperfect and insufficient and by this we may see in what sense grace inherent or sanctification doth expel sin for if we speak of the filth and pollution of sin so sanctifying grace expels it as light doth darknesse heat doth cold by a reall mutation and change So that God in sanctifying doth no more to expel the sin in the filth of it afterwards even as the Physitian needs to do no more to the removing of the leprosie then by producing a sound health in the body But when we speak of the guilt of sin it is not grace sanctifying within us that doth remove the guilt but grace justifying without us Insomuch that although a man after sin committed were perfectly sanctified yet that would not take off the guilt his sin had brought upon him So that although that man needed in such a case no further grace of sanctification to make him holy yet he needed the grace of remission to take away this guilt So that the guilt of sin doth not cease by a natural necessity upon the removing of the nature of the sin but upon a distinct and new act of Gods favour in forgiving for if this were so then Gods mercy in giving a repenting heart and his mercy in pardoning should not be two distinct mercies which yet are evidently distinguished by