establish their Purgatory No O Sinner there is not any guilt left for thee to satisfie for not any reserve of punishment for thee to undergo but all thy Sins are so pardoned that they are in God's Account as if they had never been committed against him And therefore be thy Comforts never so strong and flowing and thy sense of God's pardoning Grace never so clear yet know that thy Pardon is still infinitely more perfect than thy Joy in it can be satisfactory For Assurance and the sense of Pardon is a Work of God's Spirit wrought in us and is commonly mixed with some hesitation and misgiving doubts but our Pardon is an Act of God in himself where it meets with nothing contrary and therefore with no abatement but is as perfect and absolute as ever it shall be in Heaven it self Thirdly Is it God that Pardons Then for thy comfort know that he can as easily forgive great and many Sins as few and small For the greatness and multitudes of thy Sins can make no odds in infinite Grace and Mercy only repent and believe God proclaims his Name Exod. 34 7. The Lord God Merciful and Gracious Long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin That is all sorts and sizes of Sins The greatest Sins repented of are no more without the extent of his Mercy than the least unrepented of are without the cognizance of his Justice And that there is any one though but one Sin unpardonable ariseth not so much from the atrociousness of the Fact as if it exceeded Mercy but only from the malignity of its Nature hardning the Heart against God and making it uncapable of Repentance otherwise could they who commit this Sin repent even they also should obtain Pardon Say not therefore Mine Iniquity is greater than can be forgiven I have out-sinn'd Mercy and there is no Portion for me in God his fiery Indignation will eternally devour me This is to be injurious unto God and to stint that Grace and Mercy which he hath made infinite And thou may'st with as much Truth and Reason say that thou art greater than God as that thy Sins are greater than his Mercy Yet here before I leave this let me caution you that you do not abuse this comfortable Doctrine of God's pardoning Sin and turn that into Presumption that was intended only to arm you against Despair Indeed both Presumption and Despair tend in a divers manner to encourage and harden Men in Sin The Despairing Sinner argues If I must not be saved if my Sins be so many and great that there is no Pardon for them to what purpose then should I live strictly To what purpose should I cross and vex my self by an unprofitable severity It is too great niceness to scruple farther sinning when I am already sure of Damnation and therefore if I must go to Hell I will make my way thither as pleasant as I can This is a kind of Despair that produceth not horrour as it doth in some but a most wretched carelessness what becomes of them On the other hand Presumptuous Men argue God is able to pardon the greatest and vilest Sinners they cannot sin beyond the reach and extent of his Grace and Mercy and therefore what need they yet trouble themselves to repent and reform they will yet indulge themselves a little longer in their Sins for it is as easie for God to pardon them at the last moment of their lives as upon many years preparation We see Iniquity every where most fearfully to abound in the World and doubtless both Despair and Presumption have too great an influence both upon the Minds and Lives of Men to make them careless in their Eternal Concernments Enough hath been spoken to the Despairing which are but few but to the Presumptuous let me add a Word It is the most unworthy and dis-ingenuous use they can make of the Mercy of God to press it to serve against its Authority Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid Shall we Sin licentiously because God pardons freely no the Grace of God obligeth otherwise the Love of Christ constraineth otherwise the filial disposition of the New Creature enclineth otherwise Gratitude and Retribution engage otherwise But if these motives be too refined and ingenious for thy sordid and slavish Spirit and if thou wilt still go on in the Presumption of thy Heart crying Peace Peace to thy self although thou continuest adding one Iniquity to another know O vile wretch that the Lord will not spare thee but the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall smoak against thee and all the Curses that are written in his Book shall come upon thee and the Lord will blot out thy Name from under Heaven Deutr. 29.19 And thus I have done with the general consideration of God's pardoning Sin held forth to us in this Petition Forgive us our Debts or Trespasses Now in this Petition we pray not only for the Pardon of Sin but likewise for all things that are antecedently necessary to obtain it As First We pray that God would discover to us the horrid odious Nature of Sin that he would convince us of the woful miserable Estate that we are in by Nature and how much more wretched and miserable we have made our selves by our sinful lives that he would set home the terrours of Sin upon our Consciences to our humiliation and make us Despair in our selves that we might fly unto Christ and lay hold on that help and refuge he hath set before us Secondly We pray that God would humble us under the sight and sense of our manifold Transgressions that as our Sins have made us vile in God's Eyes so they may make us vile in our own to loath our selves in dust and ashes for them Thirdly We pray that God would give us his Spirit to enable us to confess our Sins cordially and sincerely to pour forth our Hearts before him and to acknowledge our manifold Provocations with shame and godly sorrow upon which God promised to grant us pardon and forgiveness Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his Sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find Mercy And the Apostle tells us If we confess our Sins God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness 1 Joh. 1.9 Fourthly We beg a more clear understanding of the Sacrifice and Atonement made by Jesus Christ through which alone all Pardon is purchased and procured To know both what it is and why ordained and likewise the knowledge of God's rich and free Mercy and the Conjunction of this Sacrifice and Mercy together in the great Mystery of the freeness of Divine Grace and the Satisfaction of Jesus concurring to the Remission of our sins and the Salvation of our Souls Fifthly We pray that we may have a high esteem of Christ and may hunger and thirst more after him and his
Kings to forgive Offenders Hence our Saviour describing the Process of the General Judgment when he comes to speak of pronouncing the Sentence of Absolution upon Believers styles himself King so we read Matth. 25.34 Then shall the King say to them on his Right Hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom So that here our Faith hath a very strong Plea to urge with God for the Pardon of our Sins Forgive us our Trespasses For thine is the Kingdom and it belongs to the Royalty of thy Kingdom to forgive humble and penitent Suppliants Sixthly The Kingdom is God's therefore we may well pray in Faith that he would Deliver us from Evil For this is one great end of Government to protect their Subjects from the Assaults of their Enemies And God who is our King will not neglect this care when we do with an humble Faith urge him to it by representing to him that the Kingdom is his for his interest is involved in the safety and welfare of his People And thus I have briefly shown you in general that all our Prayers ought to be enforced with strong and cogent Reasons which although they are not properly motives unto God yet are they good grounds for our Faith to build upon and therefore a good Evidence when we use them that our Petitions shall be heard and granted And I have likewise particularly accommodated this first Motive and Argument taught us by our Saviour Thine is the Kingdom to each of the Six Petitions which he hath instructed us to present to God The Second Attribute that we are to consider as a Reason and Motive urged in this Prayer is the Power of God Thine is the Power Now Power according to the usual acceptation of the Word is nothing else but an ability to work those Changes and Mutations upon created Beings which were not in them before I speak only of Active Power and the Two Terms of it are either the effecting of somewhat that was not or the annulling and destroying of that which was This is the Notion of Power whether it be ascribed to God or Man and in both it is either Absolute or Ordinate Absolute Power respects the simple ability of acting Ordinate Power respects also the will and determination to act And therefore in God whose Power we are now treating of his Absolute Power is of a much larger extent than his Ordinate for the one relates to all things possible that is to all things whose existence doth not imply a contradiction the other relates only to things future and this likewise such as shall exist according to the common course and method of God's Ordinary Providence for Miraculous effects although they are produced according to the Will and Ordination of God yet they appertain not to his Ordinate but to his Absolute Power So then the Objects of God's Absolute Power are things merely possible or things future which are without the Compass and Sphere of second causes to produce But the Objects of God's Ordinate Power are things future produced according to the Laws of Natural Agents and the Virtue of second Causes Yet both these Powers in God are infinite the one Objectively the other Formally First God's Absolute Power is Objectively infinite that is the Object of it is infinite for all things possible are the Object of this Power and all things are in themselves possible which do not imply a contradiction And Oh how vast and incomprehensible is the sum of these God might have Created more Worlds more Angels and Men than he hath done more sorts of Creatures and more of every sort if he had so pleased Yea and he might have been Creating and Acting from all Eternity to all Eternity and in his infinite duration be still producing new and therefore infinite effects for with God nothing is impossible Luke 1.37 And the only Reason why God hath produced such effects and no other so many and not more is not from want of Power but merely from the free determination of his own Will and Counsel He might have hindred the Fall of Man restored the fallen Angels raised the Stones to be Children unto Abraham brought more Deluges and general Plagues upon the World if he had so pleased Yea and though our fancy and imagination hath a large Empire and seems boundless in these Fictions and Pourtraictures of things which we Paint and Limn there yet God can really Create more than we can only imaginarily Create for we can only patch together those things which we have seen or have otherwise been the Objects of our Senses and by putting together several pieces of things really existing make an Idea of that which never was But God can actually cause those Species and kinds of beings in the World which never were nor ever was there a former resemblance of them and so can infinitely exceed the largest scope of what in us seems most unlimitted even our Thoughts and Fancies for he is able to do above what we are able to think Secondly God's Ordinate Power is infinite formally that is those things which he works according to the Counsel of his own Will they are all effected by infinite Power for tho' the Objects themselves are finite both for nature and number yet the Power that produceth them is infinite for since the Essence of God is infinite and each of his Attributes is his Essence it follows likewise that his Power is infinite even in the production of things that are finite Now it appears that the Power of God is infinite First By the Works of Creation for though the things that are Created are finite and but a few in comparison with those that are possible yet it is no less than the infinite Power of God that can impregnate the vast Womb of nothing and make it bring forth a Being It must needs be an Almighty Word that can call forth a Creature out of non-existence and make it start up into the rank of things that are And therefore we find God often ascribing it to himself as a Glorious demonstration of his Almighty Power that he spreads forth the Curtains of the Heavens that he laid the Beams of the Earth that he hung out those Glorious Lights of the Sun Moon and Stars that he breathed forth all the various sorts of the Creatures which People the Universe and by the commanding Word of his Mouth they were made His Power and his Hand formed all those Beautiful Creatures we behold out of a rude and confused Chaos and that Chaos it self out of the greater confusion of Nothing And although second Causes by their Power and Natural Energy introduce various forms into things yet all the matter they have to work upon was first God's Workmanship and there is nothing made by Man but it is the Creature of God at least as to the matter and first principle of it Now it is only infinite Power that can bring something out of nothing yea
promised not to do Thirdly The Glory is God's therefore his Will shall be done in Earth as it is in Heaven The greatest Glory that God can receive from us is by our Obedience John 15.8 Herein saith our Saviour is my Father Glorified that ye bear much Fruit God's chiefest Glory is his Holiness and therefore he is Styled Glorious in Holiness And we have no better way to Glorifie the Holiness of God than by endeavouring to be Holy as he is Holy For then do we declare it to be a thing which we value as most Excellent and Glorious when we strive to imitate it and would fain get as much of it as our frail Natures can receive And therefore we may well pray in Faith Thy Will be done for thine is the Glory because the greatest Glory we can give to God is by doing his Will Fourthly The Glory is God's and therefore will he provide for us our daily Bread and all things that are necessary for our good And therefore when God was Miraculously to provide Bread for his People in the Wilderness he tells them Exod. 16.7 In the morning then shall ye see the Glory of the Lord. And certainly it is not for the Glory of God that any of his should want things fitting and necessary for them Only let us leave it to him to Judge what is so For although he should reduce thee to a morsel of Bread and a cup of cold Water yet he gives thee all that is fit for thee and should he give thee more it would not be a boon but a curse Fifthly The Glory is God's Therefore he will forgive thy Debts and Trespasses The Wise Man hath told us Prov. 19.11 That it is the Glory of a Man to pass over a Transgression and shall it not much more be the Glory of God whose Mercies are infinitely more Glorious than our Charity can be Yea he tells us Prov. 25.2 That it is the Glory of God to conceal a thing that is to hide and cover our sins so that they shall not be found against us And expresly Ephes 1.6 7. That we have redemption even the forgiveness of sins to the praise and glory of his Grace And I have shewed you in opening of the Petition that it is a very high Honour and Superiority to forgive it is the Prerogative-Royal of a King and therefore we may well pray with Faith Forgive us our Trespasses for thine is the Glory Sixthly The Glory is God's Therefore he will deliver us from the Assaults and Incursions of our Enemies he will deliver us from Temptations or from the evil of Temptation He will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear but will with every Temptation make a way for us to escape hereby to demonstrate the Glory of his Wisdom and Power that it is above all the wiles and power of the Devil and our Spiritual Enemies And therefore we may well pray Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Glory because it is the Honour of God to defend his Servants from the incursions of his and their Enemies Thus we have treated on three of God's Attributes ascribed to him in this Doxology His Dominion his Power and his Glory It remains now to consider the Amplification of all these by that expression For ever which is to be referred and accommodated to the foregoing Titles The Kingdom is thine for ever The Power is thine for ever and the Glory thine for ever Now this application of it denotes to us the Eternity of God's Attributes and consequently his Nature Indeed this Particle For ever doth not always in Scripture signifie a strict and proper Eternity for it is often applied to things of various durations First Sometimes most improperly those things which have both beginning and end are said to be for ever So the Mosaical Paedagogy and those rites and observancies which were imposed upon the Jews by the Levitical Law are said to be everlasting although they were not to continue any longer than between Moses and Christ which space was not compleatly Fifteen Hundred Years Thus the Priesthood is said to be eternal Numb 25.13 where it is called The Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood So the sprinkling of the Blood of the Passover is to be commanded to be observed for ever Exod. 12.24 So Circumcision is called an everlasting Covenant Gen. 17 13. And many more such instances might be given Yea things of a far shorter duration than these such as are only to continue during life are yet said to be Eternal The servitude of him that refused freedom was to be for ever Exod. 21.6 that is during his natural life And so the Psalmist often resolves himself and exhorts others to Praise and Magnifie God for ever And indeed it is very ordinary in Scripture that those things are said to be for ever which were not to alter their State for some continuance of time nor to be difused till the date prefixed to them were expired Secondly Some things which had no beginning but shall have an end are yet said to be for ever And such as they respect their Objects are the Decrees or Foreknowledge of God which shall in their due time be fullfilled Thus Ephes 3.11 they are called The Eternal purpose of God and yet they cease under the notions of Decrees and Prescience when that which was from all Eternity Decreed and Foreknown takes its accomplishment Thirdly Those things which had a beginning but never shall have an end are said to be for ever And such are the Angels all of them Created in the beginning of time but their future continuance is without bound or period And the Saints after the Resurrection are said to be made equal to the Angels because they shall not die Luke 20.36 And Christ is said to be made a little lower than the Angels in that he tasted of Death Heb. 2.9 The good Angels live in Eternal Beatitude they always behold the Face of God Matth. 18.10 And the evil Angels live in Eternal torments and a never dying Death They are reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness Jude verse 6. And thus the Souls of Men are everlasting For being Spiritual substances and free from all principles of decay and corruption they shall for ever continue in that Estate and Condition for which their Actions in this life have prepared them And not the Soul alone but the Body also shall be eternally preserved in its being This mortal must put on immortality 1 Cor. 15.53 And then shall we for ever be with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 And yet all these had once their beginning by the Creating Word of God but are Eternal à parte post and shall always retain those natures and beings Fourthly That is most strictly and properly said be Eternal and for ever which neither hath beginning nor end whose prospect both ways is infinite and boundless And thus God only is
First The Petition Forgive us our Debts Secondly The Condition or Proportion or Plea and Argument call it which you will for the obtaining of this forgiveness as we forgive our Debtors In the Petition we may observe that the same which our Evangelist calls Debts is by St. Luke 11.4 called Sins Forgive us our Sins We stand indebted to God both as we are his Creatures and as we are Offenders By the one we owe him the Debt of Obedience and by the other the Debt of Punishment First As we are Creatures we owe the Debt of Obedience And to the payment of this Debt we stand bound both to the absolute Sovereignty of God who is the Supreme Lord of all his Creatures and therefore may oblige them to what he pleaseth and likewise by his manifold Favours and Mercies conferred upon us From him we have received our Beings and all our Comforts he maintains us at his own Cost and Charge he enlargeth us when we are in Streights relieves us when we are in Wants Counsels us when we are in Doubts Comforts us when we are in Sorrows Delivers us in our Dangers and besides the manifold Temporal Mercies we daily receive from him gives us the Means the Hopes and Promises of obtaining far better things at his Hands even Eternal Life and Glory And therefore certainly upon these Accounts we owe him all possible Service and Obedience And indeed it is but Reason we should employ all for him from whom we receive all and give up our selves to his Service who are what we are by his Bounty and hope to be infinitely better than now we are through his Mercy Now this Debt of Obedience is irremissible and we are eternally and indispensably bound unto it For it is altogether inconsistent with the Notion and Being of a Creature to be discharged from its Obligation to the Laws and Commands of its Creator for this would exempt it from the Dominion of God and make it Absolute and Independent that is it would make the Creature to be no longer a Creature but a Deity We do not therefore pray that God would forgive us this Debt no he cannot so far deny himself and it is our Happiness and Glory to pay it To this his Sovereignty obligeth our Subject Condition and his Mercy and Goodness our Ingenuity Secondly As we are Transgressors so we owe God a Debt of Punishment to be suffered by us to make God some reparation to his Honour and satisfaction to his Justice for our transgressing his Law which sentenceth all Offenders to Eternal Death and Damnation This Debt now is that which we pray God would forgive us a Debt which if we pay we are eternally ruined and undone and there is no way possible to escape the payment of it but by the free Grace and Mercy of God remitting of it unto us And thus Sin is called a Debt not indeed properly as if we owed it but by a Metonymy as it is the meritorious Cause of this punishment the suffering of which we owe to Divine Justice Hence by the way we may observe that every Sin makes us liable to Eternal Death for Death and Damnation is the Debt which we must pay to the Justice of God and Sin is that which exposeth us unto it by the Sentence of the Law which we have transgressed For as against other Debtors is brought forth some Bond or Obligation to exact payment from them So against us is produced the Hand-writing of the Law and we not having performed the Condition of the Bond stand liable to the Forfeiture and Penalty which is no less than Curses and Woes and Torments and Everlasting Death Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 And the Wages of Sin is Death Rom. 6.23 And the Soul that sinneth it shall Die Ezek. 18.4 Now here to excite thee to a fervency in praying for the forgiveness of thy Debts consider First The infinite multitudes of thy Debts God's Book is full of them and there they stand on account against us under every one of our Names We were born Debtors to God our Original Sin and Guilt obligeth us to punishment and although we did not personally contract the Debt yet as being the wretched Heirs and Executors of fallen Adam the Debt is legally devolved upon us and become ours And ever since we came into the World we have run upon the score with God our Debts are more than our Moments have been for whatsoever we have thought or done hath been Sin either in the matter or at least in the circumstances of it God sets all our Sins down in order in his Debt-book some as Talents and some as Pence Our flagitious Crimes and hainous Impieties our presumptuous Sins committed against Light Knowledge Conscience Convictions Mercies and Judgments each of these God sets down as a Talent And how many thousands of these may we have been guilty of Our Sins of Ignorance Surreption and daily Infirmity are much more innumerable and though they may be but as Pence in comparison with the other yet the unaccountable numbers of them will make the Debt desperate and the payment impossible And yet notwithstanding our Debts are so many and very many of them such great Sums too yet we daily run ourselves farther in Arrears not considering that a Day of Accounts will come when both our Talents and our Pence shall be punctually reckoned up against us not omitting the least Item when every vain Thought and foolish Passion that hath flushed up in us with every idle and superfluous Word that we have unadvisedly spoken as well as the more gross and scandalous Passages of our sinful Lives shall be then audited all which will make the Total Sum infinite and us desperate Secondly That God who is thy Creditor is strict and impartial his Patience hath trusted and forborn thee long but his Justice will at last demand the Debt severely and every particular shall be charged upon thee even to the utmost Farthing for he hath booked down all in his remembrance and will bring all to thine And therefore we have it expressed concerning the last Judgment that the Books were opened and the Dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works Rev. 20.12 What now are these Books but the two great Volumes of God's remembrance and our own Consciences These are two Tallies evenly struck that shall justly represent the same Sum and Debt and God's strict Justice will not then abate thee any thing of its utmost due for he will by no means acquit the Guilty Indeed we are apt to think that because God so long forbears us he will never calls us to make up and adjust Accounts with him Our present impunity tempts us to question his Omniscience and to suspect his Threatnings and because he winks at us we are ready to conclude that he
humble Penitent Sinners the Absolution and Pardon of their Offences according to the tenor of God's Faithful Promises And in this sence alone the Ministers of Jesus Christ have power to pardon and remit Sins Whose Sins ye remit they are remitted that is whose Sins you declare that God hath remitted they are remitted not absolutely but conditionally in case Men come up to the performance of those conditions upon which God hath promised Pardon and Forgiveness which are Faith and Repentance And therefore in our Publick Prayers where the whole Congregation hath made an humble Confession of their Sins the Minister according to his Office and Power given him by Christ declares to them That God Pardons and Absolves all them that truly Repent and unfeignedly believe his Holy Gospel Or if on any other Occasion the Minister say I Absolve thee from thy Sins yet the meaning is the same he absolves him Officially not Judicially he Absolves by declaring him Absolved and Pardoned upon his sincere Faith and Repentance which if People did but better understand they would not be so forward to carp at least they carp at the very Gospel it self Nor doth this at all intrench upon God's Prerogative for the Minister only as the Officer and Messenger of God declares that it is he alone who Pardons and Absolves Penitent Sinners A Practice as far from bordering upon the intolerable Arrogance of Antichrist as it is on the other side from yielding enough to the express Authority of Christ to adjudge it vain and fruitless As it is the Prince that Pardons the Herald only proclaims it So here it is God only who Pardons Sinners the Minister's part is in a solemn and official manner to Pronounce and Proclaim this Pardon to all that shall accept it upon the Terms on which it is offered by God And this may suffice in Answer to that Objection But then again it may be Objected How is it God alone who forgives Sins whereas we likewise are bound to forgive those that Trespass against us To this I Answer Every Trespass against Man is also an Offence against God for so merciful is our God unto us that he hath taken his Creatures under the Protection of his Law and fenced us round with the Authority of his Commands so that no injury can reach us but it must commit a Trespass upon the Divine Law and break through those bounds that God hath set about every Man's Propriety and Right to defend it against unjust Invaders But yet if any shall dare to violate this we must forgive them so far forth as it is a wrong to us as I shall shew more largely hereafter but we cannot pretend to forgive the wrong that they have done to God in wronging us but this must be left between him and their own Souls to his Mercy and their Repentance If then it be the Prerogative of God alone to pardon Sin hence we may for our abundant Comfort be informed First That our Pardon is free and gratuitous for whatsoever God doth he doth it freely for his own sake without respect to any former deserts or expectations of any future recompence It is infinitely below the Sovereignty of his Grace to admit of any other motive for his Mercy but his Mercy And therefore he hath told us I will be Gracious to whom I will be Gracious and I will shew Mercy to whom I will shew Mercy Exod. 33.19 Since it is a God that Pardons it is infinitely unworthy of his Glory and Majesty to sell his Pardons and Indulgencies and to make his Mercy Merchandise But yet this pardoning Grace of God though it be free in respect of Purchace yet is it limited to Conditions in respect of Application which Conditions are Faith and Repentance Whosoever believes in him shall obtain remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Repent says the Apostle that your Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come Acts 3.19 Think not therefore O Soul when thy Conscience is oppressed with the Guilt of Sin think not what Expiation thou must make what Ransom thou must pay to God say not Wherewith shall I come before the Lord or bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand Rivers of Oil Shall I give my First-Born for my Transgression the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul as the Prophet speaks Micah 6.6 7. What shall I do or what shall I offer to make amends and recompence for my Offences This is to be injurious to the free Grace of God which requires no satisfaction from thee only thy present Acceptance and future Reformation This is that indeed which God requires from thee but to think to purchase his Favour and to buy his Mercy is infinitely to disparage it And they only judge rightly of it who judge it invaluable Secondly It is God that Pardons therefore our Pardon is full and compleat Indeed those Acts that God works within us are in this Life imperfect The Illumination of our Minds the Sanctification of our Hearts are God's Works within us and these are defective not as they come from God but as they are received in us As we know but in part so we are sanctified but in part But those Acts of God that he doth not work in us but only terminate upon us of which we are the Objects but not the Subjects they are all as perfect here as they shall be to all Eternity Thus God Justifies Adopts and Pardons fully and compleatly for these are Acts of God residing in his own Breast where they meet with no opposition or allay nor do they increase by any small Degrees as our Sanctification doth but are at once as perfect as ever they shall be I do not mean though some have so thought and taught that God doth at once Pardon all the Sins of a true Believer as well those which for the future he shall commit as those which he hath already committed which is an absurd and dangerous Tenet as if Sin could be pardoned before it were or guilt removed before it be contracted But only whatsoever Sins God pardons he doth it not gradually Nothing of guilt is left upon the Soul when God Pardons it though still there be something of filth left in it when God Sanctifies it And therefore as it is the great grief of God's Children that their inherent Holiness is so imperfect affronted by Temptations foiled by Corruptions oppressed and almost stifled to Death by a Body of Sin that lies heavy upon it yet this on the other Hand may be their exceeding great comfort and rejoicing that God's pardoning Grace is not as his sanctifying Grace is nor granted to them by the same stint and measure A Sin truly repented of is not pardoned to us by halfs half the guilt remitted and half retained as the Papists fansie to
one of the same Mold and Materials with thy self one to whom perhaps thou art no way Superiour unless that he hath now given thee an opportunity of pardoning him one who possibly may hereafter be helpful unto thee and in Agreement and Peace with whom thou mayest find much Comfort and Good to thy self shouldst thou not much more forgive him Certainly God may very well think thee unworthy of his Pardon who art infinitely his Inferiour if thou canst not think those worthy of thy Pardon who in Nature are thy Equals Secondly Consider the Wrongs and Debts that God hath forgiven thee are infinitely greater than those thou art to forgive unto Men Their Offences against thee are but Pence but thine against God are Talents And as there is a vast disproportion in the Nature of the Offences so is there likewise in the Number of them The Servant in the Parable whom his Lord forgave owed him ten thousand Talents but his Fellow-Servant whom this Wretch would not forgive owed him but an hundred Pence Matth. 18. So is it with us our Sins against God for the greatness of them are Talents for the number of them are ten thousand in every thing we do we wrong the Glory of God and are continualling offending him But Men do not always wrong us or if they did yet the least of our Offences against God is far more hainous than the greatest of Men's can be against us we cannot speak of him nor to him but that by our unworthy and low Conceptions we revile him far more than any Man can do us by the most studied and bitter invectives The least irreverend thought of God is a greater injury against him than it would be against us if Men should wound or stab us And yet although thy Deeds be as great as Talents and so numerous as many thousand Talents yet thy Lord and Master frankly forgave thee all And this should by all the obligations of ingenuity constrain thee to forgive thy Fellow-Servant so small Debts as a hundred Pence when he hath not wherewithal to make thee satisfaction See how our Saviour presseth this in the fore-cited place Matth. 18.32 I forgave thee all that Debt thou owedst me because thou desiredst me and shouldst not thou have had compassion on thy Fellow-Servant as I had pity on thee Certainly if ever thou accountedst the pardoning Grace and Mercy of God sweet and precious I will not say thou shouldst be glad of Wrongs that than mightest have occasion to pardon them but yet certainly thou shouldst most cordially embrace all such occasions if it were but only to recommend the excellency of thy Charity unto others as Divine Love hath recommend its Fullness and Riches to thy dearest esteem And that 's the Second But Thirdly Consider the binding Particle in the Text Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors And now think with thy self that thou dost but bind and seal the guilt of thy Sins upon thy own Soul unless thou art willing and ready to forgive others Thou who art revengeful and implacable instead of praying pronouncest the most direful and dreadful Curse that can be against thy self and beggest of God no more to forgive thee than thou dost forgive those that have offended thee and so thy Prayer is not only turned into Sin but into a Snare and Curse and thou passest upon thy self the tremendous Sentence of thine own Eternal Damnation for if thou prayest that God would forgive thee as thou forgivest others thou either cursest thy self or else thou must forgive them Now this forgiving of others must have these Qualifications First It must be unfeigned and cordial from thy very Heart and Soul for so thou wouldst have God forgive thee It is not enough to forbear outward Revenge but thou must not harbour in thy Breast the least grudge or prejudice against them God forgives so as to forget but if thou keepest Malice raked up in thy Heart till thou canst find a fit opportunity to vent it in Revenges how canst thou but expect that God likewise should take his advantage against thee and when it would make most for the Glory of his Justice break forth upon thee and exercise his vengeance in thy everlasting Destruction Secondly Thou art obliged likewise to forgive freely without any Recompence or Satisfaction from others If the injury be supportable we ought not so much as expect or desire Satisfaction if it be otherwise and yet the persons offending unable to make Satisfaction we ought to forgive them without taking any unmerciful Revenge upon them which is the wicked custom of many who will cast their insufficient Debtors into Prison and there let them starve and rot though by this cruelty they cannot satisfie their Debt but their Malice and Revenge Thirdly We must forgive others fully and compleatly for God doth so He pardons our sins so fully that they are in his account as if they had never been committed and so must we pardon injuries wholly and fully as if there had never been any done us This the Apostle observes towards the Galatians who were a People as injurious to his Ministery and Authority as any could be and yet he forgives it so fully that he tells them Gal. 4.12 Brethren I beseech you be as I am for I am as you are you have not injured me at all And to express all this we must blot out the remembrance of all wrongs and be ready chearfully to take all occasions to do good unto them yea not only to take them but to seek them This will be a plain Evidence that on Leaven of Malice or Revenge hath soured our Spirits Well then to sum and close up all What is it thou canst plead for Revenge which the consideration of God's pardoning thee will not abundantly answer Is it that the wrongs that others have done thee are great and insupportable What are they more intolerable than thy sins against God Is it that he is a vile and inferiour person unto thee How much more art thou so unto God Is it that he hath often wronged thee Are they not ten thousand Talents that God hath forgiven thee Is it that he will be emboldened to wrong and injure thee again Possibly so but thou art not certain of it However consider how often thou hast abused the Mercy of God to encourage thee in sinning against him Is it that Men will think thee base and cowardly if thou puttest up such wrongs and injuries Seek thou the Honour that cometh from God and not the vain foolish Repute of Men. But is God indeed accounted Faithful in pardoning thee or doth he spare thee because he dare not strike thee Certainly there is no offence nor an aggravavation of any offence that can be pleaded as a Reason for Revenge but the same may in a greater measure and in a higher proportion be pleaded why God should Revenge himself upon thee and yet if notwithstanding this thou
We may and ought but our Care must be onely prudent and provident not perplexing and desponding Q. Why is that Expression this Day added A. To shew us that every Day we stand in need of Supplies from God and therefore should daily pray to receive them Q. Since we pray for daily Bread why is it called our Bread A. To note that we ought to use lawfull Means to acquire what we pray for Q. What pray you for in this Petition A. 1. That God would give us the good Things of this Life as the Acquisitions of our lawfull Endeavours 2. That he would bless the Increase of what is lawfully ours 3. That he would bestow upon us a spiritual Right in whatsoever we injoy through Jesus the Heir of all Things 4. We pray that we may not desire nor covet what is anothers 5. We pray for Life it self that it may be prolonged whilst God hath any Service for us to do in this World 6. For all the Means that may lawfully preserve our Life and Health 7. That he would strengthen our Faith and Dependence on his Providence who is the giver of all good 8. That he would give us Contentment in that Portion of Earthly Blessings which he allots us Q. What is the fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer A. Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Q. What things are observable in this Petition A. The Order and the Matter of it Q. What observe you from the Order of it A. That after we have prayed for our daily Bread we are taught to pray for Pardon of Sin Which Method is most rational 1. Because the Guilt of Sin many times with-holds from us those Temporal Comforts which we stand in need of Isaiah 59.2 But your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear 2. Because without Pardon of Sin our Temporal Injoyments are but Snares and Curses Q. What observe you in the Matter of this Petition A. Two things The Petition it self Forgive us our Debts And the Condition or Proportion or Plea and Argument for obtaining this Forgiveness As we forgive our Debtors Q. What mean you here by Debts A. The same which St. Luke 11.4 Calls Sins And forgive us our Sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us Q. How stand we indebted to God A. We stand indebted to God both as we are his Creatures and as we are Offenders on the former Account we owe God the Debt of Obedience on the latter the Debt of suffering Punishment Q. Which Debt do we pray God to forgive A. The latter onely for the former is irremissibly due to our great Creator Q. How come we to be thus indebted unto God A. By the Sentence of the Law which condemneth every Transgressour of it to undergo the Penalty it threatens which Penalty is all manner of Woes and Curses and Everlasting Death Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Rom. 6.23 For the wages of Sin is Death Ezek. 18.4 The Soul that sinneth it shall die Q. Since the Suffering of these is the Debt we owe to Divine Justice why say you that Sin is that Debt A. Because Sin alone is the meritorious Cause of these and we owe the Suffering of them onely as we are Sinners Q. Are there no Sins venial in their own Nature so as not to deserve Eternal Damnation A. No not the least for the wages of every Sin is Death All therefore are Mortal in their own Nature and all are Venial through the Mercy of God in the Merits of Christ excepting onely the Sin against the Holy Ghost Q. Can we no way pay off these Debts so as to satisfie the Justice of God A. No for neither can we do it by Obedience nor yet by Sufferings Not by the Duties of Obedience for these are a Debt we owe to God's Holiness and Soveraignty and therefore cannot pay the Debts we owe to his Justice and we cannot pay Debts by Debts Not by suffering for Sin being an infinite Evil must be punish'd with an infinite Punishment but we cannot suffer a Punishment infinite in Degrees therefore it must be infinite in Duration so that the Damned in Hell shall never be able to say It 's finish'd Q. How then may we hope to be acquitted of our Numberless Debts A. Onely through the free Mercy and Grace of God pardoning them in Jesus Christ and therefore we pray Forgive us our Debts Q. What is Pardon or Forgiveness of Sin A. It is the removal of the Guilt of Sin Q. What is the Guilt of Sin A. The Guilt of Sin is either the intrinsecal Desert of Punishment or else an Obnoxiousness and Liableness to it through God's Designation of the Sinner to undergo it Q. Doth pardon of Sin remove both these Guilts A. No it removes not the former for still the Sins of those who are pardoned do in themselves deserve Eternal Death But it removes the latter viz. it takes away our Appointment unto Death 2 Sam. 12.13 And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David the Lord also hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not die Q. How is it consistent with the Justice of God to pardon Offenders without Punishment A. Though Believers are not personally appointed to Punishment yet Mystically they are which Punishment they have already suffered in Christ their Surety with whom they are made one by Faith Q. To whom is this Prayer for Pardon of Sin directed A. To God onely whose Royal Prerogative is to forgive Sins Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Mark 2.7 Who can forgive sins but God only Q. Have not the Ministers of the Gospel power to forgive sins according to that of St. John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted A. They have a ministerial and declarative Power as Officers not an authoritative and judicial Power as Soveraigns As the Prince onely pardons the Herauld proclaims it So God alone by the Prerogative of his Grace grants pardon the Minister by his Office publisheth it to all that repent and believe Q. What then must we judge of that absolute and plenary Power which the Pope assumes of pardoning Sins A. That it proves him to be Antichrist in exalting himself above God 2 Thess 2.4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God For whosoever can forgive wrongs done against another must be superiour to him and have Authority to cause the Person offended to surcease the Prosecution and sit down by the wrong done him Q. If God onely can forgive Sins how then are we bound to forgive those who
trespass against us A. We ought to forgive them so far forth as they have wronged us but we cannot forgive the wrong they have done to God in wronging us but must leave them to his Mercy and their Repentance Q. Since it is God's Prerogative and Glory to pardon sins what Inferences may we collect from hence A. First That our pardon is free and gratuitous without respecting former Deserts or expecting future Recompence Secondly That our pardon is full and compleat because it is an Act of God within himself whereas what he works in us is in this Life imperfect Nothing of Guilt is left upon the Soul when God pardons it though still there is something of Filth left in it when he sanctifies it God does not pardon by halfs nor leaves any Guilt to be expiated by Purgatory Thirdly That upon our Faith and Repentance our sins whether greater or less fewer or more shall be forgiven for this makes no difference in infinite Grace and Mercy Q. But may not this incourage Men to continue in sin A. Many do so abuse it but their Damnation is sure and just Deut. 29.19 20. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this Curse that he blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst Ver. 20. The Lord will not spare him Q. You have formerly observed that it is God alone who can forgive sins and from thence inferred both the freeness and fulness of pardoning Grace What observe you farther A. 1. That though God's pardoning Grace be altogether freely bestowed in respect of us Isaiah 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy Sins Yet in respect of Christ's Purchase it is not free but cost him the Price of his Blood Heb. 9.22 And almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood and without shedding of Blood is no remission Matt. 26.29 But I say unto you I will not drink hence-forth of this Fruit of the Vine untill that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom 2. That the obtaining of Pardon is not free from the Performance of Conditions on our Part. Q. What are the Conditions upon which Pardon is granted A. They are two Faith and Repentance Acts 10.43 That through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out Q. Is therefore a mere sorrow that we have sinned a sufficient qualification for obtaining Pardon A. No for so Judas is said to repent Matt. 27.3 Then Judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief Priests and Elders But as true Repentance includes in it a Sorrow of Heart so Reformation of Life and Manners is always joined with a lively Faith Q. Is pardon of sin an Act onely of God's Mercy A. It is likewise an Act of God's Justice to pardon the Sins of those who perform the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace Q. How prove you this A. Both by express Scripture 1 Epistle of John 1.9 If we confess our Sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness And likewise by Scripture-Reason because Believers being made mystically one with Christ therefore their Sins being already punish'd in him their Surety and their Debts paid by him cannot be again justly punish'd in their own Persons nor demanded from them Q. Is pardon of sin our intire Justification A. No but it is one principal part of it For Justification consists both in Remission of Sins and Acceptation of our Persons the former depends upon Christ's Passive the other upon his Active Obedience his Satisfaction applied by Faith makes us accounted guiltless of Death and his Obedience worthy of Life both which compleat our Justification Ephes 1.6 7. To the Praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved Ver. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the Forgiveness of Sins according to the Riches of his Grace Q. We have thus considered the Petition Forgive us our Debts what remains further considerable A. The Condition upon which we ask it or the Plea we urge for obtaining it As we forgive our Debtors Q. Who are meant here by Debtors A. Other Men. Q. How are Men Debtors one to another A. Either 1. By owing them a Debt of Duty and thus all Men are mutually Debtors to one another Superiours to Inferiours and Inferiours to Superiours and Equals owe one another Love Respect and Kindness 2. By owing them a Debt of Satisfaction for Injuries and Wrongs done to others Q. Which of these Debts is here meant A. The latter onely for we are bound to forgive those who owe us Satisfaction and Reparation Q. What learn you from hence that those who have wronged others are called their Debtors A. That they who in any kind wrong others are obliged to make them satisfaction If in their good Names by acknowledging the Offence and stopping slanderous Reports If in their Goods and Estates by a full Restitution Q. Is Restitution necessary to the obtaining of Pardon A. It is For unjust Detainure is as Evil as unjust Seisure and it is a continued Theft And our Repentance can never be true while we continue in the Sin we seem to repent of and without true Repentance there can be no Pardon or Salvation Q. But what if those we have wronged be since dead A. We ought to make Restitution to those to whom it 's to be supposed what we have detained would have descended Q. If none such can be found what must we then do A. Then God's Right takes place as the Universal Lord of all and we are obliged to restore it to him that is to his Servants and to his Family and in the Works of Piety and Charity Q. We have already considered the Debtor's Duty which is to make Satisfaction and Restitution what is the Duty of the Creditor or Person wronged A. To forgive his Debtors For we pray that God would forgive us as we forgive them Q. Wherein doth this Forgiveness consist A. In two Things 1. First In abstaining from the outward Acts of Revenge upon them 2. Secondly In the inward Frame and Temper of our Hearts towards them bearing them no Grudge nor Ill-will but being as much in Charity with them as though they had never offended us Q. Must we then sit quiet under every petulant Wrong that is done us and so tempt others to the Sport of abusing us A. Private Revenge is in no Case whatsoever to be allowed Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto Wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. Revenge
there were hope yea certainty of relief for thee for Divine Justice will not exact more than its due But because this is impossible thy Woes and Torments in Hell must be Eternal that they may be some way infinite as the Justice is which thou hast offended infinite if not in Degrees yet in duration and continuance And O what dreadful despair will this cause in thee when thou shalt have been in Hell under most acute and insufferable Torments Millions of years and yet the payment of all that sum of Plagues and Woes shall not be of value enough to satisfie for the least of thy Sins nor to cross out of God's Book the least and smallest of thy Debts but thy account shall still be as great and as full as it was at thy first plunging into Hell and still an Eternity of Torments remains to be paid by thee And now wretched Creatures that we are whither shall we turn our selves what hope what relief can we find shall we flatter our selves that God will not require our sins at our hands no they are Debts and therefore he may and he is a Just God Just to himself and to the Interest of his own Glory and therefore he will God hath before-hand told us at what rate we must expect to take up our sins and what we must pay for them at the last He hath told us as plainly as the mouth of Truth can utter it that the Wages of sin is Death and the ways Sinners choose lead down to the Chambers of Hell and Destruction Our own Misery is our own choice He hath in his Word set Life and Death before us and declared to us the means how we might escape the one and obtain the other He hath represented to us the unconceiveableness of both And if we will be so obstinate as after these manifest representations to choose Hell and Death it is but Reason and Justice that we should have our own Choice for it is our Choice interpretatively when we choose those ways and actions that expose to them And thus much concerning the acknowledgement we make in this Petition our Debts Debts vast and infinite which the Justice of God will strictly require of Sinners in their Eternal Condemnation Debts the least of which makes us liable to be cast into Prison into Hell and for the least of which we can never satisfie But what is there no hope Is there no possibility to cross the Book to cancel the Obligation whereby we stand bound to the revenging Justice of God and everlasting Sufferings Truly none by our own personal satisfaction but yet there is abundant hope yea full assurance of it through the free Mercy of our God And therefore as our Saviour hath taught us to acknowledge our Debts so he hath likewise taught us to pray Father forgive us our Debts And now that I have shewed you our Misery by reason of our Debts and you have seen the black side of the Cloud which interposeth between God and us So give me leave to represent to you our Hopes and Consolation in God's free Grace and the Divine Mercy in dissolving this black Cloud that it may never more appear And here let us First Consider what the Pardon of sin is And this we cannot better discover than by looking into the Nature of sin Sin therefore as St. John describes it 1 John 3.4 is a transgression of the Law of God And to the validity of all Laws it is necessary that there be a penalty annexed either literally express'd or tacitly implied The guilt that we contract by transgressing the Law is nothing else but our liableness to undergo this penalty And this guilt is Two-fold the intrinsecal and formal and that is the desert of punishment which sin always necessarily carries in it as it is a violation of a Holy and Righteous Commandment The other is extrinsecal and adventitious and consists in the appointment and designation of the sinner unto punishment This now doth not formally flow from sin but from the Will of God constituting and willing to punish sin with Death Now Pardon is nothing else but the removal of the guilt of sin But now the question is which guilt it removeth I Answer First It doth not remove the intrinsecal guilt of sin or the desert of punishment For the sins of those who are Justified and Pardoned do yet in their own Nature deserve Death and Eternal Damnation As a Pardon vouchsafed to a Traitor doth not cause his Actions not to have been Treasonable and worthy of Death for this doth necessarily follow immediately upon the Transgressing of the Law to which the Penalty is annexed So neither is it in the Power of Pardoning Grace to make that our sins should not deserve Death according to their own demerit for that were a contradiction since this demerit is necessary and essential unto sin as such Secondly Therefore Pardon of sin removes that guilt which consists in the adventitious Appointment or Ordination of the sinner unto Punishment flowing from the Will of God who hath in his Law threatned to inflict Eternal Death as the Reward and Wages of sin Now this designation of the sinner unto punishment is Two-fold either Personal or Mystical One of these two ways God will certainly punish every Soul that sins either by appointing the sinner Personally to undergo the punishment of his iniquities and thus he deals with unbelievers whom he will punish in their own Persons for their transgressions Or else he appoints them to undergo the punishment of their sins Mystically as being by Faith made one with the Lord Jesus Christ who himself hath born our sins in his own Body on the Tree Now Pardon of sin doth not remove the Mystical appointment of a Believer unto Punishment for he hath suffered it for Christ hath suffered it and Christ and he are one Mystical Person by Faith God never Pardons but he likewise punishes the very sin that he Pardons he punisheth it in our surety and undertaker when he forgives it to a Believer Pardon of sin therefore removes only that guilt which consists in our own Personal appointment and designation to punishment though the sin doth always in it self necessarily deserve Death though that Death hath been inflicted upon Christ and therefore upon Believers in him as Members of him But yet notwithstanding that God thus takes Vengeance on our sins he doth Graciously Pardon them when he releaseth our Personal Obligation unto punishment and reckons that we have suffered the penalty in Christ suffering it and therefore ought to be discharged from any further liableness unto it This now is that Pardon of sin which we pray for when we say Forgive us our Debts And for the more full Explication of it I shall lay down these following positions First The Pardoning Grace of God in respect of us is altogether free and undeserved We can of our selves scarce so much as ask forgiveness but even this
comes from the Grace of God therefore much less can we do any thing to merit it Far be it from us to affirm as the Papists do that Good Works proceeding from Grace are Meritorious of Pardon and Salvation Alas what are our Prayers our Sighs our Tears yea our very Blood should we spend it for Christ They are but poor imperfect things and are so far from having in them any infinite worth and value to counterbalance our sins that the defects of them add to the number of our other Transgressions They cannot all of them make one blot in the Book of God's Remembrance but may well make more Items there against us Had it been possible for Men to have quitted scores with Divine Justice by what they could do or suffer Heaven would not have been so needlessly lavish as to send Christ into the World to lead an afflicted Life and to die an accursed Death only for our Redemption and Salvation Secondly The Pardoning Grace of God is not free in respect of Christ but it cost him the price of Blood It is the Blood of the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World that crosseth the Debt-Book Without shedding of Blood there is no remission says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 And this is my Blood which was shed for the Remission of sins Matth. 26.28 And although possibly God might according to his absolute Sovereignty have freely remitted all the sins of all the World without any kind of Satisfaction only by a Free and Gracious Act of Mercy Yet considering that he had otherwise declared in his unalterable Word of Truth that there must be a recompence made him for all our offences it had been a wrong to his Veracity if not to his Justice to have granted the Pardon of any one sin without the intervention of a full price and satisfaction No satisfaction could be made correspondent to the wrong done to an infinite God but by an infinite Person who was God himself for had the Person been finite the Sufferings must have been Eternal otherwise they could not have been proportionable to the offence which requires an infinite Satisfaction But if the Sufferings had been Eternal Satisfaction could never have been made but would for ever have bene making unto the Justice of God and consequently our sins could never have been Pardoned And therefore God appointed to this Work of reconciling himself to fallen Man his only begotten Son God Co-equal and Co-eternal with himself and every way infinite as himself that he might be able to bear the whole Wrath of God at once and at one bitter draught drink off the whole Cup of Fury which we should have been draining by little drops to all Eternity So that Justice being satisfied in the Sufferings of Christ for the sins of those whose Persons and whose guilt he sustained upon the Cross Mercy hath now a way opened to Glorifie its Riches in their Pardon and Salvation Thus in these two Positions it appears that though the remitting of our sins be an Act of God's Free Grace and Mercy in respect of us yet it is the effect of Purchace in respect of Christ God Pardons sins to them who committed them upon their Faith and Repentance but he Pardon 's not those very sins to Christ to whom they were imputed but exacted Satisfaction from him to the very utmost rigour of Justice Hence it follows Thirdly That the Pardon of sin is not only an Act of meer free Grace and Mercy but according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace it is also an Act of Justice in God Indeed both Mercy and Justice are concurrent in it for since by the Union of Faith we are made one Mystical Body with Christ it could not consist with the Equity of God to punish the sins of Believers in their own Persons for this would be no other than to punish them twice for the same Offence once in their surety and again in themselves Now what abundant cause of Comfort may this be to all true Believers that God's Justice as well as his Mercy shall acquit them That that Attribute of God at the Apprehension of which they were wont to tremble should interpose on their behalf and plead for them Yet through the All-sufficient Expiation and Atonement that Christ hath made for our sins this Mystery is effected and Justice it self brought over from being a formidable Adversary to be of our Party and to Plead for us Therefore the Apostle tells us 1 John 1.9 That God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins And St. Paul 2 Thessal 1.6 7. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels Fourthly When God pardons he doth no longer account of us as sinners Indeed after Pardon we still retain sinful and corrupt Natures and there is that Original Pollution in us that can never be totally dislodged in this Life But yet when God pardons he looks not upon us as Sinners but as Just The Malefactor that is legally discharged either by satisfying the Law or by his Princes Grace and Favour towards him is no more reputed a Malefactor but as Just and Righteous as if he had never offended So is it with us we are both ways discharged of our guilt both by satisfying the penalty of the Law in Christ our Surety and by the Free Grace and Mercy of God who hath Sealed to us a Gracious Act of Pardon and therefore we are Just in the sight of God as if we had never sinned Fifthly Pardon of sin is one great part of our Justification Justification consists of these two parts Remission and Acceptance We have them both joyned together Ephes 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Remission of sins takes away our liableness to Death Acceptation of our persons gives us a Title unto Life Now to be free from our obnoxiousness to Death and instated in a Right to Eternal Life these two Constitute a perfect Justification For to be accepted of God in Christ is no other than for God through the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ imputed to us to own and acknowledge us to have a Right to Heaven And therefore we have mention of Pardon and an Inheritance together in St. Paul's Commission to his Ministery Acts 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified It is not therefore O Soul a bare negative Righteousness that God intends thee in the Pardon of thy sins it is not meerly to remove the Curse and Wrath thy sins have deserved though that alone can never sufficiently be admired but the same hand that plucks thee out of Hell by Pardon lifts thee up to Heaven by what he gives thee together with
thy Pardon even a Right and Title to a Blessed and Glorious Inheritance Thy Pardon thou hast from the Passive Obedience of Christ in his Sufferings A Right to Heaven thou hast through the Active Obedience of Christ in fullfilling all Righteousness And through both hast thou obtained a compleat Justification God looking upon thee as Innocent through the Satisfaction of his Son and as Worthy through his Obedience both which are made thine by Faith Now this Pardon of sin is in Scripture set forth by very sweet and full Expressions It is called a blotting out of Transgression A Metaphor taken from a Creditors crossing the Debt-Book signifying thereby a discharge of the Debt And lest we might possibly fear God will implead us for them without Book the Prophet adds forgetting unto blotting out Esai 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for my Names sake and I will not remember thy sins It is called a covering of our sins Psal 32.1 Blessed is the Man whose Transgressions are forgiven and whose sin is covered Yea we have a further ground of Comfort for it is not only a covering of our sins but it is a covering of God's Face from them Psal 51.9 Hide thy Face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities It is a casting of them behind God's back as a thing that he will never more regard Is 38.17 Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back And lest we should suspect he should turn again to behold them it is called a casting of them into the bottom of Sea Mic. 7.19 as we do with things we would have irrecoverably lost and gone It is a scattering them as a thick Cloud Esai 44.22 When the Vapours of it are so dissipated that there shall not remain the least spot to obstruct the shining of God's Face and Favour upon our Souls Yea and so perfect an Abolition shall be made of all our Iniquities that though Divine Justice should enter into a strict search and scrutiny after them they shall not be found against us So the Prophet Jeremiah tells us Jerem. 50.20 In that day shall the iniquity of Israel be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found How hath God heaped up Expressions of his Grace and Mercy one upon another and studied words as it were to assure us of the Validity of our Pardon giving to us abounding Consolations as our sins have been abounding And thus much shall suffice to shew the Nature of Pardoning Grace and Mercy as expressed in these words Forgive us our Debts Secondly Let us consider unto whom this Petition for Pardon is directed and that is as all the rest are to our Father whose Laws we have violated whose Justice we have offended whose displeasure we have incurred and to whose vengeance we have made our selves liable and obnoxious to him we sue for Pardon and Remission Hence we may collect this note That it is the High Prerogative of God alone to forgive Sins God assumes this particularly to himself and seems to triumph in the Glory of this Attribute I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions And therefore when Christ cured the Paralytick the Scribes and Pharisees storm'd at him for a Blasphemer for saying Be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee Thou Blasphemest say they for who can forgive Sins but God alone Mark 2.7 And this Charge of Blasphemy which they laid against Christ had he not been the true God had been unanswerable And therefore our Saviour denies not their Principle which is most certain and infallible but to convince them that they themselves were Blasphemers in applying it to him proves his Deity by a Miracle and demonstrates his Authority to forgive Sins by his Power in healing Diseases But you will say if it be the incommunicable Prerogative of God only to forgive Sins How is it that we find this Privilege and Power ascribed unto Men also John 20.23 Whosoever Sins ye remit they are remitted It seems therefore that the Apostles and Ministers of Jesus Christ their Successors stand invested by Christ with a Power to forgive Sins I Answer Remission of Sins is two-fold either Authoritatively and Judicially or Secondly Ministerial and Declarative The former belongs only to God who by the meer Authority of his Grace and Mercy doth freely and fully acquit us of our Guilt without requiring any thing at our Hands by way of recompence or punishment Now for any Creature either in Heaven or Earth to assume this to himself is a most insolent and Blasphemous Pride which while the Pope of Rome doth he hath given us the strongest Argument that can be to assert and prove him to be the Antichrist and that Son of Perdition for among the many Characters that are given of Antichrist all of which do more than sufficiently belong unto him this is one that he exalteth himself above all that is called God 2. Thess 2.4 Not only above Titular Gods as Kings and Magistrates are for it is notoriously known what Power he arrogates unto himself in disposing Crowns and transferring States making Princes themselves far more inferiour to him than their Subjects are to them but also above the only Living and True God and the Lord Jesus Christ in pretending to a Judicial Authority to forgive Sins and Offences committed against God For it is clear and evident whosoever can Pardon the Offences of one Person against another must himself be Superiour to both and have Authority and Jurisdiction over both but chiefly over the Person offended to make him cease the Prosecution of his Right and sit down by the Wrong received For if a Prince should Pardon the Injury that one Subject doth the other he must command the Person grieved not to molest or prosecute him that hath done the Wrong and so disable him from taking revenge Now what a wretched and damnable Insolence is it for any vile sinful Man to pretend to such a Power of forgiving Sins committed against God as if by his Authority he could command God to surcease his Suit and to require no farther recompence but to rest himself contented that it is the Pope's Will and Pleasure to have it so What is this but to exalt himself above all that is called God not only on Earth but in Heavean it self A most horrid Blasphemy and so proper a Character of Antichrist that there needs no other to describe him by Secondly There is a Ministerial declarative Remission of Sins and this is either Internal in the Court of Conscience or External in the Court of the Church of Christ here upon Earth The former Remission is the Office or Ministery of the Holy Ghost sealing of us up unto the Day of Redemption by his silent and most comfortable Testimony witnessing unto us that our Sins are pardoned and our Persons accepted The External Declaration of Remission of Sins is an open publication to all
hopest for pardon and forgiveness from him go then to thy Brother and do likewise And thus I have finished the Fifth Petition the matter of which being of such vast and important consequence I have expatiated beyond what my First intended Method would allow I shall contract my self in what remains and keep my self within the limits of an Exposition We are now come unto the Sixth and Last Petition of this most Excellent and Divine Prayer which some divide into two making the one Negative Lead us not into Temptation and the other positive But deliver us from evil But the matter being not great whether they be one or two I shall not contend about it And here before I come to speak of the Petition it self I shall as I have done in the former speak something concerning the Reason and Wisdom of its Order and Method And the only thing that I shall remark is that whereas it immediately follows upon that Petition wherein we beg the Pardon of our Sins that we may not be lead into Temptation This ought to teach us that it should be our care not only to seek for the pardon of our past sins but to endeavour the prevention of sin for the future And therefore as when our Saviour cured the impotent Man that had lain a long time at the Pool of Bethesday without relief he gives him this caution John 5.14 Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee So when God hath healed those Mortal Wounds that sin hath made in our Souls by his pardoning Grace it highly concerns us without most exact circumspection to beware that we be not again entangled in guilt and with our most fervent Affections to pray that we may not be exposed to the fiery Darts of the Devil to wound us anew for Relapses and Recidivations are always most dangerous and fatal and new Wounds received upon old Scars most difficult to be healed And indeed without this preventing Grace of God all his pardoning Grace would be but in vain It would be fruitless to forgive sins if God did not withal secure us for the future from running upon the score with his Justice for such is the Force and Fraud of the Tempter and the corruption of our own Natures so prone to comply with whatsoever he offers and suggests to us that did not God as well give us a stock to live upon as forgive us our former Debts we should soon run our selves as deep in Arrears as ever and make our selves liable to be seized on by Justice and condemned to the Infernal Prison And therefore that God's Grace in forgiving our Trespasses may not be in vain our Saviour hath taught us to subjoyn this Request Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil And thus much for the Connexion of this Petition with the foregoing The Petition it self contains in it two branches the one against Temptations the other against the prevalency of them Lead us not into Temptation suffer us not to be assaulted and buffeted by the wicked one or if O Lord thou shalt in thy all-wise Counsel and Purpose permit us to be Tempted yet deliver us from the evil to which we are Tempted Let us endure Temptations as our Affliction but let us not consent to them and make them our sins It is the former of these that I shall first speak to and therein I shall endeavour to shew First What Temptations are And Secondly How God may be said to lead us into Temptation for that is supposed when we pray he would not do so First What Temptations are Temptation according to the proper signification of the word is no other but a Trial or Probation And this may be of two kinds Exploratory or Suasory First There is an Exploratory Temptation to search out and to discover what is in Man what his Graces and Corruptions are Secondly There is a Suasory or enticing Temptation that inclines the Will and Affections to close with what is presented to them Now in general we may observe five several sorts of Temptations whereof some are of the former others of the latter kind First Some whereby one Man Tempts another Secondly Some whereby we Tempt our selves Thirdly Some whereby we Tempt God Fourthly Some whereby God Tempts us And Fifthly Some whereby the Devil Tempts us First There are some Temptations whereby one Man tempts another And such Temptations may be faultless when they come only by Exploration either to find out Mens great Excellencies Thus the Queen of Sheba came to tempt or to prove Solomon with hard Questions 2 Cron. 9.1 to know whether his Wisdom was answerable to the Fame that went of it Or else to find out and discover their Rottenness and Hypocrisy and thus the Church of Ephesus is commended for tempting or trying those who said they were Apostles and were not finding them to be Lyars But it is Devillish when it is either by Suasion unto that which is Evil Thus the Whorish Woman Tempted the young Fool Prov. 7.18 Or with a design to entrap or draw any into danger Thus the Old Prophet Tempted the young Prophet being vext that God should Honour him with so important a Message whilst he was passed by and knowing that God would not suffer his disobedience to go unpunished in 1 Kings 13.18 And such was the wicked Plot laid by the Pharisees Luke 20.23 when they came and asked our Saviour whether it was Lawful to pay Tribute to Caesar or not which if he had affirmed would have lessened his Repute among the People and made them to fall off from him because they looked upon Caesar but as an Vsurper and groaned for deliverance from the Roman Yoke of Bondage yea and many of them hoped and expected that this would have been effected by our Saviour Or if he had denied it would have brought him into danger of his life as an Enemy unto Caesar as afterwards he was accused to be Secondly There is a way of Temptation whereby a Man Tempts himself and that is Praise-worthy when it is only by Exploration and Trial of his own heart to find out what Graces and what Corruptions lodge there Thus we find the Saints in Scripture often examining and proving themselves And every Christian is commanded expresly so to do 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves But it is wicked and sinful in two cases First Then a Man wickedly and sinfully Tempts himself when by presuming upon his own strength he unnessarily runs into danger and ventures upon the next occasions of sinning for this is to come within the Devils Purliews and if any such be made his prey they must thank their own venturousness and folly Thus we Tempt our selves to the Commission of those sins which we before-hand know such company or such Employments or other like Circumstances will prompt us to commit Secondly A Man is said to Tempt
onely belongs to God and the Magistrate to whom he hath delegated it Rom. 13.4 For he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. Q. But if the Wrong done us tend to the Loss of our necessary Subsistence or our Life may we not resist it and require satisfaction for it A. We may But it must be onely in a publick and legal Way and even then we must harbour no Malice against them but be ready to perform all the Offices of Charity and Kindness within our Power Q. May we not prosecute those who have wronged us unless the Injury be intolerable A. We may when we cannot pass by the Wrongs without wronging others But where the Injuries are supportable and we may forgive them without injuring of others the Law of Christianity commands us so to do Matt. 5.39 But I say unto you that ye resist not Evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy Right Cheek turn to him the other also Where the Scope of our Saviour is that we should rather be willing to suffer a second Injury than to revenge the first in Matters tolerable Q. But since this is a Duty so contrary to the revengefull Humour of Flesh and Blood what Arguments can you produce to perswade the Practice of it A. 1. First That it is far more honourable to forgive a Wrong than to revenge it Q. How does that appear A. 1. First Because by pardoning Wrongs we act like God and imitate him in that Attribute wherein he chiefly glories Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth 2. Secondly Because to pardon is always the Act of a Superiour and a Christian expresseth the Royalty of his Calling by issuing out of Pardons Q. What is the second Motive A. Consider how many Offences God hath forgiven us though the Distance between him and us is infinitely greater than onely can be between fellow Creatures and though our Offences against him are infinitely more and greater than which we are to forgive to others Ours against him are but a few Pence Q. Which is the third Motive to enforce this Duty A. The Consideration of that binding Particle As Forgive us as we forgive others Q. Wherein lies the force of this A. By this we seal the Guilt of our Sins upon our own Souls unless we be ready and willing to forgive others And so we turn our Prayers not onely into Sin but into a direfull Tremendous Curse Q. Which is the sixth and last Petition of the Lord's Prayer A. Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. Q. What learn you from the Method of this Petition A. In that it immediately follows the Petition wherein we prayed for Pardon of Sin I learn that it should be our Care not onely to seek for the Pardon of past Sins but the Prevention of Future Q. How is this Petition divided A. Into two Branches the one Negative Lead us not into temptation the other Positive but deliver us from Evil. Q. What signifies the Word Temptation A. It signifies proving or trying Which sometimes is done onely by way of Search and Exploration and sometimes is joined with Suasion and Inducement so that Temptations are either merely probatory or else they are likewise suasory Q. How many Sorts of Temptations are there A. Five in the general 1. Whereby one Man tempts another 2. Whereby a Man tempts himself 3. Whereby we tempt God 4. Whereby God tempts us 5. Whereby the Devil tempts us Q. How is one Man said to tempt another A. When either he persuades him to what is Evil. Prov. 1.10 My Son if Sinners intice thee consent thou not Or to do that which may bring him into danger Luke 20.23 Why tempt ye me Q. How is Man said to tempt himself A. Two ways 1. First When he unnecessarily rusheth into Danger and ventures upon the next Occasions of Sinning 2. Secondly When he is drawn away by his own Lust and inticed James 1.14 But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and inticed Q. How are we said to tempt God A. Two ways 1. First When we by our Sins provoke him to take Vengeance upon us Psal 95.8 Harden not your Hearts as in the Provocation and as in the Day of Temptation in the Wilderness 2. Secondly When we presumptuously try the Providence of God having no Warrant nor Necessity to cast our selves upon the extraordinary Effects of it Mat. 4.6 7. And saith unto him if thou be the Son of God cast thy self down Vers 7. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Q. How is God said to tempt us A. When in the Method of his holy Providence he brings us into such Circumstances as will discover either our Graces or Corruptions Gen. 22.1 2. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him Vers 2. Take now thy Son and offer him for a burnt-offering upon one of the Mountains which I will tell thee of 2 Chr. 32.31 God left him to try him that be might know all that was in his heart Q. How doth the Devil tempt us A. Alway by Suasion inducing us by his Art and Subtilty to the Commission of Evil. Q. What Temptations do we especially pray against in this Petition A. Three Sorts 1. First Such as proceed from our own Lusts and Corruption 2. Secondly Such as proceed from other Mens inticing us to Evil or insnaring us to Danger 3. Thirdly Such as proceed from the great Tempter the Devil Q. What learn we hence A. That it is a Christian's Duty not onely to keep himself from Sin but also from Temptations to Sin Q. What Reasons confirm this A. First Because it is designed of a rotten and corrupt Heart to be content to lie under a Temptation though it consents not to the Sin That Soul is not chast to God that is well-pleased with Sollicitations to violate its Duty Secondly Because while a Temptation dwells upon our Hearts we are in imminent Danger of committing the Sin to which we are tempted Thirdly Because most Temptations are not onely Temptations but Sins too as all evil Thoughts and Desires And as long as these abide in us with any Complacency and Delight so long are we in the actual Commission of Sin Q. How is God said to lead Men into Temptation A. Three ways 1. First When he providentially presents outward Objects and Occasions which do sollicite and draw forth our inward Corruptions 2. Secondly When he permits Satan or wicked Men his Instruments to tempt us And in these two Sences there is no Temptation whatsoever that befalls us but God leads us into it 3. Thirdly When he withdraws the Influences of his Grace and Spirit from us without which Dereliction no Temptation could prevail over us 2 Chr. 32.31 God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his