AFTER that I had spoken to this godly man, his humbling sense and sight of the desert of sin, in the third verse, I began to speak to this remedy of pardoning mercy with God, upon which he layeth hold; and I took up the words in that general note, that there is pardoning mercy in God for sin, and that is the only refuge for sinners, sensible of the burden of sin, and of the desert of sin; and told you, that I have a purpose (if the Lord will) to prosecute this point, in the resolution of several questions, which yet may be reduced to a few general heads, which were hinted at. That which now I am upon is, the consideration of that which is pardoned, sin, iniquity, or transgression, where I spoke to one particular; that all mankind have sinned, and done that which will need a pardon. They have iniquities, even the most godly which make them, when they are sensible of them, to look upon it as good news to hear of pardon. That which I further proposed to be spoken to, was, 1. That, as all have sinned, so sin is a crime, a debt, a burden, that men stand in need to rid their hands of. 2. That sin is a debt that man cannot satisfy, but must have it done away by remission; it must consequently follow, that the unpardoned man is in a woful plight. And 3. That if this be a debt that can only be done away by pardon, then to a sensible man this will be the chiefest of good news, “That there is forgiveness with God.”
As to the first of these, and the second in order, proposed to be spoken to on this branch, when it is granted that all have sinned, the stupid and careless will look lightly upon it.
Wherefore it is to be considered in the next place, what sin is to the right discerner: it’s a crime, which, since he cannot expiate, hath need of pardon; it’s a debt, which, since he cannot satisfy, hath need of forgiveness. This imports, that to be lying under the burden of sin is no light matter to a man that knows his case through sin. I shall take notice of the notion under which sin is expressed (Luke xi. 4 with Matthew vi. 12), where sin is called our debt. I shall not insist here to clear that every man’s sin is his own debt, contracted by himself in his own person, or in the common root Adam, and that he hath not others to blame for it; though as Adam did lay over his sin on the woman which God gave him, so is every one ready to do, yet when God and the sinner reckon, he will find that he must reckon for his sin by himself, or by a surety; but waiving that, that sin is called a debt, it is not to be understood that man is obliged to sin, for obedience is that which is required, and which we are obliged to pay to God; but what is imported in this metaphor, I shall lay open before you in these four.
-
A man that is indebted, and not fulfilling his bond, is liable to the law; so the law of God is an hand-writing against sinful man, obliging him either to do his duty or to satisfy justice for his fault; or if he cannot do that, and there be no other remedy, to undergo everlasting punishment in hell.
-
The debt is heightened by this: that for all the means offered to man, directions, threatenings, promises, opportunities, power and ability to do good in the time and station he lives in, gifts, qualifications and talents, he becomes debtor to God; and by the not improvement of these his sin is heightened thereby.
-
As sin resembleth a debt, so it is a debt above all other debts. A man under the debt of sin is in a more dreadful plight than any under other debt; the latter may be able to pay it, and though he be broken, he may come up again; but a man under the debt of sin can never pay. Again, a man under debt, if he cannot pay, he can shift his creditor; but for a man under the debt of sin, there is no shifting of God his creditor, Ps. cxxxix. 9, “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Again, though a man be under debt, and not able to shift his creditor, yet his creditor is not always in a readiness to attach him, though he be in his view, because he is not in a legal capacity to reach him; but we are in God’s reverence every moment. Again, other debt reaches the body only; this debt of sin reaches the soul also. And to add no more, other debt may reach a man with inconveniences in his life, but when he is dead his debt is paid. But the punishment of this debt reaches a man chiefly after this life. All these clear that sin is a debt above all other debts.
-
And I shall add that sin may well be compared to a debt on this account, that sinners, until they fall upon a right method of seeking pardon, they much resemble an ill debtor; an ill debtor desires not to hear of his accounts, far less to sit down and cast them up. So it is with these ill debtors, they put the ill day far away. They cannot hear of a day of count and reckoning, nor to sit down and examine what they are owing. And what is it that engages a man, either to essay to be an atheist (I say essay to be one, for he will never be one in earnest), or turn voluptuous and drown himself in sensual pleasures, but to hold down the cry of his conscience, that would call him to count and reckon? Again, when an ill debtor is brought to think upon his accounts, how ashamed and afraid may he be, not knowing when he shall be seized upon, turned out of all he hath, and put in prison. And though impenitent sinners will not let it light that they have any fears, yet their consciences can bear them witness to many over-castings of heart, upon apprehension of what may be the close of their course. Again, ill debtors are full of dilatory shifts, and delays; they will promise fair, but will not perform; and so it is with sinners that are not thinking on repentance in order to pardon. They will take fair in hand; many have that much good nature, civility, or policy to take with a reproof, and say they will mend and repent, they will cast off the course they are in, and do better; but all these are dilatories to give the creditor fair weather, without satisfaction. And, further, to add no more, an ill debtor loves not his creditor, yea, often hates him; and though impenitent sinners dare not say they do not love God, yet what spiteful and hateful thoughts do often rise up in their hearts against God! Why? they cannot get this done, and that done, but they must be accounted sinners, and cited to appear before the judgment seat of God to undergo a sentence of punishment; and is that good thus to repay Him so, because He craveth this debt? All these resemblances contribute to make it out that man is a debtor, and sin is a debt that he cannot satisfy. Are they not fools, then, that make a sport at sin? As Solomon says (Proverbs xiv. 9), “Fools make a mock at sin;” but they would sport at leisure, if they considered what a debt this debt of sin is. Men in their right wits have so smarted under it, and the consequences of it, that their hearts have been smitten and withered as grass, and they have forgotten to eat their bread (Ps. cii. 4). They have had no soundness in their flesh, because of God’s anger, nor rest in their bones, because of their sins. Their iniquities have been a burden too heavy for them, their wounds have stank, and been corrupt because of their foolishness (Psalms xxxviii. 3, etc.) And where art thou that art lying under that debt, and never think of putting it off? Certainly thou must be under a distraction.
And this leads me to the third thing in order that I proposed to be spoken to, that is, that sin being a great debt, and a debt we cannot satisfy, a man lying under it, if he be sensible of it, will look upon it as the saddest posture and plight he can be in. Sin will be a most heavy burden to a sensible man; and I shall in short make it out, in a five-fold respect, what a woful plight an unpardoned criminal and debtor is in.
-
An unpardoned man is a dead man, a gone man, as the Lord tells Abimelech, Genesis xx. 3, “Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.” Every unpardoned man is a dead man; he is like a condemned malefactor, the sentence is pronounced upon him, the day of his death is appointed; though he eat and drink and sleep, he is reckoned a dead man.
-
An unpardoned man is capable of no good thing, Isaiah lix. 1, 2, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” And Jer. v. 25, “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.” They have turned away the good things ye had, and have withholden other good things from coming to you; so that the unpardoned man is capable of no good, and all the good that he gets is but a snare to him. The good things he hath are feeding and fatting him to destruction.
-
An unpardoned man is in a woful plight, because, all that he doth, till his person be reconciled and taken into favour with God, how good soever it be in itself, is sin and an abomination to God; he may do many good turns that are good upon the matter, but would ye have the Scriptures’ verdict of them, as they come from Him: read Proverbs xv. 18; xxi. 4; and xxviii. 9, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, the plowing of the wicked is sin; he turns away his ear from hearing of the law, even his prayer shall be abomination;” whence it is clear, all the good that an unpardoned man does is sin.
-
An unpardoned man is in a pitiful plight, because to him there is no comfortable bearing of trouble; but where the pardon of sin is, it sustains a man under trouble, and makes him bear it cheerfully. Men that never trouble themselves to repent and seek pardon, they had need of much fair weather, for unpardoned guilt will have a dreadful echo in a storm to them. Of the pardoned man it is said, Isaiah xxxiii. 24, “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” A man’s being forgiven his iniquity, will make him forget that he is sick, and will make him bear trouble comfortably, which an unpardoned man cannot get done.
And 5. An unpardoned man is in a woful plight, because death will have a terrible aspect upon him. To the pardoned man, death is a friend, a messenger sent to call him home, a chariot sent to carry him to heaven; but to the unpardoned man, death is the king of terrors, the wages and cursed fruit of sin. O! the sweet sight of Christ, and of pardon, that meets the pardoned man at death and judgment, somewhat whereof is hinted in these words, Acts iii. 19, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” But O! what a dreadful lying down, and rising out of the grave, will the unpardoned man have. So ye have heard, that as all have sinned, so sin is a debt that hath need of pardon, the non-forgiveness whereof puts and keeps a man in a most woful condition, and being so,
I proceed to the fourth and last thing I proposed to be spoken to here; that is, that sin being a debt, and such a debt as can only be taken away by pardon and forgiveness, then it might be good news, the chiefest of good news to the man sensible of sin, that iniquity will be forgiven, that “there is forgiveness with God,” and this is it in the text, for verse 3, he sayeth, “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who can stand?” But verse 4, “Forgiveness is with thee,” that is it ye have, Matthew ix. 2, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Now for this pardon, the nature of it, and the terms upon which it is attained, it will come in in its own proper place to be spoken to. Here, I am upon consideration of the thing remitted, and that, which I shall pitch upon is, that there is a remission of sin attainable by sinners in the due order. It’s a blessed article of our creed, the remission of sins. When I spoke of the remission of sin, I spoke of the remission of all sins, great and small, in their nature and number. There is forgiveness with God for iniquities. I confess there is an exception made, Matthew xii. 31, 32, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven;” Heb. x. 26, “For if we sin after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins;” and 1 John v. 16, “There is a sin unto death.” But the sin against the Holy Ghost needs not trouble the sensible sinner that would fain have pardon. It is true, it should warn all to beware of malicious sinning against light, and having sinned, to beware of running away from God; but the sensible sinner, that is seeking peace and pardon, needs not to be afraid of it. That sin is therefore irremissible, because the sinner comes not to seek pardon; but if thou hast the sense of sin, and if it be thy desire and endeavour to repent and to have pardon, it is an evidence that thy sin is not that unpardonable sin.
But that I may make something of this, I shall deduce it in two or three branches. The first whereof shall be,
1. That small sins need pardon.
2. That gross sins are pardonable.
3. A word to the consideration of the persons whose sins are pardonable.
- The smallest of sins needs a pardon. We are not (as Papists would charge us) stoics, who affect a parity and equality of all sins; we grant there are different degrees of sins, and different degrees of punishment—a beating with many stripes, and a beating with few stripes (Luke xii. 47, 48). But yet when we assert this difference, we dare not with them assert venial sins, that deserve not everlasting wrath without repentance, and fleeing to Christ for refuge. Sure the Apostle tells us, Romans vi. 23, “The wages of sin is death.” What death? look to the opposition, and it will clear it, “but the gift of God is eternal life.” If the gift of God be eternal life, the wages of sin must be eternal death. And that he says it of sin indefinitely, it’s equivalent to a universal “the wages of sin is death,” so that they must take away the nature of sin from these sins they call venial, or grant the wages thereof is death. And likewise, Matthew xii. 36, Christ tells us, that “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;” and an idle word might seem a small sin. Well then, if the smallest sin needs a pardon, look that we do not practically make a distinction of mortal and venial sins. Even gross men, if they fall into gross outbreakings, it will affect them somewhat when they do not heed their ordinary escapes. Godly persons also are culpable here, a scandalous sin will affect them, and so it should, but how little are they affected with wanderings of mind in holy duties, idle words and thoughts, habitual distance from God, and is not that a practical distinguishing of sin? It is true, none can, in repentance, distinctly overtake all their failings, for Psalms xix. 12, “Who can understand his errors?” Yet we ought to do what we can to overtake them, and if we cannot overtake them, be at God’s footstool with them, mourning over them in the bulk.
But 2. As the smallest of sins needs a pardon, so the grossest of sins are pardonable in the due order. “There is forgiveness with him for iniquities,” as in the text, and Isaiah lv. 7, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” He will pardon greatest sins in their nature and kind, and hence David saith, Psalms xxv. 11, “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” And Isaiah i. 18, the Lord says, “Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” And these great sins are pardonable in the due order, whether they be done in ignorance, as Paul’s persecution was, 1 Timothy i. 13, “I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” Or whether they be committed through the power of temptation, even against light, as Peter’s threefold denial of his Master was, yet not being malicious it is pardoned. Again, as great sins for nature and kind are pardonable, so great sins for the multitude and number of them, when they are like a cloud, and a thick cloud, he will blot them out, Isaiah xliv. 22, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and sins.” And that word, Isaiah lv. 7, “He will abundantly pardon,” in the original it is, “he will multiply to pardon one and more, a multitude of them;” and Psalms xl. 11, 12, David pleads for mercy, for innumerable evils, for iniquities that are more than the hairs of his head. And as God pardons great sins for kind, and many for number, so frequent relapsing in these sins (which I may speak to afterward), Jer. iii. 1, “She that hath played the harlot with many lovers, is allowed to return.” And He that bade Peter, Matthew xviii. 22, “Forgive his brother, not only seven, but seventy times,” will much more do so to His penitent people, renewing their repentance. But when I say He will pardon great sins, I would have it well applied. It is not to embolden any body to sin. Thou that so improvtest this doctrine, dost turn the grace of God into wantonness; and thou that venturest on sin, because God is merciful to pardon great and many sins, and thinkest thou may take a whelp’s fill of sin, and then go and repent and get mercy (the woful shift that many follow), O! remember that repentance is not in thine own hand; nay, I will say more, thou bearest a sad evidence of one that will never get the grace to repent.
But that abuse of this doctrine being laid aside, ye shall (while I am upon the explication of this great article of faith) take a word or two of inference in the by. And 1. It may be great encouragement to sensible sinners, thou who art sensible of thy sins, that thy dyvour bill of great and many sins, if thou come in the right order, needs not keep thee back. Thy desire to come and repent, and seek pardon, tells that thou art not guilty of that unpardonable sin, and therefore stand not aback for scarlet and crimson coloured sins, nor for relapsing in these sins. There is forgiveness with God for those iniquities. And that ye may grip the better to this when it is intimate, that God is such a pardoner of sin, ye would look to the infinite price of the Son of God, whereby He purchased pardon, and upon which pardon of sin is founded; and ye would look to that infinite and super-abounding grace in God, inclining Him to pardon; and when these two are laid together, and well considered, all thy doubts about pardon will amount to this, whether thy iniquities or Christ’s death, thy abounding sin or God’s superabounding grace, will carry it? And reason will determine it in favour of Christ’s purchase and the superabundant grace of God.
- Let me leave this as a witness against slighters of this offer of pardon; I believe there are many engaged as the Jews were, Jer. ii. 25, who said, “There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” The matter is past redding. There is little appearance that ever we will do well, and therefore we mind not to do well. But here is a witness laid at thy door, whatever thy condition be, God and thou are yet in trysting terms and thou hast the offer of pardon upon repentance, and turning to Him. Art thou as mad as the man that had the legion of devils, Mark v. 9, will thou employ Christ, He can cure thee? Though thou were like Mary Magdalen, out of whom Christ cast seven devils, Luke viii. 2, He can cast them out, and set thee down a worshipper of Him at His feet. Thy scarlet and crimson coloured sins, He can make white as the snow or wool. Thy scattered affections, as the wind, He can fix upon the nail fastened upon the sure place. If thou wilt come and reason with Him, thou shalt find Him as good as His Word. And shall not this be a witness against slighters of pardoning grace, that such profligate wretches, runaways, and backsliders are within the reach of pardoning mercy, and there is a royal proclamation made of it, wherein it is offered unto them, and yet they slighted it? All the wrath of Sinai shall not be so terrible to such, as this will be one day, that in the name of Christ we proclaimed pardon to you, providing ye seek it in the right order; and look how ye will answer the Lamb sitting down on His tribunal of majesty.
I thought to have spoken to the persons, who they are that are pardoned, and that they may call God “Father,” who seek pardon, and how that it secludes not the vilest of sinners upon repentance, and how it makes against the Novatian error, that thrusts repentance out of the Church; and to that case of godly men, their relapsing in sins they have repented of and whether such be pardonable, but the time having cut me short, I shall forbear to break in upon these for the time. The Lord bless for Christ’s sake what ye have been hearing!
(To be continued.)