[2.] Further, The Lord saiih, ' Though your sins he as scarlet, they shall be lohite as snotu ; though they he red like crimson, they shall he as ivool,' Isa. i. 18. Pardon makes such a clear riddance of sin, that it is as if it had never been. The scarlet sinner is as white as snow, snow newly fallen from the sky, which was never sullied. The crimson sinner is as wool, wool which never received the least tincture in the dye-fat. You know scarlet and crimson are double and deep dyes, dyes in grain ; yet if the cloth dyed therewith be as the wool before it was dyed, and if it be as white as snow, what is become of those dyes ? Are they any more ? Is not the cloth as if it had not been dyed at all ? Even so ; though our sins, by reiterating them, by long lying in them, have made deep impressions upon us, yet, by God's discharge of them, we are as if we had never commited them.
[3.] Again, TJie psalmist pronounceth him * hlessed whose sin is covered^ Ps. xxxii. 1. A thing covered is not seen ; so sin forgiven is before God as not seen. The same psalmist pronounceth him ' blessed to whom the Lord imputeth not sin,' Ps. xxxii. 2.
Now a sin not imputed is as not committed. The prophet Jere- miah tells us that ' the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found,' Jer. 1. 20. Now is not that fully discharged which shall never be found, never appear, never be remembered, never be men- tioned ?
Thus, by the many metaphors used in Scripture to set out forgive- ness of sin, pardon of sin, you plainly and evidently see that God's discharge is free and full, and therefore he will never charge their sins upon them in the great day, Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Ezek. xviii. 22. But
Some may object and say. That the Scripture saith, that ' God shall bring every loork into Judgment, ivith every secret thing, whether it be good, or ivhether it be evil,' Eccles. xii. 14. How then can this be, that the sins of the saints shall not be mentioned, nor charged upon them in the great day ?
I answer. This scripture is to be understood respective, &c., with a just respect to the two great parties which are to be judged, Mat. xxv. 32, 33. Sheep and goats, saints and sinners, sons and slaves, elect and reprobate, holy and profane, pious and impious, faithful and un- faithful ; that is to say, all the grace, the holiness, the godliness, the good of those that are good, shall be brought into the judgment of
56 SERIOUS AND WEIGHTY QUESTIONS
mercy, that it may be freely, graciously, and nobly rewarded, and all the wickedness of the wicked shall be brought into the judgment of condemnation, that it may be righteously and everlastingly punished in this great day of the Lord All sincerity shall be discovered and rewarded; and all hypocrisy shall be disclosed and revenged. In this great day all the works of the saints shall follow them into heaven ; and in this great day all the evil works of the wicked shall hunt and pursue them into hell.i In this great day all the hearts, thoughts, secrets, words, ways, works, and walkings of wicked men shall be discovered and laid open before all the world, to their ever- lasting shame and sorrow, to their eternal amazement and astonish- ment. And in this great day the Lord will make mention, in the ears of all the world, of every prayer that the saihts have made, and of every sermon that they have heard, and of every tear that they have shed, and of every fast that they have kept, and of every sigh and groan that ever they have fetched, and of all the good words that ever they have spoke, and of all the good works that ever they have done, and of all the great things that ever they have suffered ; yea, in this great day they shall reap the fruit of many good services which themselves had forgot. ' Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee; or thirsty, and gave thee drink; or naked, and clothed thee ; or sick or in prison, and visited thee ? ' Mat. xxv. 34-41 . They had done many good works, and forgot them ; but Christ records them, remembers them, and rewards them before all the world. In this great day a bit of bread, a cup of cold water shall not pass without a reward, Eccles. xi. 1, 6. In this great day the saints shall reap a plentiful and glorious crop, as the fruit of that good seed, that for a time hath seemed to be buried and lost. In this great day of the Lord the saints shall find that bread which long before was cast upon the waters. But my
Second reason is taken from Christ's vehement protestations, that they shall not come into judgment : John v. 24, ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and belie veth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.' 2 Those words, ' shall not come into condemnation,' are not rightly translated. The original is et? Kpiaiv, ' shall not come into judgment,' not into damnation, as you read it in all your English books. I wiU not say what should put men upon this exposition rather than a true translation of the original word. Further, it is very observable that no evangelist useth this double asseveration but St John, and he never useth it but in matters of greatest weight and importance, and to show the earnestness of his spirit, and to stir us up to better attention, and to put the thing asserted out of all question and beyond all contradiction ; as when we would put a thing for ever out of all question, we do it by a double asseveration— verily, verily, it is so, &c., John i. 51, iii. 3, 11, and vi, 26, 32, 47, 53, &c.
Thirdly, Because his not bringing their sins into judgment doth most and best agree tuith many precious and glorious expressions
I See Wisdom, c. ii. throughout, and chap, v., from the first verse to the tenth. Vide Aquin, 87 ; Suppl. est. in 1. 4; Ser. dist., 47.
CLEARLY AND SATISFACTORILY ANSWERED. 57
that we find scattered, as so many shining, sparkling pearls, up and down in Scripture ; as,
First, With those of God's blotting out the sins of his people: 'I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins,' Isa. xliii. 25, and xliv. 22.
Who is this that blots out transgressions ? He that hath the keys of heaven and hell at his girdle ; that opens, and no man shuts ; that shuts, and no man opens ; he that hath the power of life and death, of condemning and absolving, of killing and making alive ; he it is that blotteth out transgressions. If an under officer should blot out an indictment, that perhaps might do a man no good ; a man might, for all that, be at last cast by the judge ; but when the judge or king shall blot out the indictment with their own hand, then the indict- ment cannot return. Now this is every believer's case and happiness.