my sins no more. In the new covenant thou hast engaged thyself not only to forgive but also to forget, and that thou wilt cross thy debt- book, and never question or call me to an account for my sins ; that thou wilt pass an eternal act of oblivion upon them, and utterly bury them in the grave of oblivion, as if they had never been. The sins that are forgiven by God are forgotten by God, the sins that God remits he removes from his remembrance, Heb. x. 13-19, and 1-15. Christ hath so fully satisfied the justice of God for the sins of all his seed, by the price of his own blood and death, that there needs no more expiatory sacrifices to be offered for their sins for ever. Christ hath, by the sacrifice of himself, blotted out the remembrance of his people's sins with God for ever. The new covenant runs thus, ' And their sinful error,' *7Ti^~lDTl< iO,Lo escar guhod, ' I will not remember any more,' Jer. xxxi. 34 ; but the Greek runs thus, ' And their sinful errors and their unrighteousnesses, I wiU not remember again, or any more,' Heb. viii. 12; ov fjurj fivrjado) in. Here are two negatives, which do more vehemently deny, according to the propriety of the Greek language ; that is, I will never remember them again, I will in no case remember them any more, I will so forgive as to forget : not that in propriety of phrase, God either remembers or forgets, for all things are present to him ; he knows all things, he beholds, he sees, he observes all things, by one eternal and simple act of his know- ledge, which is no way capable of change, as now knowing and anon forgetting ; but it is an allusion to the manner of men, who, when they forgive injuries fully and heartily, do also forget them, blot them out of mind ; or rather, as some think, it is an allusion to the manner of the old covenant's administration in the sacrifices, where there was a remembrance again of sins every year, there was a fresh indictment and arraignment of the people for sin continually, Heb. x. 1-3, &c. ; but under this new covenant our Lord Jesus Christ hath, 'by one offering, perfected for ever them that are sanctified,' [see fromwer. 5 to ver. 20 ;] Christ hath, for ever, taken away the sins of the elect ; there needs no more expiatory sacrifice for them ; they that are sprinkled with the blood of this sacrifice shall never have their sins remembered any more against them. God's not remembering or forgetting a thing is not simply to be taken of his essential knowledge, but respectively of his judicial knowledge, to bring the same into judgment. Not to remember a thing that was once known, and was in mind and memory, is to forget it ; but this properly is not incident to God, it is an infirmity. To him all things past and future are as present. What he once knoweth he always knoweth. His memory is his very essence, neither can an3^thing that hath once been in it slip out of it. For God to remit sin is not to remember it ; and not to remember it is to remit it. These are two reciprocal propositions, therefore they are thus joined together. ' I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more : I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remem- ber thy sins,' Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Isa. xliii. 25. To remember implieth a fourfold act ; (1.) To lay up in the mind what is conceived thereby ; (2.) To hold it fast ; (3.) To call it to mind again ; (4.) Oft to think of it. Now in that God saith, ' I will remember their iniquities
326 THE COVENANT OF GRACE PROVED AND OPENED.
no more ;' he implieth that he will neither lay them up in his mind, nor there hold them, nor call them again to mind, nor think on them, but that they shall be to him as if they had never been committed. God's discharge of their sins shall be a full discharge. Such sinners shall never be called to account for them. Both the guilt and the punish- ment of them shall be fully and everlastingly removed. Let the sins of a believer be what they will for nature, and never so many for num- ber, they shall all be blotted out, they shall never be mentioned more ; i (1.) God will never remember, he will never mention their eins, so as to impute them or charge them upon his people ; (2.) God will never remember, he will never mention their sins any more, so as to upbraid his people with their follies or miscarriages. He will never hit them in the teeth with their sins, he will never cast their weak- nesses into their dish. When persons are justified, their sins shall be as if they had not been ; God will bid them welcome into his presence, and embrace them in his arms, and will never object to them their former unkindness, unfruitfulness, unthankfulness, vileness, stubborn- ness, wickedness, as you may plainly see in the return of the pro- digal, and his father's deportment towards him: Luke xv. 20-23, * When he was a great way off.' The prodigal was but conceiving a purpose to return, and God met him. The very intention, and [secret motions, and close purposes of our hearts, are known to God. The old father sees a great way off. Dim eyes can see a great way when the son is the object ; ' his father saw him, and had compassion.' His bowels roU within him. The father not only sees, but commiserates and compassionates the returning prodigal, as he did Ephraim of old, ' My bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy on him ; ' or, as the Hebrew runs, ' I will, having mercy, have mercy, have mercy on him, or I will abundantly have mercy on him,' Jer. xxxi. 20. Look, saith God, here is a poor prodigal return- ing to me, the poor child is come back, he hath smarted enough, he hath suffered enough. I will bid him welcome, I will forgive him all his high offences, and will never hit him in the teeth with his former vanities. ' And ran.' The feet of mercy are swift to meet a return- ing sinner. It had been sufficient for him to have stood, being old, and a father ; but the father runs to the son. ' And fell on his neck.' He cannot stay and embrace him, or take him by the hand ; but he falls upon him, and incorporates himself into him. How open are the arms of mercy to embrace the returning sinner, and lay him in the bosom of love ! ' And kissed him.' Free, rich, and sovereign mercy hath not only feet to meet us, and arms to clasp us, but also lips to kiss us. One would have thought that he should rather have kicked him or killed him, than have kissed him. But God is Pater miserationum, he is all bowels. All this while the father speaks not one word. His joy was too great to be uttered. He ran, he fell on his neck, and kissed him, and so sealed up to him mercy and peace, love and reconciliation, with the kisses of his lips. And the son said