[2.] Nor is it abolished as a faulty or criminal action, contrary to the law of God. The sins we have committed are sins still, sucli actions as the law condemneth. Forgiveness is not the making of a fault to be no fault. An accused person may be vindicated as innocent, but if he be pardoned, he is pardoned as an offender. He is not reputed as one that never culpably omitted any duty, or com- mitted any sin, but his fault is forgiven upon such terms as our offended governor pleaseth ' I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and ibrgive all their sins,' Heb. viii. 12. They are pardoned as sins.
[3.] Nor is the merit of the sinful act lessened ; in itself it deserveth condemnation to punishment. Merito operis, it is in itself damnable, but quoad eventum : Rom. viii, 1, ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,' &c.; because the grace of the gospel dis- chargeth us from it. We must still own ourselves deserving the wrath of God, which maketh for our constant humiliation and admiration of grace ; so that he that is pardoned still deserveth punishment.
[4.] It remaineth, therefore, that forgiveness of sin is a dissolving the obligation to punishment, or passing by the fault, so as it shall not rise up in judgment against us to our confusion or destruction: the fault is the sinner's act, the punishment the judge's, which he may forbear on certain terms stated in the law of grace. He passeth by the fault so far, that it shall not be a ground of punishment to us, I ])rove it : — •
(1.) From the nature of the thing ; for there is such a relation be- tween the fault and the guilt, the sin and the punishment, that the one cannot be without the other. There can be no punishment with- out a preceding fault and crime. Therefore, if the judge will not impute the fault, there must needs be an immunity from punishment, for the cause being taken away, the effect ceaseth, and the sin committed by us is the meritorious cause of punishment. If God will cover that, and overlook it, then forgiveness is a dissolving the obligation to punishment.
(2.) From the common rule of speaking used among men, for purely the scripture speaketh intelligibly. Now in the common way of speaking, he cannot be said to forgive or remit a fault that exacteth the whole punishment of it. How can a magistrate be said to forgive
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au offender, when the offender beareth the punishment which the law determineth ? And what do men pray for to God, when they pray for the forgiveness of sins, but that they may be exempted from the punishment which they have deserved ?
(3.) It would seem to impeach the justice and mercy of God, if he should exact the punishment where he hath pardoned the offence. His justice, to flatter men with hopes of remitting the debt, where he requireth the payment ; his mercy, in making such fair offers of reconciliation, when still liable to his vindictive justice. There may be indeed effects of his fatherly anger, but not of his vindictive wrath.
(4.) The phrases, and way of speaking in scripture, by which for- giveness of sin is set forth, show God doth blot out our sins : Ps. li. 2, ' Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.' And cover them : Ps. xxxii. 1, ' Blessed is he whose trans- gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' To cast them behind his back : Isa. xxxviii. 17, ' Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.' And cast them into the bottom of the sea : Micah vii. 19, ' Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' To remember them no more : Jer. xxxi. 34, ' I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem- ber their sin no more.' By such emphatical metaphors doth it express God's free and full forgiveness, if we seriously enter into his peace ; and do clearly show, that if God punisheth sins, he doth remember them ; if he avenge them, he imputeth them ; if they are brought into the judgment against us, they are not covered ; if he searcheth after them, he doth not cast them behind his back ; if he bringeth them into light, he doth not cast them into the depths of the sea ; much more if he punish us for them.
Secondly, The nature of redemption.
What is redemption by the blood of Christ ?
In opening it to you, I shall prove six things : —
1. A captivity or bondage.
2. That from thence we are freed by a ransom, or price paid.
3. That none but Christ was fit to give this ransom.
4. That nothing performed by Christ was sufficient till he laid down his life.
5. That thence there is a liberty resulting to us.
G. That we do not actually partake of the benefit of this ransom till we be in Christ.
[1.] Our being redeemed supposeth a captivity and bondage. All men in their unrenewed estate are slaves to sin and Satan, and subject to the wrath of God. That we are slaves to sin appeareth by scrip- ture and experience : Titus iii. 3, ' Serving divers lusts and pleasures ;' John viii. 34, ' Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.' Men imagine a life spent in vanity and jjleasure to be a very good life ; it were so, if liberty were to be determined by doing what we list, rather than what we ought. But since it is not, experience showeth that they are convinced of their brutish satisfactions as mean and base, yet they cannot leave them, for that true and solid happiness offered by Christ. Now as they are under sin, so they are under Satan, ' who worketh in the children of disobedience,' Eph. ii. 2 ; and hath a great power over wicked men in the world, who fall to his bhare, as the