[1.] Now within time the sentence may be repealed, but then it is definitive and peremptory. A man that is condemned by the law may be pardoned and absolved afterwards. Every one of us ' is condemned already,' John iii. 18 ; and we bind this condemnation upon us if we die in our infidelity and impenitency, and contempt of the Lord's grace, ver. 19. But our estate is capable of alteration : John v. 24, ' He that believeth on me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- nation, but hath passed from death to life ; ' hath changed his copy, and is translated from the sentence and state of death to a sentence of life passed in his favour.
[2.] The sentence is now private, but then public. It is passed in the believer's conscience according to the word of God ; but then it is pronounced by the judge's own mouth pro tribunali, when he sitteth on the throne : Acts iii. 19, ' That your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord.' It is now stated ; we have the grant of it in the word upon the terms of the new covenant, but then it shall be confirmed and ratified in court by an open and visible sentence, our judge publicly absolving us.
[3.] Then there shall be an execution, both of justification and con- demnation. Now in time there is sententia lata,, but not dilata ; it is past, but not executed : Eccles. viii. 11, ' Because sentence against an evil-doer is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' When a sinner dieth, it is executed in part upon his soul, but not upon his whole person. So the godly have their sentence passed, but they have not the full effect of it till then. It is said, John v. 27, ' God hath given him authority to execute judgment.' The punishment which belongeth to sinners is all kind
384 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN II. 12-14. [SeR. I.
of misery in this world and the next. God nowjudgeth the world in patience, then in righteousness. Then the pardoned shall have their consummate happiness, but the wicked be cast body and soul into hell-fire.
2. By which he doth freely and fully release from the guilt of all our transgressions.
[1.] Freely. God doeth it, and that without any cost to us : Isa. lii. 3, ' Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.' As the sale was without any gain and benefit to us, so the redemption and recovery was neither any cost to us; it cost Christ dear. The debtor did not provide the ransom, but the creditor ; and the price was paid out of God's own treasury. And freely also ; for though we penitently and humbly sue out our pardon, and it is not forgiven without our desiring, yet without our deserving. The Lord saith, Isa. xliii. 25, ' I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgres- sions for my own sake, and will remember thy sins no more.' What- ever God doth in our salvation, he doth it for his name's sake, pitying our misery, and for the glory of his own mercy, pardoning our sins ; thus in the text, ' Because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.' "We must ask it, and seek ; but God giveth it for Christ's sake. We cannot merit it, and we must seek it in such a way as may be most honourable to God and Christ, judging ourselves, condemning ourselves, giving him the glory of his justice by humble and broken-hearted con- fession, admiring his grace, acknowledging our great debt to our Eedeemer, forsaking our way and our thoughts. Yet these things do not satisfy for the wrong done to God, only render our condition com- passionable. David saith, Ps. xxv. 11, ' For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.' The penitent believer hath no other plea but the honour of God's grace engaged in the covenant. God's free pardon is the saint's encouragement.
[2.] It is full ; as God pardoneth freely, so also fully, and not by halves ; irrevocably, and not for a time only ; universally, and not a few sins only ; and therefore he is said to ' remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west,' Ps. ciii. 12; 'To cast our sins into the depths of the sea,' Micah vii. 18. The sin forgiven shall not be remembered or laid to our charge any more.
3. It is a release from the guilt of our transgressions. There is in sin reatus culpce, the fault ; and reatus poence, the guilt. God doth not make the sin to be no sin, or the fault to be no fault, but he will not charge it to our condemnation and confusion. Properly, it is the obligation to punishment which God releaseth us from. Sin is com- pared to a chain, as hell to a prison : Lam. i. 14, ' The yoke of my transgression is bound by his hand ; they are wreathed and come upon my neck.' Now God, when he pardons sin, looseth this chain. So to a debt: Mat. vi. 12, 'Forgive us our debts.' The sinner is dis- charged from his obligation to punishment. It is a forgiveness of the debt, or an exemption from payment. When God pardoneth, he doth not only respite or withhold the execution, but withdraweth the obliga- tion to punishment. It is one thing for the creditor to give a further day of payment, another to cancel the bond ; one thing to loosen the chain, and another to break it. God doth not only forbear, but forgive ; not