_Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Obtaining Pardon of Sin from God._
_Quest._ I. Is there pardon to be had for all sin without exception, or not?
_Answ._ 1. There is no pardon procured or offered, for the final non-performance of the conditions of pardon; that is, for final impenitency, unbelief, and ungodliness. 2. There is no pardon for any sin, without the conditions of pardon, that is, without true faith and repentance, which is our conversion from sin to God. 3. And if there be any sin which certainly excludeth true repentance to the last, it excludeth pardon also; which is commonly taken to be the case of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; of which I have written at large in my "Treatise against Infidelity."
But, 1. All sin, except the final non-performance of the conditions of pardon, is already conditionally pardoned in the gospel; that is, if the sinner will repent and believe. No sin is excepted from pardon to penitent believers.
2. And all sin is actually pardoned to a true penitent believer.
_Quest._ II. What if a man do frequently commit the same heinous sin; may he be pardoned?
_Answ._ Whilst he frequently committeth it (being a mortal sin) he doth not truly repent of it; and whilst he is impenitent he is unpardoned: but if he be truly penitent, his heart being habitually and actually turned from the sin, it will be forgiven him; but not till he thus forsake it.
_Quest._ III. Is the day of grace and pardon ever past in this life?
_Answ._ The day of grace and pardon to the penitent is never past in this life;[175] there is no day or hour in which a true penitent person is not pardoned; or in which the impenitent is not conditionally pardoned, that is, if he will truly repent and believe in Christ: and as for the day of true penitence, it is not past to the impenitent; for it never yet came, that is, they never truly repented. But there is a time, with some provoking, forsaken sinners, when God who was wont to call them to repentance by outward preaching and inward motions, will call and move them so no more, but leave them more quietly in the blindness and hardness of their hearts.
_Quest._ IV. May we be certain of pardon of sin in this life?
_Answ._ Yes, every man that understandeth the covenant of grace, may be certain of pardon, so far as he is certain of the sincerity of his faith and repentance, and no further; and if a man could not be sure of that, the consolatory promises of pardon would be in a sort in vain; and we could not tell how to believe and repent, if we cannot tell when we truly do it.
_Quest._ V. Can any man pardon sins against God? and how far?