_Answ._ 1. _De re_: 1. The pardon which you have this year extendeth not to the sins which you commit the next year, or hour; but there must be a renewed act of pardon for renewed sins; though not a new gospel, or covenant, or act of oblivion to do it; but the same gospel covenant doth morally perform a new act of pardon, according to the Redeemer's mind and will. 2. The pardon which we have now, is but constitutive and _in jure_, and but virtual as to sentential justification; but the sentence of the judge is a more perfective act: or if any think that God doth now sentence us just before the angels in any celestial court, yet that at judgment will be a more full perfective act. 3. The executive pardon which we have now, which is opposite to actual punishing, is not perfect till the day of judgment; because all the punishment is not removed till the last enemy, death, be overcome, and the body be raised from the earth. 2. And now the controversy _de nomine_, whether it be proper to call our present justification or pardon perfect, is easily decided from what is said _de re_.
_Quest._ IX. Is our pardon perfect as to all the sins that are past?
_Answ._ 1. As to the number of sins pardoned, it is; for all are pardoned. 2. As to the species of the act, and the plenary effect, it is not. For, 1. All the punishment is not removed. 2. The final absolving sentence is to come. 3. The pardon which we have is, as to its continuance, but conditional; and the tenor of the covenant would cease the pardon even of all sins past, if the sinner's faith and repentance should cease; I speak not _de eventu_, whether ever any do fall away, but of the tenor of the covenant; which may prevent falling away. Now a pardon which hath much yet to be done, as the condition of its continuance, is not so perfect, as it will be when all those things are performed.
_Quest._ X. May pardon or justification be reversed or lost?
_Answ._ Whether God will eventually permit his true servants, to fall so far as to be unjustified, is a controversy which I have written of in a fitter place. 2. But _quoad robur peccatoris_, it is, alas, too easy to fall away, and be unjustified. 3. And as to the tenor of the covenant, it continueth the promise and threatening conditionally, and supposing the sinner defectible, doth threaten damnation to them that are now justified, if they should not persevere, but apostatize, Col. i. 33; Rom. xi. 22; John xv. 9.
_Quest._ XI. Is the pardon of my own sins to be believed _fide divina_? And is it the meaning of that article of the creed, I believe the pardon of my sins?
_Answ._ 1. I am to believe _fide divina_, that Christ hath purchased and enacted a conditional pardon, which is universal, and therefore extendeth to my sins as well as to other men's; and that he commandeth his ministers to offer me this, and therein to offer me the actual pardon of all my sins, to be mine if I truly repent and believe: and that if I do so, my sins are actually pardoned. And I am obliged accordingly to believe in Christ, and take him for my Saviour, for the pardon of my sins. But this is all the meaning of the creed, and Scripture, and all that is of divine belief. 2. But that I am actually pardoned, is not of divine faith, but only on supposition that I first believe; which Scripture telleth not, whether I do or not. In strict sense, I must first believe in Christ for pardon: and next, in a larger sense, I must believe that I am pardoned; that is, I must so conclude by an act of reason, one of the premises being _de fide_, and the other of internal self-knowledge.
_Quest._ XII. May a man trust in his own faith or repentance for his pardon and justification, in any kind?
_Answ._ Words must be used with respect to the understanding of the hearers; and perilous expressions must be avoided lest they deceive men. But _de re_, 1. You must not trust to your faith or repentance, to do that which is proper to God, or to Christ, or to the gospel, or for any more than their own part, which Christ hath assigned them. 2. You must trust to your faith and repentance for that which is truly their own part. And should you not trust them at all, you must needs despair, or trust presumptuously to you know not what: for Christ will not be instead of faith or repentance to you.
_Quest._ XIII. What are the several causes and conditions of pardon?
_Answ._ 1. God the Father is the principal efficient, giving us Christ, and pardon with and through him. 2. Christ's person by his sacrifice and merits is the meritorious cause. 3. The gospel covenant or promise is the instrumental cause, or God's pardoning act or grant. 4. Repentance is the condition _sine qua non_, directly _gratia finis_, in respect to God, to whom we must turn. 5. Faith in Christ is the condition _sine qua non_, directly _gratia medii principalis_, in respect to the Mediator, who is thereby received. 6. The Holy Ghost worketh us to these conditions.