to punishment, and muft not be laid to the finner's charge.

OBSERVATIONS.

I. Howbeit men and women walk lightly under fin, being dead and fenfelefs, fo as they cannot feel any weight or burden; yet in, in effect, is an unfupportable burden that will crush finners, if they be not eased; and is as a debt which they of themselves will never be able to pay, or fatisfy for for here it is faid to be pardoned, or lifted up.

II. As fin is fuch a burden, fo is it a burden of filth; it is a loathfome and abominable thing, however finners look upon it as the matter of gloriation, and do boaft themfelves, and pride themfelves in it, as if it were their glory, when as it is their fhame, and makes them fo odious in God's fight, as he cannot away with them, nor fuffer it; he cannot behold it, nor finners, becaufe of it, unless it be covered: this is imported in that it is faid to be covered.

III. However finners think it a fmall matter to add tranfgreffion unto fin, and contract more and more guilt daily; yet fin bindeth the poor finner over to God's curfe, and to eternal punishment, feeing they are not able to fatisfy God's juftice: this is implied, in that it is faid not to be imputed.

there are two, the one fignifying lawleff nefs, a repugnancy to the law of God; the other, an erring from the right fcope.

V. However fin be a great debt, by reafon whereof finners are in bonds, bound over unto juftice; yet there is fuch a privilege, whereof believers are made partakers, whereby they are fet at liberty, and freed from the bonds of fin, and have fin pardoned, and not imputed; for bleffed is the man whofe iniquities are pardoned, &c.

VI. Albeit to deferve wrath and damnation be an infeparable adjunct of fin, and fin, where-ever it is, leaveth fuch a blot as denominates the man a finner, and it being wrong done to God, it difpleafeth him; yet in pardon of fin, tho' the ftain and blot wherewith the foul is faid to be defiled, Matth. xv. 20. be not removed, yet the actual obligation of the finner unto punifhment is taken off; and thus fin, which before had, as it were, a being, and was living and crying for vengeance, is now removed, pardoned, and taken out of the way: thus fin is faid to be pardoned.

VII. In pardon of fin, altho' it be not fo wholly removed, as no relicts of corruption fhould remain, for corruption still cleaveth to us, and is properly fin; nor fo covered or removed, as that God fhould not be angry with, nor punish the perfons, feeing fuch have been punished, eventho' pardoned, as, 2 Sam. xii. 14. Pfalm xcix. 8. nor fo covered as if his omnifcience could not reach it, or there were any thing interpofed betwixt his eyes and fin; yet it is fo far covered, as that God (however it be filthy and abominable in itfelf, provoking God to execute vengeance) will not fo take notice of it, as to punish the guilty perfon with eternal wrath and deftruction: thus fin is here faid to be covered.

IV. Sin is of fuch an evil and foul nature, as cannot be fufficiently held forth by one or two expreffions, but feveral muft be made ufe of to fet it forth to us, that its loathfomnefs, abominableness, and vile nature, may the more appear: therefore in the Hebrew text here cited, there are three expreffions used to fet it forth. 1. A word that properly denoteth a defection, or falling off from God, rebellion, yea, malicious rebellion flowing from pride, cafting off of God's authority with contempt. 2. A VIII. However a believer may be vexword fignifying to ftep afide out of the way, ed with the thoughts of fin, even after it an aberration from the right fcope. 3. A is pardoned, and confcience may terrify word fignifying pravity, perverfity, malici-him, and God's difpenfations may put the oufness, crookedness. And in the Greek man to cry Pardon, pardon, even after

pardon

XII. Befide this pardon of fin which is granted in juftification, there is allo an imputation of righteousness, fo that pardon doth not exhauft the whole nature of juftification; for without righteoufnefs imputed, at leaft, no man can be called or accounted righteous, (and remiffion of fins properly gives no righteoufnefs) and fo no man could have eternal life, uniefs the law had been fulfilled, and therefore Christ was put to do it, Rom. viii. 3. Gal. iv. 4. as our cautioner: therefore fays the apoftle, Unto whom God imputeth righteoufness, meaning the justified man, of whom he is fpeaking.

Pardon is granted; yet when God pardon- juftification pardon is granted; for the eth fin, he perfectly and completely par- bleffedness of the juftified man is thus made doneth it, as to actual obligation to punish-out, that bleffed is the man whofe fins are ment and wrath eternal, fo that it cannot pardoned, covered, and not imputed. be more perfectly pardoned; it is totally and irrevocably pardoned; yea, fo fully pardoned, as if it had never been, and fo as God doth no more look upon him as a finner, fin being now utterly abolished, as to any actual obligation to condemnation: hence fin is faid to be bloted out, fubdued, caften into the fea, &c. Micah vii. 19. fo Ifa. xliv. 22. and xxxviii. 17. Pfal. xiii. 12. For here there are feveral expreffions ufed to fet it forth, as if one were not fufficient, it is pardoned, covered, and not imputed. IX. Albeit there be fome qualifications required of us before pardon, as faith and repentance, yet pardon is no act of ours, but God's act allenarly; he only it is against whom the injury is done, and he only it is unto whom this belongeth, as an incommunicable property, Ifa. xliii. 1. Exod. xxxiv. 7. he only abfolveth the finner abfolutely, and fatisfyingly intimateth the fame to the confcience: therefore it is faid, unto whom the Lord imputeth not fin. X. Tho' it be too ordinary with poor deluded fouls under temptation, to cry out, their fins are greater than can be forgiven; yet it is a groundless conclufion, for there is no fin (fave that against the Holy Ghoft) but it may be pardoned; and let a foul's fins be never fo grofs and numerous, if he flee in to Chrift there is pardon for him; for fins are pardoned, tranfgreffions are covered, and iniquities not imputed: Sins, tranfgreflions and iniquities, and all indefinitely, and all without exception, are pardoned. See Ifa. i. 18. Exod. xxxiv. 7. Pfalm Ixv. 2.

XIII. This righteoufnefs which is imputed, is no righteoufnefs inherent in us, otherways the reward fhould be of debt; but it is the righteoufnefs of another, even Chrift, in whom we are made the righteousness of God, and to whom our fins were imputed, 2 Cor. v. 21. in whom we are accepted, Eph. i. 6. and hence is this righteoufnefs oftentimes called the rightecufnefs of God, Rom. i. 17. and x. 3. Phil. iii. 6. as being the righteoufnefs of Chrift, who was God: for this righteousness is faid to be imputed without works.

XIV. Tho' it be not true that Chrift's righteoufnefs is fo imputed to us, as if it were formally ours, that thereby we could be faid to be as righteous as Chrift; yet this ipmutation of righteoufnefs is no chimera, or groundless imagination, however it feemeth abfurd to carnal reafon, but a real thing, founded upon the obedience of Chrift, which is no fiction; and it is God's goodwill and pleafure to accept of that obedience and fuffering of Christ, as it we ourselves had done it: thus this imputation is faid to be a deed of God's, and fo it must be a real thing; Unto whom God imputeth righteousness.

XV. There is no inconvenience tha

tion, as if they were incompatible, that they rather fo agree as to infer each other, and the being of the one in justification will infer the other; for the apoftle infereth, that righteoufnefs is imputed becaufe remiffion of fins is granted; not as if they were one and the fame, or equipollent, but becaufe of their neceffary combination and infeparable connection, which may fufficiently ground a rational inference; as we may fay, a man is juftified, therefore he is fanctified, though they be diftinct, yet infeparable; fo tho' imputation of righteoufnefs and remiflion of fin be diftinct, as the righteoufnefs imputed and the fin pardoned are not the fame, tho' ́ one infereth the other: therefore fays the apoftle, Even as David defcribeth the bleffedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness,----faying, blessed is the man whofe iniquities are pardoned.

juftification comprehend both remiffion of fins and imputation of righteoufnefs, but rather a neceffity, in that after the fall man was bound not only to fuffer the penalty, by virtue of the threatening, That day thou eatest thou shalt die, but also to yield obedience in himself or cautioner, by virtue of that, Do this and live; God wiil no more difpenfe with the one, which was required primarily, and in itfelf, than with the other: nor doth remiffion alone make a man legally righteous, in an univerfal fenfe, other ways Chrift needed not to have come in the flesh, that the righteufnefs of the law might be fulfilled in us, contrary to Rom. viii. 3. Chrift did not fatisfy for the penalty, that the law should be no longer a law obliging us to obedience; and albeit life and death, taken naturally, be privatively oppofed, fo that the taking away of the one will effectuate the other, without any farther action; fo that if there be not life, in a fubject capable, there must be death; as when there is not light there must be darkness; and where there is no crookedness there must be ftreightness; yet here, being confidered morally, they are oppofite only by the appointment and will of God; fo that albeit, de facto, there be not a third, or neutral estate of a man who is neither juft nor unjuft, neither not juft nor guilty, yet they may well be confidered as diftinét, fo as not to be both effectuate by one and the fame action; for pardon doth not make a man to be no finner, but to be one not obnoxious to eternal punishment; and from this, right to a heavenly and glorious life doth not flow by a natural refultancy, but oaly from the free appointment of God; fo that not to be a finner may be confidered negatively, as importing only innocency, which was Adam's cafe before the fall, who was free of fm, and yet not juft, fo as to have right to eternal life, for this he XVII. Albeit there be no pardon of was not to have till he had perfevered in iniquities but in and through Jefus Chrift, perfect obedience. Yea, these two are fo who by the facrifice of himfelf hath fatisfar from excluding other from juftifica-fied juftice; yet feeing we contribute no

XVI. Man being now by nature an heir of hell, lying under God's curfe and vengeance, unable to help himself, there is no way for him to win to bleffedness but by geting his iniquities pardoned, and righteoufnefs imputed; and whoever have thefe favours may reft affured that they fhall inherit everlasting blessedness, for in a manner they carry heaven about with them; fo that however, for their exercise and humiliation, God's face may be hid from them, and they in their own apprehenfion, appear loft and undone, and may fometimes meet with fatherly chaftifements for their tranfgreffions, this being a mercy covenanted, among the reft, Pfalm lxxxix. 31. 32. yet a juftified ftate is a bleffed ftate, and a juíti fied man hath bleffednefs; for Paul mak-eth mention of the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, and David fays, Blefed is the man whofe fins are pardoned, &c.

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uncircumcifed: that he might be the fa- to be a feal of the righteousness of faith. ther of all them that believe, though they But it might be faid, 3. What meaned all be not circumcifed; that righteousness this, that he, being juftified while uncirmight be imputed unto them also: cumcifed, fhould receive circumcifion as a And the father of circumcifion to them who feal of the righteoufaefs of faith? He anare not of circumcifion only, but also walk fwereth, That he might become a father in the fteps of that faith of our father both to Jews and Gentiles, that faith, or Abraham, which he had, being yet un-righteousness by faith, might be imputed to circumcifed.

THat

both; to thofe that are not circumcifed, no lefs than to those who are circumcifed, pro

Hat this may be yet clearer, he pre-viding they believe, and walk in the steps occupies two or three more objec- of that faith of our father Abraham, which tions, or anfwereth fome queftions, which he had, being yet uncircumcifed; that is, might be propofed; as, 1. Then this that he might be the firft fpring of conveybleffednefs fhould come only upon the ance of this covenant, with the bleffings uncircumcifed, feeing faith was imputed covenanted, unto his followers, and fubto him unto righteoufnefs while uncircum- confederates; fo that as parents transfer cifed. He answereth, No. And why? rights to inheritances unto their children, because he received the fign of circumcifion; and what right their children have to these that is, circumcifion which was a holy inheritances is in and thro' their parents, fign, according to God's appointment and fo he, as a father, fhould transfer a right inftitution; for receiving prefuppofeth to thefe covenanted bleflings, both by his giving. But then it might be faid, 2. To doctrine and example, and their title to what purpose was he circumcifed? what the covenant fhould be in him; and that ufe was there of circumcifion to him who unto his feed, or children, that is, fuch as was juftified before? He anfwers. That receive this covenant externally only, as it might be a feal of the righteousness of many of his carnal feed did, or internally faith which he had, being yet uncircumcifed. alfo; fo that he is a father to all thofe There being a covenant betwixt God and who profefs faith in Chrift, and fo walk hin, in which there were feveral fpiritual in the fteps of that doctrine which Abra bleffings promifed, as, that God will be his ham believed and profeffed, and therein. God, and the God of his feed, and that, in his was a father to them by example, in caftfeed all the nations fhould be bleffed, and the ing them a copy, tho' they believed not like; and fo there was a righ coufnefs held fincerely and favingly; fo that fuch have forth by which he fhould be juftified, which a fundamental right to all the ordinances he was to lay hold on by faith, and there- which are beftowed upon external cove fore called, the righteousness of faith: nanters and to thofe who come up to the therefore, that his faith might be ftrength- terms of the covenant, and believe favingenel, and that he might not ftagger, thro' ly, as Abraham did, who have a right alunbelief, at the promife, the Lord ap- fo unto the faving bleffings bestowed on points this visible fign, to be a feal to rati- internal covenanters, fuch as the righteouffy and confirm the promife, as a broad nefs of faith imputed: and of thefe, I fel fet to a charter that it may have more think, he is mainly fpeaking here, (no faith and force, as the word is ufed, 1 Cor. way excluding the other, fo as that the ix. 2. 2 Tim. ii. 9. Rev. vii. 2. 4. 2 Cor. i. apostle thought there were none exter22. So that here we have a definition of nally only, the feed of Abraham, and in circumcifion, yea, and of every facrament covenant with God, for he has clearly in general: It is a fign appointed of God afferted the contrary, Rom. ii. 28. 29. and

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through