I iniquity of the fin is augmented and increaseth, ac, cording to the dignity of the person offended and injured by it; fo the value, price and dignity of that which is given by way of compenfation, is raised according to the dignity of the perfon making the fatif, faction. God is of infinite Majefty, against whom we have finned; and Chrift is of the fame divinity, who gave his life a ranfom for finners: for God hath Axx, 28. purchafed his Church with his own blood. Although therefore God be faid to remit our fins by which we were captivated, yet he is never faid to (e) remit the price without which we had never been redeemed: neither can he be faid to have remitted it, because he did require it and receive it. If then we confider together, on our fide the nature and obligation of fin, in Chrift the fatisfaction made, and reconciliation wrought, we shall easily perceive how God forgiveth fins, and in what remiffion of them confifteth. Man being in all conditions under fome law of God, who hath fovereign power and dominion over him, and therefore owing abfolute obedience to that law, whenfoever any way he tranfgreffeth that law, or deviateth from that rule, he becomes thereby a finner, and contracteth a guilt, which is an obligation to endure a punishment proportionable to his offence; and God, who is the lawgiver and fovereign, becoming now the party wronged and offended, hath a most just right to punish man as an offender. But Chrift taking upon him the nature of man, and offering himself a facrifice for fin, giveth that unto God for and instead of the eternal death of man, which is more valuable and acceptable to God than that death could be, and fo maketh a fufficient compenfation and full fatisfaction for the fins of man: which God accepting, becometh reconciled unto us, and for the punishment which Christ endured, taketh off our obligation to eternal punishment. Thus man who violated, by finning, the law of thereby 47. xiii. 38. thereby obliged to undergo the punishment due unto the fin, and to be inflicted by the wrath of God, is, by the price of the moft precious blood of Chrift, given and accepted in full compenfation and fatisfaction for the punishment which was due, restored unto the favour of God, who being thus fatisfied, and upon fuch fatisfaction reconciled, is faithful and just to take off all obligation unto punishment from the finner; and in this act of God confifteth the forgiveness of fins, which is fufficient for the first part of the explication of this Article, as being defigned for nothing elfe but to declare what is the true notion of remiffion of fins, in what that action doth consist. The second part of the explication, taking notice not only of the fubftance, but also of the order of the Article, obferving the immediate connexion of it with the Holy Church, and the relation, which in the opinion of the Ancients it hath unto it, will endeavour to inftruct us how this great privilege of forgiveness of fins is propounded in the Church, how it may be procured and obtained by the members of the Church. At the fame time when our Saviour sent the Apostles to gather a Church unto him, he foretold Luke xxiv. that repentance and remiffion of fins fhould be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Ferufalem; and when the Church was firft conftituted, they thus exhorted those whom they defired to come into it, A&s ii. 19. Repent and be converted, that your fins may be blotted out; and, Be it known unto you, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of fins. From whence it appeareth that the Jews and Gentiles were invited to the Church of Chrift, that they might therein receive remiffion of fins; that the doctrine of remiffion of all fins propounded and preached to all men, was proper and peculiar to the Gofpel, which teachActs xiii. 39. eth us that by Chrift all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be juftified by the law of Mofes. Therefore John the Baptift, who went went before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, Luke i. 76, gave knowledge of falvation unto his people, by the re-77. miffion of their fins. This, as it was preached by the Apostles at the first gathering of the Church of Chrift, I call proper and peculiar to the Gospel, because the fame doctrine was not fo propounded by the Law. For if we confider the Law itself strictly and under the bare notion of a law, it promised life only upon perfect, abfolute, and uninterrupted obedience; the voice thereof was only this, Do this and live. Some of the greater fins nominated and fpecified in the Law, had annexed unto them the sentence of death, and that sentence irreversible; nor was there any other way or means left in the law of Mofes by which that punishment might be taken off. As for other lefs and more ordinary fins, there were facrifices appointed for them; and when those facrifices were offered and accepted, God was appeafed, and the offences were released. Whatsoever else we read of fins forgiven under the Law, was of fome special divine indulgence, more than was promised by Mofes, though not more than was promulgated unto the people, in the name and of the nature of God, fo far as fomething of the Gospel was mingled with the Law. Now as to the atonement made by the facrifices, it clearly had relation to the death of the Meffias; and whatsoever virtue was in them did operate through his death alone. As he was the Lamb flain from the Rev. xiii. 8. foundation of the world, fo all atonements which were ever made, were only effectual by his blood. But though no fin was ever forgiven, but by virtue of that Satisfaction; though God was never reconciled unto any finner but by intuition of that propitiation; yet the general doctrine of remiffion of fins was (f) never clearly revealed, and publickly preached to all nations, till the coming of the Saviour of the world, whofe name was therefore called Jefus, be- Matt. i. 21. cause he was to fave his people from their fins. Being therefore we are affured that the preaching remiffion of fins belongeth not only certainly, but in fome sense peculiarly, to the Church of Christ, it will be next confiderable how this remiffion is conferred upon any person in the Church. For a full fatisfaction in this particular two things are very obfervable; one relating to the initiation, the other concerning the continuation, of a Chriftian. For the first of thefe, it is the moft general and irrefragable affertion of all, to whom we have reafon to give credit, that all fins whatsoever any person is guilty of, are remitted in the baptifm of the fame perfon. For the fecond, it is as certain that all fins committed by any perfon after baptifm are remiffible; and the perfon committing thofe fins fhall receive forgiveness upon true repentance, at any time, according to the Gofpel. First, It is certain, that forgiveness of fins was promifed to all who were baptized in the name of Chrift; and it cannot be doubted but all perfons who did perform all things neceffary to the receiving the ordinance of baptifin, did also receive the benefit of that Mark i. 4. ordinance, which is remiffion of fins. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptifm of repentance for the remiffion of fins. And St. Peter made this the exA&ts ii. 38. hortation of his firft fermon, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jefus Chrift for the remiffion of fins. In vain doth doubting and fluctuating (g) Socinus endeavour to evacuate the evidence of this Scripture: attributing the remiffion either to repentance without confideration of baptifm; or else to the publick profeffion of faith made in baptism; or if any thing must be attributed to baptifm itself, it must be nothing but a declaration of fuch remiffion. For how will these shifts agree with that which Ananias faid unto Saul, without any mention either of repentance or confeffion, Arife and be baptized, and wash away thy fins? and that which St. Paul, who was fo baptized, hath taught us concerning the Church, that Chrift doth fanctify and cleanfe it with the washing Acts xxii. 16. Eph. v. 26. of water? It is therefore fufficiently certain that baptifm, as it was inftituted by Chrift after the preadministration of St. John, wherefoever it was received with all qualifications neceffary in the person accepting, and conferred with all things neceffary to be performed by the perfon adminiftering, was most infallibly efficacious, as to this particular, that is, to the remiffion of all fins committed before the adininiftration of this facrament. As those which are received into the Church by the facrament of baptifm receive the remiffion of their fins of which they were guilty before they were baptized: fo (b) after they are thus made members of the Church, they receive remiffion of their future fins by their repentance. Chrift who hath left us a pattern of prayer, hath thereby taught us for ever to implore and beg the forgiveness of our fins; that as we through the frailty of our nature are always fubject unto fin, fo we fhould always exercife the acts of repentance, and for ever feek the favour of God. This then is the comfort of the Gofpel, that as it discovereth fin within us, fo it propoundeth a remedy unto us. While we are in this life encompaffed with flesh, while the allurements of the World, while the ftratagems of Satan, while the infirmities and corruptions of our nature betray us to the tranfgreffion of the Law of God, we are always fubject to offend (from whence whofoever faith that he hath no fin is a yar, contradicting himself, and contracting iniquity by pretending innocency); and fo long as we can offend, fo long we may apply ourselves unto God by repentance, and be renewed by his grace, and par doned by his mercy. And therefore the Church of God, in which remiffion of fin is preached, doth not only promife it at firft by the laver of regeneration, but afterwards alfo upon the virtue of repentance; and to deny the Church this power of Abfolution is the (i) Heresy of Novatian. The 557 |