SERMON II

 Psal. xxxii. 1, 2.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.

In this text, I observed that it is a great step towards, yea, a considerable part of our blessedness, to obtain pardon of our sins. I now proceed to exhort you to put in for a share in this blessedness. To persuade you to it, let me use a few motives.

1.      Till you are pardoned, you are never blessed, there is an obstacle in the way. What though you flow in wealth, ease and plenty, yet as long as this black storm hangs over your head, and you know not how soon it will drop upon you, you cannot be happy men. Do you account him a happy man who is condemned to die, because he hath a plentiful allowance till his execution Then those that remain in the guilt of their sins may be happy. But a pardoned sinner is blessed whatever befalls him. If he be afflicted, the sting of his affliction is gone, that is sin. If he were prosperous, the curse of his blessings is taken away, the wrath of God is appeased and so every condition is made tolerable or comfortable to him.

Nothing less than a pardon will serve the turn. Not forbearance on God's side, nor forgetuflness on ours.

1.        It is not a forbearance of the punishment on God's part, but a dissolving the obligation to the punishment. God may be angry with us, when he doth not actually strike us. As the Psalmist says, Psal. Vii. 11, 12, 13. God is angry at the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword. He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death, he ordains his arrows against the persecutors. In the day of his patience, he doth for a while spare, but God is ready to deal with them hand-to-hand, for he is sharpening his sword, he is bending his bow. Therefore we are never safe till we turn to God. Wherever there is sin, there is guilt and wherever there is guilt, there will be punishment. If we dance about the brink of hell and go merrily to execution, it argues not our safety, but our folly.

2.        Our senseless forgetfulness will do us no good. Carnal men mind not the happiness of an immortal soul, and they are not troubled because they consider not their condition. But a benumbed conscience cannot challenge this blessedness, they only put off that which they cannot put away. God is the wronged party, and supreme judge, to whose sentence we must stand or fall. If he justifies, then who will condemn But there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

3.        A pardon is surely a great blessing, if we consider first, the evils we are freed from and secondly, the good depending upon it.

1.        The evils we are freed from. Guilt is the obligation to punishment, and pardon is the dissolving that obligation. Now the punishment is exceeding great, no less than hell and damnation. Eternity makes everything truly great. Look the loss, an eternal separation from the comfortable presence of God. When God turned Adam out of paradise his case was very sad but God took care of him, gave him a day of patience, promised the seed of the woman, who should recover the lapsed state of mankind. That exile therefore is nothing comparable to this. For now man is stripped of all his comfort, sent into an endless state of misery, where there shall be no hope of ever changing his condition. Now to be delivered from this that is so great an evil what blessedness is it For the pain as well as the loss our Lord sets it forth by two notions, Mark ix. 44. The worm that never dies, and the fire that shall never be quenched. The scripture speaks of the soul with allusions to the state of the body after death. In the body, worms breed usually, and many times they were burn with fire. Accordingly our state in the world to come is set forth by a worm and a fire. The worm implies the worm of conscience, a reflection upon our past folly and disobedience to God, and the remembrance of all the affronts we have put upon Christ. Here men may run from the rebukes of conscience by many shifts, sports or business, but then there is not a thought free, but the damned are always thinking of slighted means, abused comforts, wasted time, the offences done to a merciful God and the curse wherein they have involved themselves by their own folly. The fire that shall never be quenched, denotes the wrath of God or those unknown pains that shall be inflicted upon the body and soul which must needs be great, because God himself will take the sinful creature into his own hands and will shew forth the glory of his wrath and power upon him. When God punishes us by a creature, the creature is not a vessel capacious enough to convey the power of his wrath as when a giant strikes with a straw that cannot convey his strength. But when God falls upon us himself to fall into the hands of the living God, how dreadful is that Is it not a blessedness to be freed from so great an evil Then a little mitigation, a drop to cool your tongue would be accounted a great mercy.

2.        If we consider the good depending on it. You are not capable of enjoying God, and being happy forever, till his wrath be appeased, but when that is once done, then you may have sure hope of being admitted into his presence. Rom. v. 10. If when we were enemies we were reconciled by his death, much more being now reconciled shall we be saved by his life, that is, it is far more credible that a reconciled man should be glorified than that a sinner and rebel should be reconciled. If you get into God's peace, then what may you not expect from God The first favor to such as have been rebels against him facilitates the belief of all acts of grace.

Now what must we do, that we may be capable of this blessed privilege, that our sins may be pardoned, and our debt forgiven I shall give my answer in three branches.

I will show you what is to be done, as to your first entrance in the evangelic state What is to be done as to your continuance therein, and that you may still enjoy this privilege. And What is to be done, as to your recovery out of grievous lapses and falls

1.        As to our first entrance into the evangelic state, that is, by faith and repentance, both are necessary to pardon, Acts x. 43. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. The remission of sins is granted to a believer. Now repentance is full as necessary, Acts ii. 38. Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. Luke xxiv. 47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. What is in another evangelist, to preach the gospel to every creature, in this is, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name. And this is preaching the gospel, for the gospel is nothing else but a doctrine of repentance and remission of sins. So, if we will not hearken to vain men who have perverted the scripture, but stand to the plain gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, these two duties are necessary to pardon. Christ's satisfaction is not imputed to us, but upon terms agreed on in the covenant of redemption. As to the interpretation, there is required the intervention of Christ's merit, so to the application faith and repentance. Therefore St. Paul, Acts xx. 21. Testified both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance respects God, to whom we return, and faith Jesus Christ, by whom we return. From God we fell, to God we must return. We fell from him, as we withdrew our allegiance and sought our happiness elsewhere and we return to him as our rightful Lord and our proper happiness. And faith in Christ is necessary, because the Lord Jesus is the only remedy for our misery, who opened the way to God by his merit and satisfaction, and doth also bring us to walk in his ways.

But to clear this, I will show you,

That it is for the glory of God and our comfort, that there should be a stated method of applying the gospel. That this method is, by faith and repentance, which in many things agree, and in other respects differ. That they are required for distinct reasons and ends The use of these graces will plainly discover their nature to you, so that none need not any longer debate what is repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. It is for the glory of God and our comfort, that there should be a stated method of applying the privileges of the gospel.

(1). It is certainly for the glory of God. It is not meet and pardon and life should be prostituted to every one that will hastily challenge these privileges. Our case is not compassionable, till we relent and submit to God's terms. I would appeal to your own consciences. Is it more suitable to the wisdom of God, that a penitent sinner should have pardon, than an impenitent One that continues in his sins and despises both the curse of the law, and the grace of the gospel It is not agreeable to the honor of God, that such should have benefit by him. Again, for faith, it is not meet we should have benefit by one we know not and trust not. Whatever be God's mercy to infants who are not in a capacity to know and trust him, yet in grown persons, it is not fit we should have such great privileges settled upon us without our knowledge, or against our wills, God will have our consent in an humble and solemn way, that we may thankfully accept what he hath provided for us.

(2). And is it for our comfort, that we may make our claim, that we may state our interest with the greater certainty. For when great privileges are conditionally propounded, as they are in the new covenant, our right is suspended till the conditions be performed and certainly our comfort is suspended till we know they are performed, till we know ourselves to be such, as have an interest in the promises of the gospel. I have told you, blessed are they whose sins are pardoned. But saith the soul, if I knew my sins were pardoned, I should think myself blessed indeed. What would you reply to this anxious and serious soul God hath made a promise, an offer of a pardon by Christ. The offer of pardon is the invitation to use the means, that we may be possessed of it. But then the anxious soul replies to whom is this promise made To them that repent and believe. Here is the shortest way to bring the debate to an issue, wherein our comfort is so much concerned. Thus the application is stated and the fixing these conditions is more for the glory of God and our comfort. 2. The graces or duties upon which is fixed, faith and repentance, the repentance here spoken of, is not the legal but the evangelical repentance, in many things agree, in other respects differ.

(1). They agree in this, that they are both necessary to the fallen creature, and concern our recovery to God, and so are proper to the gospel, which is provided for the restoration of lapsed mankind. The gospel is a healing remedy, and therefore is Christ so often set forth by the term of a physician. The law was a stranger to both these duties, it knew no such thing as repentance and faith in Christ. For according to the tenour of it, once a sinner and forever miserable. But the gospel is a plank cast out after shipwreck, whereby we may escape, and come safe to shore.

Again, they both agree in this, that they concern our first recovery out of the apostasy of mankind, for afterwards, there are other things required. But as to our first entrance into the evangelic state, both these graces are required, and the acts of them interwoven.

Again, they both agree in this, that they have a continual influence upon our whole new obedience. For the secondary conditions of the covenant grow out of the first, and these two graces run throughout our whole life. Repentance mortifying sin is not a work of a day, but of our whole lives, and the like is faith. Again, they agree in that both are affected and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, that God, who requires these things, gives them.

Lastly, they agree in this, that the one cannot be without the other, neither repentance without faith, nor faith without repentance. Repentance without faith, what would it be When we see our sins, despair would make us sit down and die, if there were not a savior to heal our natures, and convert our souls. Neither can faith be without repentance for unless there be a confession of past sins, with a resolution of future obedience, we continue in our obstinacy and stubbornness and so are incapable of mercy.

Repentance without faith would degenerate into the horror of the damned and our sorrow for sin would be tormenting rather than curing to us. And faith would be a licentious and presumptuous confidence without repentance, unless it be accompanied with this hearty consent of living in the love, obedience, and service of God, with a detestation of our former ways, it would be a turning the grace of God into wantonness. Therefore these two always go together.

2. Let me shew you wherein they differ. Which is in this, the one respects of God, the other Christ.

(1). Repentance towards God. While we live in sin, we are not only out of our way, but out of our wits. We were sometimes foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit. iii. 3. We live in rebellion against him, against whom we cannot make our party good, and withal contenting ourselves with a false transitory happiness, instead of a solid and eternal one, we never come to our wits again, till we think of returning to God, as the prodigal, when he came to himself, thought of returning to his father. So long as we lie in our sins, we are like men in a dream, we consider not whence we are, nor whither we are going, nor what shall become of us to all eternity, but go on against all reason and conscience, provoking God and destroying our own souls. Man is never in his true posture again, till he returns to God as his sovereign Lord and happiness. As our sovereign Lord, that we may perform our duty to him and our chief good that we may seek all our happiness in him. And none repent, but those that give up themselves to obey God and to do his will, as he is the sovereign Lord and look upon him as their chief happiness, and prefer his favor above all the pleasures of the world, that they may be able in truth to say, whom have I in heaven but thee And there is none upon earth I desire besides thee, Psal. Ixxiii. 25.

(2). Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is necessary, that we may own our redeemer and be thankful to him, as the author of our deliverance, and that we may trust ourselves in his hands. We are to take Christ as our prophet, priest and king. To hear him as our prophet, Mat. Xviii. 5. This is my beloved son, hear him. We are to receive him as our Lord and King, Col. ii. 6. As ye have received Christ Jesus, the great Apostle, and high priest of our confession. Hear him we must as a prophet, that we may form our hopes by his covenant, and frame our lives by his holy and pure doctrine. Receive him we must as a king, that we may obey him in all things. Consider him as a priest that we may depend upon his sacrifice and intercession, and may the more confidently please his covenant and promises to God. Now without this there can be no commerce between Christ and us. Herein these things differ, repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one respects the end, God, the other the means, Christ, repentance more especially respects our duty, faith our comfort. Repentance newness of life for the future and returning to the primitive duty, the love of God, and obeying his will, faith, pardon of what is past and hope of mercy to come. In short, to God we give up ourselves as our supreme Lord, to Christ as mediator, who alone can bring us to God. To God as taking his will for the rule of our lives and actions, and preferring his love above all that is dear in the world. To Christ, as our Lord and savior, who makes our peace with God, and gives the Holy Spirit to change our hearts, that we may forever live upon him as our life, hope and strength.

(3). These graces are required in order to pardon for distinct reasons and ends.

First, repentance is required for these reasons.

(1). Because otherwise God cannot have his end in pardon, which is to recover the lost creation. Christ came to seek and save that which was lost. Now to be lost in the first and primitive sense was to be lost to God. So if Christ came to save that which was lost, he came to recover us to God.

(2). Neither otherwise can the redeemer do his work, for which God hath appointed him. 1 Pet. iii. 18. He dyed, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. We accept him in all his offices for this end. I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but by me. Therefore whole Christianity from the beginning to the end is a coming to God by Christ. Heb. Vii. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost, (whom) all those that come to God by him.

(3). Without it we should not have our happiness. It is our happiness to please and enjoy God, but we are not in a capacity to please and enjoy God till we are returned to him. They that are in the flesh cannot please the Lord, cannot enjoy him here, for here we see his face in righteousness, nor hereafter, for without holiness no man shall see God.

Secondly, but why is faith in our Lord Jesus Christ required, and so much spoken of in scripture

(1). Faith in Christ is most fitted for the acceptance of God's free gift. Faith and grace always go together and are put as opposite to law and works. Rom. iv. 16. It is of faith that it may be of grace. Eph. ii. 8. For by grace ye are saved through faith and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith establishes and keeps up the honor of grace, for it is the free grace of God to condescend to the rebel world, so far as he hath done in the new covenant. We present ourselves before him as those that stand wholly to his mercy and have nothing to please for ourselves but the merit of our redeemer, by virtue of which we humbly beg pardon and life to be begun in us by his spirit, and perfected in glory.

(2). Why faith in Christ Because the way of our recovery is so strange and wonderful. It can only be received by faith. Sense cannot convey it to us, reason will not and nothing is reserved for the entertainment of this glorious mystery, pardon and salvation by our redeemer, but faith alone. If I should deduce this argument at large, I would show you nothing but faith can support us in these transactions with God. The comfort of the promise is so rich and glorious, that sense and reason cannot inform us of it. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the things God hath prepared for them that love him, 1 Cor. ii. 9. It is not meant only of heaven, but of the whole preparation that God hath made for us in the gospel. It is not a thing can come to us by eye or ear, or the conceiving of man's heart, we only entertain it by faith. And the persons upon whom it is bestowed are so unworthy, that it cannot enter into the heart of man, that God will be so good and do so much good to such. Besides the way God hath taken for our deliverance is astonishing. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. That God should become man, that he should submit to an accursed death for our sakes, is so high and glorious, that it can only be entertained by faith.

The use of these two graces discover their nature. What is faith and repentance Repentance towards God is a turning from sin to God. It is called in scripture sometimes a turning to God, in other places a seeking after God, a giving up ourselves to God. 2 Cor. viii. 5. They gave up themselves to the Lord. This is the repentance by which we enter into the gospel-state. Now what is faith Besides an assent to the gospel, it is a serious, thankful, broken-hearted acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may be made to every one of us what God hath appointed him to be, and do for every one of us what God hath appointed him to do for poor sinners. It is serious and broken-hearted trusting to this redeemer, that he may do the work of a redeemer in our hearts.

And thus, I have briefly opened this necessary doctrine, as clearly laid down in the scripture. And this is your entrance into the evangelic state.

11.       What is to be done, for our continuance therein I answer, faith and repentance are still necessary. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And repentance is still necessary. But I shall only press two things: First, new obedience, secondly, daily prayer.

1.       New obedience is required. 1 Job i. 7. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. Holy walking is necessary to the continuance of our being cleansed from sin and therefore mercy is promised to the forsaking of our sins. Prov. xviii. 13. He that confesses and forsakes his sins shall find mercy. Isa. iv. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Christ will be no advocate for them that continue in their sins. Our God is a God of salvation, we cannot speak enough of his saving mercy. But he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one, as goes on still in his trespasses, Psal. Ixviii. 20, 21.

2.       Daily prayer is required. We must every day be cleansing our consciences before God, and begging that we may still be partakers of his benefit.

111.        The third thing is our recovery out of grievous lapses and falls. In them there is required a particular and express repentance and repentance and faith must be carried with respect to those four things that are in sin. The fault, the guilt, the stain or blot and the punishment. You know the law supposes a righteous nature that God gives to man, therefore in sin there is a stain or blot, defacing God's image. The precepts of the law require duty, so it is a criminal act. The sanction of the law as threatened makes way for guilt, as executed, calls for punishment.

1.          For the fault, in the transgression of the law, see that the fault be not continued. Relapses are very dangerous. A bone often broken in the same place is hardly set again. You are in danger of this before the breach be well made up, or the orifice of the wound soundly closed.

2.          The guilt continues till serious and solemn repentance and humiliation before God, and suiting out our pardon in Christ's name, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There must be a solemn humbling for the sin and then God will forgive us. Suppose a man forbear the act and never commit it more, yet with serious remorse we must also beg our peace upon the account of our mediator. Therefore something must be done to take away the guilt.

3.          There is a blot or evil inclination to sin again. The blot of sin in general is the defacing of God's image, but in particular sins it is also some weakening of the reverence of God. A man cannot act a grievous willful sin, but there is a violent obstruction of the fear of God. A brand that hath been in the fire is more apt to take fire again, the evil influences of the sin continue. Now the root of sin must be mortified. It is not enough to forbear or confess a sin, but we must pull out the core of the distemper before all will be well.

4.          There is the punishment. Now we must deprecate eternal punishment and bless God for Jesus Christ, who hath delivered us from wrath to come. But as to temporal evils, God hath reserved a liberty to his fatherly justice, to influence them, as he shall see good. The righteous are recompensed upon earth, partly to increase their repentance, that when they smart under the fruit of sin, they may best judge of the evil of it. God doth in effect say, now know it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against me. God doth not do it to complete their justification, but to promote their sanctification, and to make us warnings to others, that they may not displease God as we do. Now for these reasons the Lord though he doth release the eternal punishment, yet reserves a liberty to chastise us in our persons, families, and relations. Therefore, what is our business Humbly to deprecate this temporal judgment thus, Lord correct me not in thine anger, nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure. We should be instant with God to get it stopped or mitigated. But if the Lord see fit that it shall come patiently submit to him and say as the church, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. These afflictive evils, some of them belong to God's external government and some to his internal. Some to his external government as when many are sick and weak and fallen asleep. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. There are other things belong to his internal government, as the withdrawing the comforts of his spirit, or the lively influences of his grace for this was the evil David feared, when he had gone into willful sins, Psal. Ii. 11, 12. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not away thy holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of they salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. When we fall into sin, though the Lord doth not utterly take away his loving kindness from us, he may abate the influences of his grace so far, as that we may never recover the like measure, as long as we live.

| Thomas Manton - Preface

Preface | Thomas Manton - Sermon 1

Sermon I | Sermon II | Thomas Manton - Sermon 3

Sermon III | Thomas Manton - Sermon 4

Sermon IV | Thomas Manton - Sermon 5

Sermon V | | Thomas Manton - Sermon 6

Sermon VI | Thomas Manton - Sermon 7

Sermon VII |