The true doctrine of justification asserted and vindicated, from the errors of Papists, Arminians,…The true doctrine of justification asserted and vindicated, from the errours of Papists, Arminians,…

And for the further clearing of this, I shall lay down,

First, What it doth not. And secondly, What it doth.

And in the first place, No gross sin committed by a justified person, doth make void the former pardon of those sins he hath been guilty of. God when he pardons, he pardons absolutely, not with a condition suspended upon our future conversation, which if not performed, his pardon shall be revoked. The Lutheran Divines do generally oppose this Truth; Musculus also in his Common-place, De remissione peccatorum, handling this Question, doth incline to the affirmative, That new gross sins committed, make void the pardon of all former sins, so that all his by-past iniquities do reviviscere, live again in their guilt and accusation of such a man, Tompson in his Diatriba, pa. 48. Though he plead vehemently for the intercision of a believers Justification upon the committing of grievous and loathsome sins, yet he denieth, That sins once pardoned are ever imputed again, because (saith he) the irrevocability of that Remission doth only depend upon the immutability of Gods counsel, whose gifts are without Repentance. For although (saith he) there is a necessity of Faith and Repentance, that sins be at first pardoned, yet that they should continue or abide pardoned, there is no necessity of Faith; and therefore none are damned for past sins pardoned, upon a defect of new ⟨p. 235⟩Faith and Repentance, when new sins are committed. The Schoolmen handle this Question, and generally deny, That sins pardoned ever are imputed again, unless in a certain respect, viz. as far as by-past sins are virtually contained in the following sin, as if by a new sin a mans ingratitude is so great, that he becomes as guilty, as if he had all his former sins incumbent on him. But whatsoever mens judgments are, the Scripture-expressions about pardon of sin, which are, The remembering of them no more, The blotting of them out, and throwing them into the bottom of the sea, &c. do plainly evidence, That God when he pardons a sin, pardons it absolutely, and for ever, so that it shall never live again to condemn him here or hereafter.