N00802:124
The truly blessed man
The truly blessed man: or, The way to be happy here, and for ever: being the substance of divers sermons preached on, Psalm XXXII. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. N.E. ; [Five lines from Isaiah]
printed by B. Green for Michael Perry, 1700
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4. God, in pardoning the Sinner takes off this Guilt from him: This is the great benefit that comes in to him by it. And here observe.
1. That pardon bears a proper respect to Guilt. There are several Considerations under which Sin cometh, but of them all, that which a pardon is ⟨p. 55⟩concerned about and extends to, is Guilt. It doth nothing to the taking away the being of Sin, to the removing of the defilement of it; that belongs to Sanctification; but it is conversant about the Guilt. Pardon is the act of the Judge, and it respects the Crime, as it exposeth the Sinner to punishment, and that ariseth from his Guilt.
2. Hence, in it, the Sentence of the Law Condemning him is removed: This is the very thing it doth: The penalty of the Law was Death, and he, by being exposed to it; was a man of Death; but a pardon brings with it a revoking of that Sentence. God, when he pardons the Sinner, saith that he shall not Die but Live; the Curse of the Law shall not take place upon him, but he shall be delivered from it. It is excellently expressed. Job 33 24. Deliver him from going down to the pit. Hence that conclusion, Rom. •.1. There is now no more Condemnation: the Sin remains; for that which hath once been done, cannot be undone: the merit abides; it will be for ever true, That the man hath done things worthy of Death: but the Sentence it sel• is revoked. How this is done, consistent with the Justice of God, will be enquired in a following Doctrine: but so it is; a pardoned man is out of the reach of the Law in its Curses: He is for ever delivered from his Judge.