The truly blessed man

7. That a sin may be forgiven in the Court of Heaven, and not in the Court of Conscience. Divines do rightly and necessarily distinguish between these two Courts. Every man is to be cited to answer for himself at both of these Tribunals; and an act may pass in one of these, when it hath not past in the other. Conscience indeed is Gods Tribunal, but yet many a man, through the deceitfulness of his heart, and false opinion of himself, passeth a wrong judgment on himself, and sometimes brings in a Verdict of acquittance, when he is indeed condemned before God: And on the other hand, God sometimes passeth the act of pardon on the Sinner, as he ever doth on his believing on Christ, and yet doth not immediately publish it in the Conscience; and so he may stand condemned within for the present, though he be really forgiven; i. e. in his own apprehension: For it is certain, that a man may, in a sense, be said not to have that which he doth not know that he hath; i. e. He hath not the comfort of it, it is to him as if he had it not: and so it may be with a pardoned one. The King may have Signed and Sealed a pardon for a Malefactor, and so he is really a pardoned man, yet he is going to Execution, and concludes that he must die till it be produced and read to him. There may be a direct act of Faith by casting one self on Christ, and yet the reflex act in a great measure be stopped, Isa. 50.10.

7. That a sin may be forgiven in the Court of Heaven, and not in the Court of Conscience. Divines do rightly and necessarily distinguish between these two Courts. Every man is to be cited to answer for himself at both of these Tribunals; and an act may pass in one of these, when it hath not past in the other. Conscience indeed is Gods Tribunal, but yet many a man, through the deceitfulness of his heart, and false opinion of himself, passeth a wrong judgment on himself, and sometimes brings in a Verdict of acquittance, when he is indeed condemned before God: And on the other hand, God sometimes passeth the act of pardon on the Sinner, as he ever doth on his believing on Christ, and yet doth not immediately publish it in the Conscience; and so he may stand condemned within for the present, though he be really forgiven; i. e. in his own apprehension: For it is certain, that a man may, in a sense, be said not to have that which he doth not know that he hath; i. e. He hath not the comfort of it, it is to him as if he had it not: and so it may be with a pardoned one. The King may have Signed and Sealed a pardon for a Malefactor, and so he is really a pardoned man, yet he is going to Execution, and concludes that he must dy till it be produced and read to him. There may be a direct act of Faith by casting one self on Christ, and yet the reflex act in a great measure be stopped,