cient, speaking it by way of definition.* And it is elsewhere most evident that every sin is something prohibited by some law, and deviating from the same. For the apostle affirming, that "the law worketh wrath," that is, a punishment from God, giveth this as a reason or proof of his affirmation; "for where no law is, there is no transgression." (Rom. iv. 15.) The Law of God is the rule of the actions of men, and any aberration from that rule is sint the Law of God is pure, and whatsoever is contrary to that Law is impure. Whatsoever therefore is done by man, or is in man, having any contrariety or opposition to the Law of God, is sin. Every action, every word, every thought, against the Law, is a sin of commission, as it is terminated to an object dissonant from, and contrary to, the prohibition of the Law, as a negative precept. Every omission of a duty required of us is a sin, as being contrary to the commanding part of the Law, or an affirmative precept. Every evil habit contracted in the soul of man by the actions committed against the Law of God, is a sin constituting a man truly a sinner, even then when he actually sinneth not. Any corruption and inclination in the soul, to do that which God forbiddeth, and to omit that which God commandeth, howsoever such corruption and evil inclination came into the soul, whether by an act of his own will, or by an act of the will of another, is a sin, as being something dissonant and repugnant to the Law of God. And this I conceive sufficient to declare the

nature of sin.

The second particular to be considered is the obligation of sin, which must be presupposed to the solution or remission of it. Now every sin doth cause a guilt, and every sinner, by being so, becomes a guilty person; which guilt consisteth in a debt or obligation to suffer a punishment proportionable to the iniquity of the sin. It is the nature of laws in general to be attended with these two, punishments and rewards; the one propounded for the observation of them, the other threatened upon the deviation from them. And although there were no threats or penal denunciations accompanying the laws of God, yet the transgression of them would nevertheless make the person transgressing worthy of, and liable unto, whatsoever

æternam legem.' S. August. contra Faustum, 1. xxii. c. 27. Quid verum est, nisi et Dominum dare præcepta, et animas liberæ esse voluntatis, et malum naturam non esse, sed esse aversionem a Dei præceptis?' Idem, de. Fide contra Manich. c. 10. Neque negandum est hoc Deum jubere, ita nos in facienda justitia esse debere perfectos, ut nullum habeamus omnino peccatum; nam neque peccatum erit, si quid erit, si non divinitus jubeatur ut non sit.' Idem, de Pec. Meritis, et Rem lib. ii. c. 16.

punishment can in justice be inflicted for that sin committed Sins of commission pass away in the acting or performing of them; so that he which acteth against a negative precept, after the act is passed, cannot properly be said to sin. Sins of omission, when the time is passed in which the affirmative precept did oblige unto performance, pass away, so that he which did then omit his duty when it was required, and in omitting sinned, after that time cannot be truly said to sin. But though the sin itself do pass away together with the time in which it was committed, yet the guilt thereof doth never pass which by committing was contracted. He which but once committed adultery, at that one time sinneth, and at no time after can be said to commit that sin; but the guilt of that sin remaineth on him still, and he may be for ever said to be guilty of adultery, because he is for ever subject to the wrath of God, and obliged to suffer the punishment due unto adultery.

This debt or obligation to punishment is not only necessarily resulting from the nature of sin, as it is a breach of the Law, nor only generally delivered in the Scriptures revealing the wrath of God unto all unrighteousness, but it is yet more particularly represented in the word, which teacheth us, if we do ill, how "sin lieth at the door." (Gen. iv. 7.) Our blessed Saviour thus taught his disciples, "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable (obnoxious or bound over) to the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable (obnoxious, or bound over) to the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be liable (obnoxious, or bound over) to hell-fire." (Matt. v. 22.)† So saith our

This obligation unto punishment, remaining after the act of sin, is that peccati reatus of which the schools, and before them the fathers spake. The nature of this reatus is excellently declared by St. Augustin, delivering the distinction between actual and original sin: 'In eis qui regenerantur in Christo, cum remissionem accipiunt prorsus omnium peccatorum, utique necesse est, ut reatus etiam hujus licet adhuc manentis concupiscentiæ remittatur, ut in peccatum non imputetur. Nam sicut peccatorum, quæ manere non possunt, quoniam cum fiunt prætereunt, reatus tamen manet, et nisi remittatur, in æternum manebit; sic illius concupiscentiæ, quando remittitur, reatus aufertur. Hoc est enim non habere peccatum, reum non esse peccati. Nam si quisquam, verbi gratia, fecerit adulterium, etiamsi nunquam deinceps faciat, reus est adulterii, donec reatus ipsius indulgentia remittatur. Habet ergo peccatum, quamvis illud quod admisit jam non sit, quia cum tempore quo factum est præteriit. Nam si a peccando desistere, hoc esset non habere peccatum, sufficeret ut

hoc nos moneret Scriptura; Fili, peccasti? non adjicias iterum: Non autem sufficit, sed addidit, et de pristinis deprecare, ut tibi remittantur. Manent ergo, nisi remittantur. Sed quomodo manent, si præterita sunt, nisi quia præterierunt actu, manent reatu?' S. August. de Nupt, et Concup. 1. i. c. 26. Ego de concupiscentia dixi, quæ est in membris repugnans legi mentis, quamvis reatus ejus in omnium peccatorum remissione transierit; sicut e contrario sacrificium idolis factum, si deinceps non fiat, præteriit actu, sed manet reatu, nisi per indulgentiam remitQuiddam enim tale est sacrificare idolis, ut opus ipsum cum fit prætereat, eodemque præterito reatus ejus maneat venia resolvendus.' Idem, cont. Julian. 1. vi. c. 19. §. 60.

tatur.

+ Ενοχος ἔσται is the word used here, which is translated, thall be in danger, but is of a fuller and more pressing sense. as one which is a debtor, subject, and obliged to endure it. Hesych. "Ex χρεώστης, ὑπεύθυνος, ὑποκείμενος Ενοχος, ὑπαίτιος. Where, by the way. is to be observed a great mistake in the

Saviour again, "All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of (liable, obnoxious, or bound over to) eternal damnation." (Mark iii. 28, 29.) Whence appeareth clearly the guilt of sin and obligation to eternal punishment, if there be no remission or forgiveness of it; and the taking off that liableness, obnoxiousness, or obligation unto death, if there be any such remission or forgiveness: all which is evident by the opposition, much to be observed in our Saviour's exp.ession, "he hath never forgiveness, but is liable to eternal death."

God, who hath the sovereign power and absolute dominion over all men, hath made a Law to be a perpetual and universal rule of human actions; which Law whosoever doth violate, or transgress, and thereby sin (for by sin we understand nothing else but the transgression of the Law), is thereby obliged in all equity to suffer the punishment due to that obliquity. And after the act of sin is committed and passed over, this guilt resulting from that act remaineth; that is, the person who committed it continueth still a debtor to the vindictive justice of God, and is obliged to endure the punishment due unto it: which was the second particular to be considered.

The third consideration now followeth, What is the forgiveness of sin, or in what remission doth consist; which at first appeareth to be an act of God towards a sinner, because the sin was committed against the Law of God; and therefore the punishment must be due from him, because the injury was done

Lexicon of Phavorinus, whose words are these; Ενοχος, ὑπεύθυνος, χρεώστης Ενοφος, ὑπαίτιος, Τίμαιος. The first taken out of Hesychius, the last out of Suidas, corruptly and absurdly; corruptly Evopes for ἔνοχος; absurdly Τίμαιος is added either as an interpretation of evoxos, or as an author which used it; whereas Tiuato in Suidas is only the first word of the sentence, provided by Suidas for the use of oxas in the signification of ὑπαίτιος. Agreeable unto Hesychius is that in the Lexicon of St. Cyril, voxos, obnoxius, reus, obligatus And so in the place of St. Matthew, the old translation, reus erit judicio. As in Virgil, Æn. v. 237. • Constituam ante aras voti reus: Servius: voti reus, debitor. Unde vota solventes dicimus absolutos. Inde est, (Ecl. v. 80 ) Damnabis tu quoque votis, quasi reos facies.'

'Hpwd. pov. p. 159, 36. ed. Steph. μù ŏvra φονέα, μηδὲ ἔνοχον τῷ ἔργῳ: and that in Aristotle, Econ. ii. de Dionys. Syrac, ivoχον ἔφησεν ἱεροσυλίας ἔσεσθαι : and that in Suidas taken out of Polybius: Tiμalos κατὰ τοῦ Ἐφόρου πεποίηται καταδρομὴν αὐτὸς ὢν ἐπὶ δυσὶν ἁμαρτήμασιν ἔνοχος· τῷ μὲν, ὅτι πικρώς κατηγόρει τῶν πέλας ἐπὶ τούτοις, οἷς αὐτὸς ἔνοχός ἐστιν. In respect of the punishment of a sin, he is voxoc àga, who is obnorious to the curse, and ἔνοχος ἐπιτιμίοις, obnoxious to the punishment. Envios, ἐμποίνιος, τούτεστιν, ἔνοχος ποινῇ, οἷον ἐφ ̓ οἷς ἥμαρτε δοὺς τιμωρίαν, saith Suidas. Thus ἔνοχος θανάτου ἐστὶ, Matt. xxvi. 66. η 2η

is not in the intention of the Jews. he is in danger of death, but he deserveth death, and he ought to die; he is xarádinos, by their sentence, as far as in them lay, condemned to die. St. Chrysostom. Tí oử ἐκεῖνοι ; ἔνοχός ἐστι θανάτου. ἵν ̓ ὡς κατάδικον λαβόντες, οὕτω τὸν Πιλάτον λοιπὸν ἀποφήνασθαι παρασκευάσωσιν· ὁ δὲ κακεῖνοι συνειδότες φασὶν, Ενοχος θανάτου ἐστὶν, αὐτοὶ κατηγο ςοῦντες, αὐτοὶ δικάζοντες, αὐτοὶ ψηφιζόμενοι, πάντα αὐτοὶ γινόμενοι τότε. Ηom. 84.

unto him. But what is the true notion or nature of this act, or how God doth forgive a sinner, is not easy to determine; nor can it be concluded out of the words themselves which do express it, the niceties of whose origination will never be able to yield a just interpretation.*

For although the word signifying remission, have one sense among many other which may seem proper for this particular concernment; yet because the same word has been often used to signify the same action of God in forgiving sins, where it could have no such particular notion, but several times hath another signification tending to the same effect,t and as pro

per to the remission of sins; therefore I conceive the nature of forgiveness of sins is rather to be understood by the consideration of all such ways and means which were used by God in the working and performing of it, than in this, or any other which is made use of in expressing it.

Now that we may understand what was done toward the remission of sins, that from thence we may conclude what was done in it; it is first to be observed, that "almost all things by the Law were purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission." (Heb. ix. 22.)* And what was then legally done, was but a type of that which was to be performed by Christ, and therefore the blood of Christ must necessarily be involved in the remission of sins; for he once in the end of the world hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Heb. ix. 26.)+ It must then be acknowledged, and can be denied by none, that Christ did suffer a painful and shameful death, as we have formerly described it; that the death which he endured, he did then suffer for sin; for "this man (saith the apostle) offered one sacrifice for sins;" (Heb. x. 12.) that the sins for which he suffered were not his own, for "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust;" (1 Pet. iii. 18.) he was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," (Heb. vii. 26.) and therefore had no sins to suffer for; that the sins which he suffered for, were ours, for "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;" (Isa. liii. 5.) he "was delivered for our offences," (Rom. iv. 25.) he "gave himself for our sins," (Gal. i. 4.) he "died for our sins according to the Scriptures;" (1 Cor. xv. 3.) that the dying for our sins was suffering death as a punishment taken upon himself, to free us from the punishment due unto our sins; for God "laid on him the iniquity of us all," (Isa. liii. 6.) and "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin:" (2 Cor. v. 21.) “he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes are we healed;" (Isa. liii. 4, 5.) that by the suffering of this punishment to free us from the punishment due unto our sins, it cometh to pass that our sins are forgiven, for, "This is my blood (saith our Saviour) of the New

pardon and indulgence; we cannot argue from the word alone, that God in forgiving sins doth only and barely release the debt. There is therefore no force to be laid upon the words ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν, remissio peccatorum, or, as the ancient fathers, remissa peccatorum. So Tertullian: 'Diximus de remissa peccatorum.' adv. Marc. 1. iv. c. 18. St. Cyprian: Qui blasphemaverit in Spiritum Sanctum non habet remissam, sed reus est æterni peccati.' 1. iii. ep. 14. §. 1. al. ep. 10. Dominus baptizatur a servo, et remissam peccatoram daturus, ipse non dedignatur la.

vacro regenerationis corpus abluere.' Idem, de bon. Patient. §. 3. Of an infant: 'Qui ad remissam peccatorum recipiendam hoc ipso facilius accedit, quod illi remittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata.' Idem, 1. iii. ep. 8. §. 4. al. ep. 59. Add the interpreter of Irenæus concerning Christ: Remissam peccatorum exsistentem his qui credunt in eum.' Adv. Hæres. 1. iv. c. 27. §. 2.

* Χωρὶς αἱματεκχυσίας οὐ γίνεται ἄφεσις. + It is not only άφεσις, but ἀθέτησης ἁμαρτίας.