A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 25
XXV. Remission of Sins.
THE remission or forgiveness of sins is not, as generally supposed, an arbitrarious act of mercy, in consideration of any satisfaction or atonement made for man by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and of faith therein: neither are sins wiped or washed away, as filth is by water: for they remain with man, even after he has commenced the regenerate life, and can never be wholly extirpated. But the remission of sins, according to the true sense in which the expression is used in the Sacred Scriptures, means the gradual removal of evils by the Lord, after repentance of heart and life. The Lord indeed is ever disposed to remit the sins of all men, being in himself the purest and essential mercy: but they are not on that account removed from man, neither can they be, except by a life directed and influenced by the precepts of a right faith. So far as man lives according to such precepts, so far his sins are removed, and in the same degree they are remitted.
While man is undergoing the process of regeneration, and especially when he is regenerated, he is with-held from evils solely by the divine mercy and power of the Lord; and while he is thus preserved, and kept under the influence of heavenly goodness and a true faith, it appears as if he were without sins, and therefore as if they were wiped away. But he is still liable to a relapse into his former evils of life, and if left to himself even for a moment, would certainly relapse: from which it plainly appears, that his evils were not exterminated or abolished, but only kept in a state of subjection, and removed as it were out of his sight, so that he might be held in good, and thereby elevated to heaven by the Lord. This is what is properly meant by the remission or forgiveness of sins.
Let no one therefore imagine, that sins can be remitted or forgiven in a moment; or that the life of hell, which is evil, can in an instant be transcribed or changed into the life of heaven, which is good. The divine mercy and the divine power do not produce such instantaneous effects; but they operate on the human mind according to the eternal principles of divine order, which require, that the change of regeneration be carried on gently and gradually, in a way consistent with the state and capacity of man, and his own co-operation in the removal of such evils, as, out of the immense multitude within him, he may be made sensible of. These are the spiritual enemies, of whom it is written, "I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land," Exod. xxiii. 29, 3O. This gradual removal of evils, or remission of sins, is indeed a series of continued acts of mercy and power on the part of the Lord: but none can become the subjects of such mercy and power, or of such remission of sins, but they who acknowledge the Lord, and endeavour to live according to his commandments: on which account it is written in the Gospel, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John i. 12, 13.
The remission of sins, or, what is the same thing, the removal of evils, is discoverable in any person by the following signs. He perceives delight in the worship of the Lord for the sake of the Lord, and in serving his neighbour for the sake of his neighbour, and therefore in doing good for the sake of good, and in speaking truth for the sake of truth. He is averse to all ideas of merit arising from any consideration of his charity and faith: he avoids and abominates evils of every description, as enmity, hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, fraud, in a word, all things which tend to destroy love to the Lord, and love to his neighbour.
But the non-remission of sins, or, what is the same thing, the non-removal of evils, is discoverable in any person by the following signs. If he be a professor of religion, he worships God not for the sake of God, and serves his neighbour not for the sake of his neighbour; thus he does good, and speaks truth, not for their own sake, but from some selfish and worldly motive. In all his actions he wishes to aggrandize his own merits: he perceives no disgust or dissatisfaction, but on the contrary a pleasure and delight, in enmity, hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, fraud, &c.; and, under the pernicious influence of such evils, he indulges his imagination in all the licentiousness of thought about them. The change from this state of evil to that of heavenly good, is the process so often alluded to in the Sacred Scriptures, under the name of the new birth and the remission of sins.
