Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

    WE are now come to the second sort of petitions, that concern ourselves, as the former did more immediately concern God. Now you may observe the style in the prayer is altered. It was before, Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will; now it is, Give us, and Forgive us, &c. Before, our Lord had taught us to speak in a third person, Thy will be done;' and now in a second person, Give us this day:' which is not so to be understood as if we were not at all concerned in the former part of the Lord's Prayer. In those petitions, the benefit is not God's, but ours. When his name is sanctified, his kingdom cometh, and his will is done; these things do not only concern the glory of God, but also our benefit. It is our advantage when God is honoured by the coming of Christ's kingdom and the subjection of our hearts unto himself. But these latter petitions do more immediately concern us. Now, among these, in the first place, we pray for the necessary provisions of the present life. Some make a scruple why such a prayer should be put in the first place. Surely not to show the value of these things above pardon and grace; but this is the last of the supplications. The Lord's Prayer may be divided into supplications and deprecations. Among the supplications, there we prayed, first, for the glory of God; next, for the kingdom of God; next, for our subjection to that kingdom; and, in the last place, we pray for daily bread, or sustentation of the present life. But the other two are deprecations; and that either of evil already committed, and so we pray for pardon of sin, Forgive us our trespasses;' or deprecation of evil that is likely to be admitted, and so we pray against temptation, Lead us not into temptation:' so that this request is put into a fit order. First, we seek God's glory as the end; his kingdom as the primary means; our subjection to that kingdom as the next means; and last of all, our comfortable subsistence in the world as a remote subservient help, that we may be in a capacity to serve and glorify God.

    In this petition there is:--

    I. The thing asked, and that is bread, by which is meant all things necessary for the maintenance of this life.

    Now this is set forth:--

    1. By a note of propriety, our bread.

    2. By an adjunct of time, daily bread.

    II. The manner of asking, give; we ask it as a gift of God.

    III. The persons for whom we ask, Give us; as many as are supposed to be in a family together. Those that can call God Father by the Spirit, they may come with most confidence to God about daily supplies.

    IV. The renewing of our request, se'meron, this day:' there is very much in that; we ask but from morning till night: Give us this day our daily bread.'

    Before I come to explain these circumstances, let me observe in general:--

    Doct. 1. That it is the Lord which doth bestow upon us freely and graciously the good things of this life.

    It is bread we ask, and we ask it of God, and to God we say, Give.' All which circumstances do fully make out the point.

    This point again must be made good by parts:--

    1. That God giveth it.

    2. That he freely and graciously giveth it.

    First, I shall show you how God is interested in the common mercies we do enjoy; and how every one, high or low, rich or poor, full or in a mean condition, of what rank soever they be, even those that have the greatest store and plenty of worldly accommodations, they must come from morning to morning and deal with God for daily bread.

    Those common mercies which we do enjoy:--

    [1.] God gives us the possession of them, for he is the absolute Lord of all things both in heaven and in earth, and whatsoever is possessed by any creature, it is by his indulgence; for the primitive and original right was in him: Ps. xxiv. 1, The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.' It is all God's; we hold it in fee from him, for he is the great landlord who hath leased out all these blessings to the sons of men. The earth is first the Lord's, and then by a grant he hath given it to men to enjoy: Ps. cxv. 16, The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.' He hath given it to men partly by a general grant, and leave given to enjoy and occupy it as the place of our service. But that is not all; he doth not only give the earth in general to men, but he makes a particular allotment; the particular designation of every man's portion of what he shall enjoy in the world, it is of God. And so it is said, Acts xvii. 26, He hath determined the bounds of their habitation.' God hath not only appointed in general the earth to be the place of our service for a while, but he hath determined how much every one shall possess, what shall fall to his share. These things come not by chance, or by the gift of others, or by our own industry, but by the peculiar designation of God's providence. However they come to us, God must be owned in the possession; whether they come to us by donation, purchase, labour, or by inheritance, yet they are originally by God, who by these means bestoweth them upon us. If they come by donation, or the gift of others, the hearts of men are in God's hands, and he it was that disposed them to be bountiful to us, that appointed them to be instruments of his providence, to nourish us. He that sends a present, he is the giver, not the servant which brings it. So, though others be employed as instruments, it is the Lord which made them able and willing to do us good. If they come to us by inheritance, it is the providence of God that a man is born of rich friends and not of beggars: Prov. xxii. 2, The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all.' He that hath cast the world first into hills and valleys, it was he that disposed of men, some into a high, and some into a low condition. If they come to us by our own labour and purchase, still God gave it to us: Deut. viii. 14-18, Take heed that thine heart be not lilted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God; for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.' He doth not leave second causes to their own power and force, as if he were only an idle spectator in the world. No, he gives the skill and industry to manage affairs, and success upon lawful undertakings; the faculty and the use, it is all from God. Though a man hath never so many outward advantages, yet, unless the Lord concur with his blessing, all would be to no purpose.

    [2.] As God gives us the possession, so he gives us a right and title to them. There is a twofold right to these common blessings; a providential and a covenant right. Dominium politicum fundatur in providentia; Our civil right to things is founded upon God's providence:' but Dominium evangelicum fundatur in gratia; Our gospel right to things is founded upon God's grace.' (1.) He gives the providential right, and thus all wicked men possess outward things, and the plenty they enjoy is as the fruits and gifts of God's common bounty; it is their portion, he hath given it to them: Ps. xvii. 14, Which have their portion in this life,' whatever falleth to their share in a fair way, and in the course of God's providence; they are not usurpers merely for possessing, but for abusing, what they have. They have not only a civil right by the laws of men, to prevent the incroachment of others, but a providential right before God; and are not simply responsible for possession, but for their ill use and administration. (2.) There is a covenant right to these blessings: so only believers have a right to creature comforts by God's special love; and so, That little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked,' Ps. xxxvii. 16; as the mean fare of a poor subject is better than the large allowance of a condemned traitor. Every wicked man is a traitor to God, and hath only an allowance until he be destroyed. But that little which a man hath, seasoned with God's love, is better than all the mighty increase of wicked men. Now, this covenant right we have by Christ, who is heir of all things,' Heb. i. 2; Christ hath the original right to them, and we by him come to have a covenant right. So it is said, 1 Cor. iii. 23, Things present, and things to come, all are yours.' As things to come, the day of judgment is theirs; so things present are theirs by a new title from him. So it is said, 1 Tim. iv. 5, marriage, meats, and drinks, and all creatures, are made for them that believe. They that believe have only a gospel right to them. To draw it to the present thing, we do not only beg a possession of these things, but a right; not only a providential, but a covenant right, that we may enjoy them as the gifts of God's fatherly love and compassion to us, that we may take our bread out of Christ's hands, that we may look upon it as swimming to us in his blood, and all our mercies as wrapt up in his bowels; and then they will be sweet, and relish much better with a gracious soul, because he can not only taste the creature, but the love of God in the creature.

    [3.] He gives the continuance of our blessings, that we may keep what we have; for unless the Lord do daily support us, we cannot keep our comforts for one day. How soon can God blast them! It is at his pleasure to do what he will with you. He gave Satan power over Job's estate: chap. i. 12, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power.' Our life, it is continued to us by the indulgence of God, and by his providential influence and supportation. For as the beams of the sun are no longer continued in the air than the sun shineth, or, as the water retains the impress and stamp no longer than the seal is kept on it, so when God takes off his providential influence, all vanisheth into nothing. Thus he is said, Heb. i. 3, to uphold all things by the word of his power.' As a weighty thing is upheld in the hand of a man, when he looseneth his hand all falls to the ground; so it is said, Job xii. 10, In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.' God by his almighty grasp holdeth all things in his own hands, and if he should but let loose his hand, all would fall to nothing and disappear: Job vi. 9. For it is from the intimate support and influence of his providence that we have our lives. So our comforts, they are continued to us by God. Alas! in themselves they are poor fugacious things! Haman was to day high in honour, and to-morrow high upon the gallows. Riches make themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle towards heaven:' Prov. xxiii. 5. The Holy Ghost seems there to compare riches to a flock of birds, which pitcheth in a man's field to-night, but to-morrow they are gone. Who is the richer for a flock of wild fowls because they pitch in his field now? So all these outward things are so flying that they are soon gone by many accidents, unless he preserves them and continues our possession of them. For God he can give a charge and commission to the fire, to the fury of men, one way or other, to deprive us of these things: Behold, all he hath is in thy hands,' Job i. 12. When a man hath gotten abundance of worldly comforts about him, and seemeth to be intrenched and provided against all hazards, the man is taken away, and cannot enjoy what he had heaped together with a great deal of care and solicitude.

    [4.] We beg leave to use them. It is good manners in religion to ask God's leave in all things. It is robbery to make use of a man's goods, and to waste and consume them without his leave. We must ask God's leave upon this account, because, though God gives these good things to men, yet he still reserves the property in himself; for by distributing blessings to the creature, he never intended to divest himself of the right. As a husbandman, by scattering his corn in the field, did not dispossess himself, but still keeps a right and means to have the increase; so when the Lord scattereth his blessings, we only receive them as stewards, not as owners and proprietors: God still is the supreme Lord, and only hath the property and dominion. In life it is clear man is not dominus vitae, but custos; not lord of his life, but only the steward and guardian of it; he cannot live or die at his own pleasure: if a man kills himself he runs the danger of God's law. What is said of life is true also of his estate: he is not an owner so much as a steward; that is the notion of our possession: we are stewards, and must render an account to God.: Hos. ii. 9, I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax.' Though God hath communicated these things to the children of men, yet he hath reserved the dominion in his own hands: so Hag. ii. 8, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.' He never disposed anything so into the creature's hands, but still he hath reserved a right and interest in it; and therefore it is, Gen. xiv. 19. that the Lord is not only called the creator of heaven and earth, but possessor of heaven and earth.' He is not only the possessor, of heaven where he dwells, which he hath reserved to his own use, but he is possessor of earth, which he hath committed to the use of men. And God will have his right acknowledged from day to day.

    [5.] It is he that giveth us ability to use them: we beg that we may not only have the comforts, but life and strength to use them; for God can blast us in the very midst of our enjoyments. It is the case of many, when they have hunted after a worldly portion, and begin to think, now I will sit down and enjoy it; when the gain is come into his hands, and he thinks to waste [24] that which he hath got in hunting, death takes him away, and he hath not power to use them. Thus it was with the rich fool; when he began to sing lullabies to his soul, and enjoy what he had got, he is taken away by death: Luke xii. 29, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?' And it is said, Num. xi. 33, when those people had gotten quails, that while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people; and the Lord smote them with a very great plague.' And that nobleman which saw plenty in Samaria, but could not taste of it: 2 Kings vii. 19. So Job xxi. 23, One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet:' when he has gotten abundance of worldly comforts about him, death seizes on him of a sudden.

    [6.] God yet is further interested in these mercies, so as to give us a sanctified use of them, that we may take our bread out of God's hands with prayer and thanksgiving, and due acknowledgments of God. In 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5, Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.' Then are the creatures sanctified to us, when we enjoy God in them; when our hearts are raised to think of the donor, and can love him the more for every gift. Carnal men, like swine, raven upon the acorns, but look not up to the oak from whence they drop. In the Canticles, the spouse's eyes are compared to dove's eyes. They which make the allusion say this is the meaning: look, as a dove pecks, and looks upward; so upon every grain of mercy, we should look up to the God of mercies: it is not enough to taste the sweet of the creatures, but also to own God, his love and Bounty in them, so to have them sanctified to us. This is the privilege we have as men, that we can know the first cause, and who is the benefactor. All creatures subsist upon the first cause, but are not capable of knowing it. And this is our privilege as Christians, to have this capacity reduced into act. It is of the Lord's grace to give us a sanctified use of these things.

    [7.] We beg of God the natural blessing upon the holy use of out ward comforts, so as they may continue us in health and vigour for the service of God; for nothing will prosper with us but by his blessing: Ps. cvi. 15, He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls;' that is, they had no natural comfort by that which they had obtained. God may give a man meat, yet not an appetite; he may not give him the comfortable use of it, a blessing with it. And therefore the apostle makes it to be an argument of God's bounty to the heathen, that as he gave them food, so he gave them gladness of heart: Acts xiv. 17, He gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness;' that is, gave them a comfortable use, a blessing upon the use of outward things. And Lev. xxvi., you will find a distinction between bread,' and the staff of bread.' We may have bread, yet not the staff of bread. Many have worldly comforts, but not with a natural blessing: Eccles. iii. 13, That every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour; it is the gift of God:' not only that he should have increase by his labour, but enjoy good; to have the comfortable use of that increase.

    [8.] Contentation is one of God's blessings that we ask in this prayer, Give us this day our daily bread;' that is, such provisions as are necessary for us, contentment and quiet of mind in the enjoyment: Joel ii. 19, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith.' It is not only a blessing we should look after, but contentment, that our minds may be suited to our condition, for then the creature is more sweet and comfortable to us. The happiness of man doth not lie in his abundance, but in the suitableness of his mind to his estate: Luke xii. 15, A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth.' There is a twofold war within a man, both which must be taken up before a man can have comfort; there is a war between a man and his conscience, and this breeds trouble of mind; and there is a war between his affections and his condition, and this breeds murmuring and envious repining. Say, Yea, Lord, and let us be contented with thy gift. This for the first thing, how God is concerned in these outward comforts.

    Secondly, That the Lord doth freely and graciously give these good things to us, that is, merely out of his bounty and goodness. It is not from his strict remunerative justice, but out of his grace. The very air we breathe in, the bread we eat, our common blessings, be they never so mean, we have them all from grace, and all from the tender mercy of the Lord. Ps. cxxxvi. 25, you have there the story of the notable effects of God's mercy, and he concludes it thus: Who giveth food to all flesh; for his mercy endureth for ever.' Mark, the psalmist doth not only ascribe those mighty victories, those glorious instances of his love and power, to his unchangeable mercy, but our daily bread. In eminent deliverances of the church we will acknowledge mercy; yea, but we should do it in every bit of meat we eat, for the same reason is rendered all along. What is the reason his people smote Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan, and rescued his people so often out of danger? Tor his mercy endureth for ever.' And what is the reason he giveth food to all flesh?' For his mercy endureth for ever.' It is not only mercy which gives us Christ, and salvation by Christ, and all those glorious deliverances and triumphs over the enemies of the church; but it is mercy which furnisheth our tables, it is mercy that we taste with our mouths and wear at our backs. It is notable, our Lord Jesus, when there were but five barley loaves and two fishes, John vi. 11, He lift up his eyes and gave thanks.' Though our provision be never so homely and slender, yet God's grace and mercy must be acknowledged.

    But to evidence this by some considerations that certainly it is of the mercy of the Lord that he giveth bread to the creature: God giveth these mercies--

    1. To those that cannot return any service to him.

    2. To those that will not return any service to him.

    3. When we are at our best we cannot deserve them.

    4. We deserve the quite contrary.

    [1.] He giveth these mercies to those that cannot return any service to him; the beasts, and fowls of the air, the young ravens: Ps. cxlv. 16, Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.' What can the beasts, or fishes, or fowls of the air deserve at God's hand? What honour and service can they bring to him? Only they have a bountiful Creator, from whom they receive their allowance.

    So as to infants. Alas! what can they deserve at his hand? When God rocks their cradles, and nourisheth them from the dug, what service can they do to God? Isa. xlvi. 3, 4, By me,' saith the Lord, you are borne from the belly, and carried from the womb; and even to your old age, I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you.' Mark, not only in old age, when we have done God service, doth he maintain us; but from the womb, the belly, before we could do any thing for him, we were tenderly handled by him. He alludeth to parents and nurses, which carry their younglings in their arms. In infancy we are not in a capacity to know the God of our mercies, and look after him; yet he looked after us then, when we could not perform one act of love and kindness to him. The psalmist takes notice of this: Ps. xxii. 9, 10, Thou art he that took me out of the womb; thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother's belly.' Christians, before ever you could do anything for him or yourselves, before you could improve his mercy, when you could not know who was your benefactor, who it was that nourished and cherished you, yet then God rocked your cradles, kept you from many dangers, nursed you, and brought you up, and carried you in the tender arms of his providence.

    [2.] God gives these mercies to those that will not serve him when they can: Isa. i. 2, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.' There are many in the world whom God protects, supplies, and provides them of all necessaries, yet they return nothing but disobedience, contempt, rebellion, and unthankfulness. The sun doth not shine by chance, but at God's disposal: Mat. v. 45, He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' Most of those which are fed at God's table, and maintained at his expense and care, they are his enemies; and many times the more men receive from him the worse they are. Look, as beasts towards man, when they are in good plight they grow fierce, and are ready to destroy those which nourish them, so, when we are plentifully supplied, we kick with the heel, wax wanton, and forgetful of God. Or as a froward child scratcheth the breast which suckles it, so we rebel against God that nourished us, and brought us up, and dishonour our heavenly Father that provides these blessings for us. Parisiensis hath a saying, They which hold the greatest farms many times pay the least rent.' So the great ones of the world, they which have most of God's bounty, give him the least acknowledgment.

    [3.] When we do our best we cannot deserve these mercies, or merit aught at God's hands; for all we do is already due to God, as we are his creatures, and the paying new debts will not quit old scores. The question is propounded: Job xxii. 2, Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?' See the answer: chap. xxxv. 7, If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?' And wherein is God profited if a man's ways be perfect? And, therefore, whatever God doth for creatures, he doth it freely, because he cannot be obliged by any act of ours and pre-engaged. Thus Adam in innocency could not obtain the blessing but by virtue of the covenant, nor merit aught at God's hands, that is, put any obligation upon God; and, therefore, certainly now we cannot. And partly, too, because whatever we do, it will not carry a proportion with these common mercies. We are proud creatures, and think of a condignity of works, and to merit from heaven these mercies. But, alas! there is no comparison; and if God would deal with us upon merit and strict commutative justice, we cannot give him a valuable compensation for temporal mercies: Gen. xxxii. 10, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies which thou hast showed unto thy servant.' Though none of God's mercies can simply be said to be little, for whatsoever comes from a great God should be great in our value and esteem, as a small remembrance from a great person is much prized; therefore no mercy is simply little, but comparatively. Now the least mercies some have, and others the greatest temporal things. When we are put into the balance, we and all our worth and deservings cannot counterpoise the least mercy, or merit the daily bread we have from God. And then the little good we do, it is merely by the grace that we have received. If one man differs from another, who made him differ? It is but a new gift, he is the more indebted to God.

    [4.] We deserve the contrary. We have forfeited our lives, and all our comforts; we have put ourselves out of God's protection by sin. Death waylaid us when we were in our mother's womb; and as soon as we were born there was a sentence in force against us: Rom. v. 12, Death came upon all, for that all have sinned.' And still we continue the forfeiture. We provoke God to cut us off. It is a kind of pardoning mercy by which we subsist every moment. This is sensible in case of sickness, when our lives and comforts slide from us, when there is but a step between us and death, when the old covenant comes to be put in suit, and God seems to be executing the sentence of the law. And that is the reason why the temporal deliverance of the wicked and impenitent is called a remission: as Ps. lxxviii. 38, But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not.' And Mat. xviii. 26, 27, 28, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and forgave him the debt.' Why is it called a remission? Improperly, because it was a reprieve from the temporal judgment for a time; it was not an executing the sentence which was in force against us; and it was not from anything in the sinner, but from God's pity over his creatures. And a godly man, every time his life and comforts are in danger, hath a pardon renewed at that time: Isa. xxxviii. 17, Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.' They are loved out of danger, and loved out of sickness; the pardoning mercy of God is indeed renewed to them.

    APPLICATION.

    Use 1. For information, in two branches:

    First, That God will give his people temporal things. Not only pardon, and grace, and glory; but no good thing will he withhold:' Ps. lxxxi. 11. Many say they can trust God for eternal life, but can not trust him for daily bread. This is an utter mistake. Certainly it is far more easy to trust God for daily bread than for eternal life; because there are more difficulties, more natural prejudices, against these greater mercies of pardon and eternal life, than there can be against the daily effects of God's bounty. It is a harder matter to work through our natural prejudices, which lie against eternal life, than to work through that distrust which lies against God's care over us and provision for us. Why? For God's common bounty it reacheth to all his creatures, even to the smallest worm; his mercy is over all his works. And surely it is more easy to believe his common bounty than his special love, which runs in a distinct channel to such a sort of men.

    But because many have too weak a faith about temporal things, let us consider how willing God is to distribute and give out these supplies. Several things I might mention.

    1. God's respect to the bodies of his people is a mighty ground and encouragement. God is in covenant with the body as well as the soul. Jesus Christ proves the resurrection from thence, that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:' Mat. xxii. 32. This argument can never be made good, but upon the supposition that God is in covenant with Abraham's body, with the whole believer; and therefore the mark of circumcision was in their flesh, as the water of baptism is sprinkled upon our bodies. Well, then, if the bodies of the saints be in covenant with God, certainly some of the promises of the covenant do concern the body and sustentation of the present life. But that is not all, but Jesus Christ hath purchased both body and soul: 1 Cor. vi. 20, Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' Not only the soul is Christ's, but the body.

    You will say, That is ground of service; but what! can it be inferred that therefore God will provide for us? It is not only a ground of our service, but of Christ's care of us. If Christ had only purchased our service, yet it were a ground of hope. If you expect work and service from a body, you will give maintenance to that body. But Christ's purchase implieth his care over that he hath purchased; for the interest God hath in us in redemption is a gracious interest, God had an interest in us before we were redeemed; we could not make void his right by any rebellion of ours. But then God hath such an interest in us as engaged and solicited him to destroy us. Look, as a prince hath an interest in his subjects, if they rebel and revolt from their obedience, they cannot disannul his right, but it is such a right as binds him to pursue and chastise them until they return to their duty, so God hath a right to the fallen creature, but it was such a right as solicited vengeance. But the right Christ purchased was a gracious right, that God might protect and preserve us. Well, then, if Christ purchased body and soul, he hath obtained, not only that God should be gracious to our souls, but gracious to our bodies; then the argument runs clearly for confirming the faith of the saints in expectation of temporal benefits.

    2. God hath given us greater things, therefore he will not stand upon the less; when a man hath been at great cost, he will not lose it. The Lord hath given us his Christ: Rom. viii. 32, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' Can any man be so illogical, so ill-skilled in consequences, as not to conclude from thence, if God give us Christ, with him he will give us all things? So Mat. vi. 33, Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added to you.'

    3. These things are dispensed to inferior, yea, to the worst of his creatures: Ps. cxlvii. 9, He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.' Will God maintain the beasts of the field, and will he not maintain his children? It is monstrous and unnatural to think thus, that God will not support you, and bear you out in your work. This is Christ's own argument: Mat. vi. 34, Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Daily bread is in your Father's power, and he gives it graciously to all his creatures, and therefore certainly he will give it to you. Thus you may see with what confidence you may expect daily supplies.

    Secondly, It informs us that we may ask temporal things, if we ask them lawfully. It is true, prayers to God for spiritual things are more acceptable. As your child pleaseth you better when it comes to you to be taught its book, rather than when it comes for an apple, so it is more pleasing to God when you come for the Mediator's blessing and spiritual things: Acts iii. 26, God hath sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.' But yet we may ask other things. Why? For they are good and useful to us in the course of our service, and without them we are exposed to many temptations. And prayer easeth you of a deal of carking about them: Phil. iv. 6, Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.' We may ask them, but it must be lawfully; and that, for order, not in the first place. That is howling, when we come to God merely for corn, wine, and oil; when we prefer these things before his favour and the graces of his Spirit. Then it must be lawful, too, as to the manner: a moderate proportion, not to set God a task to maintain you at such a rate, but to ask a moderate allowance. Christ teacheth us here to pray for bread, which is a necessary allowance: Prov. xxx. 8, Feed me with food convenient for me.' And, 1 Tim. vi. 8, If we have food and raiment, let us therewith be content.' And then ask them with humility and submission to the will of God. We ought to say, as in James iv. 15, If the Lord will, we will go to such a place, and get gain.' And then lawfully, too, as to the end; not for an unlawful end, for. ostentation and not, that we may live at large and at ease: James iv. 3, Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.' But we must ask it for a good end: Ps. cxv. 1, Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.' Lord, not for our ease, or our plenty, but that thy name may be glorified, that we may be supported in service. And then again, law fully as to the plea. We must not come and challenge it, as if it were our due; we must not use the plea of merit, but of mercy. Our Saviour doth not say, Let this bread come to us anyhow, as he saith, Let thy will be done;' our subjection to God is due; but, Give us this day our daily bread,' acknowledging the Lord's mercy.

    Use 2. Let us not place our confidence in second causes, but in God, by whose goodness and providence over us all temporal things do come unto us; for without him all our carking and labour is nothing; and if we have our wishes without labour, yet we shall not have our comfort and blessing without God: Mat. vi. 27. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature?' By taking thought, he meaneth anxious care about success. We cannot change the colour of a hair by all our anxious thoughts. We cannot make ourselves stronger or taller. Many a man is pierced through with worldly cares, and still the world frowns upon him, so all his care comes to nothing. Prov. x. 4, it is said, The hand of the diligent maketh rich.' Compare it with ver. 22, and it is said, The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.' Most commonly they that are diligent they thrive with their diligence; yea, but if that be all, if they have not the Lord's blessing, they have not that sweetness and peace when they have gotten abundance. Oh, therefore, let us place our confidence, not in second causes, but in God.

    Use 3. Let us be thankful to God for these worldly things that we enjoy. I urge this:--

    First, Because of the danger of ingratitude. Usually we never forget God more than when he remembereth us most. When men have what they would have, then God is neglected; they grow careless in prayer, or flat and cold in the performance of it. There is a great deal of difference between men poor and rich. When poor, they will seem to put a natural fervency into their prayers; but when rich, they grow cold and careless. Mark what the Lord saith, Hos. xiii. 6, They were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.' Oh, how frequent is this, that many having been kept under a great sense of God in a low condition, but when they have been well at ease, then they bear it up as if they could live without God. The bucket comes to the river with an empty mouth, gaping to receive its fulness, as it were; but when it is full, the bottom is turned towards it. So it is very usual with men to turn their backs upon the mercy-seat, and when the Lord hath given them great in crease in worldly things, and leased out a great estate to them, he hath very little rent from them. Now, because this is usual, therefore those whom God hath blessed with the supplies of the present life, how should they study thankfulness!

    Secondly, Because of the equity of it. Consider what an equity there is, that we should be thankful for outward blessings.

    1. They are good in themselves.

    2. They come from God.

    3. They come from the Lord's grace and mercy.

    [1.] They are good in themselves. Food and raiment is good, and every creature of God is good,' 1 Tim. iv. 4. They are good things, though not the best things. They are good for ourselves, that we may serve God more cheerfully. The Lord would have the Levites and priests have their portion, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord: 2 Chron. xxxi. 4. Now these things are good to encourage us, and support us in our work. Man consists of two parts, of a body and of a soul. Now whether we look to the one or the other, you will have many arguments to love and praise God, not only for what he hath done for our souls, but likewise for our bodies. And they are good, because they prevent many snares and temptations: Prov. xxx. 9, Lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.' Diseases which arise from fulness are more common; but diseases which arise from indigence and emptiness, they are more dangerous. So diseases of prosperity they are more common, it is a rank soil and yields more weeds; but diseases which arise from poverty breed atheism, irreligion, and rebellion against God. They are good, as they make us more useful for God and man. For God, as having more advantages for the honouring of God: Prov. iii. 9, Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase.' And of doing good to others: That we may have to distribute to them that need,' Eph. iv. 28. Oh, we should all covet and affect mightily, to have wherewith to relieve the necessities of others.

    [2.] As they are blessings, so they are blessings which do not come by chance, or by man's providence: 1 Tim. vi. 17, The living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.' The people of God are plentifully provided for. Your tables are well furnished, backs well clothed; it is God which gives you richly to enjoy them, and he must be acknowledged. As David doth: 1 Chron. xxix. 14, For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.' Then, ver. 16, O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name, cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own.' Though you yourselves have been purchasers of your own estate, and carvers of your own fortune (as man is most apt to forget God there), yea, but though you have prepared and brought together a great deal of store, yet, Lord, all comes from thee. It sweeteneth the mercy. When you are at the table, to be carved to by a great person, their remembrance is counted a greater favour than the meal itself. So it is not barely the comfort we have by the creature which sweeteneth it, but when we think of the donor, that the great God should think of us, that it is God who spreads our table for us, that doth put this meat and drink before us. It was he that gave seed to the sower, and bread for food.' 2 Cor. ix. 10. When we take it immediately out of God's hands, it is much sweeter. And not only so, but also it is the more sanctified. When we look to second causes, we shall surely abuse the mercy: Hosea ii. 8, For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold.' What then?' Therefore she prepared it for Baal.' When God's kindness is not taken notice of, when we do not see God in our mercies, we shall not use them for God. That man will surely improve his comforts ill that doth not see God in them. Now that which comes from God leads the heart to God again, then the creature is sanctified. Therefore acknowledge God in these outward things. We should say of every morsel of bread, This is God's gift to me; of every night's sleep, This is the Lord's goodness. When God is acknowledged in these outward things, he takes it the more kindly, and we are the better for it; the mercy is the sweeter and the more sanctified.

    [3.] They not only come from God, but from the Lord's free grace and mercy. These are two distinct notions, by which God's goodness is set out, and they are both significant and expressive in the present case: Grace, that doth all freely; mercy, that pitieth the miserable.

    (1.) Then we have them from grace. Grace is at liberty to give them to whom it will. Well, there is grace in these outward things; for God gives them to whom he will; to some, not to others. Oh, when we consider the distinction between us and others every one hath not such liberal supplies, nay, many of those of whom the world is not worthy--surely this is merely the Lord's goodness. Prov. xxii. 2, The rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.' They had the same maker that you had (others which are destitute), therefore why is it you have more than they? It is merely from grace. Why is one vessel framed for an honourable use, and another for a baser use? So it pleased the potter. God, as the great master of the scenes, appointeth to every man what part he shall act, merely out of his own grace; he is bound to none. It was a good speech of Tamerlane, the great conqueror of the East, to Bajazet: What did God see in thee, that are blind in one eye, and me, that am lame of one leg, that he should make us, passing by many others, the lords of so many opulent and mighty kingdoms? A savoury speech from an infidel! What did God see in any of us, to exalt, cherish, and supply us, and let pass many others, who, for moral excellencies and virtuous endowments, do far exceed us? When we consider this distinction, then, Even so, Father, because it pleased thee There is a kind of election and reprobation in these common mercies; that is God will dispense them to one and not to another; he will be glorified in their poverty and glorified in thy wealth; and therefore there is grace in it.

    (2.) There is a mercy in it, that pitieth the miserable. How doth it appear these good things come from mercy? Because of our want and because of our forfeiture.

    (1st.) Our want and our indigence. Oh, when we think what shiftless creatures we should have been if he had not provided for us Ps xl. 17, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.' If we were but sensible of our own weakness, and emptiness, and manifold necessities we would admire that God should think of us, such forlorn and wretched creatures; or that our baseness and poverty doth not make us contemptible to God: Ps. xxxiv. 6, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.' He doth not say, This wise man, this eminent saint, but this poor man. This was the doctrine of the Gentiles--That the divine power did only care for the great and weighty concernments of the world, but other things he left to their own event and to their own chance; as if God, in the great throng of business, were not at leisure to attend every private mans request. These were the fond surmises the Gentiles had of God; but we are taught better. This poor man cried unto the Lord and he heard him.' Poor men in the world, when they have anything to do with great persons, they must look long, wait, pray, and pay to seek their face and favour, and at length meet with a rough answer and sour look. But God will not shut the door; the throne of grace lies open for every comer. You will say, this would sweeten mercies to the poor. Nay, it concerns not only those that are actually poor but the great ones of the world (for they are poor and shiftless in themselves if God did not provide for them); others are but glasses where they might see their own misery. If they did well weigh the wants and necessities of others, they might see what would have been their own case if the Lord had not been merciful unto them. As Austin when he saw a beggar frisking and leaping after his belly was filled,' the spectacle wrought much upon him that he had not such rejoicing in God, who tasted so much of his abundance. Saith Chrysostom If you are not thankful for health, go to the spittals and lazar-houses and see what might have been your own case. Thus if you are not thankful for abundance, go to the families where there are children that want bread. It is the Lord's mercy to the richest, for they were miserable and indigent. It is a great mercy to relieve those from hand to mouth; but you that have abundance, it is a double mercy to you, for he prevents the necessity before it was felt. As Ps. xxi. 3, Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.' David takes notice of the goodness of God to him. Before the need is felt and observed, you are stored; and this should be a great endearment of the Lord's mercy to you.

    (2d.) It is mercy, if we consider not only our want, but our forfeiture. It is not only mercy, but pardoning mercy; at least a reprieving from trouble, for we deserved the contrary. There is a kind of temporary pardon, which continueth all these blessings. It is as great a curse as possibly David could thunder out against obstinate sinners and God's implacable enemies: Ps. xxviii. 4, Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours.' Do we think this would be matter of mischief only to David's enemies? No; every one of us, if we had our deserts, we should soon be shift less, harbourless, begging from door to door, yea, howling for one drop of mercy to cool our tongues. Oh, then, surely the Lord is to be praised and acknowledged in bestowing the good things of this present life. Well, then--

    As these blessings come from God, let them carry up your heart to God again. As all rivers they run from the sea, and they discharge themselves into the sea again, so let all be returned to God with thankfulness, with acknowledgments that you have received them from God. I shall urge it with one example: Jesus Christ, though he were heir, Lord of all things, Who thought it no robbery to be equal with God,' yet you find him ever giving thanks when he used the creatures: Mat. xv. 36. And it is the main thing John taketh notice of, and passeth by the miracle: John vi. 23, Where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks.' Nigh to Tiberias, there was the place where our Lord fed many with five loaves and two fishes; but he only saith this, Where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks.' He saw this was a notable circum stance, so he doth but cursorily mention the miracle, only calls it eating bread, but expressly mentioneth Christ's blessing the creature. He would teach us that the blessing of all enjoyments is in God's hand.

    Use 4. If the Lord be the donor and giver of all these outward things, let us beware we do not abuse these gifts of God, as occasions of sinning against the giver, that we fight not against him with his own weapons. Jesus Christ, speaking to his own disciples, though they were trained up with him, a company chosen out, and select family, who were to be his heralds and ambassadors to the world, yet he gives them this caution: Luke xxi. 34, Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.' He saw it needful to warn his own disciples. We had two common parents, Adam and Noah, and one miscarried by eating, and the other by drinking; these sins are natural to us. The throat is a slippery place, and had need well be looked unto. Mark, Christ there doth not mean surfeiting and drunkenness merely in a gross notion. When we hear of surfeiting and drunkenness, we think of spuing, staggering, reeling, vomiting, and the like; but we are to consider it in a stricter notion: Take heed lest the heart be overcharged.' The heart may be overcharged when the stomach is not; that is, when we are less apt to praise God, grow more lumpish and heavy, or rather when we settle into a sensual frame of spirit, and by an inordinate delight in our present portion, are taken off from minding better things. Look, as the heart is overcharged with the cares of the world, so likewise with creature delights and comforts of this world, when it is set for ease and vanity. Many that would be leathers of the other drunkenness, yet are guilty of this kind of surfeiting and drunkenness; the heart is overcharged with an inordinate affection to present things. There cannot be a more heavy judgment than when our table is made our snare: Ps. lxix. 22. A snare, it is God's spiritual judgment; when the comforts of this life serve not so much to lengthen and strengthen life, but when their hearts are hardened in sin, and they grow neglectful of God and heavenly things. Raining snares is an argument of God's hatred. First, The Lord shall rain snares;' and then, Brim stone and an horrible tempest shall be their portion.' Ps. xi. 6. So it makes way for his eternal anger.

    Use 5. Let us be contented with that portion which God hath given us of worldly things, if the Lord be the donor. Why?

    1. Because God stands upon his sovereignty; you must stand to God's allowance, though he gives to others more and to you less; for God is supreme, and will not be controlled in the disposal of what is his own. The goodman of the house pleaded, Mat. xx. 13-15, Friend, I do thee no wrong; is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?' The fulness of the earth and all is his; and, therefore, though others have better trading, and finer apparel, and be more amply provided for than we are, God is sovereign, and will give according to his pleasure, and you must be content.

    2. Nothing is deserved, and therefore certainly everything should be kindly taken. If a man be kept at free cost, and maintained at your expense, you take it very ill if he murmur and dislike his diet. Certainly we are all maintained at free cost, and, therefore, we should with all humble contentation receive whatever God will put into our hands.

    3. God knows what proportion is best for us; he is a God of judgment, and knows what is most convenient for us, for he is a wise God. It is the shepherd must choose the pasture, not the sheep. Leave it to God to give you that which is convenient and suitable to your condition of life. A shoe may be too big for the foot, and a garment too great for the body, as Saul's armour was too large for little David: 1 Sam. xvii. God will give you that which is convenient, that which is agreeable to you. A garment, when too long, proves a dirty rag; we may have too much; and therefore God he carves out our allowance with a wise hand.

    4. God doth not only give suitable to your condition, but suitable to your strength, such a portion as you are able to bear. God layeth affliction upon his people, and he gives them mercies as they are able to bear; if they had more, they would have more snares, more temptations. You find it hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven: Mat. xix. 24. A man may take a larger draught than he is able to bear; so God proportioneth every man's condition according to his spiritual strength; every man is not able to bear a very high prosperous estate: Heb. xiii. 5, Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;' then you will live upon the promise. But when men set God a task, and he must maintain them at such a rate, that ends in mischief and distrust: Ps. lxxviii. 19, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?' &c.

    5. Contentation is one of God's gifts that we ask in this prayer, Give us this day our daily bread;' that is, we ask to be contented with our portion. Contentment and quietness of mind with what we do enjoy, it is a great blessing: Joel ii. 19. See what the Lord saith. there by his prophet: I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith.' The bare and simple blessing doth not speak so much of God's love as when we are satisfied, when we have contentment in it; that is the greater blessing. When our minds are suited to our condition, then the creature is more sweet, more comfort able. Your happiness lies not in abundance, but in contentment: Luke xii. 15. This doth not make a man happy, that he hath much; but this, that he is contented; he hath what God will give him. All spiritual miseries may be referred to these two things: a war between a man and his conscience, and a war between his affections and his condition.

    6. There may be as much love in a lesser portion as in a greater. There is the same affection to a small younger child, though he hath not so large an allowance as the elder brother; yet, saith he, My father loves me as well as him; not that I have a double portion, but I have as much of my father's love. So a child of God may say, God loves me, though he hath given another more and me less. Be content with what falls to your share, and with your allowance by the wise designation and allotment of God's providence. Thus much for the first point.

    A word of a second, viz.:--

    Doct. 2. In asking temporal things, Christ hath stinted us to a day, Give us, se'meron, this day, our daily bread.'

    God in an extraordinary manner fed his people in the wilderness; the manna stank if they had kept it another day; they had it from day to day. What is the reason Christ saith, Give us this day'?

    1. That every day we may pray to God. Therefore it is not, Give us this month, or year, but day; because every day God will hear from us: 1 Thes. v. 17, Pray without ceasing.' God would not have us too long out of his company, but by a frequent commerce he would have us acquainted and familiar with him. This is required, that you should not let a day pass over your head but God must hear from you, for your patent lasts but for a day; you have a lease from God of your comforts and mercies, but it is expired unless you renew it again by prayer. How much do they differ from the heart of God's children, that could be contented, like the high priest of old, to come to the mercy-seat but once a year! Now the Lord would have us come every day to the throne of grace.

    2. Every day, because there should be family prayer; for all that take their meat together are to come, and say to God, Give us this day our daily bread.' It is not said, Give me,' but Give us.' Therefore you see how little of love and fear of God is there, where, week after week, they call not upon God's name.

    3. To make way for our gratitude and thankfulness. Our mercies, they flow not from God all at once, but some to-day, and some to morrow, for we take them day by day; all together, they are too heavy for us to wield and manage: Ps. lxviii. 19, Who daily loadeth us with benefits.' Our mercies, they come in greater number and a greater measure than we are able to acknowledge, make use of, or be thankful for. Therefore, this is the burden of gracious hearts, that mercies come so thick and fast they cannot be thankful enough for them; but to help us, God distributes them by parcels. Who loadeth us daily, some to-day, some to-morrow, and every day, that we may not forget God, but may have a new argument to praise him.

    4. To show us every day we should renew our dependence upon God for temporal things. There is no day but we stand in need of the Lord's blessing, of sanctification, of comfort, that they may not be a snare, that there is still need of new strength, new grace, and new supplies.

    5. Again, Give us this day,' that we may not burden ourselves with overmuch thoughtfulness, that we might not solicitously cark for to-morrow: Mat. vi. 34, Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Every day affords business, trouble, care, and burden enough; we need not anticipate and pre-occupy the cares of the next day; God would not have us overborne with solicitude, but look no further than this day.

    6. Christ would teach us that worldly things should be sought in a moderate proportion; if we have sufficient for a day, for the present want, we should not grasp at too much. Ships lightly laden will pass through the sea, but when we take too great a burden, the ship will easily sink with every storm. We have sore troubles to pass through in the world; now when we are overburdened with present things we have more snares and temptations.

    7. Christ would train us up with thoughts of our lives' uncertainty: James iv. 13, Say not, This and this I will do to-day or to-morrow: What is your life? it is but a vapour.' One being invited to dinner the next day, said, For these many years I have not had a to-morrow; meaning he was providing every day for his last day. We do not know whether we have another day, but are apt to sing lullabies to our souls, and say, Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years,' Luke xii. 19. We are sottishly secure, and dream of many years, whereas God tells us only of to-day.

    8. To awaken us after heavenly things. When we seek bread for the present life, then give us this day;' but now come to me, saith Christ, and I will give you bread that shall nourish you to eternal life,' bread that endureth for ever: John vi. 27, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto ever lasting life.' There is meat that will endure for ever, but for the present we beg only for this day: 1 Pet. i. 4, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.' That is an eternal state, this but of a short and of a small continuance. You see what need you have to go to God, that he will most plentifully provide for you.

    [24] Qu. "taste?"--ED.

    WE have now done with the supplications of this prayer, and are come to the deprecations. The supplications are those petitions which we make to God for obtaining of that which is good. The deprecations are those petitions we make to God for removing of that which is evil. Now of this latter sort there are two:--(1.) We pray for the remission of evil that is already committed; (2.) We pray for the prevention of the evil which may be inflicted. The first of these is the petition we have now in hand. Here,

    1. The petition is proposed, Forgive us our debts.'

    2. It is confirmed by an argument, As we forgive our debtors.' In the first, take notice:--

    I. Of the object, or matter of this petition, and that is, debts.

    II. The subject or persons praying, us.

    III. The person to whom we pray, our heavenly Father, who alone can forgive our sins.

    IV. The act of God about this object, forgive.

    Then the petition is confirmed by an argument, which is taken from our forgiving of others.

    In which there is an argument.

    1. A simili, from a like disposition in us. Thus, what is good in us was first in God, for he is the pattern of all perfection. If we have such a disposition planted in our hearts, and if it be a virtue in us, surely the same disposition is in God, for the first being wanteth no perfection.

    2. The argument may be taken `a dispari, or `a minori ad majus, from the less to the greater. If we, that have but a drop of mercy, can forgive the offences done to us, surely the infinite God, that is mercy itself, he hath more bowels and more pity: For his ways are above our ways, as high as the heaven is above the earth.' Isa. lv. 9. So it seems the argument is propounded: Luke xi. 4, Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.'

    3. The argument may be taken from the condition or the qualification of those that are to expect pardon. They are such that, out of a sense of God's mercy to them, and the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, are inclined and disposed to show mercy to others. So Christ explains it, ver. 14, making it a condition or qualification on our part: If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.' But this will be more abundantly clear when I come to examine that clause.

    Before we come to the petition itself, the connexion is to be considered, for the particle and links it to the former petition. After Hallowed be thy name,' he doth not say, And thy kingdom come;' they are propounded as distinct sentences: but, Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,' for three reasons:--

    [1.] Without pardon all the good things of this life will do us no good. They are but as a full diet, or as a rich suit, to a condemned person; they will not comfort him and allay his present fears. Until we are pardoned, we are under a sentence, ready for execution and therefore we cannot have that comfort in outward things until we have some interest in God's fatherly mercy. A man that is condemned hath the king's allowance until execution. So it is the indulgence of God to a wicked man to give him many outward things, though he is condemned already. We should not satisfy ourselves with daily bread without a sense of some interest in pardoning mercy.

    [2.] To show us our unworthiness. Our sins are so many and grievous that we are not worthy of one morsel of bread to put in our mouths. When we say, Give us this day,' &c. , we need presently to say, Forgive us our sins.' There is a forfeiture even of these common blessings: Gen. xxxii. 10, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant.' All that we have we have from mercy, and it is mercy undeserved. As we are creatures, there can be no common right between God and us to engage him to give temporal blessings, for we owe ourselves wholly to him, as being created out of nothing. Children cannot oblige their parents. But much more, as we are guilty creatures, it is merely of the mercy of the Lord.

    [3.] These are joined together because sin is the great obstacle and hindrance of all the blessings which we expect from God: Jer. v. 25, Your sins have withheld good things from you.' When mercy comes to us, sin stands in the way and turns it back again, so that it cannot have so clear a passage to us. Therefore God must forgive before he can give, that is, bestow these outward things as a blessing on us.

    Having spoken of this connexion, let me observe something from the petition itself.

    The first thing I shall observe is the notion by which sin is set out, Forgive us our debts.' The point is:--

    Doct. 1. That sins come under the notion of debts.

    In Luke xi. 4, it is, Forgive us our sins.' There is a twofold debt which man oweth to God.

    1. A debt of duty.

    2. A debt of punishment.

    [1.] A debt of duty, worship, and obedience; this is a debt we owe to God. In this sense it is said, Rom. viii. 12, We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.' In which negative the affirmative is clearly implied, that we are debtors to God, to live to God; debtors to the Spirit, to live after the Spirit. By the law of creation, we were not appointed to serve and please the flesh, but to serve God: Luke xvii. 10, When you have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our debt or duty to do.' Obedience, worship, and service, is a debt we owe to God, by virtue of that interest which he hath in us, and command he hath over us. And so you have that speech, Gal. v. 3, that we are debtors to the whole law, as we come under the obedience of it.

    [2.] A debt of punishment, which we are fallen into through the neglect of our duty. Punishment is due to us as wages: Rom. vi. 23, The wages of sin is death.' God hath, as it were, made a contract with us, that if we will sin we must take our wages; we must take what it comes to.

    Now in this petition, when we say, Forgive us our debts,' we do not desire to be discharged of the duty we owe to God, but to be acquitted of the guilt and punishment. The faults or sins that we are guilty of oblige us and bind us to the punishment; and therefore sins are called debts. The original debt we owe is obedience; and in case of default, the next debt we owe is punishment. Look, as in a contract and bond, if the party observe not the condition, then he is liable to the forfeiture: so God dealt with man by way of covenant, and the tenor of it was exact obedience; and this covenant had a sanction or an obligation annexed: in case obedience was not exactly performed, we should be accursed, and suffer all manner of misery in this life and the next. Now, by the fall, we incurred this penalty; and therefore, as lost and undone creatures, we run to God's mercy, and beg him to forgive the debt, or the forfeiture of that bond of obedience wherein man standeth bound to God by the law.

    A little to make it good, before I come to the body of the petition, let me show how sin is a debt, wherein it agrees. That will appear if you can consider:--

    1. Our danger by sin.

    2. Our remedy from sin.

    In both the parts you will find sin is considered as a debt.

    First, If you consider our danger by sin.

    [1.] There is a creditor to whom the debt is due, and that is God: Luke vii. 41, when he would set out God's mercy he saith, There was a certain creditor which had two debtors,' &c. God is there set forth under the notion and similitude of a creditor. God is a creditor, partly as our creator, and partly as a lawgiver, and partly as a judge. As our creator and benefactor, from whom we have received all that we have: it was the Lord that gave to every man his talents to trade withal; to some more, to some less: Mat. xxv. Thus God hath trusted us with life, and all other blessings. But then, as a lawgiver: if God had given us life, strength, parts, wealth, that we should do with them what we would, though the gift would oblige us, in point of gratitude, to serve our benefactor, yet we had not been so responsible for our defaults. But we are under a law to serve him and honour him that made us and gave us what we have. God did not dispossess himself of an interest in them. He did not give them to us as owners and proprietors, to do with them what we would; but he gave them to us as stewards: our life and employment here is a stewardship. Nay, God is not only a lawgiver, but also a judge; he will call us to an account. He doth oblige us as a creator, but imposeth a necessity upon us of obeying and serving him as a lawgiver; and not only makes a law, but will take an account of men, how they observe the law of their creation. There will a time come when the lord of those servants will come and reckon with them, and require his own with usury: Luke xix. 23. He will require this debt and service at our hands, else we must endure the penalty. Well, this is the connexion: he that abuseth God's mercy as a creator offends him as a lawgiver, and is justly punished by him as a judge. There are many never think of this, therefore are not sensible of these great relations, nor that they shall answer for all their talents, strength, and time, and advantages they have in the world. Thus there is a creditor.

    [2.] As a debtor is bound to make satisfaction to the creditor, or else is liable to the process of the law, which may be commenced against him, so are we all to God, bodies and souls; we are become hupodikos to Theo, guilty before the Lord:' Rom. iii. 19. So we translate it. We are under the sentence of the law, liable to the process of his revenging justice, and one day God will pursue his righteous law against us. All the fallen creatures are quite become bankrupt; we can never pay the original debt of obedience, therefore must be left to lie under the debt of punishment.

    [3.] Look, as debts stand upon record, and are charged upon some book of account, that they may not be forgot, so God hath his book of account--a book of remembrance, as it is called: Mal. iii. 16. All our words, speeches, actions, they are all upon record; what means we have enjoyed, what mercies, what opportunities, what calls, and what messages of his love and grace: Job xiv. 17, My iniquity is sealed up in a bag.' As men's writings or bonds, which they have to show for their debts owing to them, are sealed up in a bag, so Job useth that similitude. Thus is sin represented as a thing that is upon record, and cannot be forgotten. Many times we lose the memory of what we have done in childhood and infancy, but all is upon record; and your iniquities will one day find you out, though you have for gotten, and think never to hear of them more.

    [4.] A day of reckoning will come, when God will put the bond in suit, and all shall be called to an account. Sometimes God reckoneth with sinners, in part, in this world, but surely in the next. Death is but the summons to come to an account with God: Luke xvi. 2, Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward.' That passage of the parable is applicable to death: That when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations,' ver. 9. When the soul is turned out of doors, when it is cited to appear before the tribunal of God, then we give up our account. But especially at the great day: Rev. xx. 12, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened;' that is, the book of conscience and the book of God's remembrance. There are two books, that are written within and without, upon which all our actions are stamped: they are now closed in a great measure; we know not what is in these great books. One of the books (that of conscience) is in our own keeping, yet we cannot deface and blot it out. These books at that day will be opened; conscience, by the power of God, shall be extended to the recognition of all our ways. Conscience writes when it speaks not: many times it doth not smite for sins we are guilty of; but there stands the debt charged, upon which we shall be responsible.

    [5.] After this reckoning there is execution. A bankrupt that cannot satisfy his creditor is cast into prison; so God hath his prison for impenitent, disobedient, and obstinate sinners: 1 Pet. iii. 19, He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.' It is a dismal prison, where poor captive prisoners are held in chains of darkness; that is, under the horrors of their own despairing fears, looking for the judgment of the Lord, when they shall be cast into this prison, and no getting out again, until they have paid the utmost farthing: Luke xii. 50. And that will never be as to the sinner: he is, as it were, always satisfying, and can never be said to have satisfied, the justice of God.

    Thus you see how sin is a debt, and what correspondence there is between them--the obligation of punishment that ariseth from sin. But now it differeth from all other debts.

    (1.) No debt to man can be so great as our debt to God, both for number and weight. Mat. xviii. 24, compared with ver. 28: you shall see there the parable of the lord forgiving ten thousand talents;' and the servant goes and takes his brother by the throat, and requireth from him a debt of an hundred pence.' Mark, offences done to God are greater than offences done to us; for there is as much difference and disproportion as between an hundred and ten thousand. And then the debt of the fellow-servant was but pence, an hundred pence; but the debt due to the lord, that was talents; and a talent is reckoned to be one hundred and eighty-seven pounds ten shillings. Our sins against God are more and more heavy than any which our brethren can commit against us. Pence, talents; one hundred and ten thousand: there is the difference and disproportion. Oh that we had a due sense of what it is to sin against God, against an infinite majesty! To strike a private person is not so much as to strike an officer of justice; and that is not so much as to strike the supreme magistrate. What is it to sin against God? and how often do we? All our imaginations are only evil, and that continually; and therefore all our sins against God will arise to a vast and heavy debt, because of the infiniteness of the object against whom sin is committed.

    (2.) In other debts there is a day of payment set them; in this debt there is none. God doth not tell us when he will put the bond in suit against us; he may surprise us ere we are aware. Luke xii. 20: when he dreamed of many years, Thou fool, this night.' The spirits now in prison did as little think of that doleful place as those sinners which are alive. It may be to-day, to-morrow, the next hour: Gen. iv. 7, Sin lieth at the door.' There is a sentence and curse that waylays him. Sin, for the punishment of sin; it is ready to seize upon him, and pluck him by the throat, and bring him into God's presence. Still the curse hovers over the head of obstinate and impenitent sinners.

    (3.) In other debts, if the goods are taken by way of execution, and suffice, the person is free; but here God aims at the person, and the whole person. Body and soul are cast into hell fire.' Mat. x. 28.

    (4.) Here there can be no shifting, no avoiding the danger. If you fly from God, you do but fly to God; from God, as willing to be a friend; to God, who is sure to be revenged. Whither shall I fly from thy Spirit? If I go into the depths, thou art there.' Ps. cxxxix. God is here, there, and everywhere.

    (5.) All other debts cease at death; when a man dieth, we say his debts are paid: but here execution begins, then the law takes the sinner by the throat, and drags him to everlasting punishment, and doth in effect say, Pay me what thou owest. Death is God's arrest. As soon as the soul steps out of the world, presently it is attached and seized, and forfeited into the hands of God's justice. How many are there that lie under this danger and never think of it! Spiritual debts they are not so sensible of as literal. A man that is deeply in debt, and in danger of an arrest, cannot sleep, eat, walk abroad, but his fears are upon him. Augustus bought his quilt or bed, that could sleep soundly when he owed so many thousand sesterces. But poor senseless sinners never think of danger until they are plunged into it, and then there is no escape.

    Secondly, The metaphor will also hold good as to our remedy and recovery, how we come out of this debt. A debtor that is insolvent is undone, unless there be some means found out to satisfy the creditor: so we must altogether lie under the wrath of God, unless satisfaction be made. Therefore, Jesus Christ, in the

    [1.] Place, comes under the notion of a surety. Because he took the debt of man upon himself, therefore, Heb. vii. 22, he is called, the surety of a better testament.' When Christ undertook the business of our salvation, he did in effect say, as Paul to Philemon, ver. 18, If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account:' so did Jesus Christ in effect say to God, Let me be made a sin, and made a curse for them. He that was a judge, was willing to become a party, and to pay what he owed. David, in the type of Christ, saith, Ps. lxix. 4, I restored that which I took not away.' He did not take away any honour from God: it was we that robbed God of the glory of his justice, authority, and truth; that trampled them under our feet: but Christ made restitution and amends to God.

    [2J Having condescended to become our surety, he made full satisfaction, by suffering the punishment which was due to us: Isa. liii. 4, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.' That which we should have borne upon our own backs, and would have crushed us for ever, that he hath borne, and he hath carried. Christ was to be the sinner in law, and was to suffer in our stead. Solomon hath a passage concerning suretyship: Prov. xi. 15, He that is surety for a stranger, shall smart for it;' or, as the Hebrew will bear it, sore bruised;' or, as it is in the margin, shall be bruised and sore broken.' And the same word is used concerning Christ, that was our surety: Isa. liii. 10, It pleased the Father to bruise him.' Christ is our surety, therefore he was bruised and broken, he suffered what we should have suffered. It is true, there are some circumstances of our punishment which Christ suffered not, as a great part of our punishment in hell; there is the worm of conscience and despair, and the eternity of torments; but this was not essential to the punishment, but did only arise from the guilt and from the weakness of the party that is punished, because we cannot work through it otherwise. Christ paid the full price which divine justice demanded, and so made satisfaction for us.

    [3.] Christ satisfying as our surety, all those which had an interest in his death, they are set free from the wrath of God, they have a release from this great debt owed. As when the ram was taken. Isaac was let go; so when Christ was taken, the sinner is released and discharged: Job xxxiii. 24, Deliver him from going down to the pit; 1 have found a ransom.' Certainly God will not exact the debt twice, of the surety and of the principal person; our surety having paid the debt for us, therefore we go free. And, therefore, if our consciences should pursue us at law, we may answer, Christ was taken for us, He was bruised for our iniquities, and he bore the chastisement of our peace.'

    [4.] Christ hath not only satisfied for the punishment, but he hath procured favour for us; wherein he differeth from an ordinary and common surety. Christ does not only free us from bonds, but also hath brought us into grace and favour with the creator, lawgiver, and judge. There is a double notion of Christ's death; that of a ransom for the delivery of a captive, and as a merit and price which was given for eternal life. The death of Christ did not only dissolve the obligation which lay upon us to suffer the penalty for the breach of the law, and so deliver us from the wrath to come; but it was a price that was given to purchase grace, favour, and heaven for us, which is called, Eph. i. 14, The purchased possession.' Now, why must our surety instate us thus into favour? Because Christ was such a surety as did not only pay the forfeiture, but also the principal; that is, he did not only make satisfaction for the trespass and offence (which is the payment of the forfeiture), but also he established a righteousness answerable to the law (which is the payment of the principal), and of that original debt which God first required of the creature; for there is a debt of duty and service which Christ performeth and establisheth as a righteousness for us.

    [5.] From hence in his name there is proclaimed redemption to the captives, freedom to poor prisoners that were in debt, and weak, and could not acquit themselves. And therefore the publication of the gospel is compared to the year of jubilee: Luke iv. 19, Christ came to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.' It relates to .the year of jubilee, wherein all debts were cancelled; it was a year of general releasement, proclaimed by sound of trumpet, that every man should return to his inheritance, and all debts dissolved and done away: Lev. xxv. 9, 10. So Jesus Christ saith, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord;' that is, to proclaim to poor captives a release of all debts, and all bonds which are upon them.

    [6.] All those that come to God by Christ are interested in the comfort of this offer and proclamation of grace, and may plead with God about their discharge from this great and heavy debt. I put it mainly in that notion (those that come to God by Christ), because you will find that is the description of those whom Christ means to save: Heb. vii. 25, He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.' Who are those that come unto God by him? Those that in Christ's name do seriously, and with brokenness of heart, deal with him about a release and a discharge. To come to God by him, it is to come in his name, to plead his propitiation, or his satisfaction, as the only meritorious cause; and the promise of God in Christ to blot out our offences, as the only ground of hope; and as to ourselves, acknowledging the debt; that is, in confessing our sins, and our desert of punishment, with a purpose to forsake them.

    (1 ) There is required an acknowledgment of the debt. God stands upon it that his justice may be owned with a due sense, according to the tenor of the first covenant: for though the satisfaction be made by another, and that by a surety of God's providing; yet God will have the creature know they are under so heavy a debt, that he will have them feel it in brokenness of heart; not know it only in a general conviction, but confess their sins: 1 John i. 9, If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.' When we come with true remorse, and confess we have offended so just, so holy, so merciful a Father, it must be grievous to us in the remembrance of it You must not only confess sin as a wrong, but as a debt: sin hath wronged God, and it is also a debt binding you over to a punishment we could never endure, nor make God any satisfaction for. Therefore David, when he would have God's bond crossed and can celled see how he pleads: Ps. li. 2, 3, O Lord, blot out mine offences, for I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.' Blot it out, for I acknowledge it; that is, I submit to thy instituted course; I submit to the justice of the first covenant.

    (2.) The satisfaction of Christ must be pleaded also by a sinner in the court of heaven, in a believing manner, that there may be an owning of the surety. All parties that are interested in this business must consent Now God and Christ they are agreed about the business of salvation: God hath agreed to take satisfaction from Christ, and Christ hath agreed to make this satisfaction to God: all the business now is about the sinner's consent, or about his ready acceptation of Jesus Christ and we never heartily indeed consent to this, that Christ shall be our surety, and he the person that must release and discharge this debt, until we look upon him by an eye of faith, as one that tore the bond and handwriting that was against us. The law is called the handwriting that was against us;' there is the bond which was to be put in suit: now, Col. ii. 14, He hath torn, or blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.' He hath disannulled the law, which binds to suffer the wrath of God. The law was the bond by which our death was ratified.

    (3 ) There is required an unfeigned purpose to forsake sin. that hath been released of his debt, must not still run into new arrears.

    Christ never blotted out our debts that we might renew them, and go on upon a new score of offending God again; this is to dally with God, to run into the snare when he hath broken it for us and given us an escape, to plunge ourselves into new debts again.

    In this prayer, Forgive us our debts,' then presently, Lead us not into temptation.' Therefore we must purpose to forsake sin other wise we do not draw nigh to God with a true heart: Heb. x. 22. We do but deal falsely with God in all the confessions we make, and m all the pleas of faith, unless there be an unfeigned purpose to renounce all sin and cast it off as a thing that will undo our souls. Thus, Christians, must you sue out your release and discharge in your surety's name.

    Use 1. The use is, first, to show us the misery of an impenitent, unpardoned sinner; he. hath a vast debt upon him, that will surely undo him unless he doth in time get a discharge. He is bound over to suffer the wrath of God for evermore, and no hand can loose him but God's. Many times they think of no such matter, and cry, Peace, peace.' to themselves; but it is not the debtor which must cancel the book, but the creditor. Have you a discharge from God? where is your legal qualification? poor creatures, what will you do? Many take care that they may owe nothing to any man; oh! but what do you owe to God? To live in doubt and in fear of an arrest, oh, what misery is that! But when sin lieth at the door, ready to attack you every moment and hale you to the prison of hell, that is most dreadful. Therefore think of it seriously; how do accounts stand between God and you? Sinners are loth to think of it. When the lord came to reckon with his servants, Mat. xviii. 24, it is said, One was brought to him which owed him ten thousand talents:' he was loth to come to an account, he would fain keep out of the way, but he was brought to him. So we are unwilling to be called to account, we shift and delay, and will not think of our misery: but the putting off sin will not put it away; our not thinking of our misery will not help us out, and will not be a release and discharge.

    2. If sins be debts, and an increasing debt, so that man is ever treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath; it presseth us to be more careful to get out of this condition. Saith Solomon, Prov. vi. 3-5: If thou beest in debt, flee as a swift roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.' Oh, it is a sad thing to lie in our sins! If you be under this debt, give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids; get away like the swift roe from the hand of the hunter,' &c. And what I say concerning a state of sin, I say concerning daily failings; make your peace with God betimes; if you have contracted a new debt, make all even between God and your souls, that you may not sleep in your sins.

    3. This should make us more cautious that we do not commit sin: why? it is a debt that will render you obnoxious to the wrath of God; in itself it merits eternal death: oh, therefore, sin no more, do not run again into the snare! When you give way to sin, you hazard the comfort of your acquittance by Christ: Ps. lxxxv. 8, The Lord will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints; but let them not turn again to folly.' If the Lord hath given you your peace, and some hope of your being discharged of this heavy debt, take heed of meddling with forbidden fruit, and running into debt again.

    II. From the subject or persons which make this prayer, Forgive us,' observe,

    Doct. Even those that call God Father, ought to beg, daily and humbly, pardon of their sins.

    Forgive us; who is that us that can say in faith, Our Father, daily? For this is a pattern for daily prayer, as the word se'meron in the former petition noteth. We need beg, for Christ hath taught us here to sue out our discharge: in which begging there is an exercise of faith eyeing Christ: Rom. iii. 25, God hath set forth him to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' And there is an exercise also of repentance, as to mourning for sin: 1 John i. 9, and Prov. xxviii. 13, He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin, shall have mercy:' and as to loathing of sin, Acts iii. 19, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins maybe blotted out.' And certainly it must be humbly begged; for if we seek pardon we must seek it in God's way. We do not beg God to rescind and, make void his laws, and those wise constitutions he hath appointed whereby the creature shall receive this grace; and the manner wherein he will deal and transact this business with the offending creature: but we seek it as exercising our renewed repentance; that is, mourning for sin, and loathing of sin. But of this more hereafter.

    Now, that the best of God's children should be dealing with God about a pardon of their sins, I shall argue it:--

    1. From the necessity.

    2. The utility and profit of such a course.

    First, The necessity of this will appear two ways:--

    [1.] From the condition of God's children here in the world.

    [2.] From the way wherein God will give out a pardon.

    [1.] From the condition of God's children here in this world. The best are not so fully sanctified in this life but there is some sin found in them; not only they who walk with no care, but even they that set the most narrow watch over their ways, they are not so sanctified but they need daily to go to God.

    (1.) They have original sin which remaineth with them to the last, they have the sinning sin which the apostle speaks of. Paul complains of the body of death: Rom. vii. 23, 24, Who shall deliver me from it?' The Hebrews were wont to propound their wishes by way of question; as, Oh that salvation were come out of Zion!' It is in the Hebrew, Who shall bring salvation out of Zion?' So, Who will lead me into Edom?' that is, Oh that I were led into Edom,' that I might display the banner there, because of God's truth. So, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' that is, Oh that I were delivered!' Where the reign of sin is broken, yet there it remains; though it be cast down in regard of regency, yet it is not cast out in regard of inherency. As the ivy that is gotten into the wall, cut away the boughs, branches, stubs, yet still there will be some sproutings out again until the wall be pulled down; so until these earthly tabernacles of ours be tumbled in the dust, though we are mortifying and subduing of sin, yet there will be a budding and sprouting out again.

    (2.) There are many actual sins: James iii. 2, In many things we offend all;' and Eccles. vii. 20, There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not:' that is, that sins not either in omitting of good or committing of evil: our offences are either total or partial. Partial offences; though a child of God loves God, fears God, trusts in God, yet not in that purity and perfection that he hath required of him; though he serves God and obeys him, yet not with that liberty, delight, reverence, which he hath required. There is an omission in part in every act: there is not that perfection which God deserveth, who is to be served with all our might, with all our strength. Our principles are divided; there is flesh and spirit; there is a mixture in all our actions. Sometimes there is a total omission, the spiritual life is at a stand, many times all acts of respect are intermitted. Then for commissions, sometimes, out of ignorance, they do not see what is to be done. Though they have a general resolution to do the whole will of God, yet many times they mistake. Our light is but in part: And who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret sins:' Ps. xix. 12. We sin out of ignorance, as a man in the dark may jostle against his friend. Sometimes by imprudence and inconsideration, as a man that is not heedful, though he knows it, he may mistake his way. Many are overtaken in a fault: Gal. vi. 1; that is, unawares, and besides their intention. Sometimes, out of incogitancy and sudden incursion, they may not only be overtaken but overborne, drawn away by their own lusts,' James i. 14: overcome by the prevalency of passion and corrupt affection; so sin gets the upper hand. Thus it is with the children of God. Look, as it was said of the Romans, that in battle they were overcome, but never in war; though a child of God hath the best of it at last, yet in many particular conflicts he is overborne by the violence of temptation and his own corrupt lusts. Thus there is a necessity of begging daily pardon, if we consider the condition of the saints while they are here in the world, who carry a sinning nature about them, a corrupt issue that will never be dried up while they are in the world; and also they are guilty of many actual sins, both of omission and commission.

    Secondly, The necessity of it will appear from the way wherein God gives a pardon, which is upon the creature's humble submission, and seeking of terms of grace; so that whatsoever right we have to remission in Christ, though we have a general right to remission and pardon of sin, yet we must seek to apply that right, and beg the use of it for our daily pardon and acceptance with God. This will appear by considering--(1.) The nature of this request; (2.) The right that a justified person hath to the pardon of his daily sins.

    1. What we beg for when we say, Forgive us our sins. Five things we ask of God:--

    [1.] The grant of a pardon.

    [2.] The continuance of this privilege.

    [3.] The sense and comfort of it.

    [4.] The increase of that sense.

    [5.] The effects of pardon, or a freedom from those penal evils that are fruits of sin.

    (1.) The grant of a pardon, that God would accept the satisfaction of Christ for our sins, and look upon us as righteous in him. Jesus Christ himself was to sue out the fruits of his purchase: Ps. ii. 8, Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.' Though he had a right to be received into heaven, to sit down at the right hand of God, and administer the kingdom for the comfort of his elect ones, yet ask of me.' And so we are to sue out our right: Ps. xxxii. 5, I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' What then? For this cause shall every one that is godly pray unto thee.' Though God be so ready to forgive as soon as we conceive a purpose he gives out a pardon--yet we are to call upon God. God will have us to sue out the grant of a pardon. Why? Because he would deal with us as a sovereign, therefore doth he require the submission of our faith. It was of grace that he would appoint a satisfaction for us, which he did not for the fallen angels; and it was much more grace that he would give that satisfaction, give that price, out of his own treasury. Christ was not a mediator of our choosing, but God's; and therefore, though justice be fully satisfied, yet the debt is humbly to be acknowledged by the creature, and we are to sue out terms of grace. And again, the application to us is merely grace, when so many thousands perish in their sins; therefore we are to beg, to sue out this grace, that we may have the benefit of Christ's death. God doth it, that in begging we may acknowledge our own misery, and how unable we are to make satisfaction: Ps. cxliii. 2, In thy sight no flesh can be justified;' and Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, If thou shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.' Before God will give us an interest in this forgiveness, we are to come and confess ourselves utterly to be insolvent, and also to own Jesus Christ as the means, that we may solemnly and explicitly own our Redeemer, who was appointed by God, and procured this benefit for us: 1 John ii. 1, And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' God hath required we should sue it out, and own our advocate, as well as confess ourselves unable to satisfy, that we might know who is our advocate. In the type of the brazen serpent, Num. xxi. 8, And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' Mark, though God set up a sign of salvation (as it is called elsewhere), yet when you shall look upon him you shall live. So God would have us sue out the grant by looking to Christ, that so our interest may be established: John iii. 14, 15, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' That whosoever believeth in him,' that was the intent of looking upon it, that we might fix our faith on Christ, and come tinder the shelter of his wing. We beg, upon a sense of our own unworthiness, the acceptance of Christ's satisfaction for us.

    (2.) We pray for the continuance of pardon; though we are already justified, yet Forgive us our sins.' As in daily bread, though we have it by us, and God hath stored us with blessings in our houses, yet we beg the continuance and use of it; so whatever right we have to pardoning mercy, yet we beg the continuance of it, for two reasons:--Partly because justification is not complete until the day of judgment, but mercy is still in fieri, that is, God is still a-doing: Acts iii. 19, That your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.' Then are our sins blotted out, then is this privilege complete. We read of forgiveness in this world, and forgiveness in the world to come, Mat. xii. 32. Forgiven in this world, when accepted to grace and favour with God; and forgiven in the world to come, when this privilege is complete, and fully made up to the elect. Some effects of sin remain till then; as death, which came into the world by sin, remains upon the body till then--then our sin is blotted out, when all the fruits of it are vanished and done away. So that whilst any penal evils that are introduced by sin remain, we ought to pray for pardon, that God would not repent of his mercy. Look, as when we are in a state of sanctification, we pray for the continuance of sanctification, as well as the increase of it, because of the relics of sin, though our perseverance in grace and sanctification be as much secured by God's promise as our perseverance in God's favour, and the gift of justification; so we pray for the continuance of pardon, because the evils of sin yet remain in part. And partly, because God, for our exercise, will make us feel the smart of old sins, which are already pardoned; as an old bruise, though it be healed, yet ever and anon we may feel it upon change of weather. Accusations of conscience may return for sins already pardoned; as Job xiii. 26, Thou makest me possess the iniquities of my youth.' Though a man be reconciled to God, and in favour with him, yet the sins of his youth will trouble him after he hath obtained the pardon of them. God may make these return with a horrible and frightful appearance upon the conscience; their visage may be terrible to look upon. Though these sins are blotted out, Satan may make the remembrance of them very frightful; and God, in his holy, wise dispensation, may permit it for our humiliation. Though this be no intrenching of the pardon already past, yet it may exceedingly terrify the soul, and overcloud our comfort, and therefore we must beg the continuance of this benefit. Go to God as David did: Ps. xxv. 6, 7, Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindness, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.' He begs God's ancient mercies would continue with him. He acknowledged he had received mercy of old; he could run up to eternity, that had been for ever of old; yet, Lord, remember not against me the sins of my youth. When the sense of old sins are renewed, we must renew petitions for the pardon of them. It is usual with God, when we are negligent, to permit the devil to make use of affliction to revive old sins, that they may stare afresh in the view of the eye of conscience; therefore we had need to beg the continuance of this privilege, for it is not complete. Though the pardon itself be not abrogated, yet the comfort of it may be much intrenched upon, and old sins may come and terrify the soul with a very hideous aspect.

    (3.) We beg here the sense and manifestation of pardon, though it be not the only thing we pray for. Forgive us our sins,' that is, let us know it. God may blot sins out of his book, when he doth not blot them out of our consciences. There is the book of conscience, and the book of God's remembrance. The book of God's remembrance may be cancelled (to speak after the manner of men); as soon as we believe and repent, then the handwriting which was against us is torn; but he blots it out of our consciences when the worm of conscience is killed by the application of the blood of Christ through the Spirit, when we are sprinkled from an evil conscience,' as the expression is, Heb. x. 22. And David is earnest with God for this benefit, the sense of his pardon: Ps. li. 8, 12, Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice; and restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.' Nathan had told him his sins were pardoned, yet he wanted the joy of God's salvation, that ancient free spirit, that comforting, enlarging spirit he was wont to have. God may forgive in heaven, when he does not forgive in our sense and feeling; therefore we beg the manifestation of it by the comforts of the gospel.

    (4.) We beg the increase of that sense, for this sense is given out in a different latitude. Spiritual sense is not in all alike quick and lively; many have only a probable certainty, but have many doubts--some have comfort, but never arrive to peace. Comfort, you know, is that thing which holds up itself against encounters when we are confronted; so there may be many doubts when the preponderating part of the soul inclineth to comfort. Some have peace for the present, rest from trouble of conscience; others have joy, which is a degree above peace and comfort.

    (5.) We beg the effects of pardon, or freedom from those penal evils which are continued upon God's children, and are the fruits ^of sin. Clearly this is intended, for we beg of God to pardon us as we pardon others; that is, fully, entirely to forgive, forget. We beg of God to for give us our sins; that is, to mitigate those troubles, evils, and afflictions, which are the fruits of sin. It is true, when a man is justified, the state of his person is altered; yet sin is the same in itself, it deserves all manner of evils; therefore we beg not only a release from wrath to come, but from those other temporal evils that dog us at the heels. Sin is the same still, though the person is not the same. It is still the violation of a holy law, an affront done to a holy God, an inconvenience upon the precious soul; it brings a blot upon us, an inclination to sin again; nay, it brings eternal death. Though it do not bring eternal death upon pardoned persons, yet it may occasion temporal trouble. God hath still reserved this liberty in the covenant: that he will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes; nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from, him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail,' Ps. lxxxix. 32, 33. And Prov. xi. 31, The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth;' that is, he shall smart for his evil-doings. A child of God, when he sinneth against him, though he be not executed, yet he may be branded, he may have a mark of shame put upon him, his pilgrimage may be made uncomfortable, and these may be fully consistent with God's grace and love. Therefore we beg a release from these penal evils, that as the guilt, so the punishment also may be abolished.

    2. The right that a justified person hath to the pardon of his daily sins.

    Pardon of sin is to be considered: (1.) in. the impetration of it; (2.) the offer; (3.) the judicial application, or legal absolution of the sinner.

    [1.] In the impetration and purchase of it. So when, Heb. x. 14, By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,' there needed no more to expiate them to satisfy justice.

    [2.] In the offer of it. So God hath proclaimed pardon upon the condition of repentance: Ezek. xxxiii. 11, Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?'

    [3.] In the judicial application, or legal absolution of a sinner. God in his word hath pronounced the legal absolution of every one that believeth in Christ. As soon as we repent and believe, a threefold benefit we have:--

    (1.) The state of the person is altered; he is a child of God: John i. 12, To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' He hath full leave to call God Father, a kind of fatherly dealing from him. Translated from a state of wrath to the state of grace, from a child of the devil he is made a child of God, never to be cast out of his family.

    (2.) The actual remission of all past sins: Rom. iii. 25, To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.' It would be a license to sin if his sins were remitted before committed.

    (3.) A right to the remission of daily sins, or free leave to make use of the fountain of mercy, that is always running, and is opened in the house of God for the comfort of believers: Zech. xiii. 1, In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.'

    Secondly, The utility and profit of such a course. See Sermon on Psalm XXXII. 1, Sermon xx. [25]

    Use. The use is to press us to be often dealing with God about the pardon of our sins, by a general and daily humiliation; none are exempted from bewailing the evil of sin. The death of Christ doth not put less evil into sin; it is still damning in its own nature; it is still the violation of a holy law, an affront to a holy God, an inconvenience to thy precious soul. When Christ paid the price for our sins, it was upon this condition: that we should renew our faith and repentance; that we should sue out our discharge in his name; that when we sin we may come and humble ourselves before the Lord. Under the law, if a man were unclean, he was to wash his clothes before evening; he was not to sleep in his uncleanness. So if you have defiled yourselves, you should go wash in the laver that God hath appointed. The Lord taught his people under the law the repeating a daily sacrifice, morning and evening. If one be fallen out with another, God hath advised us, before the sun be set, to go and be reconciled to our brother; and wilt thou lie under the wrath of God for one night? If we would oftener use this course, the work of repentance would not be so hard. Wounds are best cured at first, before they are suffered to fester and rankle into a sore; so are sins before they grow longer upon us. And if we did oftener thus reckon with ourselves, we should have less to do when we come to die. Therefore do as wise merchants; at the foot of every page draw up the account, so help it forward; so it will not be hard to sum up a long account, and reckon up our whole lives, and beg a release of all our debts; therefore daily come and humble yourselves before the Lord. The oftener you do this, the sooner you will have the comfort of pardon; but when you keep off from God, and delay, you suffer the loss of peace, and the loss of God's favour; and hardness of heart, and atheism, and carnal security increase upon you.

    As we forgive our debtors.

    I come to the last branch. Hence observe:--

    Doct. 3. Those that would rightly pray to be forgiven of God, they must forgive others.

    First, I shall give you the explication; Secondly, The reasons.

    For explication, I shall speak to three things:--

    1. Who are debtors.

    2. What respect our forgiving of others hath to God's forgiving of us.

    3. In what manner we must forgive others.

    First, Who are our debtors. It is not meant in a vulgar sense, of those only which stand engaged for a sum of money due to us; but of all such as have offended us in word or deed. There is a duty we owe to one another, which, when we omit, or act contrary unto it, we are not only debtors to God, but to one another; and the doers of the injury are bound to repair the wrong, and to make restitution. In this large sense is the word debtors here taken, with respect to the person that hath done the injury. He becomes a debtor, is to make satisfaction, and suffer the punishment which the wrong deserves.

    Secondly, What respect hath our forgiving of others to God's for giving us?

    I shall speak to it negatively and positively.

    1. Negatively.

    [1.] It is not a meritorious cause, or a merit and price given to God, why he should pardon us, for that is only the blood of Christ. Every act of ours is due, it is imperfect, and no way proportionate to the mercies we expect; and therefore it cannot be meritorious before God. It is due, it is a duty we are bound to do, and paying off new debts doth not quit old scores. God hath laid such a law upon us, that we are to forgive others. That cannot expiate former offences. And it is imperfect too. The remembrance of injuries sticks too close to us. When we do most heartily and entirely forgive others, even then we have too great a sense of the injury and wrong that is offered to us. Now that which needs pardon cannot deserve pardon. And it is disproportionate to the mercy which we expect. What a vast disparity and difference is there between God's pardoning of us and our pardoning of others, whether we respect the persons that are interested in this action, or the subject-matter, or manner and way of doing, or the fruit and issue of the action.

    First, In the persons pardoning. What proportion can there be between God and man, the Creator and the creature? God he is most free, and bound to none, of infinite dignity and perfection, which can neither be increased nor lessened by any act of ours, for him or against him; but we live in perfect dependence upon God's pleasure, are subject to his command, and bound to do his will; and therefore what is our forgiving our fellow-creatures, made out of the same dust, animated by the same soul, and every way equal with us by nature, when they wrong us in our petty interests? What proportion is there between this forgiving and God's forgiving? he that is of so infinite a majesty, his forgiving the violations of his holy law?

    And secondly, To the subject-matter, that which is forgiven, there is no proportion. When we compare the multitude or magnitude, the greatness, and the number of offences forgiven of the one side and the other, we see there is a mighty disproportion. We forgive pence, and God talents; we an hundred pence, he ten thousand talents: Mat. xviii.

    So, thirdly, The manner of forgiving: on God's part, by discharging us freely, and exacting a full satisfaction from Christ; therefore our forgiving can hold no comparison with it, which is an act of duty, and conformity t6 God's law.

    And fourthly, As to the fruit and issue of the action. Our good and evil doth not reach to God. Though our forgiving of others be an action of profit to ourselves, yet no fruit redounds to God. And therefore there being no proportion between finite and infinite, there can be no such proportion between our forgiving and God's forgiving, as that this act may be meritorious before God. Thus it is not brought here as merit, as that which doth oblige and bind God meritoriously to forgive us.

    [2.] It is not a pattern or rule. We do not mean our forgiving should be a pattern of forgiving to God. So as is taken, indeed, ver. 10, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven;' there it implies a conformity to the pattern. But when we say, Forgive us, as we forgive,' it doth not mean here a pattern or rule. We imitate God, but God doth not imitate us, in forgiving offences; and it would be ill with us if God should forgive us no better than we forgive one another. God is matchless in all his perfections; there is no work like his: Ps. lxxxvi. 8. As God is matchless in other things, so in pardoning mercy. As the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts:' Isa. lv. 9. And upon this very occasion the Lord will multiply to pardon: As far as the heavens,' &c. This is the greatest distance we can conceive. The heavens, they are at such a vast distance from the earth, that the stars, though they be great and glorious luminaries, yet they seem to be but like so many spangles and sparks. This is the distance and disproportion which is made between God's mercy and ours: Hosea xi. 9, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man.' If God should forgive but only as man doth, it would be ill for Ephraim if he had to do with revengeful man. God acteth according to the infiniteness of his own nature, far above the law and manner of all created beings. Therefore it is not put here as a pattern and rule.

    [3.] It doth not import priority of order, as if our acts had the precedency of God's; or as if we did or could heartily forgive others before God hath shown any mercy to us. No; in all acts of love, God is first; his mercy to us is the cause of our mercy to others. As the wall reflects and casts back the heat upon the stander-by when first warmed with the beams of the sun, so, when our hearts are melted with a sense of God's mercy, his love to us is the cause of our love and kindness to others: 1 John iv. 19, We love him, because he first loved us;' that is, we love him, and others for his sake; for love to God implies that. Why? Because he hath been first with us. And then it is the motive and pattern of it. In that parable, Mat. xviii. 32, 33, God's forgiving is the motive to our forgiving: I forgave thee all thy debt; and shouldest not thou have compassion on thy fellow-servant?' In those that have true pardon it causeth them to forgive others out of a sense of God's mercy; that is, they are disposed and inclined to show mercy to others. But in others that think themselves pardoned, and have only a temporary pardon and reprieve (such as is there spoken of), it is a motive which should prevail with them, though it doth not. Nay, it is the pattern of our love to others: Eph. iv. 32, Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you;' in that manner, and according to that example.

    [4.] It doth not import an exact equality, but some kind of resemblance. As, it is a note of similitude, not equality, either of measure or manner; it only implieth that there is some correspondent action, something like done on our part. So, Luke vi. 36, Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful.' As, notes the certainty of the truth, though not the exact proportion; there will be something answerable to God.

    2. But positively to show what respect it hath.

    [1.] It is a condition or moral qualification which is found in persons pardoned: Mat. vi. 14, For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:' but, ver. 15, If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.' These two are inseparably conjoined, God's pardoning of us, and our pardoning of others. The grant of a pardon, that is given out at the same time when this disposition is wrought in us; but the sense of a pardon, that is a thing subsequent to this disposition. And when we find this disposition in us, we come to understand how we are pardoned of God.

    [2.] It is an evidence, a sign or note of a pardoned sinner. When a man's heart is entendered by the Lord's grace, and inclined to show mercy, here is his evidence: Mat. v. 7, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' The stamp or impression shows that the seal hath been there; so this is an evidence to us whereby we may make out our title to the Lord's mercy, that we have received mercy from the Lord.

    [3.] It is a necessary effect of God's pardoning mercy shed abroad in our hearts; for mercy begets mercy, as heat doth heat: Titus iii. 2, 3, Show meekness to all men; for we ourselves also were some times foolish, disobedient,' &c. There is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves; that know how gently God hath dealt with them, and did not take the advantage of their iniquity.

    [4.] It is put here to show that it is a duty incumbent upon them that are pardoned. God hath laid this necessity upon men. And that may be one reason why this clause is inserted, that every time we come to pray and beg pardon, we may bind ourselves to this practice, and warn ourselves more solemnly of our duty, and undertake it in the sight of God. So that when we say, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,' it is a certain undertaking or solemn promise we make to God, if he will show mercy to us, this will incline us to show mercy to others. In earnest requests, we are wont to bind ourselves to necessary duties.

    [5.] It is an argument breeding confidence in God's pardoning mercy. When we, that have so much of the old leaven, that sour, revengeful nature, in us, yet when we have received but a spark of grace, it makes us ready to forgive others; then what may we imagine in God! What is our drop, to that infinite sea of fulness that is in him! Clearly thus it is urged in that clause, Luke xi. 4, And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.' There is a special emphasis upon that, for we also; that is, we that have so little grace, we that are so revengeful and passionate by nature, we also forgive those that are indebted to us. Therefore the gracious God, in all goodness, and in all moral perfections, doth far exceed the creature; and if this be in us, what is there in God? This kind of reasoning is often used in scripture; as Mat. vii. 11, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?' If evil men hath such bowels and affections towards their children, certainly there is more of this goodness and kindness in God.

    Thirdly, Wherein this forgiving of others doth consist?

    1. In forbearing others.

    2. In acquitting others.

    3. In doing good to them.

    [1.] In forbearing one another and withholding ourselves from revenge. This is a thing that is distant from forgiving, and accordingly we shall find it so propounded by the apostle: Col. iii. 13, Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.' Mark, there is first forbearing and then forgiving. What is forbearing? A ceasing from acts of revenge, which, though they be sweet to nature, yet they are contrary to grace. Some men will say, We will do to him as he hath done to us: Prov. xxiv. 29, Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.' Corrupt nature thirsteth for revenge, and hath a strong inclination this way; but grace should give check to it: Say not,' &c. Men think it is a base thing, and argueth a low, pusillanimous spirit, to put up with wrongs and injuries: oh, it argueth a stupid baseness. But this is that which giveth a man a victory over himself; nay, it gives a man the truest victory over his enemy, when he forbears to revenge. It gives a man a victory over himself, which is better than the most noble actions amongst the sons of men: Prov. xvi. 32, He that overcometh his own spirit is more than he that taketh a city.' There is a spirit in us that is boisterous, turbulent, and revengeful, apt to retaliate and return injury for injury. Now, when we can bridle this, this is an overcoming of our own spirits. But that is the true weakness of spirit, when a man is easily overcome by his own passion. And then hath our enemy a true victory over us, when his injuries overcome us so far as we can break God's laws to be quit with him. Therefore the apostle saith: Rom. xii. 21, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' Then is grace victorious, and then hath a man a noble and brave spirit, not when he . is overcome by evil (for that argueth weakness), but when he can overcome evil. And it is God's way to shame the party that did the wrong and to overcome him too: it is the best way to get the victory over him. When David had Saul at an advantage in the cave, and cut off the lap of his garment, and did forbear any act of revenge against him, Saul was melted, and said to David, Thou art more righteous than I,' 1 Sam. xxiv. 17. Though he had such a hostile mind against him, and chased and pursued him up and down, yet when David forebore revenge when it was in his power, it overcame him, and he falls a-weeping. So the captains of the Syrians, when the prophet had blinded them, and led them from Dothan to Samaria, what saith the king of Israel? is he ready to kill them presently? No: 2 Kings vi. 22, Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.' He was kind to them; and what followeth? They did no more annoy Israel.' This wrought upon the hearts of the Syrians, so that they would not come and trouble them any more.

    [2.] In forgiving, it is not only required of Christians to forbear the avenging of themselves, but also actually to forgive and pardon those that have done them wrongs. They must not only forbear acts of revenge, but all desires of revenge must be rooted out of their hearts. Men may tolerate or forbear others for want of a handsome opportunity of executing their purposes; but the scripture saith, Forbearing one another, forgiving one another.' This forgiving implieth the laying down of all anger, and hatred, and all desire of revenge. Now this should be done, not only in word, but sincerely and universally.

    (1.) Sincerely, and with the heart. In the conclusion of that parable, Christ doth not say, If ye do not forgive, thus it shall be done to you; but, If ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses, so also shall my heavenly Father do to you.' We must not only do this, but do it from the heart. Joseph, when his brethren came to him and submitted themselves, did not only remit the offence, but his bowels yearned towards them, and his heart was towards them: Gen. l. 17. Then,

    (2.) It must be done universally, whatever the wrong be, be it to our persons, names, or estates. To our persons: Acts vii. 60, Stephen, when they stoned him, he said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' Though they had done him so great an injury as to deprive him of his life and service, yet, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' So to our names: When Shimei came barking against David the poor man was driven out of Jerusalem by a rebellious son, and this wicked wretch takes advantage against David and rails at him--yet David forgives him when restored to his crown: He shall not die,' 2 Sam. xix. 23. Nay, he sware to him. So his estate: When a debtor is not able to pay, and yet submits. So Paul bids Philemon to forgive the wrongs of Onesimus: Put it on my score,' Philem. 18, that is, for my sake forgive this wrong.

    [3.] We must be ready to perform all offices of love to them: Luke vi. 27, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.' Mark, do not only forbear to execute your wrath and revenge upon them, but do good to them; yea, though they be enemies upon a religious ground; though religion be made a party in the quarrel, and so engage us to the greater fury, when that which should bridle our passions is the fuel to them: Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you,' Mat. v. 44. Miriam, when she had wronged Moses, yet he falls a-praying for her, Num. xii. 13, that the Lord would forgive the sin and heal her.

    For the reasons why those that would rightly pray to be forgiven of God must forgive others--it should be so, it will be so--there is a congruency and a necessity.

    1. The congruency, it should be so. It is fit that he that beggeth mercy should show mercy; it is exceedingly congruous. For this is a general rule: that we should do as we would be done unto; and, therefore, if we need mercy from God, we should show mercy to others, and without it we can never pray in faith. He that doth not exercise love can never pray in faith. Why? His own revengeful disposition will still prejudice his mind, and make him conclude against the audience of his prayers; for certainly we muse on others as we use ourselves. And that is one reason of our unbelief, why we are so hardly brought to believe all that tender mercy which is in God; because it is so irksome to us to forgive seven times a day, we are apt to frame our conclusions according to the disposition of our own heart. Can we think God will forgive when we ourselves will not forgive? A man's own prayers will be confuted. What is more equal than to do as we would be done unto? And therefore it is but equal, if he entreat mercy for himself, he should show it unto others. Look, as the centurion reasoned of God's power, from the command that he had over his soldiers: Mat, viii. 9, I am a man under authority, and I say to one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh.' Those things we are accustomed to, they are apt to run in our minds when we come to think of God. Now he that kept his soldiers under discipline that if he said, Go, they go, he reasons thus of God: Surely God hath power to chase away diseases. So accordingly should we reason of God's mercy according to the mercy that we find in ourselves. Therefore it is very notable that when Christ had spoken of forgiving our brethren, not only seven times, but seventy times seven,' the disciples said unto the Lord, Increase our faith,' Luke xvii. 5. How doth this come in? In the 4th verse Christ had spoken that they should forgive not only seven times, but seventy times seven; and they do not say, Lord, increase our charity, but our faith; implying that we cannot have such large thoughts of God when our own hearts are so straitened by revenge and our private passions.

    2. In point of necessity; as it should be so, so it will be so; for God's mercy will have an influence upon us to make us merciful. All God's actions to us imprint their stamp in us. His election of us makes us to choose him and his ways; his love to us makes us love him again, who hath loved us first; so his forgiving of us makes us to forgive our brethren. There is an answerable impression left upon the soul to every act of God. Why? For a true believer is God's image: The new man is created after God.' Eph. iv. 24; and therefore he acts as God. Certainly, if there be such a disposition in our heavenly Father, it will be in us if we have an interest in him. Look, as a child hath part for part, and limb for limb, answerable to his father, though not so big in stature and bulk; so hath a child of God, which is created after God, he hath all the divine perfections in some measure in his soul. And this consideration is of more force, be cause the new creature cannot be maimed and defective in every [26] part, but is entire, lacking nothing. And therefore, if God forgive others, certainly the godly will be inclinable to forgive too.

    Use 1. Here is a ground of trial whether we are pardoned or no: Is our revengeful disposition, that is so natural and so pleasing to us, mortified? That is one trial or evidence whether we are forgiven of God; can we freely from the heart forgive others?

    Object. But it may be objected against this: Do you place so much in this property of forgiving others? It doth not agree only to pardoned sinners, because we see some carnal men are of a weak and stupid spirit, not sensible of injuries. And, on the other side, many of God's children find it hard to obtain [27] to the perfect oblivion of injuries that is required of them.

    Ans. As to the first part, I. answer: We do not speak of this disposition as proceeding from an easy temper, but as it proceedeth from grace; when, in conscience towards God, and out of a sense of his love to us in Christ, our hearts, being tendered and melted towards others, to show them such mercy as we ourselves have received from the Lord; that is the evidence. And again, we do not press to judge by this evidence single and alone, but in conjunction with others; when they are humbly penitent, and confessing their sins, and turn to the Lord, which is the great evangelical condition: Job xxxiii. 27, If any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not,' then will he restore light to him. When a man is soundly touched with remorse, and seeth the folly of his former courses, and asketh pardon of God, then is God gracious to him. But this is that we say, that this disposition of pardon, in conjunction with the great evangelical condition of faith and repentance, it helpeth to make the evidence more clear.

    2. As to the other part of the objection, which was this: it will be a great weakening of the confidence of God's children who cannot get such a perfect oblivion of injuries they have received, but find their minds working too much this way:

    I answer: As long as we live in the world there will be flesh and spirit, corruption as well as grace; there will be an intermixture of the operations of each. Carnal nature is prone to revenge, but grace prevaileth and inclineth to a pardon. Well, then, if this be the prevalent inclination of the soul, and that which we strive by all good means to cherish in us, this meek disposition, passing by of wrongs we receive by others, then we may take comfort by this evidence, though there be some reluctances and regrudgings of the old nature.

    Use 2. To press us to this ready inclination to forgive wrongs and injuries. We are not so perfect but we all need it from one another. There will be mutual offences while we are in the world, especially in a time when religious differences are on foot; therefore it concerns us to look after this disposition of forgiving others, as we would be for given of God. Human society cannot well be upheld without this mutual forbearance and forgiving. Now imitate your heavenly Father. No man can wrong us so much as we daily trespass against him, and yet God pardoneth us. He doth not only pardon the lesser failings, some venial errors, and sins of incogitancy and sudden surreption, which creep upon us we know not how; but he pardons the greatest sins, though they be as scarlet: Isa. i. 18. Those that are of a crimson hue, God can wash them out in the blood of Christ. And mark, what is it then that you will stand upon? Is it the greatness of the offence? God pardons great sins. Or is it the baseness of those that injure you--(this is the circumstance)--when we, have received wrong from those which are our inferiors, that owe us more reverence and respect? What are we to God? Notwithstanding the baseness of those which affront him daily, all men to him are but as the drop of the bucket, and the small dust of the balance,' Isa. xl. 15; yet God pardons them. And then again, cast in the consideration of God's omnipotency. He is able to right himself of the wrongs done to him, and no man can call him to an account. Many times it is not in our power: He can cast body and soul into hell,' Mat. x. 28. God is thus offended, and by saucy dust that is ready to fly in his face, in considerable man; and yet the Lord pardons, and this he doth freely: Luke vii. 42, He frankly forgave them both.' And he pardons fully, as if it were never committed: Micah vii. 19, He casts all our sins into the depths of the sea.' Then he pardons frequently: His free gift is of many offences unto justification.' Rom. v. 16. And he multiplies to pardon,' Isa. lv. 7. And mark, he pardons too (in some sense) before they repent; there is a purpose; he provided Christ before we were born. And he gives us grace to repent, or else we could never humble ourselves at his feet, the offended God; he gives them the grace whereby they shall acknowledge the offence. Christ prayed for his persecutors when they had no sense of the injury they had done him; they were converted by that prayer afterwards: Luke xxiii. 34, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;' therefore certainly much more when they repent and submit. Oh, therefore, let us not be drawn hardly to this duty; or, at least, we should not upon every petty offence cherish hatred and rancour against our brethren.

    But here are certain cases that would come into debate.

    First Case. Whether it be consistent with this temper, forgiving of others, to seek reparation of wrongs in a way of justice, and pursue men at law for offences they have committed against us?

    Ans. Yes. For,

    1. Certainly one law doth not cross another. By the law of charity the law of justice is not made void. A magistrate, though he be a Christian, and bound to forgive others, is not bound up from executing his office against public offenders. Nor yet are private men tied from having recourse to the magistrate for restoration to their right, or reparation of their wrong. For to demand one's right is not contrary to love, nor to seek to amend and humble the party nocent by the magistrate's authority, who is the minister of God for good.' Rom. xiii. 4; and that others may hear and fear.' Deut. xix. 20; and the party damnified may for the future live in peace. Forgiving is an act of private jurisdiction. The offence, as far as it is private to us, it may be forgiven; but there are many such offences as are not only an offence to us, but to the public order, and that must be left to the process of the law.

    2. Whosoever useth this remedy must look to his own heart, that he be not acted with private revenge, nor with a spirit of rigour or rancour against the party offending; but that he be carried out with zeal to justice, with pity to the person, that he and others may not be hardened in sin. For this is the general law of Christ, that all things should be done in love.' 1 Cor. xvi. 14. Therefore when we are acted by our private passion and secret desires of revenge, we abuse God's ordinance of magistracy, and make it to lacquey upon our lusts. And therefore there must be a taking heed to the frame of our own hearts, that they be upright in these things. Though it seem hard to flesh and blood, yet remember flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Grace must frame your hearts to the obedience of God's will.

    3. These remedies from authority must be in weighty cases, and in matters of moment and importance. Their contending in law one with another about the smallest matters is that which the apostle taxeth: 1 Cor. vi. 7. Not upon every trifling occasion. It must be after other means are tried and used; as the help of friends to compound the matter, for charity trieth all things: 1 Cor. xiii. 4. And the apostle saith, 1 Cor. vi. 5, Is there none to judge between you?' that is, none to decide and arbitrate the difference, for the refuge to authority should be our last remedy. And it must be too when the party wronging is able to make satisfaction, otherwise it is rigour and inhumanity: 2 Kings iv. 1. As when the creditors came to take the sons of the widow for bondmen. When you are rigorous with those that come to poverty, not by their own default, but by the discharge of their duty brought poverty upon themselves, it is contrary to Christianity. Look, as physicians deal with quicksilver, after many distillations they make it useful in medicines; so, after many preparations is this course to be taken.

    Second Case. Whether, in forgiving injuries, we are bound to tarry for the repentance of the party? The ground of doubting is, because Christ saith, Luke xvii. 3, If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and, if he repent, forgive him;' and because of God's example, who doth not forgive an obstinate sinner, but him that repents. Certainly, even before repentance, we are bound to lay aside revenge, and in many cases to go and reconcile ourselves with others. Saith our Saviour, If thou hast aught against any one, [28] go reconcile thyself to him, and then come and offer thy gift.' It is not said, If any have aught against thee, but, If thou hast aught against any one*. 1 I confess, in some cases, it is enough to lay it aside before the Lord. But at other times, we are to seek reconciliation with the party which hath wronged us. But this case is mightily to be guided by spiritual prudence. As for God's example, God is superior, bound to none, he acts freely; it is his mercy that pardons any; and yet God gives us a heart to repent of his good pleasure,--he begins with a sinner. But this is nothing to our case who are under law, who are bound to forgive others.

    III. The person to whom we pray, Our heavenly Father.

    The note is, that God doth alone forgive sin.

    There is a double forgiveness of sin--in heaven and in a man's own conscience; and therefore sometimes compared to the blotting out of something out of a book, sometimes to the blotting out of a cloud. To the blotting out of a book: Isa. xliii. 25, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins;' that it may be no more remembered or charged upon us. To the blotting out of a cloud: Isa. xliv. 22, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins;' as the sun when it breaketh forth in its strength dispelleth the mists and clouds. Sin interposeth as a cloud, hindering the light of God's countenance from shining forth upon us. Both these are God's work; to blot the book and to blot out the cloud.

    1. Pardoning of sin in the court of heaven, it belongeth to God peculiarly: Dan. ix. 9, To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses,' &c. It is God alone can do it, for two reasons:--

    [1.] He is the wronged party.

    [2.] He is the supreme judge.

    (1.) He is the wronged party, against whom the offence is committed: Ps. li. 4, Against thee, against thee only, have I sinned.' He had sinned against Bathsheba, against Uriah, whose death he projected. How is it said against thee only'? There may be wrong and hurt done to a creature, but the sin is against God, as it is a breach of his law, and a despising of his sovereign authority; the injury done to the creature is nothing in comparison of the offence done to God, against so many obligations wherein we stand bound to him. Amongst men, we distinguish between the crime and the wrong. And a criminal action is one thing, and an action of wrong and trespass is another. If a man steal from another, it is not enough to make him restitution, but he must satisfy the law.

    (2.) He is the supreme judge. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as one God, are the judge of all the earth, to whom they must be accountable for the offence: Gen. xviii. 25, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?' But in the mystery of redemption, the Father, as first in order of the persons, is represented as the judge, to whom the satisfaction is tendered, and who doth authoritatively pass a sentence of absolution. And therefore it is said, 1 John ii. 1, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' He is to deal with him as the supreme judge; and it is God that justifieth.' Rom. viii. 33. The whole business of our acquitment is carried on by the Father, who is to receive the satisfaction, and our humble addresses for pardon.

    But to answer some objections that may arise.

    Object. 1. It is said, Mat. ix. 6, The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.'

    I answer: That is brought there as an argument of his Godhead. He that was the Son of man was also very God; and therefore upon earth, in the time of his humiliation, he had power to forgive sins, for he ceased not to be God when incarnate. And it became him to discover himself, as by his divine power in the work of miracles, so his divine authority in the forgiveness of sins.

    Object. 2. Is taken from the text, Forgive us our debts, as we for give those that trespass against us.'

    I answer: In sin, there is the obliquity or fault in it, and the hurt or detriment that redounds to man by it. As it is a breach of the law of God, or an offence to his infinite majesty, God can only pardon it, or dispense with it. As it is a hurt to us, so restitution is to be made to man, and man can pardon or forgive it.

    Object. 3. It is said, John xx. 23, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.' So that it seemeth man hath a power to remit sins.

    I answer: They do it declaratively, and by commission from God. The officers of the church have the keys of the kingdom of heaven committed to them; the key of knowledge or doctrine, and the key of order and discipline. Accordingly this power is called, The keys of the kingdom of heaven.' Mat. xvi. 19. And the use of them is to open or shut the doors of God's house, and to bind or loose,' as the expression is, Mat. xviii. 18. That is, to pronounce guilty and liable to judgment, or to absolve and set free declaratively and in God's name; or, as it is literally expressed in the place alleged, to remit or retain. The key of doctrine is exercised about all sin as sin, were it never so secret and inward; and the key of order and discipline about sin only as it is scandalous and infectious. Now what they act ministerially, according to their commission, it is ratified in heaven, for it is a declaration or intimation of the sentence already passed there. So that a declarative and ministerial power is given to the church; but the authoritative power of forgiving sins, that God hath reserved to himself. Man can remit doctrinally, and by way of judicial procedure, but that is only by way of commission and ministerial deputation. Such as are penitent, and feel the bonds of their sins, they do declaratively absolve and loose them, or take off the censure judicially inflicted for their scandalous carriage. This ministerial forgiving, however carnal hearts may slight it, both in doctrine and discipline, yet being according to the rules of the word, is owned by God, and the penitent shall feel it to their encouragement, and the obstinate to their terror.

    2. As he pardoneth sin in the conscience; and there God alone can forgive sin, or speak peace to the soul upon a double account:--

    [1.] Because of his authority.

    [2.] Because of his power.

    (1.) Because of his authority. Conscience is God's deputy, and till God be pacified, conscience is not pacified upon sound and solid terms. Therefore it is said, where conscience doth its office, 1 John iii. 20, 21 , If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things; if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.' God is greater than our consciences. His authority is greater, for God is supreme, whose sentence is decisive. Now, though conscience should not do its office, 1 Cor. iv. 4, For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.' All depends upon God's testimony.

    (2.) Because of his power, who only can still the conscience: Isa. lvii. 19, I create the fruit of the lips to be, peace, peace;' that is, the lips of his ministers or messengers, who bring the glad tidings of peace, or the reconcilement of God to his people: and therefore it is called the peace of God,' Phil. iv. 7, as wrought by him. The gospel is a sovereign plaster, but it is God's hand that must make it stick upon the soul, otherwise we hear words and return words: it is by the lively operation of his Spirit that our hearts are settled. God cometh in with a sovereign powerful act upon the soul, otherwise one grief or sad thought doth but awaken another. Till he command loving-kindness,' Ps. xlii. 8, we are still followed with temptation; as the rain swells the rivers, and rivers the sea, and in the sea one wave impelleth another, so doth one temptation raise another.

    Use 1. It reproveth those that do not deal with God about the pardon of their sins. If God alone pardon sins, then God must be sought to about it. For though there be none in earth to call us to an account, yet God may call us to an account; and then what shall we do? Many, if they escape the judgment of man, think they are safe; but alas! your iniquities will find you out. You think they are past, and never more to be remembered; but they will find you out in this world or the next; our business lieth not with man so much as with God. Therefore this should be the question of your souls: Job xxxi. 14, What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?' Which way shall I turn myself when God calleth me to an account? He will come and inquire into our ways; are you provided of an answer? David's sin was secret; his plot for the destruction of Uriah closely carried. Nathan tells him, 2 Sam. xii. 12, Thou didst it secretly.' But, against thee have I sinned.' Many escape blame with men, but God's wrath maketh inquisition for sinners. You cannot escape his search and vengeance if you do not treat with him about a pardon.

    Use 2. It shows the folly of those that have nothing to show for the pardon of their sins, but their own secure presumptions; it is God's act to pardon sin. Man may forget his sin, but if God remember it he is miserable. Man may hide his sin, but if God bring it to light; man may put off the thoughts, but if God doth not put away; man may excuse his sin, but if God aggravate it; the debtor may deny the debt, but if the book be not crossed, he is responsible: Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,' &c. We must have God's act to show for our discharge, then we may triumph: It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?' &c., Rom. viii. 33, 34. God is the offended party, and the supreme judge. Then conscience hath nothing to do with us, nor Satan, neither as accuser or executioner. Not as an accuser, for then he is but a slanderer; not as an executioner, for he is turned out of office: Heb. ii. 14, That he might destroy him that had the power of death, even the devil.' Have you your pardon from God? Is your discharge from him? When have it we from God?

    1. Have it you from his mouth, in the word, or prayer, upon suing to him in Christ's name, and earnest waiting upon him? If men would consider how they come by their peace, they would sooner be undeceived. You were praying and wrestling with God, and so your comfort came. God speaketh peace. But when it groweth upon you, you know not how; it was a thing you never laboured for; like Jonah's gourd, it grew up in a night; it is but a fond dream.

    2. Have it you under his hand? Is it a peace upon scripture terms?--of faith: Rom. v. 1, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:'--repentance: Luke xxiv. 47, That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations,' &c.;--and the exercise of holiness,--then have you God's word to show for it. But if it be not a peace consistent with scripture rules, nay, you are afraid of the word, John iii. 20, you are loth to be tried,--it is a naughty heart.

    3. Have it you under his seal? 2 Cor. i. 22, Who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.' Have you the impress of God upon you, God's seal, his image? Doth the Spirit of promise assure your hearts before God, that you can live in the strength of this comfort and go about duties cheerfully? Then it is God's pardon; otherwise it is but your own absolution, which is worth nothing.

    Use 3. It showeth that we need not fear the censures of men, nor the hatred of the ungodly; for it is God pardoneth, and who can condemn? God will not ask their vote and suffrage who shall be accepted to life and who not: 1 Cor. iv. 3, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment,' &c. A man must expect censure that will be faithful to God; but if he acquit us, it is no matter what our guilty fellow-creatures say.

    Use 4. Is comfort to broken-hearted sinners; to those that need and desire pardon. It is well for them that God doth not put them off to others, but reserveth this power of pardoning sins to himself.

    1. It is his glory to forgive sins: Exod. xxxiii. 18, And he said, I beseech thee show me thy glory;' compared with Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,' &c. It is not only the glory of a man, who is so offensive himself and so passionate, that this passion will draw him to what is unseemly, but of God.

    2. It is his glory, not only above the creatures, but above all that is called god in the world: Micah vii. 18, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.' The heathen gods were known by their terrors rather than their benefits, and feared rather for their revenges than their mercies. We may boast of him above all idol gods upon this account. He is known among his people, not so much by acts of power, as acts of grace, and the greatness of his mercy, in pardoning sins for Christ's sake.

    3. He is willing to dispense a pardon: Micah vii. 18, He delighteth in mercy.' God delighteth in himself, and all his attributes, and the manifestation of them in the world; but above all in his mercy. Justice is his strange act,' Isa. xxviii. 21. There is not anything more pleasing to him. It is the mercy of God that he hath drawn up a petition for us; he would never have taught us to have asked mercy by prayer, if he had not been willing to show us mercy.

    4. God will do it for his own sake, and not for any foreign reasons: Isa. xliii. 25, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,' and out of a respect to his own honour. See how God casts up his accounts. It is mercy: Jer. iii. 12, I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever.' So his truth: Ps. cvi. 45, He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.' Not from any desert of theirs, who do so neglect him and wrong him; God will do it upon his own reasons.

    5. He will do it in such a way as man doth not, in a way of infinite mercy: Hosea xi. 9, I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger; for I am God, and not. man.' It is the great advantage of us sinners that we have to do with God and not man in our miscarriages; for man's pity and mercy may be exhausted, be it never so great. What! seven times a day? But God is infinite. Man may think it dishonourable to agree with an inferior when he stoops not to him; but God is so far above the creature that we are below his indignation. Man is soon wearied, but not God: Isa. lv. 8, 9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'

    I now come to the fourth and last consideration.

    IV. That forgiveness of sins is one great benefit that we must ask of God in prayer. Here it will be needful to show:--

    First, The necessity of treating with God about forgiveness.

    Secondly, The nature of this benefit

    Thirdly, The terms how God dispenseth it.

    First, The necessity will appear in these propositions:--

    1. Man hath a conscience: Rom. ii. 15, Thoughts accusing or excusing,' &c. A beast cannot reflect.

    2. A conscience inferreth a law.

    3. A law inferreth a sanction.

    4. A sanction inferreth a judgment.

    5. A judgment inferreth a condemnation to the fallen creature.

    6. There is no avoiding this condemnation, unless God set up a chancery, or another court of grace.

    7. If God set up another court, our plea must be grace. Of this see more at large, Twenty Sermons,' Sermon 1 on Ps. xxxii. 1, 2.

    Secondly, The nature of this benefit, or manner how God forgiveth.

    1. Freely.

    2. Fully.

    [1.] Freely, and merely upon the impulsions of his own grace: Isa. xliii. 25, I, even I, am he that forgiveth your iniquities for my name's sake.' Nothing else could move him to it but his own mercy; and he could have chosen whether he would have done so, yea or no--for he spared not the angels, but offereth pardon to man, and all men are not actually pardoned. And, therefore, the only reason why he showeth us mercy and not others, is merely his own grace. The intervention of Christ's merit doth not hinder the freedom of it, though dearly purchased by Christ, yet freely bestowed on us. For it is said, Rom. iii. 24, Justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ.' Why? Partly because it was mercy that he would not prosecute his right against us. Partly because he found out the way how to recompense the wrong done by sin unto his majesty, and out of his love sent his Son to make this recompense for us: John iii. 16. It was love set all a-work. And lastly, not excited hereunto by any worth on our parts, but the external moving cause was only our misery, and the internal moving cause his own grace. Nor is the freedom of this act infringed by requiring faith and repentance on our part, because that only showeth the way and order wherein this grace is dispensed, not the cause why. It is not for the worth of our repentance, or as if there were any merit in it. A malefactor, that beggeth his pardon on his knees, doth not deserve a pardon; only the majesty of the prince requireth that it should be submissively asked. These are not conditions of merit, but order; not the cause, but the way of grace's working. And these conditions are wrought in us by grace: Acts v. 31; not required only, but given. In all other covenants, the party contracting is bound to perform what he promiseth by his own strength. But in the covenant of grace, God doth not only require that we should believe and repent, but causeth it in us. Conditions of the covenant are conditions in the covenant. God requireth faith and repentance, and giveth faith and repentance. Compare Isa. lix. 20, with Rom. xi. 26. It is Christ's gift as well as his precept; so that when we come about pardon of sin, we have only to do with grace. We beg pardon, and a heart to receive it. It is a free pardon.

    [2.] It is a full pardon. It is full in several respects. (1.) Because where the party is forgiven, he is accepted with God as if he had never sinned: Ps. ciii. 12, As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.' And Micah vii. 19, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea;' Isa. xxxviii. 17, Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.' It shall not be remembered nor laid to their charge any more. It is true, for a while after they may trouble the conscience, as when the storm ceaseth, the waves roll for a while afterwards; so may sin in the consciences of God's children work trouble, after the fiducial application of the blood of Christ. But the storm ceaseth by degrees; and it is possible that the commitment of new sins may revive old guilt, as a new strain may make us sensible of an old bruise. Yet we must distinguish between the full grant of a pardon, from the full sense of it. When we are not thankful, humble, fruitful, former sins may come into remembrance, and God may permit it, as matter of humiliation to us, and to quicken us to seek after new confirmation of our right and interest. Yet God's pardon is never reversed, nor will the sin be charged again, or put in suit against him, to the final condemnation of the person so pardoned. Once more: though the sins of the justified should be remembered at the day of judgment, it will not be to the confusion of their faces, but the exaltation and praise of the Lord's grace. Then is this acquittance in all respects full. (2.) It is full, because where God forgiveth one sin, he will forgive all: Ps. ciii. 3, Who pardoneth all thy sins;' and Micah vii. 19, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea.' Sins original, actual; of omission, commission; small, great; secret, open; lust that boileth in the heart, and breaketh out in the life; sins of worship, of ordinary conversation. Look in the bill--what owest thou? A Christian is amazed when he cometh to a serious account with God; but the self-judging sinner needeth not be discouraged when he cometh to God. For where God pardoneth all that is past, the fountain stands daily open for him to flee unto, with all his faults as they are committed; and upon the renewing of his faith and repentance, he shall obtain his pardon. All sins are mortal, all of them damnable. Therefore if all sins be not pardoned, he remaineth in danger of the curse, and one sin let alone is sufficient to exclude us out of heaven. Therefore all is pardoned, first or last. Justice hath no more to seek of Christ. And we have all leave to sue out our pardon in Christ's name. He is under that covenant that will pardon all.

    [3.] It is full; because where God forgiveth the sin, he also forgiveth the punishment. It will not stand with God's mercy to forgive the debt, and yet to require the payment. It is a mocking to say, I for give you the debt, and yet cast the man into prison; and to pardon the malefactor, and yet leave him liable to execution. Here in the text, God forgiveth us, as we are bound to forgive our brother, not in part, but in whole. Guilt is nothing but an obligation to punishment (1.) As to eternal punishment, it is clear: Rom. v. 9. The eternal promises and threatenings, being of things absolutely good and evil, are therefore absolute and peremptory, that is certain. (2.) But now as to temporal afflictions, there is some difficulty, for where the whole punishment is done away, such grace and payment of any part of the debt cannot stand together. That pardon which is given upon valuable and sufficient price is full and perfect. Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God for all our sins. How is it, then, that the saints are subject to so many afflictions? (1.) So far as sin remains, so far some penal evil remains: when the dominion of it is broken, there remains no condemnation, but yet some affliction, and when it is wholly gone, there is no evil at all. We are not yet purged from all sin; and, therefore, (2.) these afflictions are not satisfactory punishments, and need not, as to the completing of our justification, but are helps to us, as the furtherance of our sanctification; and so are of great use--[1.] To make us hate sin more. If we only knew the sweetness of it, and not the bitterness, we would not be so shy of it. Now the bitterness of it is seen by the effects: Jer. ii. 19, Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.' [2.] It will cause us to prize our deliverance by Christ. If affliction be so grievous, what would hell be? 1 Cor. xi. 32, But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.' It is a gentle remembrance of hell-pains, or a fair warning to avoid them, when scorched or singed a little. [3.J To make us walk more humbly. We forget ourselves, and are apt to be puffed up. Paul saith, 2 Cor. xii. 7, Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.'

    [4.] It is full, because where God forgiveth sin, there are many consequent benefits.

    (1.) God is reconciled: Rom. v. 1, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' This is the great blessing, and our great work is to make and keep peace with God; to have no cloud between us and his face. Light is pleasant: what then is the light of his countenance, that filleth us with a peace that passes understanding? We would have a powerful friend, especially if we need him: Acts xii. 20; they sought peace with Herod, because their country was nourished by the king's country;' so should we do: we cannot live without God. If sin be pardoned, then we are at peace with God, and may have free access to him, with a free use of all that is his.

    (2.) A heart sanctified is a connexed benefit: 1 Cor. vi. 11, And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus;' and 1 John i. 9. Sin is considerable in the guilt and filth of it, as it rendereth us obnoxious to God's justice, or as it tainteth our faculties and actions. According to this double respect, Christ destroyeth sin, and no man hath benefit by him that is not freed from the guilt and filth thereof. Christ was sent into the world to restore God's image in us. But the image of God consisteth in the participation of holiness, as well as the participation of blessedness; for God, that is happy and blessed, is also holy and good. The filthiness of sin is opposite to holiness, and the guilt of it to blessedness; so that either Christ must restore but half the image of God, or he must give us this double benefit. If he should give us one without the other, many inconveniences would follow; therefore both are given: he justifieth that he may sanctify, and he sanctifieth that he may glorify.

    (3.) Providence is blessed: the curse is taken out of our blessings, and the sting out of our afflictions. As long as sin remains unpardoned our blessings are cursed: Mal. ii. 2, If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.' There will be a worm in our manna, our table will become a snare,' Ps. lxix. 22. But when once sin is pardoned, the sting of misery is taken away: 1 Cor. xv. 56, The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Crosses are not curses.

    (4.) We have a right to heaven, which is the great ground of hope: Rom. v. 10, For it, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.'

    Thirdly, The terms upon which it is dispensed are faith and repentance.

    1. Faith: Acts x. 43, To him give all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.' Faith is necessary to honour the mercy of God, to own the surety, to consent to his undertaking, to encourage the creature to look after this benefit.

    2. Repentance, which implieth a sorrow for sin, with a serious purpose of forsaking it. Sorrow for sin: no man can seriously desire a pardon but he that is touched with a sense of his sin, moved and troubled at it. And then, for purpose of forsaking: Ezek. xxxiii. 12, As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness.' Sin pardoned must be left; otherwise, a pardon given to a wicked man would be a confirmation of his sin, or a concession of leave to sin. Well, then, let us seek pardon of God in this way. __________________________________________________________________

    [25] In a subsequent volume.--ED.

    [26] That is, any.'--ED.

    [27] Qu. attain'?--ED.

    [28] This seems to be inaccurate.--ED.