Is. xliii. 25. And, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? Micah vii. 18. Now, how glorious is it to imitate God, in that, which he himself counts his chiefest glory! The great ones of the earth imitate him, in power and authority; and are some kind of glimmering types of his majesty, who daunts and dazzles all approachers: but a poor contemptible Christian, whose meanness lays him open and exposed to all the wrongs and injuries of abusive and insulting wretches, may represent a far greater glory of God, than that wherein princes and monarchs shine; even his forbearance, pity, longsuffering, and pardon: he may represent God sitting upon his Throne of Grace; whereas the other represents him only sitting upon his Throne of Power. Now God never triumphs more in any attribute, than that of his mercy. See with what fair flourishes he writes his name: Exod. xxxiv. 6. The Lord, the Lord God: infinite in power; that spreads forth the heavens, and rangeth all the host of them; that hangs up the earth in the midst of the air, and the whole world in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing; that pours out the great deep, and measures it in the hollow of his hand; that rides upon the wings of the wind, and makes the clouds the dust of his feet! No: but, when he would display himself in his greatest glory, he doth it in a still voice: The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin. Now, O Christian, by forgiving those who have wronged thee, thou makest thyself as a God unto them; and imitatest him, in that, wherein he doth chiefly glory.

(2dly) It is more honourable, because to pardon is always the act of a superior: it is a prerogative of royalty; and highly becomes the majesty of those, whom Christ hath made Kings as well as Priests; and, certainly, they cannot better declare themselves such, than by issuing out pardons.

Think, therefore, with thyself, O Christian, when thou art wronged and affronted, think what an advantage the petulancies of froward men do give thee to make thyself their superior: it is but pardoning them, and thou ascendest the throne. And, certainly, they can never so much triumph over thee by their injuries, as thou mayest over them by forgiveness.

And so much for the First Motive.

2dly. Consider how many offences God hath forgiven thee,

and this will be an effectual motive to engage thee to forgive others.

And here consider who it is that hath forgiven thee, and what it is he hath forgiven thee.

(1st) Consider who it is that hath forgiven thee.

And, here, consider the infinite distance, that is between thee and him. He is the Sovereign Lord and Creator of All; in comparison with whom thou art nothing, yea less than nothing. He stands in no need of thee, but whether thou live or die, perish or art saved, he is the same God, for ever blessed in himself. He is able to destroy thee every moment, able to breathe thee back into thy dust, to look thee into hell and destruction. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance: Ps. lxxx. 16. And yet this High and Absolute Lord at thy entreaty, freely forgives thee all thy debts; although he might have gotten himself a great renown in thy everlasting perdition, and might have set thee up as a flaming monument of his wrath, and inscribed on thee victory and triumph to the glory of his everlasting vengeance. And shouldst not thou then, O Man, O Worm, forgive thy fellow-servant; one, of the same mold and materials with thyself; one, to whom perhaps thou art no way superior, unless that he hath now given thee an opportunity of pardoning him; one, who possibly may hereafter be helpful unto thee, and in agreement and peace with whom thou mayest find much comfort and good to thyself; shouldst thou not much more forgive him? Certainly, God may very well think thee unworthy of his pardon, who art infinitely his inferior, if thou canst not think those worthy of thy pardon, who in nature are thy equals.

(2dly) Consider, the wrongs and debts, that God hath forgiven thee, are infinitely greater than those thou art to forgive unto men. Their offences against thee are but pence; but thine against God are talents. And, as there is a vast disproportion in the nature of the offences, so is there likewise in the number of them: the servant in the parable, whom his lord forgave, owed him ten thousand talents; but his fellow-servant, whom this wretch would not forgive, owed him but a hundred pence: Mat. xviii. So is it with us: our sins against God, for the greatness of them are talents, for the number of them are ten thousand. In every thing we do we wrong the glory of God, and are continually offending him: but men do not always wrong us; or, if

they did, yet the least of our offences against God is far more heinous, than the greatest of men's can be against us. We can

not speak of him, nor to him, but that by our unworthy and low conceptions we revile him far more, than any man can do us by the most studied and bitter invectives. The least irreverend thought of God is a greater injury against him, than it would be against us if men should wound or stab us.

And yet, although thy deeds be as great as talents, and so numerous as many thousand talents, yet thy Lord and Master frankly forgave thee all. And this should, by all the obligations of ingenuity, constrain thee to forgive thy fellow-servant so small debts as a hundred pence, when he hath not wherewithal to make thee satisfaction. See how our Saviour presseth this in the fore-cited place: Matt. xviii. 32. I forgave thee all that debt, thou owedst me, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? Certainly, if ever thou accountedst the pardoning grace and mercy of God sweet and precious, I will not say thou shouldst be glad of wrongs that thou mightest have occasion to pardon them: but yet certainly thou shouldst most cordially embrace all such occasions, if it were but only to recommend the excellency of thy charity unto others; as divine love hath recommended its fulness and riches to thy dearest esteem. And that is the Second Motive.

But,

3dly. Consider the binding particle in the text: Forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

And now think with thyself, that thou dost but bind and seal the guilt of thy sins upon thy own soul, unless thou art willing and ready to forgive others. Thou, who art revengeful and implacable, instead of praying, pronouncest the most direful and dreadful curse that can be against thyself; and beggest of God, no more to forgive thee, than thou dost forgive those that have offended thee: and so thy prayer is not only turned into sin, but into a snare and curse; and thou passest upon thyself the tremendous sentence of thine own eternal damnation: for, if thou prayest that God would forgive thee as thou forgivest others, thou either cursest thyself, or else thou must forgive them. [4] Now this forgiving of others must have these qualifications.

1st. It must be unfeigned and cordial from thy very heart and soul: for so thou wouldst have God forgive thee.

It is not enough to forbear outward revenge; but thou must not harbour in thy breast the least grudge or prejudice against them. God forgives so as to forget: but if thou keepest malice raked up in thy heart, till thou canst find a fit opportunity to vent it in revenges; how canst thou but expect that God likewise should take his advantage against thee; and, when it would make most for the glory of his justice, break forth upon thee and exercise his vengeance in thy everlasting destruction?

2dly. Thou art obliged likewise to forgive freely, without any recompence or satisfaction from others.

If the injury be supportable, we ought not so much as expect or desire satisfaction: if it be otherwise, and yet the persons offending unable to make satisfaction, we ought to forgive them without taking any unmerciful revenge upon them: which is the wicked custom of many, who will cast their insufficient debtors into prison, and there let them starve and rot; though by this cruelty they cannot satisfy their debt, but their malice and revenge.

3dly. We must forgive others fully and completely: for God doth so.

He pardons our sins so fully, that they are in his account as if they had never been committed; and so must we pardon injuries wholly and fully, as if there had never been any done us. This the Apostle observes towards the Galatians, who were a people as injurious to his ministry and authority as any could be; and yet he forgives it so fully, that he tells them, Gal. iv. 12. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. And, to express all this, we must blot out the remembrance of all wrongs, and be ready cheerfully to take all occasions to do good unto them: yea, not only to take them, but to seek them: this will be a plain evidence, that no leaven of malice or revenge hath soured our spirits.

Well, then, to sum and close up all: what is it thou canst plead for revenge, which the consideration of God's pardoning thee will not abundantly answer? Is it, that the wrongs, that others have done thee, are great and insupportable? what! are they more intolerable, than thy sins against God? Is it, that he is a vile and inferior person unto thee? how much more art thou

so unto God! Is it, that he hath often wronged thee? are they not ten thousand talents, that God hath forgiven thee? Is it, that he will be emboldened to wrong and injure thee again? possibly so: but thou art not certain of it: however, consider how often thou hast abused the mercy of God, to encourage thee in sinning against him. Is it, that men will think thee base and cowardly, if thou puttest up such wrongs and injuries? seek thou the honour -that cometh from God, and not the vain foolish repute of men. But is God indeed accounted faithful, in pardoning thee? or doth he spare thee, because he dare not strike thee? Certainly, there is no offence, nor an aggravation of any offence, that can be pleaded as a reason for revenge, but the same may, in a greater measure and in a higher proportion, be pleaded why God should revenge himself upon thee: and yet, if, notwithstanding this, thou hopest for pardon and forgiveness from him, go then to thy brother and do likewise.

And thus I have finished the Fifth Petition: the matter of which being of such vast and important consequence, I have expatiated beyond what my first intended method would allow. I shall contract myself in what remains, and keep myself within the limits of an Exposition.

vi. We are now come unto the SIXTH and Last Petition of this most Excellent and Divine Prayer: which some divide into two; making the one negative, Lead us not into temptation; and the other positive, but deliver us from evil. But the matter being not great, whether they be one or two, I shall not contend about it.

1. And here, before I come to speak of the petition itself, I shall, as I have done in the former, speak something concerning the reason and wisdom of its Order and Method.

And the only thing that I shall remark, is, that, whereas it immediately follows upon that petition wherein we beg the pardon of our sins, that we may not be led into temptation; this ought to teach us, that it should be our care, not only to seek for the pardon of our past sins, but to endeavour the prevention of sin for the future.

And, therefore, as, when our Saviour cured the impotent man that had lain a long time at the pool of Bethesda without relief,