never to ask for pardon of sins. One text like this is worth a hundred arguments. The Lord Jesus bids us do it, and there- fore it ought to be done.
The justification of every believer no doubt is a finished and perfect work, and one admitting of no degrees, no increase and no diminution. The moment a man believes on Christ, he is as much justified as St. Paul or St. John, and cannot be more justified if he lives to the age of Methuselah. But all this is no reason why he should not daily confess his sins, and daily seek fresh application of Christ's blood to his conscience. In fiewt, it is the life of faith to do so. The words of our Lord, in another place, are very teaching: "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet." (John xiii. 10.)
[Indebted to us.] Whitby and Hammond both remark that this expression has a sense much stronger than it appears, at first sight, to bear. Hammond says, that in the Syriac language, which our Lord very probably spoke, a sinner is called " a debtor."
Let it not be forgotten that every unforgiving and implacable man, who uses the Lord's Prayer, is practically praying that his own sin may not be forgiven at all. He is professing a lie.
[Lead us.] The Greek word rendered "lead" is only used seven times in the New Testament. Excepting in the Lord's Prayer, our translators have always rendered it " bring into." Luke V. 18, 19 ; Acts ivii. xx; 1 Tim. vi. 7 ; Heb. xiii. 11.
[From evil.] The words so translated might have been ren- dered, with equal correctness, " the evil one," that is, "the devil." They are so rendered in Matt. xiii. 19, and xiii. 38, and 1 John ii. 13, 14, and 1 John iii. 12, and v. 18.
I caimot leave the subject of the Lord's Prayer, without remarking that those who profess to believe in an " unanimous consent of the Fathers" in the interpretation of Scripture, would do well to observe the exceedingly various senses which the Fathers attach to the several clauses of the Lord's Prayer. No man can investigate this point without discovering that the Fathers are no more agreed among themselves as to the mean- ing of Scripture, than GiU and A. Clarke, or Thomas Scott and Mant. A summary of various interpretations of the Lord's Prayer by the fathers will be found in Cumming's Lectures for the Times. (Edit. 1845. p. 174.)
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