3. From this word our, ' our sins,' we learn how just God is in punishing us. The text says, * our sins ;' we are not pu- nished for other men's sins, but our own. Nemo habet de propria, nisi peccatum, Au- gustine. There's nothing we can call so properly ours, as sin. Our daily bread we have from God, our daily sins we have from ourselves. Sin is our own act, a web of our own spinning; how righteous therefore is God in punishing of us ? We sow the seed, and God only makes us reap what we sow, Jer. xvii. 10., " I give every man the fruit of his doings." When we are punished, we but taste the fruit of our own grafting.
4. From this word sins, see from hence the multitude of sins we stand guilty of. We pray not forgive us our sin, (as if it were only a single debt,) but sins, in the plural : so vast is the catalogue of our sins, that David cries out, " Who can understand
liis errors?" Ps. xix. 12. Our sins are like the drops of the sea, like the atoms in the sun, they exceed all arithmetic. Our debts we owe to God, we can no more num- ber, than we can satisfy ; wliich, as it should humble us, to consider how full of bl.'ick spots our souls are, so it should put us upon seeking after the pardon of our sins. And this brings to the second use.
Exhortation. To labour to have the for- giveness of sin sealed up to us. How can we eat, or drink, or sleep without it ? 'Tis sad dying witluuit a pardon ; this is to fall into the labyrinth of despair; of this the next time.
Use 2d. Let us labour for the for<nvc- ness of sm. If ever this was needful, then now, when the times ring changes, and dan- ger seems to be marching towards us. Labour, I say, for the forgiveness of sin ; this is a main branch of the charter or co- venant of grace, Heb. viii. 12., " I will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and iniquities I will remember no more." It is mercy to feed us, but it is rich mercy to pardon us ; this is spun and woven out of the bowels of free-grace. Earthly things are no signs of God's love ; he may give the venison, but not the bles- sing; but when God seals up forgiveness, he gives his love and heaven with it, Ps. xxi. 3., " Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head." A crown of gold was a mercy, but if you look into Ps. ciii. you shall find a greater mercy, v. 3, 4., " Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who crowneth thee with loving kindness." To he crown- ed with forgiveness and loving kindness, is a fiir greater mercy than to have a crown of pure gold set upon the head. It was a mercy when Christ cured the palsy man , but when Christ said to him, " thy sins be forgiven," Mark, ii, 5., this was more than to have his palsy healed ; forgiveness of sin is the chief thing to be sought after; .ind sure, if conscience be once touched witli a sense of sin, there is nothing a man will thirst after more than forgiveness, Ps. li. 3,, " My sin is ever bcf«»re me." This made David so earnest for pardor., Ps. li. 1., " Have mercy upon me, O God ; blot out my transgressions." If one should have come to David, and asked him, " David
532
OF THE FIFTH PETITION IN THE LOKD'S PRAYER.