[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 ])erfect ? 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 crea- tures, 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 com- paratively. Now the least mercies some have, and others the greatest temporal things. AVhen 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
Mat, VI. 11.] THE lord's prayer. 157
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. Ixxviii. 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 movecl 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 pardon- ing mercy of God is indeed renewed to them.
APPLICATION.
Use 1. For information, in two branches : —
First, That God Avill give his people temporal things. Not only })ardon, and grace, and glory ; but ' no good thing will he withhold : ' Ps. Ixxxi. 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 reach- eth 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.