Mat. VI, 12.] the lord's prayer. 169
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, betbre 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 liad given us life, strength, parts, wealth , that we should do with them what we would, though the gift would oblige us, in point of grati- tude, 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 con- nexion : 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 re- lations, nor that they shall answer for all their talents, strength,
170 AN EXPOSITION OF [MaT. VI. 12.
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 uTroSt/co? Tw Geoj, ' 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 re- venging 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 : Mai. 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.