Use 1. The use is, first, to show us the misery of an impenitent,
Mat. VI. 12.] the lord's prayer. 175
nnpardoned sinner ; he hath a vast debt upon liim, that will surely undo him unless he doth in time get a discharge. He is bound over to suffer the wrath of God for evermore, and no hand can loose him but God's. Many times they think of no such matter, and cry, ' Peace, peace,' to themselves ; but it is not the debtor which must cancel the book, but the creditor. Have )'ou a discharge. from God? where is your legal qualification ? poor creatures, what will you do ? Many take care that they may owe nothing to any man ; oh ! but what do you owe to God ? To live in doubt and in fear of an arrest, oh, what misery is that ! But when sin lieth at the door, ready to attack you every moment and hale you to the prison of hell, that is most dread- ful. Therefore think of it seriously ; how do accounts stand between God and you? Sinners are loth to think of it. When the lord came to reckon with his servants, Mat. xviii. 24, it is said, ' One was brought to him which owed him ten thousand talents :' he was loth to come to an account, he would fain keep out of the way, but he was brought to him. So we are unwilling to be called to account, we shift and delay, and will not think of ouv misery : but the putting off sin will not put it aiuay ; our not thinking of our misery will not help us out, and will not be a release and discharge.
2. If sins be debts, and an increasing debt, so that man is ever treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath ; it presseth us to be more careful to get out of this condition. Saith Solomon, Prov. vi. 3-5 : If thou beest in debt, ' flee as a swift roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.' Oh, it is a sad thing to lie in our sins ! If you be under this debt, ' give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids ; get away like the swift roe from the hand of the hunter,' &c. And what I say concerning a state of sin, I say concerning daily failings ; make your peace with God betimes; if you have contracted a new debt, make all even be- tween God and your souls, that you may not sleep in your sins.
3. This should make us more cautious that we do not commit sin : why ? it is a debt that will render you obnoxious to the wrath of God ; in itself it merits eternal death : oh, therefore, sin no more, do not run again into the snare ! When you give way to sin, you hazard the comfort of your acquittance by Christ : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' The Lord will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints ; but let them not turn again to folly.' If the Lord hath given you your peace, and some hope of your being discharged of this heavy debt, take heed of meddling with forbidden fruit, and running into debt again.
II. From the subject or persons which make this prayer, ' Forgive us,' observe,
Doct. Even those that call God Father, ought to beg, daily and humbly, pardon of their sins.
Forgive us ; who is that us that can say in faith, Our Father, daily? For this is a pattern for daily prayer, as the word (ji][jLepov in the former petition noteth. We need beg, for Christ hath taught us here to sue out our discharge : in which begging there is an exercise of faith eyeing Christ : Eom. iii. 25, ' God hath set forth him to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' And there is an exercise also of repent- ance, as to mourning for sin : 1 John i. 9, and Prov. xxviii. 13, 'He
17G AN EXPOSITION OF [MaT. VI. 12.
that confesseth and forsaketh his sin, shall have mercy :' and as to loathing of sin, Acts iii. 19, ' Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.' And certainly it must be humbly begged ; for if we seek pardon we must seek it in God's way. We do not beg God to rescind and make void his laws, and those wise consti- tutions he hath appointed whereby the creature shall receive this grace ; and the manner wherein he will deal and transact this business with the offending creature : but we seek it as exercising our renewed repentance ; that is, mourning for sin, and loathing of sin. But of this more hereafter.
Now, that the best of God's children should be dealing with God about a pardon of their sins, I shall argue it : —
1. From the necessity.
2. The utility and profit of such a course.
First, The necessity of this will appear two ways : —
[1.] From the condition of God's children here in the world.
[2.] From the way wherein God will give out a pardon.