(2.) The actual remission of all past sins : Kom. iii. 25, ' To declare his righteousness for the remission vf sins that are past, through the lorbearance of God.' It would be a license to sin if his sins were remitted before committed.
(3.) A right to the remission of daily sins, or free leave to make use of the fountain of mercy, that is always running, and is opened in the house of God for the comfort of believers : Zech. xiii. 1, ' In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.'
Secondlv, The utility and profit of such a course. See Sermon on Psalm XXXII. 1, Sermon xx.i
Use. The use is to press us to be often dealing with God about the pardon of our sins, by a general and daily humiliation ; none are exempted from bewailing the evil of sin. The death of Christ doth not put less evil into sin ; it is still damning in its own nature ; it is still the violation of a holy law, an affront to a holy God, an incon- venience to thy precious soul. When Christ paid the price for our sins, it was upon this condition : that we should renew our faith and repentance ; that we should sue out our discharge in his name ; that when we sin we may come and humble ourselves before the Lord. Under the law, if a man were unclean, he was to Avash his clothes before evening ; he was not to sleep in his uncleanness. So if you have defiled yourselves, you should go wash in the laver that God hath appointed. The Lord taught his people under the law the repeating a daily sacrifice, morning and evening. If one be fallen out with another, God hath advised us, before the sun be set, to go and be i-econciled to our brother ; and wilt thou lie under the wrath of God for one night ? If we would oftener use this course, the work of repentance would not be so hard. Wounds are best cured at first, before they are suffered to fester and rankle into a sore ; so are sins before they grow longer upon us. And if we did oftener thus reckon with ourselves, we should have less to do when we come to die. Therefore do as wise merchants ; at the foot of every page draw up the account, so help it forward ; so it will not be hard to sum up a long account, and reckon up our whole lives, and beg a release of all our debts ; therefore daily come and humble )'our«elves before the Lord. The oftener you do this, the sooner you will have the comfort of pardon ; but when you keep oft' from God, and delay, you suffer the loss of peace, and the loss of God's favour ; and hardness of heart, and atheism, and carnal security increase upon you.
^ la a subsequent volume. — Ed.
182 AN EXPOSITION OF [MaT. VI. 12.
As we forgive our debtors.
I come to the last branch. Hence observe : — Doct. 3. Those that woukl rightly pray to be forgiven of God, they must forgive others.
First, I shall give you the explication ; Secondly, The reasons. For explication, I shall speak to three things : —
1. Who are debtors.
2. What respect our forgiving of others hath to God's forgiving of us.
3. In what manner we must forgive others.
First, Who are our debtors. It is not meant in a vulgar sense, of those only which stand engaged for a sum of money due to us ; but of all such as have offended us in word or deed. There is a duty v/e owe to one another, which, when we omit, or act contrary unto it, we are not only debtors to God, but to one another ; and the doers of the injury are bound to repair the wrong, and to make restitution. In this large sense is the word debtors here taken, with respect to the person that hath done the injury. He becomes a debtor, is to make satisfaction, and suffer the punishment which the wrong deserves.
Secondly, What respect hath our forgiving of others to God's for- giving us ?
I shall speak to it negatively and positively.
1. Negatively.
[1.] It is not a meritorious cause, or a merit and price given to God, why he should pardon us, for that is only the blood of Christ. Every act of ours is due, it is imperfect, and no way proportionate to the mercies we expect ; and therefore it cannot be meritorious before God. It is due, it is a duty we are bound to do, and paying off new debts doth not quit old scores. God hath laid such a law upon us, that we are to forgive others. That cannot expiate former offences. And it is imperfect too. The remembrance of injuries sticks too close to us. When we do most heartily and entirely forgive others, even then we have too great a sense of the injury and wrong that is offered to us. Now that which needs pardon cannot deserve pardon. And it is dis- proportionate to the mercy which we expect. What a vast disparity and difference is there between God's pardoning of us and our par- doning of others, whether we respect the persons that are interested in this action, or the subject-matter, or manner and way of doing, or the fruit and issue of the action.