First, In the persons pardoning. What proportion can there be between God and man, the Creator and the creature ? God he is most free, and bound to none, of infinite dignity and perfection, Avhich can neither be increased nor lessened by any act of ours, for him or against him ; but we live in jierfect dependence upon God's pleasure, are subject to his command, and bound to do his will ; and therefore what is our forgiving our fellow-creatures, made out of the same dust, animated by the same soul, and every way equal with us by nature, when they wrong us in our petty interests ? What proportion is there between this forgiving and God's forgiving ? he that is of so infinite a majesty, his forgiving the violations of his holy law ?
Mat. VI, 12.] the lord's prateh. 183
And secondly, To the subject-matter, that wliich is forgiven, there is no proportion. When we compare the multitude or magnitude, the greatness, and the number of offences forgiven of the one side and the other, we see there is a mighty disproportion. We forgive pence, and God talents ; we an hundred pence, he ten thousand talents: Mat. xviii.
So, thirdly, The manner of forgiving : on God's part, by discharging us freely, and exacting a full satisfaction from Christ ; therefore oiu* forgiving can hold no comparison with it, which is an act of duty, and conformity to God's law.
And fourthly. As to the fruit and issue of the action. Our good and evil doth not reach to God. Though our forgiving of others be an action of profit to ourselves, yet no fruit redounds to God. And therefore there being no proportion between finite and infinite, there can be no such proportion between our forgiving and God's forgiving, as that this act may be meritorious before God. Thus it is not brought here as merit, as that which doth oblige and bind God meritoriously to forgive us.
[2.] It is not a pattern or rule. We do not mean our forgiving should be a pattern of forgiving to God. So as is taken, indeed, ver. 10, ' Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; ' there it implies a conformity to the pattern. But when we say, ' Forgive us, as we forgive,' it doth not mean here a pattern or rule. We imitate God, but God doth not imitate us, in forgiving offences ; and it would bo ill with us if God should forgive us no better than we forgive one another. God is matchless in all his perfections ; there is no work like his : Ps. Ixxxvi. 8. As God is matchless in other things, so in pardoning mercy. ' As the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts : ' Isa. Iv. 9. And upon this very occasion the Lord will multiply to pardon : ' As far as the heavens,' &c. This is the greatest distance we can conceive. The heavens, they are at such a vast distance from the earth, that the stars, though they be great and glorious luminaries, yet they seem to be but like so many spangles and sparks. This is the distance and disproportion which is made between God's mercy and ours: Hosea xi. 9, 'I will not return to destroy Ephraim ; for I am God, and not man.' If God should forgive but only as man doth, it would be ill for Ephraim if he had to do with revengeful man. God acteth according to the infiuiteness of his own nature, far above the law and manner of all created beings. Therefore it is not put here as a pattern and rule.
[3.] It doth not import priority of order, as if our acts had the precedency of God's ; or as if Ave did or could heartily forgive others before God hath shown any mercy to us. No ; in all acts of love, God is first ; his mercy to us is the cause of our mercy to others. As the wall reflects and casts back the heat upon the stander-by when first warmed with the beams of the sun, so, when our hearts are melted with a sense of God's mercy, his love to us is the cause of our love and kindness to others : 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him, because he first loved us ;' that is, we love him, and others for his sake ; for love to God implies that. Why ? Because he hath been first with us. And then it is the motive and pattern of it. In that parable. Mat.
184 AX EXPOSITION OF [Mat. VI. 12.
xviii. 32, 33, God's forgiving is the motive to our forgiving : ' I forgave thee all thy debt ; and shouldest not thou have compassion on thy fellow-servant ?' In those that have true pardon it causeth them to forgive others out of a sense of God's mercy ; that is, they are disposed and inclined to show mercy to others. But in others that think themselves pardoned, and have only a temporary pardon and reprieve (such as is there spoken of), it is a motive which should prevail with them, though it doth not. Nay, it is the pattern of our love to others : Eph. iv. 32, ' Forgiving one another, even as God for Chi'ist's sake hath forgiven you ; ' in that manner, and according to that example.