3. Have it you under his seal ? 2 Cor. i. 22, ' Who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.' Have you the impress of God upon you, God's seal, his image? Doth the Spirit of promise assure your hearts before God, that you can live in the strength of this comfort and go about duties cheerfully ? Then it is God's pardon ; otherwise it is but your own absolution, which is worth nothing.
Use 3. It showeth that we need not fear the censures of men, nor the hatred of the ungodly ; for it is God pardoneth, and who can con- demn ? God will not ask their vote and suffi-age who shall be accepted to life and who not : 1 Cor. iv. 3, ' But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment,' &c. A man must expect censure that will be faithful to God ; but if he acquit us, it is no matter what our guilty fellow-creatures say.
Use 4. Is comfort to broken-hearted sinners ; to those that need and desire pardon. It is well for them that God doth not put them off to others, but reserveth this power of pardoning sins to himself
1. It is his glory to forgive sins : Exod. xxxiii. 18, ' And he said, I beseech thee show me thy glory ;' compared with Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, ' And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,' &c. It is not only the glory of a man, who_ is so offensive himself and so passionate, that this passion will draw him to what is unseemly, but of God.
2. It is his glory, not only above the creatures, but above all that is called god in the world : Micah vii. 18, ' Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the rem- nant of his heritage ? He retaineth not his auger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.' The heathen gods were known by their terrors rather than their benefits, and feared rather for their revenges than their mercies. We may boast of him above all idol gods upon this account. He is known among his people, not so much by acts of power, as acts of grace, and the greatness of his mercy, in pardoning sins for Christ's sake.
3. He is willing to dispense a pardon : Micah vii. 18, * He delight- eth in mercv.' God delighteth in himself, and all his attributes, and
Mat. VI. 12.] the lord's prayer. 195
the manifestation of them in the world ; but above all in his mercy.
Justice is ' his strange act,' Isa. xxviii. 21. There is not anything more pleasing to him. It is the mercy of God that he hath drawn up a petition for us ; he would never have taught us to have asked mercy by prayer, if he had not been willing to show us mercy.
4. God Avill do it for his own sake, and not for any foreign reasons: Isa. xliii. 25, ' I, even I, am he that blottethout thy transgressions for mine own sake,' and out of a respect to his own honour. See how God casts up his accounts. It is mere}' : Jer. iii. 12, ' I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I Avill not keep anger for ever.' So his truth : Ps. cvi. 45, ' He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.' Not from any desert of theirs, who do so neglect him and wrong him ; God will do it upon his own reasons.
5. He will do it in such a way as man doth not, in a way of infinite mercy : Hosea xi. 9, ' I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger; for I am God, and not man.'" It is the great advantage of us sinners that we have to do with God and not man in our miscarriages ; for man's pity and mercy may be exhausted, be it never so great. What ! seven times a day ? But God is infinite. Man may think it dishon- ourable to agree with an inferior when he stoops not to him ; but God is so far above the creature that we are below his indignation. Man is soon wearied, but not God : Isa. Iv. 8,9,' For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'
I now come to the fourth and last consideration. IV. That forgiveness of sins is one great benefit that we must ask of God in prayer. Here it will be needful to show : —
First, The necessity of treating with God about forgiveness.
Secondly, The nature of this benefit.
Thirdly, The terms how God dispenseth it.
First, The necessity will appear in these propositions : —
1. Man hath a conscience : Eom. ii. 15, ' Thoughts accusing or excusing,' &c. A beast cannot reflect,