3. That God requires this forgiveness in us upon the account of the forgiveness ive receive from him; which is to put the gxeatest obligation upon us unto it that Ave are capable of, and to give the strongest and most powerful motive possible unto its performance. See Eph. iv. 32.
4. That this duty is more directly and expressly required in the New Testament than in the Old. Required then it was, but not so openly, so plainly, so expressly as now. Hence we find a different frame of spirit between them under that dispensation and those under that of the New Testament. There are found amongst them some such reflections upon their enemies, their oppressors, persecu- tors, and the like, as although they were warranted by some actings of the Spirit of God in them, yet, being suited unto the dispensation they were under, do no way become us now, who, by Jesus Christ, receive " grace for. grace." So Zechariah, Avhen he died, cried, " The Lord look upon, and require ;" but Stephen, dying in the same cause and manner, said, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Elijah called for fire from heaven; but our Saviour reproves the least in- clination in his disciples to imitate him therein. And the reason of this difference is, because forgiveness in God is under the New Testament far more dearly (especially in the nature and cause of it) discovered in the gospel, which hath brought life and immortality to light, than it was under the law; for all our obedience, both in matter and manner, is to be suited unto the discoveries and revela- tion of God unto us.
5. This forgiveness of others is made an express condition of our obtaining pardon and forgiveness from God, Matt. vi. 14, 15; and the nature hereof is expressly declared, chap, xviii. 23-35. Such evangelical conditions we have not many. I confess they have no causal ivjiuence into the accomplishment of the promise; but the non-performance of them is a sufficient bar against our pretending
Vcr. 4.] EVIDENCE or FOEGIVENESS WITH GOD. 497
to the promise, a sufficient evidence that we have no pleadable in- terest in it. Our forgiving of others will not procure forgiveness for ourselves ; but our not forgiving of others proves that we ourselves are not forgiven. And all these things do show what weight God himself lays on this duty.
Secondly, Observe that this duty is such as that there is nothing more comely, liseful, or honourable unto, or praise^vorthy in, any, than a due jierformance of it. To be morose, implacable, inexor- able, revengeful, is one of the greatest degeneracies of human na- ture. And no men are commonly, even in this world, more branded with real infamy and dishonour, amongst wise and good men, than those who are of such a frame, and do act accordingly. To remem- ber injuries, to retain a sense of A\Tongs, to watch for opportunities of revenge, to hate and be maliciously perverse, is to represent the image of the devil unto the world in its projDer colours ; he is the great enemy and self-avenger. On the other side, no grace, no vir- tue, no duty, no ornament of the mind or conversation of man, is in itself so lovely, so comely, so praiseworthy, or so useful unto man- kind, as are meekness, readiness to forgive, and pardon. This is tliat principally which renders a man a good man, for whom one would even dare to die. And I am sorry to add that tliis grace or duty is recommended by its rarity. It is little found amongst the children of men. The consideration of the defect of men here- in, as in those other fundamental duties of the gospel, — in self- denial, readiness for the cross, and forsaking the world, — is an evi- dence, if not of how little sincerity there is in the world, yet at least it is of how little growing and thriving there is amongst pro- fessors.
Thirdly, That there is no grace, virtue, or perfection in any man, hut luhat is as an emanation from the divine goodness and bounty, so expressive of some divine excellencies or perfection, — somewhat that is in God, in a way and manner infinitely more excellent. We were created in the image of God. Whatever was good or comely in us was a part of that image; especially the ornaments of our minds, the perfections of our souls. These things had in them a re- semblance of, and a correspondency unto, some excellencies in God, whereunto, by the way of analogy, they may be reduced. This being, for the most part, lost by sin, a shadow of it only remaining in the faculties of our souls and that dominion over the creatures which is permitted unto men in the patience of God, the recovery that we have by grace is nothing but an initial renovation of the image of God in us, Eph. iv. 24. It is the implanting upon our natures those graces which may render us again like unto him. And nothing is grace or virtue but what so answers to somewhat in
VOL. VI. 32
498 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. [Yer. -l-.
God. So, then, whatever is in us of this kind is in God absolutely, perfectly, in a way and manner infinitely more excellent.