First The Petition Forgive us our Debts Secondly The Condition or Proportion or Plea and Argument call it which you will for the obtaining of this forgiveness as we forgive our Debtors In the Petition we may observe that the same which our Evangelist calls Debts is by St. Luke 11.4 called Sins Forgive us our Sins We stand indebted to God both as we are his Creatures and as we are Offenders By the one we owe him the Debt of Obedience and by the other the Debt of Punishment First As we are Creatures we owe the Debt of Obedience And to the payment of this Debt we stand bound both to the absolute Sovereignty of God who is the Supreme Lord of all his Creatures and therefore may oblige them to what he pleaseth and likewise by his manifold Favours and Mercies conferred upon us From him we have received our Beings and all our Comforts he maintains us at his own Cost and Charge he enlargeth us when we are in Streights relieves us when we are in Wants Counsels us when we are in Doubts Comforts us when we are in Sorrows Delivers us in our Dangers and besides the manifold Temporal Mercies we daily receive from him gives us the Means the Hopes and Promises of obtaining far better things at his Hands even Eternal Life and Glory And therefore certainly upon these Accounts we owe him all possible Service and Obedience And indeed it is but Reason we should employ all for him from whom we receive all and give up our selves to his Service who are what we are by his Bounty and hope to be infinitely better than now we are through his Mercy Now this Debt of Obedience is irremissible and we are eternally and indispensably bound unto it For it is altogether inconsistent with the Notion and Being of a Creature to be discharged from its Obligation to the Laws and Commands of its Creator for this would exempt it from the Dominion of God and make it Absolute and Independent that is it would make the Creature to be no longer a Creature but a Deity We do not therefore pray that God would forgive us this Debt no he cannot so far deny himself and it is our Happiness and Glory to pay it To this his Sovereignty obligeth our Subject Condition and his Mercy and Goodness our Ingenuity Secondly As we are Transgressors so we owe God a Debt of Punishment to be suffered by us to make God some reparation to his Honour and satisfaction to his Justice for our transgressing his Law which sentenceth all Offenders to Eternal Death and Damnation This Debt now is that which we pray God would forgive us a Debt which if we pay we are eternally ruined and undone and there is no way possible to escape the payment of it but by the free Grace and Mercy of God remitting of it unto us And thus Sin is called a Debt not indeed properly as if we owed it but by a Metonymy as it is the meritorious Cause of this punishment the suffering of which we owe to Divine Justice Hence by the way we may observe that every Sin makes us liable to Eternal Death for Death and Damnation is the Debt which we must pay to the Justice of God and Sin is that which exposeth us unto it by the Sentence of the Law which we have transgressed For as against other Debtors is brought forth some Bond or Obligation to exact payment from them So against us is produced the Hand-writing of the Law and we not having performed the Condition of the Bond stand liable to the Forfeiture and Penalty which is no less than Curses and Woes and Torments and Everlasting Death Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 And the Wages of Sin is Death Rom. 6.23 And the Soul that sinneth it shall Die Ezek. 18.4 Now here to excite thee to a fervency in praying for the forgiveness of thy Debts consider First The infinite multitudes of thy Debts God's Book is full of them and there they stand on account against us under every one of our Names We were born Debtors to God our Original Sin and Guilt obligeth us to punishment and although we did not personally contract the Debt yet as being the wretched Heirs and Executors of fallen Adam the Debt is legally devolved upon us and become ours And ever since we came into the World we have run upon the score with God our Debts are more than our Moments have been for whatsoever we have thought or done hath been Sin either in the matter or at least in the circumstances of it God sets all our Sins down in order in his Debt-book some as Talents and some as Pence Our flagitious Crimes and hainous Impieties our presumptuous Sins committed against Light Knowledge Conscience Convictions Mercies and Judgments each of these God sets down as a Talent And how many thousands of these may we have been guilty of Our Sins of Ignorance Surreption and daily Infirmity are much more innumerable and though they may be but as Pence in comparison with the other yet the unaccountable numbers of them will make the Debt desperate and the payment impossible And yet notwithstanding our Debts are so many and very many of them such great Sums too yet we daily run ourselves farther in Arrears not considering that a Day of Accounts will come when both our Talents and our Pence shall be punctually reckoned up against us not omitting the least Item when every vain Thought and foolish Passion that hath flushed up in us with every idle and superfluous Word that we have unadvisedly spoken as well as the more gross and scandalous Passages of our sinful Lives shall be then audited all which will make the Total Sum infinite and us desperate Secondly That God who is thy Creditor is strict and impartial his Patience hath trusted and forborn thee long but his Justice will at last demand the Debt severely and every particular shall be charged upon thee even to the utmost Farthing for he hath booked down all in his remembrance and will bring all to thine And therefore we have it expressed concerning the last Judgment that the Books were opened and the Dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works Rev. 20.12 What now are these Books but the two great Volumes of God's remembrance and our own Consciences These are two Tallies evenly struck that shall justly represent the same Sum and Debt and God's strict Justice will not then abate thee any thing of its utmost due for he will by no means acquit the Guilty Indeed we are apt to think that because God so long forbears us he will never calls us to make up and adjust Accounts with him Our present impunity tempts us to question his Omniscience and to suspect his Threatnings and because he winks at us we are ready to conclude that he
Commendation which he had before given him Glorying as it were over Satan that Job had made his Words good yea and still he holds fast his Integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause So truly whensoever God suffers us to be Tempted it is that by our Conquest he might bring Honour to himself and Credit to Piety and Religion For this makes it appear That we see so much of Excellency in the ways of God that nothing in the World whether Crosses or Crowns Thorns or Thrones Pains or Pleasures Loss or Profit can in the least perswade us to baulk or forsake them And in such an Heroick Champion as this God himself Glories and Triumphs And thus I have finished the former part of this Petition Lead us not into Temptation the next follows But deliver us from evil Now here before I come to speak of the Words themselves let us observe their connexion with and dependance upon the foregoing Words for whereas our Saviour hath taught us to pray with this Adversative Particle But lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil this may instruct us That the best security against sin is to be secured against Temptations unto sin For though it be no excuse that we are violently tempted to sin when we yield to the commission of it yet withal it too often happens that those whom God leads into Temptation and engageth amidst the press of their Enemies it too often happens that they come off bleeding and wounded Yet First It is no excuse for sinning because no Temptation is a Compulsion The Devil can only perswade he cannot constrain us to sin God may let him into the fancy and suffer him to Paint upon that the most alluring Images that Vice can be represented in but when he hath done all this it is still our own choice that makes us like what his Pencil hath drawn there And in this lies a great difference between God's Operations upon us by his Grace and Satan's upon his Suggestions in that God hath an immediate access to the very elicite Acts of our Wills and Understandings and can and doth by his Spirit actuate them by an immediate energy and call forth not only by but to their Objects But now these are such Sacred Partments of the Soul that the Devil hath no Key to them And therefore his Method is to bribe the attendants on these chief Powers of the Soul the Fancy and the Passions to which he hath admission through the near dependance they have upon material Organs and by these to send in Messages and offer Proposals to it which yet if it be not basely false and treacherous to its God it may reject and disdain If the Devil could force Men he would likewise justifie them for that can be no sin where there is no liberty The same Temptation which compels to any Action would likewise make that Action to be no Transgression because Laws are not given but upon supposition of freedom And therefore whosoever sins upon a Temptation sins not meerly because he was Tempted but because he would sin And though the sin had not been committed without the Temptation yet the Devil can be no farther chargable with it than only because his Malice prompts him to perswade us Our own Wills are the most dangerous Devils freely embracing the proffers of Satan and consently to our own destruction and whilst we consent to that upon which God hath threatned and entailed it And therefore when thou sinnest think not to lay the fault upon Satan or his evil Instruments whom he makes use of in Tempting for though it be their fault and guilt to Tempt yet it is only thine to yield and God will not condemn thee for being Tempted which thou couldst not help but for yielding and consenting which is thine own free Act and thine own Sin also Thou who art drawn away by thy lewd Companions to abuse thy self and dishonour thy body by Riot and Luxury or to break God's Laws and Man's by Theft or any other condemned Crimes though thou hast a great deal of reason to hate them yet hast thou infinitely more reason to hate and abhor thy self They can but persuade they cannot compel thee yea if they should threathen thee with Death it self unless thou consentest yet thou liest under no force but sinnest freely and upon very weak motives dost destroy and damn thy own Soul since all motives inducing to sin must be accounted weak when God hath over-balanced them with the promise of everlasting Life and the threatning of everlasting Death And therefore we find God as justly as frequently in Scripture charging Mens perdition upon themselves and laying the blood of their Souls upon the stubborn resolvedness of their own Wills Hosea 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self John 5.40 Ye will not come unto me that you may have Life Matth. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered you as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and you would not And therefore let your Temptations be what they will yet the sin and guilt is still your own if as you are led into Temptations so Temptations lead you into Sin Secondly Though it be no excuse for sinning yet it is too seldom seen that those who are brought into Temptation are brought off again without contracting some guilt on their Consciences by it For since there is so great a Correspondence between Temptations and our Corruptions it would be as strange for a Man that hath been hotly assaulted by them to have no impression made upon him as to carry Fire in his Bosom and his Cloaths not be burnt yea almost as Miraculous as to walk secure in the midst of a Fiery Furnace untouch'd by the Flames There is a strong simpathy between our corrupt hearts and Satan's Temptations and as it is with strings tuned to Vnisons upon the motion of the one the other also will move and vibrate So is it here the heart vibrates and is secretly affected upon the first motion of a Temptation with some passion of Delight and Complacency towards that sinful Object And there is a kind of liking and approbation of it in the very first conception of our Thoughts before they are yet deliberated and digested so that it is almost as impossible for Temptations to assault us without leaving some guilt and pollution behind them as it is for Objects rightly presented to a Mirrour to make no impression of their Image upon it For though the Temptation should produce nothing but hovering and fleeting Idea's and some imperfect shadows of Desires and Affections in us which yet are check'd and scattered as soon as ever they begin to form themselves yet there is not the thinnest film of a sinful thought nor the least breathing of a sinful desire but the Holy Law of God and his Word which reacheth to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and is a Judge and
We may and ought but our Care must be onely prudent and provident not perplexing and desponding Q. Why is that Expression this Day added A. To shew us that every Day we stand in need of Supplies from God and therefore should daily pray to receive them Q. Since we pray for daily Bread why is it called our Bread A. To note that we ought to use lawfull Means to acquire what we pray for Q. What pray you for in this Petition A. 1. That God would give us the good Things of this Life as the Acquisitions of our lawfull Endeavours 2. That he would bless the Increase of what is lawfully ours 3. That he would bestow upon us a spiritual Right in whatsoever we injoy through Jesus the Heir of all Things 4. We pray that we may not desire nor covet what is anothers 5. We pray for Life it self that it may be prolonged whilst God hath any Service for us to do in this World 6. For all the Means that may lawfully preserve our Life and Health 7. That he would strengthen our Faith and Dependence on his Providence who is the giver of all good 8. That he would give us Contentment in that Portion of Earthly Blessings which he allots us Q. What is the fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer A. Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Q. What things are observable in this Petition A. The Order and the Matter of it Q. What observe you from the Order of it A. That after we have prayed for our daily Bread we are taught to pray for Pardon of Sin Which Method is most rational 1. Because the Guilt of Sin many times with-holds from us those Temporal Comforts which we stand in need of Isaiah 59.2 But your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear 2. Because without Pardon of Sin our Temporal Injoyments are but Snares and Curses Q. What observe you in the Matter of this Petition A. Two things The Petition it self Forgive us our Debts And the Condition or Proportion or Plea and Argument for obtaining this Forgiveness As we forgive our Debtors Q. What mean you here by Debts A. The same which St. Luke 11.4 Calls Sins And forgive us our Sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us Q. How stand we indebted to God A. We stand indebted to God both as we are his Creatures and as we are Offenders on the former Account we owe God the Debt of Obedience on the latter the Debt of suffering Punishment Q. Which Debt do we pray God to forgive A. The latter onely for the former is irremissibly due to our great Creator Q. How come we to be thus indebted unto God A. By the Sentence of the Law which condemneth every Transgressour of it to undergo the Penalty it threatens which Penalty is all manner of Woes and Curses and Everlasting Death Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Rom. 6.23 For the wages of Sin is Death Ezek. 18.4 The Soul that sinneth it shall die Q. Since the Suffering of these is the Debt we owe to Divine Justice why say you that Sin is that Debt A. Because Sin alone is the meritorious Cause of these and we owe the Suffering of them onely as we are Sinners Q. Are there no Sins venial in their own Nature so as not to deserve Eternal Damnation A. No not the least for the wages of every Sin is Death All therefore are Mortal in their own Nature and all are Venial through the Mercy of God in the Merits of Christ excepting onely the Sin against the Holy Ghost Q. Can we no way pay off these Debts so as to satisfie the Justice of God A. No for neither can we do it by Obedience nor yet by Sufferings Not by the Duties of Obedience for these are a Debt we owe to God's Holiness and Soveraignty and therefore cannot pay the Debts we owe to his Justice and we cannot pay Debts by Debts Not by suffering for Sin being an infinite Evil must be punish'd with an infinite Punishment but we cannot suffer a Punishment infinite in Degrees therefore it must be infinite in Duration so that the Damned in Hell shall never be able to say It 's finish'd Q. How then may we hope to be acquitted of our Numberless Debts A. Onely through the free Mercy and Grace of God pardoning them in Jesus Christ and therefore we pray Forgive us our Debts Q. What is Pardon or Forgiveness of Sin A. It is the removal of the Guilt of Sin Q. What is the Guilt of Sin A. The Guilt of Sin is either the intrinsecal Desert of Punishment or else an Obnoxiousness and Liableness to it through God's Designation of the Sinner to undergo it Q. Doth pardon of Sin remove both these Guilts A. No it removes not the former for still the Sins of those who are pardoned do in themselves deserve Eternal Death But it removes the latter viz. it takes away our Appointment unto Death 2 Sam. 12.13 And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David the Lord also hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not die Q. How is it consistent with the Justice of God to pardon Offenders without Punishment A. Though Believers are not personally appointed to Punishment yet Mystically they are which Punishment they have already suffered in Christ their Surety with whom they are made one by Faith Q. To whom is this Prayer for Pardon of Sin directed A. To God onely whose Royal Prerogative is to forgive Sins Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Mark 2.7 Who can forgive sins but God only Q. Have not the Ministers of the Gospel power to forgive sins according to that of St. John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted A. They have a ministerial and declarative Power as Officers not an authoritative and judicial Power as Soveraigns As the Prince onely pardons the Herauld proclaims it So God alone by the Prerogative of his Grace grants pardon the Minister by his Office publisheth it to all that repent and believe Q. What then must we judge of that absolute and plenary Power which the Pope assumes of pardoning Sins A. That it proves him to be Antichrist in exalting himself above God 2 Thess 2.4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God For whosoever can forgive wrongs done against another must be superiour to him and have Authority to cause the Person offended to surcease the Prosecution and sit down by the wrong done him Q. If God onely can forgive Sins how then are we bound to forgive those who
is Blind we are of that wretched temper described Psal 50.21 Because God keeps silence we think he is altogether such a one as our selves As careless in requiring his Debts as we are in contracting them but he will reprove us and set them in order before our Faces to our everlasting shame and confusion Thirdly That the least of all these thy Debts make thee liable to be cast into the Prison of Hell and to be adjudged to Eternal Death and Punishments Not only thy impudent and scandalous Sins which make thee detested of Men as well as hated of God but the least shadow of a thought that gives but an umbrage of vanity to thy Mind the least motion and heaving of thy Heart towards a sinful Object the exhaling but of one sinful Desire the wavering of thy Fancy a glance of thine Eye is a Debt contracted with the infinite Justice of God and a Debt that without forgiveness must be paid in the Infernal Prison of Hell So says our Saviour Matth. 5.26 Verily thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the utmost Farthing Beware therefore then that you do not entertain any slight thoughts of Sin nor think with the Papists that there are some sorts of Sins that do not deserve Death which they call Venial Sins in opposition to other more gross and hainous Sins which they allow to be Mortal Believe it the least prick at the Heart is deadly and so is the least Sin to the Soul And indeed it is a Contradiction to call any Sin Venial in their sence who hold it is not worthy of Damnation for if it be a Sin it is worthy of Damnation for the Wages of Sin is Death if it be not How is it Venial There is but one Mortal Sin simply and absolutely such as God hath revealed in his Word that it shall never be pardoned neither in this World nor in that which is to come and that is the Sin against the Holy Ghost which St. John therefore calls a Sin unto Death 1 Joh 5.16 And so far are they who are guilty of it excluded from God's Mercy that they are excluded from the Charity of our Prayers for we are not so much as to pray for such as it is there expressed Again all the Sins of finally impenitent and unbelieving Wretches are eventually Mortal and shall certainly be punished at last with Eternal Death and Damnation For the Wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not Joh. 3.16 And God will render Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil Rom. 2.9 All Sins whatsoever are Mortal meritoriously both in the Penitent and in the Impenitent the Law hath condemned all alike though all Sins are not alike hainous nor shall be equally punished but with some it shall be far more intolerable than with others yet all are alike Mortal and deserve Death and the same Hell though not the same Place nor the same Degree of Torments in Hell for those Sins which are accounted most Trivial and Venial are in themselves Violations of the Holy Law of God and the Penalty that his Laws threaten is no less than Death The Law is accurate and reacheth to the least things yea to the least circumstances of those things and every Transgression against it shall receive its due recompence of reward Nay had we no other guilt left upon our Souls from the first moment of our lives to this present day but only the guilt of the least Sin that the Holy Law condemns be it only the wrenching aside of a Thought or Desire only a bye and sinister end in the performance of Holy Duties nay let it be but the first rudiment and imperfect draught of a Thought not yet finished without a full satisfaction and expiation this small Debt would cast us into Prison this little Sin would sink us irrecoverably into Hell and lay us under the Revenges of the Almighty God for ever Oh then with what horrour and amazement may Sinners reflect upon their past Sins With what dread and trembling may they expect their future State since as many thousand Sins as they have committed of all sizes and aggravations so many Deaths and Hells heaped up one upon another have they deserved and without intervention of a full payment and satisfaction must they be adjudged to undergo For though the least degree of Divine Wrath be a tormenting Hell yet God will inflame his Wrath to as many degrees of acrimony and sharpness as they have committed Sins till their Punishment be equal to their Offences and become infinitely intolerable Fourthly Consider thou canst never pay God nor discharge the least of thy Debts for ever For First Thou canst not possibly do it by any Duties or Services in this Life For whatsoever thou dost is either required or not required if it be not required it will be so far from being a satisfaction for thy Sins that it will be an addition to them and a piece of Will-worship which will meet with that sad Greeting at the last Day who hath required these things at your Hands If it be required it is no more than thou owest to God before and if thou hadst never sinned wert obliged to pay it To think to satisfie for thy Sins by thy Duties is but to rob one Attribute of God to pay another for whatsoever Obedience thou canst perform thou owest it to the Sovereignty and Holiness of God and his Justice will never accept of that which belongs to his Authority Besides it is absurd to think to pay one Duty by another to discharge the Debt of Sin by paying the Debt of Duty Secondly Thou canst not pay off thy Debts by any Sufferings hereafter It is true Sinners shall lie eternally in Prison and be eternally satisfying the offended Justice of God but in all that Eternity there shall never be that moment wherein they may say as Christ did in his making satisfaction it is finished the Debt is paid and Justice hath received as much as was due from me No that satisfaction must be eternally making and therefore the punishment must be eternally lasting For every Sin even the least Sin is committed against an infinite God and therefore the punishment of it must be infinite For Offences take their measures as well from the Dignity of the Person against whom they are committed as from the hainousness of the Fact in it self considered As a reviling Word against the King is Treasonable against our Equals but actionable and therefore by the same proportion the same Offence against the infinite Majesty of the great God must needs carry infinite guilt in it that is exposeth to infinite punishment Now then O Sinner think with thy self what satisfaction thou canst make to God that can bear a proportion to thy infinite Offences Thou canst not at once undergo an infinite measure of punishment for thy Nature is but finite Couldst thou do this then indeed
there were hope yea certainty of relief for thee for Divine Justice will not exact more than its due But because this is impossible thy Woes and Torments in Hell must be Eternal that they may be some way infinite as the Justice is which thou hast offended infinite if not in Degrees yet in duration and continuance And O what dreadful despair will this cause in thee when thou shalt have been in Hell under most acute and insufferable Torments Millions of years and yet the payment of all that sum of Plagues and Woes shall not be of value enough to satisfie for the least of thy Sins nor to cross out of God's Book the least and smallest of thy Debts but thy account shall still be as great and as full as it was at thy first plunging into Hell and still an Eternity of Torments remains to be paid by thee And now wretched Creatures that we are whither shall we turn our selves what hope what relief can we find shall we flatter our selves that God will not require our sins at our hands no they are Debts and therefore he may and he is a Just God Just to himself and to the Interest of his own Glory and therefore he will God hath before-hand told us at what rate we must expect to take up our sins and what we must pay for them at the last He hath told us as plainly as the mouth of Truth can utter it that the Wages of sin is Death and the ways Sinners choose lead down to the Chambers of Hell and Destruction Our own Misery is our own choice He hath in his Word set Life and Death before us and declared to us the means how we might escape the one and obtain the other He hath represented to us the unconceiveableness of both And if we will be so obstinate as after these manifest representations to choose Hell and Death it is but Reason and Justice that we should have our own Choice for it is our Choice interpretatively when we choose those ways and actions that expose to them And thus much concerning the acknowledgement we make in this Petition our Debts Debts vast and infinite which the Justice of God will strictly require of Sinners in their Eternal Condemnation Debts the least of which makes us liable to be cast into Prison into Hell and for the least of which we can never satisfie But what is there no hope Is there no possibility to cross the Book to cancel the Obligation whereby we stand bound to the revenging Justice of God and everlasting Sufferings Truly none by our own personal satisfaction but yet there is abundant hope yea full assurance of it through the free Mercy of our God And therefore as our Saviour hath taught us to acknowledge our Debts so he hath likewise taught us to pray Father forgive us our Debts And now that I have shewed you our Misery by reason of our Debts and you have seen the black side of the Cloud which interposeth between God and us So give me leave to represent to you our Hopes and Consolation in God's free Grace and the Divine Mercy in dissolving this black Cloud that it may never more appear And here let us First Consider what the Pardon of sin is And this we cannot better discover than by looking into the Nature of sin Sin therefore as St. John describes it 1 John 3.4 is a transgression of the Law of God And to the validity of all Laws it is necessary that there be a penalty annexed either literally express'd or tacitly implied The guilt that we contract by transgressing the Law is nothing else but our liableness to undergo this penalty And this guilt is Two-fold the intrinsecal and formal and that is the desert of punishment which sin always necessarily carries in it as it is a violation of a Holy and Righteous Commandment The other is extrinsecal and adventitious and consists in the appointment and designation of the sinner unto punishment This now doth not formally flow from sin but from the Will of God constituting and willing to punish sin with Death Now Pardon is nothing else but the removal of the guilt of sin But now the question is which guilt it removeth I Answer First It doth not remove the intrinsecal guilt of sin or the desert of punishment For the sins of those who are Justified and Pardoned do yet in their own Nature deserve Death and Eternal Damnation As a Pardon vouchsafed to a Traitor doth not cause his Actions not to have been Treasonable and worthy of Death for this doth necessarily follow immediately upon the Transgressing of the Law to which the Penalty is annexed So neither is it in the Power of Pardoning Grace to make that our sins should not deserve Death according to their own demerit for that were a contradiction since this demerit is necessary and essential unto sin as such Secondly Therefore Pardon of sin removes that guilt which consists in the adventitious Appointment or Ordination of the sinner unto Punishment flowing from the Will of God who hath in his Law threatned to inflict Eternal Death as the Reward and Wages of sin Now this designation of the sinner unto punishment is Two-fold either Personal or Mystical One of these two ways God will certainly punish every Soul that sins either by appointing the sinner Personally to undergo the punishment of his iniquities and thus he deals with unbelievers whom he will punish in their own Persons for their transgressions Or else he appoints them to undergo the punishment of their sins Mystically as being by Faith made one with the Lord Jesus Christ who himself hath born our sins in his own Body on the Tree Now Pardon of sin doth not remove the Mystical appointment of a Believer unto Punishment for he hath suffered it for Christ hath suffered it and Christ and he are one Mystical Person by Faith God never Pardons but he likewise punishes the very sin that he Pardons he punisheth it in our surety and undertaker when he forgives it to a Believer Pardon of sin therefore removes only that guilt which consists in our own Personal appointment and designation to punishment though the sin doth always in it self necessarily deserve Death though that Death hath been inflicted upon Christ and therefore upon Believers in him as Members of him But yet notwithstanding that God thus takes Vengeance on our sins he doth Graciously Pardon them when he releaseth our Personal Obligation unto punishment and reckons that we have suffered the penalty in Christ suffering it and therefore ought to be discharged from any further liableness unto it This now is that Pardon of sin which we pray for when we say Forgive us our Debts And for the more full Explication of it I shall lay down these following positions First The Pardoning Grace of God in respect of us is altogether free and undeserved We can of our selves scarce so much as ask forgiveness but even this
moderation for self-love which is an immoderate affection would be made the whole Rule of our vengeance And because we love our selves abundantly too well we should revenge every imaginary wrong done us with too much bitterness and severity And therefore God would not trust the righting of our selves in our own hands knowing we would be too partial to our own interest and concerns but hath assumed it to himself as the Prerogative of his own Crown Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto Wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. But you will say How then must we sit down under every petulant wrong that is done us and by a stupid Patience invite injuries and tempt others to the sport and recreation of abusing us for every one will be ready to shoot his Arrows against a soft Butt where they will stick but who will care to shoot them against a Stone-wall that will rebound them back in their Faces again I Answer It is indeed well worth the most serious and critical consideration rightly to state how far we are bound to forgive Injuries and Wrongs without requiring any satisfaction for them And because the resolution of this seems to be of great difficulty as also of great importance for the regulating of our Consciences I shall first lay down some Distinctions and then some Conclusions drawn from them for our more full satisfaction in this case First Those Wrongs that are done thee may either be forgiven by thee or without doing any wrong to others or not Secondly Those Wrongs which thou may'st forgive without doing any wrong to any other are either light and tolerable Offences or of great concern and consequence Now these Distinctions being premised I say First In no Case whatsoever be the injury greater or less is private revenge to be allowed but so far forth art thou bound to forgive it as not to be both Judge and Executioner thy self This I suppose is clear and indubitable that all revenge is to be committed to the Magistrate's Sword whom God hath armed with Authority and Commission to be the Avenger to execute Wrath upon them that do evil Secondly Therefore if the wrong thou hast received be insupportable and tends either to the ruine of thy Estate and necessary subsistence or to the irreparable loss of thy good Name or it may be of thy Life I know no precept of forgiveness that doth in this case forbid thee to seek satisfaction but it must be only in a publick and legal way otherwise in forgiving others we should vastly injure our selves and so pervert the rule which commands us to love our Neighbours as our selves and therefore our selves primarily as the standard and measure of our love to them Now if any one should attempt to take away that which is necessary to my livelihood or by false accusations should go about to take away my Credit or my Life certainly I owe so much Charity to my self as to resist him in it and to require satisfaction and recompence for it but still this must be observed that we ought not to right our selves according to our own private discretion but by the Sentence of the Law and by the Authority of the Magistrate for the Law is good says the Apostle if it be used lawfully And therefore briefly in our seeking for our Right at Law there are these three things requisite to make it a lawful and allowable Action First When that we sue for is a matter of moment Secondly When we have to do with obstinate and stubborn Persons who will yield to nothing but what they are forced and compell'd to and will not stand to the Award and Arbitration of private Christians Thirdly When we have before-hand used all likely and probable means to prevail with those who have done us wrong to make us necessary and fitting satisfaction These Three things must always concur to make our suing even for publick revenge a thing lawful And then in all such Processes we must be sure to observe these Two things First That we have Right on our side or at least be verily perswaded that we have it and that the Person whom we prosecute doth us wrong To seek for reasonable satisfaction in this case is so far from being charged with Rancour and Malice that it is rather an effect of Love to bring them to do us right whereby indeed they do greater right to themselves Secondly We must be sure to maintain Love to them being willing and ready to do them any kind Offices whatsoever lies in our power We must therefore seek our Right with much meekness and compassion And when a Controversie depends between us and any other we should not make it a matter of strife and variance but only put it to the decision of the Law to whom the right belongs and if it be found to belong to the other and not to thy self thou oughtest to be glad that Right is done and to prefer the interest of Justice before thine own otherwise thou seekest Victory and not Equity And this is the Second Conclusion that for a great important Wrong thou mayest lawfully seek for satisfaction Thirdly If the Wrong done thee cannot be pass'd by without the wronging of others thou mayest and oughtest in this case to require satisfaction As for instance the Laws of the Land have ordained Death as the punishment of Robberies and Theft upon the High-way in the Day and breaking open of Houses in the Night not so much for revenge upon the Guilty as for example to others and for security to the Innocent In this case we ought not to pass by any who have been deprehended thus unjustly invading our Possessions especially if we have just cause to suspect as commonly it so happens that our suffering them to escape will but embolden them to farther outrages for this were a wrong done to the Nation and Community in which we live and by such an indiscreet pity and compassion we bring upon our selves the Guilt of all the Crimes that they afterwards commit Fourthly If the Wrongs that are done thee be tolerable and thou mayest forgive them without wronging of others the Laws of Christianity oblige thee so to do without standing upon any satisfaction and reparation for them Our Saviour hath given us our Rule in this Case Matth. 5.40 If any Man will sue thee at Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also Which teacheth us that about small matters things which we may easily be without or easily procure such as a Cloak or Coat we should not be contentious but rather recede from our Right than vigorously pursue it with strifes and quarrels And we ought to be so far from seeking revenge for such petty Injuries as are not destructive nor greatly prejudicial to us as to be willing rather to suffer a Second than to revenge the First For if all that can be