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
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
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
Righteousness through whom alone Pardon of our sins is to be obtained Sixthly and lastly We pray that we may be brought over to close with the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith that his Righteousness thereby may be made ours and we by that Righteousness may obtain Pardon of our sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified For though Pardon be procured by the Death of Christ yet the Application of it to the Soul is only by Faith uniting us unto him and making us one with him For all that Christ hath either done or suffered for the Redemption of the World would be altogether in vain as to our particular benefit and advantage were it not that Faith entitles us unto it and makes that satisfaction which he hath given to Divine Justice to be Mystically our Act as it was Personally his And thus I have considered the Petition it self Forgive us our Debts I now proceed to the Condition or Plea annexed As we forgive our Debtors And here we have First the Act Forgive Secondly The Object Debtors Thirdly The limitation of this Object our Debtors Fourthly The proportion or resemblance in the Particle as As we forgive our Debtors I shall begin with the Object Debtors As all Men stand indebted to God in a Two-fold Debt a Debt of Obedience and a Debt of Punishment So one Man may be a Debtor to another two ways either by owing to him a Debt of Duty or else a Debt of Satisfaction First Some Men stand indebted to others in a Debt of Duty And indeed I might well have said this Debt is reciprocal between Man and Man Thus Children owe Parents Reverence and Obedience and Parents their Children Provision and Education Subjects owe their Magistrates Honour and Tribute and Magistrates owe their Subjects Justice and Protection Servants owe their Masters Fear Diligence and Faithfulness and Masters owe their Servants Maintenance and Encouragement And generally all Men owe one another Love Respect and Kindness Now these Debts cannot balance one another that as much as is left unpaid me by any person so much again I may refuse to pay him If a Father pay not his Debt to his Child or a Magistrate to his Subject or a Master to his Servants they are not hereby acquitted of their Obligations but still Duty Obedience and Faithfulness is required from Inferiours to their Superiours And so on the contrary Love Protection and Maintenance is required from Superiours to their Inferiours although peccant as long as the Relation shall continue between them And the reason is because we are bound to these Duties not only by the Obligations that mutual Offices lay upon us but by God's express Will and Command and the performance of the Relations that is betwixt us And therefore though it be Lawful for two Persons that owe one another an equal Debt of Money or other such like things to cross out one Debt by the other and so discount it betweem them Yet it is not so where the Duties that God requires are the Debts they owe to each other for although others may fail in the performance of what belongs to their part yet thou oughtest not to fail in thine for thus to be even with Men is to run in Debt with God and to make him thy Creditor who will certainly be thy Revenger And from hence it appears that this is not the Debt that we are to forgive our Debtors for we have no power to release them from their Obligation to Duty whilst the Relation between us continues no more than we have to rescind the Laws of God and of Nature Secondly Some Men may stand indebted to others in a Debt of Satisfaction as they owe them reparation on good grounds for wrongs and injuries done against them and this is the Debt which we are to forgive others Now as wrongs and injuries are of divers sorts so many divers ways may others become Debtors to us And they are chiefly these Six that follow First By wronging us in our persons either by unjust Violence or by unjust Restraints Thus the Persecuting Jews were Debtors to the Apostles and Disciples of Christ for often Scourging and Imprisonieg them Secondly By wronging us in our Place and Dignity and in the Office to which by God's Providence we are called And so also those that vilifie the persons and detract from the Authority of those that are set over them become their Debtors Thus Aaron and Miriam were Debtors unto Moses for traducing the Authority that God had committed unto him Numb 12.2 Thirdly By wronging us in our Friends and Relations either by corrupting them Thus Sechem became a Debtor to Jacob and his Sons for violating his Daughter and their Sister Or else by destroying them So Herod to the Bethlemitish Mothers by murdering their Children Fourthly By wronging us in our Right and Title with-holding from us what is our due Fifthly In our Possessions when either by Force or Fraud they take from us what of Right belongs to us Sixthly And lastly in our Reputation and good Name unjustly defaming us for those Crimes which only their Malice hath invented and published against us To all these wrongs we are subject God permitting the wickedness of Men a large scope to vent it self and affording us a large field to Exercise our meekness and forgiving temper in each of these But withal if those who in any of these or any other particulars do wrong their Brethren are by the Sentence of our Saviour here pronounced Debtors this should teach them to look upon themselves as obliged to make satisfaction according to the utmost of their Power and Ability Thou therefore who art Conscious to thy self of wronging any either in their Persons or Dignities or Relations or Rights or Possessions or Reputations Though it be thy Duty to confess it before God and humble thy self to him for it begging Mercy and Pardon at his hands Yet this is not enough for by one single offence thou hast contracted a double Debt thou standest indebted to the Justice of God for the Violation of his Law But this is not all but thou standest in Debt unto Man likewise by injuries done against him and both thy Creditors must be satisfied God by the Righteousness of Christ through thy Faith and Repentance and Man by an Acknowledgment Reparation and Restitution The Apostle hath commanded us Rom. 13.8 To owe no Man any thing but to love one another And indeed Satisfaction for Wrongs is a necessary part of Repentance for he that truly Repents doth really and from his heart wish that the Wrong had never been done and therefore will be sure to do his utmost to annihilate the fault by giving the abused Party a compensation fully answerable to the injury and to the utmost of his Ability restore him into the same or a better Condition than that in which he was before he received the Wrong Therefore First Art thou Conscious to thy self that
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
Kingdom and then shew you how this Kingdom comes And lastly what we pray for in presenting this Petition to God Thy Kingdom come First We must distinguish of God's Kingdom Now the Kingdom of God is Two-fold either Universal or more Particular and Peculiar The one is his Kingdom of Power the other is his Kingdom of Grace First His Vniversal Kingdom which extends over all things in Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self And so he is the sole Monarh of the whole World and all the Princes and Potentates of the Earth are but his Vice-Roys and Vicegerents that Govern under and should Govern for him For he is that Blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords as the Apostle Styles him 1 Tim. 6.15 and his Kingdom ruleth over all Psal 103.19 It is true in this Vniversal Kingdom there are many Rebels that would not have him to Reign over them Many that daily rise up in Arms break his Laws defy his Justice and reject his Mercy Many that were their Power equal to their Malice would Dethrone and Depose him from his Sovereignty Whole Legions of Infernal Spirits are continually mustering up all their Forces and drawing wretched sinful Men into the Conspiracy and their quarrel is for no less than Dominion and Empire who shall be King God or Satan yet all their attempts are but vain and frustrate and in spite of all their impotent rage God's Kingdom shall stand and as it was from Everlasting so shall it be to Everlasting for thine is the Kingdom and Power for ever and ever And therefore the most wicked of all God's Creatures are still his Subjects not subject indeed to his Laws for so they break his Bonds asunder and cast away his Cords from them but they are subject to his Power and Providence and that in Three respects As it grants Permission As it imposeth Restraints And as it inflicts Punishments First All are God's Subjects in that they can do nothing without his Permission Neither the Devil that Arch-Creature nor the worst of his Instruments can so much as touch an hair of our Head unless leave be granted them Yea we find that a whole Legion of Devils after they were dispossessed of their usurped abode durst not so much as house themselves in a Herd of Swine without first craving leave of our Saviour Mark 5.12 And all the Villainies and Out-rages that have ever been committed in the World have had their pass from God's Permission without which the Lusts of Men as furious and eager as they are must needs have miscarrying Wombs and dry Breasts Nor is it any taint at all to the pure Holiness of God that he doth thus permit the wickedness of Men which if he pleased he might prevent For though we are obliged to keep others from sin when it lies in our power to do it yet no such Obligation lies upon God though he can keep the wickedst Wretch on Earth from ever sinning any more yet he permits Wisely for the greater advancement of his own Glory and the Exercise of his Peoples Graces and at the last he punishes Justly Secondly His Kingdom is over all in that he can bend in and restrain his Rebellious Subjects as he pleaseth Sometimes he doth it by cutting short their Power of doing mischief He chains up those Mad Men and takes from them those Swords Arrows and Fire-brands which otherwise they might hurl abroad both to their own and others hurt Sometimes he raiseth up an opposite Power against them that they cannot break through to the Commission of their sins so the Jews would often have taken Christ and put him to Death but they feared the People whom his Miracles and Cures had obliged unto him Sometimes Providence casts in some seasonable diversion and thus he over-ruled Joseph's Brethren restraining them from killing him by the Providential passing by of Merchants that way And sometimes by removing the Objects against which they intended to sin So Herod intended to put Peter to death but that very night God sent his Angel to work his escape and prevented that wickedness Many other ways there may be of his Exercising his Sovereignty and Dominion over his most Rebellious Creatures who though they are Slaves to their Lusts yet God holds their Chain in his own hand slacking it by his permission and sometimes straitning it by his Powerful restraints And therefore we find in Scripture that God hath a certain measure for Mens sins beyond which they shall not exceed Zach. 5. There is mention made of an Ephah of Wickedness And this signifies to us that though wicked Men break the bounds of his Laws yet they cannot break the bounds of his Providence God hath set them their measure which they can neither fill without his Permission nor exceed because of his restraint Thirdly God declares his Kingdom to be over all by inflicting deserved punishments on the most stubborn and rebellious Sinners though they transgress his Laws and provoke his Holiness yet they shall never out-brave his Justice but he will certainly humble them if not to Repentance yet to Hell and Perdition Luke 19.17 Those mine Enemies that would not that I should Reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me And therefore we see how God hath erected Trophies and Monuments to the Praise of his dread Power and Servere Justice out of the Ruins of the most Proud and Insolent Sinners Pharaoh who was both the great Type and Instrument of the Devil how did God break that stubborn Wretch with Plague upon Plague and one Misery after another For to this very purpose God set him up that he might shew his Signs and Wonders upon him And thus God deals with many others in this Life by some Signal and Remarkable Punishments making them Examples to deter others from the like Crimes But thus he deals with all his Rebels in Hell for even that is one and a large part of his Kingdom It is his Prison wherein he hath shut up all his Malefactors whom his grim Serjeant Death hath Arrested It is the great Slaughter-house of Souls and the Shop of Justice Devils are there his Executioners and Fire and Rack and Torments the due Guerdon of those impenitent Rebels who shaking off his Yoke and casting of his Cords from them are crush'd for ever under the insupportable load of his Wrath and bound in Chains of massy Darkness reserved for the Judgment of the Great Day Thus we see God's Vniversal Kingdom consists of Three great Provinces Heaven Earth and Hell In Heaven only Grace and Mercy Reigns on Earth both Mercy and Justice in the various dispensations of them towards the Sons of Men in Hell pure and unmixed Justice triumphs in the Eternal Damnation of his Apostate Creatures This is God's Vniversal Kingdom But Secondly Besides this God hath a peculiar Kingdom and that is his Kingdom of Grace which though it be not so large and extensive as the
a Discerner of the Thoughts and intents of the Heart doth strictly prohibit and condemn these callow unfledg'd motions of our Hearts to be Concupiscence the sad effects of Original sin and the fruitful cause of all actual And therefore if we would be delivered from evil we have very great cause first to pray that we be not led into Temptation For some Temptations do almost so inseparably follow one upon another that this will be our best security against those secret desires and wouldings and first smatterings and rudiments of wickedness which else the compliance of our corrupt hearts with Satan's Temptations will certainly betray us unto Hence it is that when God in Scripture frequently dehorts us from sin he extends the prohibition to all Temptations and Occasions of sinning Yea those things which in themselves considered may be lawfully and innocently done by us yet because they may prove Snares and Temptations to us we must as carefully refrain from them as we earnestly desire to keep our selves far from sin And therefore it sufficeth not the Wise Man to command If sinners entice consent thou not Prov. 1.10 but that thou mayest be sure not to consent thou must order thy Actions and Converse so as that thou mayest not be enticed by them in the 15. verse says he Walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy feet from their path And so we have the same Counsel given us by him in another Chapter that we may not be inveagled by the allurements of a strange Woman be sure to avoid all occasions thereof Prov. 5.8 Remove thy way far from her come not near the door of her House And again Prov. 4.14 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil Men avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away Here is earnestness even to a tautology as some may prophanely think but Sacred Writ can admit of no such thing But there are so many expressions heaped up signifying the same thing only to denote how great the necessity of avoiding Temptations and Occasions to evil is to those who desire to avoid the sin We have treacherous and deceitful hearts within us that have often betrayed us when we have trusted them And I beseech you call to mind when you have emboldned your selves to venture upon Temptations and sinful Occasions being confident and fully resolved not to yield to them Have you not often been surprized and led away Captive contrary to your Hopes contrary to your Intentions contrary to your Resolutions contrary to the vain Confidences with which you were before possess'd Methinks former experience should make you cautious never again to trust those hearts with such opportunities and advantages for wickedness since they have been so often already treacherous and deceitful to us Venture them not therefore upon Temptations for what security have you that a sinful heart will not sin yea and betray you to commit those great abominations which possibly you cannot now think of without horrour and shivering And thus much I thought fit to note to you from the connexion of this part of the Petition with the former Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. In the words themselves we have two things chiefly considerable The thing that we pray against and the Person to whom we pray That which we pray against is Evil that we may be delivered from it The Person to whom we pray is God our Heavenly Father That which we pray against is Evil. Some limit this word Evil only unto Satan making the sence to be deliver us from the Evil one founding this Interpretation upon that Article that is joyned with the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this is not always descretive but sometimes indefinite as for instance Matth. 12.35 and many other places And therefore considering the Comprehensiveness of this Prayer we ought to allow the Word a large extent and to comprehend under it First Satan whose proper Style and Epithete it is to be called the Evil one and so we find this black Title given him in Scripture Matth. 13.19 The wicked one cometh and snatcheth away that which was sown And 1 John 2.13 19. You have overcome the wicked one He is the wicked one eminently and singularly He is the chief Author of Evil his Temptations are all unto Evil his delight is only in Evil he is the Father of all those that do Evil. And therefore this is the most proper and significant Character of the Devil But yet it is also ascribed unto Men according to their resemblance of him Secondly All other Evils are here meant whether they be of sin or sorrow whether they be Transgressions or Punishments and that either Temporal punishments in those Judgments which God inflicts upon sinners here or Eternal Judgments such as he hath threatned to inflict upon them hereafter From all these we pray to be delivered but the greatest of all these is Sin For First It is greatest in the Nature of it as being the only thing that is contrary to the greatest Good even God for in all other things else in the World there is something of Good even as much as derived and participated of God And so the very Devils themselves have a Metaphysical Goodness in them as they are Creatures and have received their Beings and Powers from God who is the Author of nothing that is Evil. But Sin hath not the least ray or footsteps of Goodness in it but is only defect and irregularity And that alone which as his Soul always hates so his Hands never made Secondly It is the greatest Evil in the Effects and Consequences of it It once turn'd Glorious Angels into hideous Devils and tumbled them down from Heaven to Hell filled the World with Woes and Plagues brought Death and Diseases and a vast and endless sum of Miseries into it it torments and terrifies the Conscience kindles Hell-flames exposes the Soul to the eternal and direful revenges of the great God and is so perfectly and only Evil that the worst of things here were they free from the Contagion of Sin would be excellent and amiable To pray therefore against the Evil of Sin is to pray against all other Evils whatsoever for the Devil the Evil One cannot hurt us but by Sin And no other Evil can befall us but for Sin God inflicting them as the due Guerdon and Reward of our Transgressions Sin therefore being the chief and Principal Evil and all others but retainers to it I shall at present speak only of God's delivering us from Sin Now as there are Two things in Sin which make it so exceeding Evil the Guilt of it whereby it Damns and the Filth of it whereby it Pollutes the Soul so God hath Two ways to deliver us from it First By removing the Guilt already contracted which he doth in justifying and pardoning the Sinner Secondly By preventing us from falling
promised not to do Thirdly The Glory is God's therefore his Will shall be done in Earth as it is in Heaven The greatest Glory that God can receive from us is by our Obedience John 15.8 Herein saith our Saviour is my Father Glorified that ye bear much Fruit God's chiefest Glory is his Holiness and therefore he is Styled Glorious in Holiness And we have no better way to Glorifie the Holiness of God than by endeavouring to be Holy as he is Holy For then do we declare it to be a thing which we value as most Excellent and Glorious when we strive to imitate it and would fain get as much of it as our frail Natures can receive And therefore we may well pray in Faith Thy Will be done for thine is the Glory because the greatest Glory we can give to God is by doing his Will Fourthly The Glory is God's and therefore will he provide for us our daily Bread and all things that are necessary for our good And therefore when God was Miraculously to provide Bread for his People in the Wilderness he tells them Exod. 16.7 In the morning then shall ye see the Glory of the Lord. And certainly it is not for the Glory of God that any of his should want things fitting and necessary for them Only let us leave it to him to Judge what is so For although he should reduce thee to a morsel of Bread and a cup of cold Water yet he gives thee all that is fit for thee and should he give thee more it would not be a boon but a curse Fifthly The Glory is God's Therefore he will forgive thy Debts and Trespasses The Wise Man hath told us Prov. 19.11 That it is the Glory of a Man to pass over a Transgression and shall it not much more be the Glory of God whose Mercies are infinitely more Glorious than our Charity can be Yea he tells us Prov. 25.2 That it is the Glory of God to conceal a thing that is to hide and cover our sins so that they shall not be found against us And expresly Ephes 1.6 7. That we have redemption even the forgiveness of sins to the praise and glory of his Grace And I have shewed you in opening of the Petition that it is a very high Honour and Superiority to forgive it is the Prerogative-Royal of a King and therefore we may well pray with Faith Forgive us our Trespasses for thine is the Glory Sixthly The Glory is God's Therefore he will deliver us from the Assaults and Incursions of our Enemies he will deliver us from Temptations or from the evil of Temptation He will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear but will with every Temptation make a way for us to escape hereby to demonstrate the Glory of his Wisdom and Power that it is above all the wiles and power of the Devil and our Spiritual Enemies And therefore we may well pray Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Glory because it is the Honour of God to defend his Servants from the incursions of his and their Enemies Thus we have treated on three of God's Attributes ascribed to him in this Doxology His Dominion his Power and his Glory It remains now to consider the Amplification of all these by that expression For ever which is to be referred and accommodated to the foregoing Titles The Kingdom is thine for ever The Power is thine for ever and the Glory thine for ever Now this application of it denotes to us the Eternity of God's Attributes and consequently his Nature Indeed this Particle For ever doth not always in Scripture signifie a strict and proper Eternity for it is often applied to things of various durations First Sometimes most improperly those things which have both beginning and end are said to be for ever So the Mosaical Paedagogy and those rites and observancies which were imposed upon the Jews by the Levitical Law are said to be everlasting although they were not to continue any longer than between Moses and Christ which space was not compleatly Fifteen Hundred Years Thus the Priesthood is said to be eternal Numb 25.13 where it is called The Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood So the sprinkling of the Blood of the Passover is to be commanded to be observed for ever Exod. 12.24 So Circumcision is called an everlasting Covenant Gen. 17 13. And many more such instances might be given Yea things of a far shorter duration than these such as are only to continue during life are yet said to be Eternal The servitude of him that refused freedom was to be for ever Exod. 21.6 that is during his natural life And so the Psalmist often resolves himself and exhorts others to Praise and Magnifie God for ever And indeed it is very ordinary in Scripture that those things are said to be for ever which were not to alter their State for some continuance of time nor to be difused till the date prefixed to them were expired Secondly Some things which had no beginning but shall have an end are yet said to be for ever And such as they respect their Objects are the Decrees or Foreknowledge of God which shall in their due time be fullfilled Thus Ephes 3.11 they are called The Eternal purpose of God and yet they cease under the notions of Decrees and Prescience when that which was from all Eternity Decreed and Foreknown takes its accomplishment Thirdly Those things which had a beginning but never shall have an end are said to be for ever And such are the Angels all of them Created in the beginning of time but their future continuance is without bound or period And the Saints after the Resurrection are said to be made equal to the Angels because they shall not die Luke 20.36 And Christ is said to be made a little lower than the Angels in that he tasted of Death Heb. 2.9 The good Angels live in Eternal Beatitude they always behold the Face of God Matth. 18.10 And the evil Angels live in Eternal torments and a never dying Death They are reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness Jude verse 6. And thus the Souls of Men are everlasting For being Spiritual substances and free from all principles of decay and corruption they shall for ever continue in that Estate and Condition for which their Actions in this life have prepared them And not the Soul alone but the Body also shall be eternally preserved in its being This mortal must put on immortality 1 Cor. 15.53 And then shall we for ever be with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 And yet all these had once their beginning by the Creating Word of God but are Eternal à parte post and shall always retain those natures and beings Fourthly That is most strictly and properly said be Eternal and for ever which neither hath beginning nor end whose prospect both ways is infinite and boundless And thus God only is
First I answer First this was St. Paul's very Case Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Command wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence now this effect is merely accidental and is not to be imputed unto the Holy Word of God but to the wicked Heart of Man which takes an hint so desperately corrupt is it from God's forbidding Sin to put it self in Mind of committing it Secondly Thou complainest that the Word exciteth to Corruptions but it doth it no otherwise than the Sun draws Smoak and stink out of a Dunghill It doth increase but unhappily excite them The very same Lusts lay hid in their Hearts before There they lay like so many Vipers and Serpents asleep till the Light and Warmth of the Word makes them stir and crawl about And this Advantage thou mayest make of it that when thy Corruptions swarm thick about thee upon the disturbance the Law of God hath made among them thou mayest thence see what a wicked Heart and Nature thou hast how much Filth and Mud there lyeth at the bottom of it which presently riseth upon the first stirring This may make thee vile in thine own Eyes and deeply humbled under the sad and serious Consideration of thy indwelling Sin 'T is the very use the Apostle makes in the same Case Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death When Humors are in Motion we soon perceive what is the state of our Body and when Corruptions are once stirred we may thereby easily know the State and Condition of our Souls Thirdly The same Word that doth thus occasionally stir up Sin is the best means to beat it down You may perceive by this there is somewhat in the Word that is extreamly contrary to their Sins since they do so rise and arm against it their great Enemy is upon them and this alarm that they take is but before their overthrow It may be the Mud is only stirred that it might be cast out and their Hearts cleansed from it Be not discouraged therefore for there is no Means in the World so apposite to the destruction and subduing of Sin as the Scripture though at first it may seem instead of subduing of Sins to strengthen them Sixthly Many are discouraged from studying the Scriptures because their Memories are so treacherous and unfaithfull they can retain nothing when they have read the Scripture and would recollect what they have read they can give no account of it either to themselves or others Nothing abides upon them and therefore they think it were as good give over as thus continually pour Water into a Sieve and inculcate Truths upon such a leaky Memory where all runs out This is indeed the Complaint of many But First This should put thee on a more frequent and diligent study of the Scripture than discourage thee from it More pains will supply this Defect thou must the oftner prompt and the oftner examine thy Self the more forgetful thou art Memory is the Soul's Steward and if thou findest it unfaithful call it the oftner to account Be still following it with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and continually instill somewhat into it A Vessel set under the fall of a Spring cannot leak faster than it is supplyed A constant dropping of this Heavenly Doctrine into the Memory will keep it that though it be leaky yet it never shall be empty Secondly Scripture Truths when they do not inrich the Memory yet they may purifie the Heart We must not measure the Benefit we receive from the Word according to what of it remains but according to what effect it leaves behind Lightning you know than which nothing sooner vanisheth away yet it often breaks and melts the hardest and most firm Bodies in its sudden Passage Such is the irresistable force of the Word the Spirit often darts it through us it seems but like a flash and gone and yet it may break and melt down our hard Hearts before it when it leaves no impression at all upon our Memories I have heard of one who returning from an affecting Sermon highly commended it to some and being demanded what he remembred of it answered truly I remember nothing at all but only while I heard it it made me resolve to live better than ever I have done and so by God's Grace I will Here was now a Sermon lost to the Memory but not to the Affections To the same Purpose I have somewhere read a story of one that complained to an aged Holy-Man that he was much discouraged from reading the Scripture because his Memory was so slippery he could fasten nothing upon it that he read The old Hermet for so as I remember he was described bid him take an earthen Pitcher and fill it with Water when he had done it he bid him empty it again and wipe it clean that nothing should remain in it which when the other had done and wondred to what this tended now saith he though there be nothing of the Water remaining to it yet the Pitcher is cleaner than it was before so though thy Memory retain nothing of the word thou readest yet thy Heart is the cleaner for its very passage through Thirdly Never fear your Memory only pray for good and pious Affections Affection to the truths we read or hear makes the Memory retentive of them Most Mens Memories are like Jett or Electrical Bodies that attract and hold-fast only straws or Feathers or such vain and light things discourse to them the Affairs of the World or some idle and romantick story their Memories retain this as faithfully as if it were ingraven on leaves of Brass Whereas the great important truths of the Gospel the great Mysteries of Heaven and concernments of Eternity leave no more impression upon them than words on the Air in which they are spoken whence is this but only that the one sort work themselves into the Memory through the interest they have got in the Affections which the other cannot do Had we but the same delight in Heavenly Objects did we but receive the Truth in the love of it and mingle it with Faith in the hearing this would fix that Volatileness and Flittiness of our Memories and make every truth as indelible as it is necessary That 's in Answer to the 6th Objection Seventhly others complain that the Scripture is obscure and difficult to be understood they may as well and with as good success attempt to spie out what lies at the Centre of the Earth as search into the deep and hidden Mysteries which no humane understanding can fathom or comprehend And this discourageth them To this I answer First 't is no wonder if there be such profound depths in the word of God since it is a System and Compendium of his Infinite and unsearchable Wisdom that Wisdom which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God Those deep Truths which your understanding cannot reach